Thursday, October 20, 2005

Life in Broadfield Village: Secret Crawley: No. 2 - Whalebone Plantation

I would heartily recommend this article for how nature can weave its magic ways.

I find the blog to be highly readable and interesting, so try it for yourself.

My first comment

I was delighted but surprised to receive my first comment on my blog this week. I rushed excitedly upstairs to tell my eldest, who calmly replied, "Yes, that was me".

And to think that for one minute, I actually thought that people read the articles that I write.

Onward & upward.

Wednesday, October 19, 2005

Pot Lunch

Its obviously a hard job being a TV chef. One moment you're in the studio, cooking up your latest dazzling dish. The next moment you are borrowing a shed-load of cash from your friendly neighbourhood bank manager and buying the local pub.

This is what Mike Robinson has done, by investing his life savings and a lot more besides in the Pot Kiln, in Frilsham, Berks. So what does a chef do with a century old, legendarily hard-to-find pub. He turns it into a gastro-pub, that's what. Food is big in the Rod K household, so we decided to check it out. The fact that I was a year older gave us an even better excuse.

Once you have navigated your way down the lanes of West Berks, you happen upon a beautiful valley with the pub set on one side, with a fantastic view from the beer garden, over the autumn scene. We didn't stay here long, as our date was with the restaurant.

Although newly extended, the interior is unremarkable, and decorated with things that should be, and in some cases are, on your plate. Mike's ethos is to cook with what he can source locally, which gets top marks for green credentials. It is no accident that the pub is set in woodland that supports wild muntjack deer, wonderful species of fungi, and is surrounded by a garden that provides a home for chickens and a new vegetable/herb garden.

All of this gives rise to Mike's earthy, country cooking. This is not Michelin-starred fine dining, but very good rustic fare, with strong flavours and robust textures. We ate from the Sunday lunch menu: I had the Goat's cheese roulade to start, which had been browned but cooled, and had aubergine, red pepper and vine leaves inside, served on a bed of lamb's lettuce, with olive tapenade. This tasted great with the variety of flavours that a great chef can bring out.

My wife started with salmon on the ubiquitous lettuce, with a flavoursome honey, lemon and dill vinaigrette, which she thought was excellent - although she had expected smoked salmon! The children had the vegetable soup, which was suitably earthy and laced with a dash of olive oil. They devoured this along with the home-made bread.

For mains, I had the seared tuna Nicoise, which was classically composed and presented. My wife had chosen the Poussin. I had shied away from this, but it was a revelation, being not plain, but stuffed with a seemingly impossible quantity of vegetables. This made for a taste extravaganza and was a interesting dish to see and eat. The children opted for the mushroom tagliatelle. Apparently the chef gathers the mushrooms wild from the nearby woods, which shows commitment to a cause. Our eldest likes mushrooms but I think was unprepared for the depth of flavour from these varieties. Apologies to the chef for the amount they wasted! Anyway there is plenty of time for the younger ones' tastes to mature.

We all chose the Lemon Tart with Guernsey Cream as dessert. The lemon taste was striking but neatly balanced by the deep-yellow cream and left us all suitably full.

The birthday boy, me, had a glass of the house Salice Salentino Reserva, Candido 2000 and with sundry drinks and service charge the bill for four was around £95. So was it worth it? To sample the cooking of a chef on the up, with a distinctive, earthy country-style menu, without booking months ahead, I'll say we were all very lucky.

Don't go there though - it will make it difficult for me to get a table!

Saturday, October 15, 2005

The English Market

What if the English took a market to France and nobody came?

Newbury's market traders are objecting to a French market in the town, because it would "take their trade away" at Christmas. This seems to miss the point of free market economics.

If the regular guys want to hang on to their margins, they need to sell better quality produce than the visitors and make people prefer the home team's stuff, by making a play on their unique selling point, locality. Relying on artificial restrictions like number of allowed pitches and days of trading is not going to cut it in this day and age, but with rising energy costs and global warming to think about, selling things in the area they are made or grown is vitally important.

The customer is the one who needs to vote with his or her wallet and they will be induced to flash the cash if they are seduced into buying. The market needs to be an experience. In these darker days of autumn especially, the lights, the aromas and the entertainment factor of a market can help to empty the stalls.

Many column inches are being devoted to the impending move of the market, to make way for the re-paving of the market place. This is vital for improving the townscape, and needn't be bad for trade whilst the work is going on. By staging events in the area of the temporary venue - street entertainment, food stalls, try-before-you-buy offers and such like, the people of Newbury can be tempted to become buyers.

Some of the usual traders have asked if the French would put up with an English market in their towns, hence my question at the outset. If they could create a strong demand by stressing the benefits of their goods and produce, the public clamour would be irresistible to the French authorities.

Hiding behind the 'rules' is just so last century.

Thursday, October 13, 2005

Web 2.0 - Requoting Tony Blair

Forgive me if I requote Tony Blair:

"But if we follow the principles that have served us so well at home - that information generation and sharing - must be in the hands of the many, not the few - if we make that our guiding light for the global economy, then it will be a force for good and an international movement that we should take pride in leading."

This seems to me to be the essence of Web 2.0 - the buzzword which is sweeping the world. It says that by working together - sharing information, links, comments, linkbacks, and by making software open-source and generally available - everyone will benefit.

Imagine a world where the productivity of software developers grows exponentially as they put new systems together out of parts sourced from their peers. Imagine a world where you can publish information about new products and get feedback and ratings from your global customer base. Imagine a world where democracy means that the whole country could vote on an issue rather than someone representing you and thousands unlike you.

It's a powerful concept and companies/organisations/governments that ignore it deserve to be left behind. Only the information-enabled will be truly agile and only the truly agile will survive in our turbo-Darwinian world.

Web 2.0 - it's like the web but democratic.

Wednesday, October 12, 2005

Do ye ken John Peel Day

For anyone of my age, it should be a national holiday. The anniversary of John Peel's untimely death is a celebration of the life that he brought to my formative years.

In these days of 'New Music', that is exactly what he played. He moved with the times and brought what was fresh and different to the Grundig Yacht Boy (my radio at the time). I started, like a lot of people, to listen in the days of Punk. I was in the sixth form at school and you were either into the Clash, Ramones, Stranglers or into heavy rock. Lucky for me that I chose the former and Peel's show was the source for what was cool.

He picked up the obscure and brought them to the masses - Wire, The Fall, Alternative TV etc. My friends and I would keep the local record shop in business, buying the latest picture or coloured vinyl 7" - all driven by what we heard on Peel the previous night. We belonged to a club which was open to anyone who had a radio, but he spoke to all of us individually, that was his broadcasting skill.

He kept it interesting by playing the widest range of music, reflecting his diverse taste and ear for the unusual. Who could forget Ivor Cutler, the scottish singer and poet, "Tales from a Scotch Sitting Room"? He even managed to get me to look at folk albums such as Dick Gaughan's. I mean folk! How was that compatible with Punk? In the wacky world of Peel, it made perfect sense.

I went off to University, and though I listened less, it left me with a hunger for seeing those Peel bands live. The Clash and Ramones had the sweat dripping off the ceiling, they generated so much excitement. Stiff Little Fingers generated a crush outside the gig that was ultimately fruitless - my friends and I didn't get in.

John Peel kept it real until his sudden death. No being put out to grass on Radio 2 for John, he stayed on R1 until the end. He was afraid that he would die suddenly. I remember hearing an interview with him where he explained the root of that fear. He had read of the death of Lenny Bruce (or another comedian - I don't remember that well), who had died when he bent down to tie his shoelaces. John had remained fearful of this for the rest of his life. Strange then that he was struck down at Cuzco in Peru by a heart attack. The shoelaces didn't come into it, but it was sudden.

We remember him on his day, 13th October. He'll never be replaced.

Sound of Teenage Kicks by the Undertones to fade...

Saturday, October 08, 2005

Adopting a low (power) profile

It sounds like an 007-esque gadget: the Stealthgen In this power-hungry age, it is something far more useful: a wind driven generator. The stealth part comes from its intended low profile urban habitat. It's black to fit in with the drab city-scape, compared with its marine antecedent, which is pure white as the driven snow. In summary, it's the perfect Christmas gift for your friendly neighbourhood eco-warrior, with a technological bias.

Now you can have it all - the toys of the 21st century - plasma screens, Sky+, Media Centres, a PC in every room, iPods, DVD recorders and you can still save the planet. Think of it as conspicuous consumption, but without the guilt. I have struggled with these conflicting demands, but it now seems that there may be a way out.

OK, so the wind doth not blow continuously, but the Stealthgen should reduce those icecap-shrinking CO2 emissions that its buyers currently produce. Twin it with some Solar PV panels on the roof and you should be able to light up your house like a Xmas tree without troubling the National Grid at all - not that I am advocating all of that light pollution - now that's another story.

Low energy bulbs, turning down thermostats, switching things off when not in use - now there's a novelty - it all helps, but we can always go further.

I won't rest until I can be self sufficient - in electricity at least.