442. Tropea.

 

  I last dined at Tropea in the well-heeled suburb of Harborne back in July 2022 - much longer ago than I had realised. A lot has changed since then. The restaurant has been extended into the next shop and a smart bar added in the extension and the decor of the dining area itself upgraded considerably with apt prints on the walls and comfortable furnishing. The seating is a little close together but tolerable and the overall effect is to make Tropea a very pleasant place in which to pass a couple of hours. The service is friendly and welcoming and completely on the ball. A fine start.

  The menu offers small plates which can be halved and paired with another half plate but courses are still delivered in appropriate order - starting with an aperitivo and then moving on to antipasti, primi as pasta, secondi as meat and fish with contorni and/or insalata and finally dolce. Pleasingly and wisely the menu is written with English subheadings rather than Italian expressions.

  I very much enjoyed the delicious Paper Plane cocktail, served with a paper plane, which I had had on my previous visit. This was exquisite with just the right amount of appetite-invoking bitterness that one might want and this little drink has suddenly come up on the inside track to become my favourite cocktail of the present. I naturally brought my paper plane home with me as a souvenir! 

 But to the food. My lunch companion and I shared two small plates - a fine, crispy-coated arancino with textured rice and stuffed with sweet butternut squash and sage and blanketed in Provolene. This rich little dish was nicely paired with the sweet pickled vegetables that made up the giadiniera which provided a nice crunch and balanced the rich arancino. My only regret was that we had only ordered one arancino - I should have liked a whole one to myself.

  Then two half-dishes each of very, very fine pastas. The pastas were irreproachable. We chose tagliolini with an exquisite Parmesan cream and glorious black autumn Staffordshire truffle and hand rolled gnocchi with Gorgonzola dolce, confit sweet red onion and the mild crunch of walnut. These dishes were permeated with the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness and were an absolute triumph.

  And on the subject of triumphs, the secondo of tender braised pork cheek in sofrito and orange, served with valiant potato rosti and lovely Savoy cabbage accurately cooked in wine, was another of those triumphs and when paired with a truly fabulous aubergine Parmigiana, surely a definitive version of that dish, a triumph of Trafalgar proportions was indeed served to us.

  Two happy desserts were chosen - a pleasing acceptably wobbly if not fully set vanilla panna cotta was chosen and enjoyed by myself, served as it was with a spiced plum compote and the loveliest toasted almonds I can ever remember being served  and my companion opted for the cannoli filled with sweet ricotta and salted caramel and chocolate and had nothing about which she felt the need to complain.

   Tropea has risen to the heights which fully justify its inclusion in the Michelin Guide. Thi was an exceptionally enjoyable meal.

Rating:- 🌞.

441. The Wilderness Collaboration With Konjö.

   I dined at The Wilderness where a meal was being served by Alex Claridge and Marius Gedminas in collaboration with the Head Chef from Konjö - more fully, Konjö Robatayaki Kitchen - Joel, a Chef originally from Wolverhampton but now employed at the sister restaurant of Jöro in Sheffield (see Blog 41, 27 October 2018). Könjo has been described as a a”Scandi-Japanese mash-up with a mouthful of Jöro’s favourite ingredients, street food style”. Could that be a fusion one step too far? It was time to find out.

  The meal took the form of several courses of ‘snacks’ preceded by ‘bread’ and followed by a main course which was centred on quail with several other elements accompanying it.

  The opening bread - a beautifully textured focaccia, gorgeously unctuous with sesame oil and accompanied by kimchi relish and gochujang honey butter - was a very good start and the subsequent snacks gave much pleasure - a fabulous, crispy, again delightfully unctious, beef fat hash brown lifted to celestial heights by a sashimi of tuna belly nestling on it and intermediate texture provided by corn XO and all complemented by the precisely chosen flavour of yuzu..

  Then another highly successful, crispy ‘tostada’ with a prawn head mayonnaise and the citrus of finger lime. The next starter took the form of a pleasingly light bao filled with exquisite beef tartare, a combination of Könjo’s McBao and The Wilderness’ Unhappy Meal which took the informed diner back to Claridge’s battle to keep his restaurant alive during the period of the pandemic. A memorable play on street food from both restaurants.

  Then, a distinctly recognisable dish from ADC/The Wilderness - the sublime dish of hamachi with sliced green olive and jalapeño. To close the starters section there was subtle, delightful barbecued Cornish mackerel in a fig hot sauce with a side dish of a steamed and fried hot bun with zingy kimchi butter. Yes very, very good.

  This would have been perfectly adequate but the main course was still to come and when it did, though the various ingredients were pleasing, the whole was very much a dog’s dinner of disparate plates. The dish was centred on a poor little half quail coated in heavily cooked nam prik pao paste, its little pieces of meat hard to cut off.  There were some pleasingly crispy smoked fermented salt and pepper roast potatoes, the texture of which was enjoyable but the flavour of which I found to be less pleasing. There was a little dish of garlic aioli for which I could find no use - it did not seem to fit in with anything else that had been brought to the table - and some mango nam jim  alongside the little bird which looked pretty but for me was not quite the right accompaniment. The plate of green salad seemed equally out of place. I thought the quail needed warm accompaniments not all these cold elements. For me the whole just did not work. It was as though everything plus the kitchen sink had been mobilised and barely any of it seemed appropriate.

  I made little impression on the multielemental main course but enjoyed my unusual dessert, some of which was recognisable from ADC, of toasted jasmine rice ice cream served with an optimally citric calamansi curd and the fun of puffed pawa rice, reassuring caramelised aerated white chocolate and the freshness of kaffir lime.

  Many individual elements of the meal had been very enjoyable but as a whole it seemed incoherent with too many disparate dishes. The main was a hotchpotch. I am not too sure about Nordic-Japanese fusion. It may well indeed be a fusion too far. But, as always with Alex Claridge, this was an interesting and at times challenging meal. Who wants dull food?

  The previous evening was passed in Stratford upon Avon. Prior to attending the Royal Shakespeare Company’s latest production at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre - Othello (easily the best production I have seen there for several years with no gimmicky casting, men playing men, fine mature actors declaiming magnificently, no racial confusions, splendid period costumes and excellent direction) - I had eaten another very good early evening dinner at the Hotel Du Vin, where I was staying the night.

  To kick off I had a very fine Boulevardier, its subtle bitterness a tease to the appetite. Then a starter of a spot on chicken liver parfait which had an excellent texture, its richness nicely cut through by the accompanying plum and figgy chutney (I would have liked a bigger portion of this) which was served with two remarkably large slabs of toasted buttery brioche.

  For the main, I chose pan-fried cod served with lentils, winter root vegetables and cavalo nero. This was very a fine dish - the cod was cooked perfectly, the flesh white, glinting and perfectly yielding, the lentils were perhaps a little too numerous for my taste but they were very nicely cooked, tender but still with body and their flavour enhanced the earthy pleasure of the winter vegetables. The deep fried cavalo gave a cheeky, happy crunchy texture which no-one could complain about. A fine dish indeed.

    I needed a simple dessert. I was not in the mood for crème brûlée and opted for a simple dish of vanilla ice cream. I should be more ambitious with my choice of desserts but I do not need too much after my main course and my tastes in dessert are somewhat limited. So ice cream it was.

  The Bistro du Vin really is very good. 

Rating:- 🌛🌛🌛🌛.

29 October.

440. Soi 1268

 

  Originally from Thailand, Sai Deethwa, began commercial cooking in 2011 and presented her products as Thai street food, using recipes inherited from her mother, and established Buddha Belly, attending various venues such as Digbeth Dining Club and Herbert’s Yard in Longbridge.

   Deethwa had met her partner James Fitzgibbons in 2004 and following his suggestion she took part in the 2012 BBC Masterchef series in which she successfully reached the final 24 contestants stage. Eventually Deethwa and Fitzgibbons opened Soi 1268 at 1268 Pershore Road in Stirchley and soon afterwards Aktar Islam, Executive Chef and owner of the two Michelin-starred Opheem, identified Soi 1268 as one of his favourite restaurants at which to eat.

    So it was clearly time for another expedition to the aggressively hipster paradise of Stirchley to dine at Soi 1268. I generally enjoy Thai food apart from Thai green curry which is ruined, it seems, because I have a gene, as does 20% of the population, which makes coriander taste like soap but I find Thai food wearisome. There’s not much range in it and when you’ve been to upwards of fifty, or however many, Thai restaurants - usually rustic in presentation and not all that cheap - it’s hard to imagine anything new and exciting is going to light up your gastronomic life. More of the same. So was Soi 1268 just that and did it float my boat?

    In the early evening drizzley darkness of the latter part of autumn, the black painted exterior is not so very inviting (why do restaurants in hipster areas feel they should  look like funeral parlours?) but once inside the interior is more reassuring - warm and cosily ramshackle though, as with so many of these Stirchley restaurants, the seating is fairly close together and not notably comfortable though the crowd of Stirchley denizens who have already taken their places seem oblivious to any problem such as discomfort and are tucking into their dinners, presumably happy with the suburban, middle class rusticity of it all.

My dining companion and I were presented with the shortish, somewhat disheveled, menus and he opted for what turned out to be highly delicious, splendidly textured King prawns toast zinging with ginger, garlic and spring onion and accompanied by a tiny pot of sweet dipping sauce. The toast looked magnificent and indeed it was.

  The menu was one mainly of the now ubiquitous ‘small plates’ and my companion also chose the impressive-looking Thai fried chicken which was nicely moist and encased in fine, crispy coatings. We both chose the small plate of immaculately crispy enoki in a tempura batter, the texture of  crunch serving as a good companion to the earthiness of the mushrooms.

  I had the enoki as a starter and had a larger plate as the main which was beef massaman curry (which I have loved to eat for decades). This was very well done. The black pepper brought adequate heat to the proceedings which was centred on succulent and unctuous meat, slow cooked to the point where it had almost melted away. Apparently Aktar Islam’s wife also loved this dish when served it at this restaurant. She clearly knows a good dish when she tastes one; the accompanying jasmine rice was very edible

  All the dishes were generously portioned but I had room for the only dessert on offer - the delightful mochi ice cream (pounded rice dumplings filled with my chosen flavour of vanilla ice cream) which I had not previously eaten and which I thoroughly enjoyed. I loved the chewiness of the dumpling and the flavour of the good vanilla ice cream that lurked inside the dumpling waiting to be liberated.

  Soi 1268 is a very pleasing neighbourhood restaurant though, because it is clearly popular, and because of the large numbers of diners in a relatively small space, not an entirely relaxing spot to while away a couple of hours. The rustic Thai food is enjoyable and filling and has a fine degree of authenticity about it though the menu seems to step out of its brief a little to visit dishes from other Asian cuisines. It serves street food in an environment that is more comfortable and much warmer than the sort of places Buddha Belly visited in the past but whether or not it might be nice to see the chef aiming to serve her food in a style with more finesse and in a more upmarket setting I shall leave to the reader. And it did ‘float my boat’ like one those little water vessels which serve as floating markets on the canals near Bangkok.

Rating:- 🌛🌛🌛🌛.

438. ADC x Highland Park Collaboration.

 

  I feel it in my water - either still or sparkling - that Alex Claridge’s Albatross Death Cult (ADC) is to be the next Birmingham Michelin star recipient come the next Michelin star reveal ceremony, presumably to be held early in 2025. I’ve dined there more than anywhere else this year and have experienced the novelty of the food and genius behind the invention of it. It is special and should be recognised nationally for being so.

  Having long ignored Claridge’s brilliance as revealed by The Wilderness, hopefully the Michelin inspectors will find it in themselves to celebrate his culinary achievements by recognising them in ADC. By doing so, they will not lose face and additionally be seen to do justice. Twenty four hours after Glynn Purnell’s announcement  that he had closed Purnell’s, Michelin had, quite reasonably I suppose, removed the restaurant from its internet site, as had the Good Food Guide, and so it is to be hoped that at least one Birmingham restaurant finds its way on to the list of starred restaurants in the next edition of the guide. If that is to be the case then ADCcould well be that very restaurant. If it were located in London it undoubtedly would be, I have no doubt.

Purnell’s no longer in the guidebooks -

Michelin Guide - 

Good Food Guide -

  Things change. And for the present a new style of dining is riding high so much so that I found myself dining at an ADC collaboration with Highland Park whisky (in the past I had attended a similar collaboration at The Wilderness but it doesn’t hurt to repeat a pleasure from time to time. 

  It was a completely different evening compared with the night before when I had also visited the Jewellery Quarter to experience another one of Kaye Winwood’s enjoyable occasions at GULP (see Blog 439) - the dark evening with teeming rain had changed to one of pleasing late afternoon sunshine and blue skies. What a difference a day makes. How uplifting in mood. I was ready to enjoy what was on offer.

  What was actually on offer were dishes which I have previously eaten at ADC and I, from my own point of view, might have liked something novel but on the other hand, almost all my fellow diners were first time visitors to the restaurant so for them the dishes were new and exciting and, as far as I could tell, greeted with universal acclamation.

  So the first two items were pleasing canapés of Cornish mackerel sashimi - silvery and glinting, as subtle a flavour of the fish that one could wish for, and a delicate croustade packing with orange trout roe the colour of a translucent popping satisfyingly in the mouth like edible  bubble wrap.

   Then exquisite, tender mussels in a scintillatingly and exquisitely gorgeous burst of black peppery velouté matched perfectly with a Highland Park whisky Old Fashioned. The wholly edible with the wholly quaffable. Then came another old favourite, presented I thought better than ever before - an Atlantic scarlet prawn with a deeply flavoured sauce made from the head. The final savoury dish was lovely Chalk stream trout with tom yum. 

  The meal was rounded off with another classic ADC dish - the bowl of silky, delightful sushi rice ice cream with nori tuiles which had the entire room purring with vaguely sinful pleasure. There was a single scallop-shaped mignardise and a draining of the remaining whisky in the diners’ glasses and the deed was done.

   And so, home, under the wolf moon, bright in the clear night sky.