Amongst the dark satanic mills of Halifax, West Yorkshire, there are indeed some green and pleasant pastures, and nestling in the hills we found Shibden Mill Inn. We once stopped for a quick Sunday lunch on a walking expedition and vowed to go back. On 1 March, Fred had just picked up a brand new Mini Cooper, so a drive out to somewhere remote seemed appropriate.
Tonight it’s the MasterChef semi-final and I’m supporting Emily. She is young, enthusiastic, innovative, intelligent, bright, ambitious, engaging, tenacious, persistent, creative, spunky, adventurous, and quick to learn. From a business perspective, she is the sort of person you would employ first and then wonder what role she should fill second.
I wish more winemakers were as energetic and creative (in so far as that is expressed in their wines). I think John Hancock maybe such a star. I have just tried his Trinity Hill 2007 Sauvignon Blanc from Hawkes Bay.
If the Wolseley is the best restaurant in London, then what about the provinces? Leeds, for example, has a proud tradition of brewing beer, staffing call centres, building the world’s first Dalek shaped skyscraper, and breeding people who say “eeh bah gum!”. So surely not a place for fine dining then?
Where shall we go this evening? France? Italy? Spain? Sonoma County? I think I’ll stay in, somewhere comfortable, with a glass of something familiar. Yet another Kiwi Sauvignon!
A red letter day….or rather, a brown box day. My first case of 2007 New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs est arrivé and I am over-excited, but there is good news and bad:
I am slightly disappointed that Dog Point is not included in this year’s case. But this is more than made up for by the price, which at £110 including two bottles of Cloudy Bay seems particularly good value.
The brown box had been left outside my front door, and the ambient temperature was a perfect 8 degrees, so I immediately unpacked the box and cracked open (or rather unscrewed the cap of) the Cloudy Bay. I expected a complex rhubarb and citrus aroma, like the 2006, but was surprised to get a noseful of gooseberry.
Do you eat ready meals? The UK is one of the world’s leading producers (and consumers) of ready meals, and I mean by volume, not necessarily quality. Is that good or bad? What does it say about our work addicted society that we no longer have time to enjoy a home cooked meal with friends/family at our own tables?
Is it really necessary? On a bicycle? I mean, I am thinking of buying a mountain bike but should I put a bell on the handlebars? Enough of the knock knock jokes, let’s get straight to tonight’s wine which is the last remaining in a case of Kiwi Sauvignon Blancs I procured from the Wine Society, and the second most expensive of the batch.
The title of most expensive, was awarded, obviously, to Cloudy Bay 2006 Sauvignon. A pure rhubarb delight but so it should be for the best part of £20. This Isabel 2006 was also from Marlborough but I only had to work for 23 hours to afford it. At 13% alcohol, it had the typical gooseberry aroma, but it was more complex than most Kiwi SBs. White grapefruit with caster sugar was my conclusion. Perhaps notes of honey adding interest.
A super long finish of refined zing. I think it’s a real challenger to Cloudy Bay.
Manchester is one of, if not the, best cities in the world. So you will not be surprised to hear that I find Manchester’s Chinatown to be even better than London’s. I admit that I have never been to San Francisco where Chinatown has its own website so must be impressive. But for now, let me tell you that if you fancy Chinese food, Manchester is a better place to eat it than Peking. At the risk of supercalifragilisticity, let’s drill down a little further. Pacific is one of the best Chinese restos in Manchester Chinatown.
So it was natural to want to check out the second floor (which is the Thai menu) and presumably just as good as the Chinese on the floor below? Er, no….
Is it so wrong to like Cloudy Bay? It used to be the wine for the cognoscenti but it got a bit too big for its boots. It’s not exactly a mass produced and marketed wine like Jacob’s Creek (perish the thought), but those in the know yawn and say “Cloudy Bay? It’s a bit 1990’s man….”
The somewhat entertaining, but supercilious and frequently AWOL Sunday Times restaurant critic, AA Gill, rarely extends his gastronomic tentacles beyond central London. So I was surprised to see that he had, according to a poster at Piccadilly rail station, nominated San Carlo in MANCHESTER as the best Italian restaurant outside the capital. Surprised not only because he had ventured so far north as to get the apocryphal nosebleed, but also because San Carlo is far from the best resto of any type anywhere.
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