Gluestick Posted February 24, 2008 Share Posted February 24, 2008 Oh yes, Weedon: the wonderful institution of the British Caff!In the old motor racing days, we had a number of favourite "Transports" on the way to various circuits at sparrow tweat when sensible mortals were still abed.About half a gallon of tea in those huge china mugs tweo B&B and a plate chock full of sustenance.Now ruined by the motorway systems, more's the pity.The plastic food and millionaire prices aren't a patch on what they replaced. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jon Posted February 25, 2008 Share Posted February 25, 2008 Sorry to say this Mr Gluestick but Pas de Calais is a culinary dessert.Have to see this but before we moved to France we were there very often...Hotel l escalles a 2 star a couiple of km from the sea....loved by the British.The Brasserie at Boulogne...forgotten its name...was good at one time.Everywhere there seems to be frozen chips and massive portions.Wimereux....The Atlantic Hotel...a little better.You can prepare a good english breakfast in France....local restaurant makes good english sausages[mainly meat...not fatty]Yes a nice free range egg, unsalty French bacon and a few cherry toms...its nice....but its still not too healthy.The other day we were talking about the really good greasy spoons whiich we had in London W11....there were manyJust on the way to Portobello was Le Gallion which was owned and run by Cypriots.Fantastic steak pie, roast beef [and yorkshire pud]...everything they cooked was great and traditionally English.Here at Pujols we have the French equivelant.....11 euros...vegie soup [flacvoured with a decent stock] confit/duck.home made chips...salad ...dessert[if you can man age it]Mr Glue stick are you near Wimereux? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gluestick Posted February 25, 2008 Share Posted February 25, 2008 [quote user="jon"]Sorry to say this Mr Gluestick but Pas de Calais is a culinary dessert.Mr Glue stick are you near Wimereux?[/quote]Try the fish restaurant at Etalpes, owned by the fishing cooperative.Or the cheaper fish place right on the beach at Merlimont.Or just outside Hesdin, at Huby St.Lue, a wonderful place run by two gentlemen who dress the other side. Fantastic food; excellent cellar; great service.Or the Charles VIth at Azincourt: which is two hamlets away from us, which answers your second question.Northern France has more varieties of cheese than anywhere else. Loads of fresh fish and seafood. Great beaches of golden sand. The best beer in France!Try the wonderful hostelry on the main road out of Berk heading back towards Montreuil.Many wonderful - and very expensive!- restaurants in Montreuil.Exceptional butter: living in the Sept Valles of the Cote d'Opal one is spoilt for choice with oodles of farms, fresh butter, cream, milk, goat's milk and cheese; keep on going.We can eat well for €8/head and a free demi-pichet of vin de maison: and spend up to the sky's the limit: if you know where to go.The snail farm at Houvan Houvineigl (near Frevent) is fun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jon Posted February 25, 2008 Share Posted February 25, 2008 Oh I do know the fish restaurant at Etaples....has been hit and miss...and in Boulogne in their over place...not kean.Do you go to Hardelot?The coast at Pettites Dalles is one of my favourites....thats say 30/40 km from Dieppe going towards Caen.Where are YOU ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jon Posted February 25, 2008 Share Posted February 25, 2008 Just noiced you mention Montrieul...stayed at Chateau Montrieul a few times....cooking not to my liking...too old fashioned..heavy....and La genouile stayed there but eaten there a few times.....ok.....but not inclinde to go back especially.Unfortuately the French chefs are not all progressive......lost their gumption/spark. There is a very nice restaurant near us here....but we like light modern cuisine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gluestick Posted February 25, 2008 Share Posted February 25, 2008 Next but one hamlet to Azincourt: Ambricourt, but we are really outside on a tiny rural road en route for Crepy, which heads towards St. Pol sur Turnoise.Our nearest town is Fruges.We don't go out too much now, as we both cook and I am building up my wine!Rather than eat out, we prefer to entertain our friends and cook for them!Other than that, nothing like Champion harricot rouge with a large (massive!) knob of Canche Valley beurre stirred in, on toasted homemade bread and a glass of vin rouge! [:D] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Russethouse Posted February 25, 2008 Share Posted February 25, 2008 Ah but jon, is modern cuisine just light on food and maximum on profit. Does a square plate and an unusual garnish justify an often hefty price ?[;-)] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jon Posted February 25, 2008 Share Posted February 25, 2008 no Russet house modern cooking is not an excuse to make more profit!If you have good modern cooking you will probably appreciate it.Good ingredients are essental.I do suggest to you that you you visit some of my friend Johns restaurants in Kew and Twickenham...the tapas ..as I have said before is amazing and although its not exactly trendy...for me it is probably the best food ever....tempured squid with a tiny portion of chips/garlic mayo.sauteed scallops ...squid ink rissotto.piella....chorizo sauage and beans....sweet and sour pigeon crispy cake....tagine...chicken teriaki...garlic preawns.....the list gos on and .....Worth coming back to uk for! Just a few days to see frinds and meet up there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gluestick Posted February 25, 2008 Share Posted February 25, 2008 Tapas is traditionally a pre-meal nibble with lashings of chilled Manzanillia!Unfortunately as with so much, the trendy eateries have developed this as a new wave fad just as Mossiman et al developed nouvelle cuisine as a fashion statement: and as far too many celeb chefs pan fry everything, for speed of service.For me, the core secret of success in most things is KISS!Nothing, for me, much wrong with a gently grilled big fresh sardine, a green crunchy salad and dry decent bread washed down with a half decent Loire white, sat outside in Provence!Or in Espana, a plate full of bocquerones with again, a nice green salad, dry decent bread and a good Spanish white from the Rioja or Penedes!And if it's cold, a Bœuf bourguignon, prepared over three days, washed down with a strident, robust red from the Bourgogne. If it's good enough for the vendange, then it's OK for me!Try pan-frying that in seven minutes!For me, I'm afraid, quite obviously being a food philistine, it's about really good ingredients, properly simply cooked and simply served without the addition of pretty patterns drizzled all over a weird shaped plate! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jon Posted February 25, 2008 Share Posted February 25, 2008 Yes a great bourguignon or a navarin...pot- roas.It is not about drizzling over a plate......my food is not about drizzles.Mr Glue.......you are sticking a little...not opening your mind.If you came to eat with us I feel that you would enjoy what would be on offer.Not about being confident either.We really like food from a really fresh sea food selection...great fish and chips to what we used to do in the restaurant.Open widly and let the experiences begin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raindog Posted February 25, 2008 Share Posted February 25, 2008 If you want to eat good tapas, go to Spain.[:)] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LEO Posted February 25, 2008 Share Posted February 25, 2008 [quote user="raindog"]If you want to eat good tapas, go to Spain.[:)][/quote]I could not agree more!San Sebastian , just across the border from France must be the Tapas capital of the world Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jon Posted February 25, 2008 Share Posted February 25, 2008 yes of course..... Spain......there is a great place[more...i am sure] afew hours away in Saint Sebastian.However the Tapa is Twickers and Kew is ecceptional....really excetional. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jon Posted February 25, 2008 Share Posted February 25, 2008 yes of course..... Spain......there is a great place[more...i am sure] afew hours away in Saint Sebastian.However the Tapa is Twickers and Kew is ecceptional....really excetional. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gluestick Posted February 25, 2008 Share Posted February 25, 2008 [quote]Mr Glue.......you are sticking a little...not opening your mind.[/quote]I don't think so.I have travelled a fair bit and eaten diverse food. Also, on business I have been taken to some of the (apparently) better restaurants.Perhaps the culinary high spot was eating two or three times a week in a particular place as a guest and protogeé of a member of a very exclusive London club, mainly patronised by Greek shipping zillionaires, where the food was La Splendide Monte Carlo 1930s al la Escoffier. Spoils one.Like so very much of modern life, things have become far too pretentious: and once pretention becomes a benchmark, competing vendors are merely trying to out-pretension each other!And all too often, the core raison d'être is lost.Some time this year, Mrs Gluey and I will spend a week or two with our closest friends in Southern Spain: and there, we will eat magnificently, if simply and I'm sure knowing him, enjoy the cornucopia of Spanish wine such as the Miguel Torres Coronas Black Label Reserva, which if anyone likes and appreciates robust and full flavoured cabernet sauvignon cepage which equals some of the finest offerings from both the Bordelais and the Bourgogne, I can recommend. (The wine from Torres's new vineyard in Penedes beat both Latour and others to the Gold Medal at an exposition in Paris some few years ago!).And, of course, we will nibble tapas, fresh and wondrous in its home. Particularly the vinegar pickled and the brined bocquerones. And lots of Manzanillia frape!Gorgeous! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jon Posted February 25, 2008 Share Posted February 25, 2008 Yes gorgeous.What yopu enjoy is gorgeous...but I have my ideas ...lets call it a day...maybe it is a generation thing.....I too remember the concept of tradition but have my mind open to the concepts of the young.Thats what keeps you young at heart. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Just Katie Posted February 25, 2008 Share Posted February 25, 2008 Pie and Mash up Roman Road! E3. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
artsole Posted February 25, 2008 Share Posted February 25, 2008 [quote user="Just Katie"]Pie and Mash up Roman Road! E3.[/quote]I once tried to explain 'pie and mash' to someone french.................................I'll leave it to your imagination as to what they thought about it[geek] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Weedon Posted February 25, 2008 Share Posted February 25, 2008 [quote user="jon"]If you have good modern cooking you will probably appreciate it.Good ingredients are essental.I do suggest to you that you you visit some of my friend Johns restaurants in Kew and Twickenham...the tapas ..as I have said before is amazing and although its not exactly trendy...for me it is probably the best food ever....tempured squid with a tiny portion of chips/garlic mayo.sauteed scallops ...squid ink rissotto.piella....chorizo sauage and beans....sweet and sour pigeon crispy cake....tagine...chicken teriaki...garlic preawns.....the list gos on and .....Worth coming back to uk for! Just a few days to see frinds and meet up there.[/quote] Jon Jon Jon please...squid ink rissotto? Whereabouts exactly on the Thames does your mate John go tickling for squid? If it costs anymore than £4:99 I think I'll pass.When I am next in the UK I shall mention "sweet and sour pigeon crispy cake" to Sid, my daughters window cleaner, and if I come back exhibiting a strange jerky walk with Sid wondering where he jammed his squeegee, I shall know not to mention it to anyone else.As, I think it was, Gluey said, KISS does it for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raindog Posted February 25, 2008 Share Posted February 25, 2008 [quote user="Weedon"] When I am next in the UK I shall mention "sweet and sour pigeon crispy cake" to Sid, my daughters window cleaner, and if I come back exhibiting a strange jerky walk with Sid wondering where he jammed his squeegee, I shall know not to mention it to anyone else.[/quote][:D][:D][:D] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Russethouse Posted February 25, 2008 Share Posted February 25, 2008 We eat fairly regularly here: http://www.myalacarte.co.uk/html/lowdown.html - the 'set' menu usually. I think the a la carte is a little OTT for the style of restaurant, but it IS very nice and they are pleasant people. They make a point of sourcing food as locally as possible and although the food is tasty it is not overly contrived. The chef is French.[:)] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jon Posted February 25, 2008 Share Posted February 25, 2008 Boys you are being bad...very very bad.....my friend job is From Liverpool.....is in France tomorrow...Bolougne to make arrangements to bring fish directly to Uk.He has a fish restaurant and nine others and if you could cook like he does you would be very luck lads..Now please be good it could be time for your dinner.My menue tonight will be chicken teriaki with a little root ginger and garlic....couscous and simply good brocolli....I am sure that it is not your cup of tea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jon Posted February 25, 2008 Share Posted February 25, 2008 should have read ...very lucky lads Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jon Posted February 25, 2008 Share Posted February 25, 2008 Russet house that looks very pleasant......not Micheline star stuff but who needs it.Will probably try it when I meet up from John again....in Uk. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Weedon Posted February 25, 2008 Share Posted February 25, 2008 [quote user="jon"]Boys you are being bad...very very bad.....my friend job is From Liverpool.....is in France tomorrow...Bolougne to make arrangements to bring fish directly to Uk.He has a fish restaurant and nine others and if you could cook like he does you would be very luck lads..Now please be good it could be time for your dinner.My menue tonight will be chicken teriaki with a little root ginger and garlic....couscous and simply good brocolli....I am sure that it is not your cup of tea.[/quote]Jon, tell John not to waste time coming over to Boulogne as he can get the same fish at Hastings, have a word with La La, his dad has a whelk stall in the old fish market near the museum, he'll sort him out with some decent stuff. Best not mention any squid ink though, they are a funny lot in Hastings.I am just going to have a look in the cupboard to see what's for, it pains me to say it, dinner. I shall report back later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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