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VANGUARD X SALT + EARTH
A lot like Kenan and Kel but with sake rather than orange soda, JQ players Salt + Earth and The Vanguard are getting it together for two flavour-filled nights. Try a Japanesey six-course tasting menu, including dishes like langoustines with onion, olive oil and ponzu, as well as beetroot with fermented wheat and cockscomb mint, which has a sweet, lemony, basil-vibe if you're a details sort. The menu is matched with Vanguard-grade genius libations, like Akashi-Tai Daigino Genshu sake (YUM!) with rain moss perfume to go with the beetroot dish. It's £70 a spot, with sittings of no more than 18 in The Vanguard (above 1000 Trades) at 6pm and 8.30pm on 22 and 23 October. Bookings taken for tables of two or four. Tickets
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STRINGS & TINGS
There’s a Brum institution that’s survived war, recession and eighties fashion. The CBSO's 2018/19 season includes everything from Broadway biggies, to the brooding sounds of Shostakovich, all via Nat King Cole’s caressing croon; so it ain't just for the orchestrally initiated. The must-hear highlight, however, is the UK premiere of Roxanna Panufnik's Faithful Journey. Panufnik's recent Last Night of the Proms showing received big love, and her performance, on November 21, marks the return of virtuosic Music Director Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla from mat leave. If the price tag is holding you back, how's about a mystery seat? Pay £13 to guarantee a seat worth £19.50, with a shot at a top seat. Sorted.
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Venue: Purnell's, 55 Cornwall Street, B3 2DH; website
Choice: Roast halibut (£90 for 11-courses; lunch is from £39) Chooser: Us
With all these impressive younger kidz on the B'ham kitchen block — we see you Harborne Kitchen, Hampton Manor, Folium and The Wilderness — it's been years rather than months since we had the full Purnell's experience. And from whizz bang new plates, to twists on Glynn's classics, may we never leave it so long again. Cheese and pineapple sticks have become a creamy, velvety start that will make you grin hard. We have no idea who first thought beef carpaccio should get to know octopus, bresola, beef hash and a chivey crème fraîche, but by golly-gosh-gandy we're overjoyed that they did. And the shining light in this happy collect? The roasted Scottish halibut with Jerusalem artichokes, vanilla and an in-CRED-ible chicken and red wine sauce (extra jug provided as standard!) beat Glynn's famous monkfish masala without the requirement for a photo finish — the balance of flavours was outrageously good, letting the perfectly cooked piece of fish play lead. And before you wonder if Glynn's got something on us, there were a couple of less than 10/10s — Roquefort matched with lamb was a little bit lost on us, and the beetroot tartlet — though completely beautiful — lacked the vim of the other dishes. But so much more important than loving every single bite, was rediscovering a kitchen that still shows huge ambition, and a restaurant, that under the hands of manager Sonal Clare, is undoubtedly leading the way in service in Brum. Look forward to seeing you again soon guys. Menus
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FILM: THE WIFE
The seasons are on the turn and the films down the pictures are starting to have awards on their minds: Glenn Close is out of the gate with this classy dark comedy, which is almost a cert to have her on a few podiums come spring time. She plays the wife of a world-famous novelist who’s growing fed up with living in his shadow; and she’s absolutely fantastic in a part that’s not as obviously showy as other Oscar plays. Close's growing frustration with her hilariously pompous husband is elegantly done, and there’s an extended sequence with a quasi-stalker – played by, of all people Christian Slater – that’s hilarious. Yes, this is one of those films where all anyone does is talk about books at cocktail parties, but there’s an interesting take on how folks — as liberal as they come — can be gormlessly unaware that they are also as sexist as they come.
Times & trailer
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BREAK A LEG
Life is a Rollercoaster, crooned Ronan Keating. As always, he was along the right lines. In a brand new production, The Capital, Life is a Treadmill and you got to ride it (all night long!). Internationally high-fived theatre company, Stan’s Cafe, takes this premise and plasters it all over the practices of modern life, as the show sees the cast navigate moving travellators (pictured) — seven metres in length and weighing a tonne — evoking interconnecting careers, relationships and friendships like some sort of multi-award winning music video from 2006. In case you've somehow missed them, Stan’s Cafe’s previous out-there productions include 24 Hour Scalextric — which does exactly what it says on the tin — and I See With My Eyes Closed, which you need to see for yourself, eyes open. The Capital starts Oct 24 at The Rep and tickets are from £15. Ready to get yours? Ok, Go!
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TIME CAPSULE MUSEUM-ING
One Friday in 1981, the owners of the Smith and Pepper factory closed its doors, never to return. Formerly one of the biggest manufacturers of gold in the UK, the JQ family setup seriously avoided modernisation, making the site they abandoned much like a factory operating in the fifties would have looked, and a dreamland centrepiece for the Museum of the Jewellery Quarter. The order books are still out and the tooling functional. Other than cleaning items, the changes Birmingham Museums Trust has made since taking over the big gaff are tiny, allowing you to step into this time capsule of a factory via an actually interesting tour: there's a bit with fire and everything. It's £7 to look around. And for the first time, there's a triplet of wintry screenings, all at £12 a spot. Catch Gremlins on Nov 29, The Nightmare Before Christmas on Dec 6 or It's a Wonderful Life on Dec 13. Watch out for gold dust.
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