Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot eating & cooking in Northwest England)
1
A town centre hotel and inn with a nice restaurant which we’d tried on a previous trip to the area. We liked it then and reckoned it was well worth a revisit. It’s a shortish menu which we usually regard as a good thing. Service was spot on.
For one of us, there was the almost ubiquitous ham hock terrine to start. Quite tasty but it was straight out of the fridge so flavours were muted. It must be an absolute cracker if you get one that’s thawed out a bit. It came with an excellent piccalilli and a currently very fashionable crispy egg. Bread came with it – oddly charred as though the chef intended it to be toast but then changed her/his mind. Tomato and basil soup tasted of both and was as light a starter as you might want to come across,
We both went with the same main – a dressed crab salad. It’s not something you come across that often, not even when you’re quite close to the coast, so it was a bit of a treat. The classic preparation is a line of brown meat in the shell with white meat on either side, which always looks attractive. Here, the brown meat is all hidden underneath the white. It all tasted good, though – but when did a dressed crab taste other than good. To accompany, there were new potatoes, a handful of salad leaves in a nice dressing and a dish of mayo.
Nice dinner to round off a weeks stay in the area.
This made me giggle - you are a generous soul @Harters. To me, sounds like someone simply left it under the broiler/toaster a wee bit too long and was too lazy/in the weeds to re-make it.
Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot eating & cooking in Northwest England)
3
You have it the wrong way round , digga. This was still effectively still soft bread but with a couple of faint lines of charring across it. As though it had gone on a ridged griddle but been taken off again quickly.
Very envious of anyone with a car right now. This sounds like a great week of adventuring with benefits (the food, the food!). You’re really making up for lost time. I’ve done absolutely nothing exciting on the food front, but when I do, you’ll hear about it!
Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot eating & cooking in Northwest England)
6
Absolutely, Jan.
We’ve got our “celebration” season coming up - both birthdays and the anniversary - in the coming weeks. For all three, we’ve booked new (to us) Michelin starred places and doing overnight stops. Pricey food and cheapo Premier Inns.
Who knows what’s going to happen with Covid? Looking at the news this morning, it seems the government is going to go ahead with lifting all mandatory regulations, accepting that there will be a “significant” increase in infections. We’re taking our opportunities while we can.
