Another Food Blog

I was debating in the Cambridge Union, and enjoyed the debate dinner, when the speakers and the committee are served a meal together in the Old Library before the debate itself began.  First off was warm tartlet of smoked haddock with a beetroot salad and served with warm ciabatta bread.  I left the bread, but the tart was good.  Indeed, it was rather like the version of this dish I sometimes make myself.

Then came chump of lamb on sauté potatoes with rosemary, redcurrant jus and cavalo nero.  The lamb was tasty, but I didn’t each much else, saving room for the dessert.

This was honey and cinnamon panacotta, with spiced figs and syrup.  I looked at it long and hard, but eventually gave it away and just had the coffee.  The problem is that I am always nervous before a speech, and this affects my appetite.  I had the coffee, and had to be very sparing with the wine until after I had spoken.  It was a good meal, though, made even better by the fact that my side won the debate which followed…

It’s quite a stunner.  Geoff Merrill was raised on a sheep farm in Australia, and is noted for his handlebar moustache and love of cricket.  He makes excellent wines.  This chardonnay is described as having “youthful green hues, aromas of complex toasty vanillin oak and citrus fruit.”  It is matured in French oak barrels to add complexity, and has a finish with lingering flavours of lime, honeydew and subtle oak.  I’d agree with all of that, and point out that at 14.5 percent it’s quite a gutsy white wine, too.

I had an excellent lunch at Roux Bros, Parliament Square (which is actually in Great George Street).  Each dish looked worthy of exhibition in an art gallery, as well as tasting superb.  I began with warm beetroot salad with goat’s cheese, orange, mustard and walnuts.  Just look at it; it was mouth-wateringly good.

I went on to order roast chestnut gnocchi with salsify, ceps, soft poached quail’s egg, and white onion velouté for my main course.  It was first class. I was choosing from the set, fixed price menu, with a choice of three for each course.

Finally I had the dessert, and chose pumkin crème brulée with bitter chocolate and cardoman Madeleine.  Superb.  Of course they served coffee and petits fours at the end.  The wine, one of their recommendations, was extraordinarily good.  It was Vondeling Babiana from South Africa, a blend of chenin blanc, viognier and chardonnay, with only the chardonnay oaked. It was 14 percent, strong for a white, and tasted mellow with an excellent finish.

The Mediterranean Kitchen in St Martin’s Lane does eggs so well that it’s difficult to settle for anything else.  The two of us both began with goat’s cheese and caramelized onion on bruschetta, and both had the same complaint: the bread should have been toasted.

I chose the eggs Benedict, and was served two eggs, soft poached and warm, on a perfectly done muffin with ham.

My companion being vegetarian (actually piscatarian, sometimes spelled pescatarian), ordered eggs royale, which replaces the ham with smoked salmon.  We found both dishes excellent, and drank Tuatara Bay New Zealand sauvignon blanc (13 percent) with it.  It was a nice wine, even though I found myself thinking of those lovely fresh, zingy ones I enjoyed in New Zealand…

Xander didn’t actually make this chocolate fudge cake.  It was his birthday, and instead of buying him a drink, I thought I’d buy him a cake.  The choice was limited, but my thoughts were that chocolate fudge cake cannot go far wrong. It probably helped that when Xander came round to enjoy it, we served Cuvee du Capitalism champagne with it….