nickloman

Last night's Masterchef had a contestant called Chris who was described as a "food blogger". Anyone here want to own up? They made a nice looking fish dish (skate?) but got criticised by pairing it with parsnips.

Oh! Yes I was talking about the Indoor Market. For some reason never considered the Wholesale market, didn't think there would be much there for me. Sounds like I was totally wrong and I will be heading there ASAP! Isn't eGullet great?

Hmmm! Value, yes, there's lots of cheap stuff. Quality, that's pretty debatable. Many of the stalls I wouldn't touch with a bargepole. Like all markets there are some gems if you look hard. Freshness is a major issue when it comes to the fish. Much of the fish is pre-filleted making it very hard to assess freshness. The stallholders often obfuscate the provenance of their fish and when exactly it was caught. Birmingham is of course about as far from the sea as you can get, so this is perhaps not surprising. There are a lot of fish stalls selling for the Asian market, so a lot of frozen Pacific fish which I am never keen to take home (poorly stored and hardly local). The way I get around it is to buy live stuff where possible, Pearce's Shellfish usually have live crabs and various other shellfish. Sometimes they even have live eels The confusingly named "Mr Fish" sells good game during the season, I picked up some grouse there which weren't cheap but seemed in pretty good shape. There are lots of halal meat stalls selling goat and lamb. Plus some quite downmarket regular butchers. You can pick up a Walter Smith pork-pie which got a good write-up in the Independent and is a good pie. You can find some very cheap cuts: chicken feet, lamb heads, tripe etc. A lot of this is for the Afro-Caribbean market. That sounds rather negative. Having said all that, I love going to the market - its colourful, quite smelly, full of people from all walks of life looking for a bargain and it kind of reminds me of a Spanish market for that reason. But I wouldn't make a special trip. Some of our photos are in this Flickr set:

We didn't have any problems finding the Hardwick. It's located directly on the main road, and looks to be undergoing some building work. There's a shipping container outside which looks like it is being used as additional food storage. So not the most prepossessing of sights, but we came for the food goddamnit so who cares? The inside is very nice, an unpretentious pub-to-restaurant conversion. There is heather honey and olive oil as well as the GBM cookbook for sale at the bar. The restaurant has a nice feel, we were tucked up in the corner which would have been very peaceful but for a family with screaming kids behind us. A nice place to while away a long Sunday afternoon I think. Enough preamble, on to the food: Scallops and bacon, deep fried pork belly. A lovely dish, looked a real treat with some very verdant salad in the middle. Also (not pictured) confit duck hash, fried duck egg. What's not to like, really? Certainly my Dad seemed satisfied. Neals Yard Creamery goats cheese with beetroot and leaves. Funnily enough we passed Neals Yard creamery on a visit to "Arthur's Stone" which we saw a brown sign for earlier in the day. A Welsh farmer wondered why we went to visit it as "it's just a load of stones". Very nice goats cheese went well with the bitter leaves. Rib of beef with yorkshire pudding. Can't really argue with that. The mains felt much more pubby and less refined than the starters or the puddings. But that's not necessarily a bad thing. Hand raised venison pie. A good pie with cracking pastry. The filling was dry with comminuted meat like a pork pie which surprised me as I was expecting a chunks n' gravy approach, but it tasted nice. Good mash. Haddock with poached egg. Exactly how you want this dish to taste. Lamb neck fillet with chick peas, aubergine, harissa. Possibly a bit underseasoned. Stem ginger pannacotta with rhubarb. My Dad is a stem ginger fanatic and absolutely loved this pannacotta which was possibly half way to becoming a fool. The rhubarb was also lovely. "Terry's" chocolate - geddit? - with orange curd. Very rich and delicious. Peanut butter and jelly parfait with salted caramel and chocolate mousse. A rather indulgent finish and we were stuffed, no room to try any from the rather tempting list of English cheeses. A very nice meal. I think this restaurant is possibly less a "destination" restaurant than the Walnut Tree. It is home cooked food, raised up a notch with fine local ingredients. If it was my local I'd be so very pleased. And if you are in the area you are definitely in for a treat.

Well, I just love this restaurant. Abergavenney is really only 75 minutes from Birmingham so I must remember to try and go back here much more often. A celebratory dinner for 4 brought various treats. Monkfish with pickled cucumber. Lovely creamy mustard sauce. Veal sweetbreads with sauerkraut. What a fabulous combination the cream sauce, the veal reduction and the sweetbreads is. Morels with peas and broad beans. Not seasonal but lovely comfort food. Creamy but still light. Crab. Too much basil for my other half but packed full of flavour (as Greg from Masterchef would say). Lemon sole, tremendous bit of fish, cooked just so. What else could you want? Squab pigeon, sweetbread and morel sausage. Enjoyed heartily by my Dad, I'd had this on a previous visit and can recommend it whole-heartedly. Hare with celeriac puree. The hare was cooked to perfection, perhaps not the most flavoursome of meat but the texture made up for it. A nice puff pastry parcel housed some tasty innards. Sea bass with mussels and cockles. The only slight disappointment because this came with a provencale sauce which slightly overpowered the fish. I was hoping it would be another creamy number. Nicely cooked fillet of seabass though (but two bones, surprising for a kitchen that doesn't seem to put a foot wrong even with a packed house). Cheeses were Buffalo Blue (not had this before, very tangy blue), Keen's Cheddar, Wigmore and Epoisses. Just two desserts because we were getting full. A very delicious vanilla cheesecake served with some very young and tender rhubarb which was either part cooked or raw with a bit of bite remaining but no stringy or tough bits. Plus rice pudding and raspberry ripple ice-cream which was fine but not quite as exciting as it sounded. We had a bottle of Abardia Sardon de Duera, apparently a Hill-favourite which was sheer pleasure in every mouthful, I'm no wine buff so I'll save you a description but it had everything but the kitchen sink in there, flavour wise. Plus they let you pour the wine yourself which is such a relief (and lets you correctly aportion wine to those who might want to drink more or less). We spotted Shaun Hill "rattling the pans" in the kitchen (which you can peer into without anyone minding from by the toilets) and popping out to the bar to talk to the efficient front of house. A very calm man, so impressed he seems to be there all the time keeping standards high. You owe it to yourself to visit this restaurant. It's kind of in the middle of nowhere and you will want to drink well from the excellent wine list so recommend staying somewhere local, the restaurant itself has two cottages available. Go go go!

Perhaps better to illustrate with examples from the menu. Am I being unfair or does every dish have an ingredient too many? Scottish scallops - charred, celeriac, sorrel, lemon curd Lemon curd?! Veal sweetbreads - roasted and glazed, sauce aïgre doux, black radish salad, toasted cashews Toasted cashews?! Dorset crab - marinated mackerel, brown crab, grilled potato bread, apple marmalade, hazelnuts Apple marmalade!? Pigeon and rabbit - ballotine, pickled cucumber, carrots, grated truffle, toasted homemade brioche Brioche?? Foie gras - pan fried, pink pepper yogurt, ginger crunch, rhubarb muffin top, thyme cress Pink pepper yoghurt?? Wild seabass- slowly poached, lemon confit, baby navet, watercress, winter truffle Winter truffle and seabass? Dorset turbot - carrot and liquorice, lettuce hearts, fennel dressing Liquorice? Aberdeen Angus beef fillet - roasted, baby root vegetables, beef and onion tea, pink onion galette Beef and onion tea? Best end of Cumbrian lamb - saffron braised shoulder, baby fennel, red pepper I'd probably order this one Venison - smoked and roasted, parsnip, heritage beetroot Parsnip? I hate them at the best of times.

It's funny, neither Petrus or the new Marcus Wareing have ever really attracted me. The menus sound very heavy and with no clear culinary inspiration. Luxury seems to be the main aim. And although I do like luxurious ingredients, there needs to be something else as well. Something like Galvin or Le Gavroche is great because there's that clearly delineated French inspiration to reinforce the use of luxury ingredients. Perhaps the personality of the chef is an issue, Marcus comes across as a very focused, ambitious chef but the love of eating well doesn't come across when I've seen him in the media. In these cases I think going on the telly isn't actually that helpful. Mark Sargeant would be another example (I see a pattern).

I've had some pretty average meals in places with 2 AA rosettes and don't get excited when I see them. Probably 3 AA rosettes is equivalent to a Michelin star and warrants paying attention, but clearly still no guarantee of a great meal.

It's not in Oxfordshire but you could do a lot worse than drive to Cheltenham and visit Le Champignon Sauvage...

Sous vide burger!! Stop the world I want to get off ...

Have you been to them, Tim? How do they compare to Jyoti's and Lasan?

Surely the real question is why did you make a brussels sprout gratin

Been meaning to try Hambleton Hall for ages, but the prices on their menu has taken my breath away! http://www.hambletonhall.com/?dining/a-la-carte

I wish I could forget John Burton-Race to be honest. I'm sure he's a fabulous cook but his public profile leaves a lot to be desired.

Think Stephen Bull is here now http://www.butchersarmswoolhope.com/

Ah, nostalgia, unfortunately I am not old enough to have made it to Hopkinson's Bibendum but from what I've read it sounded like a special place. I've got the cookbooks though. I guess one could still go to Rowley Leigh's Le Cafe Anglais. I think he was part of that gang? And of course you can visit Shaun Hill cooking at the Walnut Tree (and I will be next weekend!).

Double birthday weekend next week so we're going to the Walnut Tree for dinner and the Hardwick for Sunday lunch. I can hardly wait. Memories of the veal sweetbreads with beurre noisette we had last time live long in the memory. Plus an absolutely cracking piece of turbot.

Here's the picture of the pigeon. Yumm.

Glad you enjoyed it David, phew! I am also a committed carnivore but never feel like I missed out when I go to Jyoti's. It is true they are easy on the salt arm but I again don't seem to find there (and I am also a dedicated salt lover). On the subject of meat I thought I would post a picture of our Valentine's supper as I was quite pleased with it - a quite delicious woodcock which I picked up from the farmers market for a fiver!! It was on for £7 but they thought I was haggling and sold it for £5. Actually I was just dumbstruck by my good fortune. All that blood, brain and guts is a bit full-on for my lady partner who had partridge

Glad you enjoyed it David, phew! I am also a committed carnivore but never feel like I missed out when I go to Jyoti's. It is true they are easy on the salt arm but I again don't seem to find there (and I am also a dedicated salt lover). On the subject of meat I thought I would post a picture of our Valentine's supper as I was quite pleased with it - a quite delicious woodcock which I picked up from the farmers market for a fiver!! It was on for £7 but they thought I was haggling and sold it for £5. Actually I was just dumbstruck by my good fortune. All that blood, brain and guts is a bit full-on for my lady partner who had partridge

Thanks Jon. This was prompted by some superlative pigeon at Galvin La Chappelle which was billed as Bresse so naively thought this must be the differentiator. But I think I am used to eating wild pigeon which is always very nice, but doesn't usually have either the same soft texture nor the flavour of the ones at Galvin. I guess I will need to just seek out some quality farmed squab pigeon and see how they compare to what I am used to. And then then perhaps can compare with a Bresse one next time I'm in that part of the world (as if!). Now you mention it, the breasts were very small suggesting they are from a young bird so that may be part of the reason for the difference in texture. I wonder if in Bresse they feed the pigeons on anything particular to flavour them further. Next time I'm in London I'll pick one up from Wyndhams. Thanks for the advice!

And I think its a shame they rely on Jamie's image to try and get the punters in, the food speaks for itself.

Wow David, I'm flattered that you would change your plans on my recommendation but now feeling the pressure in case you don't love it. But I'm sure you will. Here's some of our favourite dishes mogo chips, bhel, dahi puri (a must) for appetisers any of the dhosas for mains malai kofta, mattar methai malai, and any of the standard dishes you like such as vegetable biryani, paalakh and aloo etc. for desserts: rasmalai, gulab jambu, pistachio barfi Better to over-order than under-order I always say. You could always take it home with you Good hunting!

Following a great meal at Galvin La Chapelle where they served Bresse pigeon, I unsuccessfully searched to find a UK importer of Bresse pigeons and chicken. Does anyone know one? Also, how do they get Bresse pigeons to taste so good? I presume they are farmed rather than wild. Is there a secret?

Was it any good?