I really have stretched my Birthday celebrations out this year, but then if you can, why not?
Miss H & Miss N know how much I love food, it’s pretty obvious when most of my blog posts are aimed around food. So for my birthday gift they booked a deliciously exciting seven course tasting menu with wine pairing.
We were also celebrating Miss N’s birthday by doing something a little more cultural than stuffing our faces. A trip to the theatre!
Miss H lives in London and works in the very fanciful Barbican Centre, she was working the opening of their new exhibition on the Friday evening so we decided to start the weekend off in style. The exhibition was called Station to Station: A 30 Day Happening – a project by Doug Aitken.
There is a vast range of work on show, from video, screen printing, audio, performance and so on.
There was a very impressive lady doing a hula hoop show.
There was far more there than I took photos of and was well worth a visit.
One of the highlights for me was being taken into the Barbican’s secret and very large green house.
We had our own tropical adventure, right in the middle of London.
It was such a magical setting in the dark, even with these two nutters.
The following day we made our way for the first of the birthday celebrations. Miss N had really wanted to see Arthur Miller’s The Death Of A Salesman by RSC.
I had never heard of this play but I love a bit of theatre and we all know that before any theatre show it’s essential to have a few pre-show drinks, right?
The Death of a Salesman was very good but if you know this work you’ll understand when I say we left feeling thoroughly depressed and by this point starving!
We made our way to the next part of the Birthday celebrations.
Miss S & Miss H had booked the seven course tasting menu at L’Autre Pied a Michelin Star restaurant in London as my Birthday present and to say that I was excited was an understatement.
We also opted for the wine pairing.
Naturally we started with a glass if the good stuff.
As we studied our seven course menu and got excited at what was to come, we were presented with these delicious chicken liver pates on crisp little biscuits.
These were really good, tasted a bit like blue cheese and were really smooth.
We also tucked into some freshly baked bread.
I think this was a favourite in the restaurant as it went so fast. It was a black olive and cheese roll.
I have to admit I also tried the other bread options too.
Onion brioche and date and walnut.
Our amuse bouche, the courgette, basil and frozen goats cheese was similar to a mousse, very refreshing, light and the goats cheese gave it a salty edge.
This little pot of summer did not las long.
We quickly moved on to our starter of fennel, cucumber, creme fraiche, helper knolle and dill.
It was also delicious but quite similar to the amuse bouche, very refreshing and light. This did have some intense bombs of flavour from the set jellies and mouses.
The first of the wine pairings, was of course a white.
I thought it was lovely, a real easy drinking wine. I’m no expert on wine other than I know I like it and drink a lot of it but whether or not this worked with the amuse bouche I couldn’t tell you, I could tell you that I could drink the bottle.
Looking very sophisticated…but not for long!
Having obliterated the first two dishes we were looking forward to a more hearty plate.
The first of our fish courses was probably one of my favourite, mackerel.
They came with little flavour bombs of beetroot, carrot and a miso jelly. The texture of the toasted quinoa on top gave it a delicious crunch. It really was very, very good.
The wine for this course was again a white and to be honest I wasn’t too keen. I found the taste quite strong and too acidic for me but when drunk with the food it completely balanced out and was very enjoyable, I guess that’s the point of wine pairing.
Our second fish course was cod, look how pretty this is…
This came with pink grapefruit, brassicas and pearl barley, I have never seen purple broccoli like this before.
The cod was very nice, the texture made me think it was only just cooked but it tasted great. The rest of the dish didn’t really have a strong flavour and I couldn’t really taste the grapefruit at all.
Pretending to know what we are doing…
The wine, surprisingly was a red.
Which was a relief to Miss N as she isn’t a fan of a white wine. I really like a Pinot Noir so it was a thumbs up from me too.
We now moved on to the meat, I had been looking forward to this for most of the meal.
Look at that green crust and how well that lamb is cooked!
The restaurant really likes making its mousses and jellies which I don’t mind at all, they were delicious. Burnt aubergine, red pepper ketchup and spinach. There were a lot more flavours working on this plate than stated on the menu, just look at that sneaky little bit of pork belly! It was delicious, soft and caramelised.
The wine pairing again was a red.
Double parked!
This went very well with the lamb, it similarly to the second white for me was better accompanying the food.
At this point you can imagine we were in full swing, chatting and slurping our wines, it was certainly time for some rich, sweet desserts.
They brought out a pre-dessert, which was a lemon mousse, citrus granita and biscuit crumble. It reminded me of a deconstructed cheesecake. Very light and refreshing, just right to cleanse the palate.
For our final course we had a proper classic, rice pudding!
I love a good creamy rice pudding and this was a creamy coconut rice pudding. The mixture of textures from the crumble to the sorbet was lovely. It again was light and refreshing.
Naturally we had a desert wine with this which was surprisingly very good. I’ve not always enjoyed a sweet wine but this was a perfect balance with the dessert.
Looking back over these photos reminds me of how well presented and cooked everything was, the staff were very friendly and I would definitely recommend a visit.
After a bit of a slump from over eating and drinking we slowly manoeuvred ourselves from the table and made our way out into the London air. We took the journey back to Miss H’s apartment and were determined not to let the party end!
So we made our one little disco…
A disco in the dark is the only way to end an amazing weekend!
eats2treats 