Simple Pleasures at St John Bread & Wine

I've been meaning to visit St John Bread & Wine for longer than I can remember but somehow I'd never quite got there. I've even had reservations in the past that I've had to cancel for one reason or another. The perfect opportunity to try again that I couldn't miss came when I was planning a day out to celebrate my husband's birthday at the end of July when it just so happened that St John Bread & Wine was a natural mid-point (at around lunch o'clock...) between Murdock's in Old Street (where I'd booked him a traditional wet shave as part of his birthday present) and London Bridge (for the train back to Frank's Bar in Peckham where we were meeting friends for early birthday drinks). I love it when a plan comes together.

St John Bread & Wine is the sister restaurant to St John, a larger restaurant in Smithfields, and is thought of as being less formal with a menu structured around sharing plates. The menu reads a bit like a timetable with dishes being available specific times throughout the day - breakfast, elevenses, lunch (with some plates available only from 1pm onwards and then, only until they run out, which they often do) and supper from 6pm.

It was a bright sunny day and the sun streaming in through the large windows which run along the front of the restaurant lit the dining room up. It's not a huge dining space, but the ceiling is incredibly high which means the room has a sort of warehouse feel about it. It was fairly empty when we arrived and never really filled up completely. I'd love to go when it's full - on a Friday night perhaps - to see what the atmosphere is like then, because it's unusual on a Saturday lunchtime. Not in a bad way, don't get me wrong, it's just a little quiet and empty. What's great about that is that you don't have to shout over the table next to you to make yourself heard! I can picture myself there with a bunch of mates, ordering more food and drinks as more people arrive.

I like the simplicity of the menu. You know what you're getting, like 'Peas in the Pod' or 'Hake & Samphire'. There's no messing around with poncy dish names on the menu here. They say it like it is. And the style of the food matches that no nonsense approach. The produce is top notch and so incredibly fresh. There's no need to dress it up. Many chefs these days talk about showcasing the fresh ingredients or letting the produce speak for itself. Here it's not just talk, they actually achieve it.

In addition to the printed menu (which changes twice a day), there are also specials up on the blackboards around the room. The wine list is good and varied, with many available by the glass (and also to buy and take home which is just what I did on my second visit a week later...). On this occasion we started with a glass of rose each and then moved on to sample some of the reds by the glass. Although it works out more expensive drinking by the glass it does mean you have the opportunity to try different wines, which I like. So many restaurants only serve a limited number of wines by the glass (and at often rather elevated prices) so this was refreshing to see.

We decided to order some dishes to share and then a meat dish for Andrew (it was his birthday after all). The first dish I chose was Peas & Ticklemore. Fresher than fresh raw peas, straight from the pod and thin slices of ticklemore cheese with pea shoots, herbs and a lemon oil dressing. The peas were crunchy and sweet. The cheese was very subtle and it's texture married well with the peas, leafy pea shoots and the viscous lemon oil (which had just a hint of natural lemon rather than being too citrusy or overpowering). A lovely fresh start to a meal and the portion size was perfect for two people to share.

We were undecided on our next choice (not an uncommon state of affairs for two of the most indecisive people to walk this planet). We fancied trying a fish dish, of which there were a handful on the menu, but with my forays into fish being fairly limited I wasn't sure whether I would like the cuttlefish which had caught our eye. After a conversation with the knowledgeable waiter who explained how the dish was prepared and what to expect from the cuttlefish, we did plump for it (Cuttlefish with Heirloom Tomatoes). It was the right choice.

Cuttlefish is not at all what I expected. Our waiter explained that it was braised, tossed together with a mixture of colourful heirloom tomatoes and dressed with a simple olive oil vinaigrette flavoured with fresh marjoram. The texture of the cuttlefish was unusual, but certainly not unpleasant. Nothing like any other fish or seafood I have ever eaten, it has quite a meaty texture. It was rich, slightly sweet and most definitely 'earthy' and took on the flavours of the braising liquor and the dressing. The tomatoes were much needed to cut through the richness of the cuttlefish, especially the green ones which had just the right amount of bite to contrast with the soft fish. I couldn't have eaten the whole plate myself, but then that's the whole point of St John Bread & Wine's concept of plates to share.

Andrew declared his Middle White Faggot & Peas to be simply delicious. He'd never had faggots before and wasn't entirely sure what to expect. He needn't have worried - the single faggot came sat on a bed of cream sweet peas with plenty of the faggot cooking juices. Hearty yet stylish.

Maybe it was the wine, or just the fact that when you're relaxing over a long lazy lunch you don't want it to end, but we both decided there was room for another dish before we considered the desserts. I'm so glad we did. Although simple (again), the Brown & White Crab served with toasted sourdough was good. There was plenty of both the brown and white meat - in fact there were some lovely big pieces of white meat which I tried to snaffle whilst Andrew wasn't looking. My only criticism would be that the toast was slightly too oily and could have done with being a dry toast to contrast with the rich crab. That certainly wouldn't stop me from ordering it again though.

The only real let down of the meal was the dessert. We both love all things almond and decided to go for the Raspberry & Almond Tart. Whilst it was OK it wasn't anything more than that which was a little disappointing. I've made many almondy tarts with summer fruits so perhaps I was expecting something far superior to what I can create with my own fair hands, but it just didn't deliver for me - there wasn't enough almond filling and the pastry was a little too thin and soft.

All in all, St John Bread & Wine was perfect for a splendid lazy weekend lunch. There is a relaxed feeling and service is calm, friendly and spot on when it comes to explaining the dishes. I could almost taste the dishes from our waiter's description of them! The dishes have a distinctive style which makes this a restaurant which knows exactly what it has to offer and does so sublimely.

I went back just 1 week later with my mum, for a second visit which confirmed my opinion that St John Bread & Wine is all about top quality, simple food. The Smoked Mackerel & Horseradish was just that - a large piece of delicately and naturally smoked mackerel with a small dollop of horseradish creme fraiche. Paired with a simple salad of lettuce leaves and herbs and Jersey Tomatoes & Wild Marjoram made for a second stunning lunch.

St John Bread & Wine Spitalfields

94-96 Commercial Street

London

E1 6LZ

Tel: 020 7251 0848

http://www.stjohnbreadandwine.com/

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A Day in the Life of a Market Trader

I hung onto the giant parasol to stop it flipping over and Mum made sure the fruits of our 12 hour stint in the kitchen were all safely under cover as the rain lashed down and gale force winds swept through the Covent Garden piazza. Bottles from one stall came crashing down and talk of closing the market had us panicking about what we'd do with all the stock. Then, as if nothing had happened, the wind dropped, rain stopped and the sun came out to dry our red and white bunting and bring out the punters.

All in a day's work for a market stall trader... But we are no ordinary stall holders. No siree! Don't get me wrong, me and mum both have plenty experience of baking for the masses and mum has done a million and one 'big cake sales' for charity, but nothing of quite this magnitude. A stall in the local church hall is one thing. A full day selling our homemade cakes, tarts and jams at Covent Garden is another. I guess what we were out to achieve was that (usually uncoveted) 'one hit wonder' status (OK, maybe we had some idyllic pipe dream that this could be a rosy future...!). For us, this was a couple of days off from our day jobs to do what we love best - cook - to sell the fruits of our hard work and, in the process, learn about the 'selling side', have some fun and meet a few people.

Not long after I started blogging I joined the UK Food Bloggers Association (UKFBA) - a place for UK food bloggers to connect with each other. Sometime in the Spring when Julia Parsons, who founded UKFBA, first mentioned the UKFBA stall on Covent Garden Real Food Market there was talk of nominating our favourite producers to man the stall every Thursday throughout the summer. This was soon given short shrift as my fellow food bloggers came forward with plans to sell their own homemade wares - lavender & honey bread, chutney, lemon curd, tamarind ketchup, keema lollipops, carrot cake, Irish soda bread, jams, muffins in all shapes and sizes, tarts, quiches and brownies galore!

I have to admit that I hesitated to sign up. Much as I liked the idea, I work full time - how would I find time, could I do all that on my own and (above all) who would calculate the amount of change due (not me, that's for sure...!). It was only when I mentioned it in passing to Mum when we were cooking up a feast for Dad's 60th in May that the idea of taking the stall one Thursday became reality. As many of the other bloggers who have done a stint on the stall will undoubtedly agree, it's so much easier with two!

The Covent Garden Real Food Market is a weekly market that runs every Thursday through the summer. For the most part, the stall holders seem to have stalls on other markets in London, like Borough Market. There's a nice feel to the market which I am sure would be much livelier on a sunny Summer's day... In fact when I popped down to see Rejina (Gastrogeek) and Signe (Scandilicious) a couple of weeks' ago the sun was shining and people were swarming around the market. What a difference a touch of sunshine (and two charming and beautiful bloggers-come-market-traders) can make!

The best part of it all for me was the full day spent cooking away at our own pace in my kitchen, preparing the lemon drizzle cakes, carrot cakes with cream cheese topping, blueberry and almond tart, leek and gruyere tartlets, redcurrant jelly, peach and amaretto muffins, pecan tarts, stem ginger biscuits, lemon curd, tomato and goat's cheese puff pastry tart, white chocolate and raspberry muffins, traditional all butter shortbread, apricot and vanilla jam and our best sellers...chocolate brownies.

The big day itself was undoubtedly hard work. The rush to set up and get everything laid out and labelled up got the adrenaline going though and that saw us through the best part of the afternoon and helped us weather the storms. It was great to meet all the wonderful people who popped down to say hello and the compliments, including the one from the lovely American woman who came back especially to tell us that our carrot cake was the best carrot cake she had ever eaten (and, she assured us, she had eaten a lot!), made us feel pretty good. But as the day drew to a close and the temperature dropped we were certainly ready to sit down, have a beer and reflect on an intense couple of days' work (oh, and flog a few more jars of jam in the pub and then at our post-market dinner at Ganapati in Peckham!).

I did say never again when my feet where aching the next day....but I can just see our lovely homemade mincemeat, jams, gingerbread and Christmas puddings going down a treat on the Christmas Real Food Market!

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Wine Tasting Jolly Olly Style!

You know it's not going to be a stuffy wine tasting when the session starts with high fives all round. But who could expect anything else from the inimitable Olly Smith?! He's loud, vivacious, colourful and (as I came to learn) a genuinely top bloke.

I'm a big fan of Olly's no nonsense, open style. He talks about wine in everyday language that people understand. He makes wine tasting accessible for everyone, not just the wine buffs. Which is good for me. I know what I like but rarely push the boundaries to see what else is out there that might take my fancy.

So it was that, on one of the hottest days of the year, I found myself in a giant dome (or Obi Wan Kenobi's living room as Olly would have it), slowly roasting, at Tapas Fantasticas 2009 - a free festival celebrating Spanish tapas and Rioja wine which ran over two fun-filled days in Brick Lane Yard, London.

The first slot of the day can't be an easy one. It was 12 noon and I'd only just managed a slice of toast for breakfast. I certainly hadn't quite got into the swing of the whole event. But the high fives set the tone just nicely. A bit of frivolity is a great way to kick start a Saturday in the sunshine.

We kicked off with the Marques de Caceres Viura 2008. A great drinkable wine. Fresh, zingy and appley. In Olly's words "yum-tastic". Great with paella or just on it's own on a hot summer's afternoon poured over a load of strawberries and ice.

Next up was the Campo Viejo Rosado 2008. This is a super modern rose. It's pale in colour and smells of roses and summer fruits. The blurb is right when it says that it would be perfect with summer salads, but I'd probably go for it as an aperitif on a balmy summer's evening.

Elena Adell, the winemaker for Campo Viejo, calls herself a homemaker-winemaker and declares a love crocheting and designing small items of clothing. How random is that?!

For the reds we stepped up a price bracket or two. Olly declared of the Baron de Ley Finca Monasterio 2006 which is 80% tempranillo - "I rather like this one!". It's a rich wine which has been aged in French oak for 18 months. I'm not sure £14.99 for a wine which Olly thinks tastes of cola cubes will be one I'll be buying regularly, although the 7 Vinas Rioja Reserva 2004 from the same vineyard was pretty special.

The Reserva and Gran Reserva wines are more savoury and the CVNE Imperial Reserva 2001 was definitely drier on the tongue but the wine lighter in body. Apparently that means it's like spiderman's costume - light but strong.... The 10% graciano grape gives the acidity.

By the time we reached our final wine we were running way behind schedule. It was time to sup up our glass fulls and any spares knocking around, finishing with the Marques de Murrieta Castillo Ygay Gran Reserva 2001. At £36 this can only be described in my books as a 'Christmas Wine' - something you get to push the boat out for and drink but once a year! It's quite a leathery wine, but one that's also sweet and spicy. This one wasn't for me and certainly not at that price.

Most of the wines we tasted are 'ready to go' wines. They have already been aged and, unlike the more classical wines of Bordeaux for example, they don't need ageing (or in some cases are best not kept for long) - a great thing if you're useless at keeping your mitts of the wine on the rack at home.

All that on one slice of toast...I headed straight for the tapas (and another glass of rose...)!

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A Tweeter's Tale

On a sunny Saturday morning a couple of weeks ago I found myself heading along the towpath from Camden Lock in the direction of Regent's Park in search of the good ship Finale - the Guardian's Word of Mouth Taste of London festival fringe (or #tastefringe in twitter speak) HQ for the weekend. Armed with a Guardian press pass, my camera and an empty tummy (I even skipped breakfast for the occasion), the plan was to descend on Taste of London to eat and drink the day away, all the while reporting 'on the hoof' to anyone who cared to read my 'tweets'.

For those of you uninitiated into the world of twitter, it's a social networking and mini-blogging service through which people keep in touch by giving updates (or tweets) of 140 characters or less. It's highly addictive.

So I set forth, along with my comrades, to Regent's Park to fulfill my mission of eating. Lots. Completely altruistic on my behalf! I did it all for the lovely people at the Guardian of course...

Bearing in mind I ate for about 5 hours pretty much non-stop, I would bore you to tears if I repeated it here. So instead, here's a potted version of my day as a journalist. You can read more about my escapades gate-crashing the chef's kitchens in my piece for the Guardian's Word of Mouth here.

First stop was Launceston Place with it's 'taste of the seaside'. The potted devilled brown shrimp and crab which was served in a seashell on a bed of pebbles was one of my favourite dishes of the day. The rest had a lot to live up to! It was rich and unctuous - the small serving was just perfect. They are really passionate about presentation and the emotions you feel not just from eating but from the whole experience.

Dessert came in the form of the rhubarb ice cream which you may have seen on the great British Menu when Tristan Welch's suped-up Mr Whippy machine was causing him some serious grief. I nipped behind the counter to see take a closer look at it in action. Apparently (or so I am told) it's not like a normal Mr Whippy machine, oh no, this is a super duper ice cream machine. I'm not quite sure why, but it did churn out a perfect rhubarb ice cream whilst I snapped away - perfectly tangy rhubarb which went zing on my tongue. The real deal comes with custard ice cream and crumble topping too, but according to gastrogeek who had one, it was a touch on the too-creamy-not-so-amazing side.

There were a couple of things, looking back on the day, which were a touch out of the ordinary. The first was the order in which I ate. A normal meal will go something along the lines of savoury, savoury, sweet. Depending on where you are from, there could be post-sweet savoury in the form of cheese, or not. It was therefore a tad unusual to switch between sweet and savoury depending on what was served next. It is entirely possible that this had a bearing on which dishes I liked more than others - can you really pick up the subtlety of crab after eating rhubarb ice cream?

The second, although unusual certainly in Western society, was actually rather natural and humbling. From the outset, I shared dishes with my fellow tweeters (the chocolate sensation at L'Atelier de Joel Robouchon springs to mind) but it wasn't until later in the afternoon, sat around a big table in front of L'Anima with gastrogeek, moreteavicar, Tim Hayward and Francesco Mazzei, that I realised that fuelled with our desire to taste the food, we were not only digging in and sharing the food, we were also sharing our cutlery. And why not?

As well as being packed full of great restaurants, there were also producers, some of whom were ever so friendly and (more importantly) ginger. We received a little tweet from Paul A. Young offering free chocolates to bloggers and tweeters so we headed off on a little jaunt over to Paul's feast for the chocolate lovers' eyes stand for a chocolate tasting. Oh boy! I had never even heard about Paul's chocolates before, let alone tasted them. I did the polite thing though, I held back from the smash and grab on the free samples and snooped around taking a few photos of my eating companions for the day (gastrogeek and moreteavicar), chatting to Paul about his chocolates and about his lovely gingerness. Then, when the temptation overwhelmed me I went straight in for the kill with a pecan praline... Nothing I can say will do this (or, by the sight of moreteavicar weak at the knees as he bit into his salted caramel) justice so you'll have to go and buy some to see for yourselves.

Paul suggested Bryn Williams at Oddette's, which serves good British food, might be a good next stop. Well, what he said was, go and speak to Bryn, mention me and he'll give you some grub. Sure enough, a friendly Bryn (looking more than a little worse for wear, water in hand and clearly suffering from the excesses of the previous day!) doled out plate after plate of his fine simple food. As gastrogeek snuck away to a corner to devour her lamb (which she professed to being pretty amazing) I tucked into a plate of simple fresh crab. A good helping of both brown and white crab meat. Was that my third crab dish of the day? The menus seemed to be rather crab-centric.

One of my favourite desserts of the day came in the form of Bryn's simple lemon posset with strawberries and basil was great, proper summer stuff. It's just cream, sugar and lemon juice, simplicity itself and made by a friendly, approachable, great chef. So good it was gone before I'd taken a photo!

It was about then that I did a spot of kitchen-crashing again to take a peek at what was going on behind the scenes at Theo Randall's place. Theo was all smiles, but didn't have time to stop and chat, so I squeezed myself into a little gap alongside the 'pass' and chatted to him as he kept his beady eye on a couple of dozen scallops with chillis and datterini tomatoes and two pans of pasta on the hob. No mean feat in the sweltering heat in there. What a lovely man!

Theo is passionate about his ingredients - had I not been busy snapping away as he cooked and chatted I'm sure I could have written a short thesis on the origins, flavours and uniqueness of the datterini tomato. His kitchen style was calm and collected. There was a sense of ease in everything he did and, maybe I caught them at a good time (if mid-lunchtime rush can ever be a good time), but it was simple methodical clockwork in there. None of the shouting and swearing that TV programmes would have us believe is the norm. It was whilst I was chatting to Suse (the editor of the Guardian's Word of Mouth) over a glass of red back at the good ship Finale and recounting the best bits of day that this experience transformed itself into my piece for the Word of Mouth.


The scallops were pretty damn fine!

One place I was keen to try after Michele Caggiane at Galvin at Windows recommended it to me as one of his favourite two Italian restaurants in London, was L'Anima. Who could miss Francesco Mazzei bounding around and chatting to customers in front of the L'Anima stand? His energy and enthusiasm was contagious and soon we were seated, prosecco poured and the dishes began to arrive. We'd hardly started eating and Tim Hayward was raving about how good the food was.

My particular favourite was the Frisella with tomato and mozzarella. This wasn't any run of the mill tomato and mozzarella salad... It was probably the finest mozzarella I have ever tasted, milky, soft, melt in your mouth, piled with tomatoes, onions and basil on top of Puglian ring shaped bread. It sounds simple and it is. Good, honest, hearty food. The sort of food I'd be eating every day if I had such wonderful ingredients.

Two other fantastic puds which are worth a mention are the strawberry and hibiscus bellini with a warm strawberry and vanilla doughnut from The Ledbury and the raspberries with fromage frais mousse and verbena granite from Pied-a-Terre. Both were light and summery but had a twist that set them apart - the hibiscus in the bellini and the verbena granite. Genius.

Finally, when we thought we could eat no more, moreteavicar whisked us off to Viennese bakery Demel’s for sacher torte. By this point I really had no room left whatsoever, but after watching them carefully prepare the next batch - coating the sponge in apricot, mixing the chocolate, pouring the molten chocolate over the sponge - I had to have a taste at least!

I meandered back to #tastefringe HQ sated, exhausted and pondering on the life of a tweeting reporter.

You can see the rest of my photos from the day here.

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Restaurant Review: Galvin at Windows

There's something incredibly decadent and indulgent in treating yourself to a long, lazy lunch on a weekday when everyone else is at work. Even more so when you choose Galvin at Windows for your special treat!

Last Friday I'd taken a day's holiday to forget about the world of work and start my weekend off with a bit of 'me' time, which in my case invariably involves food, a glass of bubbly and, well, maybe some more food.

Armed with a good book in case I got bored (which I didn't) of staring out over London from the 28th floor of the Hilton on Park Lane, I made my way in good time for my 1.30pm reservation at Galvin at Windows. Of course, I managed to get lost (which is rather difficult seeing as all I had to do was walk from Marble Arch down Park Lane, but, if you know me, is no surprise - I'm not known for my sense of direction) which meant I arrived bang on time.

I was a little apprehensive about going to such a grand restaurant on my own. Don't get me wrong, I am certainly not averse to eating alone when there's noone around to join me, but I'd never done the starched white table cloth and attentive service thing alone before. I really need not have worried. In fact, I'd do it again in a jiffy! There was no little table in the corner out of sight of the other diners for me (as I had feared). After a warm welcome I was shown to a table in amongst the other diners and, incidentally, right behind another solo diner - a gentleman who, I am told, eats there alone about three times a week and who certainly seemed to be a part of the Galvin family.

I could have gone for the Credit Crunch Lunch, but as I was treating myself, I didn't want to limit myself to 3 choices (although they would have been more than adequate!). Instead I'd opted for the Twitter Menu - the Menu Prestige plus a glass of champagne for £48. Not cheap that's for sure, but well worth every single one of those 4,800 English pennies...

My glass of bubbly arrived as I settled back to peruse the menu and grazed on some deliciously light olive sourdough (I say grazed...I'd polished the whole lot off before the end of my main course). Before I'd even had chance to decide what I wanted to eat, I think at least 4 people had asked me if I was OK. I certainly wasn't neglected, but perhaps a touch smothered at first...

My starter of seared Scottish scallops, crispy peanuts, curry oil, cauliflower puree & braised leeks was, quite simply, divine. Perfectly cooked, sweet scallop and velvety cauliflower puree. The crispy peanuts were unusual but worked well with the other flavours and the crunch added texture and lifted the dish. My only criticism (if I was really scrabbling for one) would be that the baby leeks were a tad difficult to cut so I had to hone my eating-things-without-looking-silly skills.

For mains I had toyed with the idea of the fillet of braised turbot over fresh peas, girolles, braised gem lettuce & light jus gras, but the 'jus gras' is made with veal stock, so on the waiter's recommendation I went for the 'lighter' seared fillet of wild sea bass, braised fennel, tomato & sauce vierge. I'm not sure whether his recommendation was based on his view that I needed to shed a few pounds or that I might be a lady who lunches for whom light is the key. Whichever way I was happy with my choice, with one exception - the coriander shoots. Why, oh why are chefs obsessed with these micro shoots? They look pretty and add some vibrancy, granted, but the overpowering taste of coriander (which to some people tastes like dirty wet pet hair smells) is too much. So, having scraped them all to one side of my plate I continued - with each forkful some tender sea bass, crispy skin, sweet tomato flesh, salty black olive and the simplicity of a good quality vinaigrette. It was light as the waiter had promised. And simple. The choice of a vinaigrette over a heavier sauce was genius and one I plan to replicate at home this summer. All washed down with a glass of Chablis.

Just as the waiter was about to take my plate away I realised there was lovely juice left so promptly mopped it up with my last scrap of the sourdough. Delightful.

Next stop - the dessert menu. Now, had I not been dining alone there would have been no competition. The tarte tatin. I'm going back at some point just to taste that beauty! Before I could make my mind up, Michele (the Restaurant Manager) offered me a tour of the kitchens which I jumped at. It amazed me how calm it was in there - I guess I had expected shouting and crashing and banging Ramsey-style. We stepped out onto a balcony out the back of the kitchen to a view which is out of this world. As Michele and I chatted about work/life balance and the best Italian restaurants in London we gazed out over Buckingham Palace to the right, the City ahead and Crystal Palace in the distance. It was breathtaking.

On the way back to my table I asked the chefs on the dessert section what to choose and received a resounding vote in favour of the strawberry panacotta with wild strawberries. Oh my were they spot on! The plate looked so pretty and summery - a small rich, smooth panacotta topped with strawberry jelly with the most amazingly intense flavoured wild strawberries on the side. Every mouthful was a joy. It was my first taste of wild strawberries and I was amazed at how something so small can taste so good.

By now I felt right at home and could have settled in for the afternoon! Coffee came in the form of a double espresso (followed by another which rendered me useless and on a caffeine high for the rest of the afternoon) served with salted caramels, madagascan truffles and chocolate coated raspberry jelly truffles. They looked exquisite! Just to be sure that the raspberry one was as good as I thought it was I had to ask for some more and prepared myself to have to be rolled out of there.

It was a truly memorable lunch for all the right reasons - amazing setting with the views over London, attentive and friendly service and damn fine food!

A final note to Fred - you must do the tarte tatin competition and count me in!

Damage: £48 twitter menu (3 courses from the menu prestige plus a glass of champagne and coffee & chocolates)

Galvin at Windows
22 Park Lane
London
W1K 1BE
Tel: 020 7208 4021
www.galvinatwindows.com

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The Real Food Festival 2009 (London)

The Real Food Festival is no gimmicky over-hyped food show teeming with sales people selling big name brands... It's sold as "the biggest producers market you've ever seen" and for the most part it is just that - a bit like a giant farmers' market. I have to admit that I was a little reticent about going to another food show at Earl's Court. The last couple of food shows I've been to there (as you can probably tell from my opening gambit) have been a letdown to say the least. Apart from the wine sampling of course! So it was with a little trepidation that I booked tickets for the Real Food Festival, wondering whether it would live up to my expectations... It pretty much does what it says on the tin - the producers are there en masse manning their own stalls and, in many cases, are more than happy to tell you everything there is to know about their particular cheese, vegetables, cider, bread, fish. For the most part these aren't smooth talking sales people looking for a quick sell. Certainly the people I chatted to reared or made their produce with their own fair hands, so not only were they knowledgeable about what they were selling, they were enthusiastic and looking to tell the world about what it is they produce. Good on 'em I say!

The idea behind the Real Food Festival is to showcase small producers who wouldn't normally be able to afford a stall at a food show. Graham of Connemara Smokehouse was telling us that with the cost of the big shows, plus the 'hidden extras' (£17 to hire a rubbish bin?!), transport and hotel accommodation it just wasn't worth their while as, not only would they not make any profit on sales at the show, they have to be away from the business for 3 or 4 days which also takes its toll on the smaller producers.

The other 'cost' element which Graham talked about was the cost of providing free samples to show visitors. I have to say that when we arrived we were really put off by the hoards of people crowding around the stalls, not all were there to talk to the producers or learn about their products, but some simply to take samples and walk away. Now I know the idea of a food show is to have the opportunity to taste what is on offer (particularly as people have paid an entrance fee) and I have no problem with that - of course I taste what interests me - but there surely there is a limit? Providing samples costs the producers a fair amount of money and it seemed that some people sampling had no intention of buying the produce and were just looking for a free feed.

Apart from the million and one cupcake and tea stalls (neither of which are to my liking!) that was the only downside to the whole lazy afternoon we spent wandering around stocking up on tasty morsels for the rest of the weekend. These are some of the highlights of the show for me:

Simon and Laura Thearle at Hunter House Farm produce artisan cheeses with raw unpasteurised sheep, goat and cow's milk. Laura was more than happy to spend a good 15 minutes telling us all about their cheeses and how they are produced. They rear and milk their own flocks of British Milksheep - a breed which were nearly wiped out during the foot and mouth outbreak in 2002 - and Polled Dorset Sheep, British Alpine and British Toggenburg Goats and Dexter Cows on their farm and then make their handcrafted cheeses in their own dairy. These distinctive cheeses are made to their own unique recipes and are named after some of their first animals - matching the character of the cheeses to the animals' personalities!

Our favourite was Kelsey (in the foreground of the picture) - a robust smooth textured cow's milk brie which only gets better with time. We have high hopes for the piece we brought home...!

I think my vote for the most passionate producer at the show goes to Graham Roberts who owns and runs the traditional family Connemara Smokehouse business, specialising in smoked wild salmon and tuna, with his wife Saoirse. The smokehouse, which is perched on the water's edge at Bunowen Pier in County Galway, was founded by Graham's parents in 1979 using a smoking kiln that was first commissioned in 1946. I remembered Graham from the very first BBC Christmas Good Food Show which I went to with my parents in 2005 when Mum had indulged us with a side of smoked wild salmon for Christmas Day breakfast and so, after starting to eat fish again recently, I was keen to try some of the other products that the Connemara Smokehouse has to offer. After a good 20 minutes chatting to Graham and Saorise and learning about the traditional methods of smoking which they use. Graham fillets all of the fresh fish himself after which the fillets are salted and left for 8 to 10 hours before being smoked over beech wood shavings for another 8 to 10 hours. The result is a product which is vastly superior in flavour and texture to much of the smoked fish I have tasted before. No wonder there's a chap in France who bulk orders 200 sides of smoked salmon with this colleagues every Christmas!

When we arrived at the Ashridge Sparkling Vintage Cider stand it was much later in the day and everyone was looking more than a little weary. We tasted the Vintage Sparkling Cider first which was dry and crisp with a long apple-y finish. Drier than we expected actually. We also tasted the Devon Blush which is essentially a posh 'cider and black' (!) but that lacked the flavour of the vintage. I like the Aspall Peronnelle Blush which is of the same ilk so it's not that it's not my kind of drink, it's just that after tasting the vintage it simply didn't compare.

Ashridge cider is made from 100% apple juice from well established Devon orchards where there are around 20 different varieties of cider apples. It's made using the traditional méthode champenoise - a process which takes around 3 years. So at £8 a bottle it's not bad really... One thing I've learnt from the Ashridge website since I got home from the show is that apparently there is evidence that secondary in-bottle fermentation began, not in Champagne, but with ciders in the Forest of Dean in the 17th century. This type of cider was held in high esteem in many quarters and was often the preferred alternative to French wines. I wonder...

La Mare Jersey Black Butter is something I've heard of before but had no idea what it was. Well, quite simply, it's Christmas in a jar! It's has the consistency and texture of a jam or chutney with all the flavours of Christmas pudding and yet it tastes buttery. An unusual alternative to chutney with cheese.


There was a whole section of the show about produce from Jersey (Andrew also had oysters and said they were some of the best he's tasted - I'll take his word for that...) and La Mare Wine Estate was one stall.

There was also a Jersey Royal Potatoes stand. They seem to have had a bit of bad press over the last few years and I have to admit that I've been one of the first to not only mourn the demise of the Jersey Royal but to openly voice my criticisms. As I stood in line waiting for my solitary potato smothered in Jersey butter and some Cornish sea salt I wondered whether I was wasting my time...but no, for the first time in a few years I had a Jersey Royal that tasted just how they used to! From what I understand, the inferior Jerseys we've experienced recently have indeed been grown in poly tunnels as suspected and that, combined with the fact that the producers have not had control of the packaging and storing of the potatoes has meant that when we rush to buy our first Jerseys of the season, we're not getting what we hoped for and expected. The trick, apparently, is to wait a little into the season when the 'proper' Jerseys show their faces so maybe now would be a good time to give them another go? The producer we spoke to said that they are also taking control of the processing and packaging back off the supermarkets so maybe that will also make a difference? I'll certainly be buying some if I see them this weekend.

As I've mentioned before, I haven't eaten meet for 18 years and for long periods have been vegetarian. But from time to time I cease to be veggie and go through phases of eating fish and when I do, I like to know where my fish is coming from. Fish4Ever's strap line is "Good canned fish - now and in the future...". They are all about 'fair fish' - small boats that land fish straight from the catch, decent working conditions, fair trade, sustainability, supporting artisan fisheries, no added nasties....

Action Against Hunger is one stall that I hope everyone at the show went to and supported. Action Against Hunger is an international network committed to saving the lives of malnourished children and their families in over 40 countries worldwide. They asked producers to contribute food products which they then filled bags with and 'sold' for a minimum donation of £15. There were some decent things in the bag, but that's not what it's about. Thousands of people came through the doors of Earl's Court of the weekend looking for delicacies to tempt their tastebuds when nearly 1 billion people worldwide suffer from hunger. We shouldn't feel guilty about enjoying our food, but when we're spending so much on tasty tit bits at a show like this what's an extra £15 or more to help people who have nothing to eat?

One of the last stops of the day was at The Tomato Stall where we were beckoned over to try the delicious mini plum tomatoes from the Isle of White. They're not cheap these tomatoes but they are well worth every single penny we paid for them. Bursting with flavour just like I'd grown them in my own back garden.

All in all it was a good afternoon out. Would I go again? Probably not next year unless the line up of producers changed significantly because I've seen what they have to offer and have kept the details of the ones that interest me. But maybe in a couple of years when I've forgotten all about this year's Real Food Festival and I'm ready to rediscover it again!

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