480. The Last Sunday Lunch At Simpsons - The Beef Wellington.

 

 The hospitality business being what it is at present, it was announced a short while ago that with bookings not being quite as numerous as they might be, this was to be the last Sunday lunch served at Simpsons - at least for the foreseeable future. And at last I had someone to join me at Sunday lunch there so that I could order the somewhat celebrated Simpsons beef Wellington. And, who knows if Simpsons’ Sunday lunch will ever return given that Andreas Antona has put the business up for sale? The end, or the possible end, of an era. All things must pass …. eventually.

  The Sunday lunch went out in style. Firstly, two familiar amuses gueules - no less delicious for their familiarity - both very toothsome indeed - and this also applied to the equally familiar and equally excellent bread though as always, I would have preferred plain, ordinary salted butter to spread on the breads and this was kindly supplied was requested.

  I had the scallop dish which had been cooked beautifully and served with its beurre blanc sauce in a delightfully retro fashion in a scallop shell. The tender mollusc had a remarkably enjoyable butteriness to it and there was little else that could have been done to improve the dish. There was much apparent simplicity about it and it did not suffer because of this. My companion thoroughly enjoyed her beetroot starter.

  Then came the presentation of the Wellington. It looked magnificent and its service did not disappoint. The beef was accurately cooked inside its surrounding cover of mushroom duxelle and fine pastry. Its companions were a very sensibly sized serving of pomme purée, a dish of happy cauliflower with cheese sauce, stunningly delicious, sweet, tender carrots and confit cabbage and a fine red wine sauce. This was a memorable dish served on a memorable occasion at a memorable restaurant.

    Dessert was not an afterthought. My lunch companion was overwhelmed with pleasure at her excellent passion fruit soufflé and I was impressed, more than I expected (though I should have known better) by the caramelised miso tart served with a splendidly tasty blood orange sorbet. 

  The mignardises - a chocolate cracknell decorated with a pattern of the tiles in Simpsons, powerfully flavoured blackcurrant pate de fruit and gorgeously buttery madeleines - rounded off a first class meal at a first class restaurant. Long may it keep serving such magnificent food to the diners of Birmingha.

Rating:- 🌞🌞🌞.

479. The New Tiger Bites Pig And French Onion Soup Returns In Stratford.

 

  Once more I was paying a visit to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford upon Avon accompanied by one of my regular lunching companions, this time to see Much Ado About Nothing, so beautifully presented in the fabulous and memorable 2014 production as Love’s Labours Won, starring Edward Bennett as Benedick and the sublime Michelle Terry as Beatrice, and sunk below the water line most recently in the deplorable production at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane where Tom Hiddleston looked permanently bemused and embarrassed in the presence of the wrecking ball that Jamie Lloyd had taken to the Bard (see Blog 468). But of this, more later.

  We started off our foray into Stratford via Snow Hill station with what we decided what be a ‘light lunch’ at the recently opened new home of Tiger Bites Pig. The restaurant is spread over the two floors of what used to be Church Street cafe where I remember dining at two or three Ben Tesh pop ups in 2016 prior to his opening of Folium in 2017. Some of his dishes really were quite experimental then but very interesting and served as an exciting introduction to his cuisine then. 

  On the ground floor of Tiger Bites Pig is a counter from which, I assume, takeaways are served, while upstairs is a good sized space for dining. The menu is no more complicated than it was previously and I chose an old favourite - the appealingly, but not unrestrained, spicy Sichuan style roasted lamb bao flavoured with chilli oil, sesame and cooled and refreshed with tangy but soothing strips of cucumber. The bun itself was soft and light and the dish of spicy prawn crackers we ordered had us slyly competing with each other to grab as many of the crackers as we could without appearing greedy. My lunch companion was very pleased with his white cut chicken bao which brought together chicken, sesame, pickled cabbage, green Sichuan peppercorn, spring onions and ‘Mandarin hot sauce. 

Rating;- 🌛🌛🌛🌛

  We thought that this lunch was just the ticket and things went well as we were in time to get to Snow Hill, hop on the Stratford- bound train, head for the Hotel Du Vin where we settled in before going for a pleasant stroll along the bank of the Avon on this warm, sunny spring afternoon and in doing so spot the first black swan to have been seen in Stratford for fifty years, or so we were told. On days like this England looks as grand a place on this Earth as exists, a blessed plot indeed.

All the luxury you need when you get a roll topped bath in your bedroom - Hotel du Vin, Stratford.

Stratford’s first black swan “in fifty years”.

 Things got even better when it emerged that the French onion soup was back on the menu in the bistro of the Hotel du Vin. A meal in itself; dizzyingly sweet, soft onion wallowing in a rather hot broth like a subterranean sea waiting to be uncovered from its location under a gooey, cheesy crouton lid. There are few pleasures more enjoyable than this. And then, an interesting and punchily sea-flavoured main of pâtes tagliolini noires au Crabe - nicely cooked squid ink blackened pasta with a strongly maritime hit of crab (though to be honest the crab did seem a little sparsely spread around the dish, at least to the naked eye) with more flavour from sun blushed cherry tomato and basil and a truly satisfying texture from good scattering of pine nuts. This was a very enjoyable dish though a little too generously portioned for me to be able to fully clear my plate and no room left for pudding.

  My dining companion paired a scallop dish with some very fine frites and was pleased with his meal.

Rating:- 🌛🌛🌛🌛.

  And shortly we were off to the theatre, replete and content. The play was, as I recall mentioning above about as dire as you might expect it to be when it is set in a mid-2020s milieu populated by aggressive young men and badly but expensively dressed wags, all of whom speak with an Essex accent à la Reform. 

  The characters of Benedick and Beatrice are subordinated to the dark and vaguely incomprehensible tale of Hero and Claudio and the machinations of Don John with the aim of projecting the subject of  misogynism as the big liberal political theme the RSC wished to rail against on this occasion. It may not have been too much of a loss as the performance of Freema Agyeman as Beatrice was desperately unconvincing and Nick Blood’s underwhelming delivery of Benedick suggested that he should have been left on the benches for this production.

   I thought as the end of the play drew near that the director, with the elitist middle class snootiness of the artist that we witness endlessly in this era of the divided society, was probably directing an attack on the working classes wrapped up in socialist themes of equality and diversity and nothing more. In the past, there have been more gentle but equally patronising depictions of the working class by the middle class for the middle class as we hear everyday in the BBC’s  radio programme The Archers where very nice, gentle middle class village residents are honest and decent while the working class are salt of the earth but comedic and dishonest. But this RSC attack on the working class was much more savage than poking a bit of fun at Eddie Grundy. 

  This ill-judged production would have been better left unmade save that the audience around me found it to be hilarious. As, given the nature of the audience, you might have expected. But it had been the day when sweet French onion soup had returned to the Stratford Hotel du Vin and when a Black swan was swimming on the Avon - emphasising diversity I suppose - so on the whole things weren’t looking so bad.

478. Alas Poor Will, I Knew Him Horatio. What Happened To The Shakespeare Birthday Lunch?

  The Shakespeare birthday lunch, held in Stratford upon Avon on the first Saturday nearest the playwright’s birthday, has always been a joyous affair, held annually, only missing the years of the pandemic lockdowns. I have had the pleasure of securing a ticket for it every year since the mid-twenty teens. It has been rather splendid, not cheap it has to be said, but giving the diner a chance to see close hand, or even talk to, the likes of Dame Judy Dench, Stephen Fry, Alex Kingston, Vanessa Redgrave and the list goes on. All very glamorous though the neighbourhood rather goes down by the attendance of a load of local politicians who all manage to get themselves a ticket. The food is surprisingly good most of the time given the amount of mass catering involved.

  Alas, poor diner, no more. Or certainly not this year. In previous years, apart from three, the lunch has been supported by Pragnell, the local high class jeweller, but a few weeks ago it was announced that their sponsorship would be withdrawn. No reason was given but it was announced that the show would still go on but would be arranged by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust and Stratford’s town council. That’s the Birthplace Trust run by wealthy, woke, entitled individuals who recently announced that the displays at the birthplace must be “decolonised” and the Liberal Democrat council which has overseen for the last two years the torrent of business collapses in the town including some notable long-established hospitality providers. 

  Seeing who was being trusted to deliver the Birthday lunch it always seemed a remote prospect that either organisation was up to the task although up till about a month prior they were still putting it out that the lunch would take place. Then all mention of the lunch was dropped but no statement was released to say what was happening or why it was happening. And, as I have indicated, it did not happen. 

  Alas poor Stratford. Much money would have been spent in the town if the lunch had taken place. I usually pass three or four nights in Stratford during the birthday weekend spending money on hotel bills, dining, shopping, visiting attractions and so on. But not this year. Well, these are hard times, in some ways I am glad I saved the money, but I am sad not to have had my annual visit to the Birthday lunch hobnobbing with A class celebrities of theatre. Really, it’s scandalous how those responsible for organising it have let this pass and lost money for the town. But it is not surprising given the havoc the town’s council is allowing to take place in Stratford and the way that the lunatics have taken over the Birthplace Trust. Sadly, we will just have to see how they get on with their “decolonisation” - let’s hope they prove just as useless at that as the do at organising a banquet in a tent.

477. Tom Shepherd’s Cow Pie In Hopwood.

  The first principle of running a business must be to make a profit. Without profit a business can not survive and the individual who owns it will go hungry and those who work for it will lose their jobs. To make a business profitable the proprietor needs to make the products he sells attractive to and desirable to potential customers and at a price which they are prepared to pay. The business can be as glamorous or as down-to-earth as the proprietor likes as long as there are sufficient customers who are prepared to buy from it preferably on a regular basis. The business, particularly, a restaurant or dining establishment also needs to be situated in a location which is reachable and attractive and has ‘passing trade’ and it also needs to employ staff who know how to interact well with the customers. It is surprising how often, sometimes in a rush to open a restaurant, a restaurateur seem to ignore some or all of these points and therefore set their business on a course which will ultimately lead to failure.

  And so to the Hopwood Inn in Hopwood, the first village across the border from southwest Birmingham on the road to Alvechurch and Redditch. Suddenly housing disappears as one heads out across Worcestershire and fields and farms reveal themselves in the green, rolling countryside where the dairy cows of Groveley Farm are grazing very peacefully and hills start to rise up in various directions - the Lickeys and the distant Cotswolds and Malverns. These latter two hills can be viewed from High Hill which looks down on drivers on the Birmingham to Redditch Road as they cross the Birmingham/Worcestershire border and the vista gives a fine idea of the extent of the beautiful rural West Midlands. And on arriving in Hopwood, a couple of mikes from the edge of Birmingham, one finds a peaceful, pretty canal passing under the road heading from Kings Norton on to Alvechurch and beside it is the picturesque, old redbrick Hopwood House which is a grand example of just how well a hospitality business can do when the owners of a business get things right. 

  Here, everything seems to tick all the boxes - a convenient, attractive location close to a large population who find it no trouble to get to the spot, the right sort of food at the right sort of price to appeal to that population, a clean, bright, spacious, comfortable, pleasantly decorated interior with good parking and lovely gardens for the good weather and hosts who know how to welcome their guests and serve them well. The Hopwood House, sited next to the canal, and all the more attractive for that, just about gets all of that right. It’s a British rural pub, part of the Marston’s chain. It has no pretensions, it strives to feed and slake the thirst of those who go there and does not try to be something it isn’t. It’s not a gastropub and not all the food lives up to expectations. But it suits the people it aims to serve and that is a good business and generally, when leaving it, the diner’s appetite is more than satisfied with food that, in the part, has given them pleasure.

  But just at the moment, there really is something on the menu to make the diner drool with anticipation. We will recall Tom Shepherd’s success in the 2023 Great British Menu television series when his ‘cow pie’ was chosen to be the main course at the final banquet. Since then, his restaurant, Upstairs by Tom Shepherd in Lichfield, has been fully booked for seven or eight months ahead and then, it seems, tables are only available for groups of four or so. Not much chance of dining on his cow pie there then, you think. Well, Marston’s appear to have cleverly found a solution to that little problem to both its and Tome Shepherd’s benefit - 20000 of a version of his award-winning pie (‘a limited edition’) are being sold in Marston’s pubs until the edition runs out. Brilliant.

  It was for this reason a regular dining companion and myself set out for Hopwood (a pleasingly short distance from my home for once) to make ourselves comfortable in the Hopwood House, settle back and tuck into Shepherd’s remarkable creation. I had a pint of Inch’s recently introduced Riversider Herefordshire cider to get me started and very good it was too. Anticipation grew as we awaited the delivery of our pies and we were not to be disappointed.

  The pie looked good from the outside and rather better in the inside. The information displayed on a card on the table described the pie and it seemed to be consistent with the dish that Shepherd had served upin the Great British Menu, “A triple layered pie made with hand pulled beef cheek and pulled shin, sweet and garlicky caramelised onions, separated by a thinly sliced distinctively savoury, seasoned roasted potato layer, all encased within a deliciously textured beef fat pastry”.

And indeed it was highly delicious - an inarguably fine pie rarely if ever matched by the numerous pub pies I have eaten in the past. The description above was accurate, the meat tender and unctious as slow cooked beef shin and cheek should be and the whole generously portioned. The accompanying vegetables were unremarkable but the mash was as good as many a pub mash, the roast carrots nicely textured with a nice bite to them and the greens fairly humdrum but good enough. There was a good gravy or ‘rich red wine sauce’ (whichever term you prefer) with it and it all went down very well with my glass of cider.

I was immediately trying to think of an excuse to come back again to have another dive into one of these cow pies, so enjoyable was it.

  Though full, I chose cheesecake with cherries and cherry sauce. It was not distinguished in flavour but the texture was satisfactory and the macerated cherries were cheerful enough even though they were working hard to keep the flavour of cherry to themselves.

  But in the end, t’was the pie that made it. Tom Shepherd really is clever. And the view of the canal and the generally happy and welcoming atmosphere.

Rating:- 🌛🌛🌛 (sans pie 🌛🌛)

25 April 2025.

476. Being Bold At Rough Cut Wilderness.

 

  There’s no doubting that Alex Claridge is bold with his approach to what he serves to his diners. Fortunately most of them know what to expect. Or do they? Once more Claridge has sent out his e mails summoning those with a stiff spine and probably needing a stiff drink for his 2025 ‘Rough cut’ sessions where he tries out new dishes on those prepared to pay to be Guinea pigs and have the opportunity to make an honest comment or two on what they have eaten.

  The 2025 Rough Cut certainly seemed to be going boldly where no Birmingham fine dining chef had gone before - his message of summoning the faithful stated, “Alex and the band are playing with bolder and brighter for the coming months” and listed ingredients including sea urchin, smoked beef heart and lamb neck with grilled sea vegetables. All this when I feel I’ve reached a less bold stage in my life and memories of the particularly unpleasant sea urchin dish I was once served while on a tour of China and the whole beef hearts piled on a charger served to us for school lunch just the once back in 1967. Well, I thought, we’ll see.

  The menu served on the evening was similar to but not identical to the mooted menu featured in Claridge’s e mail. I was pleased with the changes as I have been served so many beef (and other) tartares in recent times that I have grown rather tired of the dish no matter what twist is put on it. On the other hand I was disappointed not to see the Basque cheesecake lined up on the final menu.

  I started off with a white port and tonic which Sonal Clare has put on the drinks menu after he recently had a trip to Portugal where it is, of course, all the rage. This pleasing, refreshing, light aperitif, which I have been ordering at various venues for the past twelve months or so, will hopefully replace the very vulgar negroni which has long dominated the preprandial drinks choice of those who think they are at the cutting edge but have long been washed away in the tide of good taste.

  The first course was excellent - a beautifully textured red prawn ceviche with a slice of tangy jalapeño, the hit of sorrel and the looming threat of wasabi, all tempered with milk curd. A dish with plenty of punch to it but finely judged. Then, very nicely flavoured barbecued mackerel with the well matched, mild ancho chilli used in Mexican cooking to bring a sweet and smoky flavour, and sweetly citrus blood orange, perhaps a little too sweet but weirdly enjoyable, and countered to some extent with mildly bitter endive. Very clever and ambitious.

  Next, deliciously sweet and perfectly flavoured confit leeks with Iberico in a creamy sauce. Little chunks of sea urchin were present but only discernible by its firm texture rather than its flavour. I think the dish would have been just as enjoyable without the sea urchin and another of God’s creatures would not have been sacrificed but I get the attempt to push diners a little further than their usual limits and bring some thrill to the dish.

  

  Then, a very fine dish of delightfully barbecued monkfish which had an excellent texture - meaty and full of body but not excessively chewy and the barbecuing had given it a truly delicious flavour. It was served on the bone as a dish for two alongside plates of impressively plump, tasty mussels enhanced by a tangy pepper sauce. 

  Then, finally some meat. This was pork jowl with a nice crispy skin though it was somewhat softened by the mustard sauce which really had no heat to it. It was a small cube of pork and though immensely tasty it proved to be a rather insubstantial dish. I should have liked pork loin - something with more substance than jowl - especially as a main course. There was some delightful apple sauce accompanying the pork and this was probably the best element of the course. The two or three shards of cabbage added little to the dish and only served to underline how insubstantial the whole dish seemed.

   In place of the hoped for Basque cheesecake, there was a delightful strawberry-based dish, sweet and full of the flavour of strawberries. One of the elements of the dish was oolong tea but the flavour did not come through to me. 

  We must remember that this was a meal aimed at trying out new dishes on the public who were invited to give their honest impressions of them. If something did not work then it was not a failure of the chef but a chance to learn about why it did not work and to put it right. Full marks for Alex Claridge and Marius Gedminas who, it seems, will be leaving The Wilderness soon and who will indeed very greatly missed by the admirers of his fine and inventive cooking. This modern world doesn’t stand still but change rarely seems to improve matters.. 

Rating:- 🌞🌞.

24 April 2025.