January 2008 Archives

The year of the rat - which doesn't actually scurry to life until next week - arrived early at the reliable Wing Wah restaurant in Nechells, where Wing Yip, charming owner of the Oriental food chain that bears his name, held his annual Chinese New Year lunch.
He and his sons hosted a fabulous meal for representatives of this area's media. Excellent dim sum was followed by a various main courses, best of which was a whole flatfish served with a tangy mango sauce. Beats the usual sandwich that I eat at my computer screen before dashing out to the bookies.
I've lunched out twice this week now. It's something I could get used to...once I get a pair of trousers with an elasticated waistband.

The naming of new restaurants is a difficult business so a bit of sympathy, please, for those charged with the task. But sometimes they don't help themselves.

Bistrot Romance - a new(ish) place that's sprung up in Bennetts Hill - has a tacky title that might well put off some potential customers who don't have lurv on their minds. A couple of workmates, for instance. Or a family.

Which is a shame because a recent visit (reviewed in the Food + Drink section of the Mail on January 31) revealed it to be a place with decent food and charming service. Well worth a visit, even when you have no intention of gazing into your companion's eyes.

Those who do not have the capacity to switch off when I'm having a rant will have heard me bemoan the shortage of decent modern Italian restaurants in Birmingham. So many seem stuck in the sort of timewarp in which the Life on Mars coopper Gene Hunt would feel at home, I've been heard to complain.

A (very long) business lunch a Fellini at the Radisson hotel at Holloway Head has caused me to reconsider this view.

Really good bread was followed by excellent ante-pasta which was followed by some great rissoto and pasta and gnocci dishes. This wasn't fancy cuisine, but it was tasty and well crafted. Top marks to the kitchen!

Congratulations to Andreas Antona, Luke Tipping and their team at Simpson's for retaining their Michelin star in the latest guide.

It's richly deserved. I ate lunch there a few weeks back and, as always in my experience, the food was fabulous.

Must say, though, I'm surprised Glynn Purnell's city centre restaurant - imaginative called Purnell's - didn't get a star. His food is inventive and delicious.

I'm sure M. Michelin will make amends in a year's time. But the blubbery French icon be warned: I'll be after him with a very sharp pin if he doesn't right this wrong.

You don't often get the chance to boast about your wife's wobbly delights. And it's probably rarer still to be pleased that they are to be exposed to the world at large. But let me explain.

Anyone who read my review of the excellent Indian restaurant Deolali in the Food + Drink section of Thursday's Mail will remember that my wife had insisted to the owners that she could prepare desserts better than any they had on offer.

We returned to the restaurant last Sunday with three sweets she'd made. All were sampled by specially invited guests during a cracking afternoon of food, wine and more wine and the result is that Lynn's pink champagne jelly with fresh mango is to be featured on Deolali's menu.

Quite right, too. Served with a scoop of kulfi, it will be a great way to end a spicy meal.

Must remember not to keep referring to her as Mrs Wobble, though....