After eating what was easily the best meal out in the last 12 months, I’ve just found my new favourite restaurant, The Star Inn in Harome, North Yorkshire.

The restaurant

After a warm welcome, we started off with a drink in the warm oak-beamed, thatched bar at one end of the building, trying to decide over the range of choices in the Spring Menu and on the specials listed on the blackboard. We then moved to a large table in the more contemporary silver, grey and red dining room.

Not unusually, we both decided to have the same starter and main course, and shared the cheese and the two puddings.

A Taste of Yorkshire – Delicacies of land and sea. Duncombe Park roe deer, air dried York ham, Yorkshire pudding, smoked trout, lobster bisque.

Steamed Suet Pudding of “Shaw Moor” shot hare with honeyed parsnip puree, braised red wine salsify, fois gras fritter and jugged hare sauce.

Cheese course – 4 British cheeses

Lemon Yorkshire crowdie cheesecake, lemon curd, lemon sorbet, pink grapefruit.

Caramelised rice pudding with sherried raisins

The chef, Andrew Pern (who we could see through the swing doors into the kitchen) is passionate about locally sourced and seasonal food. The ingredients were superb and were simply treated. For example, the Taste of Yorkshire starter simply presented and with no fancy treatment, it let the ingredients speak for themselves. The suet pudding of hare was straightforward but was packed full of flavour. The desserts were fantastic, and generously portioned.

The service was excellent – the waiting staff were friendly and relaxed and able to tell us quite a lot about the food, and were both helpful and unobtrusive.

The accommodation

Our meal was part of our 2-night short break in Yorkshire. We stayed at The Lodge, one of the Black Eagle Cottages rented out by The Star. This thatched cottage was cosy with warm log fires in both the kitchen and bedroom, and The Star provided all the ingredients needed for a great breakfast – bacon, sausages, black pudding, eggs, tomatoes, mushrooms, bread, preserves, yoghurt, cereal. We got up late, ate what we want for breakfast, and we always had the cottage to come back to, to light the fire and slob with books.

The good, but not as good bit…
As the Star was closed on Sunday evening, we ate dinner in their sister restaurant in Harome, The Pheasant Hotel, located in old farm buildings right next to the village duck pond.

The food was good, but wasn’t nearly as good as The Star. The dishes were a bit fancier and appeared to be trying a bit too hard, and there were a few mistakes (the pea and ginger beer soup had the consistency of washing up water and didn’t pack that much of a flavour; the pigeon breast starter was cold). The Pheasant service was also significantly slower – we spent a lot of time wondering where our next course had gone – and consequently drank quite a lot more water. The food was OK but lacked the spark that The Star gave. And significantly was only £20 cheaper.

Until next time
We will certainly go back to The Star – it’s well worth the 4-hour drive from Glasgow. But until then, we’ve bought the book and look forward to trying a few of the Pern-goodies over the next few months, although I’m not sure the mock suede book cover will remain pristine in our kitchen!

This was my first trip to anywhere in South Asia. My immediate impressions were:

• Both cities have an amazing energy – people are actively looking for the next big opportunity. They also have the confidence of being involved in a global economy. Although the dogs in Delhi seem to have a quiet life.
  
  
• Wealth and poverty are very close – one swish apartment building had a set of tin shacks at its base – probably the people who keep the apartments clean.
  
• The pace of development is astonishing – people I visited commented on the way that things have changed even over the past 2 years.

Both places definitely left a big impression. I’m hoping to get back, if possible. It will be fascinating to see how they change over the next few years.

See more pictures of Delhi and Dhaka on Flickr.

We stayed in the Tyan room, with it’s striking blue Lake District wallpaper.

This room has a gorgeous view over Windermere, which was particularly special while eating a full breakfast brought to our room.

The hotel has a fantastic restaurant, with a coherent and complex menu featuring the best ingredients. We ate from the same menu on both nights:

Canapes: bread sticks and dips
- parmesan & green pesto
- beetroot & sour cream
- cumin & curried aubergine

Amuses bouche:
- boiled egg, white bean creme, chorizo
- pesto, red pepper, parmesan foam

Chicken mosaic with leek, prune & lentils
Roast scallops, chicken oysters, celeriac puree
Slow cooked Gloucester old spot, langoustine, celeriac puree
Red mullet, minestrone, crushed ratte potatoes

Wild venison, dauphinoise of roast vegetables, cabbage
Braised Herdwick mutton, shoulder, shank, langoustine, artichoke puree, potato
Fillet of brill, curried parsnip, kipper tortellini

Cheese (for one night only!): 5 Northern English cheeses

Pre-dessert: Cinnamon tuile, sherry jelly, catalan creme, acacia honey sorbet

“Apples from the Samling garden” – apple pie, apple parfait, apple brulee, apple sorbet
Chocolate delice, fennel ice cream, mandarin jelly
Poached pear, olive oil ice cream, upside-down pudding

Coffee & petit fours
- lemon meringue
- lemon & thyme shortbread
- blackcurrant jelly
- chocolate & hazlenut cluster
- madeleine

Phew!

To walk off the effects of this meal, we had some spectacular, although slightly snowy, walks, particularly from Patterdale

and above Windermere

While the daytime was all work (honestly), I used the evenings to explore Cannes, walking along La Croisette promenade, climbing up through Le Suquet to the Tour Castres, eating wonderful fresh seafood – the best was Astoux & Brun near the Vieux Port.

Antibes is only a 15 minute train ride from Cannes, so I went for an explore there one evening. It was nice to sit outside a cafe drinking beer on a November evening. Can’t do that in Glasgow. And again, I was able to discover a good small restaurant which served really good fish.

The best thing about the Samling is that they serve breakfast in your room – we therefore had breakfast overlooking Lake Windermere both mornings – see the picture for the view. We ended up ordering most things on the menu, but the French toast, maple syrup and fresh fruit was the definite highlight.

The restaurant is quite good too – the particular highlight for us was the roast fig with goats cheese ice cream, which we each had both nights.

Friday
Cheek of Gloucester old spot, langoustines, celeriac puree.

Noisette of lamb
Sea bass, lasagne of Cornish crab.

Whole roast fig, fig turnover, goats cheese ice cream.

Saturday
Ballantine of ham, piccalilli, souffle of Mrs Kirkham’s cheddar.
Foie gras.

Venison (loin & shank), haggis ravioli, neeps & tatties.

Whole roast fig, fig turnover, goats cheese ice cream (again)

Service was excellent throughout the weekend. The staff were really friendly and approachable, and made the stay a real pleasure.

We managed three excellent walks (forgot camera, so had to make do with mobile phone):

A low level stroll along Derwent Water and up to Castlerigg Stone Circle near Keswick, just to get the legs stretched.

As Saturday was a promising clear day, with no mist on the fell tops, and as recommended by Roger a couple of years ago, we walked round the Fairfield Horseshoe from Ambleside – 10.5 miles/3250 ft climb (or for the metric-minded, approximately 14 km/1000 m climb). We certainly earned our dinner that evening!

And as a gentle follow-up, we went for a nice low-level walk through Borrowdale on Sunday. As it was the first weekend of the school hols, the place was mobbed!

Travels 2006

April
Lake District
May
London
June
Ludlow
Bute
September
Nova Scotia
PEI
Toronto
October
Thornhill

Throughout 2006 we continued 2005′s habit of going away for more weekends and holidays. There was a lot of repetition of 2005 (if you find a good thing, why change it), and these were the highlights:

Best Restaurants

We usually try to go to two or three restaurants with Michelin stars each year, these are the best…

1. Hibiscus, Ludlow. Still the best restaurant ever, although this year may have been our last meal with them, at least in Ludlow, because they are rumoured to be closing around Easter 2007 and moving to London or the SE in the middle of the summer. The highlight for 2006 though was the savoury ice cream of foie gras, warm emulsion of brioche, balsamic vinegar caramel.
2. L’Enclume, Cartmell. Simon Rogan’s Introduction menu gave us 12 courses of gastronomic genius. Very experimental and unusual.
3. The Stagg Inn, Titley. The Stagg normally marks the start of our Ludlow holiday each year. The bar serves the same food as the restaurant in a more informal setting, and the food is predictably excellent – in fact the Stagg was the first UK pub to be awarded a Michelin star. The beef this year was superbly tender.

Best Cheaper Eats

This category is for more “normal” eating out!

1. Water Prince Corner Shop, Charlottetown, PEI. Superb lobster supper – bread roll, mussels in white wine broth, boiled lobster with drawn butter and potato salad.
2. The Old Fish Factory, Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. The best seafood chowder with biscuit followed by boiled lobster and drawn butter. It might be touristy but the food was good.
3. Red Onion, Glasgow. Jacqueline went there for her work Christmas night out and had an excellent meal with good atmosphere.

Best Hotels

Places we have enjoyed staying in this year.

1. Trigony House Hotel, Thornhill. This is a small Edwardian country house in the Dumfriesshire countryside, with comfortable rooms and good food. A great place in the autumn with views over the garden to the misty hills. Two things particularly impressed me this year – the first was that although we had to curtail our trip to one night because Jacqueline had been taken ill, the hotel only charged us for the night we stayed; the second is that because of the Scottish smoking ban it is now completely non-smoking (hurrah!).
2. Le Germain, Toronto. Luxurious modern hotel in the heart of Toronto’s entertainment district.
3. Shipwright Inn, Charlottetown, PEI. Run by English couple, Trevor and Judy Pye, this is a welcoming B&B with sumptuous rooms, big baths, good breakfasts and an all-day supply of tea/coffee/drinks & cake.

Best Breakfasts

1. Trigony House Hotel, Thornhill. A full Scottish is their speciality, including a really good haggis.
2. Shipwright Inn, Charlottetown, PEI. The breakfasts varied each day and included fresh PEI fruit, home baking – bread, cinnamon buns, muffins – and delicious hot breakfasts.
3. Le Germain, Toronto. In keeping with the hotel’s urban ambience, breakfast is a relaxed affair – cappuccino, fruit, cinnamon buns eaten while sitting at tall tables reading the Globe and Mail.

Best Food Shopping

1. Fencebay Fisheries at Glasgow Farmers’ Markets. Fresh fish, great hot smoked salmon – the arrabiata is particularly good, dressed crab, home-made salmon and trout pate. Where we buy most of our fish now.
2. Iain Mellis. I’m only permitted cheese a couple of times a year (to keep cholesterol and blood pressure down), so visiting Mellis is a fantastic treat. Just as well we don’t live around the corner any more!
3. Jo-Ann’s Deli Market and Bake Shop, Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia. Serves the most wonderful sandwiches (in particular their lobster sandwiches) and cakes. Local fruit and veg is also fantastic.

I took the train to and from London last week, rather than taking the usual plane.

A few people at work have been selling the benefits of travelling by train between Glasgow and London. It takes about 1 or 2 hours longer (door-to-door) than travelling by plane, but it’s possible to work for over four hours, and you don’t need to undress to get through security or carry your moisturiser in a resealable plastic bag!

We are allowed to travel First Class if we are working. The price is quite competitive if you book ahead. It’s quite a pleasant experience, with continuous tea/coffee/cold drinks, offers of snacks (soup, pie, sandwiches). There is plenty of space, and a power socket to keep the laptop working for the duration of the journey.

To cope with the curves on the West Coast Main Line, the Virgin Pendolino trains tilt while going round corners – it’s quite an interesting feeling, a bit like being at sea!

Although the trip felt around an hour too long, I would certainly consider taking the train again, particularly if I had a lot of work to get through and needed the peace and quiet to concentrate.

Before the security crackdown in August, travelling for an overnight trip was very straightforward – throw a clean shirt and toiletries into my normal work rucksack, check in online, walk on the plane, avoid any baggage queues.

That has all changed, certainly for the long term, probably for good, by the banning of all liquids and gels in British airports. The only alternatives for an overnight trip are a) to check in a bag, b) buy toiletries at the destination or c) post toiletries to the destination in advance.

So I have an idea for the airlines: a “Fast Toilet Bag Drop” (modelled on the popular Fast Bag Drop offerred by many airlines).

A person could check in online or at the self-service machines, then take their toilet and/or make-up bag to the FTBD point. The check-in staff would put the toilet bag in a plastic bag, seal the bag, affix a label and hand a receipt to the traveller. All the toilet bags would be placed in a dedicated tray or box, separate from the rest of the baggage. When check-in closed 30 minutes before the flight, the airline would take the box of toilet bags to the aircraft and place it in the hold or in a locked area in the cabin.

When the flight landed, the ground staff would quickly take the box of toilet/make-up bags to the baggage area, and hand the bags back to the travellers. This could be done in a similar way to the way US and Canadian airports manage duty free at the gate.

This suggestion would meet security requirements, in that liquids and gels would not be available to passengers within the secure zone. Airlines would have less hold baggage to carry, thus reducing their costs, and passengers would get through the destination airport more quickly.

I’m waiting now for the calls from the airlines, I wonder who will be first? Any idea what a good marketing label would be?

Of course, once trains get quicker, maybe we won’t need domestic airlines any more?

The third leg of our Canada trip was a few days in Toronto (aka T.O). This was a relaxing urban end to our holiday, and we stayed at the very comfortable Le Germain, a smart boutique hotel in the centre of the “Entertainment District”.

The main highlights of Toronto were:

• Visiting the Toronto Islands on the hottest day of the trip (28 degrees C), strolling all the way from Hanlan’s Point to Wards Island. A beautiful oasis a short boat ride from downtown Toronto, across the harbour.

  
  

• Exploring the Distillery District. Not far from Cabbagetown, the Distillery District is a redevelopment of the old Gooderham and Worts Distillery. It is a small area of restored Victorian buildings and cobbled streets, full of art galleries, jewellery and clothes shops, restaurants and bars, and even hosts a Sunday Farmers’ Market.

  
  

• Eating Italian hot dogs from street vendors in Bloor-Yorkville.

Niagara-on-the-Lake
In addition to the urban stuff, we made a side trip to Niagara-on-the-Lake (NOTL) and spent the day cycling around some of the wineries, including Inniskillin (yes, really), Reif Estates and Peller Estates.

The reds are mostly a bit rough, but the Reislings are crisp and dry and the Ice Wines are the sort of thing that would be perfect with Christmas pudding! Unfortunately I don’t think there is a big distribution in the UK, so our three mini-bottles will have to do us for a while.

I wouldn’t advise using VIA Rail for this trip (2 trains/day, 2 hours to cover 80km, 1 hour delay on the way back due to US/Canadian customs at Niagara Falls), but cycling was a great way to see the area around NOTL.