The Old Coastguard

The Old Coastguard
The Parade
Mousehole, Cornwall TR19 6PR

Another treat from the August Bank Holiday (shhh I know that was many months ago!). C booked us into lunch at The Old Coastguard, one of a group of pubs that are all excellent (see Felin Fach Griffin in Wales and Gurnard's Head in Cornwall). The prix fixe lunch at £14 for two courses is an absolute steal, what with the astonishing quality of the cooking and ingredients. You'll see my choices above - pork rillettes to start, followed by some of the best grilled mackerel I've ever had. We were being greedy pigs so also got a starter of crab to share, which we loved, and A's prix fixe starter of tomatoes with goat's curd was also superb. We were sadly too full to squeeze in dessert (hardly surprising after three starters) but maybe on a return trip?

The Marksman

The Marksman

254 Hackney Rd

London E2 7SJ

More East London smugness ahead, I'm afraid. A and I are having trouble keeping up with all the places we want to try, but we're working our way through. The Marksman is not to far from Cambridge Heath and lots has been written about it already so I won't bore you too much except to say it is as great as people say it is. A proper old little boozer that's been done up just the right amount to make it comfortable but still casual. The beef & barley bun is fantastic, A and I could have had one each, and the confit potatoes are amazing as well. We managed to share so we could save room for the brown butter custard tart, which everyone should save room for. I'm not even much of a dessert person but this was totally worth it. Go, go, go.

Buxton Tap House

Buxton Tap House
George St

Buxton SK17 6AT

Let's be honest, I am so behind that it no longer makes sense to try and do posts in order. So here's something from last Friday, when we were on our way to G&H's wedding in Manchester. Since we were driving, we decided to spend a night in Buxton so that we wouldn't have to get up quite as early on Saturday to make it to the party. Buxton is small - with a great park, opera house, and other villagey charms. For the size of the place, there are an awful lot of drinking spots - but we settled on the Buxton Tap House due to their large selection of beers that they produce themselves. For those of you curious about the beers, follow A on Untapped - I'm just going to cover the food. We had the night's special of smoked salmon (smoked on site, which you could certainly taste!), along with a couple of "sliders" which were more like full sized sandwiches - stuffed to the brim with pulled pork, bacon, sausage and cheese. That was actually overkill - I picked out the bacon and sausage and had that with the top half of the roll, then got through the generous and tender pile of pulled pork. We also had the mac and cheese, which I would skip - it's not bad but it's not worth the calories either. Not a bad option for some dinner with your interesting beers - wish we had more time to explore Buxton properly but oh well.

The De Beauvoir Arms

 

113 Southgate Rd

London 

N1 3JS

The De Beauvoir Arms is one of our many incredible local pubs - it was something else when we moved to this neighborhood but I love the new incarnation. Sunny and bright inside, with plenty of outdoor picnic tables for good weather, it serves really satisfying pub grub and some small tapas style dishes as well, so I can always find something I want to eat. Great for vegetarians and pescetarians as well, which means we visit quite often with A's mum. The menu changes every day, so sometimes when you have something really nice it's sad to not be able to just order it again, but some things do repeat regularly. This picture is from a Sunday lunch with a group of eight adults, one baby. I had the spring chicken roast, while A went for the lamb - both were fabulous (I stole a bit of the cauliflower cheese that came with the lamb) and if you know me, you know how much I adore deconstructing small birds. It was perfectly cooked, full of chickeny juices and plenty of veg. I usually don't have the patience to make Sunday roasts myself as there are a few too many components for a meal just for me and A - so it is great to know that aside from the Drapers, this pub around the corner can also satisfy all Sunday roast needs.

The Flying Pig

58-60 E Dulwich Rd

London 

SE22 9AX

So pictures above are from our first visit to The Flying Pig, with T and R and their baby. It was a Sunday lunchtime, and the pub was heaving with children, so it's a good choice if you are looking for family-friendly atmosphere and don't want anyone to glare at you if you are with an uncontrollable child/baby (not that T&R's baby was anything but very well behaved the whole time). My buffalo wings were disappointing as usual (why is it so hard for UK restaurants to fry some chicken wings and dip them in Frank's hot sauce mixed with butter?) but the beef rib that A had was pretty great, and you can see how the giant chunks of beef take up over half the plate. A return visit with a different group of friends was an entirely different matter though. Friday nights, the pub is definitely not a place for children, and the sound of adults drinking interesting beer is enough to deafen a person. I had to order the beef rib this time, and it was about half the size as the portion above. It was still plenty of food though, and I wouldn't have mentioned it, except that A's chicken burger came with a piece of chicken so small that as soon as he pointed it out, the waitress brought him another chicken burger. So low score for tiny first burger, but extra points for addressing that flaw immediately. When A mentioned my beef rib was tiny compared to last time, the other waitress seemed to take the statement personally, which was a bit awkward. I'm not sure how to summarize my feelings about this place - I doubt I'll be back any time soon, and Duke's Brew & Cue is better for BBQ meat, but I suppose if I found myself back in East Dulwich I might be tempted to go one more time?

The Punter

3 Pound Hill

Cambridge 

CB3 0AE

So a group visit to Cambridge to see C and A before baby E was born resulted in a lovely walk, a fortunate stop in a pub by the river while a torrential downpour occurred, and then dinner at The Punter, a cozy pub. Sadly this was quite a while ago so I can't remember exactly what that terrine was, but I do remember enjoying it. A look at their website shows that their menu changes regularly, so there's no way of finding out, but it says a bit about how much care and thought they put into the food - no same-old same-old prepared stuff being deep fried in the kitchen, that's for sure. It was a wonderful evening with great company - so I'd be happy to go back for more.

Duke of Cornwall

 

48 Fulham Palace Road

London W6 9PH

 

S and I met up with some of her friends before a gig at the Hammersmith Apollo (this guy, if you're curious). While wandering the area looking for a place to have a drink and a bite to eat, we stumbled across the Duke of Cornwall. Its menu is not that promising - the pictures of the food are terrible and we were all a bit concerned, but when you're hungry and pressed for time you're willing to take a chance. Turns out, we're all happy we did - my pad thai (boring, I know) was actually delicious, if a little on the sweet side - it came with proper crushed peanut and chilli garnishes and was an absolutely enormous portion for under £7. We scarfed our food, along with some wine, and then hopped across the road for a wonderful evening of music.

Bacchus Pub & Kitchen

 

177 Hoxton St

London 

N1 6PJ  

I should start this by saying I believe Bacchus is closed now. But I’ll forge ahead anyway. E, S and I were looking for a place to go for a Saturday lunch with our boys right before Christmas. When the first few pubs we tried wouldn’t take reservations, I remembered Bacchus – I’ve been here both in its previous incarnation as a fine dining restaurant but also in its current pub form and enjoyed both. At 2.30pm this day, it was essentially empty and we noticed loving goodbyes scrawled on some walls and pillars – indications that we were there for the last throes. But nevermind, my sea bass was still great, with crisp skin and fluffy roast potatoes underneath. A’s fish pie was good as well, and our two bottles of red helped us all celebrate merrily. And our final chocolate mousse with some tart Morello cherries was much darker and richer than expected, making the portion size perfect. So farewell, Bacchus – I hope something great comes back in your place.

Fish Pie

 

Back in Texas, I thought it would be nice to make dinner for my parents one night, seeing as how the rest of the time they were feeding me five times a day with an abundance of home cooked Chinese food. My mom had plenty of salmon, cod and shrimp in the freezer, so I quickly looked up some recipes for fish pie, picked one that didn’t involve cream or butter (there’s only so far you can push my parents’ adventurousness and I was already mixing cheese with seafood) and also took advantage of their food processor to make prep work a breeze. The result was fabulous and a little lighter than the usual gutbusting pies served in pubs – perfect for a Chinese-American family and some other Chinese-American friends.

Fish Pie

Adapted from JamieOliver.com

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

sea salt

freshly ground black pepper

1 kg potatoes

1 carrot

2 sticks celery

150 g good-quality Cheddar cheese

1 lemon

4 sprigs fresh flat-leaf parsley

300 g salmon fillets, skin off and bones removed

300 g cod fillets, skin off and bones removed

125 g raw peeled king prawns

olive oil

1 good handful kale or spinach, chopped, optional

Splash of milk, or unsalter butter, optional

Method

Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/gas 6 and bring a large pan of salted water to the boil. Peel the potatoes and cut into 2cm chunks. Once the water is boiling, add your potatoes and cook for around 12 minutes, until soft (you can stick your knife into them to check).

Meanwhile, get yourself a deep baking tray or earthenware dish and stand a box grater in it. Peel the carrot. Grate the celery, carrot and Cheddar on the coarse side of the grater. Use the fine side of the grater to grate the zest from the lemon. Finely chop the parsley leaves and stalks and add these to the tray.

Cut the salmon and cod into bite-size chunks and add to the tray with the shrimp. Squeeze over the juice from the zested lemon (no pips please!), drizzle with olive oil and add a good pinch of salt and pepper. If you want to add any spinach or kale, do it now. Mix everything together really well.

By now your potatoes should be cooked, so drain them in a colander and return them to the pan. Drizzle with a couple of good lugs of olive oil and add a pinch of salt and pepper. If using, add the butter and milk as well. Mash until nice and smooth, then spread evenly over the top of the fish and grated veg. Use a fork to rough up the top of the pie so you get plenty of crisp golden bits when it’s done. Place in the preheated oven for around 40 minutes, or until cooked through, crunchy and brown on top. Serve piping hot.

Sylvan Post

 

24-28 Dartmouth Road

London

SE23 3XZ

So it’s not often that you see a post office converted into a pub. And by post office, I don’t mean one of those elaborate historical post offices, I mean a modern day drab 60s concrete block kind of post office. But if you were going to do it, you should definitely aim for something like the Sylvan Post, which has quirky features aplenty (some little snugs in the back that look like jail cells?), a phenomenal beer selection, and food that is better than the average pricing would imply. For a pre-Christmas gathering, we all piled into catch up on stories and stuff ourselves silly – my main of mutton with some truly excellent chips on the side was everything that I wanted on a cold winter’s night. Can’t wait to get back there soon.

 

Smokehouse

 

63-69 Canonbury Rd

London

N1 2DG

Smokehouse has replaced an Islington pub called The House, and I am grateful – for some reason I never really liked The House and found their food overpriced for the quality. Smokehouse, on the other hand, is certainly not cheap, but at least a lot of effort goes into the food and they’re serving dishes I would never dream of making at home. Plus the beer selection is broad and varied, which makes it easy to convince A to visit. We started with the chopped brisket roll & gochujang – shredded brisket meat is shaped into a cylinder and then breaded and deep fried and served alongside a kicky Korean-inspired dipping sauce. I could have happily eaten an entire one on my own but A and I are getting better at sharing. He had the peppered ox-cheek with cauliflower cheese & gravy, while I was so overwhelmed by choices I opted for three sides for my dinner - Smokehouse salad, which consisted of a garden’s worth of vegetables smoked and grilled to impart some extra flavour, the lamb stovies which was quite a hearty dish of lamb stewed with potatoes, and the Korean pulled pork, which is exactly as fall-apart-tender as it needs to be. I think we had a dessert too – the krun chee nut – but I’d skip it next time as I think their strengths are really in the savouries.