Emsworth: Foodie's Paradise in Hampshire

This is not a fast-food joint; dinner here really does take all evening, as each meal is made individually. After choosing, we sat with a drink enjoying the ambience and admiring the small courtyard garden. The decor in the restaurant is sumptuous - layered drapes on the tables and on the windows. One wall is covered with large award platters showing how good this restaurant really is for its food.

Before the starter arrived, our young waitress proudly presented us with a complimentary appetiser of wild-mushroom broth flavoured with truffle oil and presented in a tiny espresso cup. This heavenly touch stimulates your taste buds so that you really get the most from your ensuing meal.

Our starters arrived looking like works of art. My scallops were nestled on a tangy apple-and-asparagus reduction and accompanied by a melt-in-the-mouth tart of buttered leeks. My partner’s quail was sublime. It certainly looked wonderful; the meat had been carefully separated and piled into a neat construction, topped with the drumsticks and a fried quail’s egg. We lingered over the starters, enjoying the subtle tastes and sensations. At all times, the staff was excellent. Although mainly young, they have clearly been very well trained and take great pleasure in their jobs. They all seem very happy and proud to be working at 36. Our wine and water glasses were unobtrusively kept topped up at all times, and when we wanted to order more wine, we had no problem in attracting the attention of our waitress.

If we thought the starters were good, the main course almost put them to shame. My fillet of beef, cooked bleu, stood in a small pool of scrumptious piquant sauce, accompanied by the freshest, crispest vegetables. The meat was so tender and moist that I could have cut it with a butter knife. The duck that arrived opposite me looked (and tasted) just as perfect: slightly pink and very tender, with a gentle crisp to the skin. It was perfectly laid out in a fan shape on a subtle jus that smothered the tongue with a gentle citrus zest.

Before the dessert was served, we received a pre-dessert of passion fruit mousse served in a dollhouse-sized tureen to prepare our mouths for the sweetness to come. Although a complete chocoholic, I was unable to resist the idea of a warm strawberry soufflé accompanied by fresh strawberries and a tiny dish of homemade vanilla crème anglaise. It was an amazing experience; the warm soufflé was so full of real fresh strawberries that it took me right back to when I was a child and we used to go strawberry picking during the summer holidays.

The size of all the portions is not vast, just perfect. If they were any bigger, they would ruin the meal. As it is at the end of three courses, we were left feeling completely satiated yet comfortable and not overstuffed - just very ready for our bed upstairs overlooking Emsworth Harbour.

Last September, we wended our way southwards to check out the fourth Emsworth Food Festival. At the approach to the town, we were stopped by a very pleasant young man in army uniform manning a barricade. If you aren’t booked up at a hotel in town, you will just have to park and ride in! After parking, we strolled along the harbour wall while browsing through the guide and planning our route on the map. There are five themed "villages" using the main car parks set aside for stallholders for the Food Festival, and stalls fill the main streets, going right down to a smaller car park area on the harbour, hence the need for park-and-ride schemes

As we were there for the whole weekend, we had no need to rush to see everything at once, so we began with the Village on the Quay. This was the place for seafood lovers like us. Although small, the area was filled with differing stalls flowing over with fruits de mer and a large RNLI van selling plenty of gifts and souvenirs. We started our day-long feast with a cup of fresh prawns and mussels from a small van, rather like the typical ice cream van but, of course, much fishier!

We ambled up South Street to the car park behind the Bluebell pub (which incidentally serves fabulous Dover sole). This is the largest of the car parks and houses the Veuve Clicquot marquee, in which different demonstrations were held over the weekend. It is wise to book for demonstrations as far in advance as possible, as they are extremely popular. A wine-tasting tent holds tasting sessions that do not need booking - just be prepared, as the queue starts well before the opening time. In between these tents are a myriad of stalls under the umbrellas of The Sussex and Hampshire Village and The Wine Village, all offering a wide variety of food and drink. Each business offers tastings, so if you don’t pace yourself. you will find you won’t need lunch, which would be a shame, as Emsworth has many delightful restaurants

Along with the victuals were local traders offering assorted cookery and wine-related products. We treated ourselves to a pair of tasting glasses etched with the Emsworth 2004 Food Festival logo, a lovely souvenir we use regularly at home - just to bring back memories you understand! To make the tasting event easier, little leather holders were available for the glasses, with a loop to hang around your neck and a small pouch that securely cradled the glass, thus leaving a hand free to make notes on the wines you tasted. We also bought, from the Wonky Foods stall, an ingenious bottle holder for some friends. It was basically a flat piece of wood about 2 inches wide, half an inch thick, and 10 inches long with a hole in it (see it at www.wonkyfoods.com). The idea is to stand it up on end and poke the neck of the wine bottle through the hole. It looks very odd seeing bottles suspended horizontally in mid-air apparently defying gravity, but these gadgets really do work. Christmas morning, we got a phone call from our friends who wondered why they had been given a stick with a hole in it! Luckily, when we explained, they were delighted and love having such a talking point for dinner parties

After sampling some organic beer, nibbling local cheeses, and enjoying the aroma from the Chichester College’s paella stand, we emerged near the top of the road at the town square housing the Emsworth Village, which was filled with more stalls and where a stage is erected for entertainment. Around the square were a number of food shops that were also giving away free samples. This is the area in which many French stalls are, and it was a joy to me as a true Francophile to be able to buy an assortment of saussicons and fromages to take home. Everything for sale was available to try beforehand, a good idea for the less adventurous who may not really enjoy that spicy garlic-cured meat bought in a moment of over excitement! For our mid-morning snacking, we had a wide range of cured meats accompanied by assorted breads, both French and local English

We paused for a while to enjoy some jazz in the square before heading up through the high street to the British Village, where more stalls abound along both sides of the street. We began to slow down as more and more people began throng into the town, and we paused more and more often sample the wares on offer. The British Village feels less like Sussex and Hampshire as it stretches along the High Street and into North Street, but it has a good range of cookery products and crockery, organic fruit wines, and of course, many more food stalls!

Having spent the Friday wandering around wallowing in the plethora of fine foods and drink, we retreated back to our hotel and spent the evening dining in the splendour of 36 On The Quay, quite possibly the best restaurant I’ve ever visited. That Saturday morning, we were served in our room with a continental breakfast of fresh breads, fruits, yoghurt, and coffee, which I ate while wrapped in a large courtesy bathrobe in the bay window overlooking the harbour. The sun shone down on the stallholders setting up by the quay for another day of hard work and fun. We had only booked one night at 36, so we left and drove out of the main festival area to the Brookfield Hotel. After checking in, we walked back towards town via the slipper pond to feed the swans and thus recreate a favourite part of my childhood. Emsworth swans are very tame and used to people hand-feeding them, but because of this, they can be rather alarming, as they rush up to anyone carrying a rustling bag. All too soon, my bag was empty, so it was time to say goodbye to my feathered friends. Back in the main part of the town, the festival was going strong, and we joined the crowd to watch Aziza, a group of women performing colourful traditional Egyptian dance. The rest of the day was spent trying even more food and drink; truth be told, a large part of the afternoon was whiled away in the wine-tasting tent. My best excuse for this is that it was a little cold and wet outside. Dinner that night was in the Brookfield Hotel, where we enjoyed a delicious table d’hote dinner especially created for the festival that included a chosen wine for each course

We had arranged to meet up with my mother and some old neighbours still living in Emsworth on the Sunday, so we took a light picnic and sat along the harbour wall watching people enjoying the brisk and windy day. When everyone arrived, we walked up to The Bluebell for lunch and sat in their small courtyard garden, where we dined on assorted fresh fish while listening to the babble of happy people, but could also just catch the mellow sounds music playing in the square. As we left the pub, I was delighted to see the fabulous Jambalaya Parade Band going past, playing wonderful foot-tapping music. A real touch of Mardis Gras in southern England!

Sunday afternoon, many of the stallholders had begun to pack and go home, so we spent the rest of the day back at the Brookfield Hotel recuperating enough to enjoy another mouth-watering three-course dinner. If you do decide to go for the whole weekend, I would recommend arriving early on Friday and leaving on Sunday afternoon, as we found watching the festival pack away gave us a rather melancholy feeling. But nothing could take away the magical sentiments we took away with us as we left on Monday morning. I realise I am probably biased as an ex-resident, but no matter where this was held, the whole experience would please any food lover. The Emsworth Food Festival is without doubt a very well-run, organized, and supported affair. Every establishment in town that could possibly be considered as being food related had a special menu, entertainment, or event. And those that weren’t food related joined in various ways, to show their support. Although food is the main theme, the entertainment is superb as well. The atmosphere was happy, friendly, and almost like a carnival. The weather was good, with only the odd patch of drizzle, but sadly not as good as the heatwave the year before

The festival website has an overheard quote from last year’s festival, which, I think, sums the weekend up: "… it seems like we are the centre of the universe." I am already booked to go back this year… roll on September! See http://www.emsworthfoodfestival.org.uk/default.html.