340. Forelles.

 

   Lucy The Labrador and I always obtain great pleasure from staying at Fishmore Hall whenever we visit Ludlow. It is smart and quiet and comfortable with friendly but polite staff and a lovely garden to sit in. In a word it is as lovely a place in its price range as one may wish to stay at. I have eaten in Forelles, its restaurant named after the small pear trees in the garden, many times, experiencing the cooking of all its Head Chefs over the years apart from the first in the hotel’s earliest times.

  Ludlow was roasting hot. Summer had arrived late and then some. The Dog, with her advancing years, was confined to the shady shelter of the hotel, indeed even a young dog would have found the going tough and though the tough are known for getting going when the going is tough, no human should have inflicted the fiery furnace of Ludlow on any poor dog as it was that particular opening Friday of the Festival.

  Having both survived the day, and with Lucy ensconced in our room as comfortably as possible as the day’s heat gave way to an unnatural September evening warmth, I made myself very comfortable in the lovely Forelles dining room, which as described in previous Blogs, is a large light-filled conservatory with, in the daytime, a fine view of Titterstone Clee Hill. I opted to go à la carte, very reasonably priced for food into which so much effort had clearly been put.

  The meal started with a delightful goats’ cheese-filled beetroot macaroon, then an excellent play on kedgeree with crispy wild rice. Edwardian breakfast meets modern British.

   For the starter I chose a chicken terrine with a pleasingly crispy crust but the chicken inside was too dry though helped out by the accompanying hazelnut sorbet and black garlic.

  The main looked very promising, the principle element being a lovely piece of John Dory though, sadly, I thought that the fish was slightly over. There was also a raviolo/tortellino hybrid (there must be an Italian word for it) containing tasty, slow-cooked ox tail as well as broccoli and sharp sauerkraut. This was fair enough, the pasta, was well made and the dish was nicely presented but I should have liked chef to have concentrated on being pinpoint accurate with the cooking of the fish which should have been the stand-out star and perhaps put aside the turf part of this sophisticated surf and turf about which I was unable to feel quite as enthusiastic as I wanted to.

  There was a charming little refresher of strawberry jelly and mint sorbet - very well judged to prepare the diner for the dessert which was a Financier - a pleasing, light little sponge, though not the correct shape of a financier, with the fresh, Indian summer, sharp-sweetness of raspberry sorbet and raspberry sauce and bursts of lemon. There might have been an element or two more than I needed in the dish but it was a pleasing end to the meal.

  And so to bed with tomorrow bringing the sausage trail. It would be too hot for Lucy to participate this year so if the dog won’t go to the sausages then the sausages will have to come to the dog ….