Bennett Oyster Bar & Brasserie

I had a great evening last night at the "friends and family" pre-opening evening at Bennett Oyster Bar & Brasserie (which opens fully on 8th March). Ray, who owns the restaurant was charmingly welcoming and so too were his 1950s-clad waiters. The music was upbeat and jolly, and there was a great atmosphere.

The bread, which they made there, and served in cute little flower pots which reminded me of René Redzepi's flowerpot dish, was delicious - really fluffy and light.

I was very impressed with my starter, the red mullet soup with Gruyère, rouille and croutons. It was a really rich, deep red colour, and the fishy taste matched that intensity - exactly what you want with a fish soup. The rouille, which is made from garlic and olive oil, gave a good kick to the soup, and the saffron flavour was nice and piquant. Together with the crunchy croutons, and one of my favourites cheeses to sprinkle on top and watch melt, I was wary of sharing it!

For mains, I had pollock, which is a great alternative for cod and is much more sustainable, and probably tastier as well, especially how this was done. It had a crusty top, and was cooked perfectly through, so it flaked away easily. The potatoes could have been more crispy, but they tasted fine. I loved the mustard velouté - the velvety and creamy sauce went well with both the fish and the potatoes.

Finally, after two delicious courses came dessert. I was hardly ready for the generous portion of sticky toffee pudding! Unfortunately, it wasn't served quite warm enough and I found it a bit dense, but I liked the toffee sauce, rich and sugary, of course, and the vanilla ice cream was fine.

So, all in all, a very impressive meal, especially for only their second evening running. And I'm sure I'll be going back, if just to try their other fish soups, and maybe even to taste some of their other produce which they sell, like fresh fruit & veg, and home-baked bread and cakes.

Fox and Grapes

Tonight, I had a pleasant evening at the Fox and Grapes pub in Wimbledon. (It was a bit of a schlep from the station, so we hopped in a cab on the way there, but some very friendly local foodies escorted us safely back!)

The pub is the work of Claude Bosi, owner of the 2 Michelin-starred restaurant Hibiscus known for its sophisticated avant-garde cuisine, but in this new adventure, the chef has chosen to go for a touched-up take on British pub food.

I thought that the food was reasonably good, and certainly worth the visit. I started off with a wintry salad which included beetroot, goats cheese, chicory and blood orange. It was elegantly presented in a spiral-type shape, with a wonderful array of colours. I loved the creamy cheese, which seamlessly contrasted with the crunchy caramelised walnuts. The beetroot, as well as leaking a rich red sauce, tasted good with the salad leaves. The citrus lift from the blood orange also added well to the delicious salad. This was my favourite part of the meal.

For mains, expecting the lack of vegetarian-friendly options, I opted for the winter vegetable hot pot, following my wintry trend. I like the rustic serving in the heavy metal pot, and the crispy potatoes crusted on the roof were fantastic, although what came inside was slightly disappointing. Although it was very wholesome, and hearty, I didn't think the dish was very special, and would much rather delve into a Ducasse Le Cookpot instead!

In comparison, I thought that the desert was great. I indulged myself with a rich, intense, and scrumptious treacle and pecan tart. The nutty flavour was quite subtle, but still very much eminent, the pastry just the right thickness and crunchiness, and the treacle of course was devilishly sugary!

My only real criticism would have to be the service, which although fast, was very un-engaging, with our waitress whisking away our food, with an over-enthusiastic 'awesome!', regardless of our answer to her inquiry as to whether we were enjoying our meal. Perhaps they could learn something from Michel's recent television program, 'Michel Roux's Service'!

Aside from this, it was all in all a good evening, and worth a visit.

Pham Sushi

I had a great evening on Friday, after a slightly rushed tube journey to the Barbican, where I tucked into some delicious sushi at Pham Sushi, before seeing some extraordinary mime at the Barbican Theatre - Du Goudran et des Plumes.

I'd never heard of Pham Sushi before, but it had some great food, and was just tucked away a road or two from The Barbican Centre.

We started off with some nigiri - sea bream, mackerel, ebi (sweet prawn), and toro (fatty tuna). They were all great, especially the mackerel, which had a great texture and subtle taste, and the sweet prawn, which was deliciously sweet. The fatty tuna was slightly disappointing - a bit chewy, but the rice was fantastic. It was both sweet and acidic, and of perfect stickiness!

The tempura was also lovely, with a light batter, and tasty veg and prawns. I wasn't particularly impressed with the nasu dengaku (miso and aubergine), which was a bit soggy, and although the presentation of the hot dishes was poor (we went to the bar, so they took the hot dishes from the main restaurant in foil boxes, and served them as that), the soup made up for it.

I had the vegetable tempura soup, with soba noodles, absolutely fantastic. The broth had a great tang to it, and the soba noodles, which I normally don't have (ramen are my favourite), went very well. All in all, it was a lovely meal, and I'll certainly consider going back next time I go to the Barbican.

As for the play, that was also fantastic! The best piece of theatre I've seen for a while, certainly. The skill and acrobats were marvellous - it was even tiring to watch! I also admired the symbolism of human impact on the Earth, and the sounds were gripping and intense!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

I've had a very tasty last couple of weeks, starting off of course with Christmas lunch. As a vegetarian, I didn't have any of the traditional turkey, but chose a recipe from the BBC Good Food website, and made it into more of a tart. It was delicious, especially with crunchy pecan nuts on top! We also decided to not opt for the traditional Christmas cake, instead experimenting with a quite ambitious Chocolate bombe, which consisted of home-made "cheat's" fruity ice cream (frozen cream) surrounded by beautifully buttery brioche bread and enrobed in dark chocolate! Very tough to cut, but also tough to beat!

On New Year's Day, feeling adventurous, I gave my mum a quick crash-course in rolling maki sushi, while she created a delicious aubergine dish from the Nobu cookbook. The sushi was delicious, with fresh tuna and salmon from our local fishmonger's - Moxon's. Unfortunately (or not, depends how you look at it...) I cooked WAY too much rice, and after determining to finish it whilst at its freshest, I could hardly move! The baked aubergine with bonite and dashi ponzu was also a great success. I particularly loved the way that the bonito flakes danced around on the hot aubergine!

Another recent great meal was a squash, ricotta, and sage lasagne, which finished with a wonderful crispy top, which was great to crunch through, and the combination of squash, ricotta and sage was certainly something to try again.

And just this evening, I was delighted by a lovely savoury tart tatin, with goat's cheese, caramelised red onions and chestnut mushrooms in puff pastry. It was so yummy that we polished it off before I could take a photograph! The mushrooms were great in the tart, and not something that I would normally associate with one.

Copenhagen - Home to René Redzepi's Noma

I had a wonderful holiday last week relaxing in Denmark's wonderful Capital - Copenhagen. I was elated when my mum told me that we were going to stay at the designer hotel "The Radisson Blu Royal", the art of Arne Jacobson, have a culinary trip around the city, and have lunch at none other than 50 Best's best restaurant in the world, Noma!!!

After an early start, I was quite grumpy, but I loved the cool hotel room, and the thought of Wifi and Facebook certainly cheered me up!

Our first meal was at Nimb, a beautifully ornate building, complete with a giant pumpkin on its spire, which wouldn't have been out of place in a Disney movie, part of the famous park, Tivoli.

We sat by the window with a fabulous view of the gardens, and what looked like a comical pantomime, which we then later had to check out. I tried a dish of wild mushrooms on toast, which was marvellously filling after a few hours of lugging suitcases. The creamy mushrooms had a great earthy flavour, and a creamy finish, and served on crispy toast, they were delicious.

My mum chose a tasty plate of salmon tartar, with dill, radishes and pickled cucumber. Being a big fan of sashimi, I found this truly scrumptious, and would certainly go back for more!

That evening was a busy one: we first headed over to Bojesen, the restaurant at Copenhagen's Opera House, to whet our appetites. There, we had a selection of five, quick before-the-show tapas-style plates. They were quite tasty, but not particularly interesting. The mullet (2nd from right), however, was very well cooked, with a great crispy skin.

The concept was great, for a quick meal before the Opera, but we weren't actually seeing a play, so it slightly defeated the point. On the other hand, the building was quite spectacular, I think resembling the giant peach from Dahl's novel with bridges crossing up the four floors to the restaurant floor, which looked over the centre of Copenhagen from across the river.

Then we caught the bus down to the centre again, and walked to Kodbyens Fiskebar, where we had a fantastic meal. Although it didn't look like much, in the middle of the deserted old meat market, once we were inside, past the open fire, the casual atmosphere was great.

We started off with some oysters, which unfortunately I didn't particularly like, but I tried them anyway, and I'm sure they were very good, if you like raw oysters! Next we had my favourite of the courses there, a trout tartar, which I'd never had before, and was fabulously fresh tasting.

We also had some bream, which had an amazing crust on the skin, and the fish was great because it just flaked apart.

Then we had fish and chip shop style battered fish and chips, wrapped in newspaper. The batter was really delicious, I think made usual special Japanese breadcrumbs, and the chips were lovely and crispy.

The desert there was also fabulous - very pink rhubarb ice, with caramelised rhubarb in a custard sauce. Yum yum!

However, the highlight of my trip was of course lunch at Noma. After some skillful map-reading, determined not to get a taxi, we found our way to the riverside restaurant. The interior was very cool, with wooden beams stretching across the ceiling, and sheepskins hugging the backs of chairs. René and his lovely waiters greeted us at the door, and we discussed foodie goings on. Then, we were escorted to our table, modestly adorned with a pot of flowers, and beautifully heavy ceramic plates. Then we were plunged into the culinary adventure of a lifetime:

First off was nasturtium and snails (with a vegetarian adapted mushroom filling for me!). What was really cool was that these nasturtiums were the actually flowers in the pot on the table from when we sat down! It was a strange feeling, eating the table decoration, (and I'll have to remember not to do it at home!), but they were actually very tasty. My picture is terrible, but they were small red flowers, with a little dusting of a powder of mushroom, and were great to get the taste buds going.

Then came the difficult choice of what to drink. I went for the full juice menu, and wasn't disappointed. With every dish, I tried a different juice, all made there on the day. My favourite was probably the apple juice, because it had a fantastic crisp and also subtle sour taste - best apple juice I've ever tried.

Next up, on our pre-menu of snacks was sea buckthorn leather and pickled rose hips. These had a very interesting texture, which was actually quite leather-like, and delicate. I'd never eaten sea buckthorn before, but the orange fruit was soft and delicious!

Then we tucked into some tempura-style fried leeks. This was an interesting twist on leeks, which are usually soft and a bit squidgy, but this time were nice an crisp, whilst keeping their same distinct flavour.

Now, something that I wasn't so sure about: fjord shrimp, with butter. But the interesting (and disgusting?) thing was that they were live, and almost frozen, yet still wriggling around in a jar of ice. Not my cup of tea, but my mum was happy to crunch them up. Apparently, between mouthfuls, they were "mmm guurd".

Halfway through the snacks, and we were presented with some sandwich-like-looking...well...sandwiches. Crispy rye bread(and chicken skin for my mum) enclosing a pea purée and smoked cheese centre. It had an interesting texture - yummy!

Then was the beautifully presented picked and smoked quail's egg. A large quail egg arrived, which I opened, and whispers of smoke started creeping out. The hay-smoked eggs had a great flavour.

And then, something which could have quite easily been plucked from our garden: a flower pot with radishes and carrots, complete with soil. Except this wasn't your average soil... made with malt flour and some other strange ingredients, this was a weird concoction which could have fooled anyone. You dipped the carrot/raddish with the stalk into the soil, with a herb emulsion, which allowed the soil to stick to the vegetable, and munched away. A bizarre sensation, but very pleasurable, and tasty too!

Æbleskiver followed. This completely unpronounceable, hot, pancake-like, doughnut-looking ball, had a pickled cucumber in the middle, and two fish called muikko sticking out either side. I wasn't so keen on these, but they had an interesting taste and texture, and I liked the pickled cucumber!

Then the main menu started...

A mountain of fresh hazelnuts rested on a field of grilled salad. The hazelnut, which looked a bit like almonds, had a really fresh, clean taste, and was lovely scooped up with some of the salad purée.

The next dish was great: fresh sea urchin with intensely green dill ice, beautifully white cream ice, and cucumber wrapped in the ashes of its own skin (weird eh?). The whole dish was very fresh tasting, and I particularly loved the dill ice, since dill is my favourite herb!

Then I had strange-looking dried scallops sitting on a hazelnut and watercress sauce, with biodynamic cereals. The crispy scallops still had that great taste of the sea, and mixed with the grains, it was like a mix of the earth and the sea.

Next, the dish with the best smell: oyster served in the ocean. A massive pot was placed under our noses, and the lid lifted, and the aroma of smoking seaweed, seashells and stones filled my nostrils. Then I tucked into oyster, which I normally don't like, and was served with herbs and pickled ramson onion. The oyster wasn't too slimy, and was like eating the sea (if that were possible!), and I really liked the ramson onion.

Next was a cool, and slightly surreal-looking dish, with two year old potatoes. Yes. Two year old potatoes. Once they had grown, they decomposed, and then new, tiny ones grew from that. Two year old potatoes. :) These were with potato crisps, and mash under milk skin (the stuff that forms on the top of milk), and lovage. A great exploration of potatoes - on par with Massimo Bottura's "potato who wants to be a truffle"!

Slow cooked celeriac and black truffle, with garden sorrel. Wow. This was the perfect combination of deep, earthly flavours.

After that, I had pike perch, with my new favourite garnish, pickled ramsom. The fish was great, with a crisp skin, but soft flesh, and the accompanying cabbage was well cooked, with a great creamy sauce.

And then the desserts...

A "tree" of lightly cooked pear with a contrastingly crispy caramelised pear skin, pine granita and a delicious pear sauce. The pear, one of my favourite fruits was great - cooked but still with the fluffy yet crisp texture and clean taste. The pine granita was amazingly fluffy and cloud-like, with a really interesting flavour, and gave a nice kick to the dish. The sauce, also, was fabulous, with a really pear-y taste.

Then, getting even more sciencey - I tried this walnut powder, walnut ice cream and redcurrant powder. I wasn't so keen on this course, but the redcurrant powder was nice and tangy.

After the four-hour epic lunch we moved to the bar area to enjoy a couple of snacks.

First, a flødebolle, which is a tea-cake-like confectionery, a speciality in Denmark, which after trying René's adaptation with a marshmellowy yoghurt inside, and coated with chocolate, we took to the streets, searching for the original. They were fairly similar, and both very tasty!

Another interesting snack was some crisps covered in chocolate and dressed with fennel seeds. It was quite a strange idea, but the combination of all three was a great surprise.

Thanks René for a fantastically interesting and inspiring meal, and a journey that I will never forget...

Chocolate Unwrapped & Richard Corrigan and Sat Bains at Bentley's Oyster Bar and Grill

I've just spent an interesting afternoon at Chocolate Unwrapped next to borough market at

London Bridge, and was reminded of my fantastic meal at Bentley's Oyster Bar and Grill. Richard Corrigan, the chef at Bentley's teamed up with Sat Bains to produce a fantastic lunch as part of a stunt called 10-10-10 by American Express to pair up some of the UK's best chefs, and see them work together to invent fantastic menus.

The dessert that I had was amazing. It was made with Original

Beans by John Freeman of Restaurant Sat Bains (http://www.restaurantsatbains.com/),

and was an amazingly oriental chocolate dessert. He used coriander and yoghurt with crumbled chocolate shortbread, which was surprisingly complimentary to the deeply intense, velvety chocolate and gave an incredible earthy flavour. I think that this earth taste was in fact reflected in the whole meal, especially the starter, an oyster soup, something which I'd never tried before. Having not been too keen on oysters before, I was pleasantly surprised with the deliciousness of this. The frothy soup was like spooning up the sea, and the oyster was actually quite tasty!

The highlight of the meal for me, though, was Sat's salmon dish. It looked like it could have just

come out of an alien flying saucer, with the dark green bobbles spotted around the fish. But the fish was stunning, a match even for my grandma's salmon. I'm not sure what Sat did, but I seem to remember that it was poached for a long long time at 40 degrees, but it tasted so fresh, it was almost like eating sashimi, and the pickled ginger added to my suspicions... there was just something indescribably fantastic about it. The texture was phenomenal, because each flake would just peel away. It was just the sort of dish that made me smile :)

Chocolate Week's event was very busy, especially the talks, and I

think it's great that people are becoming more interested in chocolate. There were a few tacky stalls, with flashing lights and gold flowers, but also some charming sculptures, including the gorilla that I'd seen a few weeks ago at the experimental food fair. There was also a rather beautiful chocolate treble clef, which I liked. I tried a rather unusual Marmite chocolate from Paul Young, which was really tasty, with

a very subtle umami flavour just breaking through. His Marmite bar was greatly superior to Marmite's own brand, which I must say was absolutely sickly. Paul had also done a strange chocolate wall, for people to sign and write messages on, which was very fun, and got loads of attention!

Caravans and sculptures...

I spent a fun day up in town, eating brunch at Caravan (http://www.caravanonexmouth.co.uk), in Exmouth Market, and then going on to an exhibition by the Experimental Food Society. After getting lost on the way from the Angel tube station, and having to ask for directions from a helpful local, we finally found our way to the crowded restaurant.

First impressions weren’t great – the service was quite rude and we had to wait for a while to be seated, however, ultimately the food is the most important thing, and I really enjoyed what I ate.

It was a beautifully presented salad of butternut squash, goats cheese curd, lettuce and aubergine, which was light and tasty, with a smoky (maybe paprika) finish through the cheese which I really liked. There was a great atmosphere, perhaps slightly too crowded, since I was struggling to hear conversation!

Next, we trudged up to Brick Lane, and sneaked past the massive queue into the one-day-only Experimental Food Society Extravaganza (http://www.experimentalfoodsociety.com) at The Brickhouse. It was completely packed, even though we arrived just before the end, to the point where you moved where the crowd wanted you to!

And there’s not much of a better word to describe it than ‘experimental’. I was first welcomed by a bread-cast body, lying like it was about to be dissected by a mad scientist, then stared at by a chocolate gorilla! I was particularly impressed by the foodscapes of Carl Warner (http://www.carlwarner.com), which consisted of jaw-dropping scenes created entirely from food, which were so realistic-looking that at first I wouldn’t have known the difference!

It was a fun, but tiring day out, and on returning, I flopped onto the sofa in front of QI, with a lovely mustardy salmon and roasted parsnip dinner, courtesy of the better foodie (my mum).