Monday, March 25, 2013

And on his farm he had some pigs...

The English have a bad rap for their cuisine. I don't blame the rest of the world - after all having spent some time in boarding school there more than ten years ago, I was convinced no other place in the world had worse food.

The 'classics' of English cuisine are usually Pub Food gone wrong. Soggy fries with over battered fish, bland mushy peas, overly salty steak and kidney pie with a starchy sauce, you get the drift.

For a long time, the only redeeming quality of the cuisine was their afternoon British cream teas, with lovely soft scone and rich clotted cream. And perhaps, English breakfast, which was a treat we'd have once a week for lunch, black pudding and all. I still 'oft long for clotted cream and scones here in the states. Fortunately or not, the closest they come is when I make them at home...


Anyway, in the more recent years, the cuisine has undergone a resurgence, with Fergus Henderson at the helm. The chef of St John's (re) paved the way into the classic British gastropub, with nose to tail eating at his London eatery.

Such has been the turnaround in the food, that I now find myself yearning for the streets of London, pub crawling the same way you'd go tapas hopping in Spain.

I was fortunate enough to be able to pay tribute to the Queen's land in September, and satiate some of my craving for this revamped fare, Six months pregnant and with a 18 month in tow.

We spent about 10 days in the new forest, which is the oldest nature conservancy in England, commissioned by King William I some 1000 years ago. There isn't a lot to do for a city girl like me, but we managed to score some really good eats. The local pubs had some of the best fish and chips, and the cream teas were fantastic wherever we went! I even managed to organize a family reunion at The Cider Pantry, which was fabulous even for a simple Sunday roast lunch.

All that for another day, but best was definitely a restaurant called 'The Pig', heavily influenced by nose to tail eating. Set on some lovely grounds, the restaurant is part of a high end B&B with an old world victorian feel to it.

We chanced upon it on recommendations and loved it so much we had to go back the next day for more.

Homage to the name, the menu has a series on small plates to start, all from various parts of the fine animal - Crunchy crackling, fried bits of lard, and pork liver pâté. Normally I am not a fan of pork liver, but this pâté was truly one of a kind. I'd have had another serving if I wasn't avoiding liver for the vitamin A toxicity, another pregnant woman gripe.



The restaurant also cures it's own charcuterie, which we tried, again fabulous, but my favorite appetizer of the day was the black pudding with soft egg. House made of course, and where would you get something like that in the states? It was delicious, tasty and soft, not crumbly and dry which a lot of poorly done puddings tend to be. If I lived in England, I wouldn't be anemic, for sure.








Their non-pork appetizers were also great, like their garlic escargots, and mussels and clams steamed with seaweed and vermouth, served up in a creamy broth with crunchy bread. I tried a little on our first visit and decided it was worth a whole order on the second. Both were inspirations for dishes in my menus here.






I had their award winning venison for my dinner, and it was very good, done to perfection (medium rare, again another pregnant lady faux pas), but their best dish was the pork bath, which is the jowl of the pig.


The cheek is first steamed until tender, then either roasted or deep fried so that the skin turns to crackling. It's a combination of crunchy with melt in your mouth fat and meat, served with house made apple sauce. The whole dish is probably worth a few days of calories, but it is so worth it.


Finally, to end, I tried a sampling of their mini dessert, which came with roasted marshmallow, lemon curd mini cones, and butterscotch toffee, the perfect little sweet bite to end the meal!


The Pig is one of the best nose to tail restaurants I've visited, and although I was really craving a meal at St John's, The Pig was more than able to let me go home happy!

Do visit if you get a chance to visit the New Forest.

- It makes no sense because iPad spellcheck is dense