28. Great British Menu Returns - Transfusions Or Black Pudding?

  I am depressed to read that The Great British Menu will return to BBC Television on 13 August for its 13th season in a completely unchanged format what with it featuring a tedious over-riding theme (this year, the 70th anniversary of the National Health Service - what else could it be? - lauding, one expects the 'heroes' of the NHS - nowadays everyone's a hero - whilst insisting that chefs prepare food related to the subject though hopefully not at all like the monstrous food which the NHS itself serves up to its unfortunate prisoners - sorry, patients). Perhaps the starter will have to have the flavour of disinfectant about it or the main course made up from offal which could otherwise be used as potential material for organ transplantation or any cheese used should be covered with a a fine penicillin - the possibilities are legion.

  The tired old format continues with the same old faces being used as the chef judges who give advice to the contestants for the first four days which is completely contrary to what the 3 judges want to see in the Friday final. And by the end of the 8 weeks or so one has grown tired of watching the same variation on a theme from the contestants. Last year, everyone had to do a strawberry dish, the theme being Wimbledon (see Blog 8); this year the theme being the NHS, perhaps everyone will feel the need to build a dish around black pudding in honour of blood transfusions.

  And most annoying of all is that the Central region is once more represented by chefs who do not work in our region. There is Marianne Lumb who was working in London when the series was filmed, Ryan Simpson-Trotman who works in Henley on Thames in Oxfordshire (Home Counties) 

and Sabrina Gidda who again works in London. It may be the case that the featured chefs were born or perhaps trained in the Midlands or East Anglia but I'm sure many of us Mercians or East Anglians would enjoy getting a view of what our restaurants are turning out not yet another look at a chef who has chosen to move out to the alien south-east.

  I can't see myself getting too obsessional about watching The Great British Menu this year - it's tired, dull, clichéd and viciously London-centric at the cost of the British regions.

  Meanwhile this glorious summer of, er, Gin continues. Our local Sainsbury in Longbridge is promoting the equally glorious Tanqueray Flor de Sevilla which is truly and magnificently delicious 

when served with Fever-Tree Elderflower tonic water and a slice of orange.

  Finally it's worth recording that the chef with most Michelin stars to his name - 28 in all - Joel Robuchon died today at the age of 73 from pancreatic cancer. No connection at all, as far as I can see, with Birmingham but clearly a notable individual in modern cuisine with restaurants scattered all over the world including the 1 starred  L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon in London.

27. Locating Fine Food In Birmingham's Favourite Seaside Resort.

  If you find yourself in the West Country resort of Weston super Mare you will still hear lots of West Midlands accents on the streets, beach or in the dining establishments. For decades the resort was a favourite destination for the good citizens of Birmingham and their families (along with other West Midlanders), it being just about the nearest seaside resort to the Second City. Now it is still less than 2 hours by direct train and it is a convenient stopping off point for those journeying on to the far Deep South-west in the form of distant Cornwall.

  Weston is a resort for the Mercian working class still, not the effete middle class of London and the south-east, who might splash out to pay the prices of places like Aldeburgh, and the dining places reflect the main clientele who need to feed in the town. If you're careful, you can find passable fish and chips and 1960's style roast dinners and pies and sausages and all day breakfasts. Food which looks like it was prepared in the 21st century is alas rather rare.

  Up until last winter there was an excellent restaurant, The Cove, which when it was at the peak of its existence served the most delicious of fish dishes and some highly original other delights. I recall one fabulous starter of cauliflower panna cotta which was sheer nectar for any enthusiast of that wondrous vegetable and on numerous visits of delight to The Cove I witnessed many magnificent dishes, especially perfectly cooked fish, emerging from the restaurant's kitchens. The Cove, even in the 2018 Michelin Guide, was rightly acknowledged as an excellent place to eat but it fell foul of the howling mob of the despicable Tripadvisor, who moaned incessantly about the restaurant's sometimes rather slow service - instead of relaxing in a lovely situation with a splendid view across the bay and out to sea, and just sitting back and enjoying themselves grazing on delicious food sold for very reasonable prices the mob whinged and whined that their breakfast bacon sandwich wasn't served quickly enough. And so, in this age, of the near-illiterate informing the hopelessly ignorant by means of non-peer reviewed electronic communication, The Cove's customer numbers tailed off and the restaurant seems to have succumbed to a slow and terminal decline. Miserabile dictu.

  The Cove's sad passing would have left Weston a gastronomic desert but that Weston College took over the Winter Gardens situated on the promenade across the road from the beach and a stone's throw from the Grand Pier and opened a new restaurant in the building in September 2017 which is called Lasseter's after Dr Paul Lasseter Phillips, Weston College's Principal and Chief Executive.

  David Newman who had grown in the Weston area was appointed Head Chef having worked as a sous chef at Mendip Springs Golf Club, Head Chef at The Exchange in Bridgwater and more recently was Head Chef at Chartwell's.

  An apt attempt has been made to give the internal decor an Art Deco style and the dining room has a view out to the sea which is a delight especially on a warm bright summer evening - in this respect the restaurant conjures up memories of the view from The Cove. There is a 'pre-theatre menu' though there's little going on at Weston's theatres that makes the name seem appropriate but it is extraordinarily good value - 3 fine courses plus a glass of good wine for the ridiculously underpriced sum of £18.95p which ought to put the restaurant in the running for a Bib Gourmand though of course the theatre menu is only valid before 7PM when an a la carte menu kicks in though that too represents acceptably good value. Perhaps Lasseter's has done enough to have earned itself a Michelin Plate for 2019.

  I visited Lasseter's twice in one week and on one evening ate from the a la carte menu and on the second was offered the Pre-theatre menu which not only appealed to me because of the excellent price of the meal but also because it had a nice-sounding plaice dish on it which was missing from the a la carte menu.

  There was a cocktail menu and on my second visit I thoroughly enjoyed what was described as 'Lasseter's signature cocktail', the very quaffable 'Thyme in Somerset'. On my first visit I was tempted to try the most expensive gin on the list of gins - Williams Chase Elegant but when I enquired what was special about it that made it so more expensive than the others on the list I was told rather flatly that it was the shape of the bottle which didn't seem like a very good reason to pay an extra £1.50 to me. So I chose a glass of Hendricks and tonic instead and I was asked what type of tonic I wanted because people are choosing to drink the new varieties of tonic though not apparently for any good reason. I opted to go along with the current mode though I wasn't at all sure why I had chosen to do so and I was a little anxious about the potential inappropriateness of adding Fevertree's Elderflower tonic to my Hendricks and slice of cucumber but in fact it worked very well and assuaged my nervousness about what I did not expect to be a good combination.

  And so to the food.

Day 1 - A la carte menu - I had chicken liver pâté which was served in a generous portion but seemed a little bitter to me, a magnificent and perfectly cooked salmon en croute which was again a generous size with delightful pastry (a real gem) and then a very happy vanilla panna cotta with a quartered strawberry and strawberry coulis and blackcurrant compote, the flavour of which didn't quite match up with the strawberries.

  On Day 2 I ate from the Pre-theatre menu in which the price of the food was substantially reduced compared with the a la carte menu. I had chicken liver parfait which looked the same as the chicken liver pâté which featured on the a la carte menu and was served pleasingly in the same style as the pâté with the lovely summer freshness and lightness of pea shoots and cornichons, the sourness of which most aptly bit into the richness of the pâté/parfait. I was pleased that there was none of the previous mild bitterness that I had experienced with the pâté to be tasted in the parfait. I presume that if I had ordered from the a la carte menu on the second occasion,the bitterness would also have disappeared!

  My main course on my second visit was a beautiful whole plaice, of more than adequate size served with sauté potatoes, more pea shoots and crispy samphire which was new to me - the crispness that is - and quite enjoyable except that one or two of the stems were not crisp and more like fish bones in their consistency which wasn't so pleasant. I would have been pleased if instead of sauté potatoes nicely boiled baby potatoes, joyously buttered and perfectly salted had been served with the plaice as had been the case with the salmon en croute on my first visit. There really is a perfection in serving delicious fresh fish with buttered baby potatoes and nothing else more complicated.

  For the second time I had the panna cotta for dessert and this was served looking much more elegant on this second occasion and pleasingly without the blob of contrasting blackcurrant compote.

The meals were not perfect but they were thoroughly enjoyable and announced that refined modern British food, at an excellent price, is available in Weston.

  Some of the dishes on the menu - the pâté for instance - lead you back to British gastronomic pre-history but they look very much of the moment as served up in Lasseter's. My main regret is that the menus do not achieve what those of The Cove gave us - lovely and beautifully cooked fresh fish. There is fish and chips but I would like to see more marine fish dishes on the menu. After all the beach and the sea (when the tide is in) are only a few yards away across the road from Lasseter's and judging by the salmon en croute and beautiful plaice chef can certainly handle fish dishes to perfection. Perhaps the restaurant could serve a special fish dish every day to give those diners who wish chance to enjoy fish at its most interesting and delicious while looking out at a sea scene.

  Still, after the passing of The Cove it's very pleasing to know that Birmingham-on-Sea has Lasseter's fine dishes on offer to those who want more than fish and chips, curries and the tedium of burgers.

  The Cove, sadly missed:- 

26. Kiss Me Cupcakes And The Drink Of Summer 2018.

  It's the best summer we have had for years. We must do our best to make the most of it - we may not see it's like again, at least not for a long time. England is in the semi-finals of the World Cup and Mrs May has Brexit sorted out. Well possibly. Regardless, this glorious summer must be enjoyed as the heat and the sun and the football and the tennis and all that sort of stuff means the Englishman (and woman and, for that matter, dog - Labradors in particular) must relax in a seriously enjoyable fashion.

  And that is why we have been given, by a higher entity, two great pleasures to make our summer days, and evenings, float away quite happily.

  On the furthest edge of Birmingham, in West Heath, is a little cake and coffee shop, run by two charming young women. Kiss Me Cupcakes serves the most delightful cakes, baked freshly on the premises, in the form of delightful cupcakes (as you might expect) or truly wonderful lemon drizzle cake, enormously moreish Rocky roads, light and tasty Victoria sponge and, sometimes, fabulous scones with clotted cream and the fruitiest conserve. The cake worshipper can sit in a delightful dining room with plush armchairs and the most unexpected wood panelling or outside under the parasolled tables where an accompanying dog will be brought a bowl of water and possibly a doggy treat. An accompanying child might be brought a milkshake served, delightfully, in a milk bottle with a Cadbury's flake in it to add to the pleasure of it all. Birmingham food isn't all about what's going on in the city centre or about 7 course tasting menus - even its remotest little suburbs perched on the edge of the Worcestershire countryside can be the host to special little places where the food is simpler but in its own way is as fine and pleasurable as a Michelin starred restaurant.

  The cakes can of course be taken home to eat or made to special order including large cakes for special occasions. Today Kiss Me Cupcakes was serving a lovely Wimbledon cupcake appropriately 

topped by a fresh strawberry but it was so tempting I ate it before I could photograph it! But I did 

manage to hold back from consuming the blue berry and strawberry cupcakes so an idea of their prettiness can be gained from the illustration at the head of this piece.

  And so to the drink of the summer of 2018. Previously mentioned in Blog 24 is the amazing pure pleasure of drinking Warner Edwards Victorian Rhubarb gin with ginger ale as the heat of the afternoon gradually calms into the evening's cloudless sky coolness which I discovered on a recent visit to Purnell's. I thank the prize-winning restaurant manager and award-winning sommelier, Sonal Clare for suggesting I try the drink and consequently giving me so much pleasure.

 But I must also draw attention to Gun Dog Rhubarb Gin from Herefordshire which when combined with ginger ale may actually be even better than the Warner Edwards nectar.

 No matter what ... the drink of the hot summer of 2018 just has to be Rhubarb Gin and Ginger Ale. What a summer this is turning out to be.

25. Colmore Food Festival 2018.

  In burning sun, the 8th Colmore Food Festival opened today in Victoria Square. As Lucy The Labrador and I walked up to the square, keeping in the shade as much as possible, we heard the sound of a steel drum band. We entered the square at the Town Hall side where two stages were set up - one for cookery demonstrations and the other for other entertainments. After the necessary opening speech by the rather dreary Deputy Leader of Birmingham City Council (politicians so lacking in charisma really shouldn't be seen at such fun public events) the show got underway with a fine cocktail-making demonstration by one of the excellent bar men from Purnell's Bistro but the dog and I had to move away after a few minutes because the scorching sun to which the audience, accommodated appropriately in deckchairs, was getting just a little too hot for the Labrador to bear.

  We went in search of food and shade and dealing with the first need we headed for the Asha's stall and bought a helping of some magnificent chilli garlic chicken tikka which was truly delicious. On to the stall belonging to The Old Joint Stock where I selected a fine Mini chicken tikka pie with coconut and coriander served with an excellent mash and red wine gravy. Lucy and I sat in the shade at the end of Waterloo Street sharing the excellent pie - fine pastry indeed - and then we prepared for Round 3. Before we could set off however a man dressed as a large red chicken came along quite unexpectedly and Lucy amused the surrounding crowd by having a sustained loud bark at the strange creature, a performance she was to repeat later when 2 human pigeons strutted along beside us.

  Round 3 proved to be disappointing - I bought a Chinese tapas from Chung Ying Central - the deep fried prawn was satisfactory and the prawn dumpling seemed to be generously stuffed with prawns but the Vietnamese spring roll was quite horrible, the contents tasted quite unpleasant and the surrounding pastry could easily have been constructed from old leather.

  Finally after another sit in the shade, Lucy and I headed for the Zen Metro Thai Restaurant stall and thoroughly enjoyed the generous helping of Spicy wok chicken which indeed was very spicy. I definitely needed to cool my mouth down so we rounded off our visit to the Colmore Food Festival with a visit to Gingers Bar stall and I had a most refreshing Thyme For A Pimms cocktail.

  The Colmore Food Festival, which this year hosted stalls from about 30 Food and drink businesses homed in the Colmore Business District, is now well established as an important feature of the Birmingham food scene - it seems to grow from strength to strength.

24. A Purnell's Lunchtime Gallery.

  This Blog is intended to be used more as a history, recorded as it happens, of the way we eat food here in Birmingham rather than to provide a critique of that food though I reserve the right to do so if I feel like it. Sadly, whilst it is possible to include pictures of the food in this Blog no technology yet exists to record the smells, textures and flavours which are generally altogether far more important than the way dishes look. Still, if you like visual art then the modern chef's ability to provide some is an important part of his or her work at this present time and gives one a souvenir in part at least of what that chef can produce.

So we have some dishes from a 5 course lunch eaten with great pleasure at Purnell's yesterday (23 June 2018), the menu is also illustrated. Not only was this a reasonably priced lunch from a restaurant which is 'good in its class', it even surpassed the definition of being served in a restaurant which is 'worth making a detour for' and I would have quite happily have made 'a special journey' to eat it. Well, in truth, that's exactly what I did.

  Small slices of mackerel with various flavours of tomato with basil rounding it off:-

  A tartlet of the crispiest butteriest pastry filled with delightful small pieces of sweetbread, and many summery delights including perfectly cooked asparagus and pleasantly uncooked peas and slices of broad beans:-

  The pièce de résistance, Purnell's classic and mighty Brixham cod masala (initially of course the dish started as monkfish masala when it won Purnell a place in the Great British Menu banquet of 2009 though I prefer the cod) served with the most excruciatingly delicious perfectly spiced lentils and a shard of coconut and pickled sliced carrots. Unsurpassable and much copied.

  Perhaps two tarts in one meal was not quite the right thing to do but again a dish of extraordinarily perfect pastry filled with chopped raspberries and other little pleasures:-

  In addition to the highly pleasurable food illustrated above, Purnell's has introduced a new aperitif to its range of gins which is, frankly, also highly pleasurable - Warner Edward Victoria's Rhubarb Gin - with a lovely element of sweetness to it and made perfect served as it is at Purnell's with a slice of lemon and ginger ale.

23. Purnell's Tribute To Spaghetti Junction.

  In the past couple of days there has been notable publicity on local television stations which has drawn attention to a new dish coming out of Glynn Purnell's worthy kitchen. As usual it has the wit and appeal which places Glynn at the peak of our local cuisine.

  Purnell was asked to come up with a dish which commemorates the 50th anniversary of the beginning of work on 'Spaghetti Junction', the notorious Gravelley Hill roadway interchange, and, as might be expected, he delivered a splendidly delicious-looking and witty dish which deserved the attention it received. And yet, as with the best of food, it's a simple enough concept, wholly apt, and completely designed to drive the diner into a sense of total lust to try it out. 

  The dish is made up of potato and celeriac 'spaghetti' cooked in a cream sauce with a pinch of dried ginger in it and served with truffle shaved over it.

  I'm looking for a reservation in the near future at Purnell's in the hope that this dish is on the lunch menu.

22. London: 50, West Midlands: 1.

  In the recently announced Estrella National Restaurant Awards a bunch of critics put their heads together and chose what are, in their humble opinions, the 100 best restaurants in Britain.

  We won't be too surprised to find that they rated 50 of their choice to be restaurants located in London. Nor will we be too surprised that these doyens of gastronomic criticism rated only one West Midlands restaurant - Carter's Of Moseley - good enough to feature in the top 100 list and then in a rather lowly number 66 position though this single West Midlands representative is sufficient for the ever-optimistic Birmingham Post to claim that Brad Carter 'has helped put the Second City centre-stage again' which seems just a little unjustified.

  I don't think that this has anything to do with the quality of our great restaurants but it is more a consequence of the blinkered viewpoint of London-based, elitist critics who, in the words of Giles Coren, view us as 'One eyes'.

  What a waste of time these lists are. And what a shame that the Birmingham Post gives publicity to them though I suppose Brad Carter is glad of the mention.

  The Post points out that this is Carter's return to this particular list - in 2016 his restaurant was placed at number 91 and then was absent from the list in 2017. Meanwhile Adam's was at number 52 last year and Simpson's was at 91 but both have been dropped completely from the 2018 list.

  The post quotes the organisers of the list as saying, "From Michelin-starred dining rooms with tasting menus to casual neighbourhood bistros and steakhouses, the awards are a celebration of places in the U.K. that make eating out a true pleasure." Although they don't add the obvious qualification which states, "providing they're in London or the Home Counties".

  Meanwhile, I am delighted to report that Maribel, where Richard Turner is head chef, has opened in Brindley Place and some friends and I had the magnificent 7 course dinner there 2 or 3 weeks ago. The new decor is very chic and the excellent front of house staff who served us previously when the restaurant was Edmund's fit in nicely in their new stylish get up. Turner has designed a wonderful menu, much of it beyond criticism, with some splendidly delicious dishes which look good, as shown below, and taste even better. Turner certainly seems to be on form with this new venture.