...because we have all been ILL, that's why. I have only eaten one kiwi fruit since Christmas eve. I missed canapes twice, a full roast turkey dinner, desserts, loads of wine and all the extras like mince pies, cake and big slabs of home cooked ham. Am only just getting my appetite back - this was a very un-merry christmas for me.
With really nice flavours - salted caramel, lavender (although I didn't like this one...) passion fruit (yum) all made with natural flavours and in small batches in Thurston.
And prime they are indeed! I bought a chicken but what I really wanted was that rib of beef in the window at £40 - and probably worth every penny.
Looks like they have chosen someone else to represent 'outspoken food blogger' on the Market Kitchen tv programme I was asked if I was interested in doing. They are focusing on Suffolk with the Chilli Farm Palmers Bakeryand Stark Naked's pesto so I am not going to get to taste any of those with hunky Celebrity Chef Michael Caines. If I had had a chance to look at his picture first I might have been more enthusiastic about the dawn trip to London to start filming at 8am. Shit.
Whoops - nearly forgot to mention it. Here is hunky James, the 'Face of British Food Fortnight' on the poster in case you want to print off your own copy.
Lunch at the Lighthouse on a Times eat-three-courses-for-a-tenner voucher but have to go off menu to have two oysters with my starter. They are listed as appetizers and priced at £1.75 each...too tempting. Served with two types of tabasco I have them with my gravadlax starter and they take me straight to the bottom of the sea with flavour.
Sous chef from 5* Aldwych One in London apparently but hardly any publicity so basically just a busy village pub. Took three hungry teenagers - had nice home-made scotch eggs as a starter and crab on toast was good. Lovely main course of duck/chorizo/chick pea combination but seafood rissotto had inedible razor clams and no sign of some of the ingredients listed on the menu, which at around £16.95 for a main course is a hefty bill for four. A bit of waitress-informing would be good too - Wine? She said we have red or white madam.
WOW! Soft yeasty made-this-morning Cinnammon buns, a kind of danish pastry with not too sweet caramel topping, one the nicest home made cakes amongst many on sale at Wyverstone at the yard sale on Saturday. There was also a man with a freezer full of sausages. www.wyverstonecafe.co.uk - every two weeks in the village hall.
Woooo!! I grew these myself !
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Home made leek and potato soup in that new tea room next to the bakery. A bit too thick and lumpy with potato and not enough salt but better than anything from a tin. Served with bread but is it from the bakery?
Visited Thorpeness Golf Club and hotel for the magazine and surprised to find that anyone can go there to eat. All day bar snacks sound nice (Omelette Arnold Bennett among other things...) but I had celeriac as a vegetable with my pork - first time ever served this in a year of writing about Suffolk restaurants. Chocolate tart with hazelnut pastry was fab - buttery and dark.
drove to Aldeburgh and spent £25 I haven't got at one of the fish sheds. Bought two large dressed crabs, one for me - one for dad; a skate wing, a piece of cod, prawns and mussels for a fish soup that I cooked when I got home. Not very much money really for one of the most dangerous jobs there is - out at sea.
Also bought two types of pears and some apples from the side of the road in Coddenham.
Went to Pea Porridge last night, used to be The Chalice, by the Old Cannon on Pease Porridge Green - hence the name, and couldn't fault it. Starter of squid with chorizo was great combination, squid clearly fresh, tender and complete with tentacles unlike the de-squeamified frozen versions. My main was lamb (with a crispy artichoke fritter balanced on at least four chunky slices of perfectly pink tender meat) and a dessert of chocolate tart with stem ginger ice cream, with a glass of dessert wine we shared. Ruth had snails with bone marrow, hake with butter beans and prawns, followed by a plate of cheeses that were delicious - served with a tiny bowl of chestnut honey - a strange sweet & metallic aftertaste I have never had before, but so good to be served something new in Bury. This is was good as it gets round here. www.peaporridge.co.uk