Well, this turns out to be the final page in the “dining”
report for England, covering Oxford. Oxford was an interesting search. There were plenty of attractive places to choose from, including a
couple of intriguing French places. Like
other cities in England, there seems to be a predominance of foreign
cuisine. I don’t know if that’s a
statement about British cooking, but it gets hard to find places that are rated
which serve traditional fare. So I was
pleased to find a well regarded place called The Mole Inn (Winnie the Pooh??) listed as serving English food, and, although
certainly not within walking distance it was relatively close to our
hotel. As an aside, there are ALWAYS
plenty of Indian food places listed.
Don’t know if that’s a carryover from the colonial days or not.
Anyway, we had the hotel make our reservation for seven, and
after a day of touring Oxford and Trinity College we came back and donned DFD
duds as best we could and met the taxi that was arranged for us. Seemed like a fair drive, but eventually we
wound up at The Mole Inn, a “country pub and restaurant” situated in a little
village called Toot Baldon. You have to
love the English, all the place names are wonderful.. So the taxi dropped us off in front of the Inn
Inside was a cozy place with lots of timber and beams
and fireplaces. I imagine it is rather
pleasant in the winter. Although our
table was ready, we decided to accept the invitation to sit in reception in the
big leather chairs for a bit. Knowing any
cocktail order was doomed, MFO ordered a split of champagne, and I took a
(double please) Jameson Irish whiskey. That helped us relax a
bit from the rigors of touring, and got us more in the mood for food (hey! that
rhymes!).
The (a la carte) menu contained several very nice choices, and I
grew to enjoy the menu selections we found in most English restaurants. Interesting things seem to show up. For instance there was a starter of: “Breast of wood pigeon, truffle pomme
mousseline, roasted garlic + celeriac” and another (which MFO chose) of “Warm salad of flaked hot smoked salmon,
beetroot, cherry tomatoes, rocket leaves, horseradish”. Don't recall seeing wood pigeon on a menu lately. A couple more examples from the main course
menu: “Natural smoked haddock, leek mash, poached egg, sauce mornay, parmesan
crumbs”; and “Pan-fried lamb's liver +
kidney, smokey bacon, rocket + rosemary mash, onion gravy”. How cool is that? There were also evening specials, and I took
my sucker dish of Pork Rilletes for my starter. It just
doesn’t seem you get this variety in this country, where there are choices of
steak, another steak, and maybe one more steak with chicken thrown in
someplace. Yes, that is a bit harsh and
not uniform, but it seems that way. We
took a couple of off the menu items for main courses, with MFO getting a peppered
roasted pork loin, and I took yet another bait I can’t seem to resist, Duck
Confit. A basket of rustic bread and
olive oil (red flag, watch your tie!!!) was delivered along with a bottle of still
water. Our server was very deliberate,
and was very careful in describing (from a pad, unfortunately) the specials,
and taking meticulous notes of our order. We were especially
pleased to see the following statement at the end of the starter menu:
“Cheese – We keep our cheeses chilled, so
please inform your server when placing your order if you would like some to be
taken out to ripen - A plate
of fine British cheeses, celery, grapes + apple with oatmeal + water biscuits
Oxford Isis, Somerset Brie, Montgomery Cheddar, Oxford Blue
So when we
ordered, we dutifully "informed our server" that indeed we did fancy a cheese course
at the end of the meal. Carefully noted
on the pad.. On to the wine selection:
The wine list contained selections from all over the world,
South Africa, Italy, France, California, Chile and so on. There was a description with each one, more
wine speak, but none the less clever.. I
thought a softer red would go well with our dishes, so took a Chateau Bel - Air
Graves d Vayres futs de Chene, which was described as “A cracking every day Claret made by the Seirrey-Eiffel family (responsible
for Paris' tower!) from a majority of Merlot made up with a splash of Cabernet
Sauvignon + seasoned with a touch of oak”.
Kind of cute, don’t you think?
Very British.. I did note, however that there was no vintage listed on
the wine list, which I don’t like..
The (correct) wine was brought to the table, sampled and accepted. Pretty soon the starters were delivered to
the correct position. The salmon was
very good. I don’t know why, but it
seems that Rilletes are commonly served in quantities that belie the status of
“starter”. Although I always enjoy them,
I can hardly ever finish a serving, and did not here either.
It’s not that I couldn’t eat it all if I wanted, but Rilletes
are usually not light, and consuming the whole amount would impact the
enjoyment of the rest of the meal.
Both of the entrees were enjoyable and colorful
Nicely done and the pepper coating accented without
dominating.
As I said, I am a sucker for (don’t try this at home) Duck Confit, and this one may have been the best I have ever had, crackling skin with
succulent meat beneath on a bed of pickled red cabbage (common with duck confit). Vegetables were, as is also common, were served in a communal dish.
The wine, the fire, and the food all made for a quite relaxing evening..
So we were anticipating the cheese course, which did arrive….. stone cold. If they hadn’t made a special point to
highlight their cheese service, I probably would have reluctantly accepted it, and
tried to enjoy the cold cheese (very bad). At this point, I
figured what could they do? “We’re sorry , give us a
half hour and we’ll re-serve it at the proper temperature. .” It wasn’t bad, and it did cool down as we
ate it, but there it was. We especially
enjoyed the Oxford Blue.
A coffee finished the meal, and when we left the owner (?)
asked us how we enjoyed the meal. I told
her about the cheese thing, and she apologized and said our server was on his
second day. We would believe that. She removed the cheese from the bill. They got a return cab for us, and aside from
the cheese gaffe, I think this may have been our best “Dining Out” for which we were
DFD
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