Fishy Fishy Brighton, Picpoul and O' Leary get my vote

Last week my wife and I went to Brighton with our niece and partner and their baby. Our guests very rarely come to Britain and wanted to spend some time by the seaside and sample some traditional English food. So what better than fish and chips washed down with wine rather than beer.

We went to the Brighton visitor centre near the Pavilion and I found Fishy Fishy marked on one of their maps.  The restaurant was billed as providing fish from sustainable sources. I am all in favour of sustainable local fish and the restaurant was just across the road in East street in a listed building.

Fishy Fishy was not very full on a cold December afternoon. Maybe it was the winter's day and we were late arrivals. However, we were given a warm welcome and the waiter, Steven, helped us upstairs with the push chair.

The menu is extensive and it has a good range of wines on the list. After some debate, we concluded that our guests could not go back to France without trying some fish and chips and mushy peas. We ordered a dozen oysters from Jersey and some salt and pepper squid, sourced from the English Channel, as starters to share.


We selected a bottle of Lafage Picpoul de Pinet. This white wine is made exclusively from the Picpoul grape and hails from the Languedoc just inland from the Mediterranean near Pézenas. It is an area well worth visiting for its wine, scenery and cuisine.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picpoul_de_Pinet#Picpoul_de_Pinet

http://www.pezenas-tourisme.fr/index.php?lang=en

Picpoul de Pinet is a lively and bone dry wine which is fresh and full of citrus fruit and apple flavours. It must be drunk as young and as fresh as possible and cooled. In my mind, it goes better with fish than Muscadet. The wine was the perfect accompaniment to both the starters and the main course.

I thought that the squid was perfectly prepared and seasoned and it certainly went down well with the oysters. The wine cleared the palate between mouthfuls.

The fish and chips were perfect. There was one portion of Ling and one of Whiting both sourced from Newhaven. The fish was perfectly seasoned, full of flavour and fresh. I am often disappointed with Cod which I always find very bland. Ling and Whiting are, however, both members of the Cod family but do not suffer from the same tastelessness.

The batter was crispy but not greasy. Most of the time I cannot eat all of the batter with my fish and chips but this time I ate everything. The batter had also made a perfect seal around the fish so the meat was steamed rather than fried by oils leaking in to cook the flesh. The fish and batter combination was therefore delicious.

I was delighted to see Ling on the menu as it is a seriously underrated fish. I grew up near Milford Haven in West Wales: it had a huge trawler fleet. Ling was not regarded  by the local people as being fit for human consumption and it all went to the fish meal factory. We never bought fish as our fishermen friends gave us plenty; but none of them would ever have dreamt to insult us by giving us Ling.

The first time I ate Ling was in France.  I have never seen it on a British menu before. You must try it. I was pleasantly surprised that they had it on the menu here.

Everyone enjoyed the meal so much that we ordered another bottle of the Picpoul. I was driving so I had only taken a small glass. The other three adults could not finish the second bottle but I am sure that the remainder was not wasted. We were even sober enough to get the baby downstairs.

The baby really enjoyed some chips and mushy peas and couldn't care less whether there was a Michelin star or not. It was a great introduction to English cuisine and tasted just as good as many a fish meal we have had in France.

As the restaurant was not full we were able to have friendly conversation with the staff about food, travel wine and sport. It was a very enjoyable time. We could have no criticism.

Fishy Fishy is owned by Dermot O' Leary and some of his friends. I have never watched the X factor so I had never heard of Dermot until I read some of the reviews of his restaurant in the main press. I see no reason to "take a pop" at Mr O' Leary or his restaurant because he introduces a popular TV show. And, indeed, I see no reason to draw comparisons between the food in his restaurant and the music on his show.

Fishy Fishy is not Fine Dining and does not set out to be. The food we had was well cooked and tasted delicious and impressed our guests. There is no doubt that all restaurants sometimes get it wrong even starred ones. And, there is no doubt that if something went wrong here the staff would do their best to make good.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/oct/24/fishy-fishy-brighton-restaurant-review-dermot-oleary

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/reviews/fishy-fishy-25-east-street-brighton-1739841.html

Mr O'Leary and his partners provide good food from sustainable sources which is prepared well and tastes delicious. They have even got good well chosen wines to go with it. They do this in a friendly and unpretentious atmosphere. I have to be in the mood for Fine Dining, and feel rich, but I could eat and drink here at anytime. For this reason, Fishy Fishy gets my vote. The next time I am in Brighton I am going back.

Wine Investment

Once again there have been reports in the British press of small investors losing all their money in the wine investment market.

There are a number of risks associated with investing in wine as there are investing in any other commodity.

Just as prices can go up they can easily come down in both the the long, middle or short term. There is very little that the small investor can do other than watch the market and hope that prices go up. No one can predict the future. Some brand names do better than others so you need the advice of an honest broker. Remember, the higher the potential gain the higher the risk that you will lose some or all of your money.

It is vital that you can trust the people you deal with - buyers and sellers and brokers alike and their promises.

You must make sure that you can trust "cold callers" if you decide to use them. You must perform due diligence on anyone you are trading with.

Your broker must be financially secure and you should verify this.

You must ensure that you have physical possession of your wine, preferably before but at least at the same time that money changes hands. Most of the people who lose all their money and their wine have put their trust in someone who is either dishonest or financially incompetent and then fails to deliver. If you have physical possession of your wine, you decide when to buy or sell and how to protect your investment under good advice.

Some brokers and wine traders might be playing the market with your money. Traders are able to make money out of falling or rising markets but they must take risks to do this. The higher the potential gain the higher the potential loss and it could be your money they are losing even if they are honest traders. You must ensure that the people who you are dealing with are not involved in unusual risk taking with your money or theirs.

You must ensure that your wine is authentic and in good condition before money changes hands.

You must protect your investment from theft and damage etc. and store it in a safe, dark and cool place where the wine can develop in the bottle. A good storage facility will also ensure that your wine is insured.

If you do not follow the advice above you are at serious risk of losing some or all of your money. The commodities markets are risky enough in themselves without adding to it further by using a dishonest or incompetent broker.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Investing-Wine-For-Profit-ebook/dp/B0084YVIFK

Chateau Musar 2001

The other week I went to a good Lebanese restaurant with a very good friend in Woking. They do not have a licence yet so we had to find our own wine. Finding a Lebanese wine at short notice Woking is not easy so we settled for a bottle of southern French red.

I promised my friend a taste of Chateau Musar when he visited us next. Last Saturday, we opened up a bottle of the 2001 red and drank it with the family with some rib of beef. A single bottle kept six people happy for a long time; it is wine to be appreciated slowly, just like slow food, not slugged back. This is a true sign of  high quality.

Chateau Musar is produced by the Hochar  family in the Bekaa valley. They use organic farming techniques but as their website site suggests they were using organic farming before the term was invented. From the quality and taste of the wine I can quite believe this. The wine is superb.

I have only ever tasted the Chateau Musar red from various vintages and I have never had a bottle that is other than top quality.

The wines can easily be compared, quality wise, with a top cru from Bordeaux, the Rhône or Burgundy. This is where the comparison stops, however, as these full bodied red wines have a distinctive flavour of their own. They have concentrated and intense flavours of red fruits and spice and to me they have a very appealing savoury taste.`

I can still remember the taste of the bottle which we drank last Saturday and I feel almost certain that I could pick it out again blind. It is not often that I get to keep such pleasant memories of a wine.

After ten years or so this wine is still not at its peak. It will improve for much longer. It is an exceptional wine at a very reasonable price. It competes favourably with any wine, from any country and at any price. What better tribute to a wine could there be?

http://www.chateaumusar.com/uk/brands.aspx?pageid=126

http://www.majestic.co.uk/find/product-is-38013?cmp=GoogleBase&utm_source=Google&utm_medium=Shopping&utm_campaign=shopping&utm_content=38013

http://www.robersonwine.com/shop/chateau-musar-2001