If you're standing in the cold, shivering outside the Big Bang and wondering why on earth the lights are off, then I have to apologise to you.
I've taken my staff for a Christmas Dinner with our friends at The Oxford Blue (You should try it some time!)
They've worked tirelessly over the last 2 months to resurrect The Big Bang from the rubble of Walton Street and have made this corner of Oxford Castle our own. We have a full restaurant near every night and are receiving a resounding chorus that we're a welcome re-addition to the Oxford catering scene.
I've taken them out for dinner to mark the end of our teething period - If you don't get what you've ordered from now on in, if you wait too long or don't get the experience you expect from The Big Bang, then prod us, poke us, tell us and make sure we're doing it right!
Once tonight is over, we'll be open 7 days a week from 10am to 11pm and serving breakfast, lunches, dinners, Great British feasts and sterling Sunday roasts, pastries and cracking locally roasted coffees.
Our wifi is Ferrari fast and free, without any restrictions and our Christmas meals commence in 14 days - at the very best price in Oxford.
If that wasn't enough, then a Mulled Wine bar will be opening next door, a Christmas Supermarket and a Popup restaurant, along with a quiet nightspot for the more discerning customer. We'd love you to come say Hullo!
In the meantime, I'm wishing my staff a Happy early Christmas, Max
Sunday, 28 October 2012
Friday, 26 October 2012
Just like nature's 'The Big Bang' - Things happen fast
Someone, somewhere clearly thinks that letting me PLAY is a good idea, that bringing some fun to the Oxford Castle Quarter is long overdue - It's amongst the most stunning parts of Oxford and yet, when I lived in Jericho, I didn't bother to visit it, because I was sure there wasn't anything much to visit there.
I need to tell you that it's changed over just the last few days, that the Oxford Castle Quarter is now the very heart of your City, with not only The Big Bang, but also a Popup Christmas Super-Market, a Mulled wine bar and perhaps even a popup restaurant from time to time. And you're the first to know it, so don't tell a soul....
Winter Light Night will see a Polar Bear roaming around the Castle Yard in front of the Big Bang and live music will pepper the calendar between now and the New Year.
If you've not yet been, it's time to rediscover the Castle Quarter and see what fun we're having down here. You'll fall for it, I guarantee
I need to tell you that it's changed over just the last few days, that the Oxford Castle Quarter is now the very heart of your City, with not only The Big Bang, but also a Popup Christmas Super-Market, a Mulled wine bar and perhaps even a popup restaurant from time to time. And you're the first to know it, so don't tell a soul....
Winter Light Night will see a Polar Bear roaming around the Castle Yard in front of the Big Bang and live music will pepper the calendar between now and the New Year.
If you've not yet been, it's time to rediscover the Castle Quarter and see what fun we're having down here. You'll fall for it, I guarantee
Monday, 22 October 2012
An American in Sausage Heaven
Introducing the wonderful Betsy Masson's verdict on our Great British Cuisine, as a complete newcomer! It's priceless.....
Bangers and Mash
There is an entire language of food in England that I have discovered.
We went to a new restaurant in our castle grounds (we have now been to
almost all of the restaurants in the Oxford Castle grounds –note
earlier comments about the Krispy Kreme shop for coffee and the Swan
and Castle for our earliest meals of fish and chips and all have been
really quite unique and excellent in their own ways), which only
opened two weeks ago called The Big Bang and were introduced to the
world of bangers and mash.
Actually we had walked over to peer into The Big Bang a few days ago,
carrying a box of pizza leftovers, and were greeted by Max (owner)
who popped out and handed us a newspaper to cover our pizza
box- it was raining so I wasn’t sure if he was worried about a wet
pizza or wanted us to realize that we should hide a pizza box when
walking past an authentic English bangers and mash restaurant. I read
the newspaper from cover to cover- all 4 pages of it - and realized I
had no idea what most of the food in the menu (2 of the 4 pages) was!
So we went back for breakfast and Max very kindly sat with us and gave
me a vocabulary, history, and culinary set of lessons about English
food.
Let me start with “mash.” Apparently a mash begins with mashed
potatoes and then can be expanded from there. Max spoke with great
admiration for the English potato - it apparently sits in the ground
for 8 months, absorbing water and various underground flavors (dirt,
bugs, appropriate composts?), and then is dug up and becomes the
central component of any mash. Just as we might add cheese, garlic, or
sour cream to our mashed potatoes, the mash over here has a far
greater range of possibilities and seems to be a fairly central staple
of English food. For example, there is the simple creamed mash (most
like ours I suspect), the garlic and rosemary mash, the grain mustard
mash, the spring onion mash, the rose mash (beets and red cabbage
added), or the celeriac (fabulous word- almost religious in tone) mash
(celery root mashed and added). All mashes are accompanied by gravies,
which also have a range of possibilities, including red wine gravy,
stilton gravy (Isn’t stilton a cheese? How does that work?), rosemary
gravy, or vegetable gravy. It has occurred to me that with only a week
left here and given there are twenty different bangers and mashes on
the menu, I need to immediately go and order a meal of just mashes-
maybe a bowl of each kind with a small pot of each of the gravies.
Sounds like heaven.
But that leads me to the bangers or sausages on this menu. I asked Max
why a sausage is called a banger. I believe his answer (by this time I
was taking notes, and Max was leaping up to greet every customer, chat
a bit, then return to me and my questions, and within a few minutes,
off again, so I was both delighted to have such an incredibly helpful
source of information but quite discombobulated by the intermittent
flow of the details) was about the poor quality of sausage meat during
the war (important note- apparently “the war” refers to World War II,
while the “great war” is World War I—I think- remember, Max is moving
at high speed now about the restaurant and since I am old- my mind
doesn’t catch every detail these days) so when the bangers were
cooked, the higher content of water in them (I think) caused them to
explode “bang” and they became known as bangers. And if that somehow
isn’t correct, I think it sounds awfully good so I will just stay with
it. So bangers are a whole vast array of sausages. Some at the Big
Bang include Welsh pork and leek sausages, lamb and mint sausages,
wild venison sausages, basil and vine tomato sausages, wild boar and
pigeon sausages, stilton and walnut sausages and about 15 other
choices. His menu is totally entertaining to read- he has something
called the Cheapskate Sausage with a note- “2 less delicious sausages
with a simple mash”. Why would one buy this? I have no idea but the
English have a very strange sense of humor. Or his Wild Boar and
Pigeon Sausage comes with the note, “Don’t even ask, just be brave and
try them out.”
The bangers and mash were only the tip of the iceberg in this food
language lesson. When Max first sat down, I asked if I could ask a few
questions and my first was from the first item on the menu- "What are
“boiled eggs and soldiers”? OK, the “boiled eggs” I could guess,
except we are talking soft boiled, not hard-boiled. But the “soldiers”
refer to toast cut in triangles to dip in the egg yolk, and apparently
this is even a bit controversial- the toast is either thin cut or
thick cut (depending on the individual) with a bit of butter but not
melted butter or it will drip into the egg—you see where I am going
with this. I mean really, who has time for this kind of angst over
eggs and toast. I guess if one lives on an island with only 15 minutes
of news (repeated on SkyNews in 15 minute loops for 24 hours every
day), boiled eggs and thickness of toast becomes important. Then after
we ordered our breakfast of two eggs (bright orange yolks again),
sausages, a rasher of bacon (no idea what a rasher is but it means two
rounds of a ham like food), baked beans, sauteed mushrooms, 1/2 a
sauteed tomato, and triangles of toast (I guess ready for any dipping
we might do), Max mentioned that we might like some "marmite." Marmite
comes in a little tiny plastic pack, much like a butter pack, and is
apparently spread on toast by individuals who have some highly
developed masochistic tendencies. This stuff was AWFUL!!! It is brown
and gooey and tastes like a combination of boiled down Worcestershire
sauce, cider vinegar, maybe mustard, and possibly other ingredients I
was unable to taste because I was so horrified by what was in my
mouth. Once I recovered, the rest of the breakfast was fabulous.
Then there is the Bubble and Squeak. I am REALLY unclear what this is
but it has to do with frying together all your leftovers from
Christmas dinner on Boxing Day, which is the day after Christmas and
is apparently a VERY important holiday here, because it is an official
day off from employment so that everyone can either go shopping or fox
hunt (checked in Wikipedia on that detail). So the Bubble and Squeak
has mashed potatoes as its base and then I suppose whatever vegetables
are traditionally eaten on Christmas day, fried to a crisp golden and
served with cold beef or turkey.
Another menu uncertainty was the Toad in the Hole. Again this is
something with sausages in a batter and fried. Why any food eaten by
humans is purposely called a Toad in the Hole was never explained (by
now Max was moving at supersonic speeds greeting and chatting) so I
had to simply remain in the dark on this detail. And I might add from
a personal point of view that any food item that has “toad” in its
name remains seriously suspect, given how I feel about toads!
Unfortunately, the night we went to try out the dinner menu, the Toad
in the Hole was not being served, so we made do with Shepherd’s Pie, a
ground meat thing with baked mashed potatoes on top. Mom used to make
this, so I had to give this one a 9.5 as compared to Mom’s 10, but it
was quite delicious.
So, the English’s rather strange sense of humor, combined with living
on a small island for several thousand years, has created a truly
interesting culinary vocabulary that actually is almost childlike in
its appeal. It begins to explain how Harry Potter and the Rabbit Hole
can arise from such wonderful, odd imaginations.
Bangers and Mash
There is an entire language of food in England that I have discovered.
We went to a new restaurant in our castle grounds (we have now been to
almost all of the restaurants in the Oxford Castle grounds –note
earlier comments about the Krispy Kreme shop for coffee and the Swan
and Castle for our earliest meals of fish and chips and all have been
really quite unique and excellent in their own ways), which only
opened two weeks ago called The Big Bang and were introduced to the
world of bangers and mash.
Actually we had walked over to peer into The Big Bang a few days ago,
carrying a box of pizza leftovers, and were greeted by Max (owner)
who popped out and handed us a newspaper to cover our pizza
box- it was raining so I wasn’t sure if he was worried about a wet
pizza or wanted us to realize that we should hide a pizza box when
walking past an authentic English bangers and mash restaurant. I read
the newspaper from cover to cover- all 4 pages of it - and realized I
had no idea what most of the food in the menu (2 of the 4 pages) was!
So we went back for breakfast and Max very kindly sat with us and gave
me a vocabulary, history, and culinary set of lessons about English
food.
Let me start with “mash.” Apparently a mash begins with mashed
potatoes and then can be expanded from there. Max spoke with great
admiration for the English potato - it apparently sits in the ground
for 8 months, absorbing water and various underground flavors (dirt,
bugs, appropriate composts?), and then is dug up and becomes the
central component of any mash. Just as we might add cheese, garlic, or
sour cream to our mashed potatoes, the mash over here has a far
greater range of possibilities and seems to be a fairly central staple
of English food. For example, there is the simple creamed mash (most
like ours I suspect), the garlic and rosemary mash, the grain mustard
mash, the spring onion mash, the rose mash (beets and red cabbage
added), or the celeriac (fabulous word- almost religious in tone) mash
(celery root mashed and added). All mashes are accompanied by gravies,
which also have a range of possibilities, including red wine gravy,
stilton gravy (Isn’t stilton a cheese? How does that work?), rosemary
gravy, or vegetable gravy. It has occurred to me that with only a week
left here and given there are twenty different bangers and mashes on
the menu, I need to immediately go and order a meal of just mashes-
maybe a bowl of each kind with a small pot of each of the gravies.
Sounds like heaven.
But that leads me to the bangers or sausages on this menu. I asked Max
why a sausage is called a banger. I believe his answer (by this time I
was taking notes, and Max was leaping up to greet every customer, chat
a bit, then return to me and my questions, and within a few minutes,
off again, so I was both delighted to have such an incredibly helpful
source of information but quite discombobulated by the intermittent
flow of the details) was about the poor quality of sausage meat during
the war (important note- apparently “the war” refers to World War II,
while the “great war” is World War I—I think- remember, Max is moving
at high speed now about the restaurant and since I am old- my mind
doesn’t catch every detail these days) so when the bangers were
cooked, the higher content of water in them (I think) caused them to
explode “bang” and they became known as bangers. And if that somehow
isn’t correct, I think it sounds awfully good so I will just stay with
it. So bangers are a whole vast array of sausages. Some at the Big
Bang include Welsh pork and leek sausages, lamb and mint sausages,
wild venison sausages, basil and vine tomato sausages, wild boar and
pigeon sausages, stilton and walnut sausages and about 15 other
choices. His menu is totally entertaining to read- he has something
called the Cheapskate Sausage with a note- “2 less delicious sausages
with a simple mash”. Why would one buy this? I have no idea but the
English have a very strange sense of humor. Or his Wild Boar and
Pigeon Sausage comes with the note, “Don’t even ask, just be brave and
try them out.”
The bangers and mash were only the tip of the iceberg in this food
language lesson. When Max first sat down, I asked if I could ask a few
questions and my first was from the first item on the menu- "What are
“boiled eggs and soldiers”? OK, the “boiled eggs” I could guess,
except we are talking soft boiled, not hard-boiled. But the “soldiers”
refer to toast cut in triangles to dip in the egg yolk, and apparently
this is even a bit controversial- the toast is either thin cut or
thick cut (depending on the individual) with a bit of butter but not
melted butter or it will drip into the egg—you see where I am going
with this. I mean really, who has time for this kind of angst over
eggs and toast. I guess if one lives on an island with only 15 minutes
of news (repeated on SkyNews in 15 minute loops for 24 hours every
day), boiled eggs and thickness of toast becomes important. Then after
we ordered our breakfast of two eggs (bright orange yolks again),
sausages, a rasher of bacon (no idea what a rasher is but it means two
rounds of a ham like food), baked beans, sauteed mushrooms, 1/2 a
sauteed tomato, and triangles of toast (I guess ready for any dipping
we might do), Max mentioned that we might like some "marmite." Marmite
comes in a little tiny plastic pack, much like a butter pack, and is
apparently spread on toast by individuals who have some highly
developed masochistic tendencies. This stuff was AWFUL!!! It is brown
and gooey and tastes like a combination of boiled down Worcestershire
sauce, cider vinegar, maybe mustard, and possibly other ingredients I
was unable to taste because I was so horrified by what was in my
mouth. Once I recovered, the rest of the breakfast was fabulous.
Then there is the Bubble and Squeak. I am REALLY unclear what this is
but it has to do with frying together all your leftovers from
Christmas dinner on Boxing Day, which is the day after Christmas and
is apparently a VERY important holiday here, because it is an official
day off from employment so that everyone can either go shopping or fox
hunt (checked in Wikipedia on that detail). So the Bubble and Squeak
has mashed potatoes as its base and then I suppose whatever vegetables
are traditionally eaten on Christmas day, fried to a crisp golden and
served with cold beef or turkey.
Another menu uncertainty was the Toad in the Hole. Again this is
something with sausages in a batter and fried. Why any food eaten by
humans is purposely called a Toad in the Hole was never explained (by
now Max was moving at supersonic speeds greeting and chatting) so I
had to simply remain in the dark on this detail. And I might add from
a personal point of view that any food item that has “toad” in its
name remains seriously suspect, given how I feel about toads!
Unfortunately, the night we went to try out the dinner menu, the Toad
in the Hole was not being served, so we made do with Shepherd’s Pie, a
ground meat thing with baked mashed potatoes on top. Mom used to make
this, so I had to give this one a 9.5 as compared to Mom’s 10, but it
was quite delicious.
So, the English’s rather strange sense of humor, combined with living
on a small island for several thousand years, has created a truly
interesting culinary vocabulary that actually is almost childlike in
its appeal. It begins to explain how Harry Potter and the Rabbit Hole
can arise from such wonderful, odd imaginations.
Live Jazz & Bangers & a few too many customers
When I opened The New Big Bang in the Oxford Castle Quarter, I was pretty reassured that not many people would visit us in our opening few weeks, but I admit that I was wrong..... very wrong!
We have fed over 150 mouths every day for the past 2 weeks, 97.9% of them happily - admittedly, a few of them had the wrong sausages, but what can I say? They all look the same when they're cooked, particularly when you're employing brand new catering staff!
I have always said that you can teach a nice person to be a waiter, but try making a coldhearted waiter into a nice person! Much more difficult. So, occasionally, we have made a couple of mistakes, but we've done it with ever such nice people and they've felt truly sorry. Within a week, we'll be On Fire.
We had our first Jazz Night last Tuesday, and will be having them each and every Tuesday, but for now, here's a video that the genius Chris from @OxfordMediaFactory filmed during the evening.
Come and say Hi when you're able and put us in your diary for a Christmas Party (From 20th November) of for Winter Light Night (23rd November) or just drop in when you're next in town - We're literally 20 seconds beyond the West Gate.
We have fed over 150 mouths every day for the past 2 weeks, 97.9% of them happily - admittedly, a few of them had the wrong sausages, but what can I say? They all look the same when they're cooked, particularly when you're employing brand new catering staff!
I have always said that you can teach a nice person to be a waiter, but try making a coldhearted waiter into a nice person! Much more difficult. So, occasionally, we have made a couple of mistakes, but we've done it with ever such nice people and they've felt truly sorry. Within a week, we'll be On Fire.
Come and say Hi when you're able and put us in your diary for a Christmas Party (From 20th November) of for Winter Light Night (23rd November) or just drop in when you're next in town - We're literally 20 seconds beyond the West Gate.
Tuesday, 9 October 2012
Jazzing Up the Castle
It's now been a week and moss doesn't grow on a rolling stone, so here's something more.... as if getting to grips with this behemoth wasn't enough to cope with.
As of next Tuesday, we're operating our first weekly Jazz night - The opener is going to be a belter, so come along if you can. We'll be doing the first night at a real bargain - £5 surcharge for Jazz, refunded if you spend £15 on your meal - A little bit crazy, but what better way to start?
Ben Holder, Jezz Cook and Paul Jefferies will be playing in the restaurant from 8pm and we only have a limited number of seats, but do a spot of googlying and see just how good they are. Ben is guaranteed to give you one of the most entertaining nights of live music you'll ever see in Oxford - I can guarantee it!
It kicks off a whole year of Live Jazz, in a series called "Discover the Quarter Jazz Nights" - They'll be a weekly series of jazz throughout the year, ensuring that you can now regard the Oxford Castle Quarter as a place where stuff happens - I'm here to ensure it.
Hope to see you, bookings through any of the normal means, or 01865 249413.
The amazing mr Ben Holder
As of next Tuesday, we're operating our first weekly Jazz night - The opener is going to be a belter, so come along if you can. We'll be doing the first night at a real bargain - £5 surcharge for Jazz, refunded if you spend £15 on your meal - A little bit crazy, but what better way to start?
 |
| Ben Holder at Oxford Jazz Festival by Jo Cox |
Ben Holder, Jezz Cook and Paul Jefferies will be playing in the restaurant from 8pm and we only have a limited number of seats, but do a spot of googlying and see just how good they are. Ben is guaranteed to give you one of the most entertaining nights of live music you'll ever see in Oxford - I can guarantee it!
It kicks off a whole year of Live Jazz, in a series called "Discover the Quarter Jazz Nights" - They'll be a weekly series of jazz throughout the year, ensuring that you can now regard the Oxford Castle Quarter as a place where stuff happens - I'm here to ensure it.
Hope to see you, bookings through any of the normal means, or 01865 249413.
The amazing mr Ben Holder
Thursday, 4 October 2012
Did I ever imagine....?
Surely, I realised when I saw that 300,000 people had been 'reached' through Facebook (whatever that means), that 500 people were already following @BigBangOx on twitter and that the local media was buzzing with news about the re-opening of The Big Bang, that we'd get a few people coming down to see what the fuss was all about.
But when, last night, with four brand new members of staff, with no working oven, no working till system (teething problems!), and no lift to take the food between the kitchen and the restaurant, that we'd have a teensy issue with maintaining our calm.
Needless to say, the loyal Big Bang Sausageers were ever so kind, when we brought them the wrong sausages, 20minutes late, but I have to admit that we had a real humdinger of a night, one which we won't be repeating for a long time.
So, tonight, we have a diary full of bookings, not one, but two working lifts, nicely trained staff, a kitchen heaving with food and eager chefs. We have an oven and we can't wait for the night to start - it's a long weekend ahead and we hope to see you!
Bang On!
But when, last night, with four brand new members of staff, with no working oven, no working till system (teething problems!), and no lift to take the food between the kitchen and the restaurant, that we'd have a teensy issue with maintaining our calm.
 |
| The Old Bang, now neatly laid to rest! |
Needless to say, the loyal Big Bang Sausageers were ever so kind, when we brought them the wrong sausages, 20minutes late, but I have to admit that we had a real humdinger of a night, one which we won't be repeating for a long time.
So, tonight, we have a diary full of bookings, not one, but two working lifts, nicely trained staff, a kitchen heaving with food and eager chefs. We have an oven and we can't wait for the night to start - it's a long weekend ahead and we hope to see you!
Bang On!
Monday, 1 October 2012
First Night finished
I'm used to living by the seat of my pants, but this morning at 0958, when, disgracefully hungover, we finally flung open the doors to the new Big Bang, I discovered a fear that previously lay untapped - Going from a building site, into which I'd poured every penny I had, to a fully functioning restaurant on a much bigger scale than I've ever experienced.
The first customers arrived at 1013 and had a cup of UE Coffee, hand-roasted in Witney with wood felled from Blenheim Palace.... they were impressed. Their breakfasts arrived some 9 minutes later and their smiles broadened even further. Yes, we forgot minor details like cutlery, our ovens still don't work, many of my staff have never worked in catering before, the tills are a more confusingly advanced IPad system than anywhere outside San Francisco.... and yet we were serving great food and drink, with Big Bang panache in our brand new home. Even through the hangover, I breathed a huge sigh of relief.
It's now closing time, we had a restaurant near full of customers, many rekindling an old Love affair, many others brand new, who have always heard about The Big Bang, but had never had a chance to visit.
Our menu is much bigger and braver, do Have a shufty online! But we're managing it, and everyone tonight seems to have loved it - We had a full house and the book is filling up for the next few months and our Christmas Dinner (priced from only £15!)
Come on down, see what we've done with the place - We intend to put the Oxford Castle back at the heart of Oxford
The first customers arrived at 1013 and had a cup of UE Coffee, hand-roasted in Witney with wood felled from Blenheim Palace.... they were impressed. Their breakfasts arrived some 9 minutes later and their smiles broadened even further. Yes, we forgot minor details like cutlery, our ovens still don't work, many of my staff have never worked in catering before, the tills are a more confusingly advanced IPad system than anywhere outside San Francisco.... and yet we were serving great food and drink, with Big Bang panache in our brand new home. Even through the hangover, I breathed a huge sigh of relief.
It's now closing time, we had a restaurant near full of customers, many rekindling an old Love affair, many others brand new, who have always heard about The Big Bang, but had never had a chance to visit.
Our menu is much bigger and braver, do Have a shufty online! But we're managing it, and everyone tonight seems to have loved it - We had a full house and the book is filling up for the next few months and our Christmas Dinner (priced from only £15!)
Come on down, see what we've done with the place - We intend to put the Oxford Castle back at the heart of Oxford
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