Saturday, July 9, 2011

I'm without words

literally in this case after attending the Young Turks at Clove Club hosted by Restaurants in Residence in Canary Wharf on their last night service on Wednesday.

My article on the evening and the work of Isaac and James will appear on finedininglovers.com in the next couple of weeks, at which point I'll shamelessly self-promote, but I wanted to share the plates with you before then...if only to encourage everyone to go to the market at buy a selection of heirloom tomatoes which are amazing right now.


Reading about the Young Turk’s local twist on steak tartare (room temperature, course dice, fat on, salty acid oyster emulsion, capers, elderberry), served previously at the Nuno Mendes’ Loft Project, tipped my palette off about the forthcoming meal well before the bowl of raw sweet sugar snap peas arrived.  Communal amuse bouche courses of cucumber, yoghurt and Indian salt and crisp buttermilk fried chicken left me re-evaluating my statement in a previous article that chicken exists only for unadventurous menu navigators.  I apologise chicken, I was out of line.


A garden of plump summer heirloom tomatoes lashed with goats milk and leafed with wild marjoram guided us to a crisp course of raw mackerel, mustard, gooseberries and crystal lemon cucumbers. Each of these courses showed a delicate respect for the predominantly raw ingredients and the balance between each on the plate.


And then, there were the fore ribs.  A buxsom dish of Angus Rib (smoked and charred over apple wood) served with grilled and pickled onions, porter & land cress. I felt the need to retract my previous proposal to the chicken, I’d clearly moved on. Even the Loganberries, Ewe’s Milk Yoghurt & Beremeal Cake could not tare my attention from those ribs.


Sorry, distracted pause, fore rib related.