Friday, December 23, 2011
A tale of two stews
On Wednesday we had what I had expected to be the last Irish stew of the year. There was a slight change in the format in that as the butcher was busy with festive deliveries, I suggested that he did not bother with the rather time consuming longitudinal saw through the spine, settling rather for latitudinal chops, or perhaps transverse swipes, with the cleaver. The result included what amounted to three double best end of neck chops. Otherwise the usual drill: lard, onions, lentils and potatoes. Served with brussels sprouts.
But then I heard that the Corkishman who runs the 'White Swan' in Mill Road in Cambridge Town was offering Irish Stew for lunch at £3.95 the bowl, plus roll. So up at the crack of dawn, or what passes for the crack of dawn for someone five years retired, and off to Victoria Station where on arrival I noticed a cloud of train spotters around a very serious looking steam locomotive, grandly puffing away, or rather up. It was not moving. In the words of the immortal Rev. Awdry, main line job rather than branch line. Full coal tender. Green paint. The only disappointment was the train that it was presumably destined to haul was a rather shabby looking affair. Perhaps it would have looked grander if I had been near enough to cop all the cut glass and candles.
Off to Bressenden Place for a Bullingdon and headed off up Victoria Street where I narrowly missed an entire red cabbage which was rolling across my path. Carried on to King's Cross, commiting just one traffic offence in the form of a right turn into Shaftesbury Avenue while heading north up Charing Cross Road, and dropping the Bullingdon off at St. Chad's Street. And so on to Cambridge Town where I disembarked at the shiny new platform 7, an arrangement which lengthened the walk to Mill Road by a hundred yards or so. Paid my respects to the flats on the site of the 'Argyll', which had once been a provincial version of TB, and after various vicissitudes arrived at the 'White Swan', where they did indeed serve Irish stew. Deeply impressed because very few pubs freelance their food these days, nearly all being tied down to the corporate food plan. Indeed, a Corkishman did try to do stew at TB, to be firmly put in his place by the then operator, Magic Pubs, at that time a subsidiary of Greene King, better known as the brewers of a fine IPA.
Decent portion for the £3.95. The real thing, albeit not made to the same recipe that I use. Small lumps of meat without a bone in sight. No lentils in sight either, but there were some carrots instead. Broth good if a touch peppery for me - a cook who rarely adds salt or pepper to anything. And the Corkishman was sufficiently impressed with us to box up the remaining two portions for us to take away, for free, on the grounds that it was the end of the batch and he was probably not going to sell any more of it that day.
Next stop the Fitzwilliam to look over two small exhibitions, one of fancies from the Hapsburg Treasure Chest called 'Splendour & Power' and one about Vermeer called 'Vermeer's Women', this last providing an opportunity to check that they were taking proper care of the three important pictures they had borrowed from London, two Vermeers and a De Hooch, which they were. And the young lady minding the cloakroom seemed to think that minding a portion of Irish stew was OK although, sensibly, she did pop it into a second plastic for safe keeping.
The oldest entry from the Hapsburgs was a rather impressive ring from 1400, said to have been carved from a single sapphire.
I found 4 Vermeer's in the other exhibition, two from London which I knew well and one of which is reproduced above the fireplace in FIL's room, and two much smaller one's which I did not know so well, despite one of them having been reproduced above the piano in the house where I grew up. But seeing them with other painters from the same time reminded one of how good Vermeer is. I have read that his paintings are full of symbolism, but what I usually go for is the serenity of his compositions.
Then off to another boozer of TB stamp, this one the 'Grapes' at the top of Histon Road. Pleased to say that the tone of the place had not changed much and that while it only sold Greene King IPA out of some complicated contraption which makes the IPA taste rather keggy (I have come across such a thing at the Vauxhall Griffin at Vauxhall (http://www.thevauxhallgriffin.com/) before now), it did have an acceptable if unknown substitute.
After various other adventures eventually found my way back to Epsom, where I found that the BH had indeed roasted our triple smoked half gammon. A phrase which reminded me of the triple vintage cider of my youth. I understand that empty bottles in good condition now change hands on ebay for surprisingly large sums.
But then I heard that the Corkishman who runs the 'White Swan' in Mill Road in Cambridge Town was offering Irish Stew for lunch at £3.95 the bowl, plus roll. So up at the crack of dawn, or what passes for the crack of dawn for someone five years retired, and off to Victoria Station where on arrival I noticed a cloud of train spotters around a very serious looking steam locomotive, grandly puffing away, or rather up. It was not moving. In the words of the immortal Rev. Awdry, main line job rather than branch line. Full coal tender. Green paint. The only disappointment was the train that it was presumably destined to haul was a rather shabby looking affair. Perhaps it would have looked grander if I had been near enough to cop all the cut glass and candles.
Off to Bressenden Place for a Bullingdon and headed off up Victoria Street where I narrowly missed an entire red cabbage which was rolling across my path. Carried on to King's Cross, commiting just one traffic offence in the form of a right turn into Shaftesbury Avenue while heading north up Charing Cross Road, and dropping the Bullingdon off at St. Chad's Street. And so on to Cambridge Town where I disembarked at the shiny new platform 7, an arrangement which lengthened the walk to Mill Road by a hundred yards or so. Paid my respects to the flats on the site of the 'Argyll', which had once been a provincial version of TB, and after various vicissitudes arrived at the 'White Swan', where they did indeed serve Irish stew. Deeply impressed because very few pubs freelance their food these days, nearly all being tied down to the corporate food plan. Indeed, a Corkishman did try to do stew at TB, to be firmly put in his place by the then operator, Magic Pubs, at that time a subsidiary of Greene King, better known as the brewers of a fine IPA.
Decent portion for the £3.95. The real thing, albeit not made to the same recipe that I use. Small lumps of meat without a bone in sight. No lentils in sight either, but there were some carrots instead. Broth good if a touch peppery for me - a cook who rarely adds salt or pepper to anything. And the Corkishman was sufficiently impressed with us to box up the remaining two portions for us to take away, for free, on the grounds that it was the end of the batch and he was probably not going to sell any more of it that day.
Next stop the Fitzwilliam to look over two small exhibitions, one of fancies from the Hapsburg Treasure Chest called 'Splendour & Power' and one about Vermeer called 'Vermeer's Women', this last providing an opportunity to check that they were taking proper care of the three important pictures they had borrowed from London, two Vermeers and a De Hooch, which they were. And the young lady minding the cloakroom seemed to think that minding a portion of Irish stew was OK although, sensibly, she did pop it into a second plastic for safe keeping.
The oldest entry from the Hapsburgs was a rather impressive ring from 1400, said to have been carved from a single sapphire.
I found 4 Vermeer's in the other exhibition, two from London which I knew well and one of which is reproduced above the fireplace in FIL's room, and two much smaller one's which I did not know so well, despite one of them having been reproduced above the piano in the house where I grew up. But seeing them with other painters from the same time reminded one of how good Vermeer is. I have read that his paintings are full of symbolism, but what I usually go for is the serenity of his compositions.
Then off to another boozer of TB stamp, this one the 'Grapes' at the top of Histon Road. Pleased to say that the tone of the place had not changed much and that while it only sold Greene King IPA out of some complicated contraption which makes the IPA taste rather keggy (I have come across such a thing at the Vauxhall Griffin at Vauxhall (http://www.thevauxhallgriffin.com/) before now), it did have an acceptable if unknown substitute.
After various other adventures eventually found my way back to Epsom, where I found that the BH had indeed roasted our triple smoked half gammon. A phrase which reminded me of the triple vintage cider of my youth. I understand that empty bottles in good condition now change hands on ebay for surprisingly large sums.
# posted by Jim @ 7:15 AM 
