Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot, cooking and eating in northwest England)
1
The Church dates to the late 18th or very early 19th century and is Cheadle Hulme’s oldest boozer. It now does some pretty decent food. We went for lunch, when it has a shorter menu than in the evening – just four starters and around a dozen main courses, of which several are burgers and other sandwiches.
For my partner, there was a smoked fish (salmon and mackerel) and cream cheese pate to start. Perfectly seasoned. It came with shards of crisped pitta bread to load it on to. That was followed by a small fillet of haddock which sat on a well made, and very well flavoured risotto, spiked with pieces of asparagus.
For me, it was haggis fritters… Two golfball sized fritters of a tasty haggis in batter and deep fried to crisp. Yes, healthy lunch be damned. Although I did retrieve it by ordering a main course Vietnamese chicken salad – shreds of the bird and lots of crunch from the likes of red cabbage, bean sprouts, red onion and peanuts. There’s chilli in there and some herbs (but I’d have welcomed more of both)
Good lunch. And a bargain at £16.95 for two courses.
Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot, cooking and eating in northwest England)
2
We went back for a family birthday dinner. I keep telling Mrs H that she doesnt look 71 but I think she thinks I’m telling porkies. Anyway, family meals are always tricky as a majority of attendees are picky eaters in one way or another. So, Mrs H decided the Church had a menu where everyone would at least find something to eat. And so it proved.
Herself’s food was OK - scallops on a pea & asparagus risotto, folllowed byu sea bass. Mine was very underwhelming, having promised quite a bit. Bombay cheese toast read that it should have been really zingy but, in effect, what I got was underflavoured cheese and nothing obvious by way of Indian spicing. Followed by teriyaki salmon with noodles and stir fried veg - just boring. Neither of us could be arsed with dessert.
Ah the joy of a ‘something for everyone’ but ‘nothing good for anyone’ family meal.
We have
2x coeliac
1x coeliac vegan
2 x don’t like spicy food
1 x don’t like Italian or ‘small plates’
and that’s just the immediate family
1 No Korean, no Japanese, Yes to spicy Italian, Mexican, Thai, Indian. If an Indian dish arrives that is not spicy, that is not meant to be spicy, he will say " that Indian dish isn’t spicy" and I have to try stop myself from telling him not all Indian food is necessarily meant to be spicy.
1 acts low maintenance but is high maintenance and won’t tell the rest of the group that she doesn’t like a cuisine until we are all seated at a restaurant serving that type of cuisine, after being asked repeatedly if there is any type of cuisine she doesn’t like
1 low salt
1 plain food person
1 no spicy food person (well, until my uncle’s divorce after almost 30 years of marriage )
Me: the person trying to find a place where there’s something for everyone.
Absolutely spot on
We recently all went to Durham and I managed to find somewhere I thought would be acceptable - which meant ignoring the places I might like to eat. Me and my other half went to check it out before we went and she looked at then menu, then at me as if to say - are you mad ? with your family ?
Any way we all went and i thought it was a great success until afterward I hear back from my sister that my mum is happily telling everyone that she didn’t enjoy either of the things she had !
I figure I can enjoy those restaurants or foods later, alone or with people who appreciate them.
This has happened to me, too
On my 2nd last visit to California, my cousin was complaining about the ‘horrible’ Mexican restaurant where we ate on our previous visit, forgetting that I had chosen for the Mexican restaurant for the 11 of us
3 cousins and 1 uncle had emailed one another for weeks, suggesting half a dozen restaurants, trying to narrow down the restaurant, 2 cousins being blind to the requests of the 2 visiting Canadians. At the dinner at the Mexican restaurant, everyone seemed to act like they liked their meal.
That’s when I decided, she can choose the restaurants. I’m done organizing with that branch of the family.
Thank goodness two of the worst offenders in that thread are ancient history.
2 Likes
Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot, cooking and eating in northwest England)
15
Maybe one of the two, or someone else, but I see that the only person I have ever put on my “ignore” list (so I never see their posts) is on that thread.
