England August 2012-days 8&9 canterbury and Chapman's seafood bistro

Saturday

It was Saturday 18^th and it was Linda’s Birthday, it was also the day that we were heading for Canterbury, this was another place that Linda had never visited, I had booked us into a quaint little hotel just beside the West gate on St Dunstan street , the Hotel, THE FALSTAFF is a place I had stayed at in January after my Wildfood board meet and I had found it a very ok place not your 5 star luxurious palace, but a good clean place to rest your head for the night and get up to a well-cooked hearty Full English breakfast.

We left Dorchester with my brothers and more so my Sister-in-laws goodbyes ringing in our ears, we headed out onto A35 then A31 in the direction of Southampton, the M3 then took us in NE direction and into M25 traffic, but though we had a few holdups (one just programmes them in) it wasn’t too bad as we stopped and had a picnic at a service that had a bit of a wooded picnic area and also being an avid cricket fan, I was listening to BBC radio 4 Test Match Special (TMS), pity they made such a hash of it.

We got safely around the London Orbital and then down the A2-M2-A2 into Canterbury, it was the hottest day of the year and on getting out of the air-conditioned car in the car park it was like stepping into an oven, a blast of stifling hot air hit us (them having a very good private car park, just to the rear is another plus). We went to reception, got booked in and went up to our room.

Now here a word of warning, this is a very ancient coaching inn and it was a Pilgrims inn before that, it was not built with the old, infirm or disabled in mind, though it must meet with all modern-day Fire and H&S regulations, it has no lifts and I saw no hotel porter at hand to help with cases (though there may have been if we had asked). Our room was on the 2^nd floor in the main hotel (it has 2 annexes), it required the manoeuvring of 2 winding stairways, with 2 fire doors, Manageable  if sound of foot, but if not ask for a room on the ground floor when booking.

Well we got into our room without mishap, got changed and as Linda wanted to do a bit of sightseeing, well you do not come to Canterbury without visiting the scene of one of the most notorious doing to deaths in World History, she also wanted to do some girlie shopping at M&S, so I having visited the Cathedral many times over the past 50 years (my first being on a Pilgrimage at the age of 14) and I had my fill of shopping (I didn’t require any more underwear, socks or ties), so I stayed in the hotel enjoying a well-earned beer in the court yard (once the cioaching yard), this being only my 5^th since getting here (to England not Canterbury ya fools).

Then disappearing to our room to listen to TMS and do a bit of blog writing. Here I found another minus point, the Wi-Fi reception in the room was terrible in fact almost non-existent. So I had to just lie back and enjoy the cricket, well I would have if England had played better and held a few catches.

As it was Linda’s Birthday I had booked a table in advance at a very nice Seafood restaurant called CHAPMAN'S, directly opposite the hotel entrance and very close to the Westgate.

We had a bit of a rest, got showered and changed and headed across to the road for food. I had booked a table for 19:30 and I had asked for a window seat, alas when the Major-domo looked at the seating plan she saw that the guest previously occupying the table were actual not previous. She very courteously said would we like to wait at the bar or select another seat, offering us the seat directly adjacent to the catch of the day black board. Now I am short sighted so this suited me 100% as I would not have to be forever doing the specs on specs off routine.

So once the Birthday girl was seated, we had a look at the menu, the blackboard and wine list.

The menu is not large but quite comprehensive (it is a seafood restaurant so don’t expect a large meat eater selection) and is amply supplemented with some wonderful titbits on the blackboard. The wine list is small but well sorted and has all of the wines one would expect for a fish restaurant.

We selected one of our favourite’s a picpoul de pinet (I had first had this many years ago while hitch-hiking in the South of France in the department of Languedoc- Roussillon and I had introduced Linda to it while visiting that area on our South of France tour in 2009, in fact in the very same town of Bouzigues  on the Étange de Thau (the Oyster and Mussel beds being famous). Also came a bottle of ice cold tap water, the bottles of water are obviously kept in a fridge, a nice touch, not provided in every restaurant.

 

I ordered a half a dozen oyster’s au natural, as Linda is not a great lover of these delicious morsels, I requested if I could have these before the start of the meal. They arrived and they did the oyster supplier proud whoever he was, large plump juicy beasts, tasted absolutely fantastic, because of the UKs strange fixation of Months with an R in them they were not local Whitstable native oysters, but never the less most enjoyable and I was glad that we had selected the picpoul as this was a perfect comrade at arms. Even though I had ordered au natural, they came with a small pot of shallots in red wine vinegar, I had been expecting something with a bit of a tang, but was pleasantly surprised, the shallots soft and melting and the sauce sweet with just a hint of acidity, I tried it on one and then ate the rest of the pot on bread, more like a shallot marmalade.

For my starter I had selected the mini skate wings with shrimps and capers from the black board and Linda had chosen king scallops baked in their shells from the normal menu, but this was also on the blackboard.

The skate came and it was a perfectly grilled (nothing mini about it), it had a good shrimp caper, lemon and tarragon butter sauce, an extra pot of sauce was also on the plate (though it wasn’t really necessary). The flesh was moist and juicy, it was quite a thick piece but was cooked perfectly all the way through, the sauce well balanced and plenty of it (I hate it when they skimp on sauces).  I love skate wings, I am an angler and will when I catch a ray or a skate, often do them myself, so can honestly say well done that chef!

Linda’s King Scallops were just that, regal, 5 monsters, I had a taste and they had been cooked to perfection , the sauce, a sweet chilli/coconut Pave was a beautiful accompaniment to the succulent juicy scallops, I also found it great that they had not removed the coral, why do restaurants do that? It is a truly delicious part of the scallop!

For the main we had selected the fish of the day for two, this was a steam baked turbot with a lemon chervil butter sauce,  accompanied by sautéed  lemon rosemary garlic potatoes and a medley of fresh seasonal vegetables in this case mange-tout, courgette’s, aubergine’s and baby sweet corn. The fish is presented whole at the table and in our case I elected to carry out the fileting myself. Turbot is a wonderful fish, one of the best and it is such a shame if it is spoiled, this one was not, it was cooked again to perfection, the Chef in Chapman’s is certainly a master in fish cooking, it was not in the least dry, it fell away from the bones and was a delight to eat.  The accompanying vegetables still had a bit of crunch to them and there were plenty of them.

 

I certainly enjoyed our meal and Linda said she had a very nice Birthday dinner in pleasant surroundings, she wasn’t the only one, as on the next table a family were also celebrating mothers  Birthday in style, they had selected 2 monster sea food platters which included lobster, crab, king prawns, scallops, mussels. They certainly enjoyed as they tucked in with great gusto, that is all except dad, he has fish and chips, he said in a broad cockney accent “I ‘av to pay for the bloody thing but I don’t av to eat the stuff”.

We left the restaurant and as it was still early, about 21:00 we went for a walk through the Westgate and along the main pedestrian street,

 it was full of young revellers celebrating their exam results, it was still very, very warm and the skimpiness of the lassies attire reflected that and this didn’t do my temperature any good at all.

We plodded of to our beds, I am able to sleep anywhere, I also do not mind the heat (was up the Gulf and out in the Far East in a previous life). So I slept and Linda couldn’t, but that’s life, I had to drive the next day.

The Next Day (Sunday)

Up early bags packed, I had showered before going to bed, Linda decided to have a morning shower, alas no hot water, on ringing the reception, she discovered that the boiler was out and they were waiting for the service chappie to come and fix it, so Linda was forced to have a cold shower (it will do her the world of good). We went down for breakfast, when I was last here it was a la carte table service, but today because the hotel was booked out, the management had decided to put on a buffet style with eggs done to your preference, with scrambled being in the chafing dish. There was a choice of bacon, sausages, hash brownies, beans, grilled tomatoes, mushrooms and the eggs of your choice, last time there was black pudding, but not this time. For me there are two things that do not belong on an English breakfast plate, beans and hash brownies, whatever would the Pilgrims of old thought of these additions while waiting for the city fathers to open up the Westgate, which had been shut at dusk to keep the City pure.

There was also a full range of fruit juices, and dried fruits, also for the continentals with weaker stomachs than their island neighbours a few cold cuts, cheeses and jams. A selection of decent breads and bread rolls also available along with the ominous cotton wool bread to toast. Breakfast over we collected our baggage paid our bill (I had a 20% reduction for being a frequent return visitor, is twice frequent?).

I had said to Linda, that as we had well over 2 hours before we needed to be at the ferry terminal we may as well go out to Whitstable,  I thought it would be empty but when we arrived there was already a good smattering of holiday makers promenading along the fish harbour.

 

 

We had a look at the old Thames barges "The greta" now used to take tourists out on day trips.

 

 

We then popped into the fish merchants to have a look at what he had on sale, as it was a Sunday he had a very good selection. Dressed Crabs.

 

 

Lobsters and live crabs.

A fine array of fresh fish

 

But in reality I had only come to get my last fix of whelks,

 

but this stupidity was almost the undoing of me, the Sat-Nav system had been playing up ever since it had been repaired (sic), it no longer gave turn by turn directions and didn’t automatically recalculate a new route if one went off the straight and narrow, to compound to these woes, the City fathers (more than likely the same ones that locked those poor pilgrims out) had in their infinite wisdom decided to put a new one-way system in place so on the return to get back onto the A2 to Dover, it tried to send me the wrong way down a one way street. I was getting frustrated and did, I believe, swear more than once. I did at last by not following the Sat-Nav get back on the right road and hoofed it for the ferry.

And that is it, with  a small exception for a blocked A2 motorway just before reaching home, that lost us an hour.