Thought for Food For Ham - ,shire Hogs
II 3' RAY NIOND POSTG A TE*
Tuts time, in reporting on the hotels and restaurants which have come to my knowledge since the last edition of the Good Food Guide, I am going to deal with Hampshire. And first of all with what calls itself the pearl of the South. the Isle of Wight -- because although you may grumble about the propaganda and dislike the postcard shops and olde-worlde gifte stores at the head of the Chines, it is in its way uniquely attractive. The Romans, who called it Vectis (which is the origin of its name: V= U -=W, C=CH=GH. Considered it was the only part of Britannia which the climate made tolerable to an Italian civil ser- vant. The alternation of woods and rolling hills. the little decayed towns like Newtown, the empty spaces in the west, the clear roads are there as they have been for a hundred years—not that the last-named will stay long, for British Railways have torn up three-quarters of their lines and forced the travellers on to inconvenient buses. At the moment, the island can only be reached by ferries, and the roads are consequently not packed by motors. But soon some progres- sive Minister of Transport will authorise the building of a monstrous bridge to the mainland, and then the cars will swarm across. The narrow. Pretty roads will become impassable and the whole island will be built over as a dormitory for Southampton and Portsmouth.
Meanwhile, you can go down by the Southern line, which sweeps swiftly through beautiful scenery, unspoiled by hoardings and uninterrupted * Raymond Postgate, editor of the Good Food Guide, reports on restaurants and inns which may or may not, after further tests) appear in the next edition. He cannot answer readers' queries, and for general information recourse must be had to the current Guide. (Cassell, 7s. 6d.)
by traffic blocks, and descend on Ryde. where there is Speneer's.lnn (Union Street), whose name comes from a well-known, Wight character and where the trout meuniere, cold crab and escalope of veal in wine are very good.
The best food in the island, I think, is at the Peacock Vane, in the outskirts of Ventnur. 'This a good Regency house with very fine hemi- spherical windows and the correct furniture to go with them. it is run as a house, too; there are eighteen sherries on the piano and if there's no- body there to serve you you pour out your glass yourself and leave a chit. You get ma bill until you leave. Mrs. Wolfenden (like her husband, she is a notable character, very interested in food and wine, and rather rotund) keeps on her stall. English, German, Italian, French, and Spanish girls, and has the excellent idea of making them. each in turn, cook some of their own national specialities. Not much room in the house: you must hook.
Elsewhere, to the west of the island, Cook's have taken over Lord Tennyson's house at Far- ringford by Freslmaier Bay; they have kept the library just as it was, and they put on a very satisfactory table d'hôte at 8s. 6d. or 10s.. 6d. In the pretty, toy harbour of YarmOuth, the George has always been the place where yachtsmen stopped. until the proprietor died a year or two ago. He had a superb cellar, a varied and semi- continental menu and a charming little garden near the waterside. There was a difficult period after he had gone, but the inn is on the up-grade again. Book your table at weekends and ask for steak Diane or chicken off the spit. Two other places in the island worth investigating are the Sentrymead at Torland Bay and the Royal Spit- head at Bc'usbridge. There are several more preten- tious places which are no good at all, but I had better not list them. I had a disgusting lunch at a small, well-touted place in Yarmouth.
Going 'ashore,' as the Wightmen call it, on to the mainland, you may have good luck at one or two newly discovered places between the Solent and London. Starting from .London, the first place I should want to try out would be the Viking, in Cron/all, which is near to Farnham and to Fleet. This is a Danish restaurant (1 believe you can get steaks too, but never mind about them), and the smiirrebrOd—Danish open sandwiches—are authentic, as Mrs. Burnett is a Dane. You don't often get genuine smiirrebrlid; offhand, the only other place I can think of is at Wester Howgate in the Scottish wilderness. A pub near by supplies the necessary aquavit and beer.
Farther on, at Froyle, near Alton, there is the Hen and Chickens, another one of these revived pubs which give you the sort of food which ought to be standard and isn't--though it must have been, two hundred years ago when the English taverns got their reputation. I mean grills of good meat cooked the way you asked, soups which don't appear to be out of a packet, and soon, As almost always, the quality depends upon an energetic' landlord—Mr. Choler, if I heard correctly. Another case of an inn rescued from the ruck is the Staunton Arms at Rowlands Castle; it has the 'sort of honesty which makes it label its vegetables 'fresh' or 'frozen,' as they may be.
On the A32 there is the White Horse at Dro,r- ford, which is not an ordinary place, and a little difficult to .4escribe. It is -easy to miss it. It apparently serves dinners only. Its landlord is a man of very marked character. It is quite small and you are by no means sure of getting in. It has a limited menu of dishes from Gs. 6d. (grilled gammon) to lobster Thermidor at 12s. 6d. But these are all very well cooked and my , latest informant says it is the best, if not the only, eating place in the rectangle WinchesterSouthampton --Fareham.--1-Petersfield. A satisfactory wine list.
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