Parisian Guest Blog Entry from Pam, '14 juillet', 14th arrondissement. Paris.

It is often said, and not entirely unjustifiably, that French waiters, and in particular Parisian waiters, are snooty at best and downright rude at worst. But the 14 juillet is an example of quite the opposite. Right down in the south of Paris, there is none of the touristy unpleasantness of bad food and rushed atmosphere here. The manager takes great pride in the number of regular customers (indeed, the couple that introduced me to the place eat here about once a week), and now greets me as an old friend when I turn up, and knows exactly what wine I’ll enjoy.

The food is as French as it comes – free saucisson on arrival, then very decent sized starters, followed by a good selection of fabulously rare meat options (they will serve it to you well-done, but only with a bit of a shudder, and the result is still what most Brits would consider medium rare) with plenty of rich creamy sauces. There are always a couple of lighter fish options, but this is a restaurant that doesn’t cater to hardcore vegetarians. But perhaps the real reason people come here is for the desserts, and to be more precise, the profiterole (singular form is deliberate). The biggest profiterole you have ever seen arrives at your table, and just when you’re asking yourself where the chocolate sauce is, you see (or usually smell first) the giant pot of chocolate sauce coming your way, to be ladled on until you say stop. Good news is that you are more than welcome to share starters and desserts (I have what has been referred to as a “wholesome” appetite and yet I have never managed a full three courses here all to myself). Drinks are a very important part of your meal here, with an aperitif suggested to go with the free saucisson, then a wonderful selection of wines, and why not a little digestif at the end of the night?

This is a restaurant in which to spend an evening, rather than a place for a quick bite, and its popularity means that you may well need to book ahead.

Atmosphere: laid-back and friendly. Can be quite lively depending on the manager’s mood and how many birthdays there are (the whole restaurant is expected to sing!). Service: chatty and relaxed.

Value for money: prices are a deservedly a little higher than some of the more standard brasseries in the city, but still reasonable given the quality and quantity of food on offer.

99 rue Didot

tel 0033 (0)1 40 44 91 19

Pam

Food pictures - Chez Kathleen

Leg of Roast Lamb, as beautifully cooked by Kathleen, using James Martin's handy hint of adding anchovies to increase flavour and meatiness. Worked fantastically well.

It tasted delicious, especially with the addition of her home grown herbs, and roasted cherry tomatoes.

Waitrose Chocolate Cheesecake. Highly recommended, as is the lemon variety.

Fairtrade cup of tea on the Guardian.

Crumpets for breakfast, enjoyed with local honey.

The Regency Club, Edware, Middlesex (UPDATED)

First impressions can be misleading. I originally posted about The Regency Club a few days ago - but after re-visiting last night, here follows an updated review (this time with pictures!)

The menu is extensive (and laminated). The food is not usual Indian-Restaurant fare. It would be far better to think of it as Indian Pub Grub - inexpensive, no-nonsense stuff with a lot of the qualities of home cooking. The main one being authenticity.

The previous visit was on a Tuesday night where the atmosphere was frantic and sports-bar like. Unexpectedly, on yesterday's Friday night visit we found the place had a far more relaxed atmosphere, (perhaps as there was no sport in sight). It felt like a lively pub - busy but not hard to find a table. The service was also far better (don't visit on a Tuesday as we did last time - it's the day off of the person who gave us really fantastic service)!

It would be a crime not to have starters here. The amazingly juicy and succulent chicken wings were as fantastic as last time. The mogho (fried cassava chips) we enjoyed last time were good, but this time we were recommended the garlic mogho instead, which turned out to be absolutely fantastic. The crispy freshly fried chips have an amazingly tasty seasoning - not just garlic, but a wonderful combination of flavours.

I was so pleased with the mogho and the chicken wings, I was almost reluctant to taste the third starter ordered - shish kebab - but this was just as delicious and well-flavoured as the other two dishes.

Then onto main courses - firstly murry chicken (chicken curry with loads of black pepper). I love this dish as it has such a different flavour to normal indian curry dishes. The pepper gives the chicken a really distinctive aftertaste. It was great with naan, but a little bit too spicy for me just with rice (I regretted not ordering the chilli paneer to go with it this time, as the sweetness of that dish would have been helpful to counteract the spiciness!) We also had 'handy' chicken (a special of the day - chicken currry cooked on the bone, which made it extra succulent. My dad loved this dish - it tasted just like my mum's cooking, which proves the authenticity of the food here. The vegetable dish we had, okra (also known as ladyfingers), was once again wonderful, and I actually preferred it to they way my mum makes it at home! High praise indeed for indian food, which I usually always enjoy in restaurants as it can't live up to her cooking!

To finish we shared a pistachio kulfi (indian ice-cream) - which I could only manage a few spoonfuls of having eaten so much, but needing something to counteract the spicy food. It was good kulfi - creamy and with a good flavour.

Overall:

Atmosphere: Relaxed and laid back. Pubby. Not very sports-bar-like this time, so a vast improvement on last time.

Service: Attentive and efficient. The food did come very quickly, but we were hungry and so this was most appreciated.

Food quality: Exceptional. Every single dish was quite fantastic. It was spicy, but with lots of flavour and not just heat. The authenticity was amazing.

Value for money: Three of us ate a huge amount of food, and had plenty to bring home with us in a doggy bag, for about £15 a head including drinks. brilliant value considering.

Overall: 8.5/10 - I will be trying to get my friends to come here.

A plethora of photos - Home Made Desserts

Strawberry Cheesecake as made by my cousin Anjana.

An incredible Banoffi Pie (also made by Anjana)

A beautiful Baked Alaska, as made by Graham's mum.

The tirimasu of joy that Sofia unveiled at her 'Come Dine With Me' themed dinner party should also be on here, but alas, I don't have a photo that could possibly do it justice. Fia, please make it for me again so that I can photograph it properly!

Breakfast at Mallory Court Hotel

I firmly believe that there are few things in life more wonderful than a full english breakfast. I'm not ashamed to say I love them in their many varieties. When I lived in Bristol I was spoilt for choice - there were the many hangover-aiding breakfasts in Havana (Cotham Hill), the great-plan making ones with Rachael in the second-hand bookshop, Circles (Bedminster), and an amazing greasy-spoon breakfast (complete with endless mugs of builders tea), with Lee in the now sadly defunct York Cafe.

Hotel breakfasts are a different beast entirely. The big chains do big buffets but eggs, bacon and sausages are far from appealing when cooked in advance and left under bright lights to keep warm. Independent hotels are far better with breakfasts cooked to order. Rachael always insisted that the inclusion of hash-browns was of optimal importance in the breakfasts of the hotel she managed, and I agreed with her. But the quality can still be variable.

The breakfast at the Mallory Court, was quite possibly the best full-english i've ever had. Aesthetically it was beautiful, and the quality and flavour of the sausage, bacon, eggs and mushroom were quite amazing. The portion may look small, but the richness of the food made it the perfect size (even with the pictured fried bread swapped for toast). I'd opted for poached eggs after Graham inspired me by ordering some, and we both found one with a wonderfully runny yolk, and one with a harder yolk. The precision with which this had been accomplished made me think that this was done purposefully, but it is mere speculation on whether they did this to hedge their bets on the diner's preference.


From the moment we walked into the breakfast room, the service couldn't have been more attentive and professional. Being a huge fan of tea, I loved the ceremony that of having tea leaves and tea pots. All I needed was my cooked breakfast, but the continental buffet looked ample and well stocked. The addition of freshly squeezed fruit juices was also a very appealing touch.

Overall:

The quality of the food and presentation made this the classiest full english i'd ever had, and the attention to detail and professional friendly service, in lovely surroundings made for a rather wonderful breakfast experience.

10/10

The Brasserie, Mallory Court Hotel, Near Leamington Spa, Warwickshire

I hadn't expected a good meal that evening.

Plans remained mysterious, and all I knew about our destination was that it was "5 minutes away from the M40" - a phrase which led me to genuinely expect us to be heading to a Travelodge and dining in a Little Chef (actually - as unpleasant as eating in Little Chef is, I would quite like to visit the one that has had the benefit of the Heston Blumenthal makeover).

But I had very much underestimated Graham's proficiency at finding a beautiful country house hotel (found via this aptly named website) earlier that day during his 5 hour transit wait in Moscow. We had an amazingly luxurious room in the main building of the Mallory Court Hotel, and the wonderfully friendly staff recommended we visit The Brasserie for dinner. Not quite sure what to expect, we made the two minute walk to the restaurant in the hotel grounds.

We were greeted by more friendly staff and had a drink in the stylishly art deco bar. There was none of the usual downfalls of hotel restaurants - oppressive silence and lack of atmosphere being the worst offenders. Instead there was the great combination of smart interiors, helpful staff, a good number of other diners and a relaxed atmosphere. We perused the various menus (a la carte, daily specials and vegetarian), which had a good mix of options without being over-long, and we chose quickly (although I found it difficult to decide between halloumi or a blue cheese souffle starter).

We were then shown to our seats in the restaurant, which had a totally different feel to the bustling brightness of the bar. It was a romantic atmosphere, with tables in a softly-lit conservatory. We quickly ascertained as we were given the choice of a variety of bread rolls, that this was the most classy establishment that we'd had dinner at together.

Graham's starter was the exotically named 'King Crab Thai Style Nage' (we didn't know what a 'nage' was - neither did the waitress- although she found out it was pronounced 'nagee') - it was under the 'soup' section and sounded good, and I opted for the pan friend halloumi with salad, lemon and capers. Both dishes were beautifully presented. The 'nage' was a white, creamy crab soup which was given a kick from spring onions, and was much enjoyed.


My first impression of my halloumi dish was that it was a small portion, but the amazing taste, quality and richness meant it was actually just the perfect size. The halloumi wasn't as overly salty as it can be, and the richness was wonderfully offset by the capers and tomatoes.



The high standard of food in terms of quality, flavour and presentation, continued to the main courses. Graham opted for the daily special - beef bourguignon with mashed potato and carrots, and I went for the penne with butternut squash, sage, parmesan and parma ham. It was the best pasta dish i'd had in a very long time. The parmesan and butternut squash made for a velvety smooth cheese sauce with the deeply robust flavours of the sage and the ham. It was blissfully good!

As Graham had opted for beef, I couldn't sample his dish, but he rated it very highly, and we were both far too stuffed to contemplate dessert.

Overall:

Atmosphere: There were just the right number of other diners and it was classy without being oppressive- the bar was stylish but relaxed and the restaurant was romantic but still relaxed. Ideal in terms of atmosphere.

Food Quality: Wonderful! Only complaint would be the slightly dry bread rolls, but the mains and starters were quite perfect.

Service: Friendly and attentive without being obtrusive.

Value for Money: Even though some of the dishes on the menu are pricey, our dishes were great value. The dish of the day is £8.50 and includes a glass of house wine, and a starter for £3.50. I didn't go for the deal so my starter was £6, but my main course was only £6.50. So excellent value considering how satisfied we were with our meals.

Overall: 9.5/10 This is a fantastic restaurant in its own right, but I found it even better comparing it to other hotel eateries that i've experienced, as it gets atmosphere, food and price right, which is a rare find in these situations!

Strumpets with Crumpets, Lounge on the Farm Festival. Canterbury, Kent

Our first proper festival experience had started optimistically - we'd enjoyed creating a very small oasis of civilised camping (where we sipped wine from my plastic wine glasses and ate strawberries and Kathleen's delicious homemade caramel shortbread), in a field full of mentalist teenagers. However after a very trying night (our tent being moved, our tent being ransacked, our tent being trampled on all night whilst we were in it, our tent being rained on, our tent witnessing drug dealers having fights), things seemed bleak.


We were damp, weary and mildly depressed, as we walked through the drizzle trying to find a cup of tea. The previous evening we'd seen an impressive array of local food stalls, but sadly the majority were still shut. We walked to the far end of the field, following a tantalising aroma of buttery, bacony, syrupy goodness. Suddenly it seemed things were going to improve. Salvation had come to us in Crumpet form!


'Strumpets with Crumpets' is an enterprise devised by the three females who serve the crumpets from their boudoir-styled trailer, whilst in their 'strumpet' outfits. It wasn't the outfits that made crumpets sexy for me (corsets/basques surely can't make for good food preparation, can they?), but the locally-sourced, organic and fair trade ingredients, resulted in crumpets with joy-inducing combinations of toppings.


The menu ranges from the simple (butter), to the traditional (marmite, honey, jam, peanut butter, chocolate spread), and the sublime (frappe egg, pancetta and cheddar, or eggy crumpet, pancetta and maple syrup). We couldn't resist opting for the latter, and enjoyed cups of tea and Bob Marley whilst we waited.

It was well worth the wait. We each received a molten hot 'eggy' crumpet (perfect for filling the holes in the crumpet), topped with incredible fried pancetta and maple syrup! This was by far the best crumpet based food i'd ever eaten. These hot, square-shaped crumpets were a million miles away from the usual bland, dry, tough crumpets my toaster usually produced. It was heavenly - the ultimate breakfast, comfort-food. Nothing could have lifted my spirits more.


Overall:

Food quality: Absolutely wonderful. The crumpet was cooked perfectly, and the combination of salty pancetta and sweet maple syrup on a eggy base, was quite amazing.

Atmosphere: They had a number of tables and chairs outside the stall - It was all very relaxed, we sat there a while sipping tea, soothed by Bob Marley, whilst we slowly felt more human.

Service: Efficient and friendly. They looked like they were enjoying themselves, which I certainly wouldn't be if I had to prepare and serve crumpets whilst wearing a corset!

Value for money: £3.50 for our crumpet and tea was pretty great for a festival. The crumpets weren't large, but were very filling.

Overall: 9.5/10 - You must try this if you see the 'Strumpets' at a festival.