Wine tasting in Canberra.

Having arrived safely in Australia and spent a week in Sydney we headed to Australia's capital, Canberra, for a few nights.

As well as boasting some of Australia's best restaurants Canberra also sits on the edge of the Murrembatenman wine region, where they claim to grow cool climate wines (I say "claim" because it was about 35 degrees when we turned up) with a lot of the local vineyards having a "cellar door" which means you can go, do a tasting and buy a few cases of wine. This often gives you a chance to talk to the producer and find out a bit about the wines.

There are around 20 wineries in the region although most are not open for the whole week, usually only on Fridays and at weekends (and sometimes during the harvests, not at all). We arrived on a Friday a few days before Christmas and found quite a few we're closed.

We started with Clonakilla which is quite a prestigious vineyard having won several awards for their 2008 and 2009 Shiraz Viognier, they also have a selection of Reisling, Viognier and Semillion .
However like many in the region they have struggled with the weather in the last few years and their more recent reds are a long way from the thick, rich jammy Shiraz which the region is famed for. Having sampled the pretty watery, almost pinot noir like 2011 and 2010 Shiraz (strange that they were the ones available for tasting as these were not really ready to drink) we decided to exit without making a purchase, there is always a bit of pressure to buy at these things but if they are charging 85 AUD (around 60 quid) for a bottle that I can't imagine winning any awards anytime soon then I think a quick exit is always a good plan.

The second vineyard, Helm, was a lot better, down a gravel road about 5km from the main town in a quaint old school house from 1888. They had a much better selection of reds available from 2008 and 2009 as well as some of the more recent whites. Talking to the owner (who drove to meet us when she saw our arrival) we found that during the wet years in 2011 and 2010 they hadn't been able to make a red. The red we eventually purchased was a 25 AUD 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon, which (at the risk of sounding like a wine blogger) was smooth, full bodied with hints of cherries and was an excellent wine to accompany steak or cheese.

After a hard morning drinking we headed to Shaw vineyard estate for some food in their "Flint in the Vines" cafe where they serve a selection of food and wine.

We had 2 really nice pizza's (although we avoided the adventurous sounding blue cheese and pear topping) while sampling the 2010 premium reisling, which was a dry floral, crisp wine with a touch of green apple. After a very satisfying lunch (note: that one pizza per couple would have been plenty of food) we tasted some of the other wines they had to offer and found ourselves leaving with a few bottles of a very easy drinking sparkling white wine made from semillion called "Cielo", ideal for hot afternoons it had a light citrus taste and was available for 20AUD a bottle.

Sadly that bought an end to the tasting but I am keen to return on a weekend when more of the vineyards are open (although I have a feeling it will have a serious effect on my bank balance so I will probably need a job first). Next stop will be the Riverena region (which makes 65%
of New South Wales wines, including the yellow tail Chardonnay) followed by the Hunter valley.

Kuala Lumpur, it's all about shopping!

For my first trip to Asia we went for a gentle introduction, Kuala Lumpur formerly part of the British empire (complete with cricket pitch in the centre of the old town) is a common stopping off point on the flight to Australia.

The city is, at first glance, very modern, with the Petronas towers dominating the skyline on clear days (sometimes it can be smoggy). It also has 3 massive upmarket shopping centres which are linked by kilometres of overground walkways for pedestrians (air conditioned of course!)

Food wise there was a huge array to choose from, for tourists most hotels have 2 or 3 restaurants in them, also all of the major shopping centres have a floor of restaurants with cuisines from all around the world. Our hotel, the Royal Chulane, had an excellent Malaysian restaurant which, although more expensive (at 40 ringgit, or 8 pounds for a main) than some options served an excellent curry.

The best place to grab lunch is probably in the food courts of the shopping centres, these are usually on the ground floor and are not to be confused with the sit in restaurants which are usually on the higher floors and charge closer to 30 ringgit for a main. The food courts have a central sit in area (at busy times it can be tough to get a seat) and a Cosmopolitan feel with noodles, curry, Mexican, sushi and McDonalds all jostling for your attention. Meals here usually cost around 10 Ringgit (2 pounds) for a main dish and are usually pretty tasty (I tried a Malay chicken hot pot which was really good and a burrito which was ok).

The hotel we were staying in was a 5 star hotel, complete with pool, gym and 3 restaurants all available for a very reasonable 60 pounds a night, including an interesting "international" breakfast. If you have never seen one of these then you are missing out, food from waffles to curry, not forgetting noodles and croissants! The only thing missing was bacon.

Rather than spend all of our time in the hotel and shopping centres we also ventured out (initially via taxi but after 30 minutes in a bank holiday traffic jam where we moved 200 meters we got out and walked) to try the highly recommended Bijan restaurant which also serves traditional Malay cuisine (most of which seem to be curries and seafood dishes)

Although the food was pretty good and had a very traditional feel I think the excellent meal in the hotel (at approximately the same price) was more of a fine dining experience. If you have time I would do both!

Eating in Rome

As the first stop on our crazy round the world adventure my fiancée and I spent a few nights staying with friends in Rome before embarking on a marathon 14 hour flight to Kuala Lumpur.

The best way to experience the culture in any city is to do it with a native, avoiding all the tourist traps and pitfalls (also speaking the lingo helps smooth the way somewhat).

The first thing I noticed about Italy is that it is cheaper to eat standing up, most Romans do this for breakfast, they stand and drink espresso while eating their cornetto (Italian for croissant!) before making way for the next person to get their caffeine fix. The moment you sit down at the table then you'll pretty much end up paying double! If the coffee shop you have chosen doesn't appear to have a group of locals huddled around a bar type area near an espresso machine then leave as you are in a tourist trap and the coffee will be awful (and expensive)!

Lunch can also be got on the cheap in this way, from either one of the take away pizza shops (which usually have square trays of different pizza varieties on display and charge by toppings and weight) or somewhere that does apperitivos. These are small bites (like Spanish pixos) which are available for a small cost, you can buy a beer and get a plate and if you stand or perhaps sit on a high stool next to a shelf you can keep getting more (in most places) at no extra cost!

If you want a more sit down affair then there are loads of options, I would probably say it is best to steer clear of anything but Italian and I was pleasantly surprised by the variety even in the Italian restaurants.

I had some amazing meals in Rome, the pasta degustation at Isidor (about 500 meters east of the collesium) is a must and a bargain with 5 courses of pasta available at around 18 euros (most of these came with seafood). We also had breakfast at a crazily busy coffee shop called Parnella most days. The is a little way south of Termini station and is out of the way for most hotels but as I said before, you'll find good breakfast places near you, just make sure some Italians are eating there.

We also had a meal out in Trastevere, which is a small, bohemian area near the Vatican at a nice little bistro style restaurant called cafe la Scala, where I sampled some of the more traditional Roman fayre, this included saltimbocca (veal wrapped in Palma ham, served is a creamy, salty sauce) which I would say you should definitely try at some point if you are in Rome.

The final recommendation, of Marenega in Campo de' Fiori, comes with a bit of a caveat, one of the people we stayed with works there, but regardless of this it was my favourite meal of the holiday. I should also point out we didn't eat off the menu throughout, see the lobster surprise below, which was a surprisingly amazing calzone style pizza filled with lobster linguine, but we did for most of the meal. We had a wide selection of starters and i have to say the meat there was stunning (well cooked and tender) but everything we tried I would recommend, including pasta inside a pizza, which was one of the most surprising meals I have ever had.

Just a quick note on the wine, house wine is usually the best way to drink on a budget, in the better restaurants these are usually pretty good local types, i would suggest getting a 250ml taster on the cheap to try before you go for the full litro. Alternatively I would go for some of the regional Italian wines, my personal preference being a Montepulciano, I know some Italian wines have developed a bad reputation in the uk but I think that is because most of the good stuff stays in Italy!

All sweetness and night at The Duck and Waffle

For my final London fine dining experience for a while (I am going travelling for the next 6 months so this blog will be taking on a more international flavour) me, my partner (now fiancée) and my best friend headed to the top of heron tower in an express glass elevator which covers the 40 floors in under 30 seconds!

As the London skyline at night burst into view I thought that perhaps the journey up would be the most impressive thing of the evening, however the view from the restaurant at the top is even more impressive and the food itself manages to still be the highlight of the night.

The food on offer is a series of strange, well presented tapas, most of which has a sweet tang, which is also mirrored in the wine list with many options being off dry.

We started with pigs ears, which I would recommend to anyone who, like me, loves pork scratchings. Then between 3 of us we shared 4 of the smaller plates, the excellent rabbit rilette, a really interesting fois gras all day breakfast, the octopus and ox cheek donuts with apricot jam. All the food made a good sharing and talking point and set us up for the signature duck and waffle, which is one of their large plate options.

The duck and waffle itself was a really nice flavour combination, it is served with maple syrup (who needs gravy?) and although while eating it you occasionally find yourself thinking you are having a dessert, I would still definitely recommend it.

As you'd expect from a restaurant with such an obvious sweet tooth the desserts were also stunning, both in looks, taste and the amount of sugar they managed to get into them, we tried one each (a pear, a chocolate fondant and a chocolate raspberry one) and they were diabetes good, although my partner found hers too sweet (which was great as I got more of it!)

The only slight downside would be the cost of most of the wines, there isn't a lot of choice at the 20-40 pound price point although the bottle we plumped for in the end did go really well with the food.

Obviously, as with most fine dining experiences, you would be well advised to book a long way in advance, with tables for more than 2 people often requiring over 6 weeks notice, even on quieter week nights. Price wise expect to spend 45 per head on food and as much as you feel like on drinks.

I have to say that it was an excellent way to leave London on a high (not least from the sugar)

A tale of two curries

I love a good curry, so when, as part of London restaurant week, I got chance to try a michelin starred version I naturally jumped at the opportunity.

I should first say that I have eaten at a lot of London's more well regarded curry establishments, including Tayyabs, Mirch Masala and any number of the random places you find all the way down Brick Lane and popping up all over the city.

What I have found is that although quite a lot of finding a good curry house is a lucky dip, once you have got lucky you should be able to get a decent meal for around 20 quid (without cobra), although having said that I have had a very decent meal for less than that on many happy occasions

Sadly Benares, on Berkley Square did not fall into the category for great value, the deal they offered as part of London restaurant week was 3 courses for 25 pounds, which sounded reasonable enough for a michelin starred place but rather than do a selection from their tasting menu (which is the approach taken by many restaurants who take part) they used the event to promote their new(ish) Thali menu.

Now personally I think this was quite a large mistake, mainly because, to keep costs down, the menu they chose was almost identical to one you could find in most curry houses all over London, but while you were eating you were sat next to people eating a selection of amazing looking dishes from the real menu, putting into stark relief the very normal fayre we were presented with. Food envy is bad enough when it is your partners meal (because if you are lucky/quick you can get to try some) however when it is a neighbouring table you quickly feel like a poor relation. The thali platters were well laid out with a good selection of dishes, but to be honest both of the main curries (chicken thighs and sea bass) were pretty dull.

We also opted for the accompanying wines to see if the restaurant sommellier was up to standard, sadly for him he let himself down badly with one of my wines, a pinot noir, which was badly corked, completely opaque and dull. Even in the dim lights provided by the restaurant I could tell something was wrong when he set it down on the table. A quick sniff and sip confirmed it was as bad as I expected.

Having summoned the waiter the mistake was quickly rectified but to be honest it should never have been made in the first place, and even a complimentary glass of champagne with dessert couldn't really shake the feeling of disappointment. I think had it not been for the wine I would have been tempted to go back to try the main menu at some point but it put the tin hat on a really down experience for me.

Talking of dessert this was the best part of the meal, with a cooked yoghurt and fruit dessert which I would recommend to anyone, although I would have to say it didn't make the costs worth while.

To make up for this disappointment and also to satisfy my need for a proper curry I decided to go to one of my favourite curry houses in London this weekend, Gurkha's Diner in Balham. Technically this is Nepalese (rather than Indian) which usually means no coconut and also less ghee and cream, with more tomato and vegetable based curries.

The reason I love Gurkha is because it is an Indian that suits my tastes, the food is lovingly laid out  and the service is always keen and attentive. The food itself tastes great and is always well spiced (packing a pretty decent punch).

The best starter (pictured left) are the Momo Cha (spicy pork dumplings) which are so good I have tried to recreate them myself, with some success, although the Choyola lamb is also highly recommended.

The mains are less pretty to look at (arriving in standard serving bowls) but they are also incredibly tasty. The fact that the whole meal (including drinks and service) was 22 pounds each for me and my partner was also impressive. The best bit is that they also do take-away with free delivery giving even the laziest Balham resident no excuse for not giving it a go!

Personally I would recommend the Sherpa hot (which is the lamb and potato dish on the right of the image. My girlfriend swears by the prawn raja rani but to be honest I have tried quite  a bit from the menu and haven't found anything disagreeable yet.

What makes a good restaurant experience: Oxo Tower and 99 Station Street

Recently I have been to a couple of restaurants at either end of the fine dining spectrum, which appear to have a very different outlook on fine food and what makes a good restaurant.

The first of these was a restaurant I have been meaning to go for for quite some time, the Oxo tower. With its panoramic views of the Thames and the city of London it has long been a favourite of business groups and people visiting the city. The problem is that because of this many people would go regardless of the quality of the food and sadly this showed in what we were served and the prices they are able to charge. Food wise we were on a lastminute.com set menu which cost 28 pounds for 2 courses, this seemed like a reasonable deal, but this failed to include the side dishes (which were necessary for several of the main courses)  and would also ignore the biggest expense which was the drinks. Even the cheapest bottle of wine came in at around 30 pounds and to be honest this was not necessarily a wine that should be complimenting a decent meal, in the end we settled on a lower end wine (in terms of their wine list) which was a Chilean pinot noir which cost us just over 50 pounds.

The service, as you would expect was very efficient but the food itself was nothing out of the ordinary, either in terms of quality, taste or presentation,my duck was a touch on the dry side and I got to try my girlfriends starter and main, a sure sign that all was not well. Having looked at the prices on the a la carte menu where a main is 20-30 pounds if this was representative of the quality you could expect we won't be going back to sample it any time soon.

The other slightly weird thing about the oxo tower is the lighting, to make sure you get a good view out over London they seem to have lit the dining area with a blue light, which was very much like one of those toilets in a night club, designed to stop drug addicts form being able to find the vein in their arm to shoot up. It didn't really add a great deal to the way the food looked either.

As a counter point to this we then headed to a completely different area of the country, to a restaurant that didn't rely on its views and high honed professional levels of service, but instead has built up a great reputation based on the quality of its food. 99 Station Street in Burton on Trent is not somewhere you would expect to find an award wining restaurant focusing on local produce, I was certainly surprised when my brother who lives in the area suggested it, but I am glad he did.

In stark contrast to the cold iron feel of the Oxo, which is full of chrome and glass the restaurant itself has a nice wooden feel, the tables aren't crammed in despite the fact it isn't blessed with a massive amount of floor space. I am not going to pretend that the service was anywhere near as professional, but to be honest that added to the home run feel of the place and also made us feel less frowned upon as we exchanged food during the courses. This was not because we didn't like our main courses but because the food we had was so nice we felt that everyone should try it.

I started my meal with the salmon, which was brilliant, beautifully cured and served with an excellent dressing, this was complimented by an excellent Chapel Down wine from the small but beautifully formed wine list. Unlike the Oxo the wine was not stupidly expensive with most bottles coming between the 12 and 35 pound mark. I followed the salmon with the Packington Pork, which was also very good, I also sampled the steak and the lamb shank, both of which would usually have made me jealous but my main was excellent. The desserts were also very good, I had the orange posit which tested great with the chocolate topping.

I have to highly recommend it if you are in the area as an excellent place to eat at very reasonable prices.

Winging it: Recipe Chicken in Avocado and Spinach sauce

My girlfriend asked me the other day how I come up with a new recipe, to be honest there is usually no better way than to pick a meat for the dish and then go from there. I usually then look into the fridge and think of things I know go together. Usually I go for flavour combinations that I know, but in this particular case the fridge was fairly bare so I ended up wandering the aisles of the local supermarket looking for something to throw in when I saw some particularly nice looking avocados.

So with the avocado in mind I used guacamole as my inspiration for the sauce. First I fried the onion, garlic, tomato and chilli in some olive oil. When these started to soften I added the cubed chicken breast and pepper. When the chicken sealed I added the white wine, a vegetable stock cube, the lemon and lime juice, a few drops of Worcester sauce and the avocado reducing the heat and covering the pan. I left this to simmer for 10 minutes stirring occasionally before adding the chopped spinach and covering, leaving to simmer until the spinach had wilted.

I served this with new potatoes and fine beans, surprisingly tasty!

Ingredients:
2 chicken breasts -cubed
1 capsicum pepper (finely chopped)
1 red onion- finely chopped
1 chilli pepper
4 fresh tomatoes - thinly slice
1 clove of garlic
3 handfuls of spinach
1 cup of white wine
2 ripe avocados
juice of a lemon and a lime
ground nutmeg

Serve with:
New potatoes
French beans

Bancogiro, San Polo, Venice. Adding a twist to stand out from the crowd

I went on a wonderful trip to Venice with my girlfriend on the first weekend of January this year, if you haven't been I cannot recommend it highly enough, although it was pretty packed with tourist even then, I can imagine it wouls only get worse in the spring and summer.

I get that if you are in the UK me talking about somewhere in Venice is not going to be very helpful in terms of you planning your next trip out, however I thought I wanted to mention this awesome little restaurant on the banks of the Grand canal, very near to the Rialto bridge called Bancogiro in spite of this, mainly because I think that good food and a great atmosphere is worth talking regardless.

The restuarant itself is an old merchant bank building set on a lively square. We had looked at quite a few menus while we were in Venice as we failed to read enough reviews of places before we went out there, and all of the places we looked at seemed to be pretty much the same, around 20 euros for a main, serving very standard Italian fare. This one caught our eye because it was a little bit different, it may have been a couple of euros more expensive (and only a couple) but some thought had been put into making the menu that little bit different, without betraying its Italian roots.

Instead of doing simple pasta for a started they served a crunchy Boer Raviloi (which was more like a pastry than a pasta), my girlfriend went for this, but I managed to steal a bite while she wasn't looking! The crunchy casing absorbed the juices of the Boer nicely. I started with a more traditional Squid Ink Taglettelle with prawns, which I have to say was amazing. I should probably at this point mention the wine, which was a Local Merlot from Venetto, I have never been a big fan of Italian Reds but this certainly went quite some way to changing my mind.

I followed this with lamb, which was stuffed with pancetta served on a mash and celeriac, as with all of the food the lamb was beautifully cooked, the flavours balanced well with each other. My other half had less of a good time with the main course, not because it was bad, but because the starter was filling. She had chosen rabbit, with eggplant and a stack of wedges, this was very rich and the lemony sauce didn't seem to break up the richness.

Despite having had a very filling starter and a main course and a half for the purposes of the review (yes, for you dear reader) I decided to sample one of the desserts which was a wonderful spicy fig and ginger mouse, served with a really lemony Muscat which complimented it really well.

Anyway, if you happen to be in Venice and want some authentic but also a little bit different i would highly recommend dropping in one night (although I would also recomend booking in advance, as it was full even on a quite Saturday in January.) http://www.osteriabancogiro.it/

Recipe: My speciality, Chili Con Carne

I was once asked as an interview for a place in a shared house what my signature dish was, I was quick to answer that my Chili was second to none, this is mainly because me (and a couple of my friends) have spent the last 7 years trying to make this better.

Amongst my friends I think that this is a favourite recipe, mainly because many of them played a part in making it, it is very good to cook for larger groups of people (I made it at new years this year to feed 20 people) mainly because you can make it well before a party then leave it to simmer while you get everything else ready, the only down side is that it can be a bit messy to eat standing up!

Here is what you will need for 6 people (mix of boys and girls)

700 grams of minced beef (Lean or extra lean is best)
2 medium onions (1 and a half big un's)
1 clove garlic
4 medium strength chili peppers (you can also use a birds eye and a couple of bigger chillies if you prefer)
1 Can Red Kidney beans
1 Can mixed beans (These are usually red kidney beans, pinto beans, cannellini beans, borlotti beans and black-eyed beans, make sure you get the ones in water)
3 cans of chopped plum tomatoes
tomato puree
tomato ketchup
Worcestershire sauce
soy sauce
paprika
cayenne pepper

ground cumin
black pepper
2 beef OXO cubes

Serve with
Doritoes (lightly salted)
Sour cream
Guacamole
Salsa
Cheese

or jacket potatoes
or rice

or in wraps with salad

How to

Chop the onions into fine pieces, crush and very finely chop the chili peppers and the garlic.
Drain and rinse the beans
Fry the mince, garlic, chili and beans in a together in a pan with a teaspoon of oil and a splash of soy sauce on a high heat until the mince is starting to turn brown. Make sure that everything mixes properly together (this should take between 8 and 12 minutes to cook) and that the mince has started to dry out as I think this helps it to absorbs the flavours of the sauce.

You then need to add the tomatoes, a dash of puree, a squeeze of ketchup, a drop of the Worcestershire sauce and half a teaspoon of cumin and paprika. sprinkle with a small amount of cayenne pepper.

Crumble the OXO cubes, grind over some black pepper and turn the heat down to be about 2 (on a scale of 1-6) leave for as long as possible... but you could serve after about 10 minutes (if you bubble it vigorously and stir it regularly).

As I said this is good for parties or for cold winter nights.

Restaurant Review: The Fat Duck - pure theatre and a wonderful eating experience

For Christmas this year my partner and myself bought each other a trip to one the food Mecca's in the world, Heston Blumenthal's Fat Duck in Bray.

There are only 4 restaurants in Britain with the top Michelin rating of 3 stars and this is the one which I really wanted to go to, and what better way to start the year off than with a 13 course extravaganza? Personally I can't think of one.

I was expecting something a bit special, as you would hope for somewhere where the set menu is 180 quid, but I didn't bank on the thought and preparation which had gone into all of the courses. I should also say that rather than order a bottle or two of wine, which was an option, we chose to splash out on the matching wine selection (mainly because this is likely to be a once in a lifetime thing and I think that I would forever kick myself had we not done so). Now my Mum always used to tell me off for playing with my food, but thankfully Heston appears never to have been constrained in this way, and the culinary world is a lot better place for that.

To clear the palette you get a choice of nitrogen forged "meringues" which were egg whites mixed with either, Gin and Tonic (Which I had), Vodka and Lime (which my partner tried) and Campari and Soda. The idea of these was not just to break down any fat on your tongue but also to use the citrus element to start you salivating. They were bloody cold but definitely very tasty and as with many of the courses the serving was part of the spectacle, with liquid nitrogen spilling out of the bowl as each of the egg whites was poached, right by the table.

Our first wine was a 2009 Fumé blanc from Turkey, which was to accompany the first two courses, When tried on its own after the appetiser it was a touch sharp with citrus notes, but after we started the red cabbage gazpacho and mustard ice cream it became very clear why it had been chosen, the taste was stunning and complimented the crisp freshness of the dish perfectly. The second dish it was eaten with was another that used liquid nitrogen (see the picture on the right) this time to bring out the smell of the forest (the nitrogen was poured into a moss to bring out the smell of damp earth) the idea being that it would enhance the flavour of the truffle toast but smelling like it's natural habitat. This was served with a Chicken liver parfait, crayfish cream, Quail jelly and pea puree. As you can imagine, this was quite rich but luckily the wine cut through this perfectly, complimenting the richness perfectly.

Next was one of the signature dishes, and if I am honest the one that I had feared that I may not like, Snail Porridge. The first thing I should mention was that this porridge was accompanied by my girlfriends favourite wine of the experience, a 2009 Costers Del Segre from Spain which is an 80% chardonnay blended with some of the local grapes. It is lightly oaked and has a rich buttery taste.

The porridge itself was that good I meant to try a little but ate half before I realised that I had forgotten to take a picture!!! It was rich and tasty with the fennel providing a nice counter point to the snails. I am still undecided on where the green colour on the porridge came from although the more I think about it the more I believe that this was from peas.

Following snail porridge is always going to be a tough job, but the Roast Foie Gras that was served next was very much up to the task. Adorned with exquisite crab biscuits, which were sweet and crunchy, and a barberry sauce, which was slightly savoury it was heaven. Last year we had all sorts of accompaniments to Foie Gras, ranging from sticky dessert wines to Champagne, the pairing in this case was a Pinot Gris from the Alsace which was light and fruity and was a pretty good accompaniment for something which sommelier's at various restaurant we have been to recently seems to have been struggling with.

The Foie Gras was followed by a mock turtle soup, which was another spectacular dish to look at, a steamed beef dumpling and some kind of egg served with a gold pocket watch which dissolved into fish stock when dipped into water.The whole dish has a very Japanese feel and was incredibly tasty.

Finally before moving onto the main courses we had a course called "the sound of the sea" which was as much about looks and your other senses as it was about taste. It was primarily a fish course but was served with a sea shell with headphones, which you put on while you were eating it and which had the sound of the ocean playing in them.

The dish itself looked like very much like you were sitting at the seaside with several different sorts of fish sitting under the spray like foam. From a taste point of view this was probably my least favourite of all of the dishes, although from a concept point of view it was amazing with the sand on the left of the picture and the sea and flotsam on the right. This was served with Saki which, for some tastes (my girlfriends included) was a little bit harsh, but I quite enjoyed the sensation, especially with the fish the foam concealed.

This lead us nicely onto the fish course, which was Salmon poached in a liquorice gel, served with trout roe, artichokes and a vanilla mayonnaise. This, unusually for a fish course was served with a red wine, a 1997 Rosso Del Veronese from Veneto, which was quite similar in taste an depth to a pinot noire. I struggled to pick up much of the taste of liquorice, although my girlfriend claim that it was pretty strong, obviously it looked beautiful, although it wasn't as hot as I would have liked it when it was served.

Finally we got onto the main course, a saddle of Venison, which as you would expect was beautifully cooked and incredibly tasty. This  was served with a rich risotto of spelt (wheat) and Umbles (Offal, the origin of Humble pie if some people are to be believed). The had a side of Beetroot Soubise to break up some of the richness from the fayre. Obviously the taste was stunning and it was complimented by a very nice 2009 VdP de l'Hérault from the languedoc in france, whose richness and deep flavour was the perfect compliment to the gamey taste of venison.

The segue between main course and dessert was something which was described as "Hot and cold Tea" a drink that was both frozen lemony tea in some kind of gel and a hot tea in the same glass, the sensation when drinking this was a little bit magical (and left us wondering, like all good magic, how it had been done),

The first dessert course was a Tafferty Tart, a beautiful looking apple and rose petal dish which was a nice light prelude to the main dessert, not too rich but very fruity, this was served with a very nice 2009 Passito Di Pantelleria, a quite sweet and lemony Muscat like dessert wine which fitted very nicely with the apple and fennel flavours in the dessert.

Which brings us to the final real dessert, I had a beautifully rich and chocolaty black forest gateau, which was very much cherrys and dark chocolate, it was very rich and was complimented nicely by a 2009 Alella from Spain whose cherry undertones really enhanced the dessert and made sure that it didn't get too rich.

The final two courses were sweets, the first was a set of whiskey gums (think win gums) which dissolved on your tongue to give the taste of different single malt scotches (and Jack Daniels) and finally there was a visually impressive sweet shop course, which included a queen of hearts playing card made out of white chocolate and filled with raspberry jam sponge and a beautiful Mandarin flavoured chocolate.

In summary I have to say that I really wasn't sure about spending this much on one meal before hand, however I think that having tried it I would recommend this to anyone who is thinking about it. I was asked if it was more worth while than the weekend trip to Venice I did last week (a restaurant review to follow this week) and I have to say that it definitely was, as a once in a life time thing, and one of the most interesting food experiences I have ever encountered. I think the most interesting thing that I took out of it was how much your other senses influence your enjoyment of a meal, this definitely played to them all in a way that no other restaurant I have been to does. You may think that it sounds a bit gimmicky, but coupled with the quality of all of the dishes and the wine matching I think that it was anything but. I suppose I am going to have to start saving up so that I can go back again!

Restaurant Review: Lunch at L'Atelier by Joel Robuchon

I know I haven't written anything for a while, Christmas was a blur of good booze, better food and relaxation, the main problem with this is that I have failed to write up a fantastic trip to l'Atelier we went on in the run up to Christmas. 

My girlfriend (who you have probably spotted by now, does most of the booking) found a great deal for a set lunch with a view of the chiefs preparing dinner in the Japanese/French fusion section downstairs. I think part of this was an attempt to get me to go Christmas shopping with her (although if lunch at a 2 star michelin restaurant is the bribe then I am there). I checked and they are still offering a set lunch menu which is 28 

The Restaurant itself is on a side street near Covent garden, on the same street as the Ivy, although it is very much about substance over style, when you walk in the decor is very modern, although it does seem a little bit dark at first you soon become accustomed to the light. 

The bar around the chef's where we were seated is interesting, you do get a pretty good view, but for a romantic meal for two you will be sitting side by side with the person you went with, to be honest I found watching the chefs pretty much made up for that.

The menu was limited but it did include some of the signature dished as well as an optional wine accompaniment which were mainly wines from the Loire region of France.

For starter I had an excellent chicory, apple and stilton salad, which was exactly the right blend of crunchy, creamy and tart, my other half had l'ouef coque sans coque (or an egg coquette with a mushroom sauce) which must have been good, mainly because I got nowhere near trying any of it.

The mains were also exceptional, I went for the pollock which was beautifully cooked and incredibly tasty, my partner went for the lamb, which I am reliably informed was excellent, which again was borne out by the fact there wasn't any of it for me to try.

Obviously we followed this up with dessert, I went for a selection of chocolate puddings which were all very different and exceptionally tasty. My girlfriend went for a selection of french cheeses, mainly because for some reason she doesn't like chocolate, these were a little limited in type, but still very tasty.

I would have to recommend the whole experience to anyone, according to the website the lunchtime menu is available for 28 pounds (for 2 courses) or 37 if you want the matching wine (which I would recommend), definitely one of the best eating experiences of what I have to be honest, was a pretty good year for food.