Another Food Blog

The National Liberal Club in Whitehall Place once fell upon hard times as membership numbers dwindled.  Some years back they decided to sell most of their bedrooms to the next-door Royal Horseguards Hotel, and used the money to refurbish the Club.  It now has some quite smart rooms with those very high ceilings that seem to characterize clubland.

I started my lunch with the game terrine, which came with a really good chutney.  I ordered a poached salmon salad for my main course, and found it quite acceptable, though the salad was on the dull side.  My salmon didn’t really go with the Club Claret, but it’s a really nice wine anyway.

This rather reminds me of a Greek gyro without the meat.  Typically a gyro will have sliced kebab lamb or pork, but this mid-morning snack was vegetarian.  I toasted the wholemeal pita, but instead of cutting it in half, just made a slit along the top.  Carefully I spread light mayonnaise on both sides of the inside.  Then in went lettuce, chopped spring onion, cherry vine tomato, and finally crumbled blue cheese.  It made a very satisfying snack.

I was given chocolate as a present, and dark chocolate at that by someone who knows my tastes.  It was all from Hotel Chocolat.  There were four types.  The 70% Dark Batons were sticks of dark chocolate “with hints of tobacco.”  The Champagne Truffles were “dark chocolate cream ganache with generous splashes of Marc de Champagne.”  The French Connection had cognac and amaretto flavouring, and the 90% Dark Extreme Caramels had lovely liquid caramel centres.  All were brilliant, but the Extreme Caramels were my favourites…

Eating outside at Gerard on a slightly cool day (with few wasps), I tried more of the new dishes.  From the fixed price lunch menu I started with the brie on baguette, and found it o be just right for a starter.  The cheese was nicely but not over-melted, and the salad on which the bread and cheese rested was quite lively.

I went on to the salmon crepe.  This was superb, with the pancake, the filling and the sauce all gaining my high marks.  I’m going to have this again.  The wine we drank was a Codorniu cava, just right.

Returning to the original Chop House on King’s Parade, I did a most un-Chop-Housey thing by ordering two fish dishes.  I say that because the place is justly famous for its game, its sausages and its meaty puddings.  And here was I eating fish and fish.  The smoked mackerel had a really nice taste; the smoking was just right, and the texture was firm.  I did have to negotiate my way around the bones, but with some fish you do.

My salmon salad was good, with the fish moist and firm and the salad adorned with boiled eggs.  The wine was chosen for my companion’s meal, and was a Nostros Reserva Chilean pinot noir I’ve often had.  Salmon is a strong tasting fish and had no trouble holding its own even against such a full-bodied wine.

There’s a very varied menu at Balls Bothers Victoria wine bar and restaurant. I was content with lovely roast beef sandwiches and horseradish sauce on wholemeal bread.  They were very good, with the beef nicely pink and soft.

One companion had Scottish rib-eye steak with béarnaise sauce, and said it was excellent.

Another, new to the place, went for the fish and chips everyone had praised, and loved it – especially the huge chips, which are almost certainly pre-cooked before being flash-fried.

The wine we all settled on was a Wide River shiraz, more suitable for the two meats than the fish.  This was a very good lunch we all enjoyed.

Preparing dinner for guests, I decided in two very familiar dishes, mushrooms on toast followed by butternut squash, blue cheese and pecans.  While the wholemeal bread was toasting, I chopped up a large field mushroom into chunky pieces, and simmered it in a mixture of butter and olive oil in a lidded pan.  I spread the finished toast with green pesto, and poured the mushrooms over it, complete with their juices.  I sprinkled sea salt and black pepper on top.  It was excellent.

For the main course I peeled and de-seeded a butternut squash, chopping it into about one-inch pieces.  I brushed each one all over with olive oil and placed them on a tray similarly brushed.  I sprinkled dried thyme over it and put it in the oven for about 40 minutes.  When it was done, and completely soft, I tipped the pieces into a casserole dish and stirred in some crumbled Danish blue cheese and pecan nuts, finally sprinkling with more thyme just before serving.  With the meal we drank a Jules Provence rosé, and finished up with some of my mixed fruit pie, reheated and served with crème fraiche. Incidentally, the first two courses were vegetarian; the pie pastry had some goose-fat in it.