Feasting at Rhodes 24
I was in the company of five teenagers, helping them celebrate the end of exams – two of them had finished a physics exam that same afternoon. It was also the end of their schooldays, so we started with Galimard champagne.
I ordered the Ticklemore goat’s cheese tart as a starter, but first there was a small complimentary jug of asparagus soup. The tart was good, with a thin crispy pastry, a beautiful melted cheese filling, and a pinwheel of peeled tomato segments around it. Others ordered Oxtail soup, foie gras ballotine, and pork belly.
Of all the starters, we voted the pork belly and poached egg the most interesting. For my main course I had the sea bream, and this time I ate the skin. It was very good and very salty, and added hugely to my enjoyment of the fish. Memo to do this in future.
Everyone ordered desserts, of which the chocolate fondant looked particularly good, but the lemon tart and the bread and butter pudding won praise, too.
I ordered cheeses, and picked a selection of six, consisting of two hard, two soft, and to blue. Of course I couldn’t eat anything like that, but as I said, there were five teenagers there.
With the food we drank Old Vines, a South African chenin blanc.