TheTabl Supperclub, 20th November

The other Friday I had one of the best culinary experiences of my life. Truly unforgettable and unlike anything I have had the pleasure of doing before. The Tabl have recently launched – they are offering a bespoke supper club service – helping people host their own, finding venues, even helping with recipes. And to celebrate this they put on one hell of a meal to which I was invited.

Collaborating with Charles Spence who has worked with Heston in the past (creating that famous sounds of the sea dish) and Jesse Dunford-Wood who runs Parlour in Kensal Rise, they put together a feast that was not only delicious and entertaining but an education in eating. We didn’t know what we were going to eat until it arrived in front of us (or the method by which we would eat it) and we weren’t told how many courses would be coming our way. In total there were nine I would say, but this does not include the little bursts of experimentation we also participated in.

It started immediately – one fork had woven through its tines a strip of paper. We were asked to place this in our mouths and then asked what we tasted. It seemed it had been soaked in chemicals to me – not very pleasant at all. But others said they couldn’t taste a damn thing – it just tasted of paper. But every strip was the same and this is how they determine ‘non-tasters’ and ‘super tasters’. I think I was somewhere in the middle.

Jelly beans were then passed around and we were invited to take one. But we had to eat it holding our noses. What could we taste? Nothing but sweetness as it turned out. Then we unplugged our noses and the taste flooded in! Going to prove how vital your sense of smell is to your dining experience.

A few other experiments took place – how pleasant we found eating with fingers, or being fed – was it sensual, or sexual, or a turn off? This probably rather depended on who you were sitting next to and what utensil you had been fed with. I was lucky and was spooned some seabass on a normal silver tablespoon by the girl to my right, whereas I had to feed the man on my left with a big soup ladle – much less erotic. When having to eat asparagus with our fingers did we enjoy it or find it slimy? And what about feeding your neighbour a parsnip? Intimate? Too much so?

And all the while food kept coming. We had 'McTucky's' popcorn chicken, chestnut hummus with rosemary pitta bread, raw sea bream with citrus fruits and olive oil, duck liver pate with figs, honey and yesterday's bread, raw vegetable ravioli (pickled veg) with goats' cheese, 'back door' smoked salmon, crispy smoked salmon skin and salmon caviar, blue cheese custard with hazelnuts and marmiteless twiglets. These were served in egg shells and were so rich and cheesy (yet not overpoweringly blue) - amazing. 

Finally we got to the main course and a dish of cabbage was set in front of me. Just cabbage. Next to me, the guy had a small swirl of mashed potato. But to my left was an amazing looking dish of sea bass! And then someone got an actual globe of chicken kiev! this wasn't fair! Luckily it was just another experiment and before long we were all sharing out our dishes. The cow pie that was placed in the middle of the table was more than impressive but the chicken kiev got my vote as the best dish. 

One final experiment came just before dessert when a little dish was placed before us, with lemon juice and a wedge of lime. In the dish was half a pill. We were asked to dip our fingers in the juice and taste it. Sour as you would expect from lemon juice. Then we were instructed to place the half pill in our mouths and chew – not simply swallow it. We tasted the juice again. It now tasted sweet! It was like drinking sugary sherbet! The same of the lime! Unbelievable!.  Unfortunately it had the same effect on the lovely red wine we’d been drinking which was now like having a huge glass of very sweet port.

The piece de resistance of the meal had to be the dessert. Headphones were handed out and a sheet of kitchen foil rolled out along the table. As Flight of the Bumblebee played in our heads, the chefs raced around creating a tapestry of desserts – swipes of chocolate sauce here, blobs of caramel there. A macaroon placed here, a Souffle over there. The tableau of dreams was built up before our very eyes – eyes which were now the size of saucers at all the different desserts being placed before us. A giant wagon wheel was created, there was cake, there was a queen of puddings, a chocolate ‘black pudding’ a chocolate tart. It was amazing. The music stopped, we handed back the headphones and then we plunged into the spread before us. It reminded me of the scene where the kids are let loose in Willy Wonka’s factory – not knowing where to start, wanting to try everything – a spoon went into the soufflé, a finger swiped up a bit of cream. Even that description I do not think does justice to what we were treated to and the joy we had eating it. Absolutely hats off to all involved for creating a truly magical event.

Cuisson POPdown and Cherry Cola, 27th June

I went to Cuisson’s Pop-Down dinner at the end of June. Held in a basement coffee shop, it certainly had the transient pop-up feel to it, giving it a slightly guerilla atmosphere.

And the cooking was quite impressive, even if unfortunately most of the dishes weren’t to my own personal taste.

There were six ‘courses’ (if bread be counted as a course??). For each I would say the ingredients and combinations were very well thought out leading to well balanced dishes. They were the perfect idea for a summer’s day – all very light and fresh.

We started with bread and their own made cultured butter. I was so pleased my dining companion was late as it allowed me to eat all her portion as well. It was exquisite. Then came the first real course – described as yoghurt with cucumber and anise, this was served almost as a gazpacho – a very thin soup. I don’t like yoghurt but luckily the other flavours counterbalanced this and I found it did taste quite nice – like a ‘souped up’ (excuse the pun) tzatziki. I couldn’t quite get over the fact I was spooning very thin yoghurt into my mouth however, which wasn’t the most pleasant sensation.

After this was something I could easily tuck into – ratte potatoes with hay, grelot tops and umami, closely followed by duck liver, thankfully served in pate form. This was spread onto a homemade cracker and was a very rich, savoury taste and my favourite (apart from the bread) course of the evening. The chunks of pineapple were a good foil to the deep ducky taste.

Next up – octopus pil pil with mustard and wild rice. Again something I would never order for myself. I think if you liked octopus then this was probably a good example of it. And it was at least sliced and presented in such a way that it was very easy to forget what it looks like in the natural world. It was now we began to realise all the courses so far had been cold, which we thought a little odd. I don’t think this was meant to be a feature of the night, but perhaps had something to do with the facilities available to them. It meant that I felt vaguely dissatisfied with the meal after, wishing I’d had at least one piping hot, filling dish.

Instead what I had as the final flourish was a lukewarm piece of salmon with horseradish cream/mousse. The horseradish was light and fluffy, and, most importantly to me – subtle. The fish was firm yet translucent. An accomplished dish but not one that rocked my particular tastebuds.

The dessert was similarly light and summery with a lychee and mango bavarois. It was so light and airy I felt I practically inhaled it rather than ate it. Very pleasant and a refreshing finish to the evening’s meal.

The aim of the pop-down was to create a relaxed and somewhat interactive dining occasion and it sort of worked. The chefs introduced the meal and you were free to take a wander and have a look at what they were doing, as well as them circulating and checking on you. Service was attentive and warm. As a supper club experience it was quite fun, and we chatted to the fellow diners on our table. Cuisson also do a dessert-only version which I think would be worth checking out, and they regularly change the menu so if the one I have described doesn’t float your boat I reckon it would be worth taking a punt on another evening.

Cherry Cola

After our grown up meal, I went back to Cocktail Trading Co and proceeded to get really quite pissed for the evening. After this we went up to Cherry Cola in Camden to bid farewell to the Purple Turtle. This indie institution was closing its doors forever and Cherry Cola, the indie night were seeing it off. We got there and caught the tail end of the final live band and then they plunged into some very decent indie and indie-tinged pop. Everyone was bopping and dancing and jumping about and I am very pleased to say Cherry Cola hasn't ended with the Purple Turtle - you can find it resurrected in East London at The Macbeth these days. 

Supperclub, Two Hungry Girls, 16th November

You have your first one, and if you’re completely honest with yourself, you think, “is this it?” And then the next one comes along and it still hasn’t touched the sides. But then, eight later and you’re stuffed beyond belief and can’t quite figure out how that happened. At least, this should be the case when eating a multicourse meal if the chefs have done things right.

I’m happy to report that this is just how things panned out when we had our eight-course meal at the Two Hungry Girls' supperclub last Friday.

They normally do a monthly supperclub and you book yourself or you and a friend in and then turn up to eat in close quarters with a bunch of strangers. We did things a little differently by asking Leigh and Shu to hold a private event for Stephen’s birthday. Just us and 17 of our closest friends, squeezed into their living room. As we all turned up on time and bustled into the house I worried it felt like we were taking over slightly, and I do hope we weren’t too boisterous. I think we might have been the largest group they have cooked for and, arriving at the same time as we did, it did feel like we were descending upon them somewhat.

However, they handled us with aplomb and the evening was a convivial success. I popped to the loo about halfway through and was struck by how much it sounded like the next room was a bustling restaurant, only filled with all our friends. It was a lovely thought.

The food was fabulous. There wasn’t a single dish I didn’t thoroughly enjoy and everyone else felt the same. Apart from being the Two Hungry Girls, I think they could easily have the moniker the Two Lovely Girls – they were delightful hosts, talking us through the menu and answering any questions we might have about ingredients, or just their supperclub in general. They started in April doing it as a one-off fundraiser but it was so successful they started doing it on a monthly basis as well and I heard about it through another fundraiser they did recently as reviewed by The London Foodie. Beforehand they were also really friendly, giving us tips on local pubs to enjoy before or after, and wine pairing suggestions.

Our feast began with a welcome drink – a lychee bellini. You can’t really ever go wrong with bellinis and lychee was a particularly agreeable flavour to go for. We then started with silken tofu in century egg sauce with black sesame. I was a little wary of this dish, having heard of the century egg before – I’m pretty sure I’ve read of it as part of "world’s worst delicacies" or something like that. It’s basically, traditionally, an egg that has been left to preserve for so long, it goes green and jellified. Sounds grim. But, as a sauce at least, it was nothing of the sort.The tofu was soft, a bit like eating mozzarella, the sauce was quite thick and savoury ... it makes me want to use the word umami even though I'm not sure it's entirely appropriate and the sesame seeds added a nice smidgen of toasty crunch. It was a great start – I liked it so much I had a little more when it was evident there was some left -  and things just got better from there. 

Next up was cold poached chicken with THG sauce (a secret recipe but there was definitely ginger and spring onions in it) which we wrapped in iceberg lettuce. This was one of my favourite dishes of the night – that sauce was something special, though sauce probably isn’t really the best word for it as it was quite thick and chunky. 

After this we had an aubergine in a sesame and soy vinaigrette with bean sprouts dish. What I love about aubergine is the way it soaks up the flavours of whatever it is sitting or cooked in. It did a good job of soaking up all the lovely soy sauce here and the chilli and spring onions weren't too overpowering. 

This was followed* by mackerel with sambal. The sambal is also worthy of being singled out as a highlight. I don’t think I’d had sambal before but I will seek it out – it was almost an Oriental salsa as it was, again, thicker than a sauce. It had a very pleasant earthy warmth to it from the chillies used in it.

By this point I would say we had concluded the appetiser section of the meal and had segued into the mains. We were still probably feeling pretty confident in fitting in the rest to come. The tide started to turn after this next dish – 5 spice and Sichuan Peppercorn duck in steamed buns with apple, just a touch of mayonnaise and a sriracha-like sauce of which I put plenty on my buns. Probably too much – I sort of drowned out the apple and the mayo but I could taste the duck sure enough. I love duck. It is probably my favourite bird to eat - always so juicy and dark. It's almost boring to say but again, delicious. After having probably too many Yum Buns recently, it was nice to have something similar, but different. There was one bun each but they were very generously portioned. We began to feel close to full. 

The almost-finale to the night tipped us over the edge. A pot piled high with sweet, BBQ-ey pork belly cubes was served with a large plate of Buddha’s Delight vegetables– a mixture of tofu skins, mushrooms, bean sprouts, mangetout etc and of course jasmine rice to go with it. By the time we were finished with this, there was a lot of patting our tummies and mumblings about being stuffed. This photo doesn't really do it justice.

We were intrepid though – dessert was still to come. This was a gorgeous tower of profiteroles filled with orange flavoured ice cream, and decorated with fruits such as the dragon fruit, and with a candle on top for the birthday boy. It was a perfect end to the meal – sweet, refreshing and light enough not to overdo it.

Leigh and Shu had a couple of people helping out in the kitchen, fetching us our drinks from the fridges (you can bring your own alcohol) or just making sure we were attended to -  and giving the girls a hand with the washing up I think. So they deserve a mention and a thank you too, as well as the huge thanks to Leigh and Shu for putting that on and putting up with us!

And thanks to Nick for being the photographer for the evening – my phone wasn’t up to the task. 

*There were so many courses and they came at a quick pace, I may have confused the order somewhat. Also, there were vegetarian options available for the meat courses but I'm afraid I didn't partake in those.

Coming up...November 2012

I haven’t done this before, but I might just make it a regular thing if I like it. A lot of the time I go to things on my list at relatively short notice, or only one thing at a time, so giving any forewarning or a ‘coming up’ wouldn’t make much sense. But it so happens that I know I’m going to cross a few things off the list in the next few weeks...

 London Remixed Festival 

If you’ve read my posts on Rumpus and White Mischief and like the sound of them, then I reckon this is for you. It’s a bit of a global end-of-festival minifestival, taking place as it does over three venues in Shoreditch. One wristband gets you entry to all three. Firstly, the venues they’ve picked have a great reputation for delivering fun and/or culturally rich experiences – Rich Mix, Village Undergroud and the Bedroom Bar. 

The lineup, if you like this sort of thing, also looks excellent. I have only seen a few of the acts so far, but that’s what I like about it – I like to see something new. It also helps that Cut a Shine will be there and they’re also on my List. 

So yes, we have the likes of Gypsy Hill performing as part of the Polka Tent at Bedroom Bar who I have seen before and highly rate–. Fun, make-you-want to jig music. And Perhaps Contraption who I’ve also seen and loved are in the Acoustic Boutique upstairs at Rich Mix. Then, on the other end of the spectrum we’ve got African inspired beats downstairs at Rich Mix in the African Rootmaster, and Latin music in the Latin Quarter at Village Underground, and somewhere in between the folks from Cut a Shine are doing their hoedown thing, again, in the Polka Tent. There’s something like 30 different acts on over the course of the night – something for everyone (if you like your music slightly alternative and global). Global Local, the people behind this new festival have also contributed to lineups at festivals such as Bestival, Shangri La at Glastonbury, Lovebox, Secret Garden, Wilderness, and the Big Chill and are the people behind White Mink, so you’re in safe hands. You can see why this night is highly anticipated by me, and at £13 quite a bargain. Obviously I will be reviewing it once I’ve been so stay tuned for that. 

For the full lineup and more info, click the link http://londonremixedfestival.com/  

Supperclub 

Also coming up soon will be my first supper club. It took me a while to decide to even put on one my List, but really, it had to be done. After reading a post by the London Foodie on a night he went to hosted by Two Hungry Girls, and completely drooling over all aspects of the menu, I brought them to the attention of my boyfriend and he promptly booked them for a bespoke private birthday meal. Does a supperclub count if it doesn’t include the bit where you mingle and dine with strangers? You can probably guess my answer to this – Yes. Again, come back for the verdict. 

https://www.facebook.com/TwoHungryGirls?sk=wall&filter=12 

The Blitz Party 

Many’s the month that has passed and I have longed to go to the Blitz Party. I have either had plans, or they have sold out far too quickly for me to get my hands on a ticket. But finally the planets have aligned and I am both free on the 17th and have bought a ticket so it looks like I’ll be able to get my ‘air-raid’ on. These parties transport you back to the era of wartime England with the drinks, fashion and music that entails. Stop by to see if it lives up to my expectations. I went to the B & H Prohibition night, and while I liked it, I didn’t LOVE it. I think these ones are more popular, so we will see what I make of it.

The Blitz Party