I am extremely lucky.
A serious contender for a Michellin star has parked itself ,as an establiment in walking distance from my house.
Black pudding wrapped in crisp parma ham (very trendy at the moment),crab cakes on rocket, and a butter like fillet steak served with caramelised shallots and fresh chantrelles.
The views accross the valley and river are superb, and I had no grief from the waiters whatsoever over sending a corked bottle of wine back. They even said that they were very sorry and it smelt disgusting.
Amazingly enough(!), there was no room left for pudding, but the excellent fresh ground coffee was a great rounding off.
It makes me cross for the state of English catering, spread by a scourge of mass catered van loaded plastic packed foods, that are the same all over the country and price themselves the same as quality cuisine.
I was asked the question which I hate..."How would you like your steak done?"...
My reply is allways the same, which is to say "I trust your chef to check the quality of the cut and cook it as he feels would suit it best".
My steak arrived after just about having a look at a match.
I noticed in France, there was a lot of snobbery against the English pallette.
The locals were getting rare or bleu meat, the holiday makers, a blackened slab that showed no respect for the life that they were partaking of.
One more food tale that amused me.
My friend bought a very big lobster as a celebration.
It was too big for the pot, and so he had to resort to as most humane way of preparing it as possible, which is to put a cross in the top of the shell on the neck.
This lobster was so big, that even after removing the claws, they were still snapping.
Respect is due to that crustacean, I think he should have called an ambulance and set it free after treatment!