Awesome evening last night

[karohemd]

After a hard and rubbish week, this was the perfect way to wind down. I'd had a voucher for two for one main courses from Alimentum I had to use up in May and asked puddingcat to join me and booked a table for last night (as last Friday had already been fully booked).

I was a bit early so I ordered a nice cocktail while I was waiting for puddingcat to arrive:

Apple Martini (not too sweet, fruity, lovely)

Then, the food:
The pre-starter was an off-the-menu asparagus velouté served with a spoon of beurre noisette powder. Wonderful asparagus flavour that really got the tastebuds going (which is the whole point of a dish like that).

For starter I had the skate, which was served with morel mushrooms and crispy white asparagus. I've had a lifelong dislike of white asparagus as I only remember it as the tasteless, slimy floppy things from a jar that were served at extended family dinner parties and supposed to be this awesome treat, so I'm glad I loved these crispy bits. The skate was perfectly cooked (as was to be expected) and the earthy, strongly flavoured mushrooms worked really with it.

puddingcat had the goat's cheese with beetroot which she loved:

We had the same main: Stone Bass, potato pressé, peas, salsa verde, lemon. A perfectly cooked, flaky fillet of fish with excellent accompaniments and yes, I even liked the peas, so another big success for Alimentum's kitchen brigade headed by Mark Poynton.

For dessert I had a passion fruit parfait (soft, very fruity, no pips) with coffee sorbet and tiny saffron meringues. Again one of those dishes in which the main elements would have been too strong individually but together they were perfectly balanced.

puddingcat's dessert were the variations of strawberry:

With that she had the most amazing vodka: Chase Marmalade which tasted just like it sounds. Wonderful.
We obviously couldn't stop there and ended the evening with a selection of cheeses, of which the most unusual and interesting was a soft, washed rind cheese called Soumaintrain which was served on a spoon. Delightful.
The petits fours served with coffee were a dark chocolate one with lime and a white chocolate one coated in very tart apricot crumbs which completely counteracted the sickly sweetness (on my palate) of the white chocolate.

After that, we walked up the road to the Q Club for gothchip's ROQ night, which was a bit slow at first but then really picked up and the club was still heaving when we decided to call it a night around 1:30. Good fun, good people (pinkapplejam and cohorts turned up as well), good music.

Comments

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

I do love your food photos!

For starter I had the skate, which was served with morel mushrooms and crispy white asparagus.

Ooh, that sounds fantastic - exactly to my taste. (Even if puddingcat's starter was a lot prettier!)

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'd love the opportunity to set up a shoot properly rather than just doing it from my seat with available light. Need to chat up the chef at some point. ;o)

The morels were amazing.
Well, skate is a really skinny fish so you can't cut nice chunky fillets from one so if you want to serve it off the bone, you get the strips from between the bones.

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

If you show them some of your shots I'm pretty sure they'd let you.

Re: Skate - One of the reasons I love things like that in restaurants is because they're such a nuisance in terms of preparation (and eating, unless you process them a lot). I want an expert to do all the hard work for me!

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

He knows them (he retweeted my link), I just need to find the courage to ask. ;o)

Yep!

[professoryaffle.livejournal.com]

but pulling the cooked skate from the bones is one of the enjoyable bits of eating skate

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

They just got in touch. :D

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

Ooh, exciting! :-D