Telephone: 01484 850571

Website: N/A

Opening hours: 8.30- 14.00 (12.30 on Saturday). Closed Sunday and Monday. Mail order available

Speciality: pork pies

Summary:

I have always wanted to try a northern pork pie as against the Melton Mowbray’s you get down south.

I have tried Mrs King’s in London’s Borough market and thought that it was fine but not that special.

Vicars has just started offering pork pies in their Sweeny Todd (pie and Pub). The pastry is good but I did not like the texture of the meat as it was too finely minced.

See also articles : Independent (see link here on 9 March 2011) and Xanthine Clay (Telegraph)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/foodanddrinkadvice/8594210/Pick-of-the-pork-pies.html

So whilst I was in Yorkshire, I thought that I should visit Raymond and Janet Lodge’s shop which was highly rated by Henrietta Green in the 1997 edition of BBC’s Food Lover’s Guide.

The shop is on the corner of Green End Lane (parking on the street outside). They only do small pork pies now. They no longer make the exortic ones mentioned in the book – pork and cranberry etc – but they do offer cornish pasties, sausage rolls, potato and cheese slice. Everything was around £1.

They also offer home made black pudding (£7.40 a kilo), dry cured bacon and their own sausages. They also do cooked breakfast and various filled rolls on site.

Analysis: The pork pie was good. Nice pastry and pretty coarse cuts of meat inside but it was nothing special – I must go to Ludlow and check out their pork pies – my last hope? The real find was the cheese and potato slice and black pudding.

The cornish pasty (which they can longer call cornish) was actually a minced meat and potato pasty – no swede.

If you are in the area, try them. Note early closing on most days.

E

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Address: Ffostrasol Arms, Ffostrasol, Llandysul SA 44 4SY, Wales (Pub is on A486)

Telephone number: 01239 851348

Website: N/A

Date of visit: 19 August 2011

Approximate cost per head: Less than £10 for most main courses.

Comments on wine list/beer: HB at £2.90 a pint. Wines available – nothing special.

Cuisine: basic pub food

Likes and dislikes: decent car park, spacious restaurant and very good value food.

Summary:

You may ask: what is in Llandysul ? Not a lot, but this is a famous cheese making area –Teifi Valley Cheese  http://www.teifivalleycheeseproducers.com/english/contact/index.htm

I was in the area to procure some cheese and ended up in this pub for lunch – not many decent looking places around here – my criteria was that the car park must be big and was at least half full.

Inside a pleasant looking building on the corner of the main road aws to my surprise a very large pub. There is a drinking area complete with  pool table and large screen TV. The dining room and sun lounge on the other side of the bar is huge and would easily offer seating for 100 plus. There were easily over 30 diners on this Friday lunch time. The restaurant is waitress serviced but you pay at the bar and nothing was leaving a tip.

The beer selection here is pretty poor – one bitter on hand pump and the rest were gassy lagers. The bitter was HB and it was pretty good at £2.90 a pint.

For lunch, they was a choice of sandwiches – priced by the number of fillings – from £5.

The you have the usual suspect: burgers, scampi, fish and chips etc. They also offer breakfast (served between 12-2) for £5.75 (bacon, egg, beans, sausage, hash brown and tomato) or the large breakfast (double everything except the beans) at £7.

I had the beakfast which was as far as breakfast goes, pretty decent. The susage and bacon was of good quality. Pity they don’t do toasts. Looking around the fish and chips, scampi etc were all pretty decent looking.

In conclusion, nothing special but pretty decent and good value for money.

Teifi cheese

Address: Glynhynod Farm, Ffostrasol, Llandysul SA44 5JY. Sign posted off  A486 at Ffostrasol. Once you are down the unnamed lane, turn right just (10 meters) before you get to the end. Take next left, farm is at the end of the lane. Please note that your sat nev will not take you to the farm gate!

Website: http://www.teifivalleycheeseproducers.com/english/teififarmhousecheese/index.htm

Tel: 01239851528

Sales: Farmers markets (Carmarthern, Cardiff), mail order and at farm gate.

Teifi Cheese is made by a Dutch lady called Patricia. She was mentioned in Henrietta Green’s Food Lover’s Guide to Britain. This was a BBC series made (1997) before BBC discovered Rick Stein. In fact anyone that was in Henrietta’s book and is also appearing in Rick Stein’s Food Hero book must be good – they will have traded for at least 10 years.

I tried to call before I visited but was unsuccessful as mobile signal in the area is not great.

The farm has a shop and I was served by a Dutch lady in her 60s – probably Patricia.

All the cheeses are very Edam like with sweet pepper, onion and garlic, cumin, seaweed as additive flavouring. The cheeses were not very strong more like medium with a Edam taste but more crumbly and not as elastic as the Dutch cheese. They also do a Caerphilly and a blue cheese.

What I tasted, I liked. They sell at £14.40 a kilo. I bought the cumin, seaweed and the normal unflavoured cheese.

The map is for Teifi Cheese

E

Telephone number: 01235 535 978

Website: http://www.wellsstores.co.uk/

Date of visit: 21 July 2011

Opening time: 9 – 5

Summary:

Wells used to be the cheese shop (80s) in The Thames Valley when it was owned by Patrick Rance. Patrick wrote a book on French cheeses and was considered by many to be one of the most knowledgeable people in the game. It was nearly 2 inches thick, full of wonderful descriptions but not a single photograph. It used to be my “bible” on French Cheeses until Dorling Kindersley came along and started putting wonderful colour pictures into books.

Patrick passed away over 20 years ago and his son moved the business onto Abingdon. The business is now owned by Gill Draycott and is housed in the Peachcroft farm (much better for parking) just outside Abingdon. Gill was an employee in Wells Stores before she bought the business.

I have long heard good stories about the place.

The store has a vegetable section on the outside with some fantastic looking vegetables – onions with the green tops etc.

Inside are a few counters and a tea room. One counter is devoted to British cheeses and another devoted to mainly French cheeses. They also sell bread and quiches – these look remarkably like the ones that The Old Farmhouse Bakery make.

On the day I went, Gill was there. I wanted some Mrs Appleby but she actually advised against it and got me some Cheshire instead as Mrs Appleby wasn’t 100% right. I had a brief chat and she obviously knows her subject as she has been in the trade for over 20 years.

The selection here is not ridiculously huge but still pretty extensive and everything she sells is in peak condition and comes from a decent supplier.

If you are in the area, I recommend this place to shop for your cheeses.

E

Mail Order: Yes

Telephone number: 01491 613 585

Website: www.granarydeli.co.uk

Date of visit: 13 May 2011

Summary:

This is a strange and wonderful place in a small town off the B4009 – stop over when your are visiting Raymond Blanc’s restaurant up the road in Great Milton. They claim to have 140 different cheeses on sale – I didn’t count them but it certainly has nearly everything and is definitely the best cheese shop I have visited outside London.

The other weird thing about this deli is that they don’t carry a large range of cooked meat such as ham, salami etc. They do carry a lot of up market bits and pieces that you would find in “top end” food shops in London such as Irish steel cut pin head oats, crisp bread from Peters Yard , Anna’s ginger snaps from Scandinavia, Dijon mustard by Fallot etc. In fact all the non fresh consumables are all the hard to come by top end stuff at top end prices. For example, Peter’s Yard (www.petersyard.com) crisp bread is £8.99 for 300g, about 5X your normal crisp bread at Waitrose. Sirloin steak is cheaper per kilo. Howevere, in my view, it is the best around.

They also do an interesting range of fresh bread. Do ring before you visit and see if they had a recent delivery and what was delivered.

By the way, other than the hard to come by goodies which are expensive anywhere in the country, the prices for normal commodities are quite normal.

The place is 25 miles from where I live but I shop there once a month.

E

Telephone number: 0118 932 6132

Website: http://www.wellington-farm-shop.co.uk/

Date of visit: 6 April 2011

Opening times Mon-Fri 9am-6pm. Sat and Sun 9am-4am

Summary:

Mike – the winner of the review prize for March – has heard that this place as they do nice sausages.

As the shop is off the A33, I dropped in on my way back from Basingstoke.

The farm shop sells food products and others from the Wellington estate.

As I enter the place there is a chilled deli section on the left and the meat section on the right, I have to say that the meat section offered a wonderful looking selection. However, it is not cheap – in fact, nothing is cheap in the place. I suppose the Wellington Brand adds a premium.

The cheese counter offered a nice selection of mainly British cheese and some of the cheeses are made from milk sourced from the estate.

There were a few pies on display and I understand that the pies have won awards. The bread section was a bit thin in terms of variety at 2pm.

The olive oil (nearly £10 for 500ml) is from the Duke’s Spanish estate.

Other products on offer were flour, biscuits, honey etc.

To be honest, other than the meat and pie section, I thought that very little else was unique.

E

 PS there is a tea and coffee shop on site

I thought that I’ll test it out.

To be honest, there are a few Korean Restaurants such as

Butchers (Korean BBQ) on the 27 Coombe Road (continuation of High Street) and

Gengis Khan on Kingston Road

The other “Korean outlet” are hairdresser, garage and a Korean Supermarket known as K-Mart

K-mart New Malden,
71-73 High Street
New Malden, Surrey
KT3 4BT
Tel : 020 8942 8374

There are 2 branches of K-Mart, the other one is in Golders Green. The products on offer are mainly Korean, Japanese and Chinese. However, they do offer Korean dumplings (frozen), soya sauce and the famous Korean BBQ sauce http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_barbecue .

They also sell meat and vegetables. So you can make your own kim chee or buy ones already made.

Please note that K-Mart also offer an online/delivery service.

http://www.k-mart.co.uk/

There is also the now compulsory Polish Deli (Polski Sklep) on 23 Coombe Road and my find of  the day:

Shree Ganesh – an Indian Deli. 178 |High street, New Malden.  KT3 4ES (0208 949 7708). They offer a huge range of spices. There are still a few missing but it is pretty good.

The truth is that unless you live locally, Japan Centre on Lower Regent Street is still the best place for Japanese and Korean food.

E

March 2011

Telephone number: 01491 574377

Website: www.gabrielmachin.co.uk

Summary:

This place is listed in Rick Stein’s food heroes as a butcher but it has everything.

They manage to squeeze everything into a tiny shop front. There is a charcuterie section with food smoked at the back of the shop.

There are also a fish and seafood section and a cheese counter. The fish on offer covered a wide range. On the day I went, there were mussels, turbot, salmon etc.The cheese counter have a variety of British Cheese from within a 50 miles radius as well as some excellent French Cheeses.

The meat counter also offered “french cuts” of lamb and beef. They also offer offals – couldn’t see any tripe, and some interesting pre-prepared meats including chicken thighs boned and stuffed with goats cheese. I also managed to finds Haggis- made by Ramsay of Carluke.

A very interesting shop. The prices are reasonable.

If you go on a Thursday, you can shop for bread in the open air market outside the shop. The bread stand (no name – but there is only one), offers a fantastic range of bread, cheese with rosemary, 3 types of rye, spelt etc.

E

PS Machin also offers a nationwide delivery service – see website.

March 2011

Public transport/parking: street parking and parking behind the Co-op

Web site: www.cookandbutcher.co.uk

Telephone number: 07776 182 576

Date of visit: 17 February 2011

Review:

Two very friendly, hard working young chaps run this little shop and you couldn’t ask for better service, better advice and a more honest place.  Straight forward and excellent produce.  They make a good selectiono of sausages, offer pies and cold meats, fresh eggs and excellent meat.  They will provide organic and local if you want it, but they are very sensitive to restricted budgets, and will offer sensible suggestions about cheaper cuts.  They came up to my school and gave a demontration on boning a chicken and I am sure they would do the same for any other organisation that asked.  Give them a good, they deserve congratulations!

Jane Bennett

Location: Wickcroft Farm, Pangbourne Road, Theale, Reading RG7 5AE

Public transport/parking: on A 340, plenty of parking

Web site: www.fieldersfarmshop.co.uk

Telephone number: 0118 9304064

Date of visit: 23 February 2011

Review:

Newly opened, so I thought I would drop by and see what it has to offer.  I am a teacher, so I am always looking out for little local foodie experiences during my holiday and  half term breaks.  All signage and publicity makes it sound that they are doing what any self respecting farm shop should do – offer good local produce. 95% of the food seemed to be shrink wrapped and labelled so much that it was impossible even to gauge the quality. The fresh meat section was full of Royal Farms, Windsor produce – is this local?  The West Berkshire countryside is dotted with local producers, yet little is on display or it seems available.  The two staff members were nice enough, smiled and said hello, but little engagement with the few customers I was in there with.  They were were doing neither soft or hard sell, are they missing an opportunity?  The boards had suggestions for lunch purchases, yet few were on display at 11am.  Lovely looking pies from PieMinister – is that local?  Not really, Bristol and good product but could they not look closer to home? Vegetables all nice and neat but looking a little too neat and a little old, nothing noteably local either.  Meringue nests on ‘clearance’ looked a bit dusty and the ubiquitious savoury crackers in abundance, also a bit dusty. My children have a phrase:same old same old.  Of course it is hard, the deli and food shop game is hard and you have to have a USP and also, they really have to try a little harder.  I went on to Pangbourne, which for a little town has a couple of decent food shops, a fruit and veg shop, a butcher shop which is efficient and friendly and not a bit precious, it offers good local and non local produce and it will prepare whatever you wish.  There is a good deli there, good range of cheese and meats, and engaging and interested staff who seem to really care and certainly know their stuff and how to serve the stuff – meats are carefully sliced.  They offer tastings, and I am sure Fielders may have too, but they didn’t offer. The ubiquitious savoury biscuits sourced from Devon and Europe there too, but less dusty.  One of my fellow customers in the cheese shop, it is called Gray’s, was an elderly man who was buying tiny portions of many different cheeses and they were being just charming to him – they cared that he was getting what he wanted.  So what is the trick, treat your customers well, and be interested in serving them with a friendly and efficient air.  And if you say you offer local stuff, then do offer it.

Jane Bennett

Telephone number: 01235 821230

Website: www.theoldfarmhousebakery.co.uk

Special note: Only Open Wed-Fri 9.00-17.00, Sat 8.30-13.00. Also appear in various farmers market

Summary:

A nice little modern bakery sited on the Meadows Farm Estate  and is listed as a Rick Stein Food Hero.

They do a nice range of pies and pasties, cakes and breads. I had the sausage roll (70p) – a bit salty, the beef pasty (£1.70) – could do with more mince, and the cheese and onion slice (£1.60).

The sourdough rye is a bit on the light side. However, the pumpernickel– which will last 2 weeks according to the baker – is supreme.

We’ll worth a visit when you are in the area.

E

Feb 2011