The Undercover Critic strikes....

   The Eastbury Hotel, Sherborne

  Date: 23rd January 2009

It's January, it's a bit nippy outside and I think any minute now my credit card bill might come dropping through the letter box reminding me of all my Christmas largesse.  Never mind - on a positive note, we have a new president of the USA, British gas has just sent me a text message informing me that my gas bill is about to be reduced by 10%, a bit of duck tape on the letterbox seems to be keeping postie at bay... and I've managed to scrape together thirty five quid to bag myself a seat at The Eastbury Hotel's January supper club. Things are definitely looking up.

To those on the outside (ie NOT yet members of the Supper Club .... how very DARE you?), The Eastbury's Chef, Brett Sutton, is a bit of a hidden gem at the bottom of Long Street (or the top of Long Street, I'm not quite sure). He's a bit of a genius with ingredients - especially all things local and fresh - and his imagination seems to know no bounds. He keeps a biro behind his ear at all times too - a sure sign of someone ever ready to scribble down ingenious new ideas at any given moment.

Tonight's menu included pre-starter starters and pre-dessert desserts and I think a pre-main course main course.  In other words, there were six courses, all presented with huge imagination and even huger (not sure if that's actually a word but it sounds good) taste.

Cauliflower Veloute in a dear little cup, piping hot and full of flavour; a Boudin of Local Game with parsnip crisps as light as air, Smoked Salmon 'Three Ways' - sorry, you just had to be there to understand, Fillet of local lamb a-topped with a smoked chicken mousse and served with my favourite veggie of all times ... 'purple sprouting' (followed by a pause, without the word broccoli, so very NOW).

Brett snuck in an extra pre-dessert of new season rhubarb, mascarpone and crushed ginger nuts, which I ate with my eyes closed to savour its deliciousness ... the very essence of spring, delivered in winter.

However, it has to be said that Brett's crowning glory was the Dessert of'Still Life' AKA a woodland floor scene complete with basil oil infused chanterelle mushrooms, a perfectly crafted chocolate spider in a spun sugar web, a pannacotta-type thingy and melt in the mouth icecream shaped like a big mushroom with a crunchy top. Mmmmm not describing this really well, but I'm still recovering from the mixture of amazement and delight at this merry little scene all served on a loose tile from the Eastbury's roof. Sometimes genius, skill, imagination. a little craziness and a bit of slate combines for something very special indeed.

I'm not even going to try to describe the petit fours - suffice to say I ate four and each one was a special creation in its own right. So very NOT After Eights but so VERY Brett Sutton.

For more info on The Eastbury's Supper Club run along to  http://www.theeastburyhotel.co.uk

To see tonight's full menu take a peek at Tonight's supper

Just appreciating that when you set up blogs you have to update them ... do help me out here and send me your foodie musings and I'll publish them! In my defence, things have been pretty busy at Ideas On Food HQ (that's just me then) the past few months.  Cornish Sea Salt (for whom I have the pleasure of working with as a N.E.Director) has just properly launched after nearly three years' of planning and hard work.  The harvesting plant is located just eight metres from the edge of the ocean on Cornwall's Lizard Peninsula - a stunning location and one we hope to welcome visitors to soon.  You should start to see the salt appearing in independent stores very soon, so do look out for it and support a brand new West Country sea salt!

Personal foodie highs and lows in the past few months?  Well, a definite high in every sense of the word is the brand new coffee machine that's been installed by Inspire 2 Eat just round the corner from my office.  What a nice bunch they are in there, with a mate's rate for cappuccinos ... the only thing is I've slightly overdone it this week on the caffeine front - extra energy anyone?

Another high was the totally fab fillet steak I had at The Green Restaurant in Sherborne.  They buy all their meat locally and, honestly, it was the meltiest-in-the mouthest piece of steak I've had in years.

Lows .... seeing all the awful, sad looking, factory made sandwich fillings in a not-to-be-named sandwich bar I passed by recently (ring me and ask me!).  Why do places like this want to opt out of boiling an egg (literally - boil some bloomin' eggs and mix them up with mayo, how hard is that?).   Another low was seeing a very reputable deli with gorgeous creamy desserts sitting next to blue cheeses in a deli cabinet - a slice of blue cheesey lemon tart please!

On the whole, we've never had so much choice for excellent things to eat and drink, so do go and explore.  Let me know if you discover any really great or really awful things along the way ...

Sherborne's famous Pack Monday Fair happened today.  Celebrating the completion of building Sherborne Abbey, the fair takes place on the first Monday after 10th October every year.

Living in the centre of town means I woke up to the smell of rehydrated onions and the sound of generators whirring.  From dawn to dusk literally thousands of people flock in by train, bus, foot, push-chair, mobility scooter and skateboard.  The town is filled with hundreds of traders offering everything from big knickers to daffodil bulbs, dodgy perfume (buy one, get five free) along with this season's must-have thermals and acres of 'so thick you can nearly see them' bath towels.  How do I know so much? well NATURALLY, I go there every year - you have to!

With such a captive audience, what happens to the food offering?  Well, there's 'Prawnies' ... an abomination in the world of fake fish - prawn shaped stuff, painted with red stripes and served with lashings of Jif Lemon, Fudge that's evidently 'home-made' but looks like it's come from a less than homely factory, more cheap sausages sizzling than you could shake a pig at and a burger stand on every corner.  Candy floss and 5-for-a-pound donuts complete the must-haves (oh, not to mention avenues of pic-n-mix sweeties).

Alleluia for some of the lovely food on offer too including Brokewood Farm's gorgeous meats (see them regularly at Sherborne Market), Garden Gate Preserves from Gillingham, The crew from Parsons Butchers doing a roaring trade in good old fashioned faggots and mushy peas and a number of other local shops and coffee shops doing sterling stuff despite their shop fronts being largely blocked from view by traders.

Strikes me, Pack Monday would be a great opportunity to gather a lot more of our fantastic local food producers together to enjoy the trade, so maybe next year how about a giant farmer's market in Pageant Gardens? 

Just spent the evening at a Slow Food event in Puddletown (for the disbelievers Puddletown is a real place - near Dorchester, in The Piddle Valley near Tolpuddle and Troy - honest).  Little known fact:  Puddletown used to be called Piddletown but in advance of a royal visit by Queen Victoria, they (powers that be) decided it might be more polite to rename the village Puddletown, so as not to offend. 

Anyway, about 20 of us Slllloooooowww fooders got together in a dear little village hall in the graveyard of the village church and listened to a chat by Barts Spices all about the way they are working with a plantation in Peru to harvest some more unusual chilli pepper varieties.  The evening's menu had a Peruvian influence with lots of chillis, lime, traditional pork stew, fluffly rice, guacamole and even a chocolate and chilli dip to polish things off.  If you don't know much about Slow Food take a peek at www.slowfood.com - there's bound to be a group near you (actually they called it a Convivium which sounds posher but just means a bunch of people who care about the way things are grown and made). 

Well, red letter day, my very first blog.  I wonder if anyone will read it?  It's quite late in the evening but I'm just celebrating having re-written my website ... it's not the most all-singing, all dancing website the world has ever seen (and it is a bit pink, sorry to all you manly types out there) but I have built it all on my tod so I'm quite pleased with it.  As time goes on, I'll add more interesting foodie bits onto it and extra piccies and stuff that you might like to browse of an evening when you're bored with Facebook, Ebay and Coronation Street.

I've been out and about today in London - Wembley and Park Royal to be precise.  Very very pleased to be back in Dorset away from all the nasty traffic.  I did enjoy my meeting though, as it was all part of the exciting launch we're planning  for Cornish Sea Salt and we're working with a fantastic bunch from H&B Foods ... if you don't know them have a look-see at http://www.hb-foods.co.uk/

I'd better add something else on this to make it more foodie .... I know, I can confess to you all (both of you) that ate a Turkish Delight AND a packet of Maltesers between Sparkford and Sherborne.  I feel so ashamed .... but it was a long drive.