I have died and gone to food heaven
27 Mar 2010 02:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
karohemdAlimentum is a fine dining restaurant in Cambridge which I visited this evening as a birthday treat. I'd been several times and enjoyed every meal but tonight certainly was the best.
My companions and I decided on the tasting menu (finally, I'd been waiting for one) incl. the "flight of wines", i.e. a different glass of wine with each of the seven courses. A section through Alimentum's kitchen, a bit of everything and every bit as awesome as the other, tastefully and beautifully presented. We had (copied from the menu I took home):
Potato
(soup) with haddock, quail egg, avruga
Instead of the Sauvignon blanc on the menu we had a Muscadet
This was warm, soft and rich yet light. The little bits of avruga popped little spurts of salt in your mouth when you bit on them. The wine was clean and crisp, with a hint of cucumber.
Pork
Shoulder, belly, hock, pineapple, pickled onion
Pinot Grigio, Bolzano, Santa Magdalena, 2008, Italy
Squares of a whole range of textures on a rectangular plate. The first piece tasted like a high class version of head cheese. The fat of the belly melted on your tongue while the crackling was a crunchy delight.
What an awesome PG to go with it. Really deep without being too strong.
Stone Bass
Nigella seeds, spiced carrot, coriander
Vouvray, Auguste Bonhomme, 2007, Loire valley, France
A small fillet of perfectly cooked fish with a nigella seed crust on wilted spinach, a smear of carrot purree, two dollops of coriander sauce, as well as a little heap of red lentils and pickled carrot. This sounds like a lot of different ingredients but they all worked together wonderfully.
Another awesome wine. After tonight, I'm really warming to white wines.
Sirloin of Beef
Fricasee of snails and mushrooms, "Bordelaise" sauce
Chateau La Verrierie, Bastide, Côtes du Luberon, France, 2006
Rich beef cooked medium rare, complimented by the deep and woody flavours of the sauce and fricassee
The wine was one of if not the best red I've ever had, perfect.
Cheese
IIRC, a goat's cheese from Dorset, a really mature Scottish Cheddar, Normandy Camembert and a blue cheese
Mâcon - Serrières, Domaine De Monterrain 2007, Bourgogne, France
Excellent variety, but I would have wanted a red smear cheese (like a pont l'eveque, reblochon or similar) as well.
Banana
Parfait, caramel, lime, rum
(wine not on my copy of the menu and I can't remember what it was
One of my companions isn't a big fan of banana and she was blown away by it, that's how good it was. Again a carousel of contrasting yet harmonising flavours.
Passion fruit
White chocolate mousse, passion fruit sorbet
Beerenauslese cuvee, Alois Kracher, 2007, Austria
My turn to utterly love two things I'm usually not a big fan of: white chocolate and sweet wine. The sweetness of the chocolate was counteracted by the sharp sorbet. The wine was fruity but not cloying as most sweet wines are to me.
Coffee/tea with a piece each of chocolate fudge and salted caramel
This took us just over three hours to eat, and that without hardly any waiting time between courses. :)
I am really stupid and didn't take a photo of each course because I was just too fascinated by what was in front of me (and I didn't like using flash). I'm really getting old. Then again, the light is so dim you'd need a nice flash/softbox setup to take proper shots or at least a remotely triggered, diffused speedlight.
First course, "Potato"
Stone Bass
White Chocolate Mousse, Passionfruit sorbet
My companions and I decided on the tasting menu (finally, I'd been waiting for one) incl. the "flight of wines", i.e. a different glass of wine with each of the seven courses. A section through Alimentum's kitchen, a bit of everything and every bit as awesome as the other, tastefully and beautifully presented. We had (copied from the menu I took home):
Potato
(soup) with haddock, quail egg, avruga
Instead of the Sauvignon blanc on the menu we had a Muscadet
This was warm, soft and rich yet light. The little bits of avruga popped little spurts of salt in your mouth when you bit on them. The wine was clean and crisp, with a hint of cucumber.
Pork
Shoulder, belly, hock, pineapple, pickled onion
Pinot Grigio, Bolzano, Santa Magdalena, 2008, Italy
Squares of a whole range of textures on a rectangular plate. The first piece tasted like a high class version of head cheese. The fat of the belly melted on your tongue while the crackling was a crunchy delight.
What an awesome PG to go with it. Really deep without being too strong.
Stone Bass
Nigella seeds, spiced carrot, coriander
Vouvray, Auguste Bonhomme, 2007, Loire valley, France
A small fillet of perfectly cooked fish with a nigella seed crust on wilted spinach, a smear of carrot purree, two dollops of coriander sauce, as well as a little heap of red lentils and pickled carrot. This sounds like a lot of different ingredients but they all worked together wonderfully.
Another awesome wine. After tonight, I'm really warming to white wines.
Sirloin of Beef
Fricasee of snails and mushrooms, "Bordelaise" sauce
Chateau La Verrierie, Bastide, Côtes du Luberon, France, 2006
Rich beef cooked medium rare, complimented by the deep and woody flavours of the sauce and fricassee
The wine was one of if not the best red I've ever had, perfect.
Cheese
IIRC, a goat's cheese from Dorset, a really mature Scottish Cheddar, Normandy Camembert and a blue cheese
Mâcon - Serrières, Domaine De Monterrain 2007, Bourgogne, France
Excellent variety, but I would have wanted a red smear cheese (like a pont l'eveque, reblochon or similar) as well.
Banana
Parfait, caramel, lime, rum
(wine not on my copy of the menu and I can't remember what it was
One of my companions isn't a big fan of banana and she was blown away by it, that's how good it was. Again a carousel of contrasting yet harmonising flavours.
Passion fruit
White chocolate mousse, passion fruit sorbet
Beerenauslese cuvee, Alois Kracher, 2007, Austria
My turn to utterly love two things I'm usually not a big fan of: white chocolate and sweet wine. The sweetness of the chocolate was counteracted by the sharp sorbet. The wine was fruity but not cloying as most sweet wines are to me.
Coffee/tea with a piece each of chocolate fudge and salted caramel
This took us just over three hours to eat, and that without hardly any waiting time between courses. :)
I am really stupid and didn't take a photo of each course because I was just too fascinated by what was in front of me (and I didn't like using flash). I'm really getting old. Then again, the light is so dim you'd need a nice flash/softbox setup to take proper shots or at least a remotely triggered, diffused speedlight.
First course, "Potato"
Stone Bass
White Chocolate Mousse, Passionfruit sorbet
