Dunkelflaute, cherry almond pudding and extremely random restaurant reviews

November 11 2024

Ravneet Gill’s cherry almond Bakewell pudding

Introduction

 This week, I have learned a new word, dunkelflaute; the rough translation from the German is ‘dark wind lull’. It means a windless, sunless day which is important if you are trying to make renewable energy and because of static, high-pressure systems, its what’s been happening in the UK so far in November. It’s also important if you want to go off to walk in the woods and see autumn colour as we did last week.

We went a night at the Bath Arms at Longleat, taking the advice of those ubiquitous newspaper articles, exhorting you to go and stay in a cosy country pub. It’s part of the Beckford Group. We’ve already been to the Talbot Inn at Mells and the Beckford Arms and now only have to go to the Lord Poulett Arms and will have done all four. This year, they’ve started a passport scheme where you get a stamp on a card when you stay at each pub and a free night after going to all four which they told us about. We were a bit early with some of our visits so will just have to start again. I think they are all excellent with delicious food and out of season and in the week, you can have a night away and a meal for less than the cost of dinner in some London restaurants.

Savernake Forest

The first day, we walked in Savernake Forest and the second, we went via Westcombe Dairy to the garden of the Newt in Somerset. Although this is now members only, it is free for RHS members on a Tuesday, hence the timing of our visit.

I made Ravneet Gill’s recipe for tinned cherry bakewell pudding which as she says, is such a comforting bake for so little effort. It’s what my father used to call a ‘proper pudding’ for a Sunday, not a fruit salad which didn’t count in his eyes. (Realising more as the years roll on, that I’ve married my father.) I served it with Bird’s custard in which I sloshed the end of a bottle of Amaretto, to carry on the almond theme.

A goosehouse and not a duckhouse; a ram and a dovecote at the Newt

Restaurants

Brindisa boss Monika Linton picks her favourite places to eat in the UK and Spain, including the Sabor Counter, Lurra and José In London, Pulpo Negro in Alresford in Hampshire and El Gato Negro in Manchester and gives some easy recipes from Brindisa in the Times

In the FT, Tim Hayward went to the Lego Mini Chef restaurant in Denmark and that’s all I know…. or want to know.

In the Guardian, Grace Dent went to The Troublesome Lodger, Marlow, Buckinghamshire, a ten seater table  where the chef is Simon Bonwick, hitherto of the Crown at Maidenhead, where you all sit round a ten seat tabke like a dinner party and converse with the other guests. She liked the food. 

It would be my idea of a nightmare, especially having once been to the Crown and having to sit on a table next to a loud, self important woman who we overheard talking about being in ‘Women in Engineering’ but wanting to recruit a man for a job in Asia.

In the Observer, Jay Rayner went to Joseph’s Brasserie, in Kensington, London W8 for excellent but expensive Lebanese food

In the Standard, David Ellis reviewed The Pub with No Name in Petersfield, Hampshire, in the Standard which is a good series if you are going on a country walk in the South of England  and need a good pub for the middle or end.   

He also visited an Angus Steakhouse in London somewhere where he ate sad steaks seasoned with despair 

In the Sunday Times, Charlotte Ivers was in Somerset at the Creamery but didn’t say in the review where it was and Somerset is a big county. It’s actually at Castle Cary in Somerset, coincidentally by the owners of the Newt in Somerset.

In the Telegraph, William Sitwell went to Kushi-ya, a modern Japanese restaurant which he thought was ‘nothing less than the saviour of Nottingham.’ 

In the Times, Giles Coren went to a pub in London and a pub in the country.

 a town pub, The Blue Stoops in London W8 where  he thought ‘the chat was loud, the music was swing, the vibe was retro, the food was good, the beer and wine were terrific, the bill was modest’ 

and a country pub, the Masons Arms in Clanfield, Oxfordshire, which he found.a gorgeous old building with open fires, nooks and crannies, young staff, well-dressed punters with small, glossy dogs and cooking right out of the top drawer.

Travel

Dunkelflaute at the Newt

UK

Lincolnshire in the Telegraph which is apparently very unspoilt but Ive only ever been to Grimsby and Scunthorpe for work. Maybe I should investigate further.

Cotswolds in the Independent 

Coastal foraging in Pembrokeshire in the Observer 

Europe

Sanary-sur-mer in the Telegraph which is to the west of Marseilles and is the one bit of the southern French coast where I haven’t been and I also need to investigate further, probably in all honesty before Lincolnshire.

Porto in the Guardian 

Porto

Reading the papers

People ask me how I read all the papers. I believe in paying for quality journalism and my husband and I have digital subscriptions to the Times and to the Telegraph.

The Times gives you two free articles a week as a registered user and the Telegraph gives you access to one free article each week if you register an account. The FT gives a certain number of free articles

Local public libraries often have Pressreader which gives access to over 7,000 newspapers world wide for free or you can subscribe to it.