Three crappy vending machines and a Sega House of the Dead shoot-em-up video game that was switched off. That is what was the “ferry terminal” in the docks at Hull contained. Hard to believe that in twenty four hours I’d be at Chateau Saran, drinking many vintages of Moet & Chandon and eating a fabulous meal.
This dreary, soul sucking terminal, filled with bus tours from Doncaster and old ladies in plum coloured jump suits hardly screamed ‘You’re going on holiday – woohoo’ and more said “welcome to Northern England. It sucks”.I’d never been to Hull before, and, unless I make a similar trip to Europe, I doubt I will ever again. There are just vast tracts of flat land, with rusting boats, sugar depots and depressed looking people all over the place. But this was our way out of the UK to Belgium, and then France, so I was convincing myself that Hull was a golden gate of hope and opportunity!
We boarded the noble(ish) liner, the P&O Pride of York, bound for Zebrugge. Hoping, in vain, for Pirates to come up alongside us, but realising that days of Johnny Depp on a sailing boat were long gone and any Pirates we encountered would result in a long detour to Somalia, we hit the restaurant for dinner. Our first night would be a bit of a blow out, a celebration if you will of our trip, so we ordered a bottle of champagne. At £25, a bottle of Piper Heidsieck NV was not a bad deal. OK, so this champagne doesn’t float my boat on a normal day, but it did the job tonight. Light, very simple with pencil shavings and lemon aromas creeping out of the very closed nose. The palate was simple, lemony with bitter mineral elements and a touch of citrus. I’d score it a 6/10, but after a five hour drive, this wine was exactly what three weary travellers needed!
We ordered our meal and initially my Field Mushrooms with bacon and cheddar starter was a disappointment. At six quid, you would expect to have something a little more than button mushrooms, sliced in the bottom of an ovenware dish, with squares of back bacon on top, and smothered in cheddar, whacked in the oven and melted. The mushrooms were in a sea of cheese and oil, didn’t taste that good either. I wished I’d had the salmon!
Moving on to the twenty quid steak, which was quite tasty. I asked for it rare, which I got, but got slightly undercooked chips. Our wine was a 2005 Chateau Lafitte from Bordeaux, and it was lovely. Costing only £19 (restaurants of the UK, hang your heads in shame when it comes to your twenty quid house plonk) this was a wine I’d be happy to pay £10 for in a shop. Light cinnamon aromas, a lot of raspberry, pepper and some noticeable sweet fruit on the palate, making it an ideal restaurant wine. (8/10)
By the time we’d finished our meal, we still hadn’t made it out of the Humber estuary, so we ventured to the bar, where we had an interesting cocktail – a Bermuda Triangle! Presented with an umbrella and a cherry, straight out of Only Fools and Horses, it was a concoction of Malibu and pineapple juice. It was not good!So we left the pianist to his geriatric audience and went to bed. Something is not right when three thirty-somethings are hitting the sack before grannies!
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