After a leisurely breakfast, we decided to go for a walk along the river that runs beside the campsite.
The path lead us to a village called Labuerda.
The road to Labuerda
I suppose it took us about half an hour to walk to the village. It is small (according to Wikipedia it has 172 inhabitants). It is attractive, set around a square with a c12th church as its focal point.
We had a mooch around the village, found the Parque de Mayores (Park for Oldies) and a few interesting doors.
We decided that we like lunch and a cold beer. The only place that appeared to be open was a bar/restaurant called Fonda Carrera. Neither Diane nor I speak much Spanish, “dos cervezas por favor” is about my limit. As a result, we couldn’t make it clear that we wanted a cold beer. We also wanted something light to eat. We were ushered downstairs to a table in this covered courtyard, where lunch was being served. We ended up having a very good lunch of five, six or seven courses, depending on how you counted. I had manitas, which according to Google translate means handymen, slightly disturbing. It can also mean trotters, pig’s trotters to be precise. I almost chickened out and ordered the chicken. But I thought that pig’s trotters don’t often show up on menus in the United Kingdom. So, why not go for it? I’m glad that I did. They were slightly gelatinous, but tasted magnificent. The meal, which included half a litre of wine each and coffee, came to €26 each.
Handymen (Manitas)
After lunch, we wandered back the way we had come. We stopped for a while, so I could do a watercolor sketch of Peña Montañesa.
Later on, as the sun was setting, it took on a wonderful rose colour.
The concept behind Heston Blumenthal’s restaurant, Dinner, at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel is an interesting one. While his other restaurant, The Fat Duck, pushes the boundaries of modern cuisine, Dinner takes its inspiration from recipes from Britain’s past. He explains why the restaurant was given its name;
“It is never easy naming a restaurant. On this occasion, I wanted something that represented our menu that is inspired by historic British gastronomy, so I searched for a name that had a bit of history, but was also fun.
In the past, the main meal -dinner-was eaten at midday, before it got too dark. But affordable candles and, later, gaslight saw dinner shift. By the mid-1800s people were dining later. People working in the cities were taking a ‘lunch’ to work and having their main meal at 5.00pm when they got home, while in rural areas the main meal was still taken at midday.
Even today, depending where you are in the British Isles, ‘dinner’ might be served at lunchtime, suppertime or, indeed, dinnertime!
This made ‘Dinner’ the natural choice for its typically British quirky history and linguistic playfulness. If nothing else, I hope it’s easy to remember.
– Heston
Though, I suppose, because I live in London rather than the Scottish Borders these days we had “lunch” rather than “dinner”. Anyway the older of my two sisters was down from Scotland on her annual pre-Christmas trip to London and my younger sister suggested that we go to Dinner. Grace and I said “yes please”.
The Room
You walk into the restaurant through a bar area, which looks a pleasant enough area to have a drink while you are waiting for friends and/or your table. The restaurant itself is a large open room with a view over Hyde Park (a strategically placed hedge hides the road that runs between the hotel and the park. A glass wall runs down one side of the room allowing you the see into the kitchen and the famous pineapple spit.
The dress code is pretty relaxed, at least at lunch time, but I doubt that it would change for the evening. While most people, including ourselves, had dressed up a bit, there were a few diners wearing t-shirts and jeans and very few men were wearing ties.
Grace declared the chairs to be suitably comfortable, so on to the food.
The Food
We decided in the interests of economy to have the set menu, which is only available from 12:00 to 14:30, but at £38 for three courses is good value. Neither of the two choices of main course were suitable for a vegetarian,so Grace was given a dish from the A La Carte menu called “Braised Celery” She also went off piste with her pudding, but more of that later.
A very comprehensive wine list was proffered and flicked through. Possibly I missed it but I couldn’t see the £12.50 House Red. Wine by the bottle is not cheap. There are few, if any bottles at less than £50 and an awful lot over £100. We decided to go with the suggested wine pairings at about £10 per glass.
The set menu offers a choice of two starters, two mains and two puddings, if you are interested click here to see the full menu.
The Starter
Ragoo of Pigs Ear on Toast (c.1750)
My starter was the Ragoo of Pigs Ear on Toast. The recipe it is based on comes from around 1750. The pig’s ear is cooked in red wine and Madeira with onions and anchovies until it is falling apart. The sauce is heavily reduced to a slightly sweet syrup. My sister who also had the dish suggested that it had the texture of pulled pork, she was about right. It is served on a slice of toast, which soaks up the juices and saves asking for bread to mop them up. The wine that went with it was a full bodied Rioja. The intense meaty flavours would have completely overwhelmed a more delicate wine.
Lemon Salad (c.1730)
Grace (being vegetarian) and my other sister chose the Lemon Salad which dates from around 1730. It consisted of smoked artichokes preserved lemon, beetroot and goat’s curd. They both pronounced it excellent. (The photo is borrowed from my sisters Facebook page)
The Main
Roast Quail (c.1590)
My main course was Roasted Quail, which was served on a bed of cabbage with a celeriac puree, smoked chestnuts and a quail sauce. This was a lovely dish. Quail is quite a delicately flavoured bird and because of it’s size not the easiest to cook, it is very easy to over or under cook and even easier to dry out. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that a two Michelin Starred kitchen managed to cook it perfectly, but it was. The puree was smooth as silk and the smoked chestnuts added a complimentary flavour and texture. What they did to the cabbage I am not quite sure, but it was simultaneously creamy, crunchy and had more flavour than any cabbage I can remember eating. The wine that was served with it was something I had never tasted before. A Corsican red, made from two grapes that I had never heard of and whose names I cannot remember, I really should have taken notes from our very (pleasantly) chatty and informative sommelier. When we tried it the first reaction of my sister and myself were exactly the same “That’s different, but pleasant”, when it was drunk with the food it was perfect. I don’t think I have ever had a wine that went with the food I was eating as perfectly as that did.
Grace had the only veggie main on the menu; Braised Celery (c.1730) with Parmesan, girolles, vinaigrette, cider apple & smoked walnuts. Unfortunately the restaurant got the idea that she was a Vegan rather than Vegetarian (she’s not it’s just that she doesn’t like too much egg or cheese and lazy cooks have a tendency to produce a cheese omelette) the kitchen left the parmesan sauce off the dish. She said it was fine and that the carmelised smoked walnuts were something else, but it probably did need the sauce or something to bring it together.
My other sister decided to have the Roast Pollack (c.1830), Admiral’s sauce Parsnip puree, shrimps, shallots, brown butter & capers. She is married to a fisherman so knows what a good piece of fish should taste like. She pronounced it the best bit of fish that she could remember eating.
The Pudding
Spiced Christmas Custard Tart (c.1850)
My pudding was a Custard Tart, but that doesn’t really do it justice. Yes it was a perfectly made custard tart, the pastry was thin sweet and crisp and the custard, well, custardy soft and not too sweet, but what lifted it to the special was the intense thin layer of mincemeat with a good kick of brandy between the pastry and the custard, oh and the brulee type topping.
My sister had the Millionaire Tart (c.1730), which when it arrived at the table I said “oh it’s just like mum used to make”. Apparently, it had similarities in that it had a biscuit base, a caramel layer topped by a chocolate layer, but that was where it ended. Mum I’m afraid that your Millionaire’s Shortbread is now only the second best ever. (Though I don’t think they could top your Apricot Tart.)
Grace decided that she would like the Tipsy Cake (c.1810) with Spit roast pineapple from the spit that we could see revolving away from our table. She didn’t like the pineapple, but that was because for some reason she has developed an aversion to acidic foods, so she left it to the rest of us to try, it was perfectly fine, but I didn’t think the taste justified the hype. The tipsy cake on the other hand brought a huge silly grin to her face with the first spoonful, which stayed there ’till we got home. She was generous enough to let the rest of us try a little bit. It was a brioche filled with creme anglaise and soaked in rum, pure indulgence. She described it as the best bread and butter pudding ever.
We finished our meal with coffees which came with a caraway seed biscuit and a little pot of chocolate ganache to dip them in.
The service throughout was excellent but unobtrusive, I don’t think my water glass remained unfilled for more than five seconds. Actually our sommelier wasn’t that unobtrusive, but he was informative and fun, so I forgave him.
The bill, including drinks and service came to £75 per head, not cheap but I think for a one off occasion worth it.
Barbara Ellen has a rant in today’s Observer at people who won’t go out with a vegetarian because they are “too picky” and make dining out “nightmare”.
“Would you date a vegetarian? I ask, because it’s still evident that there are people who’d prefer not to, because they feel that dining out would be a nightmare and that vegetarians are “too picky”.The cheek of it, yet such judgment is widespread.
Now I have some sympathy with her views, having gone out with, indeed been married to a vegetarian for the best part of the last 30 years. Admittedly it does need a bit of reading of menus outside restaurants in France, and (in France) often ends up eating in an Italian or Vietnamese restaurant. But generally, no they are not picky they can’t afford to be.
“It’s time to fight back. Vegetarians don’t ruin meals in restaurants – we are angels who meekly accept the one dish (max) we’re offered (these days, either the ubiquitous goat’s cheese tart or dreaded risotto).
It is slightly better than it used to be, when the choice was generally the vegetarian lasagna. Or with one memorable, for all the wrong reasons, meal in a pub on the A303, tagliatelle in “mushroom sauce”. They had boiled the tagliatelle for about an hour and the “mushroom sauce” looked and tasted like Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom soup. An Anglo-Italian family had made the same mistake as us. Their teenage daughter was overheard saying,
“Mama you will not believe what they have done to the pasta”.
My meal wasn’t much better.
“We don’t kick off when male omnivores use every pan in the house, lost in a fantasy that they’re Anthony Bourdain.
Yes you do, but we’ll leave that for another day. Anyway in my case the fantasy is that I’m Heston Blumenthal
No, the time when vegetarians are picky and a pain in the backside in restaurants is when you go to a vegetarian restaurant with them. Normally it takes her two seconds to decide what she is having to eat ( because there is only one choice) but take her to Terre à Terre and Grace can take half-an-hour making up her mind what to have.
Terre by the way comes highly recommended by this omnivore. Only the most blinkered carnivore could fail to enjoy their food.
I spent last Sunday morning watching the professionals taking part in the pre-Olympic test event the London – Surrey Cycle Classic. This week I thought I would give it a try myself. I was in a mood for comfort and not for speed so I took my Touring Bike instead of my “racing” bike. I don’t race, I have never raced, but I call it my racing bike because it is lighter and faster than my touring bike. Bike choice made I headed out into the Surrey Hills. Read on
Riverside Vegetaria* has long been one of our favourite restaurants and as we have eaten there three times since Christmas (four if you include Christmas Lunch), I have decided that it is about due for a review. We don’t normally eat there quite that regularly as Kingston is a good half to three-quarters of an hour journey from where we live. Recently however circumstances have led us to eating there almost every Sunday, or at least that is how it seems.
Today, my brother-in-law and his wife had come to visit us. They are both carnivores, so our original plan was to take them to an Italian restaurant as we can usually find something that Mrs johnm55 (who is a veggie) can eat on an Italian menu. However when we arrived the queue was out the door and we were told it would be at least half an hour for a table. The brother-in-law didn’t fancy queueing so suggested that we try Riverside as Mrs johnm55 had been raving about it.
The first thing to note about Riverside is it’s setting. It is right on the river, and especially in summer the setting is, idyllic is probably going slightly over the top, but it is very attractive. The second thing is the service, which is always friendly and as efficient as it needs to be. The third thing is how do they manage to get as many tables into such a small space.
The fourth thing is the food. The menu is fairly eclectic, but does tend to have a bias towards food from the Indian Sub Continent. Also, and this is not a criticism, this is a traditional vegetarian’s vegetarian restaurant (vegans are also well catered for), as opposed to a place like Terre a Terre in Brighton which has a more obvious appeal to omnivores, whilst still remaining vegetarian. So how did a couple of carnivores, or three if you count me, get on?
The women decided to skip the starters and stuck to the wholemeal garlic bread, which always arrives with the drinks. My b-i-l decided to have the Cream of Broccoli Soup and I had the Organic Spicy Vegetable Balls with Coriander Sauce. The Cream of Broccoli soup was pronounced as very enjoyable, but different to what he had expected. I pointed out that here a Vbeside a dish means Vegan not Vegetarian, so the unexpected taste might have been down the lack of cream, which he agreed was a possibility. My Spicy Vegetable Balls were excellent. They were two balls of finely shredded carrot, onion and potato, well spiced, dipped in a light batter and deep-fried. The Coriander Sauce that they were served with, tasted of fresh coriander, just enough chilli, cumin and ground coriander. I had never ordered them before, but will do so again.
The main courses arrived. My brother-in-law and I ordered the same thing, the Masala Dosai, my sister-in-law went for the Green Lentil and Vegetable Curry, and Mrs johnm55 decided that she was having the House Salad. Normally the House Salad has Cottage Cheese, but as she doesn’t like cottage cheese, they replaced it with a rather large quantity of avocado. I was an impressive plate of vegetables, fruits and nuts, accompanied by a jug of dressing. My sister -in-law was in the meantime tucking into her green lentils with obvious enjoyment.
My Dosai was as I expected it to be. The Dosai is a bit thicker than you would normally be served in a South Indian restaurant but nicely crisp on the outside and stuffed with a tasty, spicy, potato filling. Accompaniments are a vegetable curry and a very good coconut sambar.
We debated having puddings, but decided that we were all full enough.
So how did the carnivores get on? I enjoyed my meal at Riverside as I always do, my brother and sister-in-law, thought it was excellent and said that they wished that they had something like it near where the live, so all in all a success.
The bill, including a bottle house red (which was perfectly drinkable, if nothing spectacular) came to £67.50, but as we have been eating there a lot recently we had a 20% discount card so only paid £54.00.
Because I am a bit of a coffee aficionado (or possibly snob) and sometimes have been disappointed by their coffee we walked along to Carluccio’s for coffee.
It was raining fairly heavily otherwise we would have gone for a walk along the river to help a very pleasant lunch go down
*If you click-through to the restaurant website I don’t think it has been updated recently and my feeling is the prices are slightly higher than those shown on their sample menu.
I’ve been eating fairly regularly at the Jaffna House in Tooting since being introduced to it by Mrs Johnm55’s Sri Lankan friend. We have just had lunch there (with the aforementioned Sri Lankan friend) an I feel that it is time to announce what a fine and wallet friendly place it is.
I am talking about the café / takeaway part on Tooting High Street rather than the licensed restaurant, the entrance to which is round the corner on Coverton Road. The restaurant I am sure also serves excellent food and will also be very good value for money, but I have never eaten in it so I can’t comment. The café however is in my opinion brilliant.
My starter was quite simple, just two Masala Vadai, served with red and green coconut chutneys, they were nicely crisp on the outside, but the spiced potato filling was moist and soft. The chutneys had, for me, just the right amount of chilli kick, the red being a bit more fiery than the green. I pinched a bit of Mrs johnm55’s Chana Chundal (chick peas) and they were excellent as well. The SL friend originally wasn’t going to have a starter, but changed her mind and came back with a couple of what looked like miniature deep-fried Cornish Pasties, she did say what they were, but as you get older the short-term memory goes a bit.
My main was Oothappam which is probably best described as a thick pancake with peppers, tomatoes, chillies and other veggies mixed into the batter and served with a vegetable curry and a coconut sambar. The softness, almost but not quite stodginess of the pancake batter was sharpened by the heat of the chillies. The vegetable curry added more flavour and lubrication (after I had picked out the okra – I don’t like the texture) and the sambar gave a bit more heat, if needed. I was just what was needed on a grey rainy November day.
Mrs johnm55 had a Masala Dosai as she normally does, and pronounced it as being up to the normal standard. The SL friend had three Idaly. I’m not quite sure what they are, but as she often orders them, I’ll take it on trust that they are good. I might even try them the next time I eat there. The fourth member of the party, a Canadian, had the Sunday special, Jaffna House Special Noodles, which are noodles with mixed veg, mutton, egg and prawns, which she said were rather good, just don’t turn up on Tuesday expecting them to be on the menu
If you decide to eat there remember it is a café, Sometimes all the plates do not arrive at the same time, but they do arrive within a few minutes of each other. The café is also unlicensed so no Cobra.
There were four of us, we each had starters, main courses and (soft) drinks. We all enjoyed our meal.The total bill was just under £16.00. I consider that pretty good value for money.
A Scotsman in Suburbia 