Hand & Flowers, Marlow

[nickloman]

Very good meal here yesterday.

We felt quite smug about getting a table at the Hand & Flowers so easily. They are clearly doing fantastic business since Tom Kerridge won the finals of Great British Menu with his dish of slow-cooked Aylesbury duck. Tom seemed like a great bloke from watching the programme, and I'm sure the big man got a big boost from this programme. Contrasting with Alan Murchison who seems to have turned himself into a kind of gastronomic pantomime villain and done himself no favours whatsoever.

The restaurant is a converted pub on the roadside in the centre of Marlow. There was an Aston and a Lambo in the car park which tells you a bit about the inhabitants of the surrounding area.

The room was very dark, despite the bright weather. We were very happy with our corner table but you might fare worse in the middle of the restaurant as they've obviously crammed a few extra covers in to cater for demand. It was nice and quiet when we sat down at 6:30 but by 8:00 was filled with locals having loud conversations about property deals. I'd advise go early on a weekday - I suspect it could be chaotic at Sunday lunch.

We had agreed to vacate the table within 2 hours but we were never hurried and the meal was paced perfectly.

Our amuse of deep-fried whitebait was served poking out of a newspaper cone, accompanied by marie rose sauce. Can't go far wrong with whitebait but the way it was served was particularly charming, the cone resting on a solid wooden block with its miniature dish of sauce. Wooden blocks, and miniaturisation, we soon realised, were a theme and the wood in particular combined well with the rustic furniture and beamed ceiling. The accompanying soda bread and white roll was just-baked and were exemplary. Offering two-glass carafes of wine was a nice touch.

My starter was another successful course from Great British Menu - a crayfish scotch egg with wild garlic mayonnaise. The single scotch egg was very moist and had a soft quails egg in the centre. This came on a "lawn" of sprouting seeds. The menu included an endearingly self-deprecating quote from GBM's Oliver Peyton - "more golf course than fish course". A strong crayfish flavour came through.

OH had pea soup with poached egg, crispy bacon and mint oil, and a tiny bucket of cheese goujons. The soup was vibrantly coloured, with whole peas lolloping around in the bottom next to bacon bits. The mintiness was present with big sprigs of the herb on the top. Taste was fresh with a good, substantial texture but overall was rather sweet, an effect which could have been usefully toned down a bit. The bucket in which the goujons arrived provoked more glee than the goujons but they didn't seem that necessary anyway.

There was no question of not having the GBM special slow-cooked duck breast with duck fat chips and gravy, something I had salivated over on the programme. In my mind I knew exactly how it would taste and happily it didn't disappoint. A fleeting concern was that the portion was a bit mean but the duck fat chips were so rich that I was well satisfied by the end. The little Le Creuset pot of peas, mint, little gem, pea tops, shallots and duck confit was absolutely delicious. The gravy was quite sweet and lacked body but helped keep things light.

Loin of pork with potato dumplings, globe artichoke, cracking and lemon oil was solid cooking but unspectacular in taste. Large pieces of lean pork - perhaps cooked a minute too long was a little chewy. A bad choice for my reluctantly omniverous partner who perhaps should have gone for the tempting sounding sea bream with chorizo mayonniase and tart pissaladiere instead. Artichoke was piquant next to the pork (which was underseasoned) and the potato dumplings also slightly bland. This is not to completely denigrate the dish but didn't get anywhere near the heights of the duck dish.

Tonka bean panna cotta, with poached strawberries and Pedro Ximenez jelly was served in a dish which wouldn't be out of place in your average molecular biology laboratory - a small long box in which silky pannacotta vied for attention against strawberry compote - completely rewarding in terms of getting that all important 'total strawberry taste'. There was also some honey comb and some fresh herbs (chervil and tarragon?) and this worked an absolute treat, very satisfying but again light. The little chunks of delicate dark brown PX jelly really did taste of its nameshake sherry and left a delicious dark smoky taste in the mouth long after swallowing.

There was a good but to my mind conservative selection of English and French cheeses although the portions were small, served with home-made chutney and biscuits: Camembert, Isle of Mull cheddar, a chevre of some description, Barkham Blue (seek this out if you haven't had it) and a seriously evil (in a good way) French soft cheese variety trying to escape from its spoon.

Service was very friendly, efficient and unfussy. Bill for 2 came was £90 before service which seemed like very good value for cooking of this skill.

Go now before it gets any more popular!

Edited June 17, 2010 by nickloman (log)

[cachan]

Tonka bean panna cotta

Tonka bean is banned as food by the US FDA as it contains an anti-coagulant coumarin.

[nickloman]

Shit, I wondered why I was bleeding everywhere ...

[JudyB]

Tonka bean panna cotta

Tonka bean is banned as food by the US FDA as it contains an anti-coagulant coumarin.

It is clearly not banned in the UK. I know that I have had this at Orwell's (Ryan Simpson's new place) and I'm fairly sure that I have had it elsewhere.

Also, according to Wikipedia courmarin is not itself an anti-coagulant, but can be converted into this in contact with fungi:

Although coumarin has no anticoagulant activity, it is transformed to the natural anticoagulant dicoumarol by a number of species of fungi.

That suggests that it should only cause problems if used in conjunction with the wrong things. So Tonka Bean panna cotta or ice cream (which is what I have had elsewhere) should be OK.

[david goodfellow]

Judy B,

You beat me to Orwells, are we to get a review up soon?

[JudyB]

Judy B,

You beat me to Orwells, are we to get a review up soon?

Unfortunately not - it's a few weeks back now and we didn't get around to making enough notes at the time. However it was very nice and we plan on going back soon if we can, so we will try to write it up next time .