For anyone not keeping up, Kathryn and I are running a 3 room bed and breakfast for 2 weeks. Our first day 'flying solo' was Tuesday. We have absolutely no previous experience...
On Monday, by way of training, we watched 'Three in a bed', that programme where 3 B&B owners stay at each other's places and rate them. Unfortunately, one of the contestants was a slightly rough lady from Yorkshire who liked a drink. As I couldn't relate to her in anyway I'm afraid I didn't learn much from the programme.
New guests for breakfast on Tuesday. A bit younger than the usual clientele and with their fancy London ways and high expectations they asked for kippers, poached and scrambled eggs. The guests write on a board what they'd like for breakfast. So, of course, this opened the flood gates for more kippers and sophisticated egg cooking. Unfortunately our 2 day training only covered the full english and fried eggs. Health and Safety would have had a field day as we slopped pans of boiling water across the kitchen in an attempt to time kipper cooking with perfect poached eggs and not burning the scrambled.
I'm 'front of house' and after much studying of the table yesterday evening I perfected the placing of the toast racks today. Due to poor placement yesterday I ended up having to do an extra rack and end up with cold hard toast that needed chucking away. But as they say you learn from your mistakes and this morning was bang on with the toast - phew!
I'm slightly concerned that after only two days our conversations are based solely on the topics of towel changing, keeping the whites white and preventing water marks on shower doors.
Favourite job so far - squeegying the shower doors, everyone must get a Lakeland shower squeegy they are an absolute boon and so much fun to use.
Worst job so far - scrutinising towels for stains. Actually the worst job is scrutinising and then finding stains.
Dilemma of the day - can you put yellow and white bed linen on a bed with a pale blue vallance? We have and it looks ok, I think.
Just waiting for new arrivals and then off to the gym followed by sitting in the sun reading - it's all go!
Dulcie
Wednesday, 14 September 2011
Tuesday, 13 September 2011
Cornish Ales
We are now back from the US and after a quick turnaround in Brighton, a night in Shoreham and a flying visit to Suffolk we spent our second night back in blighty at a pub with rooms in Newbury (halfway point between Suffolk and Bude). It was here that I tried the very good Wadworth Horizon. A light golden ale, very summery with a good flavour and a light hoppiness, a 4 out of 5. The next day we carried on our journey to stay with some friends in Bude, Cornwall. They recommended a shop called North Coast Wines in Bude for a great selection of Cornish Ales. After a very long browse round this great shop I chose 4. The first was a beer made by the Keltek brewery in Redruth and sold in aid of the campaign to save Bude's sea pool. It's called SOS Save Our Seapool. At 4% it was fairly easy drinking, not unpleasant but not much in the way of flavour, 2.5 out of 5. I tried another of their beers, Natural Magik at 4.5%. This was a vegan beer so hadn't used any fish derived finings and was true to natural methods of beer making. Again a nice enough beer but not a huge amount of flavour. Nice idea though so 3/5.
I'm a big fan of Skinners beers from Truro so I thought i'd try their new Skin Dog lager - an après surf beer apparently, 4.4%. A good flavoursome lager with a reasonable hoppiness but not as good as some of the American versions of this type of beer which, given the packaging of this beer, I'm guessing they are trying to emulate.
The final one of the 4 and the best was Badlands Bitter from Driftwood Spars Brewery in St Agnes. Absolutely top notch. A lovely dark bitter with sweetness then the roasted almost coffee flavour followed with a decent but not overpowering hoppy bitterness then lasting sweetness. A thing of beauty. 5 out of 5!
From Bude it was in to a little village outside Helston in Cornwall. The New Inn in the village provided me with my Rugby World Cup beer of choice (if only the matches weren't being played at 7am). Skinners have done Splendid Tackle for the rugby and it's perfect. Light golden in colour, just over 4%, a proper yummy beer that you can happily sip through the matches. 5/5!
As I was near Truro it would have seemed rude not to pop into the Skinners brewery. I have tried all their beers before so I went for some other breweries beers. Another Driftwood Spars beer and a mild with a label that had been printed on someone's old home printer. I love a mild so was excited about this one. But although it was in date it was off, that lemony sour off taste. Very unfortunate. So then I tried the Driftwood Spars - off again. I was so disappointed after drinking the nectar that was their bitter. I'm thinking that Skinners are sabotaging the other breweries beers so theirs seem better? I also took a chance on a very odd sounding beer. It was new in (so not enough time for it to go off fortunately), a pale ale flavoured with lime, chilli and ginger. I reckoned that it would either be lovely or absolutely appalling. Well.... it was lovely
Beer: organic golden pale ale with lime, chilli and ginger
Brewer: Atlantic brewery, Newquay
Country trying in: UK
Town trying in: Wendron, Cornwall
Where purchased: Skinners brewery, Truro
Date tasted: 7/9/11
Package type: clear bottle
Best before date: may 12
Size: 330 ml
Alcohol by volume: 5.5%
Tasting temperature: chilled
Appearance: cloudy, straw coloured
Aroma: citrus lime and light hops
Flavour: starts gingery with a lime citrus refreshing taste, then a light bitter hoppiness and then finishes with warm chilli
Overall impression: surprisingly lovely. I had anticipated over flavoured nastiness but the flavours were all very subtle and complemented the beer as a whole. Really good.
Rating out of 5: 5
Next stop is the Isles of Scilly for more Cornish brews and their very own Ales of Scilly.
I'm a big fan of Skinners beers from Truro so I thought i'd try their new Skin Dog lager - an après surf beer apparently, 4.4%. A good flavoursome lager with a reasonable hoppiness but not as good as some of the American versions of this type of beer which, given the packaging of this beer, I'm guessing they are trying to emulate.
The final one of the 4 and the best was Badlands Bitter from Driftwood Spars Brewery in St Agnes. Absolutely top notch. A lovely dark bitter with sweetness then the roasted almost coffee flavour followed with a decent but not overpowering hoppy bitterness then lasting sweetness. A thing of beauty. 5 out of 5!
From Bude it was in to a little village outside Helston in Cornwall. The New Inn in the village provided me with my Rugby World Cup beer of choice (if only the matches weren't being played at 7am). Skinners have done Splendid Tackle for the rugby and it's perfect. Light golden in colour, just over 4%, a proper yummy beer that you can happily sip through the matches. 5/5!
As I was near Truro it would have seemed rude not to pop into the Skinners brewery. I have tried all their beers before so I went for some other breweries beers. Another Driftwood Spars beer and a mild with a label that had been printed on someone's old home printer. I love a mild so was excited about this one. But although it was in date it was off, that lemony sour off taste. Very unfortunate. So then I tried the Driftwood Spars - off again. I was so disappointed after drinking the nectar that was their bitter. I'm thinking that Skinners are sabotaging the other breweries beers so theirs seem better? I also took a chance on a very odd sounding beer. It was new in (so not enough time for it to go off fortunately), a pale ale flavoured with lime, chilli and ginger. I reckoned that it would either be lovely or absolutely appalling. Well.... it was lovely
Beer: organic golden pale ale with lime, chilli and ginger
Brewer: Atlantic brewery, Newquay
Country trying in: UK
Town trying in: Wendron, Cornwall
Where purchased: Skinners brewery, Truro
Date tasted: 7/9/11
Package type: clear bottle
Best before date: may 12
Size: 330 ml
Alcohol by volume: 5.5%
Tasting temperature: chilled
Appearance: cloudy, straw coloured
Aroma: citrus lime and light hops
Flavour: starts gingery with a lime citrus refreshing taste, then a light bitter hoppiness and then finishes with warm chilli
Overall impression: surprisingly lovely. I had anticipated over flavoured nastiness but the flavours were all very subtle and complemented the beer as a whole. Really good.
Rating out of 5: 5
Next stop is the Isles of Scilly for more Cornish brews and their very own Ales of Scilly.
Cornish Foraging
So finally we are home and back to familiar foraging territory. We landed on Tuesday morning of last week after three hours sleep. We collected Agnes from Reading then drove down to Brighton to do a swap over of stuff in preparation for the final leg of the adventure.
It's a bit odd going in your house when someone else is living in it so we kept the time to a minimum. However due to the lack of sleep and planning on my part I forgot lots of things like checking the post, my foraging bag and a couple of books. To be fair I often take a small library on holiday with me and then wonder why when I remove the books from the bag when I get home never having touched them since they were in there. So we got that organised which was a lot easier than we had expected as after several calls to the Isles of Scilly we established that we were not camping and also that the time we were there would be shortened. We decided that we wouldn't camp due to the amount of stuff you have to take and seen as we didn't have to camp at theB&B,which had always been the original plan, then we decided to get a cottage for a few days after having a longer visit with Krista, Nigel and Zinzan.
So we stayed Tuesday night with the lovely McAulays and also collected Finny and then headed off early on Wednesday to Suffolk to visit my Mother. After the usual delays on the M25 we had our fish and chip lunch and headed off about 6 after some face time with my Brother.
As you will no doubt have noticed by now there has not been a lot of foraging going on. After deciding that having meals with multiple wild foods in would be easier I was having a few days off as it was difficult to cook while all the travelling was going on. However on Saturday I got back into it. Having had a wonder round some woodland with Zinzan and collected all sorts of completely inedible things there were plenty of edible weeds in the fields so had pineapple mayweed and dandelion leaves in my salad. Not realising until recently that you could eat the mayweed but remembering the smell of it was so familiar from childhood days on the farm walking through great clumps of it and that familiar smell coming off. It still surprises me how much it smells of pineapple.
The dandelion is a familiar plant to us all and one I have eaten for years. Not a huge fan of bitterness unless it is watered down but sweeter salad leaves both this combination were quite nice in a bigger salad and. It was good to finally have some wild food after quite a long break.
I was hoping to have had some more fish to add to the protein list and we took Zinzan on his first fishing trip. However Bude breakwater is a difficult place to fish from unless you are fond of dragging mackerel feathers over lots of rocks and constantly having to untangle them. The fishing blogs said you could fish from half tide but no doubt you need to be a better fisherwoman than I to prevent lots of tackle ending up in the sea. No fish supper for me then!
Sunday I had honeysuckle flowers. I had tried them much earlier in the season and found them quite bitter but by this time of the summer, or Autumn for those who follow the meteorological definition of the start of this season, they taste much nicer. I have seem a picture on Ferguson Drennan's website where he is collecting large numbers of honeysuckle but I am not sure what he has used them for so will look that up for next year.
Monday we relocated to what felt like yet another holiday within a holiday,to Helston, where we have rented a small converted barn for 4 nights. We are in a place called Lower Boscadjack in a small yard with two other rental properties and the owners house. We are both very glad we are not under canvas as the weather has been less than kind. However we have so far had time on some lovely beaches and I have now been to St Ives, which is very busy but we are already planning a winter break when it is less hectic with tourists.
I took the dogs down the lane for a wander yesterday and was delighted at the large amount of sorrel that is here. When we stayed down here a couple of years ago I remember then how easy it was to collect. Alas I have had that so it is off the list.
We spent Tuesday in Truro and I got myself a pair of Keen walking boots in a sale which was very fortuitous. After a wonder round and the obligatory coffee (chai latte for me) we headed to Skinners Brewery so Dulcie could stock up on new beers and then decided to head up to Penhale sands with the dogs. Well of course they loved it and went nuts so two tired dogs was the result. We then headed back toward home and stopped off at the local for a swift one before getting home. No wild food today and knave some catching up to do!
Wednesday we went to St Ives as I had never been. Great place and would love to go back for a week in the winter when it's a bit quieter as it was slightly busier than we had anticipated. We were lucky with the weather and the beaches and narrow streets were very hectic. I finally did some foraging in Hayle on the way back as there is an estuary there. So along with my cold chicken I had Marsh Samphire and some Spear Leaved Orache. I also did the foragers emergency stop, which Dulcie always loves, on the way back home and got some newly grown Comfrey so did that with some onions and peanuts (a recipe courtesy of Roger Phillips in his Wild Food book). I think there is some debate about eating comfrey and whether doing so is safe but to be honest the small amount I have didn't concern me much.
So that wraps up the foraging in Cornwall and the next leg is the Isles of Scilly.
It's a bit odd going in your house when someone else is living in it so we kept the time to a minimum. However due to the lack of sleep and planning on my part I forgot lots of things like checking the post, my foraging bag and a couple of books. To be fair I often take a small library on holiday with me and then wonder why when I remove the books from the bag when I get home never having touched them since they were in there. So we got that organised which was a lot easier than we had expected as after several calls to the Isles of Scilly we established that we were not camping and also that the time we were there would be shortened. We decided that we wouldn't camp due to the amount of stuff you have to take and seen as we didn't have to camp at theB&B,which had always been the original plan, then we decided to get a cottage for a few days after having a longer visit with Krista, Nigel and Zinzan.
So we stayed Tuesday night with the lovely McAulays and also collected Finny and then headed off early on Wednesday to Suffolk to visit my Mother. After the usual delays on the M25 we had our fish and chip lunch and headed off about 6 after some face time with my Brother.
As you will no doubt have noticed by now there has not been a lot of foraging going on. After deciding that having meals with multiple wild foods in would be easier I was having a few days off as it was difficult to cook while all the travelling was going on. However on Saturday I got back into it. Having had a wonder round some woodland with Zinzan and collected all sorts of completely inedible things there were plenty of edible weeds in the fields so had pineapple mayweed and dandelion leaves in my salad. Not realising until recently that you could eat the mayweed but remembering the smell of it was so familiar from childhood days on the farm walking through great clumps of it and that familiar smell coming off. It still surprises me how much it smells of pineapple.
The dandelion is a familiar plant to us all and one I have eaten for years. Not a huge fan of bitterness unless it is watered down but sweeter salad leaves both this combination were quite nice in a bigger salad and. It was good to finally have some wild food after quite a long break.
I was hoping to have had some more fish to add to the protein list and we took Zinzan on his first fishing trip. However Bude breakwater is a difficult place to fish from unless you are fond of dragging mackerel feathers over lots of rocks and constantly having to untangle them. The fishing blogs said you could fish from half tide but no doubt you need to be a better fisherwoman than I to prevent lots of tackle ending up in the sea. No fish supper for me then!
Sunday I had honeysuckle flowers. I had tried them much earlier in the season and found them quite bitter but by this time of the summer, or Autumn for those who follow the meteorological definition of the start of this season, they taste much nicer. I have seem a picture on Ferguson Drennan's website where he is collecting large numbers of honeysuckle but I am not sure what he has used them for so will look that up for next year.
Monday we relocated to what felt like yet another holiday within a holiday,to Helston, where we have rented a small converted barn for 4 nights. We are in a place called Lower Boscadjack in a small yard with two other rental properties and the owners house. We are both very glad we are not under canvas as the weather has been less than kind. However we have so far had time on some lovely beaches and I have now been to St Ives, which is very busy but we are already planning a winter break when it is less hectic with tourists.
I took the dogs down the lane for a wander yesterday and was delighted at the large amount of sorrel that is here. When we stayed down here a couple of years ago I remember then how easy it was to collect. Alas I have had that so it is off the list.
We spent Tuesday in Truro and I got myself a pair of Keen walking boots in a sale which was very fortuitous. After a wonder round and the obligatory coffee (chai latte for me) we headed to Skinners Brewery so Dulcie could stock up on new beers and then decided to head up to Penhale sands with the dogs. Well of course they loved it and went nuts so two tired dogs was the result. We then headed back toward home and stopped off at the local for a swift one before getting home. No wild food today and knave some catching up to do!
Wednesday we went to St Ives as I had never been. Great place and would love to go back for a week in the winter when it's a bit quieter as it was slightly busier than we had anticipated. We were lucky with the weather and the beaches and narrow streets were very hectic. I finally did some foraging in Hayle on the way back as there is an estuary there. So along with my cold chicken I had Marsh Samphire and some Spear Leaved Orache. I also did the foragers emergency stop, which Dulcie always loves, on the way back home and got some newly grown Comfrey so did that with some onions and peanuts (a recipe courtesy of Roger Phillips in his Wild Food book). I think there is some debate about eating comfrey and whether doing so is safe but to be honest the small amount I have didn't concern me much.
So that wraps up the foraging in Cornwall and the next leg is the Isles of Scilly.
Thursday, 8 September 2011
Finishing off in America
Ok so it's been a while since the last blog entry. Have had a hectic time since we got back but before i get to that let me finish off the trip.
The hurricane was causing lots of problems while we were there and purchasing of lots of hurricane preparation equipment was going on while we of course were buying shoes!! Having not experienced a hurricane since the one that hit the UK in 1987 which as some of you will remember was not predicted and therefore not something anyone prepared for ( and which I slept through I seem to recall) we didn't know what all the fuss was about. It is difficult to know how much of the hype was just that and how much was paranoia after Katrina. Anyway as it turns out we were under prepared as we ran of of beer which wasn't a problem for me but was a near disaster for my companion! As far as I was conceded the worse thing was that the generator only powered certain essentials like lights but not the cooker which meant I could boil the kettle but had to do it in the microwave. Well quite frankly getting a rolling boil in the microwave is difficult enough and then you end up with fizzy water when you put the teabag in. Not good.
So to the foraging and wild food. Well I picked the foxtail on the Wednesday and left it to dry out for a few days. I then just rubbed it and most of the sees dropped out but if I rubbed it too hard I ended yo with some of the spiky hairs as well which I figured would go too well in the biscuits. After a little sorting I managed to find a coffee grinder in a box that should have had a cafeteire in it. Anyway the green powder was ready and I found a basic recipe for butter thins and just substituted some of the flour with the foxtail flour. I have to say I thought they were lovely biscuits and had a nice nuttiness about them. Obviously in the interests of research and to check that the product was up to scratch I had to consume most of them though I think Dulcie got one or two of the dozen that I made!
I finally got to try the Asiatic day flower which was also lovely. A great salad vegetable and tasted a bit like runner bean but without the stringy-ness. Shame I only tried them on the last day but definitely one I would add to the regular list.
Well foraging in a hurricane was a bit difficult - I did find two small puffballs but when I opened them they were already spore like and about to puff! So that was it for my foraging in America. After I got the app it got a lot easier and I have enjoyed finding new plants that I had never heard of and i am obviously still here to tell the tale which is good. Back to the UK and more familiar ground but I will try to find and cook a few things I have not tired before.
The hurricane was causing lots of problems while we were there and purchasing of lots of hurricane preparation equipment was going on while we of course were buying shoes!! Having not experienced a hurricane since the one that hit the UK in 1987 which as some of you will remember was not predicted and therefore not something anyone prepared for ( and which I slept through I seem to recall) we didn't know what all the fuss was about. It is difficult to know how much of the hype was just that and how much was paranoia after Katrina. Anyway as it turns out we were under prepared as we ran of of beer which wasn't a problem for me but was a near disaster for my companion! As far as I was conceded the worse thing was that the generator only powered certain essentials like lights but not the cooker which meant I could boil the kettle but had to do it in the microwave. Well quite frankly getting a rolling boil in the microwave is difficult enough and then you end up with fizzy water when you put the teabag in. Not good.
So to the foraging and wild food. Well I picked the foxtail on the Wednesday and left it to dry out for a few days. I then just rubbed it and most of the sees dropped out but if I rubbed it too hard I ended yo with some of the spiky hairs as well which I figured would go too well in the biscuits. After a little sorting I managed to find a coffee grinder in a box that should have had a cafeteire in it. Anyway the green powder was ready and I found a basic recipe for butter thins and just substituted some of the flour with the foxtail flour. I have to say I thought they were lovely biscuits and had a nice nuttiness about them. Obviously in the interests of research and to check that the product was up to scratch I had to consume most of them though I think Dulcie got one or two of the dozen that I made!
I finally got to try the Asiatic day flower which was also lovely. A great salad vegetable and tasted a bit like runner bean but without the stringy-ness. Shame I only tried them on the last day but definitely one I would add to the regular list.
Well foraging in a hurricane was a bit difficult - I did find two small puffballs but when I opened them they were already spore like and about to puff! So that was it for my foraging in America. After I got the app it got a lot easier and I have enjoyed finding new plants that I had never heard of and i am obviously still here to tell the tale which is good. Back to the UK and more familiar ground but I will try to find and cook a few things I have not tired before.
Tuesday, 30 August 2011
Beer tasting through earthquakes and hurricanes
Bring on the earthquakes, the hurricanes, whatever you can throw - nothing will stop this intrepid beer reviewer. So here I sit watching the effects of the hurricane writing the beer blog. I've got a bit behind with the blog as I have been thoroughly engrossed in 'gone with the wind' which I've been reading. I finished it yesterday so can return to the blog. I have tried a number over the last week without having my beer review template to hand so soe may not get the full description an review they deserve. However, I hope you'll get the idea. So to the first beer. The Landshark lager - apparently from the Budweiser stable. It turns out that when it came to making Landshark they had run out of hops, barley and yeast so they just mixed fizzy water, sugar, added a bit of colouring and, voila Landshark lager - a very generous 1 out of 5. So returning home from dinner where I had the Landshark I thought I needed something with a bit more oomph so I decided now was the time to try the 4th and final beer from the sierra Nevada beer camp case, the Juniper black ale
Beer: Juniper black ale
Brewer: Sierra Nevada
Country trying in: USA
Town trying in: Arnold
Where purchased:
Date tasted:
Package type: brown bottle
Best before date: ?
Size: 12 fl oz
Alcohol by volume: 8%
Tasting temperature: chilled
Appearance: black, light bubble rise
Aroma: slight citrus, chocolate and coffee
Flavour: slight sweetness and chocolate then coffee then really heavy hoppy bitterness into more coffee
Overall impression: again a really clever beer but the hoppiness and alcohol level were just too much for me
Rating out of 5: 3.5
After the devastatingly weak to the formidably strong I thought something in between might be better so later in the week I started on the mixed 6 pack I got in Annapolis. I began with the Ubu ale
Beer: Ubu ale
Brewer: Lake Placid craft brewery
Country trying in: USA
Town trying in: Arnold
Where purchased:
Date tasted:
Package type: brown bottle
Best before date: ?
Size: 12 fl oz
Alcohol by volume: ?
Tasting temperature: chilled
Appearance: dark red with light bubble rise
Aroma: sweet honey and apricot
Flavour: mild astringency then honey and mellow bitterness followed by a lasting sweetness
Overall impression: pretty good ale - described on the bottle as an English style bitter and it is, sort of, I guess. English style in the Dick van dyke in Mary poppins English style.
Rating out of 5: 3.5
Over the week I also tried the rest...
Beer: longboard island lager
Brewer: kona brewery, Portsmouth, NH
Country trying in: USA
Town trying in: Arnold
Where purchased:
Date tasted:
Package type: Brown bottle
Best before date: ?
Size: 12 fl oz
Alcohol by volume: ?
Tasting temperature: chilled
Appearance: light golden
Aroma: light citrus and hoppy
Flavour: refreshing lively fizz, light hoppy bitterness followed by a slight astringency
Overall description: good refreshing light lager
Rating out of 5: 4
Beer: helles lager
Brewer: Fordham, Dover, DE
Country trying in: USA
Town trying in: Arnold
Where purchased:
Date tasted:
Package type: Brown bottle
Best before date: ?
Size: 12 fl oz
Alcohol by volume: ?
Tasting temperature: chilled
Appearance: deep golden
Aroma: slight hop and banana
Flavour: fairly fierce fizz, a sweetness then lasting light bitterness with some more sweetness
Overall impression: not particular flavoursome but a nice mix of bitter and sweet
Rating out of 5: 3
However the best of the bunch which I drank whilst eating hard shell blue crabs was the Chesapeake pale ale - and foolishly I didn't record my review at the time. But it was a definite 5 out of 5 with lots of flavour and just the right amount of bitterness. Top notch!
Beer: Juniper black ale
Brewer: Sierra Nevada
Country trying in: USA
Town trying in: Arnold
Where purchased:
Date tasted:
Package type: brown bottle
Best before date: ?
Size: 12 fl oz
Alcohol by volume: 8%
Tasting temperature: chilled
Appearance: black, light bubble rise
Aroma: slight citrus, chocolate and coffee
Flavour: slight sweetness and chocolate then coffee then really heavy hoppy bitterness into more coffee
Overall impression: again a really clever beer but the hoppiness and alcohol level were just too much for me
Rating out of 5: 3.5
After the devastatingly weak to the formidably strong I thought something in between might be better so later in the week I started on the mixed 6 pack I got in Annapolis. I began with the Ubu ale
Beer: Ubu ale
Brewer: Lake Placid craft brewery
Country trying in: USA
Town trying in: Arnold
Where purchased:
Date tasted:
Package type: brown bottle
Best before date: ?
Size: 12 fl oz
Alcohol by volume: ?
Tasting temperature: chilled
Appearance: dark red with light bubble rise
Aroma: sweet honey and apricot
Flavour: mild astringency then honey and mellow bitterness followed by a lasting sweetness
Overall impression: pretty good ale - described on the bottle as an English style bitter and it is, sort of, I guess. English style in the Dick van dyke in Mary poppins English style.
Rating out of 5: 3.5
Over the week I also tried the rest...
Beer: longboard island lager
Brewer: kona brewery, Portsmouth, NH
Country trying in: USA
Town trying in: Arnold
Where purchased:
Date tasted:
Package type: Brown bottle
Best before date: ?
Size: 12 fl oz
Alcohol by volume: ?
Tasting temperature: chilled
Appearance: light golden
Aroma: light citrus and hoppy
Flavour: refreshing lively fizz, light hoppy bitterness followed by a slight astringency
Overall description: good refreshing light lager
Rating out of 5: 4
Beer: helles lager
Brewer: Fordham, Dover, DE
Country trying in: USA
Town trying in: Arnold
Where purchased:
Date tasted:
Package type: Brown bottle
Best before date: ?
Size: 12 fl oz
Alcohol by volume: ?
Tasting temperature: chilled
Appearance: deep golden
Aroma: slight hop and banana
Flavour: fairly fierce fizz, a sweetness then lasting light bitterness with some more sweetness
Overall impression: not particular flavoursome but a nice mix of bitter and sweet
Rating out of 5: 3
However the best of the bunch which I drank whilst eating hard shell blue crabs was the Chesapeake pale ale - and foolishly I didn't record my review at the time. But it was a definite 5 out of 5 with lots of flavour and just the right amount of bitterness. Top notch!
Friday, 26 August 2011
Keeping it American!
So I have, to use a nautical expression, changed tact slightly. Rather than perhaps trying the different wild food every day I thought that perhaps a bit like Dulcie i could have several wild foods on any given day that would cover several days, especially if aim having salad for example. That said Saturday i was still on the hunt for the days food. We had been told that we should find something called sassafras in the garden and that it could be used to make tea or root beer. The plant has three distinct leaf shapes so is quite easy to spot,one is just an oval shaped leaf, one looks like a mitten and the third has three sections (clearly I haven't read the botany book that I brought with me as yet!) anyway you get the gist of it. We saw some of these at the top of the drive so removed several of them. However the lemony smell of damaged leaves or the root beer smell of the root wasn't there but I took them anyway.
I made a simple tea with the leaves and tried it but it wasn't all that so after reading on my app about trying to get the caduim of the plant out I was a bit stumped as I didn't know what that was. Apparently it's the gooey bit just under the bark that transports nutrients around so I dug that out and put it on to boil with some of the bark. It was at that point that Jory arrived as we we're having a proper Maryland crab feast that evening. She looked at my concoction and told me it wasn't sassafras and we went into the back garden and found the proper stuff which instantly smelt of root beer and the leaves smelled lemony. The tea from both was lovely but I am still stumped as to what the other was as it had the three different leaves on the same plant. Still I know now what to look for. Oddly enough the day after I was first told about sassafras it was mentioned in Gone with the Wind which Dulcie is currently reading - how odd!
The new app is proving very useful as I would never have found Sunday's plant without it. Asiatic day flower which as it's name suggests only flowers for a day. There are lots of them at the top of the drive so I am having them in a salad today (Friday) and will report on the flavour later.
Monday was more fishing. I hadn't been up early enough for a few days with some spare time to go and have a go but this morning Dulcie was still snoozing and showing no signs of rousing so I thought a spot of fishing would be a good plan. I set up the night line but that wasn't attracting any attention so got on with some casting with the lure. The first cast brought me a baby striped bass which went straight back. Then a few minutes later when I was fiddling about with the lure just under the jetty something bit and we had an interesting little struggle before I brought it up on the jetty. Well it wasn't a bass or a perch it was longer than they were with a long head. It was on later inspection that i confirmed it as a chain pickerel. I knew it belonged to the pike family and must admit was a little wary of it due to the number of very sharp teeth it had and the reputation that pike have for being viscious. Even if I couldn't eat it I was going to have to kill it to get the hook out that it had swallowed. Well I also vaguely remember that they are difficult to dispatch and that was true enough. At this point Dulcie arrived and we both donked it on the head in order to speed up the procedure but it still kept twitching more than other fish that l have previously dispatched. The teeth were also putting me off. Anyway obviously it eventually stopped moving and removed the hook and carried on. Not long after I caught another perch so was happy with my morning catch.
Tuesday we went to Washington DC to be tourists. For the capital city of such a big country its not that big a city but very different to NY which is the only major US city I have to compare it to (I fell asleep on the drive around LA!!). We took an open top bus tour and saw some of the famous memorials. Unfortunately the long reflection pool you see in Forest Gump that runs from the Washington memorial up to the obelisk was being dug up so no reflecting going on there. We then went to the White House and got some of those great at arms length photos of both of us outside.
I saw some wild spinach - that is what they call fat hen over here but with the heat it would have been a little buggered by the time I got it home. There were a few other common edible weeds along the National Mall but today was not a foraging day.
The big news though is that while we were sitting having lunch we experienced what I initially thought was the guy sitting next to me being annoying and tapping his feet rather heavily but turned out to be a 5.8 scale earthquake!!! OMG. Well obviously this was big news so suddenly the calm background music that had been playing in the restaurant disappeared and a very loud CNN came on which then continued to play through the rest of our lunch and until we left.
Washington went into pandemonium and buildings were being closed left right and centre so of course by about 3 pm a very premature rush hour had started. We wandered back to pick up our sightseeing bus as we wanted to go to George town but basically the place was in grid lock. Most of the normal buses that came by were out of service and our sightseeing bus was no where to be seen. We then walked alot, found out the underground was still running but very slowly and eventually got home a little later than we had planned.
Wednesday we took Charley (the dog we are looking after) to Greenbury point with lots of foraging opportunities. I gathered mile-a-minute which is a creeper that had almost symmetrical triangular leaves and amazing barbs on the stalks but had a lemony almost sorrel type flavour. I also got some red clover for my salad and some young Greater Plantain. Finally as a bit of an experiment I got some foxtail which is a grass with this funnily enough foxtail like seed thing at the top (really should read my botany book it would make me sound so much more knowledgeable). Anyway the idea is you grind the seeds and can mix them with flour to add a nutty flavour.
I mixed the mile a minute with onions and flaked pickerel ( which is a labour of love bearing in mind how many small annoying bones they have ) and that was lovely, and then had the clover in with my salad. The foxtail seeds are drying in a bowl on the window and I will attempt to do something with them today.
Finally we get to Thursday and it was time for more seafood. We drove toSalisbury to see a friend of mine who has lived out here for about 11 years. Charley came with us for the trip and we sat outside in 85 degrees and had lunch! I had clams which I was bit dubious about but actually covered in a bucket of butter and several buckets of garlic tasted lovely. I would quite like to try clam chowder but Dulcie reckons it's more of an autumnal thing so that may have to be another time.
So we are pretty much up to date now. I will report on the Asiatic dayflower and the foxtail biscuit experiment in due course but will leave you for now and hope to return after surviving hurricane Irene which is making it's way up the east coast of the US!
I made a simple tea with the leaves and tried it but it wasn't all that so after reading on my app about trying to get the caduim of the plant out I was a bit stumped as I didn't know what that was. Apparently it's the gooey bit just under the bark that transports nutrients around so I dug that out and put it on to boil with some of the bark. It was at that point that Jory arrived as we we're having a proper Maryland crab feast that evening. She looked at my concoction and told me it wasn't sassafras and we went into the back garden and found the proper stuff which instantly smelt of root beer and the leaves smelled lemony. The tea from both was lovely but I am still stumped as to what the other was as it had the three different leaves on the same plant. Still I know now what to look for. Oddly enough the day after I was first told about sassafras it was mentioned in Gone with the Wind which Dulcie is currently reading - how odd!
The new app is proving very useful as I would never have found Sunday's plant without it. Asiatic day flower which as it's name suggests only flowers for a day. There are lots of them at the top of the drive so I am having them in a salad today (Friday) and will report on the flavour later.
Monday was more fishing. I hadn't been up early enough for a few days with some spare time to go and have a go but this morning Dulcie was still snoozing and showing no signs of rousing so I thought a spot of fishing would be a good plan. I set up the night line but that wasn't attracting any attention so got on with some casting with the lure. The first cast brought me a baby striped bass which went straight back. Then a few minutes later when I was fiddling about with the lure just under the jetty something bit and we had an interesting little struggle before I brought it up on the jetty. Well it wasn't a bass or a perch it was longer than they were with a long head. It was on later inspection that i confirmed it as a chain pickerel. I knew it belonged to the pike family and must admit was a little wary of it due to the number of very sharp teeth it had and the reputation that pike have for being viscious. Even if I couldn't eat it I was going to have to kill it to get the hook out that it had swallowed. Well I also vaguely remember that they are difficult to dispatch and that was true enough. At this point Dulcie arrived and we both donked it on the head in order to speed up the procedure but it still kept twitching more than other fish that l have previously dispatched. The teeth were also putting me off. Anyway obviously it eventually stopped moving and removed the hook and carried on. Not long after I caught another perch so was happy with my morning catch.
Tuesday we went to Washington DC to be tourists. For the capital city of such a big country its not that big a city but very different to NY which is the only major US city I have to compare it to (I fell asleep on the drive around LA!!). We took an open top bus tour and saw some of the famous memorials. Unfortunately the long reflection pool you see in Forest Gump that runs from the Washington memorial up to the obelisk was being dug up so no reflecting going on there. We then went to the White House and got some of those great at arms length photos of both of us outside.
I saw some wild spinach - that is what they call fat hen over here but with the heat it would have been a little buggered by the time I got it home. There were a few other common edible weeds along the National Mall but today was not a foraging day.
The big news though is that while we were sitting having lunch we experienced what I initially thought was the guy sitting next to me being annoying and tapping his feet rather heavily but turned out to be a 5.8 scale earthquake!!! OMG. Well obviously this was big news so suddenly the calm background music that had been playing in the restaurant disappeared and a very loud CNN came on which then continued to play through the rest of our lunch and until we left.
Washington went into pandemonium and buildings were being closed left right and centre so of course by about 3 pm a very premature rush hour had started. We wandered back to pick up our sightseeing bus as we wanted to go to George town but basically the place was in grid lock. Most of the normal buses that came by were out of service and our sightseeing bus was no where to be seen. We then walked alot, found out the underground was still running but very slowly and eventually got home a little later than we had planned.
Wednesday we took Charley (the dog we are looking after) to Greenbury point with lots of foraging opportunities. I gathered mile-a-minute which is a creeper that had almost symmetrical triangular leaves and amazing barbs on the stalks but had a lemony almost sorrel type flavour. I also got some red clover for my salad and some young Greater Plantain. Finally as a bit of an experiment I got some foxtail which is a grass with this funnily enough foxtail like seed thing at the top (really should read my botany book it would make me sound so much more knowledgeable). Anyway the idea is you grind the seeds and can mix them with flour to add a nutty flavour.
I mixed the mile a minute with onions and flaked pickerel ( which is a labour of love bearing in mind how many small annoying bones they have ) and that was lovely, and then had the clover in with my salad. The foxtail seeds are drying in a bowl on the window and I will attempt to do something with them today.
Finally we get to Thursday and it was time for more seafood. We drove toSalisbury to see a friend of mine who has lived out here for about 11 years. Charley came with us for the trip and we sat outside in 85 degrees and had lunch! I had clams which I was bit dubious about but actually covered in a bucket of butter and several buckets of garlic tasted lovely. I would quite like to try clam chowder but Dulcie reckons it's more of an autumnal thing so that may have to be another time.
So we are pretty much up to date now. I will report on the Asiatic dayflower and the foxtail biscuit experiment in due course but will leave you for now and hope to return after surviving hurricane Irene which is making it's way up the east coast of the US!
Saturday, 20 August 2011
Summer drinking
The weather has cleared up a little now which has meant a few more trips out and the discovery of a liquor store in Annapolis which does a mix your own 6 pack. So I did. I have been a little more sensible and selected some lighter summer drinking beers this time. The better weather has been great in terms of getting out, however it has curtailed my beer drinking as alcohol consumption and car driving shouldn't be mixed. However I have managed to sneak in one of the summer ales, a pleasant if not overly exciting Samuel Adams summer ale.
Beer: Summer ale
Brewer: Samuel Adams, Boston
Country trying in: USA
Town trying in: Annapolis
Where purchased: mills wine merchant, Annapolis
Date tasted: 16/8/11
Package type: brown bottle
Best before date: ?
Size: 12 fl oz
Alcohol by volume: ?
Tasting temperature: chilled
Appearance: light golden, slight foam, swift bubble rise
Aroma: hoppy and mild citrus
Flavour: lots of fizz, starts citrusy, mild banana and light bitterness with a lasting sweetness
Overall impression: nothing out of this world but decent flavoursome summer drinking ale.
Rating out of 5: 3
I have also been to the Middleton tavern - a proper ye olde tavern in Annapolis dating back from the 1600's. I tried a couple of their draught beers but foolishly forgot to take my tasting notes so the reviews for these 2 are a bit poor. I tried the Middleton Oyster ale. A darkish amber ale with a slightly odd astringency, almost rubbery mouth feel and a little over sweet with a bitter that jarred rather than complemented. Not bad but I wouldn't drink it again, 2.5 out of 5. The other beer I tried was the Yuengling traditional lager. A dark golden, a pleasant flavoursome lager but not nearly as good as a Brooklyn lager in my opinion, 3/5.
Beer: Summer ale
Brewer: Samuel Adams, Boston
Country trying in: USA
Town trying in: Annapolis
Where purchased: mills wine merchant, Annapolis
Date tasted: 16/8/11
Package type: brown bottle
Best before date: ?
Size: 12 fl oz
Alcohol by volume: ?
Tasting temperature: chilled
Appearance: light golden, slight foam, swift bubble rise
Aroma: hoppy and mild citrus
Flavour: lots of fizz, starts citrusy, mild banana and light bitterness with a lasting sweetness
Overall impression: nothing out of this world but decent flavoursome summer drinking ale.
Rating out of 5: 3
I have also been to the Middleton tavern - a proper ye olde tavern in Annapolis dating back from the 1600's. I tried a couple of their draught beers but foolishly forgot to take my tasting notes so the reviews for these 2 are a bit poor. I tried the Middleton Oyster ale. A darkish amber ale with a slightly odd astringency, almost rubbery mouth feel and a little over sweet with a bitter that jarred rather than complemented. Not bad but I wouldn't drink it again, 2.5 out of 5. The other beer I tried was the Yuengling traditional lager. A dark golden, a pleasant flavoursome lager but not nearly as good as a Brooklyn lager in my opinion, 3/5.
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