518. GULP Collaboration With1485 Wines, Again.

 

  Once more, with much delicious anticipation, to Kay Winwood’s GULP, quietly nestled as it is among the jewellery factories on Spencer Street and this particular evening proving to be a warm and welcome haven from a monstrous downpour which had gone on all day, its nasty behaviour softened by it having been given a woman’s name - I forgot what it was - Deirdre perhaps, or Rebecca or Judith or anything really but whatever it was called it had the wrath of one who had been spurned, as the saying goes.(See Blog 512). Drenched but unbowed, I once more climbed the steep, ancient staircase up to the lovely dining room and was warmly greeted by both Kay and her dining room. and a couple of old faces frequently met at these special dining occasions.

  Tonight, once more, it was a dramatically kindly priced wine and dinner collaboration between GULP and 1485 Wines with the featured wines being those from the Moscone Winery in Dolcetto d’Alba. This turned out to be a very good evening. The meal started with the always welcome selection of salumi   A lovely choice of meats paired with enjoyable focaccia. Then on to a truly tasty plate of open ravioli stuffed with pea and ricotta - a freshness and deliciousness more of spring than of a grim autumn evening and very moreish.

  As we went along the representative of Moscone Winery presented the accompanying wines. I particularly enjoyed the Reblanc Langhi DOC which was paired with the dish that followed the next course - well roasted sweet squash enlivened by thyme and given texture by crunchy hazelnuts. This was a fine vegetarian dish - our chef was on the top of her game.

  Then, one of my favourite dishes of the year - superbly and perfectly cooked braised chicken - moist and tender - a triumph of chicken cookery and served beautifully alongside  green beans cooked absolutely spot on and again, for well-calculated texture - almonds as well as sorrel.

  Next, shifting to the food which was paired with the red wines, a slow-cooked beef ragu which was a little dry, I thought, though the accompanying pasta and cheese helped one to not dwell too much on that. In all, an enjoyable dish despite that one fault.

  We were well satiated and very impressed with the food we had been served. The meal was rounded off with a sharing plate of  frozen grapes - deliciously sweet - paired with squares of not fine overly aggressive chocolate, edible flowers and cheeses. A simple enough dessert I suppose but very welcome at the end of this very pleasing dinner.

  As I polished off the remainder of my final wine, I admired the table decorations and nosily watched what was going on in the factory next door and it took me back to when I was teenager and worked as an office boy in my summer holidays in one of the many Jewellery Quarter factories such as this. No-one then would ever have imagined that the Jewellery Quarter would become so gentrified and one of Birmingham’s centres of fine dining. 

Que sera sera

Whatever will be will be

The Future’s not our’s to see 

Que sera sera

What will will be .

To be honest, I did indeed know what my immediate future was - stepping out into the bleak wet night having summoned my Uber. And so, it came to pass.

500. Return To The Land With Kray Tredwell.

 

  An unlikely collaboration I thought, Kray Tredwell (670 Grams) with Tony Cridland (Land) at Land’s premises in the splendid Great Western Arcade. Intrigued, I was compelled to make a reservation.

  I had visited Land a couple of times before and eaten its food at a collaboration at Simpsons. I still needed to be convinced that vegetarian/vegan was really a satisfactory option for dining out. I had long been convinced that vegetarian food was only interesting if it was spiced up - meat stands on its own two feet, vegetables need the support of the heat of spice. Clearly, however,  those who have chosen the vegetarian style of life find it to be an acceptable option

  In between courses I was able to have a conversation with the couple at the table next to me, one vegetarian, the other strictly vegan, a marriage surviving happily it seemed despite its divided preferences, on where they liked to eat out and what they ate at home (everything now seems to have a vegan facsimile so it appears that preparing meals at home is no problem at all for the vegan/vegetarian household of the twenty first century). The couple had recently dined at Simpsons and found the vegan menu they ate from there to have been excellent. This was their first visit to Land and they were keen to see how the food served there compared with that coming out of Luke Tipping’s kitchen. As was I.

Kray Tredwell at centre, Tony Cridland at right of pictured.

 I started with a pleasing elderflower cocktail and then feeling happy and summery indulged in a glass of Nyetimber rosé. The menu was printed on a tiny scrap of doubtlessly recycled paper and the first two dishes mentioned were amuses gueules which both proved to be immensely enjoyable though one was superior to the other and I correctly identified it as being a product of Kray Tredwell’s creativity and ingenuity and skill.

  Tredwell's amuse bouche rook the form of a crispy charcoal pastry with little popping caviar-like spheres and a pea mousse - this was an exceptional nibble - while Cridland’s potato croquette also with the hit of lemon and similar to an amuse bouche I have been served at Simpsonswas also very enjoyable.

  The first savoury course I again correctly identified as a Land dish (Tredwell’s dishes are generally more refined in appearance while those from Land have a fair degree of rusticity about them) and it was a relatively small piece of barbecued lettuce which had little merit made infinitely more agreeable by a tasty splodge of mildly spicy hot satay with plenty of crunchy peanut texture. I remain to be convinced that the act of smoking a piece of vegetable elevates it to such a degree that it can be considered to be worthy of being served as a ‘course’.

  It was not hard to identify that the next course - a firmly textured piece of tasty celeriac with a gorgeously tasty espuma with a spicy kick to it and served with a toothsome steamed bun and butter - was another Kray Tredwell dish - it was more elegant and more interesting.

  Next, another elegant-looking dish but this time from the Land stable - a thick slice of tomato with a risotto, nicely textured by tapioca and what I would have called a gazpacho, nicely punchily flavoured by tomato and wild garlic. This was delicious though the texture of the tomato itself seemed a little spongy and not entirely to my liking.

 Land provided the pre-dessert. It was pleasant but not palate-cleansing enough to fulfil the duties of a predessert. The dish was centred on pandan which was accompanied by the always pleasing flavour of coconut; all very southeast Asian.

  Again there was more elegance in the presentation of the chocolate dessert and it was, not surprisingly, another product of the 670 Grams kitchen. The dish brought with it the classic combination of the chocolate and cherries, all very Black Forest though sitting on a crisp tuile rather than sponge and with them also almond. A delightful and happily light dessert with the flavour of chocolate that was neither too aggressive nor brutal.

  This meal confirmed my prejudices. Vegetarian, unless prepared by a chef at least one step above ‘merely inventive’, in Kray Tredwell we have such a chef, continues to leave me unfulfilled and unmoved. A lump of scorched lettuce does little for me and it’s clear that my hypothesis that to be successful vegetarian food requires heat and spice is quite correct. My vegetarian dining table neighbours enjoyed their meal although they were a little hesitant to fully endorse it but generally Kray Tredwell’s dishes seemed to have been the more successful ones for them. 

486. Simpsons x Land.

 

  I have dined at Land, where the Chef Patron is Adrian Luck who opened it in the Great Western Arcade in 2019. a couple of times (see Blog 180) and came away on both occasions satisfied enough but with the feeling that something was missing. I wasn’t totally convinced that an all vegetarian meal, especially when it is made up of five or six courses, is the full job.

  Simpsons offers an alternative vegetarian menu which, in the past, has been recognised as one of the best in the country. So the question clearly was, “Will input from Simpsons to Land’s offering convince me that I should be visiting a vegetarian restaurant more often?” And an evening of a Simpsons x Land collaboration might just answer that question. 

  And by the end of the evening I had my answer.

  The evening started with 2 amuses gueules - one was a rather fine pea purée tartlet clearly straight out of Luke Tipping’s kitchen and the second some tasty, spicy, crispy tempura ‘herbs’ with some tempura attached to them, their flavour derived presumably from the furikake condiment and sesame used in their preparation, They looked scruffy and had the appearance of the chef casting around for something to provide as an opening snack at a mildly exotic barbecue.

  After the reassuring and memorable bread and butter that Simpsons provides to its diners on to the starters. Tipping’s contributation was a quite fabulous plate of what on the menu were described as Evesham tomatoes although they were described as Isle Of Wight tomatoes by the waiter. They were accompanied by a herb salad and were full of delightful sweetness. Then Land’s starter which might better have been its main course - a very toothsome and authentic-tasting massaman curry containing salt baked pineapple, peanuts giving it a satay element and nicely cooked jasmine rice.  This was quite delicious and as enjoyable an example of this curry as one might find in an authentic Thai restaurant. The absence of meat mattered not at all and everything was looking grand.

   Sitting by the long window it was easy to look out on to Simpsons’ pleasing garden, refreshed after some much needed rain, and feel that all was well with the world. Simpsons’ contribution to the main course pairing was its familiar, highly enjoyable heritage beetroot dish with its various presentations of the vegetable nicely complemented with a hit of wasabi. It looked as elegant as any beetroot dish might ever look. 

 It has to be said that Land’s main course also looked elegant and promising. The promise was not realised. This was a slab of grilled cauliflower sans the deep cauliflower flavour which for me makes it an exciting item to eat. The cauliflower provided only texture and nothing more though its presentation had been worked on to jazz it up. There was verjuice caviar, the flavour of which was lost in the wild garlic sauce with dashi which itself had little impact on my tastebuds. I felt that you can do all the molecular gastronomy and emulsions you want but a slab of cauliflower is just a slab of cauliflower and it is unlikely to ever be a star in the firmament.

  Simpsons provided a delicious and exciting dessert - two nice mango ravioli tickled by Espelette pepper and a hit of kaffir lime chantilly cream. This was very enjoyable in contrast to the final dessert which was an unremarkable cube of almond cake, a satisfactory sponge with no discernible flavour of almond served with strawberry ice cream and a white chocolate crumb. Regrettably it seemed that this second dessert barely rose above what a competent domestic cook could achieve.

  Luke Tipping has got a grip on producing very fine, delicious vegetarian dishes as part of his repertoire served at Simpsons. It is elegant and tasty and impressive. Land, much loved by the city’s vegetarian/vegan crowd, produces adequate dishes for those who are convinced that fish, meat or fowl are not for them and so Land has its necessary audience though I will not be sitting in the stalls with them.

4 June 2025.

  As a follow up to Blog 485, it’s worth recording that I was invited to join friends for an early evening dinner at the Wildmoor Oak Inn just 4 days after enjoying Sunday lunch there. At the beginning of June the menu has been revised and the pub’s very popular scotch egg has been restored to the list of dishes available. This proved to be a tasty light dish made particularly enjoyable crispy coating around the egg. The accompanying piccalilli was profoundly, addictively piquant and proved impossible not to eat, even that which remained after tge egg itself had been totally consumed.

  Once more, I could not resist the haddock and chips (both of which are some of the finest in the world, I’m sure) which came with an excellent mild tartare sauce, a nice fish and chip shop curry sauce just right for chip dipping and Chef’s very acceptable mushy peas.

  For dessert I chose banoffee parfait which had a good flavour and, I thought, was precisely textured and with it came vanilla ice cream, a salted caramel sauce and dried banana slices which were a little too hard to be enjoyed - better to have used slices of fresh banana.

   One of my fellow diners chose a main course of cheese burger which also came with the pub’s superb chips and pronounced themself well satisfied with their meal apart from the slight feeling that the burger was just a little too salty for their taste.

A lovely location, excellent food and at a very good price. Surely the Wildmoor Inn deserves a Bib Gourmand.

Rating:- 🌞.

5 June 2025.

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.