What are you eating and drinking tonight?

[William the White]

I'm off to London this morning for a long weekend away.

Friday evening at the Royal Albert Hall and then Saturday evening in The Dining Room at Jamie Olivers place, Fifteen. We booked this back in December and even then there were only two tables free for this night!

I'm told the thing to do is have the five course tasting menu plus the optional wine package which will set me back £100 each. Best be good!

Inform! detail please

[General Mannerheim]

Fruit loves meat like christmas cake loves cheese. If you've tried it, you'll know.

hell yes!!!

incidentally, im in Bristol and had these local faggots last night. not had them for donkeys, very nice!

[clapton is god]

^ I was a little off with my estimate for the cost of the evening - tea for two at Jamies set us back a whopping £267 but that did include a souvenir mug

The restaurant itself is very easy to get to being just a couple of stops down from Euston on the Northern Line. You enter via the Trapatoria and,as we were a little early, we had a carafe of Spring cocktail whilst we watched the people around us. Lovely and lively setting.

We were then led, on time, to the Dining Room, which is down in the basement and has a quiet but relaxed atmosphere. The staff were all superb and made us feel at ease and at every stage went out of their way to inform us. The wine waiter in particular was very good and for every bottle he brought me he went into a long explanation about the grape and where it was grown and what the wine goes well with. One was Portuguese which I know you're partial to and if I remember correctly it was Azuma, or something very similar. That came with the primera course but it was a different bottle with every course starting with champagne and ending with a sweet and heavy muscadet. It was all excellent.

You're going to want to know about the food now, aren't you William?

Erm, we started with a board of olives - not oiled and prepared as we are used to but straight from the tree - together with a selection of meats and fresh bread with an oil dip.

They then served us a spoonful of mixed items including scallop which together exploded in the mouth leaving us freshened up and ready to move on to the starter.

For starter I had Devonshire crab on bisque.

Next came a papadelle pasta dish with shredded lamb, very fibrous but extremely tasty.

Secondo for me was pork on a bed of sweet and tender onion-like vegetables that my wife knew had a fancy name but I hadn't seen before. She had lamb on beans and peas.

Sweet was a selection of cheeses or panna cotta which I went for. I've never tasted anything better!

The 'taster' menu simply meant that the menu had five choices at each stage. Every course was fantastic!

As an experience we loved it. The cost didn't matter as a one-off. I'd love to go into more detail about the courses and the wine but I'm unable to. I warned my wife, a little tongue in cheek, that we might need to go for a burger after but not a bit of it. We were well fed and satisfied. It was a wonderful experience and one I can highly recommend.

[Zulus Thousand of em]

im in Bristol and had these local faggots last night. not had them for donkeys, very nice!

How sordid!

[BWFC_Insane]

^ I was a little off with my estimate for the cost of the evening - tea for two at Jamies set us back a whopping £267 but that did include a souvenir mug

The restaurant itself is very easy to get to being just a couple of stops down from Euston on the Northern Line. You enter via the Trapatoria and,as we were a little early, we had a carafe of Spring cocktail whilst we watched the people around us. Lovely and lively setting.

We were then led, on time, to the Dining Room, which is down in the basement and has a quiet but relaxed atmosphere. The staff were all superb and made us feel at ease and at every stage went out of their way to inform us. The wine waiter in particular was very good and for every bottle he brought me he went into a long explanation about the grape and where it was grown and what the wine goes well with. One was Portuguese which I know you're partial to and if I remember correctly it was Azuma, or something very similar. That came with the primera course but it was a different bottle with every course starting with champagne and ending with a sweet and heavy muscadet. It was all excellent.

You're going to want to know about the food now, aren't you William?

Erm, we started with a board of olives - not oiled and prepared as we are used to but straight from the tree - together with a selection of meats and fresh bread with an oil dip.

They then served us a spoonful of mixed items including scallop which together exploded in the mouth leaving us freshened up and ready to move on to the starter.

For starter I had Devonshire crab on bisque.

Next came a papadelle pasta dish with shredded lamb, very fibrous but extremely tasty.

Secondo for me was pork on a bed of sweet and tender onion-like vegetables that my wife knew had a fancy name but I hadn't seen before. She had lamb on beans and peas.

Sweet was a selection of cheeses or panna cotta which I went for. I've never tasted anything better!

The 'taster' menu simply meant that the menu had five choices at each stage. Every course was fantastic!

As an experience we loved it. The cost didn't matter as a one-off. I'd love to go into more detail about the courses and the wine but I'm unable to. I warned my wife, a little tongue in cheek, that we might need to go for a burger after but not a bit of it. We were well fed and satisfied. It was a wonderful experience and one I can highly recommend.

I mean it sounds nice and all.

But bloody expensive.

What would it have been with just the one bottle of wine? Instead of one for every course?

[clapton is god]

^ yeah, my daughter said she could have had a week in Spain for that price, and she wasn't wrong, but as a one-off experience it was superb.

As for the wine, well I got a glass with each course not a bottle. It was a 'wine taster' at £40 for the five glasses. My wife just had one glass of house white which is on the receipt at £5.00. I think what bumps the price up is the 'optional service charge' of 12.5% but they were all so good with us and obviously expert that you just can't say 'no, knock that off please' and it never entered my head to do that. I suppose we could have cut the bill down to basics at just over £200 but whats the point of diminishing the night out?

By the way, what started this was my wifes daughter visiting there late last year and buying us a Christmas present of £70 worth of vouchers so it cost her £70 and us £200! Some present that was! My wife did something similar a couple of years ago when she signed me up for a Blackberry for a birthday present. She got the phone for free leaving me with a £38 a month contract! Seems to be a trait I've married into

[BWFC_Insane]

^ yeah, my daughter said she could have had a week in Spain for that price, and she wasn't wrong, but as a one-off experience it was superb.

As for the wine, well I got a glass with each course not a bottle. It was a 'wine taster' at £40 for the five glasses. My wife just had one glass of house white which is on the receipt at £5.00. I think what bumps the price up is the 'optional service charge' of 12.5% but they were all so good with us and obviously expert that you just can't say 'no, knock that off please' and it never entered my head to do that. I suppose we could have cut the bill down to basics at just over £200 but whats the point of diminishing the night out?

By the way, what started this was my wifes daughter visiting there late last year and buying us a Christmas present of £70 worth of vouchers so it cost her £70 and us £200! Some present that was! My wife did something similar a couple of years ago when she signed me up for a Blackberry for a birthday present. She got the phone for free leaving me with a £38 a month contract! Seems to be a trait I've married into

Well sounds nice.

Though I'd probably baulk at paying that for a meal where the first course is "olives and bread" though!

[Bruce Rioja]

What would it have been with just the one bottle of wine? Instead of one for every course?

Ruined.

[BWFC_Insane]

What would it have been with just the one bottle of wine? Instead of one for every course?

Ruined.

Ha I realise that.

Mind the fact its owned by Jamie Oliver is enough to do that for me!

[Bruce Rioja]

What would it have been with just the one bottle of wine? Instead of one for every course?

Ruined.

Ha I realise that.

Mind the fact its owned by Jamie Oliver is enough to do that for me!

Do you reckon they're absolutely pissed off with people asking for turkey twizzlers like they're the first ones to think of it?

[thebish]

I think that the TW bon-viveurs should organise between themselves a "Come Dine With Me" week and post reports on here....

[William the White]

Driving home after the theatre, not eaten since lunch, and I stopped at a chippie, didn't fancy waiting for fish, so bought steak pudding chips and gravy. It's years since I had this. it'll be years till the next time... Like, that gravy had been made in a polish salt mine, and suet is not a taste but a texture, and the pudding's filling was just meat slurry from who knows what animal's parts...

Chips that had escaped gravy pollution absolutely fab, and would have gone really well with a freshly fried fish had I had the patience...

Did a leftover white from fridge... didn't go with anything in the culinary experience of the year so far...

So, is there actually such a thing as a good steak pudding?

[Lord Kangana]

Yeah. We used to make the suet pastry with the fat off the kidneys. Plenty of slow braising of the meat in a stock from its own bones. Do it the old fashioned way. Those babies yeds from the chippy are bloody awful these days.

[CAPSLOCK]

Driving home after the theatre, not eaten since lunch, and I stopped at a chippie, didn't fancy waiting for fish, so bought steak pudding chips and gravy. It's years since I had this. it'll be years till the next time... Like, that gravy had been made in a polish salt mine, and suet is not a taste but a texture, and the pudding's filling was just meat slurry from who knows what animal's parts...

Chips that had escaped gravy pollution absolutely fab, and would have gone really well with a freshly fried fish had I had the patience...

Did a leftover white from fridge... didn't go with anything in the culinary experience of the year so far...

So, is there actually such a thing as a good steak pudding?

I like me puddings, even the ones you don't

A chippy local to me does 'traditional rag puddings'

Seriously doubt they've ever seen a snotrag, but they are different to the Hollands ones et al

[William the White]

Yeah. We used to make the suet pastry with the fat off the kidneys. Plenty of slow braising of the meat in a stock from its own bones. Do it the old fashioned way. Those babies yeds from the chippy are bloody awful these days.

There was no trace of kidney in tonight's. That's what I was hoping for. Kidney is nice. And liver. I've also, in its fresh state, straight from the animal (sheep - in Sudan, literally straight out the innards), enjoyed spleen, heart and tongue. Tonight - just salty sludge. If there was 'steak' it passed my taste buds by. Bloody awful... Good description...

[William the White]

Driving home after the theatre, not eaten since lunch, and I stopped at a chippie, didn't fancy waiting for fish, so bought steak pudding chips and gravy. It's years since I had this. it'll be years till the next time... Like, that gravy had been made in a polish salt mine, and suet is not a taste but a texture, and the pudding's filling was just meat slurry from who knows what animal's parts...

Chips that had escaped gravy pollution absolutely fab, and would have gone really well with a freshly fried fish had I had the patience...

Did a leftover white from fridge... didn't go with anything in the culinary experience of the year so far...

So, is there actually such a thing as a good steak pudding?

I like me puddings, even the ones you don't

A chippy local to me does 'traditional rag puddings'

Seriously doubt they've ever seen a snotrag, but they are different to the Hollands ones et al

I don't think you'd have liked tonight's. How's the rag pudding different? Btw, tonight, i'm sure, nowhere near an authentic Hollands (as I remember).

[CAPSLOCK]

Could be these

http://www.rochdaleobserver.co.uk/news/ ... s_to_shame

[Lord Kangana]

Ha, I can bring any conversation around to not eating Polar Bear Liver. It'll kill you.

Anyway, raw liver? Isn't that bad for you due to the uric acid or somesuch still being present?

I was talking to an Aussie the other day about our wild animal/food stories. Turns out whilst I've had the pleasure of killing a couple of pigs and making sausages and black puddings out of them, he got to kill a wild boar by stabbing it in the heart whilst it was being held by real life Crocodile Dundee. And then drank its blood. My brother in law has had some Samoans cook pig brains for a desert for him. He said it was quite nice. I think I need to do a bush tucker trial or something to up the stakes here.

[TANGODANCER]

I had a Asda/Hollands steak and kidney pudding last night. Wife jugs any meat gravy left from Sunday and puts it in the fridge, and over home-made chips, pud and Butter beans it was delicious. I've had better S & K puds I'll admit, but Hollands generally are okay by me.

[Lord Kangana]

Could be these

http://www.rochdaleobserver.co.uk/news/ ... s_to_shame

My (late) Auntie (not my real one, lived with my grandad after my gran died) used to make rag pudding every week. She'd been a cook in her younger youth, knew just about everything about North West cooking. SHe reckoned Rag puddings originated in Oldham. I bet wars have started over less.