This has been an interesting week of lunching. I say interesting, I probably mean horrifyingly-tedious-unless-you're-me-which-you're-not-so-I-definitely-mean-horrifyingly-tedious.
Well, shut up and listen to my story, yeah.
Yesterday I had the pleasure of eating at Catch, one of several eateries in the Andaz Hotel at Liverpool Street. This is a beautiful, if rather dimly lit room that feels a bit like you've wandered off Bishopsgate into some sort of Stephen King story; particularly when it's basically empty.
I'd been tempted in by the menu outside offering 3 courses for £25, featuring things like Cured Kingfish, and Sea Bass with Pork Belly. One of the things that really stood out on this set menu was a dessert of apple mousse with various deconstructions of apple.
The menu inside was not the one outside. This could have been rather disappointing, but the real set menu offered some rather special-sounding treats.
I began with an oh-so-trendy (/so two thousand and late) jam jar filled with a delightfully smooth trout parfait with lovely chunks of 'lightly smoked' trout. The smoke was so light that it was basically undetectable, but I don't believe the dish suffers because of this. This was topped with a lovely helping of big, squishy, bursting orange roe. This had been slightly mis-sold as 'caviar', but I'll let that slide -names are not really important, and the overall result is probably better for having the larger, richer trout/salmon (not sure which) roe.
My dining partner, J Lo had the soup. That is to say he had a small fish/crab cake with 'some sort of citrussy foam' and cornish crab consomme. I must confess more than i slight twinge of envy when they poured that glistening, velvety pool of sweet perfumed stock into J Lo's bowl. This really was one of the best smelling dishes I've ever experienced. This was, apparently -and I certainly believe this- very good. There was one tiny issue with this dish: a small piece of shell was left in it. If I was the chef, I would be very disappointed by that, but as a diner, I could not care less -unless I'd choked or bled to death.
I should also confess to having chosen a bottle of wine specifically to go with my trout starter, a satisfying and rather typical Australian Riesling. The honey notes matched the salt and perfume of the cured fish and roe beautifully, while the sharper grapefruit flavour cut through the richness and oiliness. It turned out to also be rather delightful with my main course.
Crispy Fried Haddock rings alarm bells in my head. My third confession must be that I don't really care for fish and chips. I don't really care for chips in general, but fish in crispy batter totally ruins the appeal of fish for me, crunchy batter -no matter how well-made- destroys the delicate softness of white fish, and, well, I just dislike it. Fortunately, at Catch, the phrase 'Crispy Fried Haddock' means coated in a thin layer of very well-seasoned breadcrumbs and fried in a pan. Accompanying this was a puree of cauliflower and confit garlic, although I could barely taste the garlic -which may, in fact have been present as the slight bitterness in the puree, which was totally resolved when eaten with the saltier components of the dish. Scattered rather unceremoniously across the top of this was a handful of brown shrimp. Roe and brown shrimp are two of my favourite things, so thus far lunch had been bi-winning. The portioning of this dish was also completely to my liking: two decent fillets of fish, with enough puree and vibrant romanesco broccoli to accompany it but let the fish take all the credit, with little squishy pieces of salty, umami shrimp stepping in to make each mouthful that little bit more exciting. I hope not to have oversold this dish, but I was very impressed. Others may find that it is a little too salty -i believe fish and seafood are best when seasoned on the saltier end of the scale- and the lack of any real carbohydrates make the dish not quite as filling as it could be -but carbs are flavour-inefficient, and you don't do fine dining to be full up.
J Lo had what seemed a much less successful main. A couple of very well cooked black bream fillets with a sweetcorn puree and some pretty little mushrooms, and some large greyish-brown lumps of something powdery. These confused both of us -having not remembered what it said on the menu- and we had to ask. We were first told 'potato'. This was a lie (mostly). The waiter came back and corrected himself. They were Wild Mushroom Gnocchi. These were not to my taste. They hadn't the strength of flavour to recognise them as wild mushroom, nor the delicateness to be considered good gnocchi. And they were too big. Smaller, more strongly flavoured, and less overcooked these would, I am certain, be wonderful.
I think I won the battle of the main course, but we definitely drew on dessert.
The deconstructed apple dessert on the outside menu which had enticed me in was also on the real menu, albeit with a slightly less poncey description. This was a very good pudding. It is always exciting to see how three ingredients can make seven equally delicious, but very different components. A light, sharp apple foam (which had an unexpectedly viscose texture -as though prepared with egg whites or maybe xanthan gum) sits atop a small column of pastel green mousse with a deep, contrasting caramel/butterscotchy sponge sliver on the bottom. This would have been a fine dessert, but it also came with diced and stewed apple pieces -warm, sweet and dark, a rich, slightly bitter caramel sauce, and a refreshing -if slightly overwhelming by its coldness- apple sorbet, and a slice of dessicated apple that I very much wanted ten more of -probably adding this to my favourites list. Dessert was, then, a successful exploration of apple preparation -showing what can be done with apple, egg and sugar. I was impressed by the detail and the presentation, but can't help feeling that it could have been that little bit better. The sorbet definitely wiped out some of the flavour of the mousse when eaten together, but the mix of hot and cold when eaten with the cooked apple was glorious.
All in all, a wonderful meal, in a very pretty space, with friendly, unintrusive, but always attentive staff. A real treat.
Lunch today, however, was not a treat. But I still really liked it. If I may borrow your eyes for a few more days, I'd like to sing the praises of Sainsbury's Basics 'Meat Lasagne'. For something that costs 74p, it is an absolute triumph. I've paid up to ten times that amount for lasagne of inferior flavour. I may be alone in thinking this, but this particular Basics ready meal is a real winner. Ok, so I added bits of crispy bacon and chunks of brie, and stirred in some bovril, but even without the tinkering, you get a lot of yum for your 74p. Certainly better than half a litre of petrol.
