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Venues:

The Eagle pub bar booze real ale restaurant food vegetarian :: [comment] :: [delete]
London's first gastropub.

Rate The Eagle

The Fleur de Lis pub bar booze restaurant food child friendly :: [comment] :: [delete]
An "gastropub", as seen on TV.
www.thefleur-sandwich.co.uk

Rate The Fleur de Lis

Blog / forum etc:

Blood on the tracks

Jan17

Watched "The Roadkill Chef" last night, billed by BBC Three as "Eccentric roadkill connoisseur Fergus Drennan tries to change the eating habits of the people in the town of Sandwich in Kent by throwing the community a roadkill feast". Sandwich is reasonably local to us, but we'd have watched an interesting food programme like this anyway. Well I would, and I made the wife site through it too. The idea is clearly a little unpalatable to anyone who wouldn't normally pick up and eat dead things by the side of the road, but from an environmental point of view, it's quite sound. If you get to something quickly enough, what's the difference really between eating something that's been shot, throttled, electrocuted, or hit by a car? If you're going to eat meat, and are concerned about animal welfare, at least you know these little fellers have had a natural life. Cleaning and cooking (yes, he didn't just chow down on still warm guts by the side of the road) is going to kill the bacteria and things anyway.

I'm not quite ready to sign up though, I wasn't entirely convinced by the man, his methods, his results, or the programme making. First and foremost, Fergus looked a bit mad. I'm sure he's a nice chap, and he was very enthusiastic, but I got the feeling his enthusiasm for his topic might override everything else. I'm guilty at times of trying to be too efficient at times, using up leftovers, keeping food past it's sell by date etc, but I think I would not be quite so uncautious as he. It could be that everyone's too cautious with food, and he truly is a visionary, but as the visiting meat inspector might well have said "you might serve a million tasty squirrel souffles or hedgehog hotpots, but if just one person catches TB from your badger cutlets, that's all people will remember". Hmm, actually I think possibly you're as likely to catch TB from a cow as from a badger, so take that with a pinch of botulism. SALT, take that with a pinch of salt.

Whether Fergus was concerned or not, or it was just for the cameras, badger was off the menu for the final feast. I'm not sure about how the feast turned out, or how this was presented by the programme. They took over a gastropub in Sandwich to feed the locals, but then seemed to give people an option once they'd arrived - have the normal three course menu, or select from a buffet of wild food bits. Why did they not fill the place with people who were willing to eat the wild food? Could they not? Why was the wild food served up buffet style, and not in the same manner as the regular menu? Was there not enough? The people of Sandwich didn't seem that adventurous*, but lord didn't they look rough too? I always thought Sandwich was a nice little village, but I would be put off ever going there again. Also did he really get as enthusiastic a reception at the school as the programme made it look? This was far better than Jamie Oliver did when he fed the kids things like apples and potatoes...

*I say the people of Sandwich were not adventurous, but I'd not have eaten anything he made, my special needs, though interestingly enough Fergus calls himself a vegetarian too. I don't think vegetarian's right, that's just someone who does not eat meat, but maybe it would be right for a vegan to eat road kill. Only maybe. Not me.

In conclusion, it's a great idea, we will go mushroom hunting again when the conditions are right, and I will learn to do something with the abundance of chestnuts we find, but I'm not sure the show was that convincing.

Ooh, not written this much on one subject for a while. Further reading: Wild Food, Food For Free, The Original Roadkill Cookbook, and the books of Carl Hiassen. There's a recurring character who's an exponent of this cuisine.

In other TV food show news, Chalky has died, that's Rick Stein's dog. Don't leave the little canine corpse around near Fergus Drennan.

2007 :: Comment / reply

Chops!

Apr2

The Eagle pub bar booze real ale restaurant food vegetarian london farringdon gastropub clarke cup gigography harry potter :: [comment] :: [delete]

Started the weekend with a super rarity, drinks in Farringdon. Been trying to meet up with a couple of the Fareham boys who are commuters too and work in the area, and this week no-one had a good excuse not to do it, so it's all on - To
The Eagle. It's a very famous joint, the first gastropub ever. Not been there before, though I've been to many that are apparently imitators, so it was a bit of a surprise. It's a small old boozer with most of the bar given over to a kitchen, and a great reputation for food, and a good range of drinks too. I had olives to start from their small tapas then a great rigatoni made with aubergines and things. The other chaps (Rich and Ro) were more adventurous, going for cockles and anchovies to start, and then pork belly (too fatty - duh) and the biggest lamb chops I ever saw. A great evening, only marred by a huge trek home, though that was eased by a cab to the station. Had an age to wait for the vomit comet, though I was slightly entertained by a huge police operation at the station. There was an assault of some kind on a train into Waterloo, which resulted in a few police an dozens of community support types running around Keystone Cops style trying to track the miscreant down. I think it was a flasher, was it you?

Clare was off to see The Cure at The Albert Hall Saturday night, so I had big ideas to achieve at lot on my own. This didn't quite pan out, but I did have a quiet night in and do quite a bit of cooking. Had an urge to make some soup, a spicy cabbage number so I looked up some recipes. Got a big list of spices from a couple of recipes and did my shopping, but when I got back could I find the same recipes? Didn't save them and had no joy, so a lot of the herbs and spices went unused. Made a splendid batch of soup, and some dahl to go with our curries in the week. Everyone's turned their noses up at the idea of the soup, even before I'd got the pot on, but it turned out great. It's not slowly stewed cabbage, boiled until it turns stinking and grey, it's a light and spicy stock with half a head of shredded cabbage added at the end, maybe I will post the recipe later. Something for you to look forward to there then. Watched Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire later, didn't like it at all at first, but got into it later. There's quite a cast to this one, though I couldn't figure out who Ralph Fiennes was, he was Lord Voldemort of course.

Up early this morning and went for a stroll, trying to find a rumoured new bar, Impressions, on Tontine Street. No joy at all, I think it might be a wind up. Saw lots of interesting half developed buildings that I wanted to snap pictures of, be nice to look back on when the area is fully done, but the camera was playing up.

Did some work on my gigography, finding a few more out there too, and while there's only ever a tiny crossover I'm saving them in del.icio.us...

Now Clare's back and we've had a mini Clarke Cup, a game of cricket on the dartboard which Clare won, though it was fairly close. then a best out of five on the pool table, and it's over to me. Then after the official game, a few more frames which saw me slipping, but, it doesn't count, see? Then Clare invented a new game , which we'd play for money, I should have been suspicious at this point... It's round the clock, but starting from twenty, whoever loses has to pay whoever goes out first whatever number they are left on. So I was still on three when Clare went out, so three quid - could be expensive if you're really bad. Foolishly perhaps I played again and lost another fiver, but took it back on a winner takes all game of pool. So we're all evens. Got to head round to fix the father-in-law's computer, and then heading back later to cook more curry. A good weekend all told!

UPDATE: And the Clarke Cup issue is resolved, a close round of cards and then a dull game of backgammon and Clare has defeated me :-(

An evening of chilli pie and TV crime drama awaits.

2006 :: Comment / reply