We are slap bang in the
middle of Wild Boar Week, a celebration
of wild boar in beautiful Rye, East Sussex.
Starting this weekend on
Saturday 26th October until this Sunday 3rd November – Wild Boar Week has a number of exciting
events, woodland tours and culinary deliciousness taking place across the area
and recently I was lucky enough to be invited to enjoy a preview of such
activities.
I travelled from London
St Pancras station via Southeastern changing at Ashford and taking the Southern
Railways route on to Rye. These tickets were kindly, complimentary, however can
be purchased for a very reasonable £11 return – taking only 90 minutes.
Our home for the next 24
hours was to be The Gallivant – a
stylish, shabby-chic hotel by the glorious Camber Sands beach – a place that,
for me and I’m sure many Londoners, has fond memories of childhood days spent
on this long, golden beach.
The Gallivant is an elegant beachside
retreat – decked out in whites and blues and with rooms so comfortable, you
immediately feel you are welcomed into a home away from home. You can read more
about my stay here on Thursday 31st October, when a second post will
be live.
Back to Wild Boar Week; after settling into my
double room, I joined the three other guests, our lovely host Diana, and a
gentleman who was to give us a comprehensive introduction to wild boars, Mike Peplar and his charming wife,
Tracy for a bespoke wild boar dinner that is available throughout this week at The Beach Bistro, the on-site
restaurant.
Mike and Tracy Peplar moved to the
area a few years back and have become so enchanted by the local woodland,
living off of the land, foraging that they have bought several acres of the
area and you can read about their adventures at Peplars in Rye.
We enjoyed a wild boar
themed menu devised especially by The
Beach Bistro’s head chef, Trevor Hambley.
Our starter included
gorgeous whole local scallops, cooked through to succulent perfection with just
a touch of caramelisation on the outside, to make them a little bite from
heaven. Coupled with a crisp sliver of bacon, a concoction of Kentish apple
puree and some greenery and then completed with the wild boar component; a
risotto cake filled with rich, meaty boar-flavoured rice. The risotto had been
shaped into rounds, covered in breadcrumbs and deep fried and all dressed with
a tiny bit of balsamic glaze – all to die for and a put together beautifully to
make a very pretty plate.
For the main course it
was a real meaty treat and once again a very attractively plated dish.
Generously thick slices of perfectly tender, pink-centred wild boar, meaty and
gamey without the earthiness of meat such as venison were fantastic, a
revelation. The piece de la resistance though, had to be a very British classic
– a suet pudding filled with slowly braised, beautifully soft and
melt-in-the-middle boar leg meat in a rich and unctuous gravy. Suet puddings
are such a comforting food, and this absolutely transformed me to childhood in
an envelope of warm fuzzy happiness. This simple dish was completed with a side
of seasonal vegetables – it was all that was needed against such wonderful
cooking.
Our dessert was a shared
affair and a glorious one at that. A gorgeous pear tarte tatin was the centre
piece of this board of confection and was absolutely gorgeous coupled with the
homemade vanilla ice cream. Brandy snaps filled with a pistachio mousse and
dipped in pistachio shards were not only innovative, but delicious too – I’ll
be trying to re-create these at home. Cinnamon donuts too, were an unexpectedly
divine addition to the selection of sweet treats and iced berries with a warm
hot white chocolate sauce poured over them were another example of the simple
yet impressive and effective style of cooking that prevails at The Beach Bistro. A triumph.
Following a hearty
breakfast at The Gallivant, Mike Peplar led our group on an
enjoyable woodland tour of a few hours. Mike showed us wild boar tracks, and
other evidence of their presence within the woods – such as the random huge
holes that they dig around the woods, which can make them unpopular with local
farmers!
As well as talking us
through some interesting facts about wild boars, Mike was able to identify the
different types of tree, flowers and the like as well as a shared interest
amongst our group – mushrooms. We saw some exquisite looking fungi, some of
which almost looked magical and it has certainly picqued my interest on the
matter.
On Thursday 31st October I will posting a further
review, detailing more about my stay at The
Gallivant and The Beach Bistro,
but in the meantime you can read more about them here:
