There were six of us around the table today for lunch.Snowy white tablecloth, crisp linen napkins, delicious food and lots of noise.We giggled through the starter , mains, pudding and coffee .
The other diners (three tables of two) were probably slightly stunned by our rising voices, but what a lovely lunch.
The girls as I think of them (we'd all be prosecuted under the trades descriptions act if we were being advertised as such and I'm the youngest!)and I meet up once every few months or so. We're a disparate group, but Gill, Jill, Alanda, Kim, Lorna and I all got together years as ago through being on a fund raising committee for the British Red Cross. There's usually ten of us , so we may have been a smaller group today but we certainly weren't any quieter.
We were at Paul Leary, The Woodhouse in Woodhouse Eaves. A stylish restaurant decked out in shades of grey. Kim decided that she would only have two courses, I agreed ,but the others weren't so sure.
But when we saw the menu , we all pretty much decided there and then that three courses would be necessary. Having the will power of a gnat myself, I wasn't surprised.
Alanda and I had the mushroom risotto.I love risotto but am sometimes wary of ordering it as like Forest Gump says in the film about a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get.
What we did get was ....cue heavy breathing..rich flavours, great texture and a saucy richness which made me sigh.
I chose chicory tarte tatin,with polenta chips.choux farci and cointreau and orange reduction.
A pretty looking plate, perhaps the tarte tatin was a little too well done,but the polenta chips packed a punch and the orange and cointreau reduction added a welcome sweetness.I wish there had been more of it though.It may have been a reduction, but I just wished they hadn't reduced it by so much. Less may be more but for me, when it comes to sauces and gravy, more is more .
Then came the pudding.Alanda and I had both chosen the mango and passionfruit mousse with the coconut .It came in a glass.We looked at each other, tried a teaspoonful and then looked at each other and grinned.Like Monica does with Gregg Wallace on Masterchef on BBC 2,and then you know the chef is doing ok.
Ok, imagine intense fruit flavours...mangoes and passionfruit...clean, zingy flavours that make you wake you up plus the unctous coconutty richness... with a hint of coriander.That's the sort of flavour that says Hello! I'm here...
At that point I was prepared to kidnap the chef. Abduct him and order him at gunpoint to bring all the ingredients for the risotto and pudding into my car and I would drive off into the sunset.Then make him cook for me...in private.
Unfortunately that wasn't an option, so I settled for a coffee,with accompanying chocolate and hazenuts pralines and turkish delight, said goodbye to the girls and drove off .
The track for today is what I listened to on the way home to darkening skies at just before 4pm. Angus and Julia Stone...who I saw live in Freo ,Western Australia two years ago.The title..."Mango tree" Damn, I knew I should have kidnapped the chef.....
The other diners (three tables of two) were probably slightly stunned by our rising voices, but what a lovely lunch.
The girls as I think of them (we'd all be prosecuted under the trades descriptions act if we were being advertised as such and I'm the youngest!)and I meet up once every few months or so. We're a disparate group, but Gill, Jill, Alanda, Kim, Lorna and I all got together years as ago through being on a fund raising committee for the British Red Cross. There's usually ten of us , so we may have been a smaller group today but we certainly weren't any quieter.
We were at Paul Leary, The Woodhouse in Woodhouse Eaves. A stylish restaurant decked out in shades of grey. Kim decided that she would only have two courses, I agreed ,but the others weren't so sure.
But when we saw the menu , we all pretty much decided there and then that three courses would be necessary. Having the will power of a gnat myself, I wasn't surprised.
Alanda and I had the mushroom risotto.I love risotto but am sometimes wary of ordering it as like Forest Gump says in the film about a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get.
What we did get was ....cue heavy breathing..rich flavours, great texture and a saucy richness which made me sigh.
I chose chicory tarte tatin,with polenta chips.choux farci and cointreau and orange reduction.
A pretty looking plate, perhaps the tarte tatin was a little too well done,but the polenta chips packed a punch and the orange and cointreau reduction added a welcome sweetness.I wish there had been more of it though.It may have been a reduction, but I just wished they hadn't reduced it by so much. Less may be more but for me, when it comes to sauces and gravy, more is more .
Then came the pudding.Alanda and I had both chosen the mango and passionfruit mousse with the coconut .It came in a glass.We looked at each other, tried a teaspoonful and then looked at each other and grinned.Like Monica does with Gregg Wallace on Masterchef on BBC 2,and then you know the chef is doing ok.
Ok, imagine intense fruit flavours...mangoes and passionfruit...clean, zingy flavours that make you wake you up plus the unctous coconutty richness... with a hint of coriander.That's the sort of flavour that says Hello! I'm here...
At that point I was prepared to kidnap the chef. Abduct him and order him at gunpoint to bring all the ingredients for the risotto and pudding into my car and I would drive off into the sunset.Then make him cook for me...in private.
Unfortunately that wasn't an option, so I settled for a coffee,with accompanying chocolate and hazenuts pralines and turkish delight, said goodbye to the girls and drove off .
The track for today is what I listened to on the way home to darkening skies at just before 4pm. Angus and Julia Stone...who I saw live in Freo ,Western Australia two years ago.The title..."Mango tree" Damn, I knew I should have kidnapped the chef.....
That sounds like an amazing meal. You can always tell the best of restaurants because they dish out yummy chocolates with the coffee... but are you sure it was only the cooking you wanted him for? Just asking!
ReplyDeleteIt was lovely Ros.....but I have to tell you that I never even saw the chef...so put those naughty thoughts out of your head!
ReplyDelete