Tyddyn Llan, Wales

If I were to begin to describe a country with the words ‘small’ and ‘mountainous’, then Wales would be a pretty good first guess.

If I were to go on to describe the land as ‘permanently rainy’, you may think I was being a little harsh (even with the recent weather).

What if I told you this place has ‘rain mines’ and that the ‘exceptionally wet rain’ is the country’s main export?

At this point, fans of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series may recognise that I am referring to the fictional land of Llamedos – an obvious parody, which closely resembles Wales and the Welsh.

Llamedos reads ‘Sod 'em all’ when spelled backwards; Pratchett apparently took inspiration for this from Dylan Thomas’ play ‘Under Milk Wood’ which featured the equally fictitious Welsh town of Llareggub (‘bugger all’ in reverse).

On a Saturday lunchtime, with bugger all to do thanks to the unending rain, my wife and I decided to drive to Wales to visit Tyddyn Llan – a Michelin starred restaurant in the very real and entirely non-fictitious town of Llandrillo.

Set in a typically scenic and verdant location in the valleys on the edge of Snowdonia, Tyddyn Llan is a restaurant with rooms, run by Chef Brian Webb and his convivial wife, Susan.

The Georgian country house is decorated in keeping with the style expected. The lawns were beautifully manicured with neatly trimmed hedges and full flowerbeds – we would love to return for a weekend break; I know my wife would be happy sat by the pond with her Kindle whilst I could go off yomping.

The large welcoming lounge areas had a relaxed homely feel; this comes in part from being surrounded by Brian and Susan’s many personal collections of books, ornaments and curios collected on their travels. A glass display case is crammed full of Harrods’ Bears but it was the ashtrays and matchboxes from some of the world’s finest restaurants that peaked my interest.

With regards to the food, it would be too easy to start to compare Tyddlyn Llan with other one-starred restaurants that I have been to and comment on how the food is not as progressive or artistically presented as most - I could envisage that a more critical eye may call the, largely classical, food ‘dated’ and even ‘unimaginative’.

For me, it is important to remember though that although Brian does not seemingly follow the latest food trends, techniques or flourishes on his plates, instead, flavours and quality ingredients, coming, in the main, from the finest local sources are treated respectfully and allowed to speak for themselves.

One local foodstuff that I was glad to see on the menu was ‘Welshman's caviar’ laverbread – albeit just a small taster set into crisp pastry tartlets on the platter of welcoming canapés. The platter also featured cheese ham croquetas, fish cakes, Parmesan biscuits; smoked salmon and dill mousses and dinky quail’s egg ‘scotch egg’ (with a disappointingly set yolk)… They may have looked like a plate of beige food that would be advertised by Kerry Katona but each morsel was well cooked (bar the yolk) and tasty.

The breads at the table were all homemade and particularly good – especially the date and hazelnut and the two foot long grissini.

Uncharacteristically, I chose to start with the soup; an Asparagus Soup. This was a wise choice: it was served piping hot and tasted wonderful – exactly what it said on the tin! (No, I am not suggesting it came from a tin… I’m guessing it came from *Claremont Farm).

My wife selected the other asparagus dish on the menu, Claremont Farm Asparagus with Girolles, Herb Butter, Pea Shoots and Crisp Egg – despite the fact that my soup was so good, I was still a little envious of this dish; a generous portion with the most delightful herb butter.

One criticism is that we had asked specifically for our next two ‘starters’ to be served as a second course, before the main – inexplicably the kitchen decided to ignore this request and sent them at the same time as the asparagus dishes. This was not a major problem as my soup was hot enough to leave to eat second and my wife too decided to eat her salad first but the table was at this point full with four large plates and it was all a bit overwhelming.

The food however, was good… well, my Crubeens with Piccalilli and Wirral Watercress Salad was. The pig’s trotter ballotine was great but it was the meat inside the breadcrumb crust that made this dish exceptional - wonderfully rich and flavoursome. The piccalilli was also very good: I’ve developed a new found love for piccalilli recently after having more great examples at The Parkers Arms (see here) and Aiden Byrne’s The Church Green.

We felt that my wife’s Crisp Goosnargh Duck Confit with Watercress Salad was a tasty enough, yet strange little dish for a Michelin starred restaurant of this type. The heavy Asian influence was not mentioned on the menu description and seemed out of place, in terms of conception and even execution, amongst the other dishes we ate.

For my main, I selected Wild Sewin with Watercress Salad – the sea trout (sewin) was a little ‘over done’ for my taste but had good flavour; similarly, the accompanying ‘salad’ (sauce in my book) had also developed a skin – my guess is they had both been sat under the pass lights for a little too long.

My wife’s Braised Moroccan Style Lamb (if again, a little oddly placed on the menu) was one of the best Moroccan dishes I have tasted, even when in Morocco! It had a superb spicy kick – in fact too spicy for my wife, which meant that I got to finish it off… result!

To finish my wife selected the Cheese plate. Which I think included a Ardahan, Per Las and a Keens Cheddar – sorry, I didn’t take any notes but suffice to say, they were three quality cheeses.

I ended with a top notch Prune and Almond Tart.

We decided to take the coffee and petit fours back in the lounge. Spotting a bit of sun finally breaking through the rain clouds, I downed and gobbled these and left my wife to pay as I went outside to snap a few pics to try and capture Tyddyn Llan in its best light and prove that Wales is not ‘permanently rainy’.

All in all, Tyddyn Llan is a wonderful destination and seems to be prefect place to stay in the area for generous and friendly hospitality with great food.

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The Mark Addy, Manchester

What does The Mark Addy’s rugged Radcliffe-born chef, Robert Owen Brown have in common with Red Magazine, the ‘must have’ monthly for ‘real women who lead real lives’?

Give up? Perhaps the only think you could think of was Robert’s distinctive curly red mop? Like me, I’m sure the only time Owen-Brown would consider picking up the ‘luxury women's lifestyle magazine’ Red would be if there was a pile of them in a dentist’s waiting room (or some such place) and only then, if there was a mention of food on the cover.

The reason I mention Red then, is because I was recently asked to contribute a one-line restaurant recommendation for the ‘Ask a local’ feature of an article one of their writers is putting together about Manchester.

My first thought was to recommend somewhere in Manchester’s famous Chinatown, such as Red Chilli or the excellent, little Japanese place, Yuzu. Then I considered somewhere in the urbanite Northern Quarter - perhaps its eponymous TNQ restaurant, Teacup on Thomas Street or even the soon to be opened SoLita (South of Little Italy). I thought too about representing Manchester’s gay and lesbian community with an endorsement for the charming Richmond Tearooms.

Then again; what about the one time preeminent French at the Midland? What is it the readership of Red would want? Surely the slick, Second Floor at Harvey Nicks and San Carlo Cicchetti at House of Fraser, with their quality food and convenient shopping locations would be popular choices with Red readers? (The city’s historical Italian connection with the latter also adding a bit of ‘Ask a local’ flavour.)

No, instead I decided to give my one line recommendation to The Mark Addy.

Granted, it may not be the most idyllic of food venues for the ‘ladies that lunch’ as it is perhaps more fitting with ‘people who crunch’ (on pork scratchings, pan fried sweetbreads, devilled whitebait and, of course, Mr. Holden’s panko breadcrumb encrusted, Manchester Eggs) but, I believe The Mark Addy represents the city well.

Manchester stalwart Robert Owen Brown is a long time champion of local and regional produce. There are historical connections too that make the Addy popular with visitors and locals alike. The location on the banks of the River Irwell is reminiscent of Manchester’s industrial past.

Admittedly, some do see the venue and its location as a little grotty and grim but its better to think of it as Northern, gritty and gutsy; much like the nineteenth century publican from whom The Mark Addy takes its name - a champion oarsman, honoured with an Albert Medal for rescuing upwards of 50 people from the river.

The pub is certainly a ‘no frills’ establishment – if you want glitz and glamour, there are plenty of other places in the city (some mentioned above) but if you want hearty, ‘home-style’ fayre served up in generous portions, then the riverside location is perfect (even more so on a rare, warm Manchester day.)

To start, we (three of us) shared Buttered Asparagus with Poached Egg, Manx Kipper on a Muffin with Blue Cheese & Runny Egg and Roasted Bone Marrow with Parsley & Caper Salad.

Each and every component was well cooked and flavoursome - the marrow with the caper salad, my personal favourite.

To accompany our starters, we selected a couple of ‘Bar Snacks’ – the Homemade Pork Scratchings were good and the Blacksticks Blue Cheese Bhajis, excellent – although a little more of the tangy Lancashire blue cheese would have been most welcome.

For her main, my stepdaughter selected the ½ Pound Burger with Cheese, Pickle & Salsa – the pickle and salsa were delicious and the salad well dressed with a generous portion of good chips. I found the burger and bun themselves to be no better than average – burgers are seemingly all the rage at the moment and the Mark Addy should be striving to serve one of the best in town.

My wife’s Pan Fried Scottish Turbot with Baby Spinach & Lobster Cream was another excellent dish - the fish was well cooked and the rich lobster sauce was to die for.

My Roast Strip Loin with Dripping Pudding was divine. I typically try and avoid saying how ‘tender’ the meat was when I write a blog post as it’s a bit of a cop out, but this meat was deliciously tender; there are no other words for it!

Re: ‘Dripping Pudding’ – dripping puds have been cooked in Britain for centuries, predating the more famous offering from over the border. Google tells me, that in 1737 a recipe for 'A dripping pudding' was published in "The Whole Duty of a Woman" and predates, by ten years, the first written recipe for the similar 'Yorkshire pudding' – of course, due to the Wars of the Roses and the ‘friendly’ Lancashire / Yorkshire rivalry that still exists today, no self-respecting Red-rosed chef or restaurant should dream of serving a ‘Yorkie’ Pud!

My sides of Hand Cut Chips with Tangy Tarragon Butter Sauce and Seasonal Veg were delicious too - although the huge meat portion (and extra bar snacks) meant that I couldn’t finish them. The butter sauce was exceptional.

I had been eyeing up the cheese selection, including a Mrs Kirkham’s Lancashire, Mrs. Appleby’s Cheshire and Ribblesdale Goat and, disproving the anti-York stance, a Hawes Smoked Wensleydale but was just too stuffed. My stepdaughter however found room for the Vimto trifle with Bobbies Foot (biscuit) and was suitably impressed.

So there we have it, Red Magazine may be for ‘real women who lead real lives’ but my belief is that Robert Owen Brown’s The Mark Addy is perfect for ‘real Northern* folk who love real food’.

*Plus, of course, any visitors (including Yorkshiremen and even Southerners) who want a true taste of the region’s finest.  

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Aumbry, Manchester

Inspiration for this post has come from three things which have happened during the last couple of weeks: The Times published an overall positive yet still somewhat Londescending* review of one of Manchester’s finest restaurants; it was Father’s Day and I had the pleasure of a return trip to Aumbry**.

(*Londescending: a portmanteau term used to describe the condescending arrogance many of us Southerners can have towards ‘oop North’. Originally hailing from London, I fully appreciate the intrinsically deep rooted attitude, as it’s one that I have taken several years to shed.)

(**Aumbry: the restaurant, that The Times reviewer, Giles Coren, failed to appreciate quite as much as I feel he should have.)

Like I say, it was Father’s Day recently. After a life of hard graft, my dad retired to Spain some years ago. As a result, I do not get to see him as much as I’d choose. Also, being a bloke, I don’t tell him enough what a great geezer he is and what a great role model he has been all my life.

It’s not unusual for sons to want to be like their fathers and my old man is an all round good egg – and I’d be happy to be considered half the man he is. I don’t have kids of my own, so ‘mine’ have been denied the easy job of following in my footsteps. Others however, have the daunting task of following in the footsteps of great men.

In music, many sons ‘cut from the same cloth’ with ‘music in their blood’ have tried to emulate their father’s successes and failed. I think of the Marley children: whilst I am a fan of Damian in particular, he’s never going to be able achieve the legendary status of his pappy. Think of James McCartney and Julian Lennon – both could harshly be considered more dung than Beatle.

In football too, take the likes of Jordi Cruyff - despite having a ‘successful’ career with teams like Barcelona and Manchester United, he constantly played in the shadow of the man dubbed ‘Pythagoras in Boots’. 

Before I get carried away with too long a waffly intro (as certain ‘restaurant reviewing journalists’ are prone), the British Media too is littered with people who have been given a ‘leg up’ in the industry. Whilst, for example, Jay Rayner springs to my mind as a worthy scion, the Aumbry reviewing, Giles Coren remains someone I am not so sure about.

Owning most of his twenty or so books, my wife especially, is a big fan of Giles’ late, great father - the hugely influential writer and broadcaster Alan Coren. Although I mainly recall him as the team captain opposite Sandi Toksvig on the BBC’s Call My Bluff, I too have read a few of Coren senior’s books - an undeniably great man whose career spanned some fifty years at the highest level in journalism.

Giles’ sister, Victoria, I like. I’ve enjoyed her appearances on HIGNFY and WILTY and eventually got my head around Only Connect. Her poker playing; ‘attempt to make the best hardcore porn movie ever’ in ‘Once More, with Feeling’ and recent engagement to the David Mitchell making her all the more endearing.

Being a food critic and having enjoyed his TV shows with the excellent Sue Perkins, I did follow Giles on Twitter at one point - but soon unfollowed him after one too many of his well publicised sweary rants (a different one from the incident in which he told @alice_emily to f-off and called her a ‘barren old hag’).

The father, Alan Coren was a highly respected, clever, satirical humourist, when you compare this to his son’s crass attitude that has recently resulted in him being reported to the Press Complaints Commission for offending his own Jewish people (not for the first time) and gave him the reputation as ‘the angriest man in newspapers’, I find it hard not to think of Giles as the Julian Lennon of journalism.

It may seem as though I am being harsh on Giles (or poor Julian)… and I suppose I am. The thing is, his Aumbry review, whilst generally positive included the odd little dig at a restaurant that is close to mine and many ‘Mancunian’ hearts. Obviously unable to find anything to be particularly scathing about, instead his Londescending attitude seemed to come to the fore.

My belief is that Aumbry is very much a restaurant for the North – just as bands often try to ‘crack America’, many London based chefs have tried and failed to ‘crack Manchester’. It perhaps takes a local or ‘honorary’ local, as I like to think of myself, to know what works for us. Giles obviously didn’t get it (save yourself future train fares Mr. Coren, and don’t bother.)

Since my last visit, Aumbry have had a refurb of their first floor reception area. The overall characterful style thankfully remains but the space is now much lighter and charming. The heavy dark red curtains have been replaced with plush golden drapes. The carpet has been removed and the floorboards restored to a former glory. Furniture is still ‘eclectic’ but less mismatched – an altogether more welcoming space.

To welcome us* further, we were soon presented with delightful cheese gougères, moreish almonds and a refreshing, lemony Timmerman’s Lambicus Blanche – a beer, I highly recommend trying. (*I dined with fellow blogger Cumbriafoodie see here and a mutual friend – hence the odd shot showing duelling cameras… pesky bloggers!)

The Amuse Bouche continued with an excellent Potted Shrimp Burger with Ice Plant and Turnip – I could’ve eaten a dozen of these! So far, the best amuse of the year.

Aumbry’s usual flavourful Sourdough Breads followed these with William’s (of Bolton) and Nut Brown Butters and, of course, the show stopping Beef Dripping – always a favourite.

It’s well known that Chef Mary-Ellen and her husband Laurence worked for four years at Heston’s Fat Duck in Bray; what came next was indeed a plump, fat Duck Egg Croquette with a little of their fancy molecular trickery employed to create the an accompanying Birch Powder and textually pleasing Malt Loaf.

Next, we were treated to another Aumbry favourite, the Home Smoked Mackerel with poached rhubarb & mustard cream – the subtle smoking of the mackerel, as always was a triumph. The rhubarb was a tad more tart than I remember from previous visits, which was a good thing.

Another favourite followed, in the shape of a signature Bury Black Pudding Scotch Egg with its mushroom plinth and accompaniment of house made tomato ketchup and mushroom relishes.

The Potato & Wild Garlic Soup with English truffle oil was exceptionally tasty and served piping hot.

In the next dish, the Poached Plaice with Oyster pudding, I often find the plaice unfairly suffers alongside the exceptionally tasty pudding. The plaice is good but the puddings are one of the best things I’ve ever eaten! Sea aster, peppermint, purslane and the unique acidic hit of verjuice completed the dish.

Giles, in his review said that the Slow cooked Cumbrian lamb (braised shoulder & chargrilled fillet) was one of the ‘best things’ and described the roasting juices as ‘magically rich’. Finally agreeing with something he says, I too found the lamb delicious, sweet and salty – it was served with a white onion puree and with spring onions grown locally by the Langdon community project.

My Cumbrianfoodie friend was rightly proud of another offering of meat raised and fed in the wilds of his home county, the Cumbrian Wood Pigeon. The pigeon was cooked exquisitely well and served with a perfectly glossy, rich sauce. Grilled grelot, lemon balm and barley grass also featured but it was the braised chicory that really did it for me.

A top selection of British & Irish Cheeses with house made chutneys and condiments and a palate cleansing Grapefruit Posset with celery granita & sherbet followed.

For dessert, Mary-Ellen sent out a trio of offerings for us to share. Each of them new to me; the ‘trifle’ described ‘a work in progress’.

Apple Tart with local Heaton Park Honey, yoghurt with bay & almond – the tartly sour taste of the apples, sweetened with the honey came set atop of a wonderful pastry base; a very good dessert.

The ‘work in progress’ was the ‘Aumbry Trifle’ the main kick coming from a Gutiérrez Colosia Moscatel used liberally to soak the almond sponge and again in the syllabub. This was well balanced with a Chamomile custard and fruity apricot jelly.

The Beetroot & Chocolate Cake was my favourite of the trio. The rich, chocolaty cake was excellent but it was the light, airy marshmallow with its punch of flavour that swung it over the other two desserts. Caraway, hazelnut, more Heaton Park Honey and bee pollen also featured…

But by this time, the drink had started to take effect on my non-driving dining companions and friendly conversations had struck up with neighbouring tables, so I was beyond ‘concentrating’ on analysing flavours for blogging purposes – after all, the food and company at Aumbry are all about enjoyment… I just remember oohing and aahing!

Giles Coren’s How to Eat Out is now available, published by Hodder & Stoughton.

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