Review: The Black Swan at Ockham, Surrey and Painshill Park

The Black Swan at Ockham

After a boozy evening of what I can only describe as a bar/restaurant crawl along Maiden Lane in Covent Garden it was clear that my saturday-morning hangover was potent yet manageable.  I couldn't really face an outing taking me back into the hordes of summer tourists in London but luckily the A3 is only a mile away and the Surrey Countryside outside the M25 only a 20 minute drive.

At around 12:30pm we pulled off the A3 and down a little country lane to Ockham Common (philosophy fans - this is the birthplace of William of Ockham, the proponent of Occam's Razor).

Ockham common itself used to be the site of a WW2 airfield and despite the noise of the nearby A3 it feels very quaint and rural.  It would appear that the new Spielberg film War Horse filmed its battle scenes here but that isn't the only link to the cinema.

The interior of the Black Swan was the pub in An American Werewolf in London.  Don't go there now expecting them to have kept the interior faithful as it has had a full-on gastropub makeover.  Even the bikers that periodically turned up looked confused so I can only assume this is a recent thing!

A really good sign was the amount of cars continually pouring into the carpark as we drove up.  Most of them were serious Chelsea Tractors which in my humble experience is normally a sign of good food.  After squeezing my Peugeot 206 between two behemoths we chose to sit inside to get out of the midday sun.  Many people were enjoying the fantastic garden and decking area and I began to get serious food envy from the BBQ pork sandwiches that were being delivered outside.  A good sign of quality inside as well - 4 real ales including the wonderful locally brewed Shere Drop

The Meadow

Food blogger fail #1. Never order fish and chips in a pub you intend to review and expect to write anything interesting about it - oops. On the other hand the fish was fresh, and the batter nice and crispy (with a touch of ale added I think). Tartare sauce was coarse and chunky and both this and the terrific mushy peas had a homemade vibe. The menu here was actually pretty extensive with what looked like good example of various terrines (Rabbit, Smoked Trout and Prawn etc..)

Better still was an absolutely fantastic example of Pear Tarte-Tatin with Rhubarb Ice-cream, advertised with a 15 minute wait it was well worth delaying arriving at our next destination.  Fantastic caramelised pears were topped with what I think was pear-peel fried in butter which was an almost savoury counterpoint to the rest of the dish.  It tasted of the countryside and I could eat it once a week for the rest of my life - it was that good.

Pear Tarte-Tatin with Rhubarb Ice-cream

Just down the road in Cobham is Painshill Park - apparently one of the finest 18th Century Landscape Parks in the country.  In a decrepit state in 1980 it was purchased by the Borough Council and a charity setup to see to its renovation and return to grandeur.  For £6 or so per adult it was lovely way to walk off a heavy lunch!

Entrance Bridge over the River Mole to Painshill Park

The Crystal Grotto

The outside of the Grotto

A Grey Heron

Pictures of Lillies

Review: Beas of Bloomsbury

Beas of Bloomsbury Afternoon Tea

My wife has been hassling me to take her to afternoon tea for months.  Its not something I generally spend my week lusting over - my tastes tend to lean towards the savoury and a whole meal of desserts always seems unbalanced to me somehow.

I admit to having had a great time at Pret a Portea at the Berkeley a couple of years ago - but you're talking about £50 a head and even though its a great experience it is far too expensive to repeat on a regular interval.

As it turns out I have been following Beas of Bloomsbury for some time on Twitter and on occasion have teased my wife with the resultant food porn. Given we were going to subsequently walk down to Borough Market, it seemed a great opportunity to check out their venue near St. Pauls and chill out over some nice cakes and a pot of tea before walking along the South Bank.  Quite surprisingly this area was actually buzzing and all the shops were open which is unusual for The City on a Saturday afternoon.

Beas of Bloomsbury is located in the new development at Cheapside called One New Change.  Many voices called it a carbunkle of an ugly building facing the classic architecture of St. Pauls cathedral but I actually thought it fitted in quite nicely with the surrounding area.  A neighbour of Jamie Oliver's much-maligned Barbecoa restaurant, Beas of Bloomsbury itself is a marvel of design, skillfully wrapped around a corner of the building to make the best use of the available space.

Swiftly seated we were passed the extensive Tea menu from which I chose my favourite - an Assam and my wife chose a pot of Rooibos tea.  Before the tea and cakes arrived we were delivered a set of sandwiches; ham and briee, and goats cheese and carrot which were perfectly acceptable preparation for what was to come without overshadowing the main event.

The rest of the platter includes two scones with jam and cream, a selection of brownies, cakes and meringues and finally two cupcakes which from memory were Raspberry and Chocolate, and Red Velvet.

The brownies were particularly good but the stars of the show were the cupcakes which my dining companion insisted were split absolutely equally. I always feel the desire to practically inhale cupcakes but these were particularly good examples and I did force myself to take it slowly!

All of this came to only £15/head which is great value for something different of a weekend.  With a great, central location and with great food and good value I think we will be back soon - and it may become the regular outing that the cost of other Afternoon Teas precludes.

Review: Pitt Cue BBQ Company and Other stuff

Oops - no new posts for a while but I do have a couple of ideas I'm working on :-)

Its worth mentioning my Tumblr Account for those of you that use that service - I'm dumping a few microposts in there that might evolve into full posts in the future.

http://enthusiasticaboutstuff.tumblr.com/

A good example is the below. Pitt Cue BBQ company is based under Hungerford Bridge near Waterloo for the summer and would be worth a full review if only the entire food blogging world had not got there first and taken a decent camera instead of relying on an old Iphone.

I heard of it via posts from Food Stories , Cheese and Biscuits and Hollow Legs which you should definitely read for more detail.

My thoughts? I tried a Pabst Blue Ribbon (£4) due to all the hipster references in US Media (its popularity is based on its 'authenticity' and blue-collar connotations). It tastes like Bud Light.

Much, much better was the Kernel Pale Ale (£4) that I could enjoy for its hoppy-taste and lack of counter-cultural pretension.

A Pickleback, hipster beer and complementary pork scratchings

A Pickleback is a shot of whisky followed by a shot of pickle juice. The sweetness of the pickle juice does actually take the edge of the whisky and complement the flavours better than I expected. Its just a bit of fun really though like a Tequila Slammer. See my Pickleback face below!

Pickleback face!

I grabbed myself a box of Pulled Pork, pickles and BBQ beans with a nice hunk of Sourdough (£7). Excellent stuff, nice and simple, well-executed and worth the trip if you're commuting into/out of Waterloo or wandering along the South Bank.