517. Namaste England.

 

  I described a visit to the West Heath located Namaste England back in May 2025 (Blog 484) and reported that I had found it to be a pleasant experience. Very shortly after dining there it closed without warning (trade did appear to be rather slow) but, with something of a flurry, it reopened on 11 November with a little flurry of advertising on social media.

  I was therefore interested to make a return visit and found that the owners had clearly had a rethink including opening for lunch (which suits me very much) and adding much more colour to the place with garlands of flowers hanging from the windows, more pictures and a lovely mural featuring a pair of elephants along one of the walls. Service was charming and genuine and the food cooked it seemed by a different chef - a lady keen to receive feedback - was excellent .

  I have no pretensions when it comes to south Asian food - I do not seek out “authenticity” as so many who claimed to know about the subject used to do in the past and determinedly gave the cold shoulder to anything that wasn’t eaten with fingers nor was was served “on the bone”. I like nice tasty food, nowadays less spicy than I may once have chosen to eat, nicely presented and if possible with elements of the sweet and the sour. 

  The food at Namaste England did have the ring of authenticity to it, I thought, but was readily appealable to a western plalte. It was very well prepared but had a refined rusticity to it.

  To start I had a very good lassi and four really exquisite little onion bhajis - tasty and with a crispy exterior - served with soothing raita. Very enjoyable. My main was a fine meaty lamb rogan Josh with just the right amount of heat in it. It looked tempting and lived up to its appearance.i had a reasonable buttered naan with it.

  Then, for dessert, came a real gem - a delicious homemade pistachio kulfi served in a pretty lidded dish. Lots of south Asian restaurants serve bought-in kulfis but this was the real McCoy - absolutely top notch. It is worth returning to the restaurant for the kulfi alone.

  Here we have it then, a fine little suburban restaurant which is just a little different from many such dining establishments, serving good food where the diner notches up a very modest bill. If this were located in Stirchley tge hipsters would be pouring in already.

Rating:- 🌛🌛🌛🌛

13 November 2025.

516. Folium In Autumn.

 

  Folium remains the most peaceful haven of culinary pleasure in Birmingham. It certainly seems that way whenever I dine there. Even on a grim, dark autumn day the restaurant is full of light as the large window lets in any brightness squeezing through the dense clouds lowering over St Paul’s Square, a few yards down the road. The welcome from Lucy Hanson is relaxed and friendly, the service she gives is spot on and Ben Tesh’s food which she serves is unimpeachable. I have no doubt that if Folium were situated in London then it would have ling been awarded a Michelin star.

  On this occasion there had been tweaks to the menu. 

 

As an amuse gueule, there was now a toothsome croustade with Winterbourne trout and brown butter, a play on potted shrimps. Then, so familiar and excitedly anticipated, the spectacularly delicious homemade sourdough, so tasty and excitingly crispy on the outside, with Folium’s equally delightful cultured butter.

  The first course proper a tartare of Cornish blue fin tuna - tasty in a relaxed sort of way and very happily textured - along with shiso from Westlands in Evesham. There followed line-caught sea bream, cooked just as I like it, and a red pepper espuma with brioche, useful for mopping up the remaining sauce.

  The next course was a Folium old friend - wagyu short rib - on this occasion the texture was exactly spot on for me - with marinated chicory which gave sweetness to the bitterness of the endive. I then had the additional cheeses course which included Lincolnshire Poacher and Northern Blue. The cheeses were served in an excellent state and accompanied by Ben Tesh’s own crackers and heaven-sent fruit loaf as well as a pleasing quince jelly.

  There was a new dessert - a frozen passion fruit and marshmallow tart - very good - and then a triumph of texture - “yesterday’s sourdough” with rye caramel and the crunch of cobnut.  Afterwards the two mignardises - an old friend - the perfect pleated barley Madeleine with Cotswold whisky cream and a sweet little sunflower macaron filled with cep fudge - yet again, I use the word ‘delightful. After a nice chat with Lucy over a glass of port I headed back home, crossing St Paul’s Square, then up Newhall street and through St Philip’s churchyard where the Christmas craft market was underway with a vehicle selling Asha’s dishes at a prominent point near the cathedral.

Rating:- 🌝🌝🌝.

7 November 2025.

  But no time to stop, on through the churchyard, down Temple Street to New Street station to find, as often happens, trains delayed or cancelled. Hospitality businesses are under threat in the city centre for many reasons but having a failed public transport system which should be bringing people in from the suburbs to patronise the fine city centre restaurants does not help at all. Hopeful commuters were standing ten deep waiting on the platform for the severely late trains to arrive. If the city’s hospitality trade is to thrive then good, fast, easy access to the city centre from the suburbs is needed. But the system fails almost on a daily basis. Birmingham needs good political leadership to put it back on its feet and sort out its problems and those in power at present seem to have no idea of how get the city up and running again.

515. A Week In Weston.

 

  The dog and I resolved to enjoy ourselves at Birmingham’s traditional seaside resort of Weston super Mare as I and my previous Labrador had done before for about thirteen years. Birmingham has no sea and Weston does and Labradors should have as much time swimming in the sea as they possibly can in their all-too-short lifetimes. Weston is also the nearest seaside resort by train to Birmingham as one can find. Hence to Weston. 

  It is a shadow of what it was in the 1950s and 60s as regards the number of visitors and the resort was very quiet during the week that we visited. Some days were wet, some windy, some cold - “fresh”, you might say - and I suppose that is why most British prefer to endure the process of flying to some hot, sunny resort in southern Europe or Turkey or further afield if they can afford it. They don’t know what they are missing. The beach at Weston is fabulous even if it’s usually too cold to sit on it for very long and the sea races in and out waiting for no man, like time, as the saying goes. It is perfect for an old bloke with a hyperactive puppy and the town is quiet and unthreatening and relaxing though most of the important shops there have closed and a lot of the people there look quite poor.

  It certainly is a town for ‘working people’ as the politicians like to call the working class in these present times. It is nowhere near posh enough for a Michelin inspector to trouble themself to visit and not middle class hipsterish enough for the Good Food Guide to take any interest in it. True, a few years ago Michelin did include the excellent Cove restaurant in the hallowed pages of its Guide but the Cove has long closed and Weston remains sans mention in either of these two publications. 

  The Cove is much missed by myself - the setting was one of overlooking the bay and was lovely especially at sunset and the unnamed chef(s) was/were masters of fish and shellfish preparation and cookery. I lunched or dined (sometimes both) there every day when I was in Weston and when the restaurant was open and its closure remains a sad event in my life. It closed, I think, about 2016 and eventually after a considerable period of dithering, the RNLI took it over as its local headquarters, ‘visitors centre’ and gift shop. The Cove did not do well on the ghastly Tripadvisor on which malign commentators wrote a number of harmful reviews which meant that The Cove was pushed well down the local rankings. Most of the negativity was centred on the admittedly at times inexplicably slow service though that may well have been because the restaurant attempted to train young people in front of house service and waiters therefore sometimes appeared cheerful and keen to help but rather slow and mildly clueless. 

  I experienced so many hours of happy dining at The Cove, indulging in some remarkably well prepared dishes - I remember a wonderful starter of delicious cauliflower panna cotta, fresh crab, various fish dishes including an ambitious and successful en papillote; The Cove served fine and well loved moules marinière. Ah! Such pleasures. Lost. But remembered. And all in Weston super Mare; who’d have thought it?

  But that was then and this is now. Of equal importance to Weston’s dining out history is the immortal Papa’s fish and chip restaurant which I have described previously. These are not triple cooked chips nor is the fish in little lumps a couple of cubic centimetres in size but generously portioned, lightly and crisply battered fine white cod meat and chips, not crispy on the outside but well cooked and tasty. The restaurant is atmospheric and its decor celebrates its history. Papa’s was my first port of call and great pleasure was derived from my cod and chips. A plate of fish and chips at Papa’s is a necessity on every visit to Weston.

  It was mid-autumn, night fell early, the weather was bipolar - raining one minute, brightly sunny the next. For the next three evenings I dined at The Old Thatched Cottage, right on the seafront, a few yards from the beach and nextdoor to my hotel. I had not eaten there for some years - I had not been impressed on my only visit there - I had fish which was badly overcooked and the waitress had seemed cold and unwelcoming. But it was time to give it another try. And  was delighted. The welcome was pleasing, the restaurant both spacious and cosy and comfortable and the menu had an emphasis on a mixture of the traditional English and traditional Greek, on the chargrilled and on the marine.

  I had a lovely prawn cocktail as my starter - a generous portion of sweet, plump crustaceans in a particularly pleasing Marie Rose sauce with a fresh crisp salad. Then for my main, a magnificently tender and tastilly grilled pork chop, lovingly French trimmed, with some exceptionally fine triple-cooked chips and a couple of sweet onion rings. This dish was a palpable hit. I rounded off with a soothing affogato and as contentedly as one might feel, I walked back to my hotel next door, taking in the mid-autumn seaside evening.

  The next evening, as starter I chose a very underwhelming dish of ‘chorizo bites’ and then for my main a truly delicious and perfectly cooked chargrilled chicken, bountiful in size, served with what I assume was a well cooked cous cous (I rarely choose to eat it so its optimal texture is not something I can comment on but this filled me with little pleasure reminding me, as it did, of small balls of tapioca though the salad and dressing - hits of refreshing mint and lemon) were lovely. For dessert, I was stuck in affogato mode - it’s such an enjoyable combination of pudding course and after dinner coffee and nice and light after a mesmerisingly generous piece of chicken.

  For my third dinner at The Old Thatched Cottage, I happily sank a toothsome pina colada to start while getting on with a very pleasing chicken liver pâté which lacked the bitterness that some examples of this dish often bring with them and on it sat an equally pleasing red onion chutney which was just right for cutting through the richness of the paté. For my main, some really excellent beer battered haddock - light crispy batter and nice, well-cooked meaty fish. The chips were excellent and the peas were fine and underlined the traditionality of it all. To be fair this was a dish I probably enjoyed more than my Papa’s fish and chips but  I would never miss the opportunity to visit Papa’s. Afterwards - well, affogato again I’m afraid.

  For my Cottage dinner, the next evening, I returned to the Greek theme. As a starter I had a generous plate of undistinguished olives with a pleasing, not overly garlicky hummus and refreshing tzatziki and some rather nice flatbread.Then for my main I chose what turned out to be a beautifully grilled chicken  thigh souvlaki - very pleasingly moist and tasty and this was served with a generously portioned fresh Greek salad, more tzatziki and flatbread.  This was a thoroughly enjoyable main course.

Rating:- 🌛🌛🌛🌛.

   The final dinner of my seaside visit was eaten at an old favourite of mind - a friendly, warm, cosy, welcoming sort of place about which I have written before - the splendid Ginger Pig Kitchen. I found that it remained as enjoyable as ever - not much has changed since my last visit (including most of the menu) but the meal gave me great pleasure. To start I chose a newcomer to the menu - a delightful, sweet French onion soup with gorgeously sweet onions, the broth hot enough to make it a dish to sip slowly and a decent cheesy crouton blanketing it all. It was accompanied by a slab of the Ginger Pig’s focaccia which is made on site and is very good.

  Then there could be nothing better on a nasty autumn evening, with a biting wind sweeping in from the Bristol Channel and the rain cascading from the black skies, than a Ginger Pig homemade pork and cider pie on a bed of very satisfactory mash, crispy rocket, a pig in a blanket, smashed peas and for me, a rather overgenerous lake of good gravy. Stuck in the top, as usual, was a crispy twig of pork crackling which had a satisfactorily not excessive crispiness. Then there could pie itself was a very good size, the pastry just right and the meat inside plentiful and tender.

For dessert, inevitably, affogato; this extravagantly enhanced with pieces of honeycomb to add to and sweeten the mix.

Rating:- 🌛🌛🌛

My week in Weston was over and I was well fed.

27-31 October 2025.