My Dorset Food Adventure - The Wild Garlic

My Dorset food adventure took me to some fabulous eateries including The amazing The Wild Garlic and Hix Oyster and Fish House (review to come).

The Wild Garlic was simply stunning. The food was outstanding, the staff very helpful and friendly, the atmosphere relaxing and before we knew it, 2 and 1/2 hours had flown by.

Little details all around the restaurant add to the magic of the place, like the pots of black peppermint sitting on each table (especially grown for the restaurant), the carved foody words and phrases around the edge of the tables, the lovely bread with olive oil and balsamic put on the table as you wait for your meal and the calming decor.

One of the stand out dishes of my whole week away, was my amazing starter.

It was pigeon breast with a pear puree, pickled quails eggs and black pudding crumble. Every mouthful was absolute pleasure and my only sadness was that it was over and finished so quickly.

This was followed by an amuse bouche of spring vegetable soup which was velvety smooth and delicious. Then the main course.......Dover Sole with brown butter. An amazing fish, cooked beautifully with every mouthful an absolute joy to eat.

Lastly, the most delectable chocolate fondant i've ever had (has anyone noticed the general theme of this review ;-) ). This was an amazing combination of a bitter chocolate fondant which was wonderfully oozy in the centre, with a creamy sweet banana ice cream.

On top of all of this wonderful food, I got to meet the main man himself, Mat Follas. He not only came out to present us (hubby and me) with our starters (which I think is a really lovely touch for his customers, and much appreciated), he also took time out of a busy lunch service to say hello before we left. I can't praise The Wild Garlic enough and it is definitely a restaurant i'll be going back to again and again.

My Dorset Foody Adventure

On our first night in Lyme Regis, hubby and I walked to the very pink, The Mariners Hotel and Restaurant, and treated ourselves to a meal out (well after the long drive, I didn't want to cook....that's my excuse and i'm sticking to it).

Anyway, the Mariners is a wonderfully quirky place with porthole windows and large comfy sofas in the lounge. The friendliest of staff, who cannot do enough to accommodate you, chat to all of their guests in between doing the necessities of their working roles.

We were shown into a sitting room and given the menu and wine list and the waitress went through the specials and highlighted a couple of dishes as well as suggesting a few different wines with these dishes.

We had an aperitif whilst waiting and got chatting with a wonderful couple from London who also suggested dishes to try in the future.

Anyway, we were called through for dinner and we were soon tucking into our starters and some lovely homemade bread and butter.

Although we both ordered fish, I far prefer red over white wine, so ordered a nice bottle of red wine, an Italian Merlot Corvina. I don't usually like mixed grape wines but this wine was easily drinkable and went actually well with our meals.

As some of you know, I had a lung transplant 8 months ago and because of it, there are certain foods I am now unable to eat like shellfish, pate, unpasturised cheeses and cured meats and fish. After excluding all of these factors,it usually leaves me little choice (usually soup, soup or soup). However The Mariners offered Feta and Courgette Fritters with a Spicy Tomato Sauce.

I have to say the fritters themselves were fairly bland and tasted a little floury from the batter (a good pinch of S&P and a touch of fresh chilli would have really elevated them) but the spicy tomato did help them. It had an acidic, rhubarb taste and the spicing was just right. Overall, not bad.

Main course time and I had the Fisherman's platter (minus the shellfish). This was a delicious plate of salmon, cod and sardines with a herb butter sauce. Two large bowls of jersey new potatoes and vegetables accompanied the dish and for the most part, it was delicious. For me, there was too much butter sauce on my plate but it was delicious especially the sardines (the highlight of the meal) The fishermans platter was one of those dishes that, when served, looked small and you think "where's the rest of it" but, by the time you've eaten half of it, you're not sure the other half is going to fit...lol.

To finish I ordered warm chocolate brownie with homemade vanilla ice cream.

Having been on a diet for what seems like forever, to be able to have a total indulgence like this amazing brownie and not just a tiny slice or small nibble was an absolute treat. It had a wonderful fudginess and was filled with chunks of pecan, giving a lovely crunch. The accompanying chocolate sauce was a little thin but full of flavour and the ice cream was packed full of vanilla and was silky smooth. Absolutely perfect.

This lovely three course meal for 2, a bottle of wine, 2 coffees and aperitifs to start came to about £80 which I thought was pretty good value. I would happily go back and eat here and know I would receive good service and eat in a comfortable and friendly atmosphere.

Book Review - Chewy, Gooey...

Crispy, Crunchy by Alice Medrich.

(Sorry the picture isn't great)

Just bought this amazing book full of recipes from bread to buns, tarts to cakes with each recipe sounding more yummy than the previous.

The pictures, although not available for every recipe, look inviting and nearly all recipes feature "upgrades" of different flavour combinations.

There is a great section at the back of the book that looks at how to make component parts to a dish like chocolate ganache and buttercream and a section on measurement conversions to help convert the american/imperial weights into metric.

Tomorrow i've managed to secure a baking day to myself (no babysitting duties) and i'm going to attempt a couple of the recipes including the Sticky Pecan Bites and Gooey Turtle Bars (no turtles will be harmed in the making of these bars ;-) ) and i'll post my results tomorrow.

From what i've read, this book was well worth the buy for all of the inspiration it has given me with different flavour and texture combinations. By tomorrow, the results will hopefully confirm this.

Happy reading

xx

The Old Gate Inn - Canterbury

Hi everyone. I've been exploring the delights that Deal and Canterbury can offer today (with my mum), stopping off for lunch at The Old Gate Inn. It's a lovely rustic style pub with really friendly and helpful staff. There are lots of roaring open fires, chasing away the chills from the fog and the food is good and honest.

I had a lovely ribeye steak sandwich on ciabatta with onion chutney and a side salad and my my mum had a falafel wrap with salad. Although not all dressed up with whistles and bows, the fo

od was absolutely delicious and very reasonably priced. Well worth a visit.