North-east

What’s the point?

Sometimes I wonder what it is that makes people want to eat out. Maybe its an inability to cook at home or at least a lack of enthusiasm for that activity which was so normal for previous generations. In the UK at least, supermarket ready meals and take aways often allow people to eat reasonably well without the effort of cooking themselves and yet more and more people these days choose to eat in pubs or restaurants on a regular basis.

Special occasions often give rise to a visit to a restaurant for many more people than choose to eat out on a regular basis and I guess in those situations they want to experience something a bit special. Others eat out, I suppose, in order to try something new, or at least different, compared to the sort of food they eat on a daily basis. By different of course, I mean ‘better’.

Is it all about the food though? Are restaurants, especially fine dining restaurants solely the canvas on which a high-end chef can display his artistic creations? If we think about any market town in the UK we can probably identify a former coaching inn where, centuries ago, travellers with their horses could stop for the night and have a decent beer and some nourishing food. In these cases the fore-runners of todays restaurants offered something much more than just grub and arguably its something more important; hospitality! Hospitality is much more than a plate of good food, it’s about a warm welcome and being made to feel a bit special.

Today’s top-drawer restaurants, in my view, are sometimes in danger of forgetting that as they rush to present the latest food trends and showcase the technical skills of the chef and his brigade. Eating out is generally expensive and I’m getting a bit fed up with paying a lot of money to be treated like a spectator at a circus. When I go to a restaurant I go to eat well, to enjoy myself with friends, to admire the skills of the chef and the waiting staff and most importantly I want to be made welcome and to feel as though I am the special one, not the staff, not the chef.

I’m more than delighted that my home region, the North-East of England, is producing some really good and interesting places to eat at every price point. I’ve written about some of them on here from fish and chip shops to Michelin starred restaurants. Recently I booked to visit a 2-starred Michelin place near to Darlington, Co Durham, called the Raby Hunt As the North East of England’s only 2 star restaurant, there is much to admire. In particular the hard work and determination of largely self-taught, former pro-golfer, James Close which has put this former gastro-pub run by his parents, firmly on the culinary map. His philosophy that chefs should ‘eat out more than they do’ is absolutely right.

We’re told that he took his sommelier and front of house manager on an all expenses paid trip to Mirazur, ranked as no 3 in the world and where I celebrated my birthday last year. This is to be applauded and more restaurateurs would do well to emulate this behaviour. There is a similarity between the two restaurants though and I’m afraid its a mixed bag.

The food at the Raby Hunt was excellent, cleverly executed and stunningly presented (although I was left longing for just one ordinary round white pate to replace the over used raised porcelain presentation devices), the dining room is stylish and not over formal and the view of the kitchen from the car park raises expectations as you’re left wondering if they can produce truly great food from such a small space. We had fifteen tiny courses, each enigmatically named on the fixed tasting menu and the service was efficient.

My big gripe with Raby Hunt and to a slightly lesser extent with Mirazur however is one of attitude. It relates back to my opening remarks in this article. Is it just about the food or is it about hospitality? The email I received from Raby Hunt the day before our booking told me they had been tying to reach me on the telephone so that I could confirm my booking and as I’d not answered (I never received the call) they were emailing instead. The opening remarks were “We hope you are looking forward to your reservation…” When we arrived at the restaurant the greeting from the waiter was “Are you looking forward to your dinner at Raby Hunt?”. Catering, however highly rated it might be, is a service industry. Or at least that’s what I thought. Surely they meant to say ‘We are looking forward to welcoming you to the Raby Hunt for dinner tomorrow” and ‘Welcome to the Raby Hunt we hope you have a great evening”. Those two things really put me in a bad mood.

On the whole though I’m happy that my home County has such an interesting restaurant. I hope it will become more customer focussed as time goes by. Chef’s dislike of Trip Advisor is indicative of someone who has a firm idea of what it is he wants to create and that his customers should fit in with that, rather than being critical on the grounds of personal taste (likes and dislikes). It’s the Gordon Ramsey approach and it worked for him but I still think the attitude of Raby Hunt needs to be more welcoming and less superior. If it were I’d go back!

Meanwhile here are some pics of the food.

Ingredients of the salad

Salad

January 15, 2019 1

On the Second Day of Christmas…..

The 26th of December, Santo Stefano, is known in England as Boxing Day which was traditionally the day on which servants and tradespeople were given their Christmas-box (a Christmas gift) or the day on which alms were given to the poor. These days its the first day of the ‘January’ sales and a lot of people take to the shops to bag themselves a bargain.

As far as food goes maybe its a good day to eat up meat left over from Christmas lunch (cold-cuts) with bubble and squeak (fried leftover vegetables) and chutney. English friends may well have eaten turkey yesterday or maybe goose, supplemented with boiled, baked or roasted ham. Roast beef is another popular alternative for those who find turkey a bit dry as it can be. This is the time of the year when the British home-cook can produce a vast array of delicious home cooked food.

The less well-travelled of my Italian friends here think that the British live on Fish and Chips and see it as our national dish (whereas in fact it is curry!).

Last week when I was visiting family in the North-East of England I availed myself of that great national treasure, fish & chips. Its available in almost every town and village in the country in places run by native Britons, Chinese, Indians and even Italians (especially in Wales and Glasgow) and whilst the concept is pretty fixed, the quality can vary. There are national competitions to find the best fish and chip shops (chippies) and one, whose origins are in Yorkshire, has even become a national brand with franchises in airports and service stations.

I found a local chippy very close to the hotel where I was staying, in a former mining village called Blackhall on the Durham coast. It’s called Riley’s and I had the most delicious fish and chips I’ve tasted in a very long time. I asked for it ‘open” that is served to take away, on a bed of paper (when I was a child it would have been yesterday’s newspaper). In that way it’s possible to eat it immediately, sitting on a park bench or by the sea or in my case sitting in the car. I’d given the whole thing a generous sprinkling of salt and doused it in malt vinegar. The batter surrounding the cod was crisp and golden, the fish soft and moist and the chips fluffy on the inside and crisp on the outside. Perfect!

Anyone reading this blog who thinks that my kind of food is only-high end and expensive should think again. There is nothing better on this side of heaven than really good fish & chips. Maybe I should open a fish and chip shop in Italy?

December 26, 2016 2

Down by the riverside

During my recent stay in the North-East of England, I went, with members of my family, to a 1 Star Restaurant in Newcastle. In fact we went to only Michelin Starred restaurant in the city.

I’ve eaten Kenny Atkinson’s food three times now; firstly at Seaham Hall, many years ago where he gained a star, and later at Rockcliffe Hall; both in County Durham.

House of Tides is his own place and first gained a star in 2015 and subsequently retained it for 2016 and most recently for 2017. The restaurant itself is close to the iconic Tyne Bridge and the funky swing bridge. It’s housed in a former 16th Century merchant’s house which has been converted into what his publicity calls ‘a casual and informal space’. The ground floor is in what I would call, industrial chic style, complete with rustic tables and chairs; some of the tables were even a bit sticky in the olde-worlde end of the street pub way! It’s in this area that pre-dinner drinks are served – I had a negroni – and the menu is presented for consideration. Alongside the drinks we were given a serving board of three bite sized gougeres (savoury choux buns). The gougeres were piped full of unctuous cream cheese with onion chutney and truffle. I’m a bit funny about truffle, sometimes I like it and sometimes I don’t, so in this case I was content that I couldn’t detect its unique taste at all.

The menu choice, headed, ‘Autumn 2016’, was between a Dinner Tasting and a Vegetarian Tasting. Interesting to note that the vegetarian option followed the non-veggie one as closely as possible without upsetting the sensibilities of non-carnivores (of which there were none on our table). The gougeres formed the first item on the menu – so far so good!

We were taken upstairs and found our wine and water choices already on the edge of table. Adam our waiter for the evening was introduced to us and proved to be an excellent guide to what we were eating.

It’s worth mentioning here, that, in order to reinforce the casual style the staff wear black jeans and either black or white open-necked shirts. Customers too were in smart-casual mode, with only one tie seen in the whole place. To my mind this is a good thing.

The first course served at the table came in three parts, all put in the centre (three of each). The first I tried was a small ice-cream cone containing liver parfait and sultanas, with a lovely mild curry flavour; the second a tiny macaron, described on the menu as, Carrot meringue, carrot curd, fennel pollen; the third a fresh oyster from the Holy Island of Lindisfarne with cucumber, ginger and ‘caviar’. All were lovely and exceptionally fresh tasting but I discovered for myself, that the order in which you eat them is important. I really wish I’d started with the oyster (the mildest of the three elements), then the parfait, finishing with the macaron. The macaron was such a dominant flavour it really obscured the oyster which followed. I’d happily eat a whole pile of them though. Adam received the feedback with a level of interest that makes the diners feel that they are not just passive consumers of what is laid before them but maybe co-creators of a culianry experience. So perhaps, in future it wouldn’t do any harm to recommend an eating order for this trio of goodies.

Carrot meringue, carrot curd, fennel pollen

What ever it is that puts food in the one, two or three Michelin star bracket, those little meringues had it. Intense!

Bread and butter (fermented rye bread and Grant Harrington’s cultured butter) were served alongside a little pot of Butternut Squash with smoked bacon and truffle. Again intensity of flavour was the overwhelming impression of this velvety, creamy soup the bacon bits offering just a touch of bite for contrast.

Mackerel is a simple yet lovely fish, especially when served with something a little sour to cut through the oiliness of the fish itself. In this case the menu promised, Mackerel, artichoke, blackberry. Ok, so a tart blackberry should be a good foil to the oily mackerel but I was half way through before I realised there was nothing resembling a blackberry on my plate. Adam, who hadn’t served this course to us, explained that there had been a menu substitution consequently we had mackerel, apple and pickled radish before us. The pickled radish might’ve offered that sourness I was looking for but sadly, in reality, it didn’t. The tiny pieces of fish though were very yummy.

A little bit here about the service. I can’t abide an overly obsequious waiting style. It makes me feel guilty about the fact that someone is waiting on me. It’s opposite vice, indifference to the needs or wants of the diner, is equally abhorrent. The staff at House of Tides get it right in my view. They are attentive (wine glass always unobtrusively topped up), interested to know how we found the food and (apparently) keen to receive constructive criticism. ‘Our’ Adam in particular was invisible until we needed him, then unfailingly polite and scrupulously professional. He deserves to go far in his career.

Back to the food! Next up was the first of two meat courses; in this case, Venison tartare, beetroot, blueberries and kale. It was a suitably tiny portion, presented in a ‘pile’ on a dark plate. I was intrigued. Two flavours dominated – blueberry and deep fried kale. The kale was reminiscent of that so-called ‘seaweed’ you get from Chinese take-aways, which is deep fried shredded cabbage sprinkled with powdered scallops. I love it. For the life of me though, once I’d put that morsel of flavour into my mouth and a blueberry, I couldn’t distinguish the taste of the venison at all, nor indeed of the beetroot, which in my view should have provided an earthy flavour. I’m not sure what the solution to this is, but I hope my feedback makes them think again about this particular combination.

The lamb dish, which followed, did not have the same issues at all. The testimony to how much I loved this dish is that I didn’t stop eating it long enough to take a photograph! The menus told us it would be, Lamb, broccoli, tomato, radish, and so it was, but that’s only the start!!! The lamb was rump, tongue and sweetbreads. The rump was beautifully cooked, a vibrant reddish-pink colour and very flavoursome, however, the offal stole the day. Last time I had (veal) sweetbreads I really didn’t enjoy them and although I love eating cold pressed ox and pork tongue I’d never before eaten lamb tongue. The sweetbreads were crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, with just enough firmness to allow you to bite into it before it started to dissolve. As for the tongue, the tip of the tongue apparently, I have never eaten anything before that tasted so much of lamb. When can I eat these lovely things again?

And so to the puddings. We next tucked into, Raspberry, lemon, pine nuts, which was in fact a light, sharp and delicious lemon posset with a pine nut crumble and raspberry sorbet on top. Heaven! The Pear, almond, ginger second pudding was equally delicious and light but by now the over-enthusiastic heating in the dining room was making us tired and longing for some cool, fresh air

So how to sum up? Not everything was spectacular about House of Tides but on the whole it was a good and enjoyable experience, with some exceptional high points. The macarons, lamb offal and the posset were to die for. The atmosphere was suitably relaxed (if a tad warm) and with great service from Adam. I was less enthusiastic about the venison dish and would’ve preferred the version of the mackerel that was on the menu. The restaurant’s focus on locally sourced and fresh procure though will mean that sometimes there needs to be last minute menu changes.

Kenny Atkinson, the Chef-patron, wasn’t working the evening I was there so I’m guessing that Danny Parker, Head Chef, was driving. Thanks to him and his brigade for some lovely food. I’d need a more frequently changing menu to entice me back next time I’m in the area though and as a returning customer I would probably prefer to have an al a carte option to sit alongside the tasting menu.

October 24, 2016 4

Kippered!

Kippers (smoked herrings) are becoming more popular again these days. I’ve loved them since I was a child when we used to have them ‘boil in a bag’. They would come in a vacuum sealed packet with a pat of butter inside and then simply be warmed through by placing them unopened in a pan of boiling water for a short while. Gastrophiles call this sous-vide cooking these days!

There’s not much doubt that the ‘kippering’ of herrings was born on the Northumberland coast, either in the fishing village of Seahouses or Craster, not withstanding the fact that similar products can be found across the North Sea in the Scandinavian countries and also in Eastern Europe. Craster Kippers though are special and have been described as the best available – and not just by me! The family firm L Robson & Sons, in Craster, makes Kippers from North Sea Herrings (‘silver darlings’ as they are affectionately known), as they have done for over 130 years. The fish, only the plumpest, are split, soaked in brine for a while and then smoked for 16 hours over smouldering oak and whitewood.

When I was in Newcastle, UK, recently I went for breakfast to a quirky little cafe in the shadow of the Tyne Bridge, called Quay Ingredient (lovely pun!). It had been recommended to me as serving the best breakfasts in Newcastle, so I thought I had to give it a go.

It’s a tiny place and was quite busy but I managed to get a table. The breakfast menu offered a range of different options, from Full English, through various egg based dishes and pancakes, to cereal and toast. My eyes were immediately caught by ‘Grilled Craster Kipper with Lemon Parsley’ so I ordered it with a cup of black coffee, which was much needed after a heavy and late night!

The kippers have to be the best I have ever eaten. They were plump and juicy and drowning in lemon and parsley butter and served with generously buttered slices of toast. The taste was an exquisite mix of smoke, salt, pepper and lemon! The lemon juice was sharp but not bitter and cut-through the gorgeous salty butter perfectly. This made me realise just how special Craster Kippers are and also made me appreciate how they can be jazzed up with nothing more than a few simple accompaniments. Perfect, or ottimo! as we might say here in Italy!

Quay Ingredient in Queen Street, Newcastle

October 21, 2016 0

Good old Newcastle

Newcastle, in the North-east of England is a fascinating city, known in the past for ship-building and football and today, as well as Premiership football, also for the locals not wearing coats when having a night on the ‘toon’. No matter the weather, T-shirts and short skirts or shorts are the order of the day and the night! Its also home to Newcastle Brown Ale, a local brew that I’ve drunk all around the world, even as far away as Sydney, Australia.

*Picture form Newcastle University Website*

There’s another connection with Sydney and that’s the Tyne Bridge, linking the cities of Newcastle and Gateshead and sitting 59m above the River Tyne. The bridge was opened in 1928 very close to the site of the Pons Aelius, the very first bridge across the Tyne built by the Romans in the year 122 A.D. The present bridge was built by a Middlesborough firm, Dorman Long & Co Ltd in the same style as their other, larger work, which opened in 1932 in Sydney. Having visited both I know which I prefer and it’s the original Geordie version!

The roads rise steeply away from the river in Newcastle, towards the castle and city centre, but in the shadow of the bridge, one block back from the river, is an array of small independent pubs, cafes and restaurants. They’re in sharp contrast to those that can be found in the more hip Quayside area which are typically large chain bars and restaurants catering for the many stag and hen parties which fill the city at weekends.

My nephew and his girlfriend are good guides to the eateries of Newcastle and, during a recent visit, we went together to a couple of interesting places. Of note is a very small Thai restaurant, called Old Siam in a road called Side. It has a sister restaurant, of the same name, in York too. From what we could see, the waiting and kitchen staff are all Thai, ensuring authenticity in the preparation of the food and in that smiling Thai welcome front-of-house.

It’s a simple place with friendly staff and the food is very yummy indeed, although I suspect the Tom Yum soup is toned down a bit for western tastes. I’m going to remember the soft-shell crab starter I had for a very long time, in fact, next time I go, I’m going to have a double portion as a main course. The restaurant is open for lunch and dinner and you can also have a takeaway.

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The North-east of England, like the North of Italy, has its particular local delicacies and maybe there will be the opportunity to write about some of them on this blog in the future, things like Singing Hinnies, Pease Pudding and Panackelty For now though, a call out for the Stottie Cake, which despite its name, is a form of bread, not a cake, in the way we understand the name nowadays. Its a flat round loaf 20-30cms in diameter and about 4 centimetres deep with a small indentation in the middle. Its name is associated with the dialect verb to ‘stott’ which means to bounce. The stottie cakes, if dropped, should therefore bounce! It’s a true taste of home for north-easterners who’ve moved away and made all the more special because it’s almost impossible to find outside of the region. Split in half and stuffed with boiled ham and pease pudding or with bacon for breakfast it’s delicious.

Stottie cakes exported to Italy – they got a bit squashed in transit.

Come back to the blog soon for more about my recent visit to Newcastle, including my review of a Michelin 1 Star restaurant and breakfast of Craster Kippers!

October 21, 2016 0

My Kind of Food

Sharing stories about the kind of food I like to eat

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