267. Pulperia Adieu.

  It came. It delighted. It has passed.

  I had a reservation for Sunday lunch at Aktar Islam’s  Pulperia which I have enjoyed many happy times before when the bomb shell dropped, firstly in the social media and then in the hoary Birmingham Post, Pulperia was to close within days - Chef Aktar was quoted as saying, “With the current climate we simply cannot operate at the standard we want without outpricing our customers. Consumer habits have changed and we feel we’ve come to the end of our journey”.

    Pulperia was born just at the very beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and closed almost as soon as it had opened. Then, only when the trials of the lockdown were over was it able to really get moving. It was soon listed by Michelin and quite rightly too. Its remarkably good value Sunday lunches became legendary among those who know. Spectacular tasty and tender beef with all the trimmings in generous portions. A great meal at a great price. 

  And so there I was at the last ever Sunday lunch to be served in this great and good looking restaurant. Service had always been excellent and the management impressive. Thanks to all for making Pulperia what it was - its life was short but memorable. This was a restaurant to be forever mentioned in the book of the history of Birmingham cuisine. May flights of angels sing theE to thy rest.

  For this farewell I didn’t change my ways. I had a lovely lychee martini to get me in the mood for this celebration of Pulperia’s life.Then the very tasty chorizo starter served with a coleslaw and admirable heritage tomatoes.

  Then the miraculous three slices of gorgeous, delicious, perfectly tender beef - no restaurant I can think of can offer this meat so absolutely spot on -  we shall not see its like again. With the beef came a cornucopia of vegetables - roast potatoes of course, creamy cabbage and leek (my favourite accompaniment), enjoyable carrots and cauliflower in a cheese sauce, a top rate Yorkshire pudding, a light and tasty gravy and a mild zap of horseradish sauce. The portions were very generous - more than my gastrointestinal tract could cope with - I’m not complaining - but this meant I could not contemplate consuming a dessert - an old man has to know when he’s had his fill.

    Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow - the hospitality industry moves on - but I feel sad at Pulperia’s passing. I always looked forward to going there. She should have died hereafter; there would have been time for such a word. But nothing is forever except The Mousetrap (theatre not cheese). I asked if I might have a menu as a souvenir and was kindly given not just a menu but the historic menu cover. Thanks and farewell.

Rating for the last time:- 🌞.

  The previous evening I had dined in Isaac’s in the Grand Hotel where I was staying in company with the labrador. This restaurant is coming along quite well. I quaffed a particularly delicious Sazerac while contemplating the menu options and settled on what turned out to be a highly delicious Burrata salad with surprisingly tasty macerated heirloom tomatoes (heritage tomato dishes have often been quite disappointing at various places I have visited in recent months - not today’s Pulperia I hasten to add) along with red onion and sweet raspberry vinaigrette which really pushed the flavours along.

    

Then to a main course of finely baked and delicious halibut with lots of caviar, a saffron velouté and Provençal vegetables. Sadly the dish was served a little cold and the vegetables didn’t have an air of robust Mediterranean peasantness I should have liked to experience but the fish entirely made up for these misfires and could easily have been eaten in isolation and have invoked great pleasure. I also had some delicious chips as an accompaniment and these were very fine chips. I‘d have them any day.

     Dessert, a sundae, was alas quite disastrous. It was a terrible cacophony of flavours - everything bar the kitchen sink lurked in that long glass. I could not finish it.

  Isaac’s is getting there. I enjoyed much of what I was served. Rating:- 🌛