84. A Trip To Hereford - The Bookshop.

Lucy The Labrador wondering how many steaks she could eat out of this Hereford bull. Answer - None. It’s a statue.

  A few weeks ago I studied the most recently published Good Food Guide to give myself inspiration for a trip to another West Midlands town or city where I could try out the restaurants it recommends there. It is a long time since I visited Hereford and therefore made arrangements to stay in the town for a couple of nights at a charming guest house on the edge of the city centre titled No 21. The quiet and comfortable b & b which really does serve a ten out of ten breakfast was particularly appealing as it took in guests with their accompanying dogs and Lucy The Labrador was not to be left out from the excursion.

 I was planning to go to the recommended Madam and Adam right by the river at the old bridge on Bridge Street and the also recommended The Bookshop further in town. Then the rains came and properties in Hereford near the river were flooded and Madam and Adam was forced to close for extensive repairs (see Blog 82). It’s terribly sad.

  On my first evening then I had nowhere to eat arranged. I set off for Beefy Boys on a cold drizzly late February evening with the streets of the town pretty well deserted. I eventually discovered this once revered burger restaurant and found that the streets of Hereford must be deserted because everyone was at this particular eatery. I was relieved that there wasn’t a table available. Pandemonium reigned in the place with numerous young people making as much noise as one can when food consumption is also taking place. The din was pretty well unbearable. I was glad to get out but could not bring myself to spend money in any of the surrounding chain restaurants and so I ambled back to the guest house stopping off for some very edible cod and chips on the way.

  Things were looking up the following evening. When I arrived at The Bookshop it was very early in the evening but within a few minutes the place was buzzing. The waiting staff were excellent. I had a not-too-memorable cocktail - ‘rhubarb bramble’ - and started off with some grilled sourdough made by the Alex Gooch artisan bakery in  Hay on Wye. Very edible especially with the beef dripping butter that came with it.

  Then a journey to a few minutes of what Paradise should be like. I had a 7oz fillet steak absolutely perfectly cooked according to my request and as delicious and as tender as any that could be rustled up in South America or anywhere else. I’m not much of a steak eater but it seemed preposterous to be in this steak restaurant in Hereford of all places and not to have the steak. And I did and I was glad. Two magnificent steak experiences in three days (see also Blog 83). To accompany the steak I had ‘smoky potatoes’ which is an accurate description of what was served (I think I should have had the chips) and a pot of garlic butter and there was some excellent salad on the plate with the meat. The steak did not really need anything to accompany it, it was so fine it could have stood alone and unadorned and would not have suffered for doing so. To accompany the steak I had a perfectly apt Malbec.

  Dessert seemed like a reasonable idea though not terribly necessary. I had a rather runny peanut butter parfait with added popcorn. A pleasant descent to bring me back to Earth after the sublime pleasure of the steak.

  I conclude that The Bookshop’s inclusion in The Good Food Guide is wholly acceptable.

   A trip to Hereford just to visit The Bookshop seems very reasonable.

82. Dining Out In The West Midlands Amid Floods And Viruses

  February 2020 has been a month which people in the West Midlands might care to forget. Coronavirus is making the news abroad and a large area of Italy has been quarantined in the last couple of days. The virus hasn’t taken long to spread its tentacles out from the Far East to southern Europe and with an epidemic like this restaurant owners must be worrying that the virus will take root in our area in the foreseeable future. If people won’t go out or mix with strangers then giving up dining out for weeks or months is an obvious outcome. Who knows how badly this could affect our region’s burgeoning gastronomic trade.
  And matters haven’t been helped by the floods that have affected several West Midlands counties - Worcestershire, Shropshire, Herefordshire and Gloucestershire. I am off on a trip to Hereford in the near future and was looking forward to visiting the two Good Food Guide 2020-recommended restaurants during my visit - Madam And Adam on Bridge Street, far too close to the river Wye to have escaped the floods, and The Bookshop, which seems to have escaped the watery devastation.

  In Shropshire, the river Teme has also reeked havoc. A not surprising victim of the raging river was CSONS At the Green Cafe which is situated at the water’s edge at Dinham Mill in front of the building which once housed the Michelin-starred Mr Underhill’s. The usually lovely riverside location of The Green Cafe had doubtless played a significant part in the former restaurant’s securing of a Bib Gourmand but it is clearly problematical when the incessant rain turns the river into a raging torrent. CSONS At the Green Cafe announced that it had had to close due to flooding on its Facebook page on 16 February but was able to announce that it was able to reopen a couple of days later.

  The river was also very heavy in October 2019 and was close to flooding The Green Cafe but did not reach the height recently achieved in early February:-

  Given these apparent effects of global warming it is timely that the Michelin Guide Great Britain And Ireland 2021 will have a new award included in it to reward a restaurant’s contribution to sustainable gastronomy. The award is symbolised by a green clover and was introduced in the French Michelin Guide 2020 a month ago. Fifty French dining establishments received the award for their environmental practices.