The end of May saw my dog and I taking one of our trips to the West Country seaside at Weston super Mare. I started off by dining on well cooked cod and chips at Papa’s, the historic and atmospheric restaurant, busy and characterful. The fish was white and meaty and nicely cooked with a pleasing light batter. Sometimes the simplest pleasures are the best.
Less historic and much more recent, is the Strange Catch which has seating but is not intended to be a restaurant. Again, very pleasing cod and chips are served there and the following evening I had a takeaway, dining yet again on this traditional seaside food. The chips were tasty and well cooked and the cod again was cooked in a pleasant, light batter and might have been even better cooked than that from Papa’s - nicely moist and again meaty even though both the fish and chips looked less golden than those served at Papa’s.
One can not live by fish and chips alone and so off to lunch in Bristol the following day. On my last trip there I had lunch at Casa on Lower Guinea Street but this time I changed from Italian cuisine to Spanish tapas in the sister restaurant of Paco Tapas, Michelin-recommended as is Casa and next door, part of complex of swanky apartments located in a former hospital building. As is the case with Casa, Paco Tapas has modern, fairly minimalist decor - fresh and à la mode - though unlike its sister which is furnished with pleasingly ordinary tables and chairs, it has high tables and high seats - not uncomfortable but not being a bird, I prefer not to perch. Both restaurants have gleaming open kitchens with plenty of bright metal and young chefs going about their labours calmly and methodically and everything appears permanently under control. The Front of House staff was welcoming, helpful, patient, knowledgeable and unhurried.
And so to the food - I opened with a pair of indulgently cheesy ham croquetas though the jamon was not the dominant feature it should have been. I also had some splendid charred padron peppers which kept things going until a plate of very finely cooked Iberico pork chop arrived - gorgeously tender though it was not quite as tasty as some Iberico pork I have had. To accompany it I had a helping of patatas bravas - a generous and tasty enough portion.
This was an enjoyable visit with finely prepared and carefully cooked Spanish dishes. There was a pleasing absence of chorizo and an an equally pleasing absence of rusticity which is often very welcome but sometimes it is a pleasure to have something with a little more finesse - not just in the presentation of the food but also in the surroundings it is eaten in.
Rating:- 🌛🌛🌛🌛
Having expressed a pleased relief for a lack of rusticity at Paco Tapas I now reverse my stance and express a delight caused by the rusticity of Ginger Pig Kitchen back in Weston super Mare which serves damn fine food though, like anywhere else, sometimes things are not quite what one is hoping for.
Like many English seaside resorts, Weston has seen better, busier days when West Midlanders, in particular, and also the invading Welsh, would take their summer holidays in their tens of, if not their hundreds of, thousands in the resort with its fine, elongated beach and notorious tide which leaves exposed mud when it is low and can be splashing at the sea wall when it is high. On this present visit - a school holiday week - it looked as though things were picking up with more visitors to the town than I can remember seeing for a long time.
It is a shortish distance from ultra-middle class, privileged, champagne-socialist Bristol inhabited as it is with the true ‘heirs of Blair’. Weston could not be more different - the holiday resort of the working class where one feels the burgers of Bristol would feel uncomfortable and would be roughing it if they ventured down the coast to see how the other half live, or in this case, holiday. The Ginger Pig Kitchen is unlikely to be for them and it’s easy to stumble into the middle class frame of mind when judging a restaurant though well heeled socialist restaurant critics like Jay Rayner, cosy in his self righteousness and sense of moral superiority, may feel they should stoop to show solidarity with the people at other times they may well sneer at.
I will try to view the restaurant in its context where the diners may not have the culinary sophistication which the middle class, their restaurant critics and the left wing newspapers they read, feel that they themselves possess but from the point of view of the restaurant which has a good chef and a clear understanding of what its clientele wish to eat at a price they can afford and which is several cuts above most other restaurants locally available to them.
On my first evening of dining there I chose a starter of shrimp croustade. Sadly this did not work for me - the hot toast clashing with the chilled shrimps in Marie Rose and with shredded lettuce, cucumber and cherry tomatoes. Without the bread this would have been a version of a prawn cocktail and as such would have been very enjoyable.
The main course was remarkably good - the locally sourced lamb was delicious and delightfully tender - the dining elite might have said that the lamb was not as pink as they would have wished but this suited me very much. The weather had turned warm in Weston and the well sautéed potatoes and roast vegetables spoke of winter rather than the passage of spring to summer but how was Chef to know that the weather gods had finally decided a little bit of sunshine, warmth and blue skies was due to us all? In this generously portioned vegetable extravanganza, I drew particular pleasure from the beautifully cooked leeks which were sweet and tender - simple pleasures but good ones. I could manage nothing more than an affogato for dessert but, as I’ve remarked before, it’s quite the perfect way to end a meal - dessert and coffee all rolled into one.
For my second dinner at the Ginger Pig Kitchen I chose the prawn cocktail proper, served in a scallop shell, nicely immersed in a thoroughly enjoyable Marie Rose sauce and accompanied by fresh English salad. The Ginger Pig has kept the fine Berni Inn classic alive and well and living in Weston super Mare. I purred with pleasure.
Feeling thoroughly maritime I stuck with fish for my main course and was served very satisfactorily cooked battered cod with, at my request, mashed potato - a man can not live by chips alone - and creamed crushed peas. This was lovely locally sourced fish with an excellent crispy batter and treated by Chef in a way that it deserved. I should have liked a little more butter in my mash - mash should be luxurious though not reduced to a purée with no body to it - the vegetable should have a texture and be allowed to keep its earthy flavours.
Then, I returned for Sunday lunch. I did not resist the temptation to have another prawn cocktail and then I was served a grand, very kindly priced, roast beef main with all the, and one or two other, trimmings. The beef was as delightful as the lamb from a couple of days previous and again, I suppose, not as rare as some would have liked but thoroughly pleasing to me. With it came a successful cauliflower cheese, roast potatoes more accurately cooked than I have had in some other establishments, tender red cabbage not assaulted by apple nor cinnamon and all the better for that, a very precisely roasted half carrot with just the right bite to it, broccoli cooked to my taste , a delicious stuffing which I might not have been expecting with beef, an unimpeachable Yorkshire pudding and all brought together with a good, honest, silky gravy.
The Ginger Pig Kitchen serves good traditional fare elevated to a higher level but without the overpriced pretensions that we often see. With the food goes the atmosphere and the feeling of diners enjoying themselves overseen by a restaurant manager who really knows how to do her job.
Rating - 🌛🌛🌛🌛
Back to Birmingham -
Michelin announced its list of newly recommended restaurants for May 2034 on 29 May.There were seven in all and one of them was located in the West Midlands area - Cuubo in Harborne which I recently visited (see Blog 403).
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