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Blog

Magical Cornwall

We’re off on our motorhome travels again, this time around Cornwall in the south-west corner of Britain. I’ll be visiting some interesting places and posting about the great regional food and drink to be found in this part of the world.

First stop is Tintagel on the north coast – an ancient castle up on a rocky headland, with views out to the Atlantic. The site is full of mystery, having links to the legend of King Arthur.

Those making it to the summit are greeted by the imposing figure of Gallos, shown in my main photo above. This statue in bronze symbolises the power of the ancient Cornish rulers who reigned here in the Dark Ages, around the 6th Century AD. His ghostly, semi-transparent, sword-wielding figure evokes the legend of Arthur.

We walked here from our campsite, 3km along this rugged coastline via the South-West Coast Path.

The Castle ruins are on an island, reached by walking across a high suspension bridge that’s replaced the causeway – long since eroded and tumbled down into the sea.

Several steep flights of steps take you down to the beach below, which can only be reached at low tide. The final set of steps has been washed away by the sea, leaving one to clamber over the rocky debris to reach the sand.

Many people make the descent to explore the vast hole cut into the rock face by the waves. It is known as Merlin’s Cave, supposedly the place where the famous wizard resided.

I was surprised how vast it was inside. I took this photo looking out towards the headland opposite and the crashing waves.

Excavations of the Castle site suggest that the people who lived here in the Dark Ages ate and drank well. There is evidence of a sea trading network with the Byzantine Empire, and fine foods and pottery imported from the Mediterranean.

The taste for fine food certainly continues in modern day Cornwall, as a walk up into nearby Tintagel village will show. There is no shortage of tempting pubs and cafes offering delicious Cornish Pasties, cream teas and clotted cream ice cream. Meanwhile, any budding wizards will also find a unique range of shops specialising in all things alternative therapy, sorcery and witchcraft.

Hungry after a morning of walking, climbing and scrabbling over rocks, we settled at the Cornish Bakery, where I opted for this Cornish Pasty. It had a delicious filling of chorizo, mozzarella and Cornish sea salt.

Sweet was a slice of Cornish Pudding, a local take on bread and butter pudding, with pastry baked in custard, laced with berries and chocolate.

Magical!

Today’s musical choice just has to be prog rock: there is enough mysticism about Tintagel to inspire an entire Led Zeppelin album. This track is a duet between Robert Plant and Sandy Denny, from Fairport Convention, over some intricate acoustic mandolin by Jimmy Page. Light up an incense stick and enjoy Led Zeppelin with The Battle of Evermore 🙂

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Blog Snacks

The Giant’s Causeway

While spending this week in Northern Ireland for a family wedding, a visit to the Giant’s Causeway has proven to be a very popular day out.

Geologists will tell you that this vast stetch of coastline was formed 60 million years ago, when the shifting of the Earth’s tectonic plates unleashed molten rock and lava that, over time, has been shaped by rivers and glaciers into the unique honeycomb-patterned, hexagonal basalt columns that we see today.

However, as Irish people will tell you, the real explanation is that the rocks were scattered here by local giant, Finn McCool, as a walkway over to Scotland where he had challenged a neighbouring giant to a fight. The story goes that, on seeing that his opponent was even more gigantic than him, Finn fled back home, ripping up the causeway as he went, leaving just the end of it that we can see today.

Whether it is the science or the Celtic folklore that you find persuasive, you can’t fail to be impressed by your visit.

Designated a UNESCO World heritage Site in 1986, it is now a popular destination for visitors from all over the world. The basalt columns make natural stepping stones, and it is fun clambering over them to reach as close as you dare to those breaking waves rolling in from the Atlantic.

The views out to the Ocean, and east and west along the Antrim coast are spectacular.

All that fresh air and activity had given us a Giant-sized appetite, so back at our guest house I rustled up this snack, that I have no doubt even Finn McCool would appreciate. It is a Soda Farl, split in two, toasted and filled with rashers of bacon, fried egg, cherry tomatoes and slices of avocado. I made 6 of these – one for each of our party – and they were wolfed down. Luckily I was able to take this photo of one of them before it disappeared!

Another great Northern Irish track to add to the ADK Playlist – this time we travel along the North Down coast to Bangor, home of Snow Patrol’s Gary Lightbody. Here they are with You’re All I Have.

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Blog Breakfast

Breakfast in Belfast

This week I am visiting Northern Ireland for a family wedding. I’ll be making the most of the opportunity to taste some traditional delights of the local foodie scene, including the Ulster Fry, Potato Farls, Egg and Bacon Sodas and, of course, the legendary Belfast Bap!

Arriving in Belfast in the very early morning, off the overnight ferry from Liverpool, we headed to St. George’s Market on May Street, for breakfast.

St. George’s has been here in the city centre since the Victorian era. It is now the oldest survivor of the Markets District that grew up as the city began to thrive as a commercial port. Originally built for the sale of butter, eggs, poultry and fruit, it expanded over the years to include clothing, hardware and antiques.

In the 1980s it was threatened with closure, the costs of maintaining a Victorian building, the impact of the Troubles, and ever more stringent hygiene regulations, bringing severe challenges. However, a campaign by the City Council, traders and the public resulted in a Heritage Lottery Fund grant for the refurbishment of the building, making it fit for the 21st century.

That proved to be a truly inspired decision: with ever more people visiting Belfast in the years following the Good Friday Agreement, St.George’s swings into operation every weekend, its offering now including a high quality range of local, traditional food and drink.

It had been a long sailing from Liverpool, and seeing these tempting piles of freshly baked Potato Breads, Baps and Soda Farls heightened my appetite!

After a walk around the stalls, we settled on Sizzle and Roll, as shown in my main photo at the top of the post.

I opted for a Belfast Bap, shown above. It is a large, soft floury bread roll, my choice of filling being rashers of bacon, tomato, Cashel Blue cheese, rocket leaves, crispy onions and onion relish. My wife chose a mini Ulster Fry of bacon, egg and sausage served inside a toasted Soda Farl – the name for an individual portion of soda bread. Everything was cooked hot and fresh as we waited.

We bought our coffees from the S.D. Bell’s stall, which is one of Ireland’s oldest independent coffee roasters and tea merchants.

There is some excellent food for sale on the other market stalls – this home bakery had some interesting, freshly baked loaves of bread on offer.

St George’s is a great place to pass the time just wandering, checking out the diverse range of stalls, with everything from wet fish to original art, an amazing selection of local cheeses from all over Ireland, souvenirs and antique collectibles.

A hot tasty breakfast and a wonderful way to start our visit. Let’s hope the coming week brings more days like this! That reminds me of a song I’ll now add to the ADK Playlist by local boy, Van Morrison – here with Days Like This.

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Blog Mains

Baked Mackerel Al Fresco

This weekend we spent a few days down in the New Forest in our motorhome. A short cycle ride down to the beach, and along the coast, brought us to Mudeford Quay, a local sea fishing centre and home of a fresh fish stall.

Being a working quay, there is always lots going on to watch and do. Think you can catch a crab with a line and some bait? This is a good place to have a try (see below). Just make sure you don’t fall off that wall into the Solent!

There are views over to the Needles on the Isle of Wight, and a little ferry traversing the strong currents between here and Hengistbury Head.

The sea fish stall is as unpretentious as the rest of this delightfully busy area. Here it is tucked away behind the nets and lobster baskets, its roof heavily weathered by the sea air.

Inside, local catch of the day is sea bass, mackerel and bream. We chose a couple of mackerel, which this helpful lady cleaned and filleted for us, before biking them back to the camp site.

That evening, I wrapped them in foil parcels and cooked them on my Cadac Safari Chef. This is a portable and versatile grill that plugs directly into the gas tank of the motorhome. It makes al fresco cooking a breeze.

As you can see from my photo, it is obligatory at this stage of the process for the chef to have a chilled craft beer alongside 🙂 . Today’s choice is Neck Oil by Beavertown Brewery.

12 minutes later and the foil parcels are opened carefully, revealing the tender flakes of the baked fillets.

Cooked, freshly caught mackerel tastes great, so needs little added – just some lemon and a few twists of black pepper. We ate them with steamed new potatoes and broccoli as the sun was setting. Oh, and with a glass of chilled Pinot Grigio, of course.

From sea to plate in under 24 hours!

So what musical track can I pair with this post? There is such a choice: Hooked on a Feeling? Under the Sea? Maybe Rose Royce with Fishing on a Star? Anything by Fleetwood Mackerel?

I’ve settled on this one: Kayleigh by Marillion. The name of their lead singer? Fish, of course 🙂

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Blog Snacks

Au Revoir, Bergerac

The time has come to leave the Dordogne after a lovely holiday, and head back to the UK.

We have certainly dined well during our stay, as should be clear from my last few posts. My favourite meal in France remains a very simple one, however – a summer spread of cheese, paté, hams and salad that we have enjoyed outside in the sun most evenings, as shown in my photos above and below.

We’ve enjoyed baguettes from the local boulangerie, baked fresh and collected every morning, and best eaten the same day. They have a crisp exterior, and soft, buttery textured inner that carries a real taste.

A visit to the fromagerie is always fun, as there are so many French cheeses to try. We’ve usually opted for a cheeseboard comprising a soft, a hard and a blue: in the one below the soft is a Vieux Pané, the hard cheese a Tomme de Montagne, and the blue a Basque Bleue.

Paté de fois gras goes well spread on a hunk of baguette, and local cured hams from the charcuterie have been tastily paired with chunks of ripe, golden melon from that marché in Bergerac.

Enjoyed with a glass of Bergerac Rouge, of course. While watching the sun set.

Time to say au revoir.

I’ve downloaded my listening for the journey back from Bergerac Airport. I’ve chosen a 2023 digital remaster of New Order’s Substance album, which is sounding even greater than ever. Here’s a track to show what I mean: Confusion ’87.

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Blog Desserts

Baba au Rhum

Of all the pastries we have enjoyed on our current holiday in France (and there have been a few 🙂 ), the one consistently rated the highest in our party has been the Baba au Rhum, or Rum Baba.

This eastern European delicacy was reinvented in Paris in the early 19th Century. The story goes that a cake that had become a little dry was enlivened by a little soaking in some rum.

Since then patisseries all over France have never looked back. Fast forward 200 years and this is the scene in our local boulangerie here in the Dordogne. Amidst a range of to-die-for pastries sits a line of Baba au Rhum.

As you can see, the Baba is served with its own pipette already inserted into the cake. The pipette is filled with rum, which is injected into the sponge before eating, by carefully squeezing the pipette with one’s fingers. It makes a dessert that is light, moist and boozy, topped off with a swirl of whipped cream. Mmm!

The Rum Baba has had some stiff competition from the patisseries we have frequented this week, see below.

Or maybe check out this selection..

Every one a piece of culinary artwork that it is very difficult to fault. In such company, it is saying a lot that the Baba au Rhum has been rated so highly by our group.

Formidable!

I can’t say whether the cake inspired LCD Soundsystem to record this track, but it’s a song I really like, so here it is: New Body Rhumba.

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Blog

Déjeuner à Mélange

On holiday in France, and keen to experience some top regional cuisine, we book a table for 4 at Melange, a restaurant in our nearest village, Saussignac.

Like many rural villages we have seen in the Dordogne, it is small and sleepy. There is a lovely old church, a war memorial dressed for the D-Day commemorations, and a cobbled square. There is little traffic and few people to be seen out.

That changes, though, when the churchbells chime to say that midi – 12 noon – has struck, and this charming old building opens its doors.

Soon cars were arriving and all the tables on the terrace were filling up. Aren’t I glad that we booked!

Our 3 course menu du jour was delicious, and beautifully presented. The restaurant’s chef clearly has an artistic streak, judging by the stylish way the dressings and sauces are swept around the plate to get the mouth watering. Well, this country has quite some pedigree when it comes to art: Cezanne, Matisse, and Monet to name a few. Why shouldn’t that extend to culinary creation?

For my Entree, I chose the cod and yuzu croquette, which was served with baby gem lettuce and a sweetcorn and avocado salsa. That is red pepper aioli you can see in the photo below, swept across the dish in broad brush strokes, with carefully positioned blobs of yuzu dressing.

Yuzu is something I hadn’t come across before, and I do not even recall seeing it in any of our shops. Of Asian origin, and now grown in France, it is a citrus fruit that is kind of a cross between a lemon and a mandarin orange. It’s a natural for pairing with the fish in the croquette, therefore.

My Plat, or main course, was a fillet of sardine, served with rocket pesto, roasted cherry tomato, and chive and lemon gremolata. The fennel came en deux facons: firstly as a roasted bulb, and secondly as a puree that looks like it has been extravagantly combed across the plate with traditional Gallic flourish – see below.

The gremolata I hadn’t come across before, and I will definitely have a go at making this back in the ADK Kitchen. It is a garnish comprising seasonal European ingredients all minutely chopped: red onion, garlic, chives, citrus zest and herbs, blended with olive oil.

Dessert, shown below, was Tarte a l’abricot – apricot on a biscuit crumb base – with olive caramel wafers and a scoop of yoghurt ice cream.

The apricot had a real zing, and the yoghurt slightly less sweet than more traditional ice cream. The olive caramel wafers are made from pureed black olives and sugar, giving a sweet yet slightly bitter taste that I think goes well in a fruity sweet.

I rounded things off with a cappuccino that was served with a Canelé de Bordeaux, a small caramel pastry that is traditional in this region of France.

A thoroughly enjoyable couple of hours with great food, much inspiration for future cooking, and the company of family and friends. The price was reasonable also – my 3 course menu du jour was €24 (£20 or $25), which I considered fair value.

A glimpse into the unrushed life of a quiet village in the Dordogne that enjoys its food. As Dublin’s B*Witched put it, C’est La Vie !

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Blog Mains

Au Marché

One of the great joys of being a foodie on holiday in France is making a visit to the local market, or ‘marché’. So, while here in the Dordogne Valley, we set out for the local town of Bergerac on market day. Some of the fresh produce we bought inspired our evening meal back at the farmhouse. More of that in a moment.

It was a beautiful warm and sunny morning as we arrived. The market was already well under way, this array of soft fruit was glinting in the sun, and business was brisk.

The market isn’t just about stocking up with provisions for the week, however – there’s a real sense of market day being an opportunity for local people and traders to meet and catch up. In between happily chatting with customers, this chap sold us a bag of his healthy crop of radishes. Simply washed, topped and tailed, they made a light, peppery and crunchy snack alongside cold beers.

A long queue of discerning French shoppers waiting patiently to buy their food is usually a reliable sign of a good market stall. So it was with this charcuterie stand, where beef carpaccio was the ready prepared Plat du Jour. The charcuterie included local merguez sausages, which are long and thin with the texture of chorizo, and which went well later on our barbecue.

All the fruit and veg was seasonal, fresh and presented attractively. The range of tomatoes was something else, and they all looked luscious in the mid-morning sunshine.

Garlic is a staple in French cooking, and I treated myself to one of these wonderful looking purple bulbs to take home. Presentation-wise, I liked the juxtaposition of vivid colours alongside these wedges of butternut squash.

And so to that evening meal. I hadn’t come across white asparagus before, being more used to the green variety we have in the shops in the UK. It is popular in central Europe however, so I decided to try some.

It is essentially the same plant, but is grown underground, which stops it turning green. It has a slightly more intense taste, and requires a little more prep by peeling from the end of the spear tip to the base of the stalk. Like all asparagus, the woody bit at the base needs trimming off also.

I steamed the spears for 20 mins, then wrapped them in local prosciutto, and warmed them on a plate in the oven for 10 mins. They were then served with a knob of melting butter, a squeeze of fresh lemon and a few twists of black pepper.

The dish was enjoyed by our group, with a glass of chilled Bergerac Blanc on our terrace in the evening sun.

Voilà!

Time for some more French-inspired rock. This is The Stranglers with Goodbye Toulouse.

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Blog Drink

Chateau de Monbazillac

Vive la France!

This week I am off on my travels again. We are holidaying with our very good friends in the Dordogne Valley in south-west France. Expect to be hearing over the next few posts, therefore, about some of the lovely food and drink that this region has to offer.

The base for our stay is a delightful, restored stone farmhouse in the countryside, just west of Bergerac. Built in the 19th century, it retains all its character and, I am pleased to say, now has some 21st century luxuries (like wifi, ensuites and a dishwasher) incorporated.

Discovering that we are situated along the Route des Vins, we set out to find our bearings on a tour that takes in one vineyard after another. The climate and soil conditions here are near-perfect for growing grape vines, making the Dordogne Valley one of France’s prolific wine-producing regions.

To learn a little more, we stop at one of the major vineyards along the route for a tour and some wine tasting. Chateau de Monbazillac is a microcosm of modern French history – a splendid, ornate chateau and estate that flourished in the 16th Century, before being brought down to earth by the revolting local peasants in the revolution of 1789. After some period of flux, it eventually found its feet again, being taken over by a wine producers’ co-operative that now markets its wine collectively under the Monbazillac name.

The Chateau is beautifully restored and maintained, with exhibitions on modern wine production, and glorious views out across the Dordogne Valley towards the town of Bergerac, taking in row after row of vines.

The choice of wines for our tasting took in a Bergerac blanc, a rosé, a fresh and fruity red and a deep red with the scent of oak barrels and a hint of saline on the throat. After some deliberation, our group opted to buy a bottle each of the two reds.

I can assure you these are being fully savoured on our terrace in the evening with a few platters of cheese, ham, pate and locally baked bread (I will go into further details in coming posts about that cheeseboard 🙂 )

After a relatively wet spring here, the weather is warming up, and we are looking forward to a relaxing few days of good food and wine with sunshine. Check back this weekend for a further report.

In the meantime, I shall leave you with a track that has a distinct French connection via the bassist, Jean Jacques Burnel. Here are The Stranglers with La Folie.

À bientôt!

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Blog Music

Northern Soul Orchestrated

This week I’ve been to see the Northern Soul Orchestrated Tour at the Royal Festival Hall in London.

Northern Soul really is the bop that just won’t drop. It’s a subculture that developed in nightclubs across the North of England in the 1960s and 70s. DJs played mostly lesser known singles and B-sides by American soul musicians that had been put out by Motown, Chess, Vee-Jay and other independent labels.

It was uplifting music, with soulful lyrics that celebrated the joy and elation to be found in everyday experiences. It resonated with northern working class life, and tapped into the Mod scene that was also prominent at the time.

Clubs like the Blackpool Mecca, Manchester’s Twisted Wheel and the Wigan Casino soon assumed legendary status on the Northern Soul scene, staging all-nighters where afficionados could forget their cares by dancing Saturday night away into Sunday morning.

The scene has never really gone away since, with the music influencing numerous others over the years, from Dexy’s Midnight Runners to Amy Winehouse and Fatboy Slim, to name a few.

The current wave of popularity began last year, when the Proms Season at the Royal Albert Hall in London held a special Northern Soul event, bringing together some fabulously talented soul singers, a rhythm and blues band and the BBC Orchestra.

The performances celebrated and breathed new life into a roster of Northern Soul classics, with orchestral arrangements by Joe Duddell and Fiona Brice. Songs included Hold Back the Night (by The Trammps), Out on the Floor (Dobie Gray), and Tainted Love (Gloria Jones), amongst others. The event was so successful it has now been taken out on the road on the Northern Soul Orchestrated Tour.

Which is how Northern Soul came to be at the Royal Festival Hall. All the hits were here, with beautiful strings, euphoric trombones, booming, passion-filled vocals and sparkling xylophones. It’s the equivalent of taking those old scratchy vinyl 7-inches and B-sides you once loved playing on a mono turntable, and hearing them afresh, performed live and completely digitally remastered.

The Night, originally by Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons, was received rapturously by the audience, as was There’s a Ghost in My House (by R. Dean Taylor). Punters were invited to dance in the aisles, and plenty obliged, many sporting 60s fashions, Small Faces haircuts, Harrington jackets and Fred Perry T-shirts.

I liked hearing Sliced Tomatoes, an instrumental originally performed by Just Brothers, now instantly recognisable as the guitar track sampled by Fatboy Slim in Rockafeller Skank.

Host and curator, Stuart Maconie, from 6 Music, introduced the 3 before 8 – the 3 tracks that signalled the ending of the all-nighter at Wigan Casino back in the day as 8am approached. I have to say, as a sleepy head who values a good night’s kip, a dancing all-nighter would have been my worst nightmare. I once tried a horror film all-nighter, having to leave to go home to bed, practically falling asleep after only the second movie, and forgoing a 1960s Peter Cushing classic (which is saying something) in the process.

So the Wigan Casino all-nighter would not have been for me – I’d have been tucked up nice and toasty in bed, well before the first round of pep pills was being handed out.

Thankfully, this show finished on the right side of midnight, allowing ample time to get to nearby Waterloo Station and then home. There was a real buzz of elation as everyone filed out of the arena.

There are so many tracks I could choose to add to the ADK Playlist, but I will settle on this one, which opened the show and typifies the Northern Soul sound. This is The M.V.P.s with Turnin’ My Heartbeat Up.