SOME THINGS I PUT IN MY MOUTH - 2023 EDITION

AWAY FROM HOME:

 

A Negroni at Iberica, Victoria.

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A sausage roll at Delice, Lloyd Park – beef sausage for some (in fact I suppose fairly obvious) reason. 

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A pasty on an appealing plate, at the caff at the East Ruston Old Vicarage Garden.

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Toasted sandwiches served on slate at the Copr Bar, Swansea, though I actually forget what was in them:

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Zestily presented sausage bap and chips at the Sun, Dedham:

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It’s a wrap at the Welcome Institute.

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Anchovies, at the Orford Saloon in Walthamstow.

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Crispy squid, chips and salad, at the Rising Sun, Twickenham, eaten in the unexpected company of pre-game rugby fans who were consuming vast quantities of pizza.

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Seared Ahi tuna with ‘resort grown avocado pickled shallots, shaved Fresno pepper, gochujang bbq drizzle,’ at Edna’s Eaterie, Tucson Botanic Gardens. No, I’d never heard of gochujang either but it’s a kind of chili paste apparently.

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Spoiled for choice at the caff at the Horniman Museum.

Photo by Caroline Gannon, as are quite a lot of the others.

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AND AT HOME

In fact it’s a venison fillet but I know it looks like a sausage:

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Cheese straws, made by following (not very closely) a recipe for ‘Dishoon’s cheese and masala sticks’ 

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Devilled kidneys – my butcher is a good butcher but you have to ask him to order in kidneys specially:

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Another steak tartare in a universe of steak tartares:

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Taco night – not so much deconstructed as self-destructed:

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White Lake Cheese Somerset Dairy Tor, from Teddington Cheese in Richmond.

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Comparatively sophisticated - smoked mackerel. asparagus, Hollandaise sauce:

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Cheese on toast and beans (less sophisticated)

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A haggis pie with what looks like a fox’s face, though it was supposed to be a heart:

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Shepherd’s pie, post-Xmas – made with leftover duck (I read that Giles Coren was having the same.)

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CORDIAL GREETINGS

 I went for the second time to Iberica, one of chain of Spanish restaurants, this one in Victoria, which apparently ‘celebrates the spirit and style of our homeland with the finest food, award-winning wines, and a truly authentic experience of Spain.’  Ok then. 

The first time I was there I had the Atlantic Negroni - Bombay gin infused with thyme, Nordesia vermouth, Burla Negra rum, Campari and angostura bitters,.  I had not expected the rum, but that was fine. It looked like this: 

 

This second time I had Mezcal & Lime - Dewar's scotch whisky, Quiquiriqui Mezcal, cordial, lime juice and angostura bitters.  I hadn’t expected the whisky, but more confusingly I didn’t know what that ‘cordial ‘was doing in there. Or what kind of cordial it was. Was there a punctuation error?  Was it perhaps a lime juice cordial, say Rose’s?  Or was it (which seemed completely unlikely), a mescal cordial. Is there even such a thing?

 

I asked the waitress what the cordial was, and she spent a certain amount of time trying to define the word for me, but that didn’t help, and in the end we both gave up.  I ordered it anyway.  It was good, better than the Atlantic Negroni, and it looked like this:

 

LOCAL EATING

A long time ago I used to live in Eynsford, in Kent; a very picturesque spot, with a bridge and a ford, and over the other side of the river a pub called the Plough which served shockingly bad food, and which I had more or less forgotten about.

I went there again yesterday, more or less by chance, and the memories came flooding back.  The years have gone by, the décor and the layout of the Plough have changed, and no doubt the ownership too, but the food has remained consistent.  You want an expensive steak sandwich with lots of bread and not much steak?  Then this is the place for you.  Actually the chips were OK.

However, naturally, they do have a fancy cocktail menu - that's the thing in the back with  a hummingbird on the cover - that you look at while waiting a very long time for the bad sandwich to arrive.  Now, you and I may wonder whether a place what can’t make a decent steak sandwich is really up to making Royal Negroni, but I didn’t find out: the Asahi Dry was good enough for me.

Eynsford had when I lived there, and still has, a decent butcher – which I’m sure mist also have changed hands over the years.  It’s now Norman’s:

I really wasn’t in the market for a pack of pork chipolatas, but I bought one, just so I could post this picture:

Local sourcing is everything.