So much to say... PART 1

Stream of consciousness is such an interesting thing.  Long overdue to write up many a golden nugget from the past couple months, I started humming “So Much to Say”.  Good old Dave Matthews Band, one of the constant beacons of my days at the University of Rochester.  That and plaid shirts.  

Anyway, Dave humming immediately led me down the path of thinking, “gosh, I wonder how long ago I actually sat and listened to that album?”  This of course immediately made me realise that this month is my 15 year anniversary of graduating from the U of R.

Jaw Drop. Denial. Recalculation. Realisation that this is simple math and no matter how I look at it it’s not going to change anything.

WHEN DID I GET TO BE SO OLD?!

Followed closely by the thought, “Hmmm I think I may have finished university when I was 14. Quite extraordinarily advanced for my years.  I am so looking forward to my 30^th birthday next year.”

Denial, followed by realisation, followed by a teensy tiny white lie.

But, as this was really about having so much to say, I propose quickly changing the subject and getting on with it. (More denial).

The past month saw me saying sayonara to one job and hola to another.  Timed alongside a fairly busy social calendar, I ended up having two weeks full of leaving / team / retirement / catch up dinners.  There were a couple scintillating highlights.  

Restaurant Story by Tom Sellers and Dinner by Heston Blumenthal.  

While both restaurants left me doing a small happy dance at the table (why must I always make a spectacle of myself when my belly is happy?) and both are on the cutting edge of food artistry in London, it was the more informal atmosphere and location of London Bridge of Restaurant Story that probably eeked out as a favourite.

Restaurant Story has two menu options, the 6 or 10 course tasting menu.  Noting that we'd probably be served amuse bouches and palate cleansers up the wazoo, we opted for the 6 course. Which as imagined, ended up being about 12 courses once all the "extras" were added in.

Probably the most creative dish of the evening was "bread and dippings". Essentially our candlelit table was our formal first course.  Serving us home made bread and relish, we were instructed to dip the bread in the candle "wax" - edible beef fat!  Once you got past the concept of dipping your bread into what appeared to be proper candle wax (as well as the thought of the artery clogging damage being done) it was a clever way to start off our meal.  Kids, I would not recommend trying this at home.

Selection of amuse bouches, including crispy cod skin with smoked cod mousse, seaweed butter filled radishes and "Story-O" cookies

"Bread and Drippings"

Fast forward to my favourite highlight of the night, "Almond and Dill", the main dessert course (there were three). Very hard to describe, almond and dill were sliced and diced in a number of different ways.  The only sensible item I could recognise was an almond ice cream.  However, the various textures and flavours of the dish combined in the mouth for an early spring garden party of sorts.  The dish's legacy? Never will I be able to look at dill pickle in the same way!  

"Almond and Dill"

By comparison, Dinner by Heston Blumenthal is set in the luxe Mandarin Oriental on lovely Hyde Park. Complete with swishy clientale and top-hatted doorman, we opted for a "sensible" three course dinner.

Famous for it's starter of "Meat Fruit", I had to oblige.  Chicken liver and foie gras mousse was covered in a mandarin jelly and shaped well, like a mandarin.  Served with grilled bread, this was as decadent and delicious as any paté lover might imagine.  I won't lie, I struggled to finish it all  due to the richness, but pulled through in the end.  Sadly this didn't leave much space for my main course, a slightly above average turbot, of which I left about half.

"Meat Fruit"

Going a "bit easy" on my main course I was able to encourage my dessert stomach (I have a special stomach reserved for such occasions) to go to town on the gorgeous "Baked Sussex Pond Pudding".  It consisted of a soft cake like base and a hard sweet biscuit built up and around it. Knocking it open resulted in a lemon caramel oozing out around the plate.  Imagine lemon curd mixed with salted caramel and you get an idea for just what was happening inside that little pud.  I was so distracted by the sheer amazingness of it all I didn't even capture a photo of it in it's relaxed, free flowing sensual state.  I'm not sure I even breathed before the whole thing was snarffed back in my greedy gob.

"Baked Sussex Pond Pudding"

I've tittered on long enough here for the moment...stay tuned for So much to say-PART 2 where I'll happily be introducing you to cocktails, hot pot, and the gift that keeps on giving (contaminated ice cubes)!