Nasza

I am pleased to see that the site of the Saint restaurant on St James Street Brighton has not been left empty for too long. A Polish restaurant called Nasza has now opened there (two days ago to be precise).

In the coming days we will visit it, and review it.

Ramsay's Rip Off

Ramsay's Rip Off

The Mail reporst that:

"Gordon Ramsay is serving customers ready-meals which are prepared in a London 'food factory' and sold with a mark-up of 586 per cent, it emerged today.

Dishes such as pork belly, coq au vin, braised pig cheeks and orange and bitter chocolate tart are prepared in bulk and then transported in plastic bags by unmarked vans to several of his restaurants across London.

The celebrity chef - who runs London’s only three Michelin-starred restaurant - uses the central kitchen, near railway arches and a council estate in Clapham, to provide food for his three gastropubs and Foxtrot Oscar, his bistro in Chelsea.
The Narrow in Limehouse, the Warrington in Maida Vale and the Devonshire in Chiswick are also supplied by the food factory."

The article goes on to note that:

Fishcakes are sold by the central supplier for £1.92 are then priced at as much as £11.25 in the gastropubs - a mark-up of 586 per cent. Diners pay £3.50 for sausage rolls that cost 75p.

Somewhat ironic for the chef who was once quoted as saying:

"My food hell is any ready meal. It’s so easy to prepare a quick meal using fresh produce but people still resort to ready meals that all taste exactly the same."

Whilst the food may be perfectly decent and tasty, the rip off mark up is disgraceful. Diners should vote with their feet and boycott these places.

The Blue Man

Restaurant

The Blue Man
11 Little East Street
Brighton
BN1 1HT

Phone: 01273 32 5529

Website www.bluemanrestaurant.co.uk

Overview

Eva and I visited The Blue Man restaurant in the Lanes area of Brighton the other week.

The Blue Man opened six years ago and was the first North African restaurant in Brighton. It operates from the premises that used to be Momma Cherri's Soul Food Shack.

Ambience

The restaurant is on two floors, and is sumptuously decorated with North African and Moroccan artifacts. In the basement you can recline on inviting divans, on the ground floor more traditional, but comfortable, tables and chairs are available. The lighting is subtle, and the atmosphere romantic and inviting.

An absolutely charming establishment!

Menu

The menu offers a variety of Moroccan/North African dishes (a la carte and set) including, soup, lamb sausages, Kefta (minced lamb in filo pastry), Halloumi, lamb shank with dates, fish and a variety of Tagines.

Service

The service was very friendly, warm, welcoming and efficient.

Food

I opted for pumpkin soup to start with, which was spicy and aromatic.

I chose the house speciality, Khrouf, a lamb tagine for my main course with couscous and a side dish of Batata Coucha (Moroccan tortilla – layered dish with potato, herbs and eggs).

This was absolutely first class, the lamb melted in my mouth and was complemented by the unctuous sauce it was cooked in of cinnamon, prunes and chickpeas. The couscous was just the right size to add bulk to the meal, and the side dish of Batata Coucha was perfect.

Eva started with the Merguez sausages (spicy handmade lamb sausages with steamed fennel, spinach and harissa). These were bloody marvellous, tender and flavoursome. I guarantee that I will have these next time that we dine there!

For her main course Eva opted for the other house speciality Maaza (goat tagine served with saffron couscous). This was a real delight, the meat was tender and flavoursome. She was very happy with her choice.

We shared a desert of grilled fresh figs with hot with ice cream and ginger honey. A lovely desert, and more than enough to share between the two of us.

The meal, which included a bottle of Cruzares Blanco and a couple of liqueurs, came to £61 before service.

Overall Opinion

A delightful evening and restaurant. We heartily recommend it, and will be most assuredly returning.

The Curry College

The Curry College

Britain's Indian restaurants are facing a skilled staff shortage that, according to leading restaurateurs, threatens them with "catastrophe".

Sheikh Aklaq Ahmed, programme director at the Bangladesh Caterers' Association, claims that 30,000 extra staff are needed. In the past, staff would be recruited from overseas. However, the immigration system has been strengthened and this solution for staffing is no longer cost effective.

The solution being proposed is to set up a London School of Curry, which would train local chefs.

An excellent idea, the question is where will the funding come from?

Bodega D Tapa

Restaurant

Bodega D Tapa
111 Church Street
Brighton

Phone 01273 674 116

Overview

Eva, myself and a friend dined at Bodega D Tapa last night, a regular haunt of ours when we have a hankering for some good quality Tapas.

Bodega D Tapa is a small wine-cum-grocery store and Tapas bar, which seats (at a guess) about 15 people inside and another 15 or so outside in the courtyard.

Ambience

Bodega D Tapa is intimate and rustic, small wooden tables and wobbly wooden benches add to its charm.

Given the size of the place you will be hard pressed to find a table on a busy Friday or Saturday. However, an option that we use is to pop in and ask for one to be kept for us in say 30 minutes, whilst we have a drink in the Waggon and Horses next door.

Menu

The menu offers a variety of Tapas including; pate, Spanish omelette, anchovies on bread, chorizo, chorizo casserole, a selection of Iberian meats (served on a wooden paddle) and fabada.

Service

The service is always enthusiastic and friendly. One person looks after the entire operation wrt service of food and drink, in a relaxed yet professional manner.

Food

We took a large number of dishes to share, which were all delightful. My particular favourites being the omelette and the fabada.

The meal, which included two bottles of wine and brandy coffees came in at well under £40.

Overall Opinion

A splendid establishment, which we are happy to frequent on a regular basis.

National Chip Week

National Chip Week

February 9th-15th 2009 is National Chip Week, promoted by the Potato Council.

The UK's official ambassador for National Chip Week is Keith Chegwin.

Get your chip pans out and start frying, but do not set fire to your house in the process.

The Saint Restaurant Brighton

The Saint Restaurant Brighton

There appears to be some confusion over the fate of The Saint Restaurant on St James Street in Brighton. It is currently closed, and their website says that it is undergoing refurbishment with a view to reopening at the end of this month.

However, there is a sign in the window advertising the premises for lease, and there is absolutely no sign of any refurbishment taking place.

A pity, it was a pleasant place and the food was enjoyable.

Pomegranate

Restaurant

Pomegranate
10 Manchester Street
Brighton
BN2 1TF

Phone 01273 628 386

Website www.eatpomegranates.com

Overview

Eva and I visited Pomegranate in the Kemp Town area of Brighton the other week.

Pomegranate is a contemporary Kurdish restaurant, that serves a range of middle eastern dishes.

Ambience

The restaurant is on two floors and is very cheerful, modern yet cosy and charming (it has exposed brick fireplaces and wooden floors). The walls are decorated with a number of pictures painted by Hassan Tunc, who is also the owner and head chef.

His wife, Zelal, is in front of house and provided us with a very warm and charming welcome.

The Tuncs have run Ararat restaurants in Dallas and Austin in Texas; Hassan is also well known in the art world with a gallery in Seattle, Washington, also training as a chef in France.

Menu

The menu offers a variety of middle eastern dishes including; Tabulli, stuffed peppers, shish kebabs, lamb and beef with pomegranate.

Service

The service by Zelal was charming, friendly, efficient, and extremely attentive. Nothing was too much trouble.

Food

I opted for chicken kebabs as a starter. These were delightful, lightly spiced and seasoned served atop a small salad. A first class starter.

My main course was lamb shank with a light apricot sauce, accompanied by rice. The shank had been braised gently for a number of hours. The meat was succulent, tender and flavoursome and fell of the bone.

Eva started with prawns with garlic and hot pepper, these were piquant but not overpowered by the garlic or pepper.

She then had the chicken breast topped with walnuts. The breasts were grilled and served with walnuts, butter and rice. A very pleasant dish, the walnut perfectly complementing the chicken.

We also shared a side dish of garlic mashed potatoes, which tasted fantastic.

Dessert, a rarity for us, consisted of a bowl of stuffed figs with walnuts, honey topped with pomegranate paste. They were absolutely delightful.

The meal, which included a bottle of Chablis and a large number of Irish coffees came to £105 including service.

Overall Opinion

A splendid restaurant, which is well worth visiting.

Squirrel Direct

Squirrel Direct

Those of you with a yearning for squirrel, but with trouble finding a supplier, are in luck.

Otterton Mill in Devon is soon to launch an online squirrel ordering service for caterers and individuals, called Squirrel Direct.

Otterton Mill cooked squirrel kebabs recently for a game fair, and received such positive feedback that it decided to launch its squirrel based venture online. They estimate that they may well be able to sell between 20,000-25,000 per annum.

Given the current economic downturn, they may well be right.

Chiller

Chiller

The Telegraph reports that:

"Corner shops will be given public money to buy chiller cabinets so they can sell fruit and vegetables.."

Many of the corner shops that do have chiller cabinets tend to stock them with cans of lager. I do not see that this is the best/most effective use of public money.

Audience Eats Sandwich

Audience Eats Sandwich

Commiserations to the organisers of a Tehran food festival, who spent two days building what they hoped would be the world's longest sandwich (made of ostrich meat).

Unfortunately, the crowd of spectators rushed to eat it before anyone had a chance to measure it.

Over 1,000 volunteers worked on the 1,500 metre sandwich, which contained a tonne of ostrich meat and hundreds of loaves.

The organisers will send video footage and photographs of the sandwich to Guinness officials, to try to convince them to include it in the record books.

Croydon Food Festival

Croydon Food Festival

Croydon is holding a food festival this October, full details can be seen on the Food Festival website.

The festival promises "a wide range of exciting events and promotions", including a Continental Chocolate Village Market, a Black History Food Fayre and a Team Fantastique Continental Food Market.

Cashing in on Rising Prices

Cashing in on Rising Prices

Despite the pretence of offering "discounts", supermarkets have been exposed as nothing more than spivs as they take advantage of rising food prices by adding a little extra increase for themselves.

The Producer Price Indices show that the larger chains have seen a 11.4% increase in the cost of food from the manufacturers in a year. However, families have seen their grocery bills increase by 12.3% (as per the Consumer Price Index); ie the supermarkets have added another 0.9% for themselves.

Mervyn King, the Governor of the Bank of England, has warned that he is concerned about companies that use the jump in inflation to "camouflage" an increase in prices.

Canny shoppers should beat the supermarkets at their own game, and only buy those products that offer real value for money.

Albert's Table

Restaurant

Albert's Table
49B South End
Croydon
CR0 1BF

Phone 0208 680 2010

Website www.albertstable.co.uk

Overview

Eva and I visited the newly opened (so new the smell of paint was still in the air) Albert's Table a fortnight ago, and gave it a "test drive".

Albert's Table opened on the site of a Chinese restaurant on Tuesday 29th July, and serves, to quote their website:

"..dishes created from quality British ingredients chosen when they are in season and at their best. There are so many farmers in the UK producing world class meat, dairy and vegetables and these are the ingredients that we will be using at Albert's table.

The style of food is very much British, but with a slight modern take to include some of the best influences from Europe.

Our fish is all British and delivered daily. We work with the fishmongers very closely to ensure that we get the freshest fish every day and when we use farmed fish it is always organic."

Joby Wells, the head chef, has worked at some top restaurant in London including; The Square and The Orrery.

Ambience

The restaurant is bright, white, spacious and modern. Decoration is minimalist, and the room is well lit. When we went there is was reasonably busy, which gave the place atmosphere.

As with some other restaurants Albert's table suffers from excessively cold air conditioning, I am of the view that less is more.

Menu

The menu offers meals of two and three courses for £25 and £27.50. The dishes offered include; traditional raised Middlewhite pork pie, warm duck salad, short crust tart of Dorset crab, chicken breast with lasagne and pork belly dry marinated in lemon.

Service

The service was very efficient, and extremely attentive. The bizarre issue over the mashed potato (see below) was resolved by our waitress, who persuaded the chef that the customer has a say in what goes on the plate.

That being said, there seemed to be a rather lengthy delay between the first and second course; newly opened teething problems in the kitchen I assume.

Food

I began with the traditional raised Middlewhite pork pie, served with cider jelly & gooseberry compote. The pie was first class, a quality pork lightly seasoned with herbs surrounded by a light pastry. However, the compote that accompanied it was far too strong, and totally overpowered the dish. I believe that good quality dishes such as this do not need their taste destroyed, they are good enough to stand alone on the plate.

My advice would be to either tone down the compote, or present the pie with a small salad, or quail's eggs.

My main course was saddle of lamb which, according to the menu I could not have this with mash (even though mash was available with the beef) which I wanted. I was told that the chef only allocated a certain number of pritons of vegetables per day, and does not like to swap the vegetables between dishes.

Quite ridiculous!

It was highly unlikely that there would be sudden rush of new customers at that time of the evening. Additionally, I am of the view that the chef is there to serve the customer not the other way round.

Our waitress managed to persuade chef to allow me to eat mash with the lamb.

That issue having been resolved, I settled down to enjoy my main course when it arrived. I am pleased to say that the lamb was first class, succulent and tender with just the right amount of fat to add flavour; as was the mash.

Eva began with baby artichokes poached in white wine and olive oil, with shallots, Parmesan and a poached egg. Absolutely delicious!

She chose the organic roast salmon with potato gnocchi, leek hearts & grilot onions with béarnaise sauce for her main course. This was excellent, the salmon was cooked and flaked to perfection and was well complemented by the gnocchi and leeks.

We, rather rarely for us, then chose a dessert (the posset). The posset (a mixture of cream, egg yolks and booze) was a delight, and was accompanied by fresh raspberries.

The meal, which included a bottle of Chablis and some coffees/liqueurs, came to £104 including service.

Overall Opinion

In our view the food is first class, once initial teething troubles (eg air conditioning and mash servings) are addressed, this restaurant is worth visiting.

Idiots

Idiots

Congratulations to the De Vere Oulton Hall hotel in Yorkshire for coming up with the most insulting and hair brained scheme I have ever seen a restaurant attempt.

They had plans to charge children's Sunday lunches according to the weight of youngsters. The intention was to weigh under-fifteens, and charge £1 per stone for their meal.

Completely daft, and completely insulting.

Needless to say having suffered a barrage of criticism Nigel Massey, a spokesman for De Vere, said that the plan would be reconsidered.

Idiots!