The Jolly Woodman, Littleworth Common, 18 October 2009

This is my new favourite pub. Perhaps I have a thing for old fashioned pubs, hidden in tiny villages, with names that begin 'The Jolly...' (see this blog entry), and my expectations were high, but The Jolly Woodman in Littleworth Common, reached and surpassed them, from the moment we spotted it through the trees.


Initial glances at the website made it look like it could be a bit polished for my liking, but it ticked all my pub boxes - lots of comfy looking nooks and crannies, old-man-pub carpet, exciting selections of locally brewed drink and lovely people behind the bar. Sadly we weren't here for lunch - although we immediately decided that next time we'd come here hungry, as both the menu and smell of the Sunday Roasts were very appealing.

Instead we opted for some 'Welsh Rarebit' flavour Tyrrells. Leandri was unimpressed with the way they smelt, but they had a strong distinctive cheesy flavour, which was actually quite appealing.
The bar staff were grappling with an exciting mulled wine dispenser when we arrived. I love mulled stuff (not just wine - last year Alex inspired me to do my own mulling and make various mulled beverages (wine, cider, apple juice, at every opportunity). It felt like winter was well on its way, so I had my first mulled wine of the year which felt like an appropriate drink to be consuming in this pub. (They were advertising their Christmas menu which looked truly wonderful). There were no raised eyebrows at Leandri's usual order of Guinness and tomato juice (in the same glass), just lovely friendly service.


We settled down for a cosy afternoon, but as the original plan had been to go for a walk in the autumn sun (but we'd been distracted by the idea of the pub as so often happens), I was determined to have a short walk. Particularly as there were a number of exciting looking footpaths into Burnham Beeches from the pub car park.

Our short walk was quite lovely - we encountered unexpected ponds and ducks, and on our way back, another pub! Finally back at The Jolly Woodman, we found a large beer garden that would be amazing in the summer.

Overall

Cosy, cute and old fashioned. A lovely place to be in a really pretty location.

9/10

(I will write about it again after I've eaten there!)

Guest Blog Post from Stefan - Lunch at Mangiare in Rotterdam

Sometimes you run into a little place that looks a bit scruffy on the outside, but their menu looks very tempting. That’s how we found ourselves in a tiny Italian deli in Rotterdam - Mangiare - and we couldn't wait to try their food.

Once we sat down (and luckily we were early) we saw the reason for the mess outside - they are in a temporary location whilst renovating.

The restaurant was full 15 minutes after we arrived and there was even a Dutch celebrity having lunch (Antonie Kamerling), but we were there for the food!

The restaurant does not have a set menu as they use only fresh produce and create something new every morning when the vegetables arrive.

We decided to go for the antipasti with some meat and a nice glass of wine. As the products are fresh it takes a while before they serve you but once they put it in front of you it tastes absolutely delicious. All the flavors are amazing and as everything is cooked to perfection, the dish is gone before you know it.

This is a restaurant I will definitely visit again when they are in their new building.

Overall

Atmosphere - Scruffy but authentically Italian.
Service - Very laid back and friendly staff, although it took a while to get our lunch.
Food Quality - Great although the portions could be slightly bigger and some more bread would be good.
Value for money - Good price for good food.

Overall – 8/10

Stefan

Desserts at The Bee, Burnham - 14th October 2009

There's a lot to be said about going up to the bar and asking 'what do you have?' Not something I ever do, but this is why going for a drink with people you haven't ever been for a drink with before, can turn out to be such a lovely thing. I was mostly expecting a curt response to A's question, but was pleasantly surprised when we were then given a comprehensive run down of all the various boozy and non boozy options by the lady behind the bar - which goes to show - it's a good question to ask! Adrienn ended up with some very exciting 'Prince William' cider, putting my glass of house red to shame!

The Bee is one of those pubs that due to it's proximity to the office, I'd only ever visited at lunchtime, or for a swift post-work drink. I think it has more charm by night and was neither too busy nor too quiet on a wednesday evening. I'd eaten here before, and the food was fine, but not immediately food blog worthy. But as I mentioned before - drinking with new people can lead to good ideas. Good ideas of a let's-have-a-dessert-round nature!

I opted for the classic hot/cold dessert combo - sticky toffee pudding with vanilla ice-cream. It had the optimal levels of sweet, hot, gooey amazingness.


Adrienn opted for the chocolate fudge cake and was impressed by how light and moist it was (and just the right level of sweet).

Sadly there was no chance of a cuppa with our desserts, as the bar had run out of milk, but this didn't detract from our enjoyment too much.

Overall
Lovely chilled out atmosphere and staff with old-fashioned good value and generously portioned desserts.

Guest food pictures - Astrid's Manhattan Lunch Recommendation

Beef Fillet with truffle mash and spinach

Dover Sole with Saffron and Chicory

Cheeseburger with Russian Dressing

Should you find yourself in Central Park, and find yourself in need of the poshest cheeseburger ever, or any of the amazing looking dishes Astrid has so kindly photographed for me, you need to visit Jean-Georges. Described as a 'temple of fine dining' on this review site you can actually get an amazingly priced lunch for $26!

The Stag, Stoke Poges, Sunday 13th September

I firmly believe that Sunday afternoons were made for discovering new country pubs; the more adventure required to find the place, the better. It was the first weekend in my new flat, and time to start finding pubs that could approximately be described as 'my local'. A lack of lovely pubs in the immediate vicinity means that the definition of 'local' needs to equate to a couple of miles into the countryside. We decided Stoke Poges would be the village, and a quick Google and look on Beer In the Evening revealed there were at least three pubs with potential, so we decided to drive in that general direction until we found a suitable location.

Off we went following signs to Stoke Poges. All was going well until the signs stopped. In the spirit of adventure I carried on down single track lanes and very large houses. Things didn't look good. There were no pubs in sight. The moment we decided I should turn around and head back, we found ourselves at The Stag. A quick look inside and discovery that there were Sunday Roasts on offer with no less than four types of meat (pork, lamb, turkey and beef - we were apologetically informed that there was no vegetarian option, but we assured them this was definitely not a problem), confirmed that this would be an ideal place to spend the afternoon.

A wonderful thing about this pub is the lack of pretentiousness and the sheer friendliness and helpfulness of the person who served us all afternoon (I should have found out her name so I could specifically mention how great she was!) There were a good number of other customers enjoying huge Sunday Lunches, but the atmosphere was very casual and relaxed. We contemplated sitting at a huge boardroom style table, before settling for a more cosy table looking out onto the large garden.

Going back to the lack of prentension, there was no real ale or gastropub type offerings, but there is Thai menu (and takeaway service), and the sunday lunches are great value at less than a fiver each. The four meat options proved difficult to decide between, but Lewis and Claudia's burning desire to have two different roast meats on each of their plates was met with no problems at all, and before too long we had huge platefuls of food in front of us.

Huge plateful of sunday roast

It's difficult to believe that after eating quite so much, that we felt the need to eat anything else, but we had spotted the dessert menu...

Dessert board

.

Showing some restraint we waited an hour or so before we dived into dessert time. We opted for apple crumble, treacle sponge, spotted dick and chocolate sponge, which were difficult to distinguish given the vast amounts of custard!

Graham loves custard

Claudia doesn't like custard, but Lewis was gallant enough to eat through a layer of custard for her.

Overall

Atmosphere - Incredibly laid back and relaxed pub where you can easily (as we did) spend hours. There were plenty of people but it certainly didn't feel overcrowded.

Service - Amazingly friendly and helpful service which makes this a lovely place to spend a sunday afternoon.

Food quality - Although not anything particularly noteworthy the portions are huge,

Value for money - High on the cheap and cheerful rating!

Overall: 7/10 - Wonderfully friendly and relaxed pub - I'd be quite interested in trying the Thai food next time! And there certainly will be a next time!

Guest blog entry from Lee - Holden's Ice Cream, Edgeworth, Lancashire

Sometimes, you can taste tradition; the elusive flavours that can only be passed down from generation to generation whose brilliance would, if written down, evaporate. Such unwritten perfection is found in the village of Edgworth amidst the moorland between Bury, Bolton and Blackburn. Drive past on any sunny day and you shall see a queue stretching down the otherwise unremarkable street, as people come from far and wide for Holden's traditional vanilla ice cream. Holden's ice cream is lovingly charmed out of the little fridge behind the counter by an old woman who is almost certainly the kind of granny who arrives bearing a bag of assorted sweeties when she comes to visit. She probably gets them from the shelf that eager customers queue in front of, as Holden's is also the village shop, selling everything from bread and eggs to washing up liquid and tea bags. Be assured though that most people will be queuing for the ice cream. It comes in only one flavour, but what a flavour! It's the taste of childhood glee and friendship and sunny summers. The best way to enjoy it is to take your cornet with its captured cloud of ice creamous wonder down to the Wayoh reservoir (take the public footpath down the side of the Black Bull pub) and reflect on how good to you life is sometimes. Address: Holden's Ice Cream Blackburn Road Edgworth Lancashire
Open Mon-Sat (I assume it's not open on Sundays. Beware the lunch hour when the shop closes).

Lee

Home made cakes

(Above): The cake I made for Hazel's birthday. I'm not great at cakes - this one was slightly lopsided, but I was quite pleased with it.

(Above) This is the Victoria Sponge that Lee made over the weekend. I sadly didn't get to try this one, but i'm hoping he makes it for me at some point as it looks delicious (and he assures me he was very happy with it!)

This is the cake we all need to aspire to. One of the best cakes I have ever eaten (actually, quite possibly the very best). This is a chocolate cake made by Anjana on Saturday. It was intensely chocolately, very moist, and beautifully presented (as you can see!)