Oxford farmers' market

Farmers' market
Gloucester Green
alternate Thursdays every month



Apostrophy madness aside, the market is a great place to buy fresh meat from farmers, giving better choice than the usual weekly Wednesday market, and with a few interesting stalls that outstrips the usually excellent covered market.




The hog roast man is usually there, and aside from excellent roast pork baps, he also sells fresh bacon and pork ribs.



Fresh soup is always to be had.



Local ales.



Masses of crackling: the hog will usually come to 200-250 portion.



This lady sells amazing goats' cheese. Garlic, herb, pepper, it's all excellent.



Small batch farm-made dairy products.



Not being a sucker for meaningless adjectives like 'farm made', these cheeses spoke for themselves. The smoked cheddar was singularly outstanding.





The pork man (one of many) sells excellent tongue.



Blue veined brie.



By 12 noon the doughnuts have all sold out.



The mushroom man sells interesting varieties: shiitaki, shimeiji, oyster and the best giant portobellos we've tasted.



We took home one of the cute little punnets of beets. Watch this space for our beet-growing antics!



All sorts of vegetables I never thought to grow at home: including sweetcorn!



This man sells brilliant mutton, and also game when in season as well as grain-fed duck, smoked chicken and also venison.











Mmm, smallgoods...



Little Whittenham lamb, as well as beef from a local farm every alternate market.



The breads aren't my favourite: I prefer our local baker at Gatineau.

The Mitre

The Mitre
17 High Street Oxford
Oxford, OX1 4AQ



The Mitre is one of the Beefeater chains of pubs, 'specialising' in their grill. True to their Beefeater name, the menu boasts a host of deep fried food (usually involving mushrooms or onion) and beef, chicken, lamb and burgers cooked every which way possible.



The photos of the menus aren't terribly good, but rest assured that the menu is a combination of rump, sirloin, ribeye and other meats, cooked to your liking with all the trimmings, priced between £10 and £20 depending on your waist line.



The Mitre also does a generous £9.99 two course special which involves deep fried entrees and grilled mains from a selection of around a dozen options.



My choice on this particular day was the 10oz rib eye grilled rare, of course, served with chips and salad.



Look at that hunk of meat peekabooing behind the salad.



Don't be shy, little steak.



Cut around half an inch thick, the meat was cooked incredibly skillfully, with an even rare texture throughout. The beef itself was disappointing, lacking in real cow-flavour and having rather the taste and slight mealiness of cardboard.



Chicken burger



This is the rump steak served with the set menu. 8oz (I believe), served with five different options for potato (dauphinoise, chipped, mashed, baby or baked), and a plethora of sides, of which YM chose the onion loaf. Somewhat like an unspicy onion bahji, but with more grease and less flavour.



My steak really was cooked rare - an unusual sight in Oxford. Very few places seem to cook an OK steak, and the Mitre happens to be one. Pity about the quality of the beef they use.

Upon asking the waiter how they get the steak so nicely cooked, he told us that it's their special grill, which is kept on all day (how does that help?!), and that the meat is marinated. Bingo. I am guessing cheap, mass consumed beef that isn't hung for flavour, shipped out across Britain to Beefeater pubs everywhere. A pity, because the man behind the grill seems to know what he's doing.

The damage: around £12 for a main, going up to £19 for the half-kilo rib on the bone (highly recommended). Leave you cholesterol counters at home, and let out your belts before eating here. Gourmet society cards accepted here (although there is a LOT of confusion and disinformation about what the discount actually is - this has yet to be resolved. On this occasion, we got 1 free main for each one ordered with a Gourmet Society card).

Four Seasons - London

Four Seasons
12 Gerrard Street
London
W1D 5PR



Apparently once the home of the best roast duck in London, we try the menu at Four Seasons.



Seated upstairs, we were in close proximity to their slop buckets. Although no noisome odour was apparent, the leftovers of many an other meal wasn't the best appetiser we could wish for.



Tea was duly served.



Aubergine hotpot - braised aubergine with minced pork. The aubergine was nicely braised, losing all of its 'raw' taste.



The sauce was savoury and generic, but certainly tasty. A good rendition of a memorable comfort food.



Braised (twice cooked) pork on taro.



There were two versions of this on the menu: taro, or mei gan cai (a dried fermented cabbage) - both being very traditional. The pork is usually cooked at least twice (but in actuality in several steps involving blanching, frying, stewing and steaming).



This version needed a lot of work. The pork wasn't as tender as hoped, and tasted like it might have been too old to serve. The sauce was sweet but lacked any defined or depth of flavour. The taro was chewy and had failed to pick up what little flavour there was in the sauce. A terrific dish done very poorly.



'Monk's vegetables' - a medley of bok choi and Chinese mushrooms. This was our favourite stir-fry of the set. The bok choi was tender and sweet, and the mushrooms juicy and full of musky xiang gu flavour.



I never know if they are just superior at soaking dried mushrooms, or if they use fresh or tinned. The texture is very fresh and bouncy, but I always think that the taste is superior to fresh mushrooms.



The crispy roast pork was one of the better versions I've tasted in the UK, and this was an improvement on Gold Mine's rendition.



The skin is highly crispy, and the meat salty and flavourful. Our only quibble was that it had been served somewhat cold.



The roast duck was disappointing - lacking real flavour and served tepid.



Patches of skin had been burnt, and the meat itself was slightly chewy without substantial duck flavour.


The damage: lunch for 5 not-so-hungry eaters came to £45. This could have been less had we passed on the entirely forgettable duck, or could have more if we'd ordered more substantial dishes involving seafood instead of vegetarian alternatives. The service is not prompt, and the usual heavy handed routine found in standard Chinese restaurants. Would we go back? almost certainly not.