Cook It: Sunday Hunch

Indulging in the city’s Sunday best

It’s the question I am asked more often than any other and the one that I find hardest to answer. My usual response is that the best Sunday lunch to be found is at my home – and you are not invited. I know, it sounds rude and unkind, but I do firmly believe that Sunday dining is for friends and family and I like nothing more than peeling potatoes and listening to The Archers. Follow that with a spot of basting to Desert Island Discs and gravy making to I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue, and you will find me in very good humour indeed.
But if I were to do that on a regular basis I would be a very poor man indeed, always entertaining and only occasionally being entertained. As a consequence I do, from time to time, indulge in a roast dinner in one of the city’s numerous pubs – or should I say ‘gastro pubs’?

I will also go off piste from time to time and always enjoy a visit to Agua Dulce, where their Spanish food reminds me of so many happy holidays – I rate them top Spanish restaurant for some miles.
I have to say that whilst I admire the generosity of some places, I am not a great lover of plates piled high with a crazy assortment of vegetables. To my mind you need little more than roast potatoes, cabbage and carrots on your plate with perhaps the addition of a roast parsnip when they are really in season. And I hate a plate swimmimg in gravy, especially mediocre gravy, it simply makes your meal wet and the only foods that should be really wet are soup, and perhaps custard.
Last weekend I happened to need to meet with my food festival colleague Mr M for a catch up and at his suggestion we went to the Ginger Dog. I like The Dog because of all the Gingers it remains the most pub-like, and the welcome there is always warm. I arrived early and sat at the bar with a swift pint, the first in some time and very good it was too, 360 by name I believe.

Mr M arrived and we sat down for our meeting. The Sunday menu is concise but still full of choice and the blackboard over the roaring fire had a few specials too. Mr M started with sea bass with a crab tartare and pickles. It looked very good and he made pretty light work of it, although he does have a tendency to eat around the edges and dismiss certain plated items, this time a pale pink sauce.
I headed to the blackboard for pigeon breast with lentils and ketchup. I love pigeon although it is on my do-not-eat list along with lentils, so this was a double whammy danger – thank the lord for Allipurinol is all I can say. Anyway, it was delicious, really very fine and very satisfying.

“We both chose the braised belly of pork. It must have been a piggy sort of day all round …”

Mr M then perused the wine list and declared that he fancied trying a Brazilian. Well I’ll leave you to imagine the ribald banter that followed. It turned out to be an inoffensive whit, pinot grigio and reisling, the reisling knocking the sharp edges off the pinot grigio I decided. Anywho, not bad and not a silly price.
For the main course we both chose the braised belly of pork. It must have been a piggy sort of day all round as Mr M tends to go veggie or fish these days.

It was very good, soft to the knife and tasty too. The crackling was crisp and sharp but only skin and not the crystaline layer beneath, which I always think is the best part, and runs less risk of tooth damage. The potatoes were the best roast potatoes I have been served out in some time and the vegetables were also good – a carrot, a parsnip, some excellent cauliflower cheese and some red cabbage and kale. I could have lived without the red cabbage, it was good but not neccessary. I also broke my rule and accepted a Yorkshire pud, even though I was not eating beef. It was very nice. Stupidly though I forgot to ask for my gravy to be served on the side, in a jug, and so my meal was rather too wet for my liking, in part my own fault. We were too full for pud!
The Ginger Dog, 12 College Place, Brighton, BN2 1HN, 01273 620990
www.thegingerdog.com