London Set Lunches

[Roger le goéland]

Point 2 - is great chicken supposed to be served part-raw? Some of the chicken breast was pink (like when you buy breast fillets from the butcher's, translucent pink).

Guess we'll see in 2 days.

[Jon Tseng]

Point 2 - is great chicken supposed to be served part-raw? Some of the chicken breast was pink (like when you buy breast fillets from the butcher's, translucent pink).

Guess we'll see in 2 days.

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No, chicken breast should be moist and juicy inside but not pink. That is taking it too far.

Now in Japanese food there are sometimes examples of chicken sashimi, but apart from that chicken should be cooked opaque through, certainly in western cuisine (I suspect there is also a food safety salmonella/listeria angle too).

Now I think there is a strong case that pork loin should be served slightly pink (like veal), particularly as the trichosis worm is killed by freezing, but don't think same logic applies to fowl

J

[food1]

They may have possibily prepared your chicken sous vide, if it appeared to be 'pink'. As long as it was in the water at a temp of at least 63.5 degrees and left long enough to be pasterized, it will be safely cooked, even though it may appear to look 'raw'. OR you may well have been served uncooked poultry, which is shocking. Symptoms can take up to seven days to show, before you start rushing for the loo! Hope you won't be.

Quality pork is perfectly safe to eat pink, whether preparded sous vide/ traditional. There has been no case of trichosis worm for many years in the UK, which was attributed to amongst other things, poor farming practices in days of old. As with many food predjuices, pork to the masses still has the 'unsafe, cook the shite out of it' before eating. Some beliefs die very hard!.

[Roger le goéland]

I forgot the review, so here it is (2 choices for starts and mains, 1 for dessert):

Amuse: vegetable crisps and tempura herbs/doughball. Would have been more impressive if you couldn't get those crisps (admittedly not as thin and not as salty) in Aldi's for 50p. Doughball more interesting but didn't really "work" for me. Bit too salty and impossible to bite into - you need to shove the whole thing in.

Bread: two small slices of already drying bread served at the beginning. No top up even though I chatted with the waiter in French and so he knew that I'd need to absorb at least 1/2kg of bread with the meal as per our traditions! No excuse there - if the no starred Alimentum can top up bread the second you finish it for the whole meal, why can't Ambassade with its 2* and army of serving staff do that too?

Starters: chestnut veloute: very soft, silky, very liquid. White truffle olive oil on top (but not as fragrant as the bottle I've got from Borough for a fiver). Little croutons which I guess contained some kind of goat's cheese. The veloute came in a cappucino cup. Paired with a "St Joseph" viognier from the Rhone valley. Mineral and fruity nose, standard viognier.

Brioche and saucisson: a slice of cooked saucisson with toasted brioche and a red wine sauce. The bite I got was tasty but "sans plus". Nowhere near the excitement in the cooking that we saw in the "traditional" Aubergine (yes I go on about that place but that chef is fantastic).

Wine: the red St Joseph. A tasty Rhone red.

Mains: chicken: I've talked at length about the colour. I ordered it because the alternative was cod, which I've had a fair amount of this week. It was juicy and tasty (for chicken), on a couple of spinach leaves (?) with a white sauce I couldn't really identify. Two artichokes were grilled and placed on top - I mistook them for chanterelles! Paired with a perfumed Corbieres (definitely lavender! maybe my memories of childhood in Provence are playing up) which reminded me of an early 90s crusted port I had 2 weeks ago - same flavour profile without the sweetness. I quickly realised that was because the waiter poured the dregs - there was half a spoonful of sediments in the glass.

Cod: remarkably flavourful. On a bed of coco beans. Can't remember what the beans tasted like. Served with the aforementioned Viognier. That was the better choice (and probably less lethal).

Dessert: one choice: rhubarb tart with forest fruit sorbet and a rhubarb crisp on top. Tastes like the description.

Coffee: bitter and stale espresso, although with loads of crema, as usual. I've stopped hoping for something decent from fine restaurants although I sometimes fantasize about sending these places a cheap grinder and a bag of properly (and freshly) roasted beans anonymously as a hint.

Overall: not a bad lunch. It's a bistro, where you go for lunch during the work week if you are French, have your three courses, wine, coffee, pay the bill and go back to work (ok, this may be from times past). It wasn't a 2* experience. If you're stuck in South Ken and you need a light-ish lunch that will do perfectly. Just don't expect too much in the way of flavours.

[Pam Brunning]

anyone tried lunch at Capital recently?  used to be a favoutite of mine but haven;t been in a while

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Yes we did lunch at the Capital three weeks ago. Had heard good reports and was looking forward to it very much. We were very disappointed. I was reviewing it for our Society in-house magazine. The main trouble was that the mean was boring with little inspiration. Main courses were a vegetarian, a daube - I had one of those sitting in the fridge at home - sole with capers - Grenobloise, sea bass or duck à l’orange. I had the duck, two lumps of breast cut in half length ways giving two chunks of meat which were difficult to cut up without spraying the sticky orange caramel sauce everywhere. The sea bass was served with chorizo which completely overwhelmed the flavour of the dish. The only inspirations on the menu were the desserts - they were good. The sommelier treated us if we were idiots because we ordered a Marcel Deiss Gewurztraminer 2006 ‘You realise that is sweet,’ he snapped with a smirk. In fact it went well with both dishes.

It is a pity lunches are the poor relation of dining out. Not everyone wants to travel a long distance on public transport, at night, in the middle of winter, to enjoy an outstanding dining experience. If I wanted to eat beef stew I would have stayed at home but obviously in some circles popping out for a bite of stew for lunch even if it does cost £33.00 for three courses plus 12½% is the norm in London.

We wish we had walked across the road to the Mandarin Oriental instead.

When I go out to eat I am looking for inspiration, some texture and flavour combination that are different, unique. I grew out of duck à l’orange thirty years ago! And the chips, sorry pommes pailles’, served with it were soggy.

Full report published in our Society journal in March.