64 Degrees

 A few thoughts after visiting Michael Bremner's 64 degrees.

Food is theater, it's not just about the eating. Watching the chef prepare the food and explaining the courses was a lot of fun. Part of the value comes from not only the quality of the meal but the interaction with the chef/team.

Lot's of small plates are more fun than one big plate.  We spaced this meal out over 3 hours and eight courses. It was a treat to have each course (and wine paring - see below) explained by the artist creating the meal

Let the chef pair the wines. My knowledge is beyond basic, but the chef know more.

Don't get stuck on tradition. Fish after meat is fine.  White wine after red is fine.

So onto the meal, the courses:

- Snacks (Fig with goat cheese in a pastry, trout with capers in a spoon, pork with fennel)

- House Bread with salted butter

- Beet root in a filo pastry with blackberries, cream cheese, and hazelnuts)

- Cured mackerel cucumber, buttermilk, and mint

- Beef with shallot and burnt cinnamon broth

- Brill with mussels and curry

- Hogget two ways, carrot, salsify with Michaels Haggis

- Lemon Verbina and plumb

- Chocolate with salted Carmel and a maple syrup twile 

- Petit fours (small sweets)

The results:

- All was good

- Beef course (which was a ravioli in a burnt cinnamon beef broth) was delicious

- Brill and mussels in curry sauce was amazing

- Mackerel, cucumbers, and a sauce of mint and buttermilk (tasted like yogurt) was amazing.

Highly recommend the restaurant and chef. Great concept and just plain fun.

OK Onto the food…

A quick post about Tutto (everything in Italian) restaurant. It's a shared plate Italian in Brighton. The concept is order 3-4 small dishes per person of Italian food. 

Our order:

• Drinks: Boulevardier and a House Fizzy Negroni
• Octopus in citrus sauce
• Buratta with Tapanade 
• Rigatoni with fennel sausage and pork belly
• Pepperdelle with meat rage (special item)
• Hanger Steak (onglet) 
• Tomato Salad
• A pitcher of a Pulian Primitivo

My drink was nice, Fran's Negroni was a step to far and tasted like a kids soda fountain drink. The Octopus, Buratta, and Pepperdelle were really good.

The rigatoni tasted off and a bit store bought. The hanger steak was nothing special and the tomatoes in the salad were out of season.

The Primitivo was adequate but not outstanding

6/10 overall. Might go back but look for the specials. Pics below:

Dry Rye

 So the folks at the St Peter’s Bed and Breakfast in Sandwich were kind enough to take our bags the 10 minute walk to the train station. 

They were both (Kelvin and ???) very kind and thoughtful people.  We had a long conversation with Kelvin about psychology and mindfulness. He’s a retired entrepreneur who works the B&B in the summer months to make money to have a holiday the rest of the year. Good guy. The B&B however was a bit tired and run down. Probably wouldn’t stay there again but I’m torn cause the folks were sooo nice.

Any way we made it to Rye via rail without incident. Rye is beautiful (see below) and has some great restaurants. We tried one, the union, and we’re set to try the Newgate Bistro. Unfortunately a water main broke in town shutting down the Bistro, so we returned to the union for a second night. 

This AM they shut off the entire town’s water supply, not a loo open in town, at 8 am. 

I’d come back for a night or two if I was in the area. There are several good looking restaurants. Unfortunately you can do all the other tourist things in about four hours. Lots of shopping (mostly antiques and pet stores) but when traveling by rail it’s hard to carry home a dresser. 

We stayed in some lovely rooms associated with The Fig restaurant. The rooms were neat and clean and the breakfast was outstanding. The restaurant looked great but other than breakfast we didn’t get a chance to eat there  

Some pictures below.

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Day 6 - Deal to Sandwich

 Easy flat walk mostly following the ocean today.

Very flat along a boardwalk or just along the beach most of the way

That’s not to say there weren’t dangers inherent in the walk.

Oh and we’d change trails from the North Downs Way to the England Coast Path…

But an easy and fast 6ish miles later we made it to Sandwich.

And celebrated the end of our North Downs (Canterbury) to England Coast (Sandwich) walk in a pub with a ping.  This was a really fun part of our trip and we’re already planning a next rip. Highly recommend this as a way to see the country.

Day 5 - Dover to Deal

 Frans Knee is better so we walked to Deal seeing the white cliffs of Dover along the way:

The walk was mostly along the ocean with the first two miles a bit hilly. The last four ish miles were along the beach and level. Much to our release

This was our place for the night in Deal (we actually stayed in an annex a few doors down). Good food and beer.

Day 4 - Dover

 Well today was easy. Fran’s knee was bugging her so we cabbed from Folkestone (pronounced folk-stun) to Dover. We resume walking tomorrow. As we had most of the day to goof about we did some touristy things. Best was Dover Castle including a tour of the underground. Unfortunately pictures weren’t allowed in the underground but it was a pretty interesting tour. We got to see the levels where they commanded the evacuation from Dunkirk and the hospital levels.  The castle was pretty fascinating too. Some pictures below:

Day 3 - Wye to Folkestone

 So long walk - ended up being 14 miles. I’m not sure if this was because the WalkAwhile service misrepresented the mileage, I misread it, or what. Also Fran tweaked her knee a bit and was in some pain the last 4 or 5 miles. It’s all turned out OK but, as I said, a long day. Here are some pictures:

We started the day with a hot breakfast at the New Flying Horse Inn (in Wye). This is a great pub with rooms. If you ever go to Wye stay here. Great beer (it’s a free house - not tied to a specific brewery), amazing food, and really nice rooms.

We started the day with a walk though the Wye church grave yard and then off into a spooky wood.  Much of todays walk though, was ridge running - staying high above the fray.  

The sheep and cows are still in the high country and we ran into our share. We walked through several herds and flocks. They mostly ignored us.

Conveniently the Tiger Inn of Stowting was at the halfway point of our walk. We had a half pint of ale and cider but didn’t eat lunch here. Not sure why other than neither of us were hungry (see above about breakfast at the Now Flying Horse). This is a charming pub and if I’m ever in the area I will stop back.

The trail continued through the highlands and meadows until you could see the English Channel and France! We then descended over bridges, through woods, and abandon railway tunnels.

14 miles and 6 hours after we started we ended above Folkestone, again looking at the English Channel and France, waiting for a cab to take us into town.

After a much needed shower we found an OK Italian restaurant and carb loaded.  The restaurant, called Bella, in Folkestone, wasn’t spectacular but after running about a 5000 calorie deficit today it hit the spot.

Fran feels a bit better after some food, aspirin, and a few stretches for her knee. We’re going to cab to our next destination (Dover) to be safe though. We may resume our walking the day after tomorrow.  Tomorrow we may have a bit more time to explore (given we’re cabbing in) and do some more touristy things.