Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
FOOD<br />
The Sussex Ox<br />
Moo with a view<br />
There’s been a lot of<br />
talk in recent years<br />
about ‘food miles’.<br />
When it comes to the<br />
Sussex Ox, that ohso-very<br />
country pub<br />
in Milton Street, with<br />
its spectacular views<br />
over Firle Beacon,<br />
this could be translated<br />
to ‘food yards’.<br />
The pub is owned by<br />
the people who also<br />
run the farm around<br />
it, and the lamb and beef they sell is from animals<br />
reared organically on the premises.<br />
I pay a visit with my best friend Johnny, and my<br />
fiancée Rowena, and my best friend’s latest flame<br />
Sarah, who I’ve known for 25 years, but not in<br />
that capacity. The girls have met once before,<br />
briefly. So you could say that there’s an interesting<br />
dynamic around the table. It’s a Monday<br />
evening and we’ve rushed to get there before<br />
9pm, when the kitchen closes.<br />
I’ve been to the Ox before, and I’m happy to see<br />
that it hasn’t changed too much since the new<br />
owners took over a couple of years back. There’s<br />
still a bit that looks pubby and another bit that<br />
looks pub-converted-into-restauranty and we<br />
are lead there. It’s a well-lit room with prints on<br />
the walls. Monday being Monday, there’s only<br />
one other set of diners; Monday being Monday<br />
there’s a buzz around the rest of the place – it’s<br />
quiz night.<br />
I know what Rowena is going to want to eat<br />
because we almost always want exactly the same<br />
thing (go figure). In this case it’s salt and pepper<br />
squid (£6.25) as a starter and ‘char-grilled 28-day<br />
aged prime Sussex sirloin steak’ as a main course.<br />
The latter, with all<br />
those mouth-watering<br />
adjectives, is impossible<br />
to look past, even<br />
at top-dollar £18.50.<br />
Johnny has chosen<br />
trout, and he orders<br />
first, and you can see<br />
his dismay as we all<br />
order the steak after<br />
him.<br />
You can tell a lot about<br />
a person from how<br />
they behave after they<br />
trip over, and our waitress’ graceful and selfdeprecatory<br />
reaction having gone arse over tip in<br />
front of us endears her to us no end: luckily this<br />
happens as she’s coming up to take our order, and<br />
not laden with hot food.<br />
And the food? Pretty excellent. The squid has<br />
been cooked and seasoned so perfectly it seems<br />
a shame to dip it in the garlic mayonnaise sauce<br />
it comes with. And the steak is as succulent as<br />
you’d imagine from the meat of an animal you<br />
might have heard mooing on an earlier visit. The<br />
peppercorn sauce is a little waterier than I’d have<br />
made it, but that’s a small moan. We share a bottle<br />
of Sicilian Primitivo, which hits the nail bang<br />
on the head.<br />
Everyone leaves happy, our foursome better<br />
acquainted than before. The company has been<br />
more than agreeable, but next time – perhaps<br />
after walking across from Alfriston on a sunny<br />
evening – I’ll make it a meal for just two, and<br />
we’ll sit in the garden, and try to coincide the arrival<br />
of the food with the sun setting behind Firle<br />
Beacon. We marry in July. Alex Leith<br />
The Sussex Ox, Milton Street, 01323 870840 /<br />
07532 305909<br />
69