As seen in my last
blogpost 'Pretending I am on holiday in France' I went over to
Leicester recently to have a mooch around their lovely indoor market
(voted Britain's Favourite indoor market) and to spend a free £20
Tesco voucher on a meal at a Café Rouge.
The Saturday market was
as lively as ever I remembered from my last visit two years ago and I took
lots of photos of characters in and around the market. When I went to
find the fish and meat market however I found the Fish Market sign
still above the door but, the premises had now turned into a bank!
I asked someone passing
where a replacement venue might be and was enthusiastically pointed towards a building
site at the side of which was the brand new Fish, Meats and Deli
market. It was rammed full of shoppers on the run up to Saturday midday so I
had a quick look around and went off to Café Rouge for lunch with the
intention of returning later.
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| Understandably very busy at lunchtime on a Saturday. |
I had been hankering
after an aromatic Bouillabaisse dish after watching various TV programmes
featuring this most typically French, chunky fish stew, style dish.
So, that is what I ordered and to start I got some tasty mixed olives
and gherkins to nibble on and then some oven baked potted snails
(escargots) with Roquefort butter and potted with smoked lardons and
lemon paprika crumble toppings. The escargots came in a tray of four
small pots and were very tasty and not as mouth scolding - volcanically
hot - as those I had some years ago at French Living. Not having your
tongue blistered beyond repair by ultra hot olive oil cunningly masking the
escargots is always a bonus. Back then, eating those French Living escargots
felt like a particularly cruel task set Indiana Jones. Luckily I was
pre-warned by the friend I was dining with. I mentioned to Anca that
I would love one day to go to a fete de l'escargot ( a festival of eating
snails). She said they have them in Spain a lot and eat the snails
with cooked beef mince, fine herbs, tomatoes and garlic. Sounds yummy
to me!
The Bouillabaisse was
presented in a somewhat smaller casserole dish than I was expecting
in my hungry head. My expectation was probably founded on seeing huge
steaming tureens of luscious fishy brothy stew over flowing with
seafood to die for on the telly. The smaller side container I
initially thought was a very yellow butter for the fresh baguette
pieces, turned out to be mustard.
On enquiry I was told
that one should spread some of the mustard on the bread like butter then add some of the grated cheese provided and dip it all into the fish
stew. This was supposed to enhance the fish flavour. I tried this but frankly,
to me, it just tasted like a weird combo of bread, mustard and fish
stock. The taste was not unpleasant but no big food revelation
either.
I enjoyed my Bouillabaisse but for a hungry traveller like myself the overall contents were relatively thin on the ground especially as it cost nearly £15. There were certainly some mussels (in shells) in the Bouillabaisse and sea bass or sea bream fillet sections, squid rings, possibly some shelled prawns swimming in a rich fish stock. I hope I haven't missed anything out. The contents were fairly limited I have to say.
I enjoyed my Bouillabaisse but for a hungry traveller like myself the overall contents were relatively thin on the ground especially as it cost nearly £15. There were certainly some mussels (in shells) in the Bouillabaisse and sea bass or sea bream fillet sections, squid rings, possibly some shelled prawns swimming in a rich fish stock. I hope I haven't missed anything out. The contents were fairly limited I have to say.
For a chain French
style restaurant I normally enjoy going to Café Rouge and seeing that
there is no longer one in Nottingham I am stuck between choosing
Leicester and Birmingham. Both are nice enough places especially the
Birmingham branch at the Waters Edge venue. However, Leicester, half an
hour's train journey, replete with a carriage full of London bound travellers, is certainly closer to home. The Waters Edge
venue (around the basin of the canal) is certainly more convivial and
I seem to remember a branch on the High Street at Solihull that had a
lot of low beamed charm and a wood burning fire to give a very homely
atmosphere. That was in the late 1990s however when I used to
frequent the area in a previous job. From a quick search on the
internet I see it is still there and the décor has taken on some
subtle vintage inspiration from the nearby Motorcycle Museum. Cool.
Back at the Leicester
branch the staff were very friendly and helpful and I amused myself
by people watching as I drank my glass of pre-dinner lager beer and
was grateful to Tesco for my free £20 voucher.
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| How I imagined my Bouillabaisse might be. |
I will be curious to
see how a Bouillabaisse dish at a classic French restaurant differs
from the Café Rouge chain version. Any offers to review, East Midlands restaurateurs? Email me
at francefrenchfrenchy@yahoo.co.uk.
Interestingly, I was
stopped by an overly officious yellow jacketed security guard
(Highcross shopping centre) as I tried to take a photo of the outside
of Café Rouge. He was a whiney small man with big poorly researched opinions. Apparently taking a
photo of the restaurant is a gross security risk. I smiled politely and
assured him that the photo was just for enhancing my food blog not
for some radical pro Basque anti - baguette terrorist cell or even the Khmer
Rouge. He very kindly allowed me (how gracious) to take the picture
but would be reporting my action to one of his superiors. This would
be someone with an IQ above 0.30 I expect.
Later on I returned to
the indoor Fish, Meat and Deli market and checked out all the fab fish
(including snappers!) on the Trawlerman fish counter. Interestingly,
the weights for the fish on the counter are shown larger in the
imperial (pounds) weight than in the metric (kilos). It was almost
French in its variety too! Almost. The clean lines of the two year
old indoor market are a blessing to the eye and to hygiene matters.
With this high standard market coupled with the fresh vegetable and
fruit market next door I sometimes wish I lived in Leicester.
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Thomas Cook statue Leicester with my bag!
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