Eurofrutta - welcome to the fresh delivery

It was with great pride that this Saturday afternoon my son Alex harvested his first potato crop. The story started some months earlier when I explained to my two-year-old how when a potato is placed in the ground at the right time of year a little bit later it produces lots of baby potatoes. I showed him how the red potato (Desiree) had started to shoot and even how to place it in the ground. I then continued to mow the lawn and left him digging happily in the mud.

I had completely forgotten about the potato until quite recently I noticed a new plant growing and flowering in the garden. My family’s many years’ involvement in the fruit and vegetable industry did not help me in the answer to the mystery plant until my son said two words in his ever-expanding vocabulary “DIG POTATO! ”

How had I been so stupid? Of course he had planted the potato while I had been otherwise engaged and it had now grown and would soon be ready for harvesting. For the next few weeks we both watched the plant flower and then wilt waiting anxiously for the day when we would dig her up.Well this Saturday I took my garden fork and he took his hand spade and we dug up the plant. The excitement on his face as one by one we discovered potato after potato was a joy to behold. It truly was one of my happiest moments.

This has only encouraged us to attempt grander things next year, a tomato plant perhaps?

October 20th, 2008 | Category: Uncategorized | Leave a comment

The chip parade

Crispy on the outside, soft on the inside, golden in colour and chunky. We were agreed that these were the quintessential components of the great British chip. But which potato to use? This was the brain-teasing quandary put to me by London’s finest fruit and vegetable supplier last week. Eurofrutta needed answers and only I could provide them.

And so my Heston Blumenthal - style experiment began on Saturday morning, somewhat earlier than planned, as I was awoken by a loud ringing. At first I thought it was my Barbera - induced hangover (the wine had come from Marks and Spencer’s by the way and very nice it was too) but the noise was my doorbell, announcing my alarmingly punctual delivery of potatoes from Eurofrutta.

In my box of delights were seven varieties of potatoes all clearly labelled and beautifully presented. The time had come to learn the truth. And so the test began.

I chose seven different potato varieties and cut them into chunky sizes, placed them in a pan of hot oil one at a time, covered the pan and waited for them to do their thing. I should have probably tested the temperature of the oil first and given each chip the same amount of cooking time but you can’t be too precise about cooking. The important thing was to remember which potato had been used; which were the contenders for the great chip challenge. ESTIMA, MARFONA, KING EDWARD, MARIS PIPER, DESIREE, BINJI, and MARIS BARD all lined up, sizzled away and changed colour.

What surprised me was the difference in colour and texture of each variety. The darker a potato turns when fried the more sugar it contains; the softer it becomes the more water it comprises. Starch turns to sugar in a potato when kept in storage for too long or if held at too cold a temperature - so if the chip goes dark, it’s not suitable for chips.

And the winner was… the Maris Piper. It turned out to be crispy on the outside, soft in the centre and positively glistening gold.

October 15th, 2008 | Category: Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Considering my previous visit a week earlier had resulted in a night in Accident and Emergency, I hardly expected to be singing the praises of E&O, the salubrious Notting Hill eatery. However, after being invited back by apologetic staff my partner and would like to offer credit where credit is due to a fine Pan Asian restaurant.

Now unless you’re minted E&O is not the sort of place you go to every week, but my Missus swears that they makes the best black cod this side of Alaska - and at £21.50 so they should. As she had a birthday coming up and I was looking to get into her good books, having fallen out of them to a deafening fortnight-long wall of silence, I thought that by taking her there I could kill two birds with one stone. Unfortunately, I almost succeeded, albeit with a rogue prawn, rather than a stone.

Unfortunately, apart from being the fussiest eater in the world my better half is also highly allergic to shellfish and so we were left with no real option other than make a beeline to the nearest hospital once she had bitten into a prawn and chive dumpling, erroneously presented before instead of the seabass dish ordered. Off we shot to the nearest hospital with said partner’s throat rapidly closing up - for once not because she was refusing to talk to me - in a taxi driven by the slowest driver in the world by far. “I’ve already got three points,” he said. “That’ll be the least of your problems if you don’t step on it,” I replied pointing to my semi-asphyxiated girlfriend.

We got there eventually, though. Central Middlesex hospital took good care of their patient, rushing to her aid immediately administering all the proper drugs and injections until we were discharged, eventually, at 3am. I was initially rather annoyed at the restaurant, not least because they hadn’t rung to enquire about Nadia’s well-being, which I thought was poor form. But I then recalled that in the panic to hail a cab the restaurant’s assistant manager had begun apologising profusely, given me his business card and insisted we return again.

I expect some people might have actually decided to sue and I’m sure we had reasonable grounds. But I don’t really believe in cashing in on what was essentially an honest mistake. Furthermore E&O didn’t actually know my girlfriend was allergic to prawns and quickly admitted fault at having brought her the wrong dish:- a seemingly harmless oversight which unfortunately could have been far from it.

Nonetheless, we decided to go back last weekend if only for the blessed black cod that had not got around to being eaten the first time around. The service couldn’t have been better. 10/10. Everyone had clearly been briefed on the situation but the point wasn’t laboured. So we began with a couple of fabulous cocktails in the sort of fancy bar so dimly-lit and adorned with attractive punters, you feel like an extra in an episode of Sex And The City. I recommend the Rickshaw, by the way (a refreshing concoction of Stolichnaya raspberry vodka, lemon, sugar and raspberries).

Then came the feast: a fabulous cornucopia of dim sum, tempura and sundry savoury Asian delights. Having recently turned vegetarian I plumped for a warm aubergine and coriander salad to follow up the chilli tofu parcels. Sounds exciting doesn’t it? After the tofu dish, which was a touch too sweet for my tastes I wasn’t expecting much from the aubergine salad. After all, who goes to a restaurant to eat salad? Well, from now on, me. For that dish I’d even get in that same taxi again.

Piled high on the plate like an aztec totem pole, it was a towering success of chilli-sprinkled succulence. The vegetable phad thai - a dish I had been unable to finish at a place called Boys Café on the Harrow Road that week so rank was it - was perfect. The only reason I struggled to finish it here was because I was so full.

So all things told a good night was had by all. The black cod lived up to its reputation and E&O preserved theirs. Everyone makes mistakes but the important thing is being big enough to own up to them. Needless to say, the meal was on the house but that is not the reason for my being won over.

Such is the atmosphere, the service (the waiter responsible for the initial faux pas made a point of seeking us out discreetly at the end to say how bad he had felt) and the sheer quality of the food that I will happily return there and part with my hard-earned the next time I’m in the doghouse.

Verdict: Flash Pan Asian fair for when you’re feeling flush.

Rating: 8.5/10

E&O

14 Blenheim Crescent

London W11 1NN

September 29th, 2008 | Category: Uncategorized | Leave a comment

what the pluck?

I don’t know whether anyone caught the Saturday Kitchen on BBC One at the weekend but chef Marcus Wareing made an appearance to plug the opening of his new restaurant ‘Marcus Wareing at the Berkeley Hotel’, which opens on 15 September.

Wareing is such an accomplished chef that his culinary skills have helped earn London retaurant Petrus two Michelin stars and five AA rosettes. It was reassuring to hear Gordon Ramsey’s former protege talk about the importance of using in-season ingredients in his cooking while viewers also got the chance to observe the maestro in action as he rustled up an eight-minute concoction of braised halibut with watercress puree, coddled quails’ eggs and grilled baby leeks.

All was going swimmingly until Wareing suddenly produced a jug of chicken stock and chucked all 200ml of it onto the halibut. Chicken stock!

Now, he may be flavour of the month at Petrus, or the Berkeley, or whatever other posh London eatery have decided to line his pockets but to a one-time pescatarian, the sight of Wareing submerging fish in meat juice is like finding your wife in bed with your father - or worse still, a Tottenham fan. What on earth was he thinking? You could maybe understand it happening at a village b&b - the chicken stock/fish debacle that is, not your old man getting it on with your old girl routine, although come to think of it both are equally appropriate - but this is Marcus Wareing we’re talking about. Shame on you, Wareing!

All of which of course means that if a famous gourmet chef uses meat in his ‘fish’ dishes, then how many other times in the last 15 years have I been similarly duped? And, come to think of it, where on earth is my Missus? She should have been home hours ago.

September 9th, 2008 | Category: Uncategorized | Leave a comment

The seabass wasn't half bad

In the current economic climate it may well be time to tighten the purse strings, batten down the hatches and cut down on the eating out. But try telling that to your better half on a gloomy Sunday night when you’ve been off playing golf all day. So this weekend we made our way to the High Road Brasserie in Chiswick.

House wine
Now someone once told me that you can judge a good restaurant by the quality of its house wine, so when the maitre d’ confessed to me that their house red wasn’t quite up to scratch I was left processing a multitude of thoughts. Did this mean that the restaurant was crap, was my host trying to make me fork out more for a pricier vintage or was i just being offered an honest answer to what an indiscreet question. Answers on a postcard please? Or maybe just on a post.

Malbec 2006
Personally, I will always rather spend a few quid extra on a decent tipple than endure a rubbish vino and this time around I was grateful to my host because the Malbec recommended went down very well indeed. I still don’t understand why you would stock a house red that’s no good but then neither do I understand why you would put aubergine parmigiana on the menu of a French restaurant. The fact that I ordered it was a basic schoolboy error on my part because you don’t go to a French restaurant to eat Italian food.

Pea soup
I did realize my mistake at the time but, as in most French restaurants, I was hardly inundated by vegetarian options, which essentially amounted to pea soup or a vegetable tart of some description. The chef at the High Street Brasserie may well be to vegetable tarts what Ben Ainslie is to sailing but that doesn’t mean I want to give it a go. As for my dish, it was doughy, dour and unremarkable.

1940s vibe
Still, the High Road Brasserie is not a vegetarian restaurant and it is a very pleasant place to while away a few hours. The atmosphere and service are both stylish and slick, the lighting low and accommodating, the decor giving off something of the 1940s Parisien vibe. As I mentioned the wine, a 2006 Malbec, was well worth the £24 I shelled out for it, while my dinner companions both enjoyed their tuna and sea bass dishes. By the way, I know you’re supposed to order white wine with fish but all three of us prefer red - so there.

Good fish
I was particularly envious of Sarah, who had a massive, mouthwatering tuna steak, which came rare and accompanied by a succulent tomato topping. The sea bass was also well-received – even if it did look as though it has just been fished out of the Thames, cleaved in half and slapped unceremoniously on to the plate while still in the final stages of rigamortis. We all shared tasty spinach, soggy fries and a crisp salad as side orders and finished our meal off with a dark chocolate mint mousse, which was overly rich and minty for my tastes.

Verdict:

All in all, at £35 a head it was a pleasant enough couple of hours – but I’d advise any vegetarians considering popping in to take the High Road.

Review:

High Street Brasserie: 5/10

August 21st, 2008 | Category: Uncategorized | Leave a comment