The Walrus and the Carpenter

My home town Southend is many things, none of which are genteel or refined.  It has an edge to it.  Lots of cheeky chappies and kiss me quick hats.  But things have started to change including on the culinary front.  Mainly for the better too.

A short while ago, my brother Jan suggested we go to a newish restaurant called Toulouse on the western esplanade on the Southend sea front, just down from the pier.  They'd converted the former public toilets into a restaurant so this I just had to see.  Typical Southend indeed!

Former public loos

They did a pretty good job too as the restaurant was sleek and nice with no evidence of its former history either!  Mind you the Southend sense of humour remains.  The following is a note on the menu for patrons.

Following advice from the Food Standard Agency we feel it our duty to warn you, that by consuming raw seafood, there is 1 in 1000 chance of it causing a tummy upset. We also advise not to eat oysters and drink spirits as it can also cause a tummy upset.

Did that deter us? Not in the slightest!

On the menu were Maldon Oysters yet again!!  And of course we just had to have them by the dozen this time.  Jan is a big fan and Viv helped me out too.  The waiter asked if he could produce just one big tray but knowing my brother, I asked him to keep the orders separate as Jan's counting is notoriously patchy at times.

The evening was splendid and the restaurant did a great job of keeping all happy!

"O Oysters," said the Carpenter,
"You've had a pleasant run!
Shall we be trotting home again?"
But answer came there none--
And this was scarcely odd, because
They'd eaten every one.

Thanks of course to Lewis Carroll for the magnificent inspiration!

Toulouse Restaurant

Western Esplanade

Westcliff-on-Sea

Essex SS0 8FE

Tel: 01702 333731

http://www.toulouserestaurant.co.uk

Billions of Blistering Blue Barnacles

Viv and I were looking for dining inspiration in Canterbury a short while ago and thought of the Tin Tin restaurant in St. Dunstan's Street just around the corner in fact.  We couldn't remember the name of the restaurant just the pictures of Tin Tin they had all around the restaurant.  It was Belgian themed of couse so had loads of different mussels and Belgian beers.

It was gone.

This made us scratch heads a bit for in its place was another restaurant called Chapman's which was a fish restaurant pure and simple.  It was also full so we walked on, then decided we should stroll in and have a drink at the bar whilst a table freed up.

It smelled nice inside anyway.

Also a table freed up quickly so our bottle of white wine accompanied us fairly quickly to the table.

The menu was small and fish focused.  My eyes of course lit up at the prospect of more Maldon oysters with a whole plaice to follow.  Viv chose beetroot marinated salmon as an appetizer with the seafood platter to follow.

And boy was it all just yummy too!

So what happened to Tin Tin then, who are Chapman's and most importantly what happened to all the Tin Tin pictures?

Apparently the Tin Tin restaurant got into financial trouble and couldn't pay their bills and being a Belgian mussel shop a large part of the outstanding was to their fish providers, namely Chapman's of Sevenoaks -- a big fish distributor.

So rather than get paid in cold hard cash, Chapman's took the restaurant.  How willingly they took it was not disclosed but suffice to say this is their only restaurant -- I nearly said their 'sole' restaurant before realising how bad a pun that would have been!

As for the Tin Tin pictures, sadly they have all gone.  Many went to a local kindergarten where one hopes they are appreciated in the full and proper way.  A couple went to the waitress we asked who says they are in her young daughter's bedroom and a much revered part too.  That's nice.  Captain Haddock would be pleased.

Chapman's Seafood Bar and Brasserie
89-90 St. Dunstan's Street
Canterbury
Kent

Tel: 01227-780749
http://www.chapmanscanterbury.co.uk

No "Sweary Scots"

We just happened to be in Folkestone around lunchtime and found we had nothing to do for the rest of the day so immediately thought about lunch.  So asking around and receiving the recommendation of "Rocksalt" which apparently was down by the fishing port, we decided to give it a go.

The recommendation came with a bio of the chef who was some kind of celebrity chef although not Gordon Ramsay so we presumed it would be sleek, slick, new and pretty expensive.  Right on all counts!

This is what the Guardian has to say about the restaurant:

Bankrolled, like so much recent regeneration here, by Roger de Haan, ex-boss of the Saga group, Rocksalt has serious culinary pedigree: it's run by Mark Sargeant, one-time head chef at Claridge's, who, like Jason Atherton, Marcus Wareing and Angela Hartnett, has jumped ship from the SS Ramsay. But, like the sweary Scot, "Sarge" seems also to have had his fill of sweaty kitchens, and is leaving the actual cooking to others.

A sleek, dark timber and glass wonder bang on the old harbour front, Rocksalt is a state-of-the-art pillbox that's a world away from the whelk stalls and tackle shops next door. Inside, it's no less impressive, with the entire seaward side given over to a panoramic glass wall, and the rest done up in the power browns and greens of the moment. It's all so "now" that the room seems custom-built for wedged-up wallet-wavers down from London and the Garden of England's commuter belt.

When we arrived around 12.30 pm the tide in the harbour was out and as we sipped our pre-lunch vodka Martinis (pretty good actually) we watched a fisherman in wellies tramping across the mud with an oar dragging a small skiff to the start of the water where he floated the boat, hopped into it and paddled out to one of those little fishing boats that crammed into the small harbour.  So this really was a fishing port, and a working one at that!

Now I'm a sucker for oysters and Rocksalt had 2 varieties, one from Guernsey the other from Maldon in Essex.  Being an Essex boy myself I of course had to have some of both: the Guernseys were chubby whilst the Maldons were smaller and more flavourful.

Now onto the dry white wine and Lemon Sole for me and Plaice with Razor Clams for Viv.  Both were very nice indeed.  Viv was moved to say that if we lived in Folkestone she could become their best customer.  Praise indeed.

So if you're in Folkestone and like new and trendy, try Rocksalt.  It was pretty darn good.

Rocksalt
4-5 Fish Market
Folkestone
Kent CT19 6AA

Tel: 01303 212070
http://www.rocksaltfolkestone.co.uk

We didn't mean it to be like this... really!

We'd had a really long day.  We'd driven back from Niagara on the Lake already and had agonised with the one way system and the road works around Union Station looking for where we had to return the rental car.  But finally we found the right spot and said goodbye to the Jeep which had been a fun car and together decided that we rather fancied a cocktail as it was certainly 5 o'clock somewhere ... it was actually 5 o'clock in Toronto.

The question was where?  Now we've been to TO many times before and knew quite a lot of restaurants and bars but thought we'd like somewhere new so headed towards the financial district which at 5 pm was bound to be thronging with workers quenching thirsts prior to the commute home.  Bars would likely feature highly.  But walking up Yonge Street we only found places we'd already been to and wanted somewhere new.

By the time we reached Wellington, we were getting desperate so turned left off Yonge as I thought I remembered a couple of bars that looked like fun and saw this terrace thronging with people busily slurping booze of some sort and shouting at the top of their lungs (or so it seemed as the noise was pretty impressive).

Multiply the crowd by 10

"This was the place", we thought.  "Go where the crowds are.  It must be decent".  However it was a bit chilly so we didn't fancy sitting outside so checked in with the hostess who said that in addition to the multitude, there was a private party so we needed to go to the basement (aka dungeon) if we wanted a drink.

We didn't get in here

Not an impressive start we both thought and were within an ace of moving on when we found the door to the basement and entered into the palatial interior.

The basement

We were shown to a corner table and a waitress took our drinks order -- both vodka martinis with olives -- and settled in.

The room was pretty empty at this time with only another table occupied by a couple of people having what looked like an after work drink (beer and wine, no cocktails).  The martinis were nice though, good olives too.  This is important in a decent martini I think.  You can always tell good places by the quality of the olives.  The best we'd ever had was in the Ritz Carlton in Hong Kong.  They and the martinis were sensational.

The waitress came over with a menu just in case we changed our minds.  And amazingly after the first martini, we had.  The question though was what nibble should we have with our second martini?

They served oysters which are like catnip for me.  Viv on the other hand doesn't like their sliminess but had persevered in the onslaught that was my prediliction for the humble mollusc and had bent in Newport, RI a couple of years back and downed a couple, and had done so again on several other occasions since.  I ordered a dozen of 3 different varietals (I forget which) whilst Viv ordered the seafood platter -- pretty much every type of raw and cooked seafood you could think of on a big tray.  As it was food we also ordered a bottle of nice Niagara rose wine to wash it down.

They were scrumptious.  Viv chowed down on plenty of my oysters but returned the compliment with the platter and together with the wine, this was something.

A second bottle of rose followed as we munched and slurped away.  This was a great meal.  However we realised as we finished the platters that all we'd actually eaten was a bunch of molluscs and crustaceans -- we were actually still a little peckish.  It wasn't a big steak kind of peckish, rather a sort of "I'd really like a non-fish savoury to finish" kind of peckish so we negotiated a veggie pasta to finish.

Oh yes and with the pasta we just had to have a bottle of nice Niagara red as accompaniment.  It was a pinot noir (I cannot remember which winery though).

The pasta was lovely too -- the sauce was a Mediterranean sauce with plenty of veggies cooked just right.  Viv and I shared an appetizer sized portion which was still pretty substantial.

This was a great meal but the bill was eye watering too.  "What was the name of this restaurant again?" I asked the waitress.  "Bymark" she said.

I'd heard this was a nice fine dining restaurant and can now confirm that it really was!

Chef Brooke McDougall

Bymark
66 Wellington Street West
Toronto, ON
M5K 1M6
(416) 777-1144

www.bymark.mcewangroup.ca