Holiday part 3

So, there you have it. Holiday part 3, the third and final in this series (because our stay in England basically lasted for only three days if we leave out the days it took to get there). This meal would be our final real dinner in England, so it had to be good.
Our (N, S and me) quest on Google Maps led us to Chipping Norton, which supposedly had nine restaurants. We parked near the city centre, and on our way walking there, the first restaurant we came across, Wild Thyme, was situated right in between "The Arctic Fish Bar" and a real estate agent in what seemed like an unsightly little long narrow. However, the menu appealed to us, so we decided to blindly go for this restaurant -- contrary to my usual habits. Whenever I'm in a city on  holiday searching for a restaurant, I take the same strategy N uses when shopping for new shoes: visit all shops there are, only to choose the very first one you visited. However, this time we just chose instead the first restaurant we came across without checking out the other eight places *gasp*. That's why, this time, I can't tell you, my dear reader(s), whether there are indeed more than one restaurants in Chipping Norton. It doesn't matter though, this one would prove to be a very good one.

For starters, we all had the watercress soup. No pics unfortunately, because (once again) we had whetted our appetites eating olives (including kalamata!) to such an extent, that I totally forgot about taking pics and instead just charged on the presented food. Nice side-touch to the olives where slices of freshly (self-baked?) bread. For myself I had a date-walnut variety or something like that. It was nice, but the next time I guess I'd choose another one. Anyway, the soup was very nice. No sharpness there whatsoever, what I was afraid of, since watercress can be quite tangy when eaten raw. Perhaps the added cream might have tempered things a bit, but it was nice. In it were poached quail's eggs, poached exactly right -- runny yolk and all.

Next, for mains, we have some pics:

S had the double baked goats cheese souffle, baby beetroot, red onion marmalade, toasted hazelnuts. She liked it, but wouldn't have chosen it a second time.

N had Plunkett's lamb; roasted best end, braised breast, new potatoes, rosemary, ratatouille, roasted baby aubergines, tomato & basil sauce, which according to her was very good. The only thing she didn't like in the dish were the baby aubergines, but well, I guess you can't have it all.

For myself, I had a craving for vegetables, since the past few days seemed to have been filled with proteins and carbohydrates only. So, without choosing a vegetarian dish (which by the way seemed to have less vegetables than the one I chose), I chose a light fish dish: Line caught seabass, steamed over samphire, summer vegetables, new potatoes, and basil butter. Indeed, there were many vegetables: peas, shelled broad beans, new potatoes, carrots, samphire (nice touch). Very vegetabl-y, very nice. The peas and broad beans gave it some earthy flavors, the samphire a marine touch and the carrots a sweet addition -- albeit all quite subtle in their flavoring.

Then, there was dessert. Because of N's lactose intolerance, she was presented a nice selection of raspberry and strawberry (multiple fruits were available to choose from), S had a variety of gooseberry preparations and for myself, again contrary to my usual picking of something sweet for dessert, I chose cheeses. I think it had something to do with the lightness of the many vegetables. Regarding the past few days, I had prepared my stomach for more proteins, so leaving out those proteins this time and instead choosing a lot of vegetables, it was yearning for something more savoury this time. Even though I don't like cheeses that much, I did choose them this time. And a lot of them were great! They had me stuffed when I tried to eat them all and finish the plate (alas, I failed, even with N and S's help). So, dessert pics:

N's raspberries and strawberries

S's gooseberry crumble, brulee and ice cream.

My plate of 8 different local (!) cheeses, offered with a variety of homemade biscuits and apple chutney. One of the soft goat's cheeses was produced by one of the former guitarist's of the band Blur, and was very nice. Even the blue cheeses, which I usually detest (why would someone in their right mind ever choose to eat molds) weren't that bad although they scared me a little bit. N, who ranks cheese among her most favorite foods, couldn't resist and just ate some despite her lactose intolerance, just ignoring the possible consequences.

All in all, this restaurant proved to be a great place. The interior was somewhat bistro-chique, like a place you'd expect in the French Provence, but in a more-or-less distinguished way. The only funny thing was, that us being their first (and only non-local) guests that evening, we were seated in the back part of the restaurant, which was separated from the front part by a bar and a door-opening, where the local guests (or at least, the native English speakers) were seated. I guess over here, one would be seated near the windows, to show to possible customers that there are more people eating there already and thus making it more inviting for those possible customers to walk in. Nevertheless, in the back part, we were situated next to patio doors swinging open outside to a little patio where an outside terrace was situated, which made for a nice spacious feeling in an otherwise little long narrow.
Also, N and S kept remarking about one of the waitresses skirts - that her skirt had a split in the back which would seem to run all the way to her knickers and thus exposing them (and they were the female part of our company). However, when I looked, it seemed to be a very decent skirt with no knickers showing whatsoever. :-( :-)

So, there you have it. The third and final holiday food part. There is some additional material, including a short fast-food sidenote and some schnapps in Germany. When I feel like it, I might post about it. However, instead I will have to post about my (great!) birthday dinner yesterday, so when I have prepared that, I might not feel like posting about some meager food experiences with kind of worthless pictures anymore. We'll see.