The Pickled Piglet, Birmingham, 5th October 2013

Currently one of my two favourite restaurants in Birmingham (can you guess the other one?) The Pickled Piglet is a relatively new, independent restaurant that offers a refreshing change from the chains you find in the Mailbox and Broad Street/Brindley Place (and is situated pretty much directly between the two). Essentially it's good food in a relaxed environment.

To start there's a choice of small plates and "boards" which are great for sharing. We went for a prawn and sausage board, parma ham, sweet chilli and sesame chicken and home made breads. (I think a sign of my appetite and nausea improving after not having had chemo for 2 1/2 weeks these plates didn't even last long enough for photos to be taken!)

You could order more small plates to make a complete "tapas style" meal or move on to their main courses. I decided on chicken with creamed leeks and sautéed potatoes which lasted only slightly longer than the starters. They also have a very good value lunch option of two small plates and a main course for £10 and steak night on Mondays-steak and chips for £10.

I still managed to make a good go of eating their homemade ice cream and my brother/sister-in-law enjoyed the limoncello curd, meringue, honey and ginger crunch.  

http://www.thepickledpiglet.co.uk/#!bar/c16fk

Pot roasted chicken, creamed leeks, roasted shallots and sautéed potatoes

Dad's favourite: Duck eggs with spiced sausages

Deserts: Home-made ice cream, limoncello curd, meringue, honey and ginger crunch

Guess where, Birmingham, 2nd October 2013

I'm not going to say much, but we had another thoroughly enjoyable lunch at a certain recently michelin-starred restaurant in Birmingham:

Guinea fowl, apple, pickled onion, olives

Lamb belly, tomato cous cous, red pepper

Textures of chocolate

Adam's (again), Birmingham, 28th September 2013

There are lots of reasons I keep going back to Adam’s:

-a very good value lunch menu (£25 for 3 courses)

-friendly service

-the opportunity to show it off to anyone who’ll listen to me

-regularly changing seasonal menus

-and the food’s not bad either

Actually the food’s great, its interesting but not too experimental. My most recent visit was a Saturday lunch, I’m guessing they’re primed to say “nice to see you again” if it’s a repeat visit but it still makes for a nice start to things. Given a still slightly delicate post-chemo digestive system I unfortunately felt like the 3 course lunch was as much as I’d be able to manage. They give 2 options per course, I decided to go for the confit salmon to start-it came with Jerusalem artichoke and chorizo that for once didn’t repeat on me. Then I had Pollock with pea puree, apple and black pudding (black pudding is not a big favourite of mine but it was more than edible). So desert presented a bit of a conundrum-how do you choose between lemon cake and “textures of chocolate”? I couldn’t so we decided we would order both and share half each. I’m glad we did because they were both great, although I wasn’t entirely sure about olives with lemon cake (anyone thinking of doing the same thing I’d say go for the chocolate first then the lemon cake is a lovely refreshing end to a lovely meal).

Unfortunately the news that this place is open and very much worth a visit is spreading. They’ve been open for less than 6 months and have now got their first Michelin star and a very good review in the Good Food Guide. You can still get in relatively easily for lunch but dinner is a different matter and they’re fully booked on Saturday evenings for the next 2 months.

I'm already planning my next visit...

 

Current lunch menu

Confit salmon, chorizo, Jerusalem artichoke

Pollock, black pudding, apple

Lemon cake, olive oil, yoghurt

Textures of chocolate

Did we like it?

Cabaret (with Will Young!), Bristol Hippodrome, 17th September 2013

I liked Will Young when he was on Pop Idol and admit to being a bit gutted when it became obvious he was gay (although not quite as upset as I was about John Barrowman). The initial London run of Cabaret in which Will Young took on the role of Emcee of the Kit Kat club had been on my radar but we hadn't made it. So I was happy to find out that Will Young had enjoyed performing in the show so much that he had suggested a national tour. As it wasn't coming to Birmingham we decided on a trip down to Bristol.

Will is very much the star of the show, and you really do get the feel he is having a great time. Siobhan Dillon (didn't recognise her at the time but after a bit of googling found out she had come third in the BBC show "How do you solve a problem like Maria") as cabaret singer Sally Bowles was also very good. But it was a really pleasant surprise to find all of the cast were very strong. Too often on national tours you end up feeling there are 1-2 weak links, but that's certainly not the case here.

I'd never seen Cabaret before and although I wasn't expecting a story based in Berlin in the 1930s to be cheerful, the second half was really quite dark and ultimately very poignant. The standing ovation at the end was well deserved and I'd definitely recommend it. I'm considering trying to get to see it again when it comes to Wolverhampton.

Greens, Bristol, 17th September 2013

Ok, so I really wanted to go to Casamia, but unfortunately the one day we were in Bristol was the day they were changing they seasonal menu and so weren't open for lunchtime service so they could get some practice in. Instead I settled for Greens due to location, some decent tripadvisor reviews, an entry in the Good Food Guide, and an interesting looking menu.

The restaurant is relatively small and there was just one other table taken whilst we were there for lunch. Overall the food was good if not spectacular. I had sweetcorn and vegetable samosas to start which were tasty if a little greasy. The ham hash cakes with poached egg and hollandaise looked very nice. I was then a bit surprised to see a samosa pop up in a duck dish-given the chinese seasoning psychologically I would have been happier with a spring roll (which would have been very similar to the duck dish I had at Adam's-see earlier post), although I admit it wouldn't have affected the overall taste. The duck was tender despite me asking for it to be a bit more well done than they would normally serve it, but the skin could have been a bit crispier, the celeriac puree and madeira sauce complimented it well. The highlight was desert-a chocolate, hazelnut and meringue cake with raspberries and raspberry cream.

It was a nice lunch with good company, but it wasn't particularly cheap at £30 per person (not everyone had deserts and only 2 glasses of wine).

http://www.greensbristol.co.uk

Roast duck breast, greens, celeriac puree, madeira sauce

Hint, Hunt, London, 12th September 2013

So this didn’t involve food but thought it deserved a mention because it was so much fun. I was intrigued to try it because it has managed to get to number one of attractions in London on tripadvisor and because even reading those reviews there is still quite a lot of mystery regarding what it’s all about. And I think that’s half of the fun, you turn up to a building near Euston station that really could contain anything. You’re given a prep talk (during which I could feel myself getting increasingly nervous), and then locked in a room and have up to an hour to try and solve enough puzzles to lead to unlocking the door. We were a group of 3 (a minimum of 3 and maximum of 5 people is recommended) and just about managed to get out with 1 minute 38 seconds to spare. There are 2 different themed rooms and I wouldn’t hesitate to go back and try the other room.

Be sure to book a decent time in advance-we took the last booking of the day a week in advance.

www.hinthunt.co.uk

Texture, London, 12th September 2013

Deciding where to go for a nice (poshish) lunch in BIrmingham is relatively straight forward-choose one of 4-5 restaurants and book a few days in advance. Having decided to have lunch somewhere in London for a friend’s birthday deciding where to go was more of a challenge because there is so much choice. Booking with a few days to go did rule out those places that require booking weeks to months in advance, but there still must have been close to 50 potential Michelin-starred restaurants. Just as well then that  the friend who’s birthday it was happens to have an interest in Iceland and there happens to be a restaurant called Texture with an Icelandic head chef. Some good Tripadvisor reviews helped to convince me we wouldn’t be disappointed.

We went for the lunch tasting menu that wasn’t ridiculously expensive (£55 for 5 courses) and had a couple Scandinavian themed dishes. To start there was very refreshing tomato gazpacho with mozzarella, then had fish dishes including a great Icelandic salted cod with chorizo before Anjou quail with sweet corn. Desert was Icelandic skyr with rye breadcrumbs and raspberries that had a kind of deconstructed cheesecake feel (and was lovely). We had coffee, partly to try the petit fours and partly to try and partly to wake my friends up prior to our “Hint, hunt” adventure (see next post) as they had both enjoyed the matching wines.

Overall it was a very nice lunch with a relaxed atmosphere and attentive but friendly staff. It might even have convinced me that a trip to Iceland would be a good idea…

http://texture-restaurant.co.uk/restaurant.php

Breads and crisps

Heirloom tomatoes, mozzarella, soup, basil

Cold smoked Scottish salmon, pickled vegetables

Icelandic lightly salted cod, avocado, chorizo

Door on the way back from very nice toilets

Anjou quail, chargrilled sweet corn, bacon popcorn, red wine essence

Icelandic skyr, vanilla, ice cream, rye bread crumbs, raspberries

Petit fours-pistachio madeleines, truffles, raspberry macaroons, minty meringue