Posted:  Friday 13 August 2010

Three Pub Lunches
for
North East Associates

- May, June & July 2010 -

• Hello again all gourmets out there.
  
  The April showers we had during our last pub lunch have stayed and as we enter the third week of May it's still coming down.
  The party is lunching at the Swan Inn, Choppington located in deepest Northumberland.
  
  
  
  Choppington is a small village next to Bedlington (a larger village) which in turn is close to Ashington (which you will all have heard of).
  We have visited the Swan before and found it delightful.  The food was excellent and I had a large mixed grill for £7.95.
  Twenty-nine attended and all agreed revisiting good pubs was a must.
   
• From the depths of Northumberland we venture south to the middle of Durham.  Again it's a revisit to our old friend Ramside Hall.
  It's also a revisit of the weather, rainy and cold at 13°C (it's the ninth of June for goodness sake where is the sun?).
  
  
  
  The food at Ramside Hall is excellent and probably in the top five pubs we visit.  It offers a very extensive menu including a carvery with self service vegetables for £8.00.
  Only twenty people attended due to holiday commitments.
   
• It's now July 22nd which brings cold, damp rainy weather - the lunchers are now calling me 'The Bringer of Rain'.
  We are however very lucky in our choice of pubs Corbridge is the town, Black Bull the venue, (again a revisit).  Corbridge is a beautiful small town 18 miles west of Newcastle on the River Tyne.
  
  
  
  The Black Bull although one of many pubs, offers the best food by far.  On entering the pub I spied one of my favourite meals on the specials board - home made steak and kidney pudding (not pie), wonderful!  As I was arranging the seating etc, with the bar manager, the last of the puddings were ordered and the specials board wiped clean, catastrophe!  My second choice of gammon steak with fried eggs chips and peas at £8.00 was fantastic, all washed down with a pint of Black Sheep bitter which cleared away my earlier woes.
  Twenty-eight people all enjoyed a wonderful day out.
   
  That's it for now folks, I'll talk to you again following the next round of pub lunches.
  
  Keith Stokoe
  
  (ph  07/08/2010 - who also ate the last steak pudding!)
  
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