Address: Winchester Road, Whitway, Burghclere (off A34) RG20 9LE

Telephone number: 01635 278222

Website: http://www.bespokehotels.com/hotel/pages/carnarvonarms/home.htm

Date of visit: 27 April 2011.

Approximate cost per head: Ranges from under £10 for a bar meal to over £20 for a main course. Starters £5-7. Set lunch at £11.95 for 2 courses. Sandwiches from £5.50.

Comments on wine list/beer: London Pride on tap (£3.10 a pint). Basic wine list bottles from just over £10. A few champagnes on offer.

Summary:

The hotel/Inn/Pub is situated near Highclere Castle. On this visit, there was a coach party of visitors to the castle stopping over for lunch. They have booked every table in the restaurant so the choice was sitting at the sofa (too low for me) or eat at the front or back.

The front is quite pleasant and over looks the road. However every table was taken. So, I was directed to the back lawn – a piece of walled grass that hasn’t been cut for weeks and there were a few fag ends littered
around the lawn. There were only 3 tables.

The menu here is quite interesting and goes from under £10 for a bar meal to £22 for the roast beef. On the whole, they serve traditional food here.

As the place was quite chaotic – mind you, the staff were very pleasant – as they were overwhelmed by the numbers, I decided on fish and chips (bar meal) at £12.50.

To my surprise, the meal came within 15 minutes. Mind you, when I went for a second pint of London Pride, I had to wait over 10 minutes as they were too busy serving and making latte for the coach party.

Now onto the food. I had a choice of fat or skinny chips with my fish. I chose the former which turned out to be french fries. The fish (cod) was a really thick piece and was about the size of a “double” wallet. I don’t recommend this as they have to over cook the batter before the fish is cooked – the batter was dark brown instead of being golden.

The other downside was that the chips came salted – why do they do this? The mushy peas and tartare sauce were good and the sauce was made on site as it was quite chunky.

It was an average meal. However, the service was very good despite the volume of traffic.

E

http://www.japancentre.com/recipes/154

For a more exact recipe, chinese version, see below:

Use a ratio of  2 to 1 of minced pork to chopped greens (pak choi, spring greens or cabbage) For every one pound of meat add half a cup of minced spring onions and a max of 2 teaspoons of salt – depending on taste. I use 1.5.

To buy frozen ones, I prefer the Korean goyza which has lots of finely chopped vegetables in the centre and for the Chinbese version – Gobo (70% meat) – from  the Chinese supermarket. Japan centre will ony sell the ready made Korean and Japanese versions which are pretty good.

You can also get dumpling skins from a Chinese supermarket. Do not confuse this with wonton skins which are different.

The best way to cook frozen ones is to lay it out in a non stick frying pan, add boiling water to cover the dumplings – at least half way, put a lid on and leave it for 10 minutes. Then drain, add a tablespoon of oil and fry at low heat for 10 minutes with the lid on – do not stirr. At the end of 10 minutes, add a table spoon of water to the pan – it will sizzle and spit ; put the lid back on and cook at medium heat for 5 minutes. The frying crisp up the base and the water at the end steams the dumplings.

E

April 2011