Sunday, 11 December 2011

The Sun Inn, Mill Road, Kislingbury, Northampton NN7 4BB

A beautiful sunny but cold Saturday, I was driving up north with D. Looking for a place for lunch near the motorway, armed only with a copy of CAMRA’s 2012 Edition of The Good Beer Guide, D expertly navigated us to the picturesque village of Kislingbury near Northampton (and just a few minutes from the M1.
On a tiny narrow lane we found The Sun Inn.  Looking beautifully rustic with it's thatched roof, we found it to be warm and cosy inside and without any pretensions.  Old-fashioned and friendly with a good number of real ales on the pumps and some ciders too. 


 We experienced lovely hospitality from the landlady and once we’d ordering some substantial lunch from a small menu of big pies, we settled down in one of the three seating areas (it was nice to have it to ourselves) with the paper, and relaxed.


After assembling a wide collection of condiments, and enjoying a giant cup of tea and a pint of 'Gobblers', our food arrived.  My stilton, peppered mushroom and onion pie was ultimate comfort food, and served with delicious gravy and the homemade cottage pie was also huge, and very much enjoyed by D, who felt the cabbage was also very tasty.



A lovely discovery.    We would have happily whiled away an afternoon there.  Well worth a visit should you be near Junction 16 of the M1 and very much recommended by ourselves as well as CAMRA.


The Brunswick House Café, Vauxhall


Two minutes from Vauxhall tube station is Brunswick House;  an architectural salvage shop. A quirky building, covered in old-fashioned enamel signs (including one advertising Wethereds Ale and Stout from my home town of Marlow), stone features and a huge cast iron ‘saloon bar lounge’ sign. Amongst all these eye catching features, you can easily miss the small sandwich board advertising the café inside, but that is not really an issue, as this café is gaining a reputation, having received rave reviews from the FT and  John Lanchester in The Guardian.

Being huge Guardian fans, myself and K had decided to take advantage of Brunswick House Cafe extending its opening hours to Tuesday and Wednesday evenings (it still doesn’t open on Monday nights).

The place was not very busy with just a couple of other diners in the slightly chilly main dining room. I was intrigued by the chandelier and lights hanging from the ceiling, the ‘stage’ at the back of the room, and the assortment of pictures and signs covering the walls.


I was advised that the simple daily changing menu consisted of small tapas style plates (and helpfully I was told which were the dishes served hot! An important point on such a cold evening). The cocktail list and wine list was extensive and we opted for a very drinkable French red with an unusual name. The wine was served in tumblers rather than wine glasses which was fitting for the relaxed style of the place, but there were important and impressive touches to the service, with water and (absolutely delicious sourdough) bread being bought to the table for without us even asking.

We ordered 5 dishes between the two of us, with the intention to share everything. The menu had no elaborate descriptions but it all sounded tasty.

Our choices included ‘Sprouting Broccoli and Pumpkin Romesco’ - a simple dish of crunchy greens with tasty pumpkin sauce and ‘Chestnut, sage and pear’, which was a pleasing variety of flavours and textures and not just served as simple individual ingredients.

However the real highlight was the warm ‘Cauliflower, red onion and stichelton’ (having researched in advance, I knew it was a blue cheese but unlike ‘stilton’ it is not made with pasteurised milk. It cannot therefore legally be called ‘stilton’, so instead it is called ‘Stichelton’ - the original name of Stilton village). I was expecting something like cauliflower cheese, but this was something entirely different. The marinated crunchy cauliflower was elevated to divine levels of tastiness with the piquant cheese. It was heavenly.

The two more substantial choices were bought to the table with perfect timing – the chickpeas and chorizo had warm and comforting flavours, and the chicken and mushroom pie was again, quite different to what I was expecting. The chicken seemed like it had come straight from a very well marinated roast and so each piece was rich and highly flavoured, with strong flavour from the beautifully cooked mushrooms.
It really was perfect, and we were so full that we couldn’t even manage dessert, but instead enjoyed some tea.  Served in very cute, colourful teapots, my lapsang souchong was delicious. 

The service had been fantastic and the atmosphere nicely relaxed, although it was a shame that it was not more busy in the dining room.  The ability to try such a variety of tasty dishes in unexpected surroundings had been very pleasing, and I would recommend a visit to anyone looking for somewhere which is just that little bit different, which will be sure to delight!


Thursday, 8 December 2011

Cake of the day: Soho's Secret Tea Rooms

Soho's Secret Tea Rooms was an ideal place to hold a surprise vintage afternoon tea for Sofia’s super-classy, 1940s themed hen do.  Amie had expertly organised every detail, and I was thrilled as I'd been looking for a reason to visit ever since I'd heard of the place.

The 'hidden' location, gave a fantastic surprise element, as our bride to be was definitely bemused as we walked her into the Coach and Horses Pub in Soho (not a particularly salubrious location), and slipped behind the bar and up a narrow staircase to the very top of the building.

She was met with a delightful sight! We had our own private room, very prettily decorated with thoughtful vintage touches. The atmosphere was relaxed as we were made to feel welcome by a dedicated and attentive member of staff. Bubbly, sixteen varieties of tea and ample supplies of cake, scones and dainty sandwiches, made for a most memorable start to the party.
 









Thanks to Fi for the great picture above.


 

Wednesday, 7 December 2011

Cake of the day: Christmas Gingerbread and Delicious Victoria Sponge


I apologise for the lack of posts in recent months.  Planning my wedding has taken up far more time than I ever imagined.

However I'm certainly marrying into the right family!  Visiting D's gran this weekend, we were treated to a sumptious afternoon tea, of Christmas Gingerbread and a divinely light and delicious home-made Victoria Sponge.

I thought I'd share this with you all to make you hungry on this Wednesday morning!