Viva La Sandwich

I'd pretty much given up on the sandwich. If the bread is shit, what's the point? Just eat the contents without the doughy fire blanket extinguishing the flavour.


I've just got back from a cycling trip around the the South West coast of Wales (West Celtic Trail), highly recommended if the sun is shinning. After having a some of the worst service I've ever experienced in the over rated and over priced Swan Inn (we actually struggled to get the bill and pay, it was that bad, and this pub is supposedly the AA pub of the year), luckily the next day we stumbled across a gem of a place in Pembroke called the Courtyard Deli Cafe. Here we had some smashing luncheon with a pretty good Botty Blanc. My hot chorizo & roasted red pepper baguette was a clear winner and the sandwich status began to elevate it's sorry head in my opinion. We sat for a couple of hours in this little sun trap cooling our genitals before rubbing them on a bike seat for another few hours.

The other little gem in Pembroke was a shop called WISEBUYS (shit name, M&S call their basics range Wise Buys). We bought some wise purchases from this little shop and cooked up a feast that evening in the most amazing location for any youth hostel I've ever stayed in .

The next day we made some sandwiches using up the leftover ingredients from the night before. We dressed some cooked sausages in chili, lemon juice & zest and some really high quality E.V. olive oil, with a couple of vine tomatoes stuffed in for sweetness. Even after being squashed in my pannier bag and becoming lukewarm from the baking sun, they still tasted amazing with a garnish of a few wild garlic flowers and washed down with a watery Danish beer.

Because sandwiches do have a tendency to mask flavour, this is due to the bread enclosing the ingredients, so the initial taste hit in the mouth is usually a little watered down (like my Danish beer), I find it's best to smash in some really big flavours or simply eat an open sandwich so the flavours don't get lost.


Luncheon was over, so onwards we went to Carmarthen with some more scrotal and vaginal abrasion.

Pizza Expression

It's been a few years since visiting this establishment, but on a sunny evening like tonight I thought it'd be a good idea to treat my girlfriend to some dining out, especially  after her horrendous university deadline, which she finished last night. So a bottle of NZ Sauvignon Blanc & a bottle of San Pellegrino and away we go. I'm a massive tight ass, so we had a go on some Orange 2-4-1 pizzas, which included free garlic bread and dough balls as a starter. I'm sure they would have been delightful, unfortunately they never reached our table for some reason or another. Because I'd taken advantage of their cheapskate offer I didn't want to complain. Anyway, who wants bread and bread followed by more bread for main course? So we soon forgot about that.

OK, so the anti-climax of a pizza arrived, I had a Giardiniera (which I suppose means Garden and therefore vegetablesbut traditionally means picked veg). Not only does the pizza look a bit rubbish is actually achieved rubbish status on the taste-bud's tasteometer. So I called the oral dustbin men to chuck it straight down the gullet of waste disposal with another swig of bin juice wine.


It's odd how I remember this place to be alright, but I suppose Mac Donald's was alright when I was 15. Anyhow, it does appear that the other mediocre pizza places do offer a superior product, such as an ASK calzone or the pizzas from Prezzo or Zizzi, still avoid Bella Italia total dogshitpiss.


Pizza Express did redeem itself when I convinced the waiter to make me an Affogato (Vanilla Ice-cream with espresso poured over it). Heavy Robusta Italian coffee balanced out with creamy, sweet, cold ice-cream actually works rather well.


So £40 for 2 people isn't bad for a 3 course dinner (- the missing starter) and a good bottle of average NZ wine. But next time I will go to ASK, as it really is better for the bins and feels like less money down the drain.

Consider the Scoffy Egg

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2011/apr/12/consider-the-egg

Fish & Chips Again

I managed to take a trip to Dartmouth on Saturday, a kind of belated Mother's Day. Obviously with my Mother. She was feeling sick from some bug she picked up on holiday so I had to eat alone.


Mitch Tonks is a successful fish restauranteur, when I heard he'd opened a fish & chip shop in Dartmouth called Rockfish, I got pretty excited. Sad I know. So off I went in search of my lunch with a rumbling tummy and a big hangover.


When I found the chip shop, to my disappointment, I realised it was actually a restaurant and not a takeaway. Yet I stepped inside and asked the lady if I could take away, as I wasn't going to eat alone seated at a table. The lady offered me the only takeaway option, Cod & Chips, I was happy with this. The Cod at Rockfish is line caught from a sustainable source, so it gets a big tick for ethics.

I handed over my £7.95 and sat for 10 minutes or so while my food was cooked to order. It arrived nicely boxed and in a brown paper bag with a tub of tartare sauce, slice of lemon, plastic knife & fork, napkin and sachet of vinegar & salt. Oh and for extra poshness a single leaf of parsley to show me that my £8 was money well spent. The whole package looked really good, but the illusion collapsed the moment I ate a sneaky chip. It appears they are using frozen chips or overly floury potatoes which fill your mouth like a sponge, although it probably helped soak up the booze from the night before. The batter was under cooked or rather the oil wasn't hot enough to crisp it up properly. The tartare sauce was good and the actual fish flesh was excellent, but just a massive let down that the basics weren't covered. I'd rather go to my local chippy in Totnes (The Silver Grill) or my favorite in Exeter (The Dolphin) or if you're looking for posh high end stuff try Rick Stein's chippy.


My comments are not fair on Rockfish as a restaurant, although I wouldn't eat there based on my chips being utter guff and the decor being rather shit. Sorry Mitch. But it really is shit.

Bread

I met these guys at a trade show this week. Seriously good bread  - www.hobbshousebakery.co.uk

Keep an eye out for it. Amazing white sourdough from a 55 year old yeast culture.

herbs

Fresh herbs are great, so I bought a load of shit, shoved it in some compost, and I now going to see what happens. My balcony is full of odd tubs, used tin cans and a big wooden box, I bet the neighbors love it as it looks like a rubbish tip, but they can all fuck off.

I don't have time to fanny around with pathetic needy plants which have to be taken indoors at night because it's too cold or they need a little bit of water because they are thirsty 2 times a day. I want my herbs to be like my women; always giving me a big bushy garden, especially when I neglect them. My parsley survived the winter somehow, it's my little crackhead herb who would probably suck cock for a bit of fertiliser.

Mint is a winner, it's basically a weed, but one man's weed is another man's flower or herb in this case. Minty potatoes are great with lots of butter or chopped mint in yogurt with a clove of mashed garlic, that one's a great dressing for cold meats. Cous cous. Pea salad. OK, I'll stop there. Minty magic.

Basil can be a pain in the ass (one of those needy herbs I mentioned), but so good, best indoors with lots of light, once it gets going there's no stopping it, like a big green locomotive ploughing it's way onto any summer plate.

For a continuous bit of salad garnish I find rocket wins. I tried Mizuna last year and it was a waste of time, but maybe I should give it another go.

I planted everything in a slapdash bish bosh manner, shooting from the hip like a cowboy gardener,  but lets hope I get something scoffable from my horticultural lasso.

Beer, Wine, Beer.

Yesterday I was invited to attend a brewing session with my friend's stepfather. I arrived around 11am and the whole process took around 4 hours to produce roughly 40 pints of Mild. It is such a meticulous method I simply can't begin to explain what we did, or should I say what Mark (Nick's stepfather) did, as Nick and I mainly stood around and got in the way. I'm a long way off from making my own beer as I don't have the time, space and certainly not the knowhow, but watching the process has made me think about all the intricate flavours behind the marvelous drink.

After the brewing session the master brewer gave us a master class in beer tasting and dusted off a rather special aged beer. The Thomas Hardy's Ale is probably more complex than any wine I've ever drank. Apparently it holds it's head up their with the Belgian beers, but you can buy that anymore or at least they have stopped making it. Try bidding on ebay if you fancy a swig.


Tesco Finest American Double is an amazingly hoppy beer with lots of passionfruit aroma, really worth a purchase for £2. You will only need to buy one as it's 9.2%. Brewdog is an provoking Scottish brewery which has some unorthodox branding, especially their Punk IPA. 


The Traditional Porter is alright, if you like that kind of the thing. It's basically a stout. Not much condition (carbonation or fizz), lots of chocolate, coffee, licorice and hint of cheap coke. But the aftertaste is too much like bile for my liking.




Thomas Hardy's Ale - http://www.ohanlonsbeer.com/
Brewdog's American Double IPA - http://www.brewdog.com/
Traditional Porter - http://www.harviestoun.com/




After our beery day Nick and I went into Topsham on the hunt for something warm and scoffy to soak up the booze. We didn't find what we were looking for, but what we did find was pretty good, unfortunately it came in the form of liquid again. But check this place out.

The Pebblebed Wine Cellar is a really brave idea, basically some guy converted his garage into a wine bar. The bar is owned by the vineyard and the wine is produced on the bank of the Exe, just a couple of miles away. At the moment the cellar is only open two nights a week so it is worth contacting them to see if it's open.

Nick and I share a guilty pleasure, which is sparking Rosé, so we got a couple of glasses to wash down our local westcountry cheese board. Both the wine and the cheese were excellent, but the fresh Italian olive oil which came with the cheese & bread was something else. I rarely have fresh olive oil as it's so expensive, I'm now making a pledge to buy more bottles of the grassy green grease. There were a few other cold platters on the menu, for example local smoked trout & chicken, not the biggest selection of food, but it's not a restaurant, it's a wine cellar.

Sparkling wine - £10 per bottle (Take Out)/ £15 (Drink In)

Cheese Board & other platers £5 (serves two people)

Afterwards we went The Bridge, which is currently my favorite pub. The list of beers are printed on a piece of A4 (a selection of about 7 or 8) and it is served through a doorway, the bar doesn't exist. Again, like the wine bar, they serve minimal food, just a Chunk pork pie with mustard and coleslaw for £3 and that's it. It must be a Topsham thing, no eating, just drinking. I've eaten the pie before and it's OK for soaking up booze, but that's about it. Instead Nick and I opted for a pickled egg and massive bag of salted Burts crisps. Actually, it's a good combo and works rather well.

It won't be too long before I head back and do all of that again. Devon is great, particularly when the sun is shining.