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04-02-2017, 15:52
Visit The Pub Curmudgeon site (http://pubcurmudgeon.blogspot.com/2017/02/master-of-none.html)
https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FrMfbbFQH24/WJXxjlIFeII/AAAAAAAAFeg/A_giNhKYsNURJII9G9IhNsGzOZqs02D-gCLcB/s200/wetherspoon%2Bburger.jpg (https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FrMfbbFQH24/WJXxjlIFeII/AAAAAAAAFeg/A_giNhKYsNURJII9G9IhNsGzOZqs02D-gCLcB/s1600/wetherspoon%2Bburger.jpg)
One of the improvements over last year at the recent Manchester Beer Festival was replacing official catering with independent food stalls. One of them was the What’s Your Beef (http://www.whatsyourbeefburgers.com/) burger stall, from which I had a delicious plain cheeseburger, fresh and hand-cooked, which was probably the single nicest thing I’ve eaten out of the house this year. Yes, it cost a fiver, when in Spoons you’d get a bigger burger plus chips and a soft drink for less, but the quality was far superior.
It didn’t inspire me to go on a burger kick as such, but during the following couple of weeks I’ve had two burgers in pubs, both of which were markedly inferior and had a distinct whiff of the freezer cabinet about them. Indeed, I’d say that the archetypal McDonalds quarter-pounder, when not overdone, would be better. At least it’s moist and actually tastes of beef.
This underlined a point that many writers about pubs rather fight shy of – basically, most pub food isn’t actually much good. It may be adequate and fill a gap, but if you actually want a good curry, you’ll go to an Indian restaurant, if you want good fish and chips, you’ll go to a chippy, and if you want good pizza, you’ll go to Pizza Express.
I recently praised Friends of Ham (http://www.friendsofham.co.uk/friends-of-ham-leeds/) for specialising in one area of food, and doing it very well, but what most pubs do is the exact opposite (http://pubcurmudgeon.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/fox-or-hedgehog-sir.html). You will virtually always dine much better in a dedicated restaurant than in a pub, even if maybe a little more expensively. Where pubs do excel is in simple dishes they have prepared themselves from fresh ingredients – such as the classic ploughman’s and traditional cheese, beef and ham sandwiches and rolls – or have bought in from local independent suppliers, such as pork pies. But those are increasingly rare nowadays.
I’ve freely admitted in the past to being a distinctly eccentric and fussy eater, so I am reluctant to offer opinions of the subject of food. Very often, the criterion for food meeting my approval is simply that it is something I can eat comfortably without gagging. I worked out the other day that I had a BMI of 26.4, which just about qualifies as overweight. But if I actually liked my food, I’d probably be the size of a house. I remember a few years ago at a wedding reception being served up with some particularly inedible “rubber chicken” – but other guests were wolfing it down as if it was manna from the Gods.
However, for dishes that do fall within my sphere of palatability, I reckon I have a pretty good nose for what is good, what is merely adequate and what is awful. And most pub food struggles to achieve second base.
More... (http://pubcurmudgeon.blogspot.com/2017/02/master-of-none.html)
https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FrMfbbFQH24/WJXxjlIFeII/AAAAAAAAFeg/A_giNhKYsNURJII9G9IhNsGzOZqs02D-gCLcB/s200/wetherspoon%2Bburger.jpg (https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FrMfbbFQH24/WJXxjlIFeII/AAAAAAAAFeg/A_giNhKYsNURJII9G9IhNsGzOZqs02D-gCLcB/s1600/wetherspoon%2Bburger.jpg)
One of the improvements over last year at the recent Manchester Beer Festival was replacing official catering with independent food stalls. One of them was the What’s Your Beef (http://www.whatsyourbeefburgers.com/) burger stall, from which I had a delicious plain cheeseburger, fresh and hand-cooked, which was probably the single nicest thing I’ve eaten out of the house this year. Yes, it cost a fiver, when in Spoons you’d get a bigger burger plus chips and a soft drink for less, but the quality was far superior.
It didn’t inspire me to go on a burger kick as such, but during the following couple of weeks I’ve had two burgers in pubs, both of which were markedly inferior and had a distinct whiff of the freezer cabinet about them. Indeed, I’d say that the archetypal McDonalds quarter-pounder, when not overdone, would be better. At least it’s moist and actually tastes of beef.
This underlined a point that many writers about pubs rather fight shy of – basically, most pub food isn’t actually much good. It may be adequate and fill a gap, but if you actually want a good curry, you’ll go to an Indian restaurant, if you want good fish and chips, you’ll go to a chippy, and if you want good pizza, you’ll go to Pizza Express.
I recently praised Friends of Ham (http://www.friendsofham.co.uk/friends-of-ham-leeds/) for specialising in one area of food, and doing it very well, but what most pubs do is the exact opposite (http://pubcurmudgeon.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/fox-or-hedgehog-sir.html). You will virtually always dine much better in a dedicated restaurant than in a pub, even if maybe a little more expensively. Where pubs do excel is in simple dishes they have prepared themselves from fresh ingredients – such as the classic ploughman’s and traditional cheese, beef and ham sandwiches and rolls – or have bought in from local independent suppliers, such as pork pies. But those are increasingly rare nowadays.
I’ve freely admitted in the past to being a distinctly eccentric and fussy eater, so I am reluctant to offer opinions of the subject of food. Very often, the criterion for food meeting my approval is simply that it is something I can eat comfortably without gagging. I worked out the other day that I had a BMI of 26.4, which just about qualifies as overweight. But if I actually liked my food, I’d probably be the size of a house. I remember a few years ago at a wedding reception being served up with some particularly inedible “rubber chicken” – but other guests were wolfing it down as if it was manna from the Gods.
However, for dishes that do fall within my sphere of palatability, I reckon I have a pretty good nose for what is good, what is merely adequate and what is awful. And most pub food struggles to achieve second base.
More... (http://pubcurmudgeon.blogspot.com/2017/02/master-of-none.html)