It’s a rule, an unwritten one, and I BROKE IT!

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Michelin Star Count: Today 1; Trip 8



This morning started off with an in house English breakfast. The keepers of the cottage were nice enough to fill the fridge with lots of really good food so this morning when we had an early start I fired up the stove and made a bacon, egg, bean, sausage and tomato breakfast. When in Rome...



We packed up and were on the road by 7:15 this morning on our way to Stonehenge. We have all seen pictures of it but until you are a few feet from a stone, you don’t really understand how big these 24 tonne chunks of stone are. Built around 2,500 BC, up to 100 strong men would have moved these stones by rolling them over logs into place. We still don’t quite know how they moved these massive stones to the top of two parallel ones probably 14 feet in the air but they did. We also still don’t really understand why.



After Stonehenge, we headed down the road to Salisbury to see the cathedral and the Magna Carta. The former is an absolutely beautiful cathedral with all of the stone and beauty your would expect from an 800 year old church. The latter is one of the first set of laws ever written. It was really a set of basic rights that the Lords implemented to try to reign in the king of England in 1215. Despite being 800 years old, some of the exact wording from the Magna Carta STILL exists in British law.



Lunch was at the 1 Michelin starred Red Lion Freehouse in Pewsey. Starters consisted of s roast veal and fennel salad (what I can best describe as a veal caesar salad) and a soused and charred mackeral. Both were very well received! Feeling a little food heavy after out first 7 Michelin stars, we all opted for the Freehouse burger. I must say a pretty darn good burger. Michelin star quality? Pretty darn close. A good quality patty with a homemade tomato relish.



After lunch, a trip back to Bray for a quiet afternoon walking around the town and just relaxing.



Dinner was to one of Heston’s resto’s in town, the Crown at Bray. Not a Michelin star but certainly should be! Dinner started with crisy cheese cauliflower and smoked potted mackerel. I had the latter and while those around the table felt their cauliflower was excellent, I know deep down inside that it did not hold a candle to the mackerel. A beautiful minced mackerel spread and some olive oil toast. Beautiful bite. At this point, I will admit that I knew going in what I was going to have before I even looked at the menu. Heston’s fish and chips. Now, I opened this post by saying I broke an unwritten rule. When you are travelling, you often indulge in lots of good food (well...at least we do) and often you are presented with something at dinner that you had for lunch. I have a rule that I have never broken...NEVER can you have two burgers in a day. For those of you who know Heston, you know he had a show on a few years ago called “In search of perfection” where he spent all of his time trying to perfect a classic. I had opportunity to flip through his ”perfection” cookbook while I was choosing my pint and came across the perfect burger. So I asked, this isn’t the burger on your menu is it? Well the rest is history and my rule has been broken for the first time. The rest of the table ordered F&C which I will readily admit were probably the best I have ever tasted. But the burger. I have had a lot of good burgers in my life. The best before today was probably the burger from Richmond Station in Toronto. Heston’s Crown Burger is now the winner. Perfectly cooked...perfectly seasoned...perfectly eaten! Dessert included ice cream, cheesecake and the best sticky toffee pudding ever.



Tomorrow we bid adieu to our cottage and head for London after a day in The Cotswolds and I get to turn in the tank I have been driving for the last 3 days. I love to drive and there is not a vehicle on the planet I would not take a shot at driving if given the chance but this things is enormous and these roads are really narrow!

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