The Providores - Turkish Eggs

Sometime in the future, I will blog about fine dining at the Providores (a very worthwhile experience if you’re curious!). For now, I want to dedicate a post to their Turkish Eggs. Sounds bizarre but if you had them you’d agree! I promise.

Regular readers will know my fondness for Marylebone and my Sunday trips to the farmer’s market, the Ginger Pig and La Fromagerie. There’a a few other places I pop to on occasion and one from this list is the Providore’s. Lots of people I trust like it, Aidan Brooks is a fan and did some work experience there while training, indeed I shared a lovely meal with him there recently, and Krista at Londonelicious includes it in her London top 10. It should therefore come as no surprise, that the Providores features quite highly on my list on these Sunday jaunts, with my usual being their wonderful turkish eggs accompanied with a great latté, something that is rare in London these days.

So, what are the turkish eggs? It’s a dish that hails from Changa restaurant in Istanbul (which Peter Gordon is also involved in) but served also in the Providores - two poached eggs with whipped yoghurt and hot chilli butter. It sounds like it shouldn’t work, but for that reason, I knew it must, and spectacularly so, otherwise, why would it be on the menu?

My first taste of that dish, was just wonderful, I can still recall. Perfectly poached eggs, sitting on a pillow of whipped yoghurt and wrapped in hot chilli butter, it’s just superb. Another of my must-try-to-recreate. For now, I am very happy to go there on my Sunday trips and indulge. I recommend that you do too, should you find yourself in the area.

The Providores
109 Marylebone High Street, London, England W1U 4RX
tel: 0207 9356175
email: anyone@theprovidores.co.uk
web: http://www.theprovidores.co.uk/

Taste of Cork

Taste of Cork

Taste of Cork

I do like to do nice things, and these often involve food, ok, mostly involve food. I can never pass up the chance to attend a food festival, so when a friend mentioned that Taste of Cork would be running for the first time this year in Ireland, I made sure that I would be there for it.

Taste of Cork, like Taste of London, showcases the best food that the area has to offer. It was in a fabulous setting, in the old city gaol, and on a beautiful day. We went along to the evening session, and keen as ever, arrived early to join an enormous queue. Well, to be truthful, I thought I was late as I had the time wrong, but, just as well!

Taste of Cork

Now, I’d done a little research, and some Cork restaurants that I really wanted to try were there, so I had already drafted a list in my head, determined to start first with Ballymaloe House and then the Ivory Tower, moving onto Bell Tower, Capella from Castlemartyr. There were some others that I was curious about but these were my top three, anything after that would be a bonus.

Potato soup with garden lovage pesto and chive flowers from Ballymaloe House

First impressions, the venue was great and it was more compact than Taste of London. This, for me, was a good thing, as I only saw a small portion of Taste of London in the time that I was there. Not that that’s a hindrance, next year I’ll just go twice! Nestled in at the base were two of the restaurants from my short list, so I went straight to Ballymaloe House to sample their wares.

Ballymaloe is famous for a few things, their restaurant, Darina Allen, Rachel Allen, Rory O’Connell, their cookery school and their passion for local irish ingredients. I wasn’t ready for a dessert yet, and given I had yet to have anything to eat, a starter seemed like a sensible option. On offer was potato soup with garden lovage pesto and chive flowers. It was pretty, delicious and very smooth, full of flavour, with the chive flowers offering a bold textural contrast, that at first I wasn’t too sure about. By the end, I wanted more.

Ballycotton mackerel with gooseberry sauce and organic Shanagarry salad

The main course available was Ballycotton mackerel with gooseberry sauce and organic Shanagarry salad, however by now, I already had my eye on swordfish from the Ivory Tower next door. The swordfish was served with mango salsa and banana ketchup. I was intrigued by the banana ketchup and wondered how it might taste. It sounds idiotic to say but it tasted exactly like you would expect it to taste - banana flavour with the texture and viscosity of ketchup, yellow of course. It was beautiful with the mango salsa and the swordfish. I fell in love and must try and find a recipe to replicate it.

Blackened Swordfish with Banana Ketchup and Mango Salsa

Next up, a browse around some of the stalls, a taste of the new Lindt chilli chocolate (yum!), some flavoursome irish strawberries, and some prosecco, to wash it all down. The English Market from Cork were there, a fantastic indoor food market that has been serving the city since 1786. There are lots of traditional butchers in there selling the likes of tripe, drisheen and spiced beef, fishmongers, cheese shops, a fresh pasta stall, the farmgate café, it deserves a blog post of it’s own so I’ll leave it for now.

At the Pig’s Back from the English Market had lots of wonderful irish cheeses at Taste of Cork, and I was quite pleased to see a girl there, that had served me at the market some months previously, quite nervously as it was her first day, she seemed to be enjoying herself, which was nice to see.

What else did I eat? White bean soup with pork belly and chorizo oil from Capella, one of the stars of the evening. Definitely one restaurant to return to next time I am in Cork.

Surely, I couldn’t handle another main? Well, they were small, and I just had to! There was roast fillet of pork with black pudding, potatoes, caramelised compote of apple and plums and marjoram juice from Orchid’s at Hayfield Manor in Cork City. Phew, what a mouthful, but the dish itself, regardless of the complexity of the title, tied together beautifully and was responsible for me buying lots of black pudding to bring back to London. A potato and black pudding sandwich with tender fillet of pork on the side - soul food.

Roast fillet of pork with black pudding, potatoes, caramelised compote of apple and plums and marjoram juice from Orchid

What about dessert? I kept it savoury and went back to the Ivory Tower for some pizza ice cream: tomato and basil sorbet, olive and parmesan tuile and it was great.

Pizza ice cream: tomato and basil sorbet, olive and parmesan tuile

What about the food I wanted but didn’t have the space or mental capacity to fit? Herb Coated Slaney Valley Lamb, Carmalised Onion Crushed Potato, Saffron Emulsion from Bell Tower, Capella featured as did the aforementioned mackerel witrh gooseberry sauce from Ballymaloe, the porchetta on the spit, gubbeen cheeses, clonakilty black pudding and the connemara smoked salmon.

Herb Coated Slaney Valley Lamb, Carmalised Onion Crushed Potato, Saffron Emulsion from Bell Tower, Capella

Porchetta

I am afraid I was pretty poor on the demonstration front but I did catch the end of Rory O’Connell who was very enjoyable.

Overall, it was a very pleasant evening with some outstanding food. I’d definitely recommend it and I’d go again.

Burrata with heirloom tomatoes

Every now and then, I like to treat myself to something nice to eat from Harrod’s Food Hall. I really like Selfridge’s and Harvey Nichol’s also, but Harrod’s is so vast and decadent and full of treats. On a recent visit I spied a buffalo cheese that I hadn’t seen before - burrata - of which there where two types, one normal and one with truffle. I was so intrigued but I didn’t actually buy any, I was on a mission that day and was looking for borlotti beans. I went back the following week, but, to my dismay, there was no burrata to be had. It’s delivered on a Tuesday and always sells out on the day.

So, the following Tuesday, I made sure I got down there to buy some of this intriguing cheese, but there was none there! I waited impatiently for the lady behind the counter, just to check, and happily they had a box of it stowed away in a fridge. They didn’t have the truffle one so I got the normal one.

Some background on burrata for anyone like me that hadn’t come across it before: it’s a fresh cheese made from buffalo milk and cream from water buffalos. Traditionally it was wrapped in vine leaves, but now is more commonly wraped in plastic. When making it, the hot cheese is formed into a pocket, which is then filled with leftover mozzarella. Fresh cream is added before closing and wrapping in the fresh or synthetic leaves. The fresh leaves would have been an indicator of the freshness of the cheese, if the leaves were green, then the cheese was fresh, if not, it wasn’t.

What does it taste like? A really fresh and milky mozarella. Really delicious. I ate it with with large slices of heirloom tomatoes and some fruity extra virgin olive oil. It was wonderful and shall be adapted for many lunches and starters in the future.

Calling all London Food Bloggers!

There’s so many of us, and not many spaces where we can meet and share information bar on our blogs. I’ve started a Facebook Group for us - London Food Bloggers - along with Helen of Food Stories. Come join us!

Taste of London

I quite like festivals, they’re lots of fun. An opportunity to socialise, try new things, and, come the summer, that might even involve sunshine. This was the case yesterday with Taste of London, an annual food festival that takes place in Regent’s Park and showcases some of the best food that London has to offer. Added to that there’s tastings, talks and demonstrations.

It runs over four days, Thursday to Sunday. Sunday was the day we went, and fortunately for us, had the best weather. We got down there for the opening at 12pm, determined to get the most out of the day. It wasn’t so busy at this point, and almost the first thing I saw was the Aitkens brothers walking purposefully towards the stage, decked out in their whites & aprons, preparing for a demonstration.

We lingered a while, but we were keen to do some wine tasting. Unfortunately, we weren’t alone, there was already an enormous queue when we got down there, so we decided to grab a bite, a glass of wine and see what else was on offer. At this point it was incredibly busy (it had sold out), so a glass of Chapel Down Rosé Brut was most welcome. I am a very big fan of Chapel Down Wines, and am quite partial to their Chapel Down Bacchus, so I was really happy to get a chance to chat to them and taste some of their other wines, at 6 crowns or £3 a glass, an absolute bargain. My favourites on that lovely summers day were the sparkling wines: the Vintage Brut and the Rosé Brut.

Having missed one wine tasting, we made sure we were early for the Spanish one at 2pm. It was quite interesting but a little quick for my liking, I would have preferred to have a bit more time. I know a bit about wine, but am by no means an expert, so, it was a pleasant hour. Mind, I didn’t use the spittoon as much as I should, or atall. I didn’t see anyone else using it either!

Next up was a talk and book signing by Jay Rayner, the Observer food critic. He was very entertaining and had some tips for us amateurs. His favourite places to eat in London include one of my favourites New Tayyabs in Whitechapel (I really need to blog about this place - it’s also one of my favourites!) and one I really want to try Aiden Byrne at the Dorchester, especially after tasting some of his food at Taste, more on that later.

It was definitely time for some food by now. The choice was immense. It was very difficult! I chose to sample the Warm Salad of English Peas, Flaked Salt Cod and Young Shoots from Arbutus, the Squid Salad with Passionfruit Dressing from Benares, the Meen Kozhambu (a kingfish curry with rice and green beans) from Tamarind, the Beetroot Gazpacho with Avocado Sorbet and Vodka Jelly from Aiden Byrne at the Dorchester and the Spit Roast Belly Pork from Le Cafe Anglais. Worry not for my health or appetitie, these were small portions priced at £4-5 and spread out over a couple of hours. All of it was good but the beetroot gazpacho and spit roast pork belly were superb. The beetroot gazpacho was smooth, rich and fruity, the vodka jelly cut right through it and the avocado sorbet was a treat, I was genuinely upset when it was over. The spit roast pork belly was the best that I have had. Le Café Anglais and Aiden Byrne at the Dorchester are now next on my list.

What else? Live music including a very entertaining and very summery jazz band. Some cocktail competitions, cookery classes. The culinary glitterati were out in force, I spotted Atul Kochar, Gary Rhodes and Aiden Byrne.

There was so much on and so much to taste, it was impossible to do it all. What did I miss? Arthur Potts-Dawson from Acorn House gave one of the afternoon sessions, I would have loved to try the parmesan custards with anchovy toast from Le Cafe Anglais and everything on Aiden Byrne’s menu. The Canteen hog  roast was very tempting as was the Cinnanmon Club stand. I could list the things I wish I had tried all day, but there was only five hours and one stomach.

What’s the verdict? All in all a very pleasant day, with lots of opportunities to taste great food from great restaurants and new & old food products from producers, small scale and larger, at the producers market. Added to this the tastings, classes and demonstrations, it’s just impossible to choose what to do, five hours goes very quickly! We had lots of fun. It’s definitely worthwhile and I’ll go again.

Upcoming Taste experiences: Taste of Bath – 3-6 July, Taste of Birmingham – 10-13 July, Taste of Cork – 27-29 June.

More pictures of Taste of London on Flickr.