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  • Norwich – Lucy’s Fish and Chips

    Norwich – Lucy’s Fish and Chips

    My friend James and I have been testing chip options in Norwich for over 20 years and we continue on our quest for perfection. The quality of Grosvenor is still high, but their pricing is becoming just a little decadent, especially with the new eat-in surcharge. So, we’ve spent more time on the market in recent months and the standard here is high, meaning we are having to do a lot of testing to pick our favourite. I suspect this testing might last for another three or four years at least. This is Lucy’s fish and chips, a friendly location although they always seem to misunderstand James when he’s making the order. Always a warm welcome though.

    The advantage of Lucy’s is that they have seating and that’s really quite useful in Norwich market as there are few places to sit. There are some exposed areas at the fringes where diners are at risk of the elements and the rather bigger risk of seagulls. So this seating within the market is warm and safe from the elements and seagulls.

    I understand that not everyone has such decadent food orders here, but this is pretty much as good as it gets I think. A main course of chips, battered sausage, curry sauce and scraps, with the sausage being a proper butcher’s sausage. The portion size of chips is generous and they always have scraps available to add texture to the arrangement. And the dessert of battered mince pies in a brandy sauce, this is all clearly Masterchef standard and it’s also evidently very healthy.

    Incidentally, for those who don’t like mince pies, there are also battered Jaffa cakes and battered Cherry Bakewells for a dessert treat. Oh, and mince pies taste much better when they’re battered, a nice extra flavour to them. The cost of this was just over £4 each, a veritable bargain. A traditional Norfolk Christmas meal, how very lovely…..

  • Warsaw – Prudential Building

    Warsaw – Prudential Building

    I haven’t much thought about this building before when walking about Warsaw, but it’s the Prudential building which was the tallest structure in Poland when it was completed in 1933 after two years of work. At the time of completion it was the second tallest building in Europe, a huge statement of faith in the future of Warsaw, which needed 2 million bricks, 2,000 tonnes of concrete and 1,500 tonnes of steel to construct.

    And here it is on 28 August 1944 when the Germans used huge amounts of explosives to destroy it as part of their destruction of Warsaw. Their engineers couldn’t get the building to collapse, although they did huge damage and it started to lean a bit. This must have considerably annoyed them, as it was an iconic structure that remained standing. And, it survived the Second World War and was repaired and hence why it is still standing. It has spent most of its post-war life as a hotel and is currently the Hotel Warszawa, a decadent accommodation option in a building which is a great survivor.

  • Warsaw – Coctail Bar Max & Dom Whisky

    Warsaw – Coctail Bar Max & Dom Whisky

    When we walked by this bar in Warsaw a couple of weeks ago, I specifically said to Richard, “do not look to your left”. He recklessly ignored my advice and then looked hugely excited at what he saw, so I felt it was only fair to let him go in even though I was heading to a decadent craft beer bar. I am a very good friend…..

    Just some photos of the whole bar arrangement, which is set across two floors with the whisky bar on the top. There’s a variety of seating around the place, including lower tables and bar seats, with the atmosphere being comfortable and relaxing. The venue is open some ridiculous hours, from 10.00 until 05.00 every day of the week, which hardly makes it worth closing. Incidentally, after going in, I remembered that I’d been in here a few years ago with Hike Norfolk, likely one of the very limited number of venues that wasn’t my choice.

    It’s not exactly me is it? Here am I with my decadent and very classy imperial stouts and I’m presented with this shrubbery. OK, it tasted fine, but it’s not the sort of drink I can put on Untappd.

    The drink was individually created by the barman, who was engaging, personable and knowledgeable about the cocktail options, so there was quite a bit of theatre to the whole arrangement. I must admit that whilst Richard was enjoying this piece of theatre, I was pre-annoyed at how much it would cost, although fortunately it was actually not unreasonable at something like £6. Although that’s a high price for Warsaw, I feared that it might be much more.

    Richard then asked a question about whisky and I have to say that the barman was as knowledgeable about these as he was about the cocktails. I consider whisky to be an excellent drink which should be poured out of the barrels which is then replaced by beer so I can get a whisky flavour to my decadent beer. Whisky isn’t a drink I’ve ever grown to like, but Richard said that the selection of whisky options was excellent and he liked the options presented to him.

    Richard suggested that this was one of his favourite bars, not just because of the hundreds of whisky options, but also because of the engagement of the staff member. Service was sometimes a little slow, but I think that was more because the staff member thought that we were trying to have a longer and more relaxed visit. I was obviously focused on going to a bar which served glorious craft beers, but even I had to concede that this was a well-run venue which had a wide appeal. Definitely recommended for those who like whisky, spirits or cocktails.

  • Norwich – FupBurger @ the Dog House

    Norwich – FupBurger @ the Dog House

    Having been away from Norwich for a while, I’ve started to get a little behind with visiting some of the more popular places that have opened up in recent months. This is FupBurger who are located the Dog House pub in Norwich, although they seem to now be so dominant here that they might as well just change the name of the pub. We arrived at 17:30, but the venue was full by 18:00 and they were turning customers, all of whom were looking for food, away.

    The drinks menu where the prices are towards the higher end of the scale. The beer options are credible, but broadly not particularly interesting to me.

    The concept is primarily that of burgers, but there are a range of other options there as well such as nachos and loaded fries. The meat is locally sourced and provided by Clarkes Butchers in Hevingham and is is positive to know the origins of the food. FupBurger also have another set-up similar to this, at the Harbour Inn in Lowestoft.

    The staff in the pub were all friendly, with a welcoming greeting and engaging table service offered. There’s quite a fast turnover of tables here, but we were never rushed during our time here, even when they were turning customers away because they were so busy.

    The Mangolicious from the Laine Brew Co in Brighton, which was a fruity beer which tasted of mango, although it wasn’t particularly rich or decadent.

    And the main event, I ordered the double burger with a side of fries. The fries were heavily salted, even for my quite liberal needs (can salt tastes be liberal?) but tasted fine. The burger was meaty and this was quite decadent, rich and tasting of a good quality. The cheese was ideal for me, just processed slices of American cheese rather than some overpowering cheese sauce which wrecked the whole thing. There was plenty of burger sauce, something I also liked, although their recipe for that is secret but it’s mayonnaise based. The bacon was crispy rather than fatty and the brioche roll was fresh, with the whole arrangement being the sort of burger that I like.

    The pricing isn’t cheap, especially with the 10% service charge automatically added, but the surroundings are clean, the staff are friendly, it’s all on-trend and the food was of a very good quality. The burgers are also very Instagrammable, especially for those who order the Quad burger, and some of the popularity of the restaurant has been driven by their social media engagement. I don’t know if they’ll be able to keep the novelty factor up, but that the quality is high, they’ve got a good chance of remaining relevant and popular. Given all that, I was glad to visit this restaurant and I can see why it has become so busy over recent months.

  • Warsaw – Lemon Bar

    Warsaw – Lemon Bar

    This will be a relatively short post as I only popped into Lemon as it was a convenient stop on the way back to the hotel, but there is little else particularly exciting for me to say about it. The venue was clean, the staff were friendly and the environment was relaxed. The beer choices were though limited, hence the Żywiec, and there were very few other customers. It’s particularly handy for drinkers who want a long Friday or Saturday night, as the bar doesn’t close until 7am in the morning. The pricing was reasonable and it’s a handy spot for those wanting a quick drink, but I’m not sure that I’d go again given that the beer selection wasn’t really quite to my taste.

  • Częstochowa – Jewish Ghetto Memorial and Transportation Railway

    Częstochowa – Jewish Ghetto Memorial and Transportation Railway

    I only discovered this towards the end of my stay in Częstochowa, there’s not much really made of it, but it’s a well designed memorial to mark where part of the city’s Jewish ghetto was located during the Second World War. The ghetto was relatively short-lived, it was created in the spring of 1941 and liquidated between late September and early October 1942. Over 40,000 Jews from the city were sent to concentration camps and 5,000 were sent to work at the HASAG factory. Very few survived the ghetto, concentration camps and work camps, with the post-war Jewish population being around 3,000 and many of those decided to leave the city.

    The memorial has the Jewish star on the left and railway tracks on the right, with a large crack to signify the break between the Jewish community in the city and those sent by train to concentration camps.

    This is a thoughtful addition to the memorial, quite bleak in its minimalism. It shows some of the transportations which took place from Częstochowa to Treblinka concentration camp. The monument was designed in 2009 by Samuel Willenberg (1923-2016) and it’s hard to imagine someone more appropriate to create this imagery. Samuel was a local man who was sent to Treblinka and then managed to escape before getting to the country’s capital to fight in the Warsaw Uprising in the Home Army. He escaped German clutches again and spent the post-war period as an engineer and sculptor, ultimately becoming the last living survivor from Treblinka. Untold amounts of bravery and a national hero, and it seems a positive idea to rename the former Umschlagplatz with the name Samuel Willenberg Square.

    It shames the city, by its own admission, that this monument was desecrated and vandalised a few months ago. It was swiftly repaired, but it caused huge upset amongst many parts of the community.

    This is more of a problem, it’s the remains of the railway station and is located next to the memorial as it’s where the transportations left from.

    The building is in urgent need of repair and I understand that the city has failed to buy it.

    It’s fair to say that the state of this former railway station is far from ideal and I hope that some plan can come together to save it before it entirely falls down. I’m not sure, judging by the condition of the building, if the authorities have much time left.

  • Częstochowa – Piwiarnia Piw Regionalnych Multitap & Pub

    Częstochowa – Piwiarnia Piw Regionalnych Multitap & Pub

    Going back a couple of weeks to my little trip to Częstochowa in Poland, this was one of the few craft beer bars that seemed to be open at times that I could visit. It’s located not too far from Jasna Gora, so they might get something of a tourist trade to add to their local custom.

    Very nicely done, the list of available craft beers is chalked up on the boards outside the entrance. I like it when they’re chalked up above the bar, but tempting in customers walking by seems a particularly clever idea. I thought that the beer selection had a suitable range of different styles and from a number of different breweries, so it all felt well thought through.

    It wasn’t packed when I visited, but the atmosphere was warm and homely. It was slightly awkward when I went in as there was quite a lively discussion going on between what looked like an angry Polish man and the barman. I stood there trying to look nonchalant in my British manner, but probably to not much success. As the discussion finished after a couple of minutes I ordered my beer and the angry Polish man came back to talk to me, telling me that his daughter was working in London. It transpired that he wasn’t an angry man, he was a friendly character with an excellent English speaking ability.

    I went for a Stormy Pacific from Funky Fluid brewery who are based in Warsaw, and this was a very decent Double New England IPA. It felt an odd environment to be drinking it, a quiet bar in a relatively rural Polish city with a traditional atmosphere, but yet it was an on-trend and quite exciting beer. The prices were moderate for the quality of the beer, but these are premium products and I’m impressed at how the bar owner has managed to get quite a local following and such positive reviews.

    There weren’t any other customers during the time I was in my little corner and the barman was off doing some bar related things judging from the banging of barrels and the like. That meant I just sat and read a book on my phone for an hour, really quite comfortable in this warm environment. Certainly not a bad way to spend a Saturday afternoon and I very much hope bars like this continue to open up across Poland. I’ve seen the future and I like it……

  • Warsaw – Warsaw in 1937

    Warsaw – Warsaw in 1937

    I think that this is the best pre-war that I’ve seen of Warsaw, showing the normality of the city in 1937.

    There are numerous video clips of the Old Town Market Place and specifically what is now the Museum of Warsaw. Just a few years later, the square was destroyed, although fortunately carefully reconstructed.

  • Warsaw – Cukiernia Sowa (ul. Grochowska 207)

    Warsaw – Cukiernia Sowa (ul. Grochowska 207)

    One of the reasons for this little blog is to help remind me where I’ve been, which is important when trying to visit all of the outlets of Cukiernia Sowa in Poland. I have to some way to go as there are in the hundreds and I’ve been to under ten, but it’s good to be aspirational. I also keep forgetting to visit the couple of branches that the company has recently opened up in London, there’s one in Ealing and another in Sutton at the moment.

    This outlet is in a shopping centre and it’s only got a couple of tables, which makes getting a seat quite challenging. When we visited it was a little awkward as the seats were taken, but a friendly Polish man said that we could sit with him and he was leaving soon anyway.

    The sole staff member didn’t speak English, which is a little unusual, but we were outside of the central tourist area and she was endlessly helpful with Richard’s requirements.

    Richard went for some cake and a very decadent hot chocolate, which looked very appetising. I went for my standard order of an eclair and a latte, all carefully presented and as tasty as I remember. This remains one of my favourite Polish chains, with the environment being clean, the service friendly and the food and drink of an excellent quality. Indeed, looking at this photo is making me miss Poland….

  • Warsaw – Museum of Warsaw (The Construction of the Central Railway Station)

    Warsaw – Museum of Warsaw (The Construction of the Central Railway Station)

    I’m still working through my little collection of photos of things that interested me from my visit to the Museum of Warsaw a couple of weeks ago and this one is an artwork by Edward Dwurnik (1943-2018) which is located in the Room of Warsaw Views.

    Dwurnik managed to paint over 5,000 artworks during his career, including numerous paintings of the capitals of European Union countries. The above artwork was painted in 1974 and shows the construction of Central Railway Station in the early 1970s, with structures built on top of the railway lines which were already there.

    Also in the artwork is the Palace of Science and Culture on the left, which was a relatively new building at the time, as well as what is now the Novotel Warsaw building on the right. It captures a Warsaw in a time of upheaval, although to be fair, it has had quite a lot of those over recent decades. The painting was created for the 5th Festival of Fine Arts in the city and was put on display at the Zachęta National Gallery of Art. It was then acquired by the city’s Art and Culture Department the in 1975, before being given to the Museum of Warsaw in the following year.