1. Good Food Show-Afternoon tea in the Great British Bake Off Tea Garden, the NEC
I had a really good time at the Good Food Show. I soon got into the swing of trying all the free samples (not sure it was such a good idea to try wine, vodka, gin and more wine?!) and really enjoyed the James Martin/Tom Kerridge double act in a Saturday Kitchen Live show (even more exciting given the planned trip to the Hand and Flowers in January). Then it was off to have afternoon tea (not really in a tea garden, but a bit of the NEC that had been cordoned off). There was a decent cup of tea and nice selection of cakes (although by this point I was already a bit full from everything else I'd been sampling). The last series of Bake off was the first one I'd really got into, but I'd missed it since it had finished and had even started baking myself (see next blog). So it was also nice to see some of the "stars" of the show signing autographs and demonstrating recipes.
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| Afternoon tea selection |
2. The Pickled Piglet, Birmingham
I guess having been here about eight times since it opened suggests I quite like it. The food has always been very good (a few tripadvisor reviews comment on small portion sizes but surely that's not an awful thing if it means you can eat three courses without feeling like you've absolutely pigged out). The service can be a bit hit and miss, the manager is a really nice, very professional guy, but sometimes I've got the impression he's having to hold the fort himself slightly. This time we went on a Monday night-Steak night. After a selection of vegetarian small dishes to start I had a very nice steak, chips and pepper sauce (for the bargain price of £10!). There was still just enough room to share a chocolate torte dessert. This is definitely somewhere I'm looking forward to visiting again in the new year.
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| Selection of veggie small dishes (shared as a starter) |
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| Chocolate torte with winter berry compote and vanilla ice-cream |
3. Fumo, Birmingham
Fumo has become pretty much my favourite restaurant in Birmingham to go to if I need a meal out and haven't reserved anywhere (it's also open pretty much all day every day-useful on Sundays/Mondays when other restaurants tend to close). So having decided relatively last minute to go out for dinner on a Saturday just over a week before Christmas it seemed like the ideal place. I still don't really understand if it is at all possible to reserve a table (if you try ringing up then they tell you it isn't, but you get the feeling that they may take reservations for "friends" and if you go there earlier in the day in person you might be able to reserve a table). We decided to rock up quite early (about 5.30pm) and take our chances. They told us a table would be available in about 20 mins which was ideal. In reality we didn't even have time to get a drink from the bar (which actually does some very nice cocktails).
The restaurant is owned by the same people as San Carlo and essentially does Italian tapas (otherwise known as cicchetti). I love getting to have bits of lots of different things and the food was as good as ever (so good there aren't any photos because it was all eaten so quickly). Between two of us we shared plates including zucchini, lasagne al forno (I very rarely have lasagne when I go out because my mom makes such a nice lasagne, but Fumo's is very good), fillet of seabass, lobster risotto, beef tagliata with parmesan and rocket and some bruschetta. Despite being pretty full the prospect of their dessert sharing platter was just too tempting...
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| Dessert sharing platter |
Ok, unless you're an attractive female you may not particularly get service with a smile from the waiters, but they do their job and there are enough of them milling around for you to be able to ask for drinks/the bill relatively easily.
4. Anderson's Bar and Grill
This is somewhere I'd wanted to visit for a while (having hovered around the top 10 of tripadvisor) and it just so happened that it was one of the few places in Birmingham I could find with a table free at a time that suited us in the run up to Christmas. Overall I'm not quite sure what I think about the place. Everything was nice enough without setting the world on fire. I had a smoked duck dish to start which contained some quite strong flavours and then had salmon with chilli, ginger and confit peppers. I think my judgement was possibly affected by the fact that there were (predictably) 3 large Christmas parties going on, maybe I should give it another try at some point.
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| Oak smoked duck breast with braised saffron fennel, spiced orange and red wine sauce |
5. The Bull's Head, Earlswood
We first heard that this pub was being taken over and renovated during a very nice stay at a Thwaites group hotel in Cirencester. I was looking for somewhere to go in the week before Christmas that might be a bit less manic than Birmingham city centre and my mom had spotted a good Travelzoo deal for the Bull's Head so it seemed like the ideal time to try it. I was slightly perturbed at not being able to park in the car park and soon realised this was because there were carol singers and a craft fair-so it didn't seem as if it was going to be the quietest place to have a catch up over dinner. Actually our table was tucked away just enough that it wasn't too manic and they actually had enough staff on to cope with the crowd. I had a starter of wild mushroom bruschetta, which was nice and a bit different I think because of the addition of chilli. I choose "hanging" chicken kebabs for my main course which was served with some very good chips. Good food, service and company without the hassle of driving into Birmingham, it was very nice to know there is somewhere like this so close to home. In fact I enjoyed it so much I went again for lunch the next day-I was only slightly embarrassed that one of the waiters recognised me!
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| Wild mushroom bruschetta, garlic, chilli and parsley cress |
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| Bull's Head hanging kebabs served with hand-cut chips and chilli butter |
