328. Summer Heat (6 - The Church Inn)

 

  For a change I chose to lead my regular dining companion not to one of Birmingham’s fine dining or cutting edge restaurants but into the deepest Jewellery Quarter to Great Hampton Street where the historic The Church Inn dozed in the summer afternoon heat. In the history of Birmingham gastronomy this is a particularly interesting establishment to visit. 

  The hoary public house was taken over by Carl Finn in May 2013 who set up the Soul Food Project there in which the inn acted as a location for pop up events including Burns Night, Mardi Gras Night and French Resistance Night which included diners having to wear Second World War era costumes and having to duck under their tables every time an air raid siren was sounded. On one occasion a New Orleans-style funeral was staged which involved a procession through the streets of the Jewellery Quarter accompanied by the playing of a brass band. The Executive Chef there during this time, between May and December 2014, was Niki Astley who would go on to open his own restaurant, Two Cats, in 2015 in the building off Warstone Lane which is now home to The Wilderness. Finn eventually moved on and The Church is now a city centre pub which serves rustic meals in a location with as much character as you could wish for.

  When we arrived there, there was a sleepiness about the place. The day was hot, the sun was bright and the skies were blue and the pub was almost empty but people kept arriving and disappearing through a door and I later deduced that they were probably all heading for a rooftop sun terrace to quaff the afternoon away. I thought I had made a reservation for the dining room but I was told that it was closed and giving that we appeared to be the only diners that seems hardly surprising. So we sat in the bar, lapsed into the quietness of it all, admired the character of the place and were amused by the menus on the tables which were housed in folders with covers with crosses on them - slightly sacrilegious I think - and ordered our pub food.

    To start, we both chose the country terrine - described as being made up of chicken, black pudding and poached apple all wrapped up in prosciutto. This was really quite tasty and the accompanying red cabbage was something of a pleasure too.

    Then I had chicken schnitzel which was clearly overcooked, the coating burnt in parts and the chicken itself dry textured. The accompanying Jersey Royal was very nicely cooked however but the large pile of leaves was dull and looking as though it was largely, if not entirely, made up of one of my bête noires, rocket, went untouched. My dining companion’s fish which had a nice light batter was also overcooked but his chips looked enormously successful; his main was completed by crushed peas and tartare sauce.

    I had hoped that the rhubarb dessert would lift my gastronomic spirits but it was not available so I had some unremarkable ice cream while my companion polished off the bottle of wine we had shared.

   A place to visit for a drink in an interesting setting with a side dish of gastronomic history to it; the rustic food was passable but very little better than that. Pity.

Rating:-🌛

327. Summer Heat (5 - Carter’s Of Moseley).

  Carter’s of Moseley had announced that things were going to change - for the summer at least - and its faithful diners only had a matter of weeks to enjoy a meal in Moseley they’re recalling past pleasures. A canny move. Naturally, not knowing what was going to happen and keen to once more dine of its remarkable dishes before it was too late I reserved a table and back I went.

  The welcome was as warm as ever and the restaurant looked unchanged until I noticed that there was now a chef’s table, presently occupied by young people who did not seem to be having any money problems though as it was the middle of the day, you might have thought they should be out at work. In the 1920s we had the idle rich, now we have the idle middle class.

  My dining companion, who had never dined at Carter’s before despite living just a short distance away, chose the middle priced tasting menu, we really did not think that our alimentary tracts would be able to deal with the Full Monty

  And of course the meal turned out to be everything that one might have expected. Old favourites were not afraid to make an appearance and brought much joy with them - Cornicsh mackeral and kelp, the glorious oyster <pearl> and the so very meaty DW chicken <thigh>. I sometimes think that a restaurant that sold just canapés and appetisers might be the most successful restaurant around - if they were the quality of Brad Carter’s amuses gueules that would certainly be the case.

  Following a delightful summer tomato dish there was another old favourite - Carter’s twist on Matthew Boulton’s Birmingham soup which the 18th century inventor and industrialist devised to feed the hungry poor though Carter’s version was more likely to feed the satiated comfortably off. Memorably the dish is decorated with a lovely tuile which reproduces the outdoor decor of Birmingham’s notable Central Library.

  The trout dish was a great favourite enhanced by the force of the flavour of sea buckthorn and trout roe. Beautifully barbecued duck with a nice crispy skin to be shared by two diners was served as the main course with fine carrots and faux rice - this part of the dish was my least favourite ingredient - the ‘rice’ produced from barley, I find unconvincing and I am not particularly keen on the texture of the ‘rice’ (but it has to be said that my dining companion found it to be perfectly satisfactory).

  The dessert was lovely. And how very pleasing to have a cherry dessert. It was pretty and delicious. A work of art as was, of course, the brilliant strip of chocolate decorated with the pattern of the Birmingham Centre underpass. Carter’s had once more delivered the goods.

Rating:- 🌞🌞.

  And so, what will Carter’s be up to this summer? It looks like an excursion to Evesham is on the cards.

From the Birmingham Post 29 June 2023 -

326. Summer Heat (4 - The Wilderness).

 

  Each new season the menu of The Wilderness does not so much evolve as stage a full scale military coup. The brains in the kitchen get together with sparks shooting down the collective neurons and new stupendous creations are born, or in one or two cases, reborn. And now it was time to be off to Alex Claridge’s restaurant to discover just what the summer had in store. I had the pleasure of being accompanied by a guest who had never had the opportunity to dine at anywhere like The Wilderness before but she was clearly ready to deal with whatever came her way.

  To start, appetisers, and Dominos - a splendid spoof pizza snack plus two others including peas and elderflower which brought us round to thinking of the onset of summer. The Parkers House bread rolls with seaweed butter were enjoyable and then a great highlight (at extra cost admittedly) - crab seasoned with shio koji and crowned with oscietra. My guest, who had never partaken of caviar before was very happy with this new experience.

  As I often bemoan, I am sometimes resentful about vegetable courses - carrots, I can take them or leave them, but the chefs at The Wilderness always rise to the occasion and this season’s Carrot 2023 raises the vegetable to that point where a carrot course can hold its head up on the menu though to be blunt the dish includes my least favourite element of the whole meal - the ‘bread pudding’ on which the carrot sits which has a texture which is not to my taste.

  For the fish course, BBQ John Dory served with a nettle sauce with bread which for all the world had the texture and flavour of pork scratchings - great stuff - and then to the main of stuffed lamb saddle which looked very elegant and made a change from a straightforward cut of meat served with wild asparagus and  with hints of wasabi. This was a meticulously prepared dish which we both appreciated.

  Dessert was the white chocolate banana, now familiar to Great British Menu viewers as the work of another West Midlands chef but certainly on the menu in Claridge’s Nocturnal Animals and The Wilderness as long ago as 2019 and possibly 2018.

  The meal concluded with a delightful collection of sweet meats - some familiar some new, at least to me. There was the white chocolate hotlips, the gorgeous burnt honey cake with a chamomile sauce and honey tuile, the wonderful fudge cow heads and a McDonald’s Brekky - a macaroon in the form of a faux miniature breakfast roll from a source which Claridge loves to mock.

  This meal felt like the high summer of summer menus. Claridge and Gedminas and their crew forge on with others in their wake.

  We had had a splendid evening, my dining companion had very much enjoyed the food and the whole atmosphere of the restaurant and Alex Claridge proved again why it is that his restaurant is one of the top ten most exciting restaurants in Britain.

Rating:- 🌞🌞

325. Summer Heat (3 - Adam’s).

 

  To Adam’s.

  The first amuse gueule was fully in step with summer, though more at the seaside than in a smart building off the presently deconstructed Victoria Square (the council, money pouring from its pockets, deconstructs and reconstructs the home to HM Queen Vic and The Floozie, now almost on an annual basis). It was a delicate little cone but filled not with ice cream but delicious liver parfait. More micro-pleasures were presented and relished, including a wonderful summer dish of peas and strips of asparagus and then the first starter proper - something which gets a mention on the evening’s billboard so to speak - arrived at my table; it was a charming nori tartlet of Scottish langoustine with the citric of red yuzu koto, the texture of radish and the power of sea buckthorn. This was delightful - all the precision and accuracy and delicacy one would expect to enjoy at Adam’s

  Moving on to the next starter - plump Orkney scallop with a Champagne espuma, brilliant little bursts of fennel, the pepper of nasturtium and pieces of citrus. This was excellent. I enjoyed the dish of wood quail rather less with its accompanying sand carrot and barley and the look of it conjured up autumn rather than summer (though mercifully there were no mushrooms to be seen) and perhaps, more importantly, the quail did not hit me with enough flavour to make me think that it’s death had been worthwhile.

  After this nicely cooked but rather disappointing dish came the pleasure of wild turbot with a lovely crab bonbon, artichoke purée and the adorning sea herbs and vegetables made useful contributions to the whole. For the main act, there was aged beef with little cubes of turnip, various purées and something very powerful and vaguely bitter which I found rather more challenging than I might have expected. The superb Maître D’ - in his wisdom and analysis, very Jeeves-like - put it down to the sorrel but I wasn’t so sure. Looking pretty with wild garlic flowers, the attending flavours were deep running and not quite up my street.

In contrast the two desserts were very much up my street or, more aptly, my country lane. Strawberry abounded as one would hope at this time of the year. Fresh, vibrant, one dish with subtle bursts of star anise. Both desserts hit the right spot.

  The summer burns on. 

Rating:- 🌞.