Julia Cox

A comment by a fellow B&B tweeter about a TA review sent me to Trip Advisor to look at their review history. I noticed that none of the recent reviews had been responded to by the owner. (I confess I didn’t look beyond the first three, but if I didn’t then potential customers might not either.) This surprised me – if they care about their reviews why don’t they do this? You should always respond to a review – good, bad or indifferent! Why? Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve got a lot of photos on my website. Probably more than any other b&b I know or whose website I’ve perused. I’ve been lucky: a combination of reasonably charging professionals, skilled friends and magazine features have meant an abundance of pics to choose from. However… Read the rest of this entry »

Introduction

It seems that we all worry about the potential actions of strangers more now than we have ever done. Violent crime and burglaries are on the increase, or at least the threat of them is. As even the most trusted members of society Read the rest of this entry »

Today in his message to his empire, Alastair Sawday praises himself for becoming ‘zippy and modern’. Read the rest of this entry »

In his opening speech the charismatic Alastair Sawday spoke lovingly of the variety of experiences on offer throughout the Sawday catalogue. Whilst in a geographical, or aesthetic sense this is certainly true, the one thing we all have in common Read the rest of this entry »

As the proud owner of a luxury boutique b&b good enough to qualify as one of Alastair Sawday’s ’special places to stay’, (see sawdays.co.uk), I’m just returning from the first two day conference, held on the Harbourside at Bristol.

Was it good? Yes I think so – especially as a first attempt. As I think they all knew it would be, networking was the outright winner, whether over dinner (fabulous pork!) or in workshops. And I can’t wait to get back to get on Twitter and start building on these new connections…

The ASP staff were universally friendly and helpful as were the other b&b/hotel/self catering owners. So it should be of course, with a room full of people dedicated to hospitality! We are so isolated from others in the same business it was a wonderful opportunity.

On the downside the room was cold and the chairs were too hard for a whole day. Some of the arrangements need reviewing for a repeat – imagine queuing for the loo if we’d had bouncing rain! The workshops needed to be longer as they were the most useful element – for me, anyway. Though I think everyone found Sally Shalam’s talk interesting and useful – a clear professional!

Plus the beat was up and the atmosphere universally good, so an all round thumbs up!

But please Sawdays, get more Internet savvy! The online guide with good SEO can save its owners hundreds of pounds in Google Adwords – and others are already doing it. Let’s have the mobile phone application and the social media presence – you already have the network! I hope you will take up some of the ideas put forward by lots of owners over the two days.

But would I go again? Yes please.

My friend Alan has bought two painted, fibreglass kangaroos. Read the rest of this entry »

After much experimentation I have come to the conclusion there is no certain way of poaching eggs where the egg comes in direct contact with water! (And for that person who suggested a poaching pan I really prefer an egg where the yolk is encased in white AND picks up the taste of vinegar in the water – keep reading.)

And the reason for this is the number of variables in the process:

Age of egg
Size of egg
Temperature of egg/water
Agitation (or not) of water
Depth of water
Angle of drop
height of drop
Time of day
Weather

The last two were jokes – almost. What convinced me though, was an image of a top chef carefully trimming the extraneous white of a cooled poached egg before returning it to hot water. Ah hah! He can’t get it right either! Then, during an episode of Great British Menus on BBC 2 Mark Sargeant (a Ramsey trained chef no less) took three dozen eggs to produce FIVE perfect ones! Well! I feel so much better; if he can’t, who can?

So where does this leave me? The clue of course, is avoiding contact between egg and water. It’s definitely the clingfilm method. The problem for me is that I like the flavour of vinegar in the water, and I don’t particularly like the idea of tasting the oil or butter that sits around the egg – if I wanted that I’d fry them! However, this needed more investigation, to perfect the process. So, if you’d like the exact process, after much experimentation, here it is:

1. Use the freshest eggs possible and at room temperature. (However, if you insist on keeping them in the fridge you can still try this – it will probably take longer though.)

2. Put a deep pan (of at least 15 cm – 6 inches in old money) of water on to boil.

3. Line a cup or other rounded small container with a large square of cling film at least four times the diameter of the cup and push in to line the cup and overlap equally around the sides. Line as many cups as eggs to be poached.

4. Pour a little vegetable oil (no more than a teaspoon) into each cup and use a basting brush to stroke the oil up and around the sides. (Don’t get clever here and baste before lining – unless you like oily fingers…)

5. Break an egg into each lined cup; being careful not to perforate the yolk. Perforated yolks are great for scrambled eggs.

6. Gather together the sides of the cling film and twist like a sweet wrapper, leaving as little air space as possible inside.

7. Adjust the heat under the pan to create a rolling boil. Lower all the eggs into the water at the same time, adjusting the heat again if needed to maintain simmering water. Don’t worry if they float, don’t worry if they sink.

8. Leave the eggs in the water for EXACTLY three and a half minutes. Gently lift out by the wrapper end with tongs or your fingers and lay on kitchen paper. Leave to cool – yes really!

9. After about ten minutes snip the squidgy ends of cling film away and carefully peel off the film around the egg. You should have a nice lightly firm poached egg with a gently wobbly centre. Now, it can still go wrong here. The egg is slightly underdone deliberately so you can cook it again later: this means there’s always the possibility that the white splits but reveals a surface of intact egg yolk. This can be reheated but be very careful lifting it back into the water! (You do also need to know that the result may look something like dim sum – you can snip it back a bit if you like.)

10. The eggs can be left on the paper for as long as it takes to prep the rest of the breakfast – usually up to half an hour in my case. When you are just about to serve up, return the water to a rolling boil, with the addition of some vinegar to taste (if you like!) and gently lower the eggs one by one back into the water for EXACTLY one minute. This will reheat the egg perfectly without overcooking the yolk.

11. Drain the egg gently again on some kitchen paper and transfer onto the plate. Perfection. Hopefully.

I’m sitting in Carluccio’s in Brighton. I love this chain so much that I’m even putting up with the fact that it seems to be ‘mother and toddler day’, and silent activities like eating or blogging are the only ones possible! (Why am I here? That’s for another blog.)

In front of me is a slab of their foccacia; I’d forgotten just how soft and olive oily it is – bliss! (It’s worth having to wipe my fingers every time I return to my typing.) Nevertheless, it’s not going to stop me going into grumpy middle aged woman mode:

Why oh why do they always give you directions to the loo but NEVER how to get back to the restaurant? Picture the scene: you’ve taken a right and a left to find the ladies, and frankly you’re not thinking about anything but getting there!

Now, Carluccio loos are pretty neat, they don’t have a place where ladies gather but have individual loos and washbasins. Nice and private but it also means there’s no one to ask! So, I emerge, relieved. Now, which way did I turn? After trial and error and seeing parts of the restaurant I was never meant to see I’m back! I’ve been so long that my table had been taken…

So please please restaurants (and hotels and department stores) show us the way back…

Enough for now, my rice balls have arrived.

Julia

Q: When is a recommendation not a recommendation?

A: When it’s a referral.

OK, this is probably not true in all cases, but why do I think it’s an issue ? I’ve attended a variety of networking events and experienced a variety of different systems.

Read the rest of this entry »