Saturday 31 May 2014

Tora's Birthweek. Chateau Marmot

So, no - Tora wasn't in labour for a week. She did recently, however (and does, very successfully every year) celebrate her birthday for roughly a week. And why the heck not. I think everybody should draw out their birthday celebrations for as long as they can! 

The festivities this year kicked off with the obligatory bubbly, exciting present-opening, and dressing up in our finest for the evening ahead - a six course culinary adventure at a pop-up restaurant, the Chateau Marmot, in the Artist Residence in Brighton.























































I love this photo of Tora - the beautiful birthday girl!

The Chateau Marmot had set up in a large room lined with long tables, where the 50 or so diners all sat together, side by side. There was a sense of excited anticipation in the air - we were all coming together for a meal with a set menu, but up until this point, had no idea what it would comprise of (all we knew was that seafood would be featuring). It was so much fun sitting and observing, poring over the menu eagerly to see what was in store for us, and meeting new people on either side of us. It had a more sociable feel to it than a normal restaurant - something different and fun!
















The first of the courses went down a treat. This was probably in my top three of the courses. Dehydrated fish "crisps", with herb salt, and served with a delicious mayonnaise-based, well seasoned, garlic sauce - incredible! I could have eaten the whole teacup full of them.





Course number two of six was a bit of a disappointment - described on the menu as pebbles, cockles, seaweed and sand, we weren't really too sure what to expect from this one. It looked very pretty on the plate, and consisted of (surprise, surprise) cockles, seaweed, some gelatin-like substance, and potatoes made to look like pebbles. Probably through some kind of dehydration method (they seemed to like that a lot). This one just didn't do it for me - it kind of had a salty, watery taste, the cockles were tiny, and the potatoes a bit bland. With four more courses to come though, we were not worried!





Course number three was delicious - hay smoked scallop (smoked fresh that morning!), radish, daikon, and roe. It was a really delicate dish. We hoovered it up in minutes! Again, delicious, but I think we could have all eaten double the amount! For once, not because we're all little piggies, but all of the dishes were just tiiiiny. To be fair, it was a tasting menu, but we'd all tried to eat as little as possible during the day in anticipation of the tasting feast, so we were probably hungrier than usual as well! 




Up next was cuttlefish, squid ink, pine nuts, and Sussex sea herbs. This was another firm favourite. The cuttlefish had a meaty texture, and with the salty ink and pine nuts had some lovely textures and substance to it!





The chefs and waitresses talked us through each course, and the specially selected drinks that had been chosen to go alongside each course.



Course five of six was Eastbourne Brill, anchovy, nettles, and burnt onion. This was another good'un, served with some delicious froth! I've never had froth before. It felt fancy.


Last up was Montezuma cocoa, fennel, mussel, and sea salt. I wasn't expecting this to be so dessert-like when reading the description on the menu, but it was essentially a piece of chocolate cake, ice cream, and fennel. You could barely tasted the dehydrated mussel powder dusted over it. Holly and Tora loved this course. I felt like I'd had better chocolate cake before, BUT, serving it with the fennel was just genius! The hint of aniseed was delicious, and complimented the cake and ice cream perfectly. I think I'm going to have to try serving this at some point, with my delicious, rich, gooey chocolate cake recipe!


It was a lovely evening, and an amazing way to celebrate a special friend's birthday. I'd love to do something a bit different like this again - I imagine it would be great fun for most kinds of occasion! Tora seemed pleased with the start of her birthweek too. The three of us danced the rest of the night away back at my house, singing our hearts out and already looking forward to the next day for part two of the celebrations!

Thursday 22 May 2014

Pois, cafe

I'm happy to report that our last day of Lisbon consisted of some more really delicious food at Pois, cafe. The cafe had just finished setting up its outside seating the day before, so we perched on our thrones and washed down some giant lattes whilst perusing the menu. 









... followed by some mandatory pre-flight drinks.




We were super pleased to find that the service at Pois was really great - our waiter and waitress were both just lovely, and we got all our food and drinks out in good time! The inside of the cafe had a chilled, boho feel to it, and you could kind of tell the staff actually enjoyed working there! Lisbon's saving grace of the dining world :o) The food was delicious - really fresh, and plentiful. We were all craving some vitamins and goodness by this point, so all went for salads - I plumped for the Monte (lettuce, friend bacon, cherry tomato, dried apricot, nuts) with extra goats cheese, and Mum and Sarah went for the Donau (lettuce, beetroot, goats cheese, raisins, horse raddish, and some delicious quince jam). 






















After our stroll around the cathedral, lunch, and a couple more beers in the sun, it was time to say goodbye to Lisbon. I think we left with mixed feelings about the place. It mainly smelt of fishy roadworks the whole time we were there, and all seemed a little bit run down. On the plus side, we couldn't complain about the weather, we learnt lots, and it's always nice seeing new places, isn't it? Still, there's no place like home, and as if somebody had heard us, we were treated to a beautiful British sunset from our great vantage point on the way back... :o)


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