Tag: dessert

The Red Lion, Thurgarton

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Sitting somewhere between the midst and the aftermath of a global pandemic, there isn’t a huge amount to get excited about right now, but being back in a world where it’s (more or less) socially acceptable to go out to eat again is definitely something to be grateful for. 

The closure of bars and restaurants during the past few months has been a shock to the system, but it’s the closure of local, small town and village pubs that has really hit home for many. Such pubs, unique to us here in the UK and Ireland, are often community hubs, bringing together locals, and offering both spontaneous and ritualistic escapes from home and working life.

Finding a good village pub isn’t as straightforward as it might sound. If you’re not local, they may be slightly out of your way, meaning taxis or designated drivers are required, then you’re looking for a warm, friendly and comfortable environment, and finally, a solid menu. Chain pubs’ generic menus featuring microwaved curries and reheated brownies just won’t cut it – I want unique dishes, cooked from scratch, menus having been designed by chefs and managers who care about the produce they’re working with, and the plates they’re serving up. 

Running out of certain dishes and ingredients is always a good sign, as is having to wait a while for your food, and it’s for all these reasons that The Red Lion in Thurgarton, Nottinghamshire, was the perfect, homely, post-lockdown pub outing.

New social distancing measures mean that like all other pubs, bars and restaurants, its layout has had to change quite drastically, reducing the number of tables, and therefore eliminating that busy, intimate feel that you’ll generally find within pubs. But despite this, the tables that remained were full, with people also taking full advantage of outdoor seating.

Having browsed the menu beforehand, I knew it was going to be a 3-course meal kind of visit, and I’m often drawn to dishes on menus that stand out as being different, and therefore I try to avoid having staple favourites. Up until recently, cauliflower was a mystery to me – bland-tasting and ugly, I couldn’t understand how anyone could enjoy it, but as times change, I’ve definitely grown more of an appreciation for it, and so the cauliflower velouté starter was calling out to me.

The first few mouthfuls tasted surprisingly sweet, and took a moment to adjust to, but the smooth, velveteen texture was a real treat, enhanced by a delicious drizzle of curry oil and a crunchy bhaji to top it off. The portion was pretty immense – had I been cooking at home, this would’ve been my entire dinner, and so half the portion size would’ve meant more room to comfortably enjoy my main and dessert.

After spending some time going back and forth between a steak with blue cheese sauce or pork tenderloin for my main, fortunately this was decided for me when I learned the blue cheese sauce was unavailable. I’m sure this decision worked out for the best as the pork tenderloin was beautifully cooked.

With the slightest hint of pink within, it was soft and delicate, and could’ve held its own without a single sauce or garnish elsewhere on the plate. Having said that, the sauces and garnishes were great additions, particularly the creamy celeriac purée and caramelised apples, and the tenderstem broccoli added a flash of green to what otherwise would’ve been a pretty neutral-beige plate. The only part of the dish that I questioned was the black pudding purée; I’m a huge fan of black pudding and love the flavours, however, for me, as a purée it was just a little too thick and claggy. The black pudding was definitely still worthwhile, but perhaps would’ve worked better in another form, whether sliced, or as a crumb.

Finally came dessert. Having seen pictures of The Red Lion’s desserts online and on social media, I loved the high-end, fancy feel that they had to them. Still a strong portion size but with huge amounts of attention to detail, which ultimately created a beautiful-looking dish like the one below. 

This is a chocolate ganache with popcorn, cookie and cherry sauce, and it was this unusual combination of treats that intrigued me. Combining ganache, popcorn and a cookie sounds like it could end up quite a clunky, inelegant dish, but it was quite the opposite. To be honest I’m not sure the popcorn or cookie added anything flavour-wise, however they both enhanced the appearance and texture of the dish. The ganache itself was incredibly rich, but this was balanced by the beautifully sharp, deep red cherry sauce. I’ve never come across a dessert like this before on a menu, and its this kind of inventiveness that really excites me.

Realistically, you aren’t going to accidentally stumble across village pubs like The Red Lion without prior knowledge or recommendations, but hopefully that’s where I come in. It’s great to give the big chains, and packed city restaurants a miss for once, and head somewhere that local or not, really appreciates your business, and puts a lot of heart into the food they produce. Based on the food alone, The Red Lion can certainly be described as a gastropub, but one that is unpretentious and welcoming.

Visit them at:

Southwell Road, Thurgarton, Nottingham, NG14 7GP 

 www.redlionthurgarton.co.uk

¡Comemos!

xo

Hello, this is London’s number 1 cheesecake expert speaking…

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Sixteen years of my life I spent thinking I didn’t like cheesecake.

SIXTEEN YEARS.

I will never be able to retrieve those lost years, but what I can do is attempt to make up for the lack of cheesecake in my life.

According to the wonderfully useful and addictive Eaten app (see my previous blog post on how it all works), I am officially the number 1 cheesecake expert in London. You simply cannot argue with their statistics. Here’s the proof:

So what is it that makes such a good cheesecake? And what are the warning signs of a disappointing dessert of this kind?

We’ll leave the best until last so I’ll start with some of my least favourite efforts.

One of the most important aspects of the cheesecake is its base. A dodgy base = a dodgy cheesecake. A few months ago I got carried away in a whirlwind of Brazilian flavours at Temakinho in Soho, and couldn’t resist their passionfruit (or maracuja) cheesecake. The flavour itself was lovely and sharp but the base really let it down.

I need to taste the buttery crumbs with their gritty texture. A welded-together stodgy base like this just doesn’t do it for me, no matter how lovely it looks.

Another major factor is of course the creamy cheese filling. Unfortunately this one just wasn’t creamy enough and had an odd savoury cheese flavour rather than a sweet cream cheese.

Ultimately Temakinho had produced a dessert full of fruity flavour but lacking on the textural front (with that disconcerting actual real-life cheese cheesiness).

Some attempts find they have the opposite problems though. Take this banana cheesecake from Almost Famous in Leeds, for example.

An excellent biscuit base (if you can actually manage to get your spoon to the bottom of the jar), and a pleasant consistency to the cream cheese. HOWEVER… bananas. I love bananas. And I love desserts flavoured with actual banana. But the problem is, as it’s not as sweet as other fruits, once you combine it with cream cheese and/or whipped cream, the flavour is is not powerful enough to shine through. The texture of the actual banana pieces gets lost in all the creaminess and the overall flavour of the cheesecake becomes quite bland. I often find this is also the case with an average banoffee pie. Banana + cream is not enough. More sugar or an extra burst of flavour somewhere is needed to heighten the overall taste. A pretty cheesecake that felt good to eat, but didn’t quite hit the spot.

Moving up slightly, we find this dessert in a whole new form. The frozen cheesecake by Whipped in Covent Garden looks absolutely delightful. Their fantastic menu allows you to customise your flavours, and so I ended up with a Lotus Biscuit base, blueberry sauce, honeycomb and oreos. To be honest I think I panicked under the pressure of having to come up with my own flavour combinations, but this is what appeared before me…

This majestic beast was slightly overwhelming and I hadn’t expected it to be quite so tall. But not one to turn down a food-related challenge, I put in my best efforts to finish it. My thoughts on the idea of frozen cheesecake? I’m not sure if it’s a ‘thing’ . As in, is this frozen cheesecake? Or is it basically just ice cream/soft serve/whatever you want to call it with a biscuit base hidden at the bottom. I would argue the latter. That’s not to say it didn’t taste decent; the blueberry sauce with the ice cream (as I insist on calling it) tasted good, but ultimately I prefer the more traditional cheesecake-baking methods.

Ok we’re getting to the good stuff now, and a pleasant surprise up next. You may have seen this dessert already in my Chalida review from a few months ago. In it, I talked about my indifference towards mango, but also came to the conclusion that in this particular cheesecake, the flavour worked fantastically.

The base was very thin, but the creamy topping was so light that the ratio of base to topping worked really well. It was airy and non-indulgent with a lovely sweet sharpness. On top of that, you have to acknowledge the carefully thought-out presentation, producing a delicate-looking dessert, rather than dishing up a heavy, indulgent slab.

In complete contrast to Chalida’s mango cheesecake is another Whipped creation, and a super popular one at that. After the interesting and probably not recommendable combination I chose for the frozen cheesecake, I decided to play it safe with my baked option, going for their classic banoffee cheesecake.

Now, backtrack a few paragraphs and there I am going on about how banana doesn’t work in a cheesecake. Well, it can, and here’s how…

This is not a load of plain cream cheese with plain whipped cream, with a few bananas chucked in. This cheesecake has a strong banana flavour, complemented by gooey toffee, warm melted chocolate and a crunchy biscuit crumb. There are lots of elements all working together in your mouth. Contrasting textures, chilled cream cheese vs warm sauce, and extra sugar from that toffee and chocolate. Extra sugar doesn’t always sound like a positive, but when it comes to banana desserts, it really is a requirement.

The fact that the cheesecake is baked does give it a heavier feel, but really if you’re looking for a light, guilt-free dessert you shouldn’t be heading to Whipped anyway. It’s the equivalent of a vegan going for dinner at an Argentine steakhouse.

Another surefire way to success is to come up with original or less obvious flavour combinations. I love vanilla, strawberry, salted caramel… the list goes on, but sometimes the way to stand out on a menu is to be different.

This next cheesecake is apricot and white chocolate from The Tap and Run pub in Upper Broughton.

You’ll see that the ratio of base to topping in this one is slightly skewed, and ideally I’d probably have a slightly thinner base, but the stand-out for me was the apricot flavour. I’ve never seen apricot in a cheesecake before (although I’m not doubting that they exist), and that candied apricot topping was delicious. I have to say that white chocolate is quite difficult to include in desserts as it gets easily lost when combined with other more powerful flavours, i.e. the apricot in this case, but nonetheless this was a beautifully-presented dessert with a delicious take on the traditional fruity cheesecake.

Right, just a few more to go. And a really important point here is not to neglect the chain restaurant dessert. One of the nicest cheesecakes I’ve ever had was the lemon cheesecake with raspberry coulis from Zizzi.

It may not be the most delicate-looking but boy did it taste good. Lemon topping with raspberry coulis is a fantastic combination, and the portion is the perfect amount to avoid feeling like you’re going to roll out of the restaurant (although if you’ve also had a starter and a pizza like me, you may end up feeling like that anyway). But the point is, don’t turn your nose up at places like this. It’s great to support independent businesses and everyone loves a cosy, intimate setting, but personally I think the zizzi menu is pretty decent, and this certainly was satisfying.

Now to my top 2.

Heading for dinner at a fish/seafood bar, cheesecake was the last thing on my mind. Yet, the berry cheesecake at J Sheekey was stunning.

Not only is the presentation incredibly elegant, but that berry compote topping was beautiful. As much as I like chocolatey, caramelly style cheesecakes, you can’t beat the contrast of a thick creamy cheese topping with a light, sharp hit of fruit. I’ve used the word ‘sharp’ a huge number of times but there really is no other way to describe that taste and feeling when the sugary cooked fruit hits your tongue.

For me this cheesecake was second only to one. And that one remaining slice of delight is Crumbs and Doilies Apple Crumble Cheesecake.

The excitement for me was the originality. Not just a fruit cheesecake, not just an apple cheesecake, but an apple crumble cheesecake. This title led to high expectations. I didn’t want a cheesecake that just tasted of apple, I wanted to be able to sense the difference between the flavour of the fruit itself, and the flavour of the crumble dessert that we all know and love.

I was not disappointed. Texture-wise you can see just from the photo that we have a clear crumble topping, with an added sticky toffee style sauce. But it wasn’t just that. It didn’t have a generic, artificial fruit flavour, it really did taste specifically of an apple crumble. The cheesecake topping itself wasn’t the best texture I’ve had, as I prefer a very smooth creamy cheese, however, I have to give it to them for originality and flavour. I have never before seen an apple crumble cheesecake, and now I feel like I don’t need to. I’ve tried it, it was delicious, and now I’m ready to be wowed by something completely new.

This is not the end of my cheesecake marathon. It really is my go-to dessert and there’ll be plenty more for me to discover.

If you want to keep up with those future discoveries, you can check out my Instagram account: @foodtravelsldn, or my Eaten account of the same name, where you can also find my full list of cheesecakes ranked from best to worst.

Now close your laptop, put down your phone, find yourself a nice, big slice of cheesecake and shove your face in it. Immediately.

¡Comemos!

xo

Camino

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When it comes to food, the excitement, for me, comes from variety.

Variety in terms of the food I cook at home, the places I dine at, and the types of dishes I order. That’s why tapas reaallly does it for me. You order a range of dishes to share, giving you bursts of flavour from everything from seafood to meat, cheese to veggies – nothing is off limits.

We decided to try out Camino for the very simple reason that it has a branch at King’s Cross, and we needed to be close to the station that evening.

Camino had been on my list for some time, but to be honest it had kind of been lost somewhere waaay down, and certainly wasn’t at the forefront of my mind. When I looked at the menu however, I got excited. There was so much that stood out to me and so ended up really looking forward to it.

They have a lovely courtyard and bar area, and another outdoor seating section by the restaurant itself. As it’s tucked away from the street, sitting outside in the warm weather is very relaxing and not at all noisy.

I was disappointed first off not to see a traditional sangria on the menu, but we did go on to discover that they did have their own version of it. Despite being sceptical it was lovely, and really refreshing.

Normally I’d go wild on the mains with tapas but we decided to stick to 4 dishes as I already had my dessert planned out…

First up was the cheese platter, featuring 5 different cheeses (including manchego and picos), a fig and almond slice, chilli jam, quince jelly and walnuts.

The cheeses were all nice but nothing exceptional. I did massively enjoy the chilli jam though and definitely felt/tasted the nice little kick of spice afterwards.

The picos (blue cheese ball) was definitely the stand out but as you can probably gather from the picture, the other four cheeses were very similar in appearance and texture and there weren’t huge differences in the flavours either.

We also went for the octopus on a bed of beetroot and chickpea puree. It’s not the most tender octopus I’ve ever had, but personally I’m not a huge fan of the cold Spanish Galician octopus, so this was more to my taste. The puree was nice, but again, no outstanding flavours. The best thing about this dish was probably the beautiful appearance. I think the large chunks you can see are swede which I don’t often eat, so I’m not confident on how it should be cooked but I think I would’ve given it a bit more time to soften.

Next up is one of their specials – the pan fried squid stuffed with black pudding (morcilla). Black pudding as a food can be quite divisive but I absolutely love it. In this case though I didn’t feel that it particularly enhanced the dish. The squid was cooked nicely but wasn’t massively flavoursome, and the accompanying sauce, again, was just ‘nice’. Once again, the presentation was probably the highlight.

By far my favourite tapas dish though, was the standalone black pudding dish (because you can never have too much). The texture was lovely – I’m not keen on chewy black pudding but this was soft with a delicate flavour. I challenge any meat-eater who wouldn’t normally eat something like this to give it a go, it really is delicious.

Since the day that I booked our table, I had probably been most excited for the desserts. After stalking their IG account on numerous occasions, I had worked out exactly what I wanted to try.

Originally I had ruled the churros out, as I’ve had them in a fair few places and I thought ‘How different can they be? I’ll try something else’. That, however, was before I saw their beautiful ‘churros sundae’ special, with a white chocolate mousse, melted chocolate and raspberries. It looked so attractive I couldn’t say no.

Admittedly it wasn’t quite as pretty as I had seen on social media (a common observation), but it tasted good. I have had better churros – I prefer them less on the crunchy side but it was tasty nonetheless.

By far my favourite dish of the meal was our final dessert – the drunken banana bread. I absolutely love banana bread but never really think of it as a dessert; it’s more commonly seen on breakfast/brunch menus.

This particular one was so incredibly light and moist, soaked in Oloroso Dulce, with goat’s curd mousse, popping candy and dulce de leche (like caramel) sauce.

Definitely a case of save the best ’til last.

Fortunately, Camino isn’t too pricey – tapas often gets a rep for being pretty expensive but Camino really isn’t too bad.

Overall, it was a good meal, with a couple of great dishes. I had been expecting more than two of the six dishes to be great to be honest, and I wouldn’t be desperate to rush back, but there definitely wasn’t any bad food at all. It would’ve been great to go in a party bigger than 2, simply to be able to sample an even wider range of dishes, for example, the Iberico pork and fideua that had also been on my hitlist!

If you want a relaxed meal, in a lovely outdoor setting this summer, Camino could be the place for you. Don’t wait around as the current specials are only on the menu for a week or so longer. Get a move on and…

¡Comemos!

xo

Big Mamma Group’s ‘Gloria Trattoria’

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Restaurant review numero tre and it’s a popular one. Gloria was opened in Shoreditch by the Big Mamma group earlier this year and people went wild over it. Queueing for crazy lengths of time to get a table was standard, and the same thing is now going down with their newly-opened sister restaurant Circo Popolare.

It’s sometimes nicer to let the hype die down a bit before you visit somewhere, and although for me it wasn’t intentional, clearly I did go at a time when people were so busy obsessing over Circo Populare that getting into Gloria was actually pretty straight forward.

Before I get stuck in, I want to emphasise that my intention is never to rant and rave about a restaurant and put people off. There is a significant difference between a restaurant that serves poor quality food with subpar service, and a lovely restaurant, with well-cooked food and a good menu, but that on one particular occasion ends up serving up food that isn’t to your personal taste. My experience at Gloria falls into the latter category. I had heard so many positive reviews of this place before trying it myself, so please bear this in mind as you read on.

It’s super inviting, light and bright, with an abundance of plants and leafy decor both on the inside and outside. Be aware that you may end up sandwiched on a table incredibly close to the diners beside you (especially if there are only two of you), which I understand seeing as they are so popular, and ultimately this having more tables squeezed in means a shorter wait time, but it’s not ideal.

And so we begin. The starter. I have never in my life ordered Burrata before, and had reached a point where I felt like this was a bit embarrassing considering I think I’m the world’s most enthusiastic foodie. Having said this, I think I reminded myself why I’d never ordered it when it came. For me, a cheese lover, burrata just isn’t the same. IT HAS NO FLAVOUR. Am I wrong? Please feel free to enter into discussion with me if you disagree but I can’t work out why people seem to love it so much. On top of that, the creamier the burrata, the more it seems to be raved about, but for me, this just emphasises the fact that it doesn’t work as a stand alone dish.

There was more pesto than this, it’s just not visible in the photo!

It looks pretty, there’s no denying that. And at least this particular burrata came with pesto and some other unknown sauce as pictured above. But still that did not make it the wonderful experience I was hoping it would be. I should also mention that it was pretty big. This isn’t a starter for one, it’s definitely a sharer.

For mains I chose the truffle pasta, as I feel like both the truffle pasta and carbonara are praised fairly often on social media. I have to admit, Mafaldine is not my favourite pasta shape – it’s has the length of spaghetti but with wavy edges, and I found it slightly slimy. I got a lot from the truffle flavour, but similar to the burrata, I think truffle is kind of overrated. The subtlety of truffle oil on pizza etc can be a tasty addition, but when it’s supposed to be the star of the show like in this pasta I feel like it can be bit overwhelming and can get sickly.

Dessert was where my heart was well and truly broken. I had been so excited to try their famous lemon meringue pie with the giant, wobbly, fluffy meringue topping but this didn’t seem to be on their lunch menu, so instead, I went for my second choice of the giant profiterole.

Honestly I do not want to keep being negative but this was probably my least favourite course. First off, it really is giant – again, not a dessert for one (and that’s coming from me – someone with an impressive appetite). Sandwiched in between the profiterole pastry is ice cream, but it doesn’t have that lovely vanilla bean flavour you hope for; instead, it’s the kind of bland that you find in those flavourless school choc-ice bars. I had also expected it to be hot, with a rich, warm, fudgey sauce. In reality, the sauce was cold (intentionally so) and pale and seemed more like melted chocolate ice cream. It completely drowns the profiterole which was actually the only bit I semi-enjoyed.

Please do not ask me why this looks like a close up of something cooked up on The Sims – I don’t think I’ve done any kind of outrageous, unintentional editing. But yeah, just not the one at all. And I genuinely am sad to say it.

To be fair, the service was great and the bill really wasn’t bad, I had been expecting to pay a fair bit more, but I’m just sorry that I can’t be more positive about my experience of the food.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, this meal just wasn’t to my taste. These things are so subjective, and had we been presented with carelessly prepared, unimaginative food and bad service, I would go in slightly harder with my review, but here that just wasn’t the case.

So, now’s your chance to make up your mind: burrata, truffle pasta and profiteroles – do they do it for you? If so, get down to Gloria, and…

¡Comemos!

xo