Garrick's Head, Bath

Third visit this week, a bit disappointing after the joys of the first two. First, the range of draught ciders and perrys was reduced to a couple of bottled varieties, for no obvious reason. Secondly, the menu was a bit dull. Only four choices for mains, two of which were veggie and one other was liver and bacon. I chose the remaining one, beer-battered hake and triple-cooked chips. This turned out to be a fairly straightforward fish and chips. My friend had the liver and bacon, which was exactly that, not in a sauce of any sort. He had a starter of parsnip soup, which seemd ok, and I had a piece of pork belly, which was very good.The friendly waitress told us about how she got very drunk the night before her driving test, but passed anyway, whereas when she took her maths GCSE she failed, despite having revised and gone to bed early the night before. The obvious conclusion, she should have got drunk before her GCSE. The place was empty again, as it had been on the previous two lunchtime visits, except for a group of businessmen who arrived shortly before we left. Not sure if I will visit again for a while.

Tollgate Teashop

A blackboard in a layby with the single word 'SOUP' advertizes the presence of this little former toll house on the A46 a few miles north of Bath, along with another sign in the shape of a kettle. This place always seems busy, and the layby type car park is often full, especially in summer, so you sometimes have to wait for a table. Inside it is small and cottagy, a bit gloomy and chintzy, but with a light conservatory at the back with wonderful views across rolling fields towards the Severn Estuary and Wales beyond. There are tables in the garden and even a coin-operated telescope (bring binoculars). The food is pricey for a teashop, anything more complicated than a sandwich (eg jacket potato, shepherds pie, lasagne) will cost 7 or 8 pounds. We had toasted sandwiches (ham and cheese, tuna mayo) and a Welsh Rarebit (pefectly done, bubbly brown on top, gooey within, on a thick slice of brown bread)and the aforementioned SOUP, which on this day was celeriac and stilton, which I am told was nice and cheesy.Quite a friendly little place really. If you drive to the nearby village of Tolmarton, the other side of the M4, there is a nice stretch of the Cotswold Way to follow north towards Old Sodbury.

Chinese Beef Stew

While thinking of Chinese food – here’s a recipe that worked well for me and surprised me with its simplicity, basically it is a beef stew with Chinese flavourings. First, fry some chopped garlic (6 cloves) ginger and a bunch of spring onions together in a lot of olive oil, in a casserole, then remove, and then chop some braising steak into chunks, coat in seasoned flour and brown on all sides, adding more oil if necessary. Then return the spring onions etc to casserole, add some 5 spice powder and star anise, then 500ml beef stock, a few table spoons of soy sauce, a glass of wine or sherry (less if using sherry), add the beef and simmer, covered, on low heat for 1.5-2 hours. Near the end add some steamed or boiled pak choi, and serve with fried rice.

Dragon Pearl, Frome

Dragon Pearl is a Chinese restaurant in Frome, located in a sort of attic at the top (well it would be) of Georgian buildings overlooking the steeply curving High Street of Frome Town Centre. We didn't know of this place's existence until a friend mentioned it. You could walk up and down the High Street all your life and not realise it was there, unless you happened to crane your neck at the right moment, and then you would see people in the sky sitting at tables enjoying high class chinese food while looking down on you as though you were a type of worm or centipede or other crawling thing. Frome is not known for its abundance of eating places, so this was very exciting. We entered by the little door in a side street and climbed several flights of stairs (there is a lift), which, after the steep climb up the High Street can be a bit much if you are as unfit as me, which I hope you are not, so could only gasp to the waitress at the top that we required a table for four. It was Valentine's Day but there was no way we could shake off our kids, so we all went for a romantic dinner for four. Beneath the sloping attic ceilings, the Dragon Pearl felt fresh and bright, very unlike the usual tacky high street Chinese place. We had a Valentine's special, which began with a complimentary glass of fizzy stuff with a heart-shaped strawberry in it, then dim sum type starters - heart shaped sesame toasts, honey-glazed ribs, spring rolls, seaweed in an edible dish, fishcake thing, all very nicely done. Then a main course of sliced beef in Cantonese sauce, with sort of caramelised onions, the sauce very sweet, but delicious, then a chicken ginger and sweet corn stir fry thing, but the main interesting thing was cucumbers stuffed with minced prawn and chicken in an oyster sauce - very delicate and unusual dish, making good use of the much underused cucumber as a main ingredient. Then some chunky tiramisu/gateau/creme caramel type deserts - suspect the creme caramel came from Somerfield (soon to close!!), but otherwise this was a really nicely done meal, with some thought and care taken, not just a lot of stir-fried stuff in a gooey sauce. They've been in Frome for about three years, so the Waitress said, seeming a little surprised that we hadn't been before. Hope they stay for many more years, because we need to try everything on the menu.