Stall Stuff

Change is afoot at the Tea Rooms stall...Former stall partner Rory is now off to greener (and much better paying pastures), and I have partnered up with a fishy little purveyor of Toot. Come and check out the new layout (in the same old space) if you're in town. 

Old ladies, horses with broken legs and naked men with half an arm -we've got them all!

A naughty alphabet - avert your eyes, children!

We also have an occasional inhouse tarot reader, who comes with a set of cards she designed herself. What clever people!

Wild Honey

December involved quite a bit of eating out - which is fine by me because it means I leave the washing up to others. Manbacon and I decided to head for a restorative meal at Wild Honey instead of battling other elbows at the post-Christmas sales. The dining room, hidden behind a set of billowing (and slightly confusing) red velvet drapes, was satisfyingly calm. 

I don't drink much alcohol, but since it was the holidays, I decided to go a wild and order a cocktail. I know, how crazy. I don't remember what it was called, but it had peach nectar and a rosemary spring in it, and was rather refreshing. 

Starter  - steak tartare

To keep things simple (and because I take an age to decide on what to order), we both went for the Working Lunch set - a really good deal at £27 for 3 courses. We were also given a choice of bread and a pat of butter to tide us over before the food came. Our starter of steak tartare was just the right size and served with a lovely, unctuous orange egg yolk. I love a good egg yolk...

Salmon with broccoli  and sea lettuce (I think?)

The salmon came served on a hefty, earthy, pottery plate which I was very tempted to try and ferret away with me. You can never have too many nice plates (even if you have to keep some of them under the bed because there isn't any more space on your kitchen shelves). The fish itself was perfectly cooked - so tender and succulent that I didn't even need a knife. One of my chief gripes with salmon is that so many people and places tend to cook it to death - really, there's no need to stick a tiny piece like that in the oven for 20 minutes, that's just over the top! Anyway, this was cooked exactly the way I would have wished, and the veggies on the side helped provide a lovely crunchy element. Manbacon made a wisecrack about the foamy bit being 'saliva' (haha, hilarious...) but it was rather tasty and surprisingly rich. And not at saliva at all.

Classic custard tart

You get to choose between a cheese course or a dessert. The cheese that day was Comte, which, although tasty, wasn't the most exciting choice, so we both went for the custard tart. I had already unfairly dismissed it as a boring, stodgy pudding, but I am a bit of an idiot sometimes. It was amazing!  I don't know how they kept the custardy bit so light and soft, yet managed such a sharp, neat cut. The custard was smooth and almost runny, yet kept it's shape perfectly. I'm going to have to make a bunch of custard tarts in the near future so I can try to replicate it. Who wants to be a taster?

Wild Honey

12 St. George Street

London, W1S 2 FB

Duck and Waffle

Happy New Year, peeps! Now that the festivities are over and we're back to our usual (grumpy) selves, let's rewind back a few weeks to the Friday before Christmas, when I met up with the Bake Club crew for an apocalyptic meal at Duck and Waffle. We decided on the venue purely because of it's status as London's highest restaurant - a good view of the proceedings is necessary if you're watching the world end.

Getting up to the venue was akin to being in a SuperMario game - first you have to get past the scary dragon (a Jonathan Ross-alike doorman without the rhotacism but armed with an enormous clipboard), then board the lift for the flight up to the 40th floor (rather exciting and earpopping), then get looked up and down by a black-clad, sylph-like figure, before finding your way through the labyrinth (of tables and much too cool and shiny diners) and finally ending up at the table where the rest of your motley crew awaits. Don't forget to collect your mushrooms on the way!

Spicy ox-cheek doughnut with apricot jam

Raw scallop with apple, lime and black truffle

Carlingford rock oysters served with lemon, Tabasco sauce and red wine vinaigrette 

Rosemary and garlic bread

Let us start with the starters. We were intrigued by the ox-cheek doughnut, which isn't something you see on menus everywhere. I don't remember much about the taste of the meat itself, except that it was tender and went very well with the sweet jam. I must try and seek out ox-cheek more often. The sliced scallop came beautifully presented on a block of pink Himalayan salt. However, the apple that came with the scallop was bland and had the texture of styrofoam. Styrofoam - good for finishing up school projects, not so much for eating. Fotunately, the generously-sized oysters helped redeem the seafood section's pride. Bread...I don't remember much about you, except that you looked like a focaccia and was nicely chewy.

Cornish fish stew - fish of the day with baby vegetables

Angus burger with Gruyere, onion jam and chips

I didn't taste the Angus burger, although the general reception from the others seemed to have been positive, so if you're the type who goes for burgers, go for it. It's probably a good choice. The fish stew was the priciest item on the menu, but was bountifully filled with fish and vegetables. I intend to revisit the place just so I can order it and have it all to myself.

Duck and waffle - confit of duck leg, waffle, duck egg and maple syrup

And now to the eponymous duck and waffle dish - a confit of duck leg, served with a waffle, fried sunny side  up duck egg, and ranekin of maple syrup. The skin was salty and crispy, just the way I like it. However, my enthusiasm was slightly dampened when I discovered the meat wasn't fall-off-the-bone tender. In fact, a knife had to be used to encourage it off the bone! (I know...how devastating.) My preference is towards a fork-tender confit - it means much less work for the lazy and is also much easier to handle for the clumsy. The egg was perfectly cooked though, and went nicely with the waffle and maple syrup. I've actually been thinking of getting myself a waffle iron after that meal, just so I can breakfast on fried eggs and maple syrup. It seems like it might be just the right meal for lazy weekend mornings.

Also, here's a view of the kitchen if you fancy that sort of stuff. Their waitstaff are generally on the goodlooking end of the spectrum, if that sort of thing interests you. You eat with your eyes, and all that...

Duck and Waffle

Heron Tower

110 Bishopsgate

London EC2N 4AY

Le Centaure, Calais

From one of the best restaurant in Calais, to one of the most disappointing food experiences. EVER. That's saying a lot, especially since I'm usually easily pleased with whatever's placed before me. Ok, now you've read the verdict, you can skip this post if you want to. Or, you could read on to find out why...

To begin from the beginning - Manbacon and I, together with his colleague J, went over to Dunkirk and Calais for a daytrip last Saturday, with the intention of stuffing our faces with fine French food and returning home with plenty of wine and cheese in the boot. We detoured to Calais in the hope of enjoying a late lunch/early dinner at Histoire Ancienne. It was, unfortunately, closed at that time of the day (around 4pm, I think), like most of the other restaurants around the town centre. We wandered around for a while, until the guys spotted a crowd of people seated outside Le Centaure, and decided to eat there. 

Fish Soup

I was starving, so ordered two dishes - the fish soup and a plate of salmon ravioli. The soup arrived with 'croutons' which were, on closer inspection, toasted white bread slices cut into squares. Erm, come on, toast isn't the same as croutons! Whatever, I was hungry, and the soup itself was pretty decent stuff. 

Fish and chips

The next warning sign came when the fish and chips arrived - huge plate, but a tiny piece of battered fish clinging sadly on to the side. Well, quality over quantity, as they say (and we thought). However, that old adage proved untrue in this case - quality AND quantity were both lacking. In fact, J said that the fish tasted like the chef had purchased some frozen fish from Iceland (the supermarket, not the country) and quickly defrosted it. 

Eagle-eyed readers may also notice some strawberries lurking among the salad leaves. What's all that about?

Potjevleesch

The tongue-twisting potjevleesch arrived on another large plate, tantalising glimpses of meat and aspic peeking through the mountain of chips. It looked good. Until Manbacon pushed aside the chips to reveal...a whole lot of chicken and no other types of meat. Which was not at all what was promised on their menu - and not at all what potjevleesch is - a terrine-like dish with three or four different kinds of meat. Three or four? Nope, only one here...I think the chef may need some lessons in counting. Cold, aspic-covered chicken was just not mindblowing enough for any of us to forget that they had left out the other promised meats. 

Salmon ravioli

My salmon ravioli arrived with little mussels, as well as a little physalis berry sitting on top. The ravioli tasted like it came from a supermarket packet - tough dough, filled with a generically pinkish paste inside. Just generally unexciting. I passed most of it off onto the boys. 

I wonder now if the kitchen had just purchased most of the items from a supermarket, and just heated everything up when the orders came through? It certainly tasted that way. The whole meal was less than mediocre, and certainly left us walking away feeling grumpy and disappointed. 

Le Centaure

11 Place Armes

62100 Calais

France

Histoire Ancienne, Calais

So, you're not supposed to judge books by their covers, but sometimes, just sometimes, it's perfectly acceptable to judge restaurants by their exteriors. Especially when you turn out to be right. 

Historie Ancienne was easily the best-looking joint in town, especially when the rest of the town was in a fairly battered state due to roadworks when we were there. The restaurant was just as handsome inside, filled with plenty of leather and brass 1930s-style booths, and black and white photos and paintings of naked ladies. 

Bread basket with assorted breads, butter, sea salt, chilli flakes and taramasalata

Starter - monkfish tartare, herbs, and pipette with oil and flavourings

It was the first time I've had a dish with a plastic pipette in it - very exciting! The monkfish tartare was delicious and substantial, made even more interesting by the savoury herb-infused oil from the pipette. 

Starter - foie gras terrine

Little grunts of pleasure were coming from Manbacon's side of the table, so I took that as a sign that his foie gras starter was highly enjoyable. 

Main - White fish, rice and oysters

My main was another sculptural dish - don't the little sticks poking out of the rice oblong remind you of a robot head? Delicious fish again, but the oysters were the real winner here. 

Main - veal liver with root vegetable mash

Manbacon had no complains about his veal liver - in fact, he was too busy savouring it all to speak much. 

Although we were stuffed to the gills by the time we finished our mains, we had to get dessert too. The creamy, sweet sabayon was complemented with a cold, slightly tart raspberry (I think?) sorbet, not too heavy, but the perfect end to an already wonderful meal. 

Dessert - Sabayon with strawberries and sorbet

I'm saving my pennies and planning on another trip across the Channel soon, just to sample more of the menu. 

Histoire Ancienne

20 Rue Royale

62100 Calais 

France

Undersea Myths

From top to bottom: Moray eel, sea horses and sea dragons. Underwater World, Sentosa, Singapore. January 2012.

Green

Stalowa Wola, Poland, July 2011

Homemade Gravlax

If you've had it before, you'll probably agree that the taste of grav lax is easily leaps and bounds above the often one-note saltiness of most smoked salmon. It's usually subtly salty, with hints of sugar and dill. Unlike it's smoked brethen, this lovely cured item is can be hard to find in supermarkets or on the menus most eateries. However, with a few simple ingredients and some patience, these delicious salmon slices can be easily created at home. 

You'll need to get a hefty hunk of salmon fillet - we had about 1 kg of fillet, sliced in two. Go ask the Google Gods for a tasty recipe - there are many out there. Manbacon cleverly combined a few recipes to come up with our own very tasty version. Most will include plenty of dill, salt and sugar, as well as two days or more of curing time. It really takes hardly any effort at all. 

Be patient, because once the salmon is cured,  you'll be rewarded with your very own, immensely tasty slices of grav lax. Enjoy them with plenty of crusty sourdough and creamy butter, or just be indulgent and pop whole slices into your mouth.