63. Ludlow Sausage Trail, A Brummie In Anglesey And A Thai Lady In Ironbridge.

  The Saturday session of this year’s Ludlow Food Festival was memorable for the beautiful weather and the large crowds attending, I read that there were 15000 people on that one day. Sunday was cloudier but pleasant and the crowds had thankfully thinned out considerably but there was a lot to see, taste, listen to and enjoy.

  There were large crowds ambling around the town for the Sausage Trail which is always the highlight of my dog’s year as she has her own ticket which provides her with 6 sausages in the space of a few hours as well as a lot of attention from the many dog admirers present in the town.

  This year my favourite sausage was from Morgan’s Country Butchers of Water Upton which stood out because of the mustard seeds added to the meat giving a little heat and vibrancy to the product. Strangely, as seems to happen even year, Lucy The Labrador gave the sausages the same scores as I did myself so she too, like myself, gave the Morgan’s sausage a perfect 10.

  For me, one of the best demonstrations was by Brummie Andrew Tabberner who has worked in Anglesey in recent years and then in July opened his own restaurant there, The Gaerwan Arms. Tabberner’s links with Ludlow occurred when he worked at La Becasse with Will Holland. Tabberner waxed lyrical on the wonders of running a restaurant in Anglesey with most ingredients available fresh within just a few miles of the restaurant and the pork belly dish he prepared in front of the audience made the rather tired cut of meat look astonishingly attractive. He also provided some highly spicy popcorn for the audience to sample and some slices of a fabulous blackberry Bakewell tart which is currently on the menu in his restaurant and alone makes the journey to Anglesey well worthwhile. He clearly loves Anglesey but this is one Brummie chef whom I would love to see working back in his home city.

  I thoroughly enjoyed the demonstration by Suree Coates who single handedly cooks exquisite Thai Food at her tiny restaurant in Ironbridge, Suree’s Kitchen. The restaurant is open only 3 evenings per week and there is, perhaps not surprisingly, a month’s wait for a table reservation. But the lady is charming and the smell from her food as it was cooking was enough to make me want to head for Ironbridge and indulge myself in her clearly delicious and very personal Thai cuisine.