Pub Food Galore

Saturday 22 September

Today John, Priscilla, and Sofia took us on a folly-hunting excursion in the countryside around Henley on Thames. When you drive through village after village, each quainter, more cottaged, thatched, and rose-covered than the other, you find yourself in need of solid sustenance, preferably featuring refreshing malt beverages. Which is why the British pub is such a stalwart institution, and we supported it utterly today.

So after being astounded at the Maharajah's Well at Stoke Row - which looks just like you'd imagine it would look - we could only drive a short distance before stopping at the Cherry Tree to renew our equilibrium. Luckily (and thanks to extensive pre-visit research by John, who has surveyed most of this terrain both for its archaeology and its native beverages) the Cherry Tree has excellent food and drink. A pint of Hobgoblin Ale went very well with a cassoulet of white beans with confit duck leg, streaky bacon and ham, and pork and leek sausage. And their plate of wild boar sausage, served on a bed of red cabbage with smoky bacon, was wild and savory and bore (get it?) no relation to the flavorless English banger.

So refreshed, we proceeded on to Henley itself, which managed to combine the picturesque with the baronial yet still remain quaint - how do the English do that? Priscilla took us on a cruise up the river, where we collected yet another folly, the Temple on the appropriately-named Temple Island.

After this exhausting two-folly day, we could only stagger out to another pub for dinner. This time it was the White Hart in Wytham (as distinct from the White Hart in Fyfield, the White Hart in Dorchester, and a million other White Harts, not to mention Arthur C. Clarke's; apparently this was the badge of Richard II, who was popular among pub-keepers, if among no one else). Despite the continuity of confit from lunch to dinner, we couldn't turn down the confit of leg of hare, with rare slices of roast hare loin on a bed of herbed mashed potatoes. Though sea bass was again on offer, we chose the chunk of monkfish instead, which came with flavorful potatoes and green olives. Not bad at all, though the Cherry Tree was a hard act to follow.