Where do I begin?
Perhaps I should start with saying thank you to my foodie friend
Goz for a seating at The Loft .
Some time ago, I had the pleasure of savouring the
posh bacon and eggs by Ben Greeno during dinner. So when Goz mailed me about some seats he had for the Young Turks, a collaboration between Isaac McHale, James Lowe and Ben Grenno, at the Nuno Mendes' Loft Project. I could hardly say no!
Freda and I rolled up to Kingsland Road after a long Thursday at work not knowing what to expect being novices in 'guerilla' dining (as I'd call it). We were welcomed by Chris and Dan of the Clove Club with a rhubarb prosecco fizz, and nibbles -- Gem Lettuce, Curd & Anchovy, Smoked Cod's Roe with an oat tuille (this was sublime and my favourite!!), and cured middle white fat (cured for 14 months?) and ham (18 months, I think).
The Loft which is situate off the rather industrial looking side of Kingsland Road is a charm. High ceilings, exposed brick walls (I have an incredible weekness for this!), long tables, spring blooms perched in white pots, an open kitchen where the chefs and their team laboured through the evening to plate up beautiful morsels of food. Front of house made sure everyone was taken care of and topped up intermittently. The wine pairing was interesting and it added an additional dimension to the entire experience.
There was loads of natter between the diners (it was really great meeting uber supperclub enthusiast Miguel from Portugal,
Wenlin and her husband Amir), and the chefs were happy to mingle and chat (both before, during and after diner) and didn't really oppose to anyone peeking and peering at the preparations. It was clear that it was going to be an evening of communal dining amongst people with one similar passion - food. OK, so this was definitely an obvious point but hey, i'm new at this, and I have to say, I was slightly in awe !
Moving on:
L-R from the Top
Duck Egg, Ramson and Snails (Chateau de Roquefort ' Petit Sale' (2010))
I am easily excitable. Snails, eggs, and garlic are easily on my list of top favourite food types / ingrediants. Except, I've never had it altogether on a plate. Duck Egg sousvided? or poached? It was a huge yolk perched on a slice of sourdough toast, snails and a green garlicky sauce which absolutely blew me away. Tonight, it was also a botanical lesson unlike any other for me.
Ramsons, as I soon found out later that evening, is also known as buckrams, wild garlic, broad-leaved garlic, wood garlic or bear garlic. It is a wild relative of chives and is a favourite of the wild boar. Thank you wikipedia.
Raw Beef Rib, Oyster and Chickweed (Vignobles Guillaume Pino Noir (2008))
This second dish, as my Portuguese dining partner pointed out, was an interesting twist on the french steak tartare. I already said i'm easily excitable -- raw beef, oysters, breadcrumbs fried in fat...ick. Fat. Oysters. Beef. ipercholestoral maybe, but again, a winning combination for me. What was interesting here was the the oysters were in fact infused into a mouse of sorts that was delicately piped onto the plate. The beef had much more of a bite (which I thoroughly enjoyed) than its slightly more mushy cousin across the channel (possibly from the raw egg). the neighbour on my right (as I soon found out was the 'mother of the chef'), Isaac's quivered a little at the redness of the beef but thoroughly enjoyed the other courses. Clearly, a mother so proud of her son :)
Chickweed, I now know, is an annual herb, widespread in temperate zones. Most are succulent and have white flowers, is edible (obviously) and has medicinal value. altnature.com tells me that they exhibit a very interesting trait, they sleep every night, hence termed the 'Sleep of Plants', and the leaves fold over its tender buds and new shoots.
Beetroot, Iced Goat's Milk and Pickled Elderberries (Domaine Gerard Metz 'Eldelrwicker' (2009))
This was an interesting and very original dish. It was kind of a cross between a savoury dish and a dessert. I am loving beetroot at the moment and the iced goat's milk reminded me fondly of ice kachang (a shaved ice dessert) back home.If i didn't know better i'd have thought that the dainty white mound was icing sugar. Right. I am personally not a big fan of a goat's by-produce - milk / cheese but I gave it a go and found this to be a very clever dish with intense flavours.
Jersey Royals, Monk's Beard and Crab (Pierre Cros Minervois Blanc (2010))
I didn't quite expect potatoes this evening (based on the previous dishes). It was comfort food with the most amazingly flavoured crab(or seafood?) cream. Was the potato cooked in broth? This chowder reminded me of the seaside and Noirmoitier. I almost can't wait for summer to arrive now. ;)
Monk's Beard, also known as Barba di frate, I was told had flavours that were sort of a cross between seaweed and spinach. Looking at it on the plate and picking it out with my fork, it looked almost abit like some of the saltwater plants we used to study in water (fish) tanks during science classes."How DARE YOU!?" some might say. But it was a really clever complement to the dish - it reminded me of the sea.
Ok, so
http://recipetips.com/ tells me that this is a type of chicory common in Tuscany, Italy where the Cappuccino monks began growing this vegetable green which ultimately became named for their efforts in raising it. With a short season lasting for only five weeks or so, Monk's Beard develops into a thin leafy green with a long white stem.
Chicken, Rye, Hop shoots and Green Onions (Domaine Boudau 'Le Clos' (2009))
I could not believe the chicken in this dish. So moist, so tender, it was unreal. I was heaving from the 4 earlier dishes by this point but still, I cleared my plate. This dish, though many would think is simple and rustic in flavour, chicken, grains, shoots and green onion (did we taste some mushroom in it?) -- kinda like a rustic english risotto but boy was this spectacular. In terms of flavour, this dish has no words. Suffice it to say, the earthiness (and chickeniness [I already said, there are no words]) was phenomenal. It blew me away.
This, together with the first dish were the stars of the day for me.
At one point, someone passed round a packet of what looked like a bunch of dried out skinny asparagus. The knowledgeable diners told me nope, it was hop shoots. It had an amazing grassy fragrance. I swear, one could almost get high on it.
Hop. Sounds familiar? Wikipedia tells me that it is a small genus of flowering plants native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. It is a perennial herbaceous plant which sends up new shoots in early spring (until the end of May) and dies back to the cold-hardy rhizone in autumnT. he female flowers (often called "cones") of H. lupulus are known as hops, and are used as a culinary flavoring and stabilizer, especially in the brewing of beer. The hop is part of the family Cannabaceae, which also includes the genera Cannabis (hemp), and Celtis (hackberries).
Ok, do we understand now why one might get slightly loopey on it?
Hop shoots grow very rapidly and at the peak of growth can grow 20 to 50 cm per week. Hop bines climb by wrapping clockwise around anything within reach, and individual bines typically grow between 2 to 15m depending on what is available to grow on. When the hop bines run out of material to climb, horizontal shoots sprout between the leaves of the main stem to form a network of stems wound round each other.
Chocolate Malt Ice Cream and Cascara Jelly (The Kernal, Imperial Brown Stout)
I have to confess that by dessert, even though I was bursting at the seams, I was expecting something really punchy and explosive. Normally, it decides whether a spot is sealed in ultimate food heaven at the end of the evening. That said, the verdict: delightful, and a lovely light finish to the evening.
There was a murmur that the cascara had something to do with coffee. The jelly had such delicate flavour, my very undiscerning palate could barely taste it. Was it there for texture? hmm...but using the very cliche phrase, it made the dessert 'come together'. The ice cream was velvety and smooth and I'd be happy to chow down a pot of it anyday. Even though the flavour of the jelly was subtle, it really did add something of a je ne sais quoi in the dessert.
Cascara. When I first googled what it was, the top hit said it was a herb with laxative propreties. hmm...upon further research this morning,
http://hasbean.co.uk/ told me that Cascara is the dried fruit from the coffee 'cherry', the seed from which is the coffee 'bean' as we know it. Normally this is a waste product or at best is used to fertilise the ground by breaking it down. But it can be used to brew a delicious and refreshing caffeinated drink.
If you are still here reading, you can probably tell from the length of this post that this experience, to say the very least, was really really exceptional.
