We the parked up at the rear of my Brothers and SILs and on getting in guess what a nice light meal was waiting (My SiL is Spanish,an artist and a fantastic cook).
After getting bags unpacked and settled, we decided to have a look around the town, nothing much had changed in the last 12 months, but I do like to browse (book shops are my addiction) around the town, Dorchester is very compact and as my Brother lives right in the centre it is all within easy walking distance (if it hadn't been for the snow and biting wind) .
We pottered about and then went back to my Brothers and watched a bit of television.
Thursday after breakfast Linda and I decided to go out for the day (Snow had stopped and the main roads had been cleared), we headed out toward Bridport, passing the famous (or is it infamous?) Cerne Abbas Giant.
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| Wee Willie of the South Downs? |
We went into Bridport and done a bit of looking and window shopping. We where undecided, was it to be Lyme Regis, Mark Hix and his Oyster and Fish House or Beaminster and Mat Follas at the wild garlic. Well by a unanimous decision Mat won, we got into Beaminster just in time for Lunch and just in time for a down pour. We parked a little up from the restaurant and dashed inside.
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| The Wild Garlic |
The Restaurant is situated on the square, it is pleasant and homely, no glitter and sparkle here, tastefully decorated. The tables are decently spaced and there are window seats for those that like watching rain.
They serve morning coffee etc. we got in just on midday and there where a couple of others finishing off their morning tipple. We where the first in for lunch (I always reckon you get the biggest piece), the nice staff showed us to a table and produced a carafe of water and fresh bread with an olive oil/ balsamico mixture.
We ordered our meals, he did have a nice black board hanging on the wall with specials of the day, I ordered the sprats from it!
Linda decided not to have a starter, but the local caught sprats sounded just up my street. Mat brought them out himself and had a little chat, he seemed a little taken aback when we told him that we had come all the way from Germany just to visit his restaurant (well the coming from Germany was the whole truth)
For the mains Linda had chosen the calves liver with onion gravy and mash and she said it was excellent.
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| Calves Liver, onions and mash |
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| The Barnsley Chops |
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| well the plate was empty all I could do to stop her licking it |
And I had the Barnsley chops, with potatoes and fresh vegetables, couldn't fault it, looked nice, smelled nice and more to the point tasted fantastic. The chops (large ones as they should be) where done to a turn, nice and pink, the pesto was a great accompaniment, the baby carrots and parsnip fresh and full of taste. The spuds, well, tasted of what new potatoes should taste the soil, the wonderful earthy taste that you only get in really fresh new potatoes.
Linda not a girl to miss her pud decided on the Guinness and Ginger cake with with Licorice ice cream and an Orange vanilla sauce (I think). This may seem a strange combination at first glance, but Linda said all of the flavours worked very well together and she said it was most enjoyable.
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| The pud |
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| Another plate that didn't need a lot of washing up |
Just as we where finishing Mat came into the front of house carrying a massive plaice on the bone, this had been ordered by someone at the window seat, it did look magnificent, I started wishing that I had ordered that, but you can't have everything on the menu can you? More the pity!
I shall certainly be visiting the Wild Garlic again, maybe this summer. It is a friendly, well run establishment, a pleasure to eat at. Mat you are a true winner!!!
After lunch we did head out to Lyme Regis, just to have a quick look and quick it was, the weather was freezing, the wind howled and it hissed down. We decided to go to Dorchester to do a bit of shopping, I wanted to book browse and Linda had a few odds and sods that she required (women always do, don't they?). I went into one of my favorite second hand bookshops, the owner was outside on his mobile, I went in and started to browse, he then came in and said that unfortunately he had to shut up shop as his assistant had been unable to get into work that morning and he had just heard that the roads out of Dorchester where now becoming impassable. I had come in a couple of hours prior and though snow had been falling I had managed it quite comfortably (it may be that in Germany all cars and Lorries must have winter tyres on from the first of November) it is also a case they don't often get that amount of snow on the South Dorset Downs.
We did pop into that wonderful kitchen shop (Owen and Simpsons) in Antelope Walk (this was in times gone by, the entrance to the stabling areas of the coaching hotel called the Antelope), there is also a smashing Celtic sic, Pasty shop in the walk (Cornish really). There is a nice fresh fish stall on South Street (Pedestrian Area) right outside the entrance to the walk, this sells local caught fish from the inshore boats and always has local crabs and pots of cockles, mussels and whelks. Alas because of the weather none of the boats had been out and the stall was a little depleted.
Friday was a day that we had decided to do to Poole with the Train, I think that train travel is much maligned, I like to be able to stare out of the windows at the rain drops. Now I like Poole, it is nice, when the sun shines, very nice, you can sit outside at one of the harbour cafes, it would have been nice, if only it wasn't bloody raining, this meant me book shop browsing and Linda had other more important things to do????
We visited the Dolphin shopping centre (it is just a short walk from the railway station so you don't get too wet if it is raining) it is quite a nice shopping centre, not massive on the shopping centre scale (Metro, Blue water and Trafford centre are about 10 on the SC scale). I find that shopping centres are all right, in that they serve to get a lot of people to part with their money very quickly. But I prefer, yes, you may say it's "old fashioned", real shops, in real streets, I don't mind having to dodge the number 17 bus while crossing the street, stepping around the dogs droppings or being rammed in the back by push chairs and the elderly mobility scooters, if it wasn't for this bloody rain.
The last time I had been in Poole was a good 10 years past (summer and wonderful sunshine) with my daughter and SiL, we had gone there to see a series of paintings that she had been commissioned to carry out for a Spanish restaurant, I would have loved to have seen them again, but all I could remember was that the restaurant was quite near the quay and was upstairs. She had informed me that the restaurant had closed (I do hope the closure had nothing to do with Manuela's paintings). If anyone knows the restaurant in question please let me know!
We did have a slight hold up on leaving the Dolphin centre to stroll through the town the train barrier was down for what seemed an hour or more, yes I know their is a footbridge that spans the line but it is steep and I am one of those that if I had started to climb the train would come , the barrier would be up and I would be left thinking "why didn't I wait those couple of minutes", so we waited in the rain.
We ambled through the streets and came at last to the quay, popped into a nautical shop, I also love browsing in nautical suppliers and chandlers, they always seem to have a wiff of the sea and shutting ones eyes you are on the deck of a ship crossing the seven seas.
We did take a stroll along the harbour and around to West Quay road passed the RNLI college, Linda took a photo for her BiL, he is Commodore of the Kilkeel RNLI in Northern Ireland.
On returning to Dorchester we (Linda) decided that we(she) wanted to do a bit of food shopping, we wanted certain Dorset supplies, we went to the deli in the Waitrose arcade and got some Blue Vinney, Linda wanted some for our friends in Pershore, Malahide, herself and also to freeze to be used as her part of the belated cookery club Christmas Dinner (she was making a leek and blue cheese soup). Crossing the street we went into M&S, don't ask me why, we just did, but they had Christmas cakes reduced to clear, well we shall be clearing on at our Kiel Cookery Clubs (Kikoklu) Christmas Dinner being held on 29 Jan 2011 (Kikoklu could well have 2 Christmas dinners in 2011)
So we had a nice evening meal, watched a couple of soaps and had an early night, as next day we where setting off for Pershaw and as it was bacon baps for lunch and we didn't want to miss them did we!
See you in Pershore
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