Courtesan

For lunch today, I went to Courtesan Dim Sum Bar in Brixton. It's always amazing to see how many cool new restaurants are popping up in and around Brixton Village, so it was great to try one out. Courtesan has been open for about half a year, and from today has started serving at lunch time.

The décor seemed a little macabre to me, with the dim (no pun intended) lighting and slightly scary painting, but it gave a traditional feel to the atmosphere, which is probably good. I was pleased by the decent selection of pescetarian options on the menu. There were some interesting, original meat dishes too, including a jerk chicken parcel, which might attract carnivores - apparently you either love it or you hate it!

I was very impressed with their deep fried squid, which were cooked in a wonderfully light white batter and served with a mild chilli sauce.

I also really liked the steamed wasabi king prawn dumplings, with that delicate, slightly moist, steamed prawn flavour. Thankfully, the wasabi wasn't overpowering, although I would have preferred a little more of a 'kick'!

The vegetable cheung fun was good too: an interesting mix of textures, and the flavours were brought out nicely by the sweet soy sauce.

I wasn't so keen on the mushroom puffs - I felt there was too much pastry (which was a little undercooked as a result), making it taste dry and doughy. The mushroom filling, however, was full of great, earthy flavours so I'm sure the dish will improve.

For dessert, I had the mango pudding, which I quite liked. I'm not a big fan of condensed milk, but the mango jelly was delicious.

All in all, it was a pleasant meal, and the owner was very friendly and talkative, so I hope to return soon and try out some more Dim Sum!

The Scone Club

A couple of weekends ago, I spent a lovely afternoon at 'The Scone Club', an event organised by Lalani & Co at Pret A Diner's latest pop-up: Burlington Social Club.

I really wasn't expecting this modern, rustic structure in a room at The Royal Academy, but I liked the atmosphere almost as much as I liked the look of the cakes and scones!

I'm not much of a tea-drinker, but I tried some of Lalani & Co's carefully sourced tea and did quite like it. It had a wonderful aroma, and full depth of flavour. I liked the Lakyrsiew Spring Reserve especially, which had a sweet caramel taste. However, my favourite part of having the tea was the accompanying timer: when the sand had run down, it was infused and ready to drink!

There was a huge selection of cakes to try and I must admit I felt a little greedy! There were eight chefs who had contributed one or more creations to the collection. 

I loved Richard Corrigan and Chris McGowan's pumpkin and cobnut scone (bottom left), which was served with goats curd and a pumpkin relish - the earthy savouriness from the pumpkin really complemented the sweetness from the relish. Benoit Blin, pastry chef at Le Manoir, also brought along his stunning lemon drizzle cake (top right).

Another great invention was Regis Cursan's peanut crumble with apricot 'soup' and ice cream. Peanuts aren't really my thing, but I adored the apricot soup and the ice cream, made with Lalani tea and beer, was delicious too.

Ravinder Bhogal's vanilla scone had a more delicate flavour, but was also great, especially with the raspberry jam.

And as if the amalgamation of such amazing food wasn't enough, the whole event was in support of Action Against Hunger, as part of their 'Love Food Give Food' appeal. The idea is to raise money for fighting against child hunger by celebrating good food, and every pound raised until 30 November is being matched by the UK Government. Fantastic!