Dans le Noir

On Tuesday night I paid a visit to Dans le Noir in Farringdon. I didn't know quite what to expect, but it was a fantastic experience. After a surprise cocktail in the (lit) bar, we were led to our table by our guide for the evening, Carl. All the waiters are blind and were amazingly adept at getting us all into the restaurant and seated at our table. He then looked after us exceptionally well all night as we tucked into our food and wine (which we had to pour ourselves - tricky!). You don't know what you are going to get to eat so have to try and guess, which is harder than it sounds. Especially when you are having difficulty even getting the food on your fork! Overall it was a great night and a real experience to be completely robbed of your vision (it is completely pitch black) for so long. My only criticism would be that the menu was slightly unimaginative - roast beef for main course - esepcially considering it is a French restaurant. I would thoroughly recommend the experience though and if I were to go again I would suggest going for the blue or green menu and not the white!

Jamie at Home

I just managed to catch the first episode of Jamie Oliver's new tv show Jamie at Home last week (while frantically trying do all the cooking for a dinner party!) and thoroughly enjoyed it. The focus was on tomatoes and all the different varieties had had grown in his garden. Some fantastic recipes and it's great to see lots of British food cooked in season. I definitely recommend tuning in tonight and checking it out. There is a book out too which will no doubt be packed full of yummy recipes, so I'm hoping to get my hands on it soon!

Fresh Tuna!

At the end of July I spent a fabulous week in Sicily, cruising around the Aeolian Islands on a yacht with a group of friends. Al, the budding fisherman among us, launched his line from the back of the boat and to our amazement caught a small tuna fish within about 10 minutes! He then bravely gutted and filleted it before cooking it up on our tiny boat stove for us all to tuck in to. It was really delicious and probably about as fresh as you can get! Yum! Shame it was the only thing we caught all week.....

Konstam

At the end of July I paid a visit to Konstam at the Prince Albert, near Kings Cross. I had been very excited about eating there as I had heard lots about the restaurant from the TV series The Urban Chef which followed the head chef/ owner Oliver Rowe in his quest to source all his ingredients from wihtin the M25! The restaurant is relatively small, with an open plan kitchen so you can see your food being prepared.

In the spririt of having a totally British meal we started with a glass of English sparkling wine before moving on to our starters of cuttlefish from the Thames and chicken liver and bacon pate which was absolutely delicious. We then washed our amazing main courses - steak with fresh horseradish, beetroot and onion and pork with goosberry sauce and seasonal veg - down with a lovely bottle of Chapel Down wine! The food was so tasty and fresh and it was great to know that everything had been sourced from so nearby. I would definitely recommend a visit, especially if you are lucky enough to have Oliver himself in the kitchen as we did!

Paella Anyone?

In early July I had a long weekend in Mallorca for my sister's hen party and we were staying in a lovely villa right on the beach. On the Saturday night they had a local festival and as we walked past we saw the food being prepared on the beach - local paella cooked on open fires in enormous paella dishes. They were absolutely massive and smelled totally amazing, so I couldn't resist asking for a taste from the local chef! It was really delicious and I was very sad not to be joining in with the feast!

Apologies!

I'm so sorry at the lack of blogging activity lately. July was a rather hectic month with trips to Mallorca, New York and Sicily! I'm certainly not doing my bit for the environment right now... Will have to endeavour to extra specially good for the rest of the year to make up for my rather large carbon footprint!

August looks set to be much quieter so I promise I will get some new posts up shortly!

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