Category: Blog

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Blog Snacks

End of the Party

While sampling the foodie delights of the West Midlands, during my stay here for the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, I’ve had the great fortune to come across the Merry Mouse. Who, you say?

The Merry Mouse is a Deli Van that visits the markets around the region. It’s particular speciality is local cheeses – often produced by small farms. You can’t fail to notice the distinctive livery.

Aided by helpful descriptions of the cheeses, and the knowledgable seller, I decided to put together my own Merry Mouse Cheeseboard.

First up was Cheddar Hop – a wedge of tasty, mature cheddar that had been rolled in toasted hops. This gives it a spiced and smoky flavour, with best bitter notes.

Accompanying this was a piece of Colston Bassett Stilton. The description given by the MM was that this was simply the best Stilton you can get. I’m not inclined to disagree with that assessment.

Finally, we had a slice of Cote Hill Blue, a soft and unpasteurised creamy blue brie-style cheese, made on a small farm in Osgodby, Lincolnshire.

Served up with some oatcakes and red grapes, and with the closing ceremony of the Games on TV, it made quite the occasion.

It’s been a thoroughly enjoyable 11 days at Birmingham 2022. The elite sports have been great to watch, and the Festival Sites, other cultural activities and local food and drinks, a joy to experience. All in all, it’s demonstrated the rich diversity of the West Midlands. The Games have shown once again the power of sport to bring people together and overcome barriers – something we were all in need of after the last couple of years of enforced separation and restrictions.

During the Ceremony, the Commonwealth Games baton was handed on to Regional Victoria, in Australia, who will host the next event in 2026. I will be visiting Victoria this winter and am looking forward to discovering more of the local food and culture there (including the local cheeses). However, more of this in a few months’ time

For now, it seems apt to close an amazing 11 days with this track from one of Birmingham’s own – The Beat.



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Blog

Stairway to Heaven

Regular visitors will know that my blog is founded on the twin themes of good food and great music. When I discovered, therefore, that Warwick (where I am staying while at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games) has a great cafe at the end of a walk known locally as the ‘Stairway to Heaven’, I just had to pay a visit. And let me say straight away that there are no prizes for guessing the latest track to be added to the ADK Spotify Playlist.

The walk in question is a canal towpath alongside Hatton Locks – a flight of 21 individual basins within which the water level is made to rise and fall through the opening and closing of lock gates. This enables canalboats to gradually negotiate a total climb of 45 metres over a distance of 4km, via a series of steps.

It starts at Bottom Lock, continues through Middle Lock and (you guessed it) ends at Top Lock, which is where Hatton Locks Cafe is situated, in an old red brick cottage. It really is a lovely location, with fine views, and has a lot of character – the small cafe building crammed with canal boating memorabilia.

Two particular points I found noteworthy about the cafe. Firstly, it has one of the best ranges of speciality teas that I have come across in a cafe of this size. After some deliberation, our eventual selections were a strawberry and raspberry infusion, and a green tea. Secondly, the chalkboard outside implores you to try one of Debbie’s famous home-made scones. Tempted, we did indeed give one a try, with butter, and it was delicious (so thank you, Debbie).

Initially I had presumed that the name given by the local boatmen was inspired by the famous song. However, the canal has been here since 1799, and Led Zeppelin IV wasn’t released until 1971, so this can’t have been so. Maybe it was the other way round? This is not so far-fetched – the band are originally from the West Midlands after all. Is it possible therefore that this is the place that inspired what many of Led Zep’s fans consider to be the band’s finest hour?

I pictured Jimmy Page sitting here at a picnic table, taking in the beautiful views as he picked out the first few bars of that famous intro on his acoustic guitar. While sipping a lemon and ginger tea. And munching on one of Debbie’s scones.

It makes me wonder…

Categories
Blog Drinks

Save it for Later

Next stop on my foodie tour of the West Midlands, while here for the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, is Hill Close Gardens in Warwick. It’s a set of Victorian gardens that was nearly lost to housing development in the 90’s, only to be rescued through the campaigning work of some dedicated locals. The gardens are now restored and open to visitors, giving an insight into how our forefathers managed a plot of land to feed families with a healthy crop of home grown fruit and vegetables. Additionally, it shows the role gardening played in supporting their wellbeing, through respite from busy lives as merchants and shopkeepers in a growing 19th Century English town. It’s a lesson many of us would do well to remember today.

At this time of year the trees are full of traditional varieties of English apple that you will not find on the shelves of our supermarkets. Golden Delicious? Pink Lady? Jazz? No, nowhere in sight. However, if you’re interested in seeing the likes of Cox’s Orange Pippin, Ross Nonpareil, Laxton’s Epicure or the wonderfully middle-England named Reverend W. Wilkes (shown in the photo above), then this is the place to come. They are here in abundance, weighing down the heavily-laden branches of some very old trees.

The Gardens are managed on a not for profit basis and run largely by volunteers. Other fruit and veg spotted on our trip included beans, plums, courgettes and beetroot, to name a few. It is possible to buy some of the produce, including bags of windfall apples, but I opted for a bottle of juice made from the apples in the gardens. It’s already been chilled and opened, and tastes delicious!

Back at #B2022, since my last post we have attended a couple more events. The Lawn Bowls at Leamington Spa was all about precision, skill and strategy, while the Basketball 3×3 at Smithfield a frenetic and action-packed race for points against a fast beating clock. Both were excellent spectator sports in their own way.

On the musical side, it’s good to see that the soundtrack at events and Fan Festival sites is featuring Birmingham musicians, like Duran Duran, ELO, Slade and Joan Armatrading. My personal favourites are UB40 and The Beat, who have many great tracks. I will get some of these added to the ADK Playlist. By the way, did I mention that we have saved some of that lovely apple juice in the fridge for later?

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Blog

Warwick Food Market

For the next week and a bit I am based in the West Midlands with tickets for a number of events at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games. In between enjoying the great sport I am sampling the various foodie delights of the region – starting today with the Saturday Market in the old town of Warwick.

The Market was full of stalls from local producers selling fruit and veg, craft beer, coffee, cakes, cheese and much, much more. You can see a few of these from the photos.

We are self-catering in our motorhome while here, and managed to do our shop for the next few days. This includes a salmon and broccoli quiche and a slice of local cheddar coated in roasted hops – one of my favourite cheeses. Some more of these purchases will feature in future posts.

One of the best things about today’s Market was the big screen showing live action from the Games. So with shopping done, we could sit in a deckchair and watch the marathon live from Birmingham 2022.

Local markets are always interesting to explore, and a great way to get yourself some fresh tasty food while supporting local producers.

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Blog Recipes Starters

Yellow

Today’s starter is a lemon hummus, based on a recipe by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. I added a little less lemon juice than the recipe, and added fresh coriander to the usual base of blitzed chickpeas, tahini and olive oil. Topped off with a sprinkle of ground cumin, and served up with breadsticks and crudites, accompanied by a glass of prosecco. Mmm!

Pitched into this yellow earthenware bowl, I think I enjoyed the bright summer sunshine colour of the dish almost as much as the fresh taste. Kept reminding me of this great track from Coldplay, now the latest addition to the ADK Playlist.

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Blog Desserts

Seven Days in Sunny July

With this week’s great weather set to continue, I am looking forward to cooking for friends coming over this weekend. I plan to get much of the preparation done in advance, so we can make the most of the time together al fresco, relaxing and catching up over cold drinks and lunch. Home-made ice cream makes an ideal dessert for this, as it can be made earlier in the week and left to sit in the freezer till it’s required.

This is particularly true this time of year. We are lucky to have some great soft fruit producers locally (which also helps to keep the food miles down). My photo shows the batch of strawberries I’ve bought to make into ice cream. As I write this, they are chopped, mashed and soaking in sugar and lemon juice in the fridge, waiting to be combined with whipped double cream and churned for a half hour in the ice cream maker. All being well, there should be another post in a few days showing some scoops of the finished product!

Meanwhile, here’s a favourite track of mine by Jamiroquai, that seems to capture that summertime feeling.

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Blog Mains

Soup-ermassive

Today’s crop from the local community farm had soup written all over it – turnip, swede, carrots, potatoes and a handful of flatleaf parsley. I added onion and celery, and defrosted 1 litre of chicken stock from a previous Sunday roast. Throw in around 100g of pea and barley soup mix and simmer for 40 mins. Plunge in the handheld blender for a few blitzes to give it just the right consistency. Served with a loaf of sourdough for dipping, and eaten (again) al fresco.

This harvest of fresh, natural ingredients made enough for two hearty servings, with about 3 – 4 left over. Soup-ermassive! Earlier in the day I had been lying in the warm sun listening to Muse’s Black Holes and Revelations album on my headphones, so it seems apt to add this latest track to the ADK Playlist. Take it away, Muse.

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Blog Mains

Both Ends Burning

Well, that’s a good description of how it’s felt this last few days in the UK heatwave. After lots of no-cook meals and salads recently, the temperature in the kitchen finally subsided sufficiently, so that we could contemplate turning the cooker back on again.

It had to be something quick, however, so as not to undo the good work of the increasingly refreshing afternoon breeze coming across the back garden. Cue the classic midweek standby – the omelette. This one had a Spanish feel to it, using up some leftover Jersey new potatoes (from the potato salads), half a sweet red pepper and a few chopped black olives. I mixed in the rest of a dish of ricotta with the eggs, chopped fresh spring onions from the garden and some grated cheddar. Served up with seasonal freshly picked steamed green veg on the side – on this occasion french beans, mange tout and broad beans.

Eaten al fresco to stay cool. And speaking of staying cool, let’s add some Roxy Music to the ADK Playlist:



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Blog

Paint It Blackcurrant

Delighted to have picked up this crop of fresh blackcurrants from our local community farm. As we’re currently bracing ourselves for the hottest day of the year here in the UK, I’ve decided to make some cooling blackcurrant ice cream with my Cuisinart ice cream maker, so am currently investigating recipes. All helpful ideas and suggestions welcome! Watch this space for a post later this week about the finished article.

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Blog

More Posts About Music and Food

Well, I’ve been pleasantly surprised over the last couple of days to see the first few likes appearing on the posts here on my new blog/website. Surprised in particular as, er, I hadn’t realised it was public yet, while still under development. Never mind, I’m learning as I go, so please accept that things are still something of a work in progress! There are still aspects to be refined so all feedback is welcome, please.

I’ve been toying with the name – another close contender has been ‘More Posts about Music and Food’, being a pretty apt description of how it’s shaping up. It’s following the style of Talking Heads’ great second album, ‘More Songs About Buildings and Food’, and the song by which the Undertones paid tribute, below. What do people think?