ermintrude
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Posts posted by ermintrude
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Since my parents live in Wales when ever I go to visit we always go out for a meal, and the Hardwick has always been, while a bit pricey for the area, excellent as and I love the rustic/local food. I have found it friendly, welcoming and where a glitch happened (Why can no bar in Wales make a Dry Martini - but I digress) it was sorted.
However my last experience there was not good, I can not fault the food but a load of failures occurred in everything else surrounding the meal, it was also worse as I purchased premium wines and due to the gap between courses had to buy more. My impression was this was due to things outside our servers control, so a reasonable service charge was left. However I since this was a birthday meal that went very wrong I wrote an detailed email to the Hardwick about everything that went wrong, however did state the food was excellent. I was not looking for anything but an apology, as everyone has an off day.
So for a £250 meal for three that was appalling, the response I received was:-
"Thank you for your e'mail regarding your recent visit to our restaurant. Your comments have been noted."
I will not eat there again.
Which is a shame as the food is good.
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I've done this and very nice they were too. Just pick your favorite preserved lemon recipe and do the same with limes. Due to size differences you way need to scale quantitys if the recipie in not weight or volume based.
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Taste of London.
This is a food festival in London where the premise is loads of restaurants offer 3 or 4 tasting dishes for you to sample along side these are loads of food /wine/cooking suppliers with stalls to promote and sell . Add to this demonstrations/talks/tasings by chefs ranging from unknown to Heston Blumental around the site. These could be in main theatre tent or say every hour at a particular stall. Alongside this there are several corporate tents offering VIPb ars and chef meet and greets for invited guests. customers or prize winners.
In past years I’ve always been out of the country or had other commitments that meant I could not attend. This year I could go and as several colleagues where I work were interested decided to suggest/organist that we all go for 5:30pm session on Thursday the 17th. After sorting that out I the discovered I’d won 2 O2 VIP tickets for the Noon session on Sat the 19th, so I would be going twice.
The Vibe
Compared to other “Taste Of….” Events I’ve been too “Taste of London” was much more fine dining and premium food orientated with low key corporate (VIP tents, subtle advertising, competitions) and champagne and wine bars compared with “Taste of Chicago” that’s more informal, home and comfort food (I still drool at some of the BBQ stuff) and full on corporate (Think Coke etc) and beer and fizzy drinks. I loved both London and Chicago taste festivals but they are VERY different and don’t think they can compare.
In general the vibe was relaxed, friendly and adult and sophisticated.
Tickets
You need a ticket to get in for a particular lunch (12 – 4pm) or dinner (5:30pm – 9:30pm) on a particular day. Standard price is £22 with other options ranging up to £80. Best standard value ticket is the premium that includes £20 worth of crowns for £37. From what saw fast track entry with some tickets would only save you 10 mins max to get in but some free drinks and access to lounges mat swing this for you. Lounge access is great to get out of crowd or bad weather but is it worth the £. Also monitoring newspapers, twitter etc there were several web/voucher deals going on e.g. 7 for 8, 3 for 4 (These worked about the same a premium as no crowns included. Best deal was £10 on the day
Crowns
The currency for the restaurants for taste is crowns and 2 crowns = £1, I get the idea, and possibly crowns also are used to give a percentage to the festival depending on sales BUT since I never saw anything priced an odd number of crowns what’s the point. Also I believe it stopped sales of the higher priced dishes , and I heard several people saying to expensive (but they were thinking crowns) but the price was half that. Why not just have 1 crown = £1, even more confusing (not restaurants) but many stalls would also accept cash and even better plastic.
At the restaurants dishes range from 6 - 40 crowns and items on stalls from 2 crowns up
The Restaurants (About 40 offering 3-4 dishes each) but here’s what I tasted.
Club Gascon – Pimms Foie Gras Plancha. (16 crowns)
The best foie dish I tasted, a slice of hot fried foie, served with fruit, cucumber and a Pimm’s foam. The foam was made so it was just the right amount of acidity to cut through the fattiness of the foie but also the sweetness to complement it.
Dinings – Sea Bass Carpaccio with ponzu jelly and fresh truffle. (8 crowns)
This was amazing one of my top 3, the only criticism was too much of the acidic sauce (easily cured if you made sure you did not pick up to much) this was heavenly .
Dinings – Seared wagau sushi two ways (16 crowns reduced to 12 crowns on Sat)
This was very tasty, but two ways was how they dressed it not how it was cooked. Basically wagau sliced then prepped sushi style, a quick blow torch and various dressings, foie, wasabi, daikon etc, etc. I liked this dish, but the beef was “two ways” due to sauce/ dressings /plating etc NOT different preparations of wagau and the plating was a bit more style over substance. Who cares about the zig zag wibble drizzle on a paper plate at a festival (This was Thurs when 16) stop it. Did not eat here on Sat but price down to 12 crowns, and look they’d dropped the poncyness.
Launceston Place – Spit roast old spot suckling pig and black summer truffles. (10 crowns)
This was the FAIL of the place. It was basically slices of roast suckling pig in a bun with salad freshly grated slices of summer truffles and some sauce. The problem was the sauce, taste was ok and in a small amount would have worked, but way to much, to the extent it detracted from the rest of the dish. We ate what we could but threw half of the bun away soaked in sauce. I’m guessing we were unlucky and had the human error, as many others loved this dish.
Le Gravoche – Lobster cocktail with summer truffle, tomato jelly in an engraved La Gravoche glass (40 Crowns)
First had this on the Thursday, this was really, really good but a minor criticism was that the jelly was a bit stiff. After eating they will swop the dirty glass for a clean one. Nice glass great for red wine.
On Saturday had this again, as it was colder that day the minor niggle went to a major as the gelatine was almost solid. I’m guessing this was temp related but perhaps a different gelling agent (iota?) with a lower shear factor would be better. If it wasn’t; for that, this would have been my favourite dish.
The Modern Pantry – Garlicky Snails With Chorizio mash. (8 Crowns)
At the time thought this was good, great snails not swimming in garlic butter with a soft spicy chorizo mash but after some time this is one of the dishes I really remember.
Toms Kitchen – Foie Gras parfet with grape chutney served on brioche (8 crowns)
As described, well worth the mone, and well executed but no different to what I’ve had elsewhere,
Trinity - pigs trotters on toasted pain polaine, fried quail egg, sauce gribiche and crackling.(12 crowns – I think?)
The best way to describe this “Nom Nom Nom” , the flavours and textures in this were perfect, rich unctuous trotter, with smooth egg yolk and gribiche to cut through all that – on toast. After eating this, the taste just lasted and lasted, had to sit and drink a glass of champagne and reset the pallet.
Other things to note, Summer truffles where everywhere and reasonably priced www.truffleland.com had a good stall. Not seen summer truffles thiscommon, I was wondering if some of the truffle farms are now coming online, but would have expected them to focus on the premium Tuber melanosporum rather than summer truffles. Or was it just a bumper harvest.
Also found www.blackmothvodka.com a truffle infused vodka, the first time I tasted it on the Thurdsday could not taste any truffle at all, however on Saturday I tasted a freshly poured sample and this gave a up front truffle flavour that was then swamped by the after burn of the vodka, and was not convinced. However the same with a splash of tonic made this a much more interesting drink and bought a bottle.
Best drink find of all was http://www.sipsmith.com/ gin, one bottle bought on Thursday another on Saturday, one of the best gins I’ve tasted.
Also purchased some knifes http://www.ziganof-knives.com/demascus-knife.php the full set for £110 and they are incredibly sharp. There were loads of beautiful knifes on display there.
And finally spotted Laudree on the way out so took home a box of yummy macaroons.
Overall a great evening / afternoon out, worked out more expensive than expected, even just for the restaurant tasters but still worth it.
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Anyone go ?
I went twice. First with m8's I'd organised via work, then after sorting that out, I won VIP tickets from O2 for Sat noon, so talk my chef m8 Kitty, will go again next time if in the UK or near.
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i too dont quite get the basil ice cream thing but i worked in the same company as a guy who did it with confit tomatoes and crispy mozzarella. bloody obvious, over used combo but it didnt seem so bad, i just didnt like the way the mozzarella and ice cream went at war with each other and both seemed to loose out, would have probably been better if it was just the confit tomatoes warm.
Basil sorbet works better than ice cream
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When I was there several heres ago http://www.gardainforma.com/en/food/relear.html was the best I found. Not really traditional italian though.
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I don't think so, the plan is for a minimum cost per unit of 50p not an additional cost per unit. So the effect should be to get rid of all the low quality £2 bottles of wine however I bet loads will go for more profit so at say £6 a bottle it will be difficult to tell the rubish from the good. It will also stop supermarkets selling alcohol as a loss leader.
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I've done tomato ice cream with basil sorbet (could do it as a ripple) with parmisan foam which was well recieved
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For the MSG conspiracy, everything I've seen regarding MSG tends me to believe that MSG is not the problem.
It's use however my signify another cause.
If you can eat parmisan and tomatoes with a soy sauce dressing then that tells me MSG is not the problem.
So is it some contaminant in artificial MSG (R not L form - unlikely but) or an associated additive always used with MSG.
What about hydrolyzing veg proteins. With what I know when you hydrolyze veg oils - you get trans fats proven to be very bad for you. Are there compounds created artificially that give umami but are just not healthy as the hydrogenation creates compounds that are the same composition but not structure (c.f trans fats) in nature.
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No commercial sloe gin I’ve ever tasted compares with homemade, If I’m lucky and get home to Wales in the sloe season I tend to make a demijohn of the stuff. If I don’t make it then mum always has a bottle for me for Christmas, thanks mum.
There has been talk of what gin to use, just use the cheapest, the taste of the sloes along with the sugar will remove the finer points of a gin, so as long it's not paint stripper...... A supermarket branded gin is perfect for sloe gin, and don’t substitute vodka it’s not the same.
Tip: If you’ve made a demijohn of sloe gin and prick the sloes with a pin – it’s a chore. So cheat and put the sloes in the freezer for 24 hours spread out on sheets NOT in a bag - then defrost. The freezing makes small splits in the skin that the same as pricking.
Tip: Reuse the sloes. After you’ve either strained into a new bottle or finished it, use the old sloes to make a second batch. Use just add 1/2 the quantity of gin etc to the old sloes, this generally makes a nice sloe gin ready 4 to 6 months later, when you've run out of the original stuff.
Tip: What do you do with the sloes when exhausted. It’s a labor of love, as the pulp to stone ratio is low in a sloe. But remove de-stone the sloes and collect the pulp. Then make an apple pie using 1/3rd sloe pulp to 2/3rd apples this tastes, very good. WARNING: Do not try this with fresh sloes. If you don't understand this then bite a fresh sloe, something everyone must do once.
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Have you a link to using xanthan gum.
From my experience it does not set, just get different degrees of slime with enough sheer force. Would love to see the recipe
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You may also like here http://www.herefordroad.org/ had lunch here with Simon several times and the food has always been excellent.
Also in the warmer months some outside tables so great if teh weather is nice or for smokers.
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"my guess would be that most that buy these books never make a single dish from them, but just love to have them. Maybe to add to the experience of having eaten at the restaurant, or info before going there. Or just for the fun of it, to somewhat stay on top of the top of cooking."
Ok I buy these books and have all the el-bulli books. Have I cooked a single recipe from then. I'm only a home cook. That said I have most of the hydrocoloids, gums, emulsifiers in my store cupboard (long story). However I've taken those recipes and used the techniques, to take what I have at hand and had wonderful success and hilarious disasters doing this.
While say "MG" can do show off things (The caaviar thing is fun), but the right emulsifier added to a good fat and stock can make something that would not be possible otherwise that guests think is "normal" and love but don't comment on and then a strawberry granita they think is all MG.
A meal is taste, experience, company and situation.
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How about Lab?
Depends when your going can get a bit load on weekend eves but great cocktails http://www.lab-townhouse.com/
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Simon Hopkinson's new book The Vegetarian Option will be out soon and should be interesting. (I believe there is a recipe for chicken stock in there!)
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Well when I lived in the USA unless I went to upscale restaurant the portions were so big. It was not uncommon for us as brits to share an appetizer between 3 and a main each - never desert the portions were way to big. In the majority of medium scale restaurants the amount of food presented put me off. Then again I could never understand for a few dollars more you could get a great burger rather than a chain burger. But if you know us brits they still made a good profit.
In the higher to fine dining restaurants decently sized portions, almost the more you paid the less you got but the higher the quality.
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Just because you don't like the taste of something you can certainly cook with it, if you know others like it.
If you have someone who likes it that you can experiment on or get to taste it then great. If you can cook so it tastes a particular degree you dislike but know other love it even better. Then again if you can compose something without tasting - If the Oysters and Pearls tail is true also Grant Achatz then that's a sign of genius. For a musical allegory look at Beethoven.
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Well here
http://www.thefishsociety.co.uk/fish-detai...CFaAA4wod9hZLnQ
and that's a UK supplier.
Could be more economical to import, however what you describe with a beeswax cover I've not encountered.
As for shelf life, I would say a good few months if not more (never kept it that long)
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Yes
If the oil was kept in a cool place then should have no problems. The biggest problems I've had with oil is it picking up flavors from previously fried things.
If you fried spiced chicken then perhaps not the thing to fry a delicate fish in batter or if the oil is oxidized - you can smell it, safe but YUK.
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More thermomix recipes here http://www.ukthermomix.com/recindex.php
I must say I would not be without mine, from getting home from work and throwing things into it to make a quick meal (Today did potatoes, butter poached lemon chicken and steamed veg). To doing high end recipes, even managed to do some sous vide dishes in it.
It does take a bit of a change of mind set to get the best out of, And because of the lack of English language recipes I would not recommend one to someone who does not know how to cook or is not prepared for the odd failure.
That said apart from my mandolin (it can't slice) I use it around 5 days a week. Could be just to make lemonade or a full on meal.
I know this is the pastry section so here's what I did to make a chocolate glaze, and now done this several times (can't edit my post on the forum)
In a saucepan put 250g of granulated sugar and 170ml of water and bring to the boil to make a colorless syrup and keep at a simmer.
In the Thermomix put 250g of chocolate broken up (70% cocoa solids) at the 37 degree setting and set the timer to something stupid like 45 minutes. When the chocolate is fully melted put it on speed 3 and very slowly (think mayonnaise) add the boiling sugar syrup.
While all this is going on keep an eye on the temperature - if it hit's 50 degrees put the speed up to 4 and leave it till the 50 light goes off.
Keep adding the sugar syrup till all incorporated all the time observing the above. Once things get going (you should be at speed 4 now) you can add the sugar syrup faster but the temperature is critical - if the 50 light goes on stop till it goes off.
When all the sugar syrup has been incorporated drop speed 1 (I did reverse as more of a churn action) and leave at 37 degrees for 2 to 3 minutes or more to become smooth then pour over your cake.
You get a smooth shiny easily cut very chocolate glaze that looks stunning - but try not to overwork it.
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"as I recall, the French Laundry starts pouring Champagne the moment you sit down and through the amuses, which is quite an agreeable way of ensuring that your wine arrives before your first "real" course"
Well not quite but once seated,m they do ask would you like an aperitif or if you get there and it's a nice day one in the garden is nice, then you get your menus and by the time you've got through the amuse your wine is ready to go.
The one thing I love about high end restaurants is the sommelier, often these restaurants may have only 1 case or even less of some bottles of wine not necessarily expensive and they can surprise and delight you just let them know your price point. It's very rare they steer you wrong .
As an aside I did some IT work for a restaurant in the UK and (as part of a comp thank you meal) the sommelier recommended a viognier, it was great and would have been t £60, later I asked their buyer where to get it turned out there was one place in London it could be bought but I could walk in their and buy it at £5 retail! They only had manager to obtain two cases as from a small producer, further discussion reviled their policy is to charge what the wine is worth by taste not by purchase price + markup. It was a wine I never would have picked and if I was expecting £20 retail.
Back to the French Laundry, I gave the sommelier a free rein with price point about the same as the food (There were four of us) we got different wines for most courses and when the bill arrived the drinks were only half the price of the food but briliant parings with the food.
If you see the bunch of grapes - use them as they know a lot more than you especially about what is in the cellar.
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Had lunch at Roussillon last Friday (14/08/09), I must admit this restaurant was off my radar and only went there due to the promotion that the Times was running.
To be honest the times promotion (£20 for three courses + vouchers) when compared to the standard lunch which is £35 + 1/2 bottle of wine meant no real difference in price once you added wine but I'm glad they did it, otherwise I may not have gone.
The food was stunning, and the service was exceptional they sussed we were there for a lazy lunch so everything was relaxed and unhurried. Starter: veal consomme with spring truffle ravioli (So good I could have had three courses of it); Main: Summer vegetable with spring truffle and my companion had the suckling pig both were sublime. We added a cheese course to share and for £8 had a sliver of about 15 cheeses with some good bread. Desert was a disappointment, not that there was anything wrong with them but everything else had been so far above expectations (from £20 menu) that a standard desert did not make the mark of the rest of the meal.
Now, it was a birthday lunch (They didn't know) so £40 for two turned into £177 inc service by the time we left. but the food was v good (how do you get that much truffle taste out of a summer truffle), service was perfect for the occasion, and I believe they detected that as other tables were served faster (I assume they were perhaps on a business lunch) but to detect that is a mark of good restaurant.
Recommend
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Trust me, I forgot the cheese, doh.
And the alcohol, "Bang head on wall"
It will be the ham next !
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Perhaps the woody part of the asparagus adds something.
An example would be the difference in taste between a smooth baked potato soup made from potatoes with crispy toasted skins or just the inner pulp. You wouldn't want chunks of hard bits in the soup but the skins would make a big difference in taste (and colour)
Now I've started on this line of thinking, what would it be like to roast whole potatoes till they had really crispy skins, use the flowery centers for the soup and make a stock out of the skins (to avoid the problems of discoloration, possible grittiness) and possibly a gelatin clarification of the stock to get a smooth soup tasting of baked potatoes?
Thinks, will bake an extra potato or two next time and have a play
New Pierre Koffman Restaurant
in United Kingdom & Ireland: Dining
Posted
Had dinner there last night. With an old chef friend who's teacher was trained by Koffman. I took her to Le Tante Clare for her birthday where once we got over the OTT stiff and starchiness and they knew we were there for the food I had my 4th ever best meal. This time my Birthday we visited the new Koffmans.
2 Champagne cocktails to get us going.
To start I had Scallops with squid ink, perfectly cooked but just seemed something lacking, my companion had Snails, girolles, garlic & mashed potatoes which was a much more robust and the taste I had more satisfying.
We the both went for the clasic pig trotter, while rich and unctuous, and plenty of sweetbreads I did not taste any morels, my companion found a small sliver of morel which the dish did not sing. It was good but not in comparison to what I remember from Le Tante Clare. Perhaps we had an off batch but for £27.50 there should be no off batch especially as this is Koffmans signature dish.
A plate of cheese to share to finish off the red.
For desert went for the Pistachio soufflé which was outstanding.
The coffees and a glass of Eau De Vie each to finish.
The sommelier was excellent and made some good recommendations. Two glasses of Riesling to match the starter and most interesting was a bottle of biodynamic red "La Luna", on it's own light and fruity but at the same time strangely tannic and acidic, on it's own I would not want to drink it, but it worked well with the trotter as it cut through the fat and the tannins were enough to stand up to the robust taste.
Total cost £255 for two.
Overall, a placeto revisit that old style French cooking again, but it seems a bit dated. Yes I know it was summer, but it was raining and cold outside so the heavy trotter dish should have worked - but no morels so the dish did not sing.
FYI my best ever meals
1 - Moto Chicago - in odd circumstances (Ended up with 3 of us after 9pm being the only people in the restaurant - amazing to talk, chat and they "played" with us. An accidental one off) but it will take a lot to beat that experience.
2 - The Fat Duck
3 - The French Laundry
4 - La Tante Clare
5 - Some unknown place in Paphos, Cyprus, cooked buy a thi guy on a 2 ring stove with a 68 cover restaurant! Terible waits between courses but food to die for.
6 - The El Bulli hotel - could not get into the mother ship but this was great. Dinner a bit rushed - do not miss the El Bulli breakfast
7 - Bibendum - Eaten here so many times and it does what it says on the packet