I think I must of eaten my way ’round Brighton this weekend. You know what? I loved it.
Thursday night to celebrate our finally moving out of the flat of doom we went to ‘No Name Restaurant‘ on St. James’s Street. I had what M described as ‘meaty artic roll’ for my starter; a roulade of rabbit, cranberries and duck. For main course we both had local black bream roasted with new potatoes slathered in butter with herbs and watercress. I couldn’t manage a dessert but felt throughly sated without.
On Saturday morning on our way out to buy coffee we were pressed with leaflets by people protesting about Starbucks opening in Kemp Town apparently without planning permission. Turning away from the easy - but let’s face it dull and watery - option of a caffinated beverage we found two more corking places nearby. ‘The Beanstalk’ is on (the horrid faceless) North Street but is full of lovely vegan crusties saying that wifi is dangerous. Result: a lovely strong breakfast latte in a large biodegrable cup for £1. Suck on that Starbucks. We also stumbled on The Tea Cosy tea rooms on George Street. I don’t know whether to be pleased or scared reading their website but I really want to go back for:
Lady Diana Spencer, Princess of Wales, Queen of Hearts, 10 year Anniversary, Forever In Our Thoughts, Memorial Afternoon Tea
Selection of freshly cut cakes, fruit scones, cream, jam, butter, a round of smoked salmon and cream cheese, Ham and mustard, egg and water cress sandwiches (crusts removed) Cold potato salad, olives, fruit, biscuits, minimum 2 persons ordering required, includes a pot of traditional English breakfast tea with unlimited refills. £8 per head, minimum 2 people ordering required.
Born a Princess, Died a Queen
I can think of just the person who’d enjoy that.
For lunch, after a stroll across town to Hove, we went to ‘i gigi’. ‘i gigi’ is the kind of place that makes me want to join the WI and learn how to cover screens. I could buy all their lovely handblown glasses and linen tablecloths. The staff in the café are so lovely and we got some free squidgy mini brownies for having to wait. After a restorative pot of ceylon M had falafels, hot pittas, chilli jam and herby hummous while I had some crusty pain de compagne toasted with butter and homemade chicken liver paté piled high on top. I had one of the best salads ever to accompany it - sundried cherry tomotoes, watercress, lambs lettuce and sunflower seeds doused in balsamic vingegar, oil and yoghurt. I got through two of the massive wedges of toast and paté before admitting defeat. The waitress was most apologetic that she’d given me too much. Again as I’m a savoury girl I eschewed the sinful cake selection (under darling bell jars) while M had a crispy golden treacle tart.
Sunday of course means a roast.
Our search for roast perfection took us back to Hove. We’d read about the ‘The Forager‘ pub and wanted to try its fabled roast for ourselves. However, Fathers Day put paid to that so we vowed to book next time and instead hightailed it to our nearby favourite pub: ‘The Westbourne’. I found ‘The Westbourne’ (or ‘The Winchester’ as M likes to call it) after a miserable wet house hunt in March and we’ve been back several times. Nice people, a chilled atmosphere and loads of cool secondhand furniture you want to nick. The food’s not bad too. I had the roast organic chicken and all the trimmings and M had the veggie nut roast. My only complaint was that the gravy was too thin and swamped everything. Why do all pubs make gravy too thin? I love my gravy me; yes thick.
On the way back to the bus (the number 7 goes everywhere a girl could want) we walked past a place I’d noticed before on Blatchington Street, ‘Ethels Kitchen’. I thought it was ‘just’ a tearoom (I heart tearooms) but it seemed to do Sunday roasts too. The menu looked fab and M and I planned our next Sunday lunch at ‘Ethels’. What really sealed the deal was the wallpaper - Cole & Son black cow parsley.
Last night I made proper rice pudding with a nutmeg skin and all and attempted to recreate the perfect ‘i gigi’ salad using pine nuts instead of pumpkin seeds to accompany our fat golden somerset brie. We washed the lot down with a bottle of rosé in front of the footy. A perfect night in.
Tonight I’m meeting M from work and we’re going to walk home together through Kemp Town via the lovely co-op on our street corner. I’m going to buy some of their ‘Truly Irresistible’ range organic biscuits, go me.
