129. What Is Lunch?

 

Birmingham - The 1890s - no school lunches then.

  

So what is lunch? For most, I suppose, it is the meal between breakfast and dinner though you might slip in tea, or what now has to be afternoon tea, between lunch and dinner. Of course lunch in some parts of Britain and among some social groups may still be dinner, in which case dinner becomes tea but not afternoon tea. Then there’s supper which has all sorts of meanings depending still, I think, on social status.

  These are the dark, dull, damp, dreary days of mid-winter in the midst of a third nationwide ‘lockdown’ (a noun which nauseatingly often does not seem to require either a definite or an indefinite article  especially when employed by the increasingly tiresome producers and announcers of the BBC who strive to bowdlerise English at every opportunity available to them). Our restaurants have been banished to a shadow dimension but food still makes the news. And particularly lunch it seems.

  These dark days of this present Lockdown have been brightened up for me by picking up and diving into, a chapter at a time, a copy of Pen Vogler’s recently published Scoff, a master work of the history of food in Britain and its relationship to class. Perhaps it’s a little light, I’d like a great tome myself with the sketches extended into highly detailed facts, every page a Eureka moment; the author clearly has a compendium of knowledge she could impart in several volumes of a British food encyclopaedia, but this book, with its rather pretty dust jacket, does indeed deliver those instances of ah ah! regularly throughout its 470 pages to make me keep coming back for more. Here indeed is the history of the British restaurant which I should love to see expanded from a chapter to a book and there there is the tale of why the British eat in the way they do now and again here’s the story of the way certain foods found their way on to British plates and sometimes off again. Pretty good stuff. And written with a playful irony and sense of humour and generously restrained hint of contempt for the worst sort of food fashions such as the numerous food intolerances that have been experienced by astonishing numbers of the middle class in recent years.

  And then there’s the fascinating chapter on lunch. Or is it dinner. Well, once it was dinner and for some it was breakfast and it seems those who like to call it luncheon may be on a sticky wicket, better to call it nuncheon if you’re not going to call it lunch or dinner. And just what it should be made up of and how much should be eaten during it is a puzzle wrapped up in a riddle wrapped up in a conundrum in itself.

 

 It is coincidental to my reading of Vogler's book that lunch has been such a big national issue recently and has been intermittently for several months that I really must mention it to fit it into this intermittent history of Birmingham food. A great national outpouring of outrage was unleashed when the government announced that it would not provide free school lunches for children who were not at school on a half-term holiday. It was not felt right by those who like to be outraged and those who are frightened of what the outraged may say that parents should be responsible for providing food for their children if they were at home causing a general nuisance to their parents by being there. The government’s resolve to make people pay for one week at least for their children’s food soon collapsed in the face of the universal outrage and they agreed to either providing food vouchers to enable the families to pay for their food or alternatively provide packages of food so that the family could prepare their own children’s food whether or not food preparation was something that families ever got involved in doing normally. 

  Provision of food packages was a gross error on the government’s part since packages turned up which the Outraged claimed were inadequate to sustain a child for 10 days (they were intended to cover 5 lunches). One furious mother delved into her child’s food package, lay the contents on the floor and set about photographing the resulting still life and then published the results of her photographic efforts on one or a number of the social media. The photographic challenge was soon taken up by other members of the Outraged and for a few days social media was full of photographs of loaves and potatoes and tins of baked beans and government ministers in a panic rushed to denounce the inadequacy of the contents of the boxes.

  So just how miserly and Scroogeian were these lunch boxes (remember they were meant to provide lunch only for 5 days and guidelines stated that they should not include pre-prepared food or take up space in refrigerators and obviously everything in them should be considered to be ‘healthy - which are quite limiting criteria when someone is trying to work out what to put in them)?

  The photograph taken by the first outraged mother is shown below. There are 2 potatoes which could be prepared as jacket potatoes for 2 lunches when served with half of the baked beans each time. There is a loaf which would provide more than enough bread for the remaining three days of sandwiches - one day of cheese and tomato and cheese on the other days. Alternatively half the beans could have been used to provide a filling meal of beans on toast and some of the cheese diverted for melting on top of a jacket potato for variety. However the package seems to have nothing in it to spread on the bread to make it more appetising. There is a piece of fruit provided for each day and the carrots can be peeled and sliced to eat as crudités. There is also a reasonably sized bag of pasta which is probably enough for one meal or possibly two (is this package for a seven year old or a fourteen year old.) and so generally this package is not quite so inadequate as a source of a single child’s lunches for five days when the contents are analysed and thought given as to what to do with the contents. But I should think the potatoes might be a little larger, some spread for the bread should have be included, 2 pieces of fruit should have been supplied per day, another tomato would not have been over generous and some meat as an alternative to cheese should have been offered for variety (though the colourful cylindrical packets may indeed be pepperami). 

  So there we are, a child’s lunch. Ironically, here in Birmingham several quick-to-outrage Labour councillors took to social media to complain about the adequacy of food packages sent to local schools to hand out but it later emerged that most packages to schools were actually supplied by the Labour-run city council itself and complaints ceased almost immediately.

  One final thought, I wonder if one of our leading chefs in the city might have ideas for putting together a children’s package for the rest of the present Lockdown - there’s a challenge but perhaps a little risky with the Outraged waiting to pounce.

   

128. Kray Tredwell Is Only Michelin Winner In Birmingham

 

  In one and a quarter hours of excruciating French accents and mangled English words and more film of Paris and New York than of London, the 2021 Michelin stars winners were announced in an online broadcast on YouTube that left Davina McCall looking horribly socially isolated but generally it all seemed a big improvement compared with the last two online-broadcast Michelin reveals (I prefer to say “reveals” as the official title word, “revelation” makes me think too much of the apocalypse which our restaurant industry may well be facing) with all the toe-curling embarrassment they brought with them.

  As is so often the case Birmingham and the West Midlands were largely ignored by the Michelin inspectors, currently obsessed with restaurants in Ireland, chefs with French accents, expensive London-based sushi restaurants and seemingly rarely finding their way out of London and the Home Counties apart from boarding planes heading for Dublin. There was an interestingly large proportion of Irish sponsors of these awards which may tell us something.

  We all know the Michelin awards are a waste of time for our region of England but they are important because people like to say, for no obvious reason, that they’ve been to a starred restaurant and that helps to make a chef’s reputation and often ensures his restaurant’s viability. In this Blog additionally they do at least provide a record of those local successful and accomplished restaurants which came and went over the decades and for that reason they do have a historical importance which, despite my reluctance, I have to acknowledge. We all know that the film which wins the ‘Best Picture’ Oscar is not, almost certainly, the best film of the year and the same is true of the Michelin awards. Here in the Midlands we are pragmatic, recognise the silliness of the Michelin awards but go along with them. Let’s face it, we’re not treated with the contempt with which Michelin regards Manchester (England’s self proclaimed second city, ho! ho!) so things could be worse. And our brilliant local chefs are always pleased to be recognised by Michelin more than they are by any other Guide, being frequently moved to tears by the success. And why not?

  So no new stars in Birmingham or the West Midlands and no extra stars for our 5 starred Birmingham  restaurants or elsewhere in the region. Still at least no-one lost a star. In addition there were no new Bibs Gourmands but there were new Michelin Plates and a couple of other interesting awards.

  And a great and pleasing surprise at almost the beginning of the show was the announcement of the award of the title Young Chef of Great Britain and Ireland 2021 to Kray Tredwell (see Blog 83) now well-established in his Digbeth restaurant 670 Grams (lockdown allowing) named after the birth weight of his child born last year. Along with this outstanding award came a Michelin Plate placing his restaurant at this early stage among the top 16 in Birmingham.

  The other well-deserved Plate winner was Andrew Sheridan’s extraordinary 8 in the International Convention Centre which joined its sister restaurant Craft among the Birmingham Plates first eleven. Aktar Islam’s Pulperia also found itself joining that particular rank while of course his Opheem held on to its one star (joining Purnell’s, Simpsons, Adam’s and Carter’s of Moseley in doing so). While still in Moseley we might also note that Chakana was awarded a Plate thereby joining Asha’s, Folium, Harborne Kitchen, Opus, The Oyster Club and The Wilderness in the prized group of eleven.

  Elsewhere in the West Midlands little else to report except that Daylesford Organic Farm restaurant, described in the programme as being in Stow-On-The-Wold but described on the restaurant’s website as being in Moreton-on-the-Marsh in Gloucestershire, was the only dining place in the region to be awarded one of the new Michelin Sustainability Green Stars. Good for them.

Summary of Birmingham restaurants’ Michelin status 2021:-

One star,  ⭐️ Simpsons, Purnell’s, Adam’s, Carter’s of Moseley, Opheem.

Michelin plate, 🍽  Asha’s, Chakana, Craft, 8, Folium, Harborne Kitchen, Opus, The Oyster Club, Pulperia, 670 Grams and The Wilderness.

  Finally, is it wrong of me to say that I think I’ve aged rather better than Gordon Ramsey has? ....

127. Lockdown Continues, Michelin Reveal Approaches.

 

 

 As the second wave starts to show signs of receding here in Birmingham and the West Midlands (but the low tide line is still a long distance away) the city and region, like the rest of England, remains locked in - and the doors are bolted (metaphorically not literally obviously) - restaurants remain firmly shut down and their owners and chefs continue to do their best to tread water till the tide is out again. 

  By far the most favoured way of keeping going is the home food parcel. At the weekend I had my third package from Purnell’s which to be fair was rather more Purnell’s Bistro than the mother ship itself. Hence the enjoyable bread course - can you call it a course?, it is after all a distinct entity in itself - was a pleasing chunk of focaccia with accompanying little tubs of a selection of olives, some pitted, some stoned and some neither, olive oil with balsamic, three slices of chorizo and a humous which was fine but rather too lemony for my taste and with too little garlic - all a matter of individual taste I suppose.

 On then to a generously sized fish cake which was robustly flavoured but again it seemed that the chef had been a little too enthusiastic with the lemon. The effort involved in frying it was minimal and the accompanying sauce was ready in less than a minute - wilted spinach in momentarily boiled crème fraiche  with a generous sprinkling of chives. Rather successful but the lemon, needed for the potently flavoured fish, again seemed a little overwhelming.

  What a remarkable main course - a beautifully sized piece of Chateaubriand, which by following the instructions carefully I turned into a delicious meal and very nicely accompanied by some very edible broccoli, a little square of Dauphinois (I should have liked to taste some garlic in it) and some perfectly cooked carrots enhanced by a tasty liquor and an exquisitely unctious beef sauce to pour over. A memorable Sunday lunch in which I had played my part.

  But there was a little more to go. I like light puddings. I could probably live on a diet of pannacotta. So the dessert pleased me very much. It had a nice little wobble and was nicely dressed by some very tasty toasted seeds, blueberries and lemon gel (more lemon but this time a perfect addition to the dish). A very happy dessert.

  The whole was rounded off by a “gift from the kitchen” - 2 little cubes of raspberry fudge which could not be bettered as gifts even if they had been gold, frankincense and myrrh. The meal was wonderfully good value. I was purring contentedly throughout. So what else could you ask for? Well I do miss the edible charcoal and black potatoes, the traditional appetisers at Purnell’s, but I’m prepared to wait that little bit longer for the present closure of restaurants to come to an end to enjoy those pleasures again if I must. But it’s hard.

 

 

Tonight’s the night when a thousand British chefs’ hearts pump that little bit faster - the 2021 Michelin reveal which will be relayed to an attentive audience at 6PM. How will Birmingham and the West Midlands fare? Not long to go to find out ... but I wonder, 2 stars for Opheem?