Growing up with British Culture in Monterey County by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Growing up with British Culture in Monterey County by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Monterey’s all-season foggy weather has encouraged the establishment of British-style pubs where you can eat well, sample a beer from a variety of choices, and lunch with children.

One of the most affordable places to eat at one time in Carmel (California) was the Sherlock Holmes Pub in Carmel’s Barnyard Shopping Center.

I thought their menu was typical of the British pubs I had eaten in on vacation in the UK that included a few American items on their menus in addition to British ones.

When I queried The Monterey County Weekly (Circulation: 200,000) about doing an article on the Sherlock Holmes Pub, they were very interested.  The review follows:

Think of England

Cold, damp weather always makes me want to eat hearty British food.  This thought propelled me, my husband Laurent, and daughter Florence to the doors of the Sherlock Holmes Pub in the Barnyard during a recent spate of winter storms.

One of the owners greeted us as we walked in to the snug pub, which had a fire going in a corner fireplace.  The owners opened the pub after visiting England over nineteen years.

The menu features British and American favorites.  We started our meal by sharing an order of mozzarella bread.  Our five slices of French toast topped off with oozing mozzarella took the chill off our bones and whetted our appetites.

For our main dishes, Laurent chose the Deer Stalker Fish and Chips, and I ordered Bangers and Mash.  Florence went with a Dominion Burger to try out the American offerings.

The fish and chips had a crunchy crust, which did not dry out the cod on the inside.  The fish tasted great with lemon juice on it, but malt vinegar is the usual condiment.  Fish and chips vies with roast beef as the national dish of England.

Ale certainly ranks as the national drink of England, which encouraged Laurent to sample a Bass Ale on tap.  Bass hails from Burton-upon-Trent in the Midlands of England, and is Britain’s biggest beer maker.  Bass has a slight citrus flavor, although no fruit is added to it.

My hearty dish of bangers and mash warmed me up after the rain.  “Bangers” refers to the two plump and juicy sausages I had with my meal and “mash” refers to the hand-mashed potatoes and gravy.  Beans baked with brown sugar rounded out my “best of the breakfast and dinner worlds platter.”

I ordered an Irish Guiness on tap – foamy, sweet, and bitter all at once.  You either love Guiness or hate it.  It went well with the sausages.

Two other English specialties that diners might want to try are the Prince of the Pub Shepherd’s Pie and Soho Spectacular Steak and Kidney Pie.  Minced meat such as lamb covered with onions, topped with mashed potatoes, and baked till brown constitutes Shepherd’s Pie.  In the Sherlock Holmes version, top sirloin replaces lamb.

Florence’s Dominion Burger came with Canadian bacon, Monterey Jack Cheese, and guacamole with fries.

Potatoes did not become popular in England until the latter part of the 18^th century, although other parts of Europe knew this New World product before then according to Adrian Bailey in The Cooking of the British Isles.  The English like potatoes and even have a chip sandwich according to Bailey.

For dessert, Florence had a generous helping of creamy vanilla ice cream.  Laurent had a slice of chocolate fudge layer cake.  British cakes are renowned for being moist and delectable.  Laurent’s cake lived up to the reputation.  The creamy frosting melted in the mouth.

Sherlock Holmes offers fair-weather items such as salads, soups, and a variety of burgers.  There is a “Little Detectives” menu for children.

With the variety on their menu, it is no wonder a diner would choose Sherlock Holmes Pub as “my local” as the British say when describing their hangout.

End of Article

Note:

Sherlock Holmes closed has but, fortunately Monterey County has large numbers of British pubs (Peter B’s and Crown and Anchor), California brew pubs (Alvarado Street Brewery), and German restaurants (Stammtisch) for an afternoon family lunch.

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France


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Fresh Taste of Lebanon: Tabouli's (Now Paprika) Review by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Fresh Taste of Lebanon:  Tabouli’s (Now Paprika) Review by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

I grew up eating Greek and Lebanese food as a child in Detroit (Michigan) and took my daughter Florence out to lunch at what was then Tabouli’s (now Paprika) in Monterey, California after she finished school for early dinners to continue the family tradition.

When I began reviewing restaurants for The Monterey County Weekly (Circulation: 200,000 – California), I queried the newspaper to review Tabouli, now Paprika, and was given the assignment I think, because I said I made many Middle Eastern food items at home.

I have changed Tabouli’s name to its present one of Paprika in the article that follows:

Fresh Taste of Lebanon

I can feel the vitamins course through my veins every time I eat vegetable-rich Lebanese cuisine at Paprika.  Chef and owner Christophe Hamadé offers a tempting array of vegetarian and vegan dishes alongside his traditional meat dishes.

The dish I order every time I go to Paprika is baba ghanouge, a roasted eggplant purée made with sesame seed paste (tahini), crushed garlic, and lemon juice.  Olive oil sprinkled with paprika and black olives decorate decorates the final product, which you spread on warm pieces of pita (Lebanese pocket bread).  I like to think of baba ghanouge as hummus without the calories.  You can order baba ghanouge as a side dish or as part of a combination plate.

My favorite feel-good plate comes with baba-ghanouge, hummus, and tabouli.  Hummus, a chickpea purée made with lemon juice, sesame seed paste, and crushed garlic, has become an onion dip substitute it seems.  At Paprika, hummus gets spread on pita like baba ghanouge and tastes like an exotic peanut butter.

For me, tabouli salad is like good-tasting Lebanese penicillin.  Finely chopped parsley and mint form the base of tabouli along with bulghur wheat that has been impregnated with lemon-oil dressing.  Pieces of tomato and spring onion add their flavor to this mix as well. 

These items that depend on freshness for their taste have always been good in the 20+ years that I have been going to Paprika with my family.

Adventurous diners might want to try the combination plate that comes with dolmas, tabouli, hummus, and spinach salad.  Dolmas are stuffed grapevine leaves that get rolled into cylinders and steamed.  Paprika’s version comes with tomato, onion, and rice.  Lemon juice and olive oil season the dolmas.  The vine leaves have a tart taste and are more tender than baked cabbage leaves.

A fatouche salad might be a new dish for some people.  This is an Arab garden specialty that makes use of the freshest lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, green onion, parsley, and mint.  The novelty of the dish comes from the sumac, used to season it, along with toasted pieces of pita bread.  The mint and parsley form an especially refreshing combination.

Refreshing also describes the tzaziki spread with pita bread.  Paper-thin cucumber slices hold this savory mix of yogurt, mint, crushed garlic, and sour cream together.  Tzatziki, a deceptively light spread, is a famous appetizer all over the Mediterranean.

The owner’s garlic chicken merits several tries.  This combination plate comes with hummus, tabouli, and rice.  You can also find shawerma, a relative of a Greek gyro, on the menu along with kafta kebab made with group steak.

All of the meat dishes can be placed inside a pita wrap.

Without doubt, Paprika’s food is excellent, but half the charm of the place is eating in the cozy interior decorated with oriental carpets that look like arches with lanterns in them.

A large supper tray hangs on the main wall with photographs of temples and Lebanese cedars under snow.  Large jars of preserved foodstuffs line the tops of the cupboards in the kitchen.  Arabic music plays while you eat and many times, Arabic and French language students from the Defense Language Institute come with their instructors to converse with the Beirut-born owner as they order.

Paprika’s owner worked in Paris nine years before coming to the United States.   While working in Paris, he met a couple from Carmel, who invited him to visit the Monterey Peninsula.  He agreed to come and immediately fell in love with the area, because it was quiet unlike Paris.

(Congratulations to Paprika for being named a Michelin Restaurant in 2019!)

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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From Bratwurst to Bimibap - Part 3 - by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

From Bratwurst to Bimibap – Part 3 – by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Mi Tierra Market in Seaside, California sells clean, dried corn husks in bundles among other items, making my dreams for a tamale making party come closer to fruition – now I just need helpers to stuff the husks.

The produce section gleams.  Pasilla, lime-green Anaheims, yellow guerito peppers, and dark green jalapeño peppers glisten there.

Pudgy plantains invite frying, and brown-skinned yuccas feel rough to the touch.  Mi Tierra sells fresh cactus petals with their pickers.  These taste sour and go well with scrambled eggs made with chopped tomatoes and onion.

As usual, the drinks intrigue me.  I love horchata, which tastes like a rice pudding milk shake.  The jamaica juice looks good, too, and is described as a hibiscus flower drink.

Mi Tierra also sells champagne cola and other Mexican soft drinks like the guava and pineapple flavors of Jarritos and mandarin orange.  There is also Aga apple soda and Sidral cola.

Mi Tierra’s true beauty lies in its butcher counter, which extends the width of the building.  The butchers, who work under dangling strands of chorizo sausage, really ham up the service.

The immaculately clean counter presents a wide variety of:

-gizzards

-milk white tripe

-liver

-beef tongue

-neck bones

-hogs’ feet

-slim cuts of steak for carne asada

-ground beef and steaks

-cactus salad

-cream-like cheese called Queso Oaxaqueño

-seafood salad

-fresh fish on ice

-tiger prawns

All in all, the mouthwatering display made me want to run home and open some cookbooks.  (Note: Diana Kennedy and Rick Bayless explain technique well in their Mexican cookbooks.)

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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From Bratwurst to Bimibap - Part 2 - by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

From Bratwurst to Bimibap – Part 2 – by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Asian-Filipino Market in Marina caters to a largely Southeast Asian clientele according to its India-born owner.  The market offers goods spanning the culinary world from Thailand to the Philippines.

A love for snack foods seems to be common to all these countries judging from the vast selection of taro chips, seaweed chips, shrimp crackers, and coconut crackers for sale.  Snack fantasies led me to dreams of more substantial fare, so I headed over to the instant sauce section.

Many people avoid making ethnic food at home, because it requires a major outlay for basic ingredients.  Ready-made sauces can ease a new cook into a foreign cuisine, which is one of the reasons I like them.

Korean barbecue, Chinese roast duck, Cantonese noodles, and packets of Filipino kare-kare sauces are just some of the temptations on Asian-Filipino’s shelves.

I could smell the warm peppery masala spice mixture in the Indian food aisle before I got there and imagined how good it would taste in ground lamb kebab with cilantro and onion. 

I wanted to make coconut milk with the unsweetened, shredded coconut and season it with curry leaves to poach fish or shrimp.

Instead, I ended up buying a bottle of tea masala to make chai at home.

A penchant for habanera sauce led me to Mi Tierra Market in Seaside, which has Mexican and Salvadoran products.

End of Part 2

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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