Pub grub

By Paul Fulford on Apr 13, 08 09:05 PM

I hate to decry culinary ambition, but I've begun to wonder if the gastro-pubs of this area really know what they are about.

Let's put this in context. Famiy business took me, my wife and our two sons to the Lake District today and we decided we'd eat lunch at a pub in that area.

I googled gastro-pubs and came across several candidates with menus that reflected the area in which they were situated. They served straightforward, hearty food based on good local produce.

We chose the Punchbowl in Crossthwaite and had a simple but very enjoyable lunch - stuff like toad in the hole with onion gravy, roast lamb and mint sauce, battered fish, chips and mushy peas, sticky toffee pudding and suberb cheeses.

Contrast that with many of the gastro-pubs around Birmingham which serve what is basically posh restaurant food, little of it celebrating this area's culinary heritage.

You're more likely to find Thai spiced prawns than faggots and peas. More likely to find stoned baked pizza than a plate of local lamb partnered with local grown spuds and veg.

All of which is preferable to the mass-produced gunk served by chain pubs, but nevertheless it's not the sort of grub I want to scoff in a homely bar with a pint of bitter at my elbow and a log fire burning in the corner.

Less sophistication - more simplicity,,,and keep it local!