
I visited a country pub near Birmingham and spent £2.75 on the 'best pub snack since cobs'
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Holding a consistent conversation at The Fish Inn proved challenging as jets soared overhead.
We were visiting the Warwickshire pub on the weekend of the Midlands Air Festival and people jumping out of planes and Red Arrow flypasts were frequently breaking up our flow as we 'oohed'
and 'aahed' with our faces turned to the heavens.
But it wasn't just the planes heading over to neighbouring Ragley Hall that interrupted my chat.
Read more: I bypassed a 'road closed' sign near Birmingham and ended up in an 'unreal' pub
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I snapped my head around when punters on a nearby picnic table answered the call of 'TABLE 85?! TABLE 85?'
It wasn't nosiness, per se, but more the smell of whatever was in their bowls.
We were in the countryside, right beside the River Arrow, and yet the aroma of truffle filled the air. Cor.
Our tummies grumbled so we went to order whatever 85 was having.
The pub menu features a range of burgers and pub classics, but we bypassed fish and chips, pan-roasted hake fillets, souvlaki skewers and steak frites for nibbles and starters.
It was the fried potato skins our table neighbours had ordered, £2.75 bowls full of potato peelings, fried to within an inch of their lives and served with truffle oil and a snow peak of
parmesan.
Two of those made our order, as well as a portion of Italian style meatballs with ciabatta (£7.50), halloumi fries for £7.25 and some slow-roasted tomatoes, served on roasted bread with
hummus for £7.
Soon it was our turn to make the neighbours jealous and our dishes were served like tapas on the picnic table we'd made our home for hours.
With crisp cold pints, I made light work of the red and yellow vine tomatoes while my date gave two thumbs up to meatballs seasoned with oregano and smothered in rich marinara.
The same sauce was served with the halloumi fries, pretty standard squeaky cheese that proved more a vehicle to get the tomato sauce to my gob than anything else.
Those potato skins though? GENIUS. Why isn't every bar doing these?
They were beautifully salted but not so much that it overwhelmed with parmesan. It was just salty enough to justify two more crisp garden pints. There was a significant truffle hum, but they
didn't leave an oil slick as I ate 500 at a time.
It was a perfect pub snack, the best thing since cobs. They must get through a thousand potatoes every weekend serving up these skins.
Maybe it's something I can make easily enough at home, armed with a potato peeler and an air fryer. But why bother, when the setting makes everything even better?
If you read my review of The Fish Inn beer garden, you'll need little more coaxing from me to go. But if you did, let this snack be the thing that convinces you for definite.