Restaurant Review: No. 1 The Folley

Everyone has a little local gem don't they? A great little place that is just around the corner and does cracking food at a reasonable price. Usually it will take no more than five minutes to get to and have readily available tables.

Until recently I was lacking one. Nowhere in the local area really stood out. There was an anonymous looking place on the way into town. It made it securely on to the  'to go' list but we somehow never quite made it there. However recently there was a special offer on and if there is ever a good reason to investigate somewhere, it's a bargain!

And so it was that we ended up at No. 1 Folley Bridge.

I will tell you the details shortly but let me tell you my lasting impression first; overwhelming disappointment. Disappointment that I hadn't been there sooner.

The entrance is down some stairs in one of a strange collection of buildings that is on an island in the Thames. This unassuning entrance conceals a wonderful restaurant. Even in the evening the dining room was beautifully light and airy. The room was broken up with some elegant decoration an nicely ambient jazz was playing. However the main feature was the glass wall looking out on to the river and the pontoon that serves as a dining room extension. At night this was impressive. I can imagine a summer evening being breathtaking.

Now before this turns into an interior design blog, let me give you some more details. The staff were friendly and attentive without fussing. They took our orders swiftly and without note pads... nice touch!

Now to the food. It was sensational. I had some delicious scallops as a starter. They were perfectly cooked, meltingly tender and served with some delicious potatoes. Cat had some beautiful crab ravioli.

My main course was duck with potatoes cooked in the fat. I probably should have felt guilty eating duck given we regularly feed the ducks only 50 meters away from where I was eating.  The crispy skin combined with the beautifully pink flesh and the substantial portion soon banished any of these thoughts. Poached eggs put a stop to myle trying any of Cat's halibut but it looked delicious.

All of the dishes were beautifully presented and decently plentiful. The service was reasonably swift and the whole experience wonderfully relaxing. Price-wise, like I say we had a special offer. However looking at the menu, the prices offer excellent value at normal rates. My only one minor gripe is that the wine measures were a bit in the small side.

So a conclusion. I have my new local gem. We will be going back there repeatedly. Not only is it worth a visit while living locally,  it is worth travelling to for a meal.

TFB

Tasting Tweets #TT

With Burn's night rapidly approaching, now would be a good time for the monthly whisky post. Burns was a tremendous lover of whisky and wrote about it frequently in his poetry. Despite this, during his lifetime, he did his bit to stifle the industry by becoming an excise man... an individual responsible for the collection of taxes.

Given Scotland's Bard has devoted many words to whisky (as have many other great Scottish authors subsequently) you can imagine that it's easy to wax lyrical and in flowery prose on the subject. Insightful details of grassy high-notes with a sweet after taste trip of the tongue teasingly. Even without resorting to cliche, it is easy to clock up the word-count.

Which is why I've decided to set myself a small challenge over the coming months. Rather than write paragraphs and paragraphs on the subject, I have decided to condense my notes on particular whiskies to 140 characters or a tweet. For those of you who haven't found me on twitter, I can be found @JeevesFad and I will be using the hashtag #TT (those in the know can have a chuckle at that one).

My first attempt was about Edradour:

Edradour 10 y.o. Smooth, sweet, silky and rich. Smallest legal distillery. White chocolate on the after-taste. My favourite whisky #TT

Enjoy.

Sliante

TFB

Snacking

Since my mid-teens I have not really been a fan of snacking.  It's not that I have anything against it, I just never really had the desire. When I was a student this had the distinct advantage of saving me quite a bit if cash. It also contributed to me maintaining my scrawny teenage physique for longer than I had any right to expect.

One big advantage I had in the snack stakes was that I didn't have a sweet tooth. As such i could walk past a vending machine without having my head turned and sugary drinks had no appeal. Try abstaining from sugar. Soon any cravings will stop and your trousers will fit again.

Now I have written the above in the past tense. Sadly this was intentional. Things have shifted somewhat in the last year or so. I can pinpoint the exact event that caused it... moving out of London. In a stroke I stopped walking as much as I did and became aware of how many calories can be burned by being late and running to the bus stop. Worse, I moved in with a confirmed chocoholic. Before this I never had snacks in the house. Why would I?  I didn't like them. Suddenly I found myself surrounded by seductively packaged sweets. Of course while they were there I ate them either out of boredom or because it becomes rude to refuse continual kind offers to share. These two facts combined to have a devastating impact on the belt line.

Normally rhis wouldn't bother me too much beyond the irritation of having to buy new clothes. However recently said chocoholic agreed to be my wife. So far so good except I have the privilege of being Scottish and want to get maried in my kilt. The kilt I have had since I was 17. The kilt which is now struggling to fit!

Cue a strict (ish) diet. Obviously the easiest way to cut down calories  and hence weight is to stop snacking. I shouldn't miss it that much right? Sadly wrong. Somehow the idea that I can't have something even though it was something I didn't really like in the first place has made it tremendously appealing. In short I have started craving snacks. Refusing them has become a tremendous act of will power.

So with 8 months to go; wish me luck!

TFB

Restaurant Review: Byron Burger

I'm not the greatest fan of chain restaurants (despite my positive reviews of some in my post date food). Generally the thought of turning out exactly the same dishes time after time, day after day in venues across the country is a bit boring in soulless. I also don't like the idea of swelling the coffers of a corporate giant when there are lots of small, passionate chefs and restaurateurs out there struggling to get by.

So with all this in mind it may come as a bit of a surprise to hear that a couple of weeks ago I paid a visit to the latest chain to be making it's mark in the UK; Byron Burger. An American-style burger bar specialising in... you guessed it. Burgers!

It won't lie; my reason for visiting was entirely due to peer pressure. Friends banged on about it so incessantly that eventually I capitulated and decided to give it ago. As well as a latent spirit of exploration, I thought it would be fun to get some innovative ideas for things to do with burgers.

Our first impressions were good. Excellent even. We were greeted by the waitress in a warm, friendly way that so many places aspire to yet so many aspire to. I also really liked the decoration. If I were the pretentious, flouncy type I would describe it as "shabby chic" however I'm not so I will opt for decaying elegance.Lots of exposed brickwork and nothing too polished.

The menu was refreshingly simple and straight forward with only a few signature dishes available. This stopped an endless internal and external debate over what to have and gave enticing prospect of quality. It wasn't just the food menu I was impressed by. The beer menu was excellent too. Not only did it have an impressive selection of local beers, there was a good range of American craft beers.

Starters were limited. There was a choice between nachos with salsa or olives. See what I mean? But we didn't come for starters. Refreshingly, both the nachos and the accompanying salsa and guacamole were hand made rather than scooped out of a packet. They also arrived with reasonable speed.

My main course was the rather festively named triple cheesmas burger which, surprisingly was a burger smothered in three types of cheese. It was delicious. The Scottish beef (added plus points) was cooked to a beautiful medium rare and melted deliciously in the mouth. The bun had a lovely consistency and the chips were not only deliciously crunchy but perfectly seasoned. I also really liked the courgette chips I pinched from my then girlfriend (see previous post) which were cooked in a light and crispy batter - well we wouldn't want it being too healthy would we. Unfortunately, the giant pile of burger and bun, while visually appealing, was almost impossible to eat to utterly impossible to consume with any degree of grace of elegance. Not somewhere to go on a first date!

This was relative small fry though. Timings proved the biggest disappointment. The starters arrived towards the end of the acceptable time limit for starters. All very well but slightly concerning given the restaurant was virtually empty. Worse still, the main courses arrived within only minutes of our starter. Having the two in front of us simultaneously was distinctly off putting and meant that we didn't really have the opportunity to enjoy the starter. Not only was it a bit galling to be paying for something that we didn't really enjoy, I hate seeing food wasted.

So overall, I like the feel of the restaurant. The food is excellent and well thought out. Not only that, the burgers manage to be interesting without being naff. As well as all this, the staff are excellent. It's just a shame that the two courses turned up in such quick succession. I think next time I have one, I might be trying it as a takeaway.

TFB

A Return

Good Evening All. A very Happy New Year to everyone reading. I hope you all had a wonderful (and indulgent) Christmas and New Year.

I am sorry for the lack of posting lately. I would pretend to be benevolent and say I didn't clutter up your Christmas with further recipes for turkey and stuffing but the reasons are slightly more complex.

Firstly, Christmas is always a hectic time. Although I didn't do much of the catering over the festive period, I was still rushing about a lot.

Secondly, I have had the good fortune of becoming engaged! When I proposed, I was well appraised of the fact that weddings required a lot of planning... however I didn't quite realise HOW much was a lot. So as you can imagine, much of my spare time has been taken up by planning. (If you're interested, my fiancée is writing a detailed blog on the preparations so far).

Now obviously a fairly major part of any wedding is the meal (those in the know will insist on calling it a breakfast but, as it probably won't involve bacon, I won't be jumping on that band wagon) and a fair few drinks. Naturally your friendly food blogger will be turning his eye and opinion to these matters and of course I intend to chronicle them here. Fortunately, my fiancée has an almost equally keen eye for detail when it comes to all things edible and I must admit that most of the suggestions that have been truly revolutionary have come from her.

For the time being let me leave you with a concept I find deeply comforting in so many ways: wedding whisky.

Not long before we got engaged Cat bought me a bottle of Cardhu 12 year old (a rather nice Speyside). Being a sentimental sort, I like opening bottles of malt to mark occasions rather than just for the sake of it. Duly I decided that the Cardhu would be opened to celebrate the engagement. So far so good. Better still, Cat that suggested that (in order to take the edge off of all of the planning) I have a dram every time that planning is engaged in to try and foster some positive Pavlovian associations. It has worked rather well. Planning has become thoroughly enjoyable pass time. So much so I try and engage in it at every possible opportunity. Funny that!

TFB

The Local

The Local. Everybody should have one. A place that becomes a home from home.The automatic default choice when you fancy a drink. The place where you go when someone suggests going to "the pub". Somewhere that makes you feel instantly comfortable and relaxed when you walk through the door. The size of any community is defined by the presence of certain institutions; churches, cathedrals, shops and schools but a community is not a community without a pub.

Of course there's no reason to limit yourself to one local. In fact it could be said to be rather short-sighted. Several locals can serve multiple purposes and that's without mentioning the sub-category of regulars. More on that to follow.

Over the years I have had many locals. They started as being the places that had "enlightened" policies on checking for proof of age then moved on to ones that were less likely to be rammed on a Friday night. After that I went through a phase of seeking "atmosphere" (usually meaning smoky, dingy and with interesting facial hair on men and women alike) before realising my true niche; good beer ideally supplemented by good food.

At the moment I have two places I would call locals. The first is best described as a "boozer". It's principle function for those that frequent it seems to be the consumption of drinks. I discovered it mainly because it is at the end of my road and far enough away from the centre of town that it avoids tourist and student traffic. It has a pleasing simplicity about it. No elaborate polished glass furniture, pretentious bar snacks, thumping music or cocktail menu that relies more on hope than skill. Better still, it's dog friendly and child unfriendly. There's all you would expect for entertainment; a pool table, darts, dominoes and a big screen for the odd sporting function. The menu features excellent pub grub. Special note should go to the excellent Pieminster pies. This place is usually my default choice when I feel like a quiet pint on my own with a bit of anonymity or if I feel like more than one and don't have a lift.

My other local is a proper village pub (even if I don't live in the village). It was found when lost in the countryside and the inside turned out to be as picturesque as the ancient stone and thatched roof suggested. The beautiful surroundings are matched only by the warm welcome and community atmosphere. Oh and did I mention the picturesque garden with the friendly rabbits, docile border collie and vast amounts of parking just to finish it off. Unsurprisingly I have been making regular trips since I moved into the area and have as such got to know the staff and the owners... to the point my they recognise my voice on the phone. The food served is delicious home-cooking with plentiful portions. All in all it's hard to find an excuse not to go for a swift half fairly regularly. It's one of the few places I will make the effort to attend any of the functions organised.

So what of the other category; regulars? These are usually places I know of but don't visit frequently or make a particular effort to go to. Usually they are visited as a result of proximity. Naturally there are a couple of places in the centre of town visited when a pre-, mid- or post-shopping pit stop is required. They will have good beer and an interesting feature or two. I also have a couple of places along the river for refreshment if out for a stroll.

Pubs on the regular list are still familiar surroundings but less of a second home. At best there will be a spark of vague recognition in the eyes of the staff rather than recognising my voice. The huge advantage of having regular haunts is the comfort of knowing exactly what you're getting. The guarantee of a decent pint and a good sandwich when lunch is needed; a crackling log fire on a winter's evening or a sunny garden on a summer afternoon.

There is of course one final category; the potentials. Pubs that look worth investigating to find out if they are worthy of further visits. Obviously it would be silly not to try them in case you deprive yourself of an absolute gem. And being a scientist I would also have to recommend trying each one multiple times to ensure a high average and therefore reliable results! Naturally I will endeavour to try a decent spectrum and write them up here.

On that note, I'm off for a pint!

TFB

Mulled Wine

It's the festive season: the season to be jolly and usually "jolly". Gallons of festive cheer are consumed by revellers. One particularly seasonal tipple is mulled wine. This can be a bit of a double-edged sword. Good mulled wine is excellent; bad stuff is truly horrific. Therefore, being the thoughtful, sharing type I thought I would give you my recipe for mulled wine so you can guarantee to enjoy yourself and impress your guests over Christmas.

Step one: throw away those ghastly pre-made sachets. All they do is make the wine taste like old feet.

The major ingredient is of course red wine. Since it's going to have a lot added to it, leave the Petrus in the cellar and go for something a little less expensive. A full-bodied North Italian red is my usual bottle of choice although whatever is on special offer is usually a good rule of thumb.

Next add some dark rum (I like Lamb's Old Navy but OVD is a good substitute). For a guide to quantity, add enough rum that you think, "my that's a lot of rum" and then a bit more for luck. The aim is to get the "warming" effect of the spirit along with the physical warmth of the drink.

Along with the rum, add some caster sugar (about 150g) and a cinnamon stick. Pour in about 250ml of good orange juice - the smooth stuff and then start preparing the fruit. I usually use an orange and a lemon. Massage both until they are soft and pliable so they are ready to release their juice (10 seconds in the microwave will have a similar effect but be less soothing). Slice the lemon about a third of the way through in several places and put in the mixture (ideally contained in a heavy-based saucepan). Next stud the orange all over with whole cloves. It's a lot of effort and quite fiddly but the visual effect is stunning and it adds a real richness to the flavour.

In an ideal world I would heat this up until just warm then allow it to sit for a couple of hours before warming it again and serving however it can be warmed and served immediately. Enjoy with mince pies and (if you must) carols.

Cheers

TFB

P.s. Warning: if you're even in the same room as the pot don't even look at a car never mind think about driving!