The Anonymous Widower

Coggeshall

Essex has a bad reputation as a place inhabited by loose women in pelmets and white stilettos and men with large beer-fed guts in shell suits. This may be the image, which is also fuelled by lots of Essex girl jokes. But are the people of Essex feeding this image to keep us foreigners out and save the best bits for themselves?

Last night I went for dinner at Baumanns Brasserie in Coggeshall.  Note that it doesn’t have an apostrophe!

Coggeshall

This view shows one of the streets that used to be the main road from Braintree to Colchester until it was by-passed in the 1980s.  How the town managed before that I dread to think?

Opposite the restaurant is a sweet shop.  Not your normal one, but one with real jars in the window.

Normans Sweet Shop, Coggeshall

What surprised me was that the jars in the window were for Fox’s Glacier Mints, Murray Mints and other common sweets.  They looked to be new jars too, so they must be still available.

Now to return to Baumanns.

My late wife and I used to go a couple of times a year, when we lived over the other side of Suffolk at Debach.  It was just too far to go and come back after a meal.  But last night, I had other reasons, so it was very convenient to visit an old favourite place.  In fact, I think it was the first time, I’d been there since I was diagnosed with coeliac disease.

I was not disappointed. 

And the place had hardly changed in all those years. 

Is that good or bad?  It depends if what was there all those years ago was worth keeping.  In Baumanns case it certainly was.

I had sardines followed by ostrich.  These were two dishes I’d probably never cook for myself.  They were both delicious.

I shall visit Baumanns next time, that I’m in the area.

August 29, 2009 - Posted by AnonW | Food, Transport/Travel | Coeliac, Essex