I have found myself a wonderful new eating partner, Alex who helps organise the Chapel Row Fayre which is supporting West Berkshire Mencap this year. She doesn’t raise an eyebrow when I order a main sharing platter as a starter, we always have pre starters and she offers tastes. Also she has the cutest most well behaved little girl who eats olives! What a great start to life, this girl is going to be a catch when she is older.
On the guise of dropping off a giant teddy, twice the size of Ophelia, we had lunch at the Bladebone again (I was in fact there yesterday as well but it does do exceedingly good food). Having decided we wanted everything on the menu we ordered scratchings and apple sauce and olives while we tried to narrow our choices down. I was severely tempted by the pork belly with sage mash, or the chicken supreme with wild mushrooms but opted for cod with Jersey Royals, cabbage, samphire and lemongrass. Alex went for the chilli duck and sesame for her main and the chilli salt and pepper squid for her starter. I had the sharing starter, with my fork raised in case anyone but my dining partners thought sharing really meant sharing. This consisted of the softest whipped chicken liver parfait, Good Old Boy Chutney, Barkham Blue which I am developing a taste for, ham hock terrine, crusty bread and THE SCOTCH EGG of wonderfulness. I snaffled that away and am eating it now. Oh yum.
Yesterday I had the trawlermans sharing (hah) platter which had that wonderful mackerel which has ruined me for mackerel from supermarkets for ever. It also had a zingy tasty citrus salad with blood oranges, smoked salmon, apples and leaves, fresh and tasty. There was also a pile of giant prawns in the form of their prawn cocktail, crispy squid with a kick, tartare sauce and two fantastic fish fingers which looked like giant goujons and were very moreish. Fish fingers were never like this when I was a girl (ok that was a long time ago but I do remember their uniformity but not which school served them, I was asked to leave 6 schools but never technically expelled). Then I had ham, egg and chips, ok we aren’t talking fine dining here but we are talking thick slices of ham of excellent quality, eggs with fat deep golden yolks and big old fat chips. It hit the spot. Hubby had the pork belly roast and seemed more than satisfied.
