I have died and gone to food heaven
27 Mar 2010 12:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
karohemdAlimentum the 7th (I think) and the best. Wow.
First of all, many thanks to my dining companions![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
deborah_c, i_am_toast and puddingcat for excellent company and enjoyable conversation.
Three of us all managed to get onto the same bus from different stops whilei_am_toast came via town. We first had cocktails/sherry, perused the menu and decided we wanted to go all out with 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
ETA: This was a Muscadet because they had run out of SB
This was warm, soft and rich yet light. The little bits of avruga popped little bits 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.
(aspuddingcat doesn't eat pork, she had a pigeon dish instead, which, oddly, included speck, so something lost in communication somewhere. This was only a minor inconvenience, however.)
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 (the girls had a different one to me, mine was a bit stronger sopuddingcat probably did well to give up hers)
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
i_am_toast 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 (robinbloke, this would have been your favourite course)
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
First of all, many thanks to my dining companions
deborah_c, i_am_toast and puddingcat for excellent company and enjoyable conversation.Three of us all managed to get onto the same bus from different stops while
i_am_toast came via town. We first had cocktails/sherry, perused the menu and decided we wanted to go all out with 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
ETA: This was a Muscadet because they had run out of SB
This was warm, soft and rich yet light. The little bits of avruga popped little bits 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.
(as
puddingcat doesn't eat pork, she had a pigeon dish instead, which, oddly, included speck, so something lost in communication somewhere. This was only a minor inconvenience, however.)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 (the girls had a different one to me, mine was a bit stronger so
puddingcat probably did well to give up hers)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
i_am_toast 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 (
robinbloke, this would have been your favourite course)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
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 27/3/10 01:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 27/3/10 01:20 am (UTC)The new head chef has defintely found his feet now.
no subject
Date: 27/3/10 08:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 27/3/10 08:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 27/3/10 09:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 27/3/10 09:36 am (UTC)Um.
Maybe I have lived in Tokyo too long :P
no subject
Date: 27/3/10 11:48 am (UTC)While not a bargain, I'd say at least good value for money.
no subject
Date: 27/3/10 09:42 am (UTC)I *need* to go back and have a full dish of the bass & banana. Do you know if the menu still changes monthly? If not, fancy going one evening after payday?
Thanks for a fab evening :D
no subject
Date: 27/3/10 11:47 am (UTC)*grins* I'd be up for that. As to menu changing, I would assume so. Too bad the website isn't any indication. You can always phone and ask.
My pleasure! Thank you for coming along.
no subject
Date: 27/3/10 11:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 27/3/10 11:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 28/3/10 09:40 am (UTC)