Previous Blogs have mentioned visits to Ludlow and stays at Fishmore Hall and enjoyable dinners in both its bistro and its Michelin-plated fine-dining restaurant, Forelles, housed in its handsome conservatory with a delightful view of Clee Hill in the distance and of handsome cattle in the neighbouring fields. In Blog 8 I outlined the history of Forelles restaurant and I have dined there during the reigns of three of its four chefs - the earliest chef was Marc Harriman (2007-9 - I did not experience his cooking) but I did eat there during the period of David Jaram (2009-15) and Andrew Birch (2015-18) and now during the period of chef Joe Gould who has just announced that he will be leaving Fishmore to work as Executive chef at Glenapp Castle Hotel in Ayrshire. We await developments of who will take over in the kitchen at Fishmore and look forward to finding out how the cuisine at Forelles will develop under new leadership.
Having visited an exhibition at Birmingham’s Ikon Gallery this week and being unable to resist succumbing to buying a wonderful textile work, Towering In Fur Foe by Vivien Hewson, with which I am very pleased, combining as it does an image of Birmingham with witty humour and a lovely punning title (if it were food it would be by Glynn Purnell), I stopped off on the way back to New Street station for a quick lunch at the newly opened restaurant Rosa’s Thai Cafe just off Chamberlain Square. Think Thai fast food. This is not a particularly big branch of a chain which started off, so the story goes, in London’s east end. I opted for the £9.95p ‘Express lunch set’, choosing the starter of chicken satay (“2 char-grilled chicken skewers in a lemongrass marinade. Served with our addictive peanut sauce”) to be followed by red curry with chicken (“our signature red curry with bamboo shoots, red and green chillies and basil, served with jasmine rice”). You can’t expect too much when your paying under £10 for two courses.
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| Towering In Fur Foe by Vivien Hewson. |
I was surprised by the truly ‘express’ nature of the meal as both dishes arrived very shortly after ordering and simultaneously not long after I began to nibble some pumpkin crackers I had ordered to be consumed with a very necessary sweet chilli sauce. The food was what one could have expected for the modest price; the chicken was somewhat over cooked but edible and I do not think exact precision of cooking should be expected for what I payed but other than that, apart from the fact that I really didn’t like the ‘addictive’ peanut sauce which I found to be bitter, I felt as content as one could reasonably expect to be. But it would have been nice not to have starter and main course delivered together. The portion of jasmine rice was a generous size and the heat of the curry was mild despite the ‘two chillies’ guide depicted on the menu - the accompanying glass of Gingerella ginger ale was much more fiery than any of the food. I should have liked a little more heat in the curry. We Brummies can take it.
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| Express lunch - two course served together. |
This place seems alright for an unremarkable, modestly priced fast lunch and no doubt might be satisfactory for a pre-theatre bite to eat (if the Rep and the Concert Hall ever reopen) but it’s never going to set the Birmingham food scene on fire which is probably not what is intended. The small size and the location in a prestige building with accompanying probably high business rates makes me think that Rosa’s probably has a limited lifespan in the spot where it is.
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