Sunday 22 February 2015

Grub 2 at the Runaway Brewery, Manchester

The couple behind one of the more popular Northern foodie twitter accounts and semi-dormant blogs (Good Gobble) and better Manchester street-food offerings (Arepa!Arepa!Arepa!) clearly felt they weren't busy enough handling those on top of their day jobs and have taken the next step towards world domination with GRUB. After a successful stint overseeing the food offering at the recent Cup North coffee festival, they teamed up with Blackjack Brewery and Shebeen Events for Grub vol. 2 which was due to be held at a brand new top secret venue but due to last minute issues was held at the Runaway brewery, under the arches on Dantzic street.

Street food in Manchester feels a bit like it's stalled to me, Friday Food Fight has lost it's way - moving away from genuine street food into overpriced drinks and restaurants dishing the food up; it's clearly a format that works well for them, it just isn't to my taste. I've been to a few Guerilla Eats events and always felt like their heart is in the right place but there’s never any atmosphere. The GRUB folk seemed like they were attempting to fill a genuine gap in the market in Manchester – realistically what could be better than hanging out in a brewery, eating some fantastic sounding street food and quaffing a ton of beers? 

I bought tickets early on for the two Saturday sessions and it was no great surprise to see that the weekend sold out in advance - a real testament to their hard work on the line up and well-deserved support they've built up over the years.Seeing as the event was a "Winter Beer Festival”I did the right thing and headed immediately for the bar. There’d been a beer list doing the rounds and I had a short list of priorities (OCD, what?) of beers that I was keen to try – most of which unfortunately didn't appear over the two sessions on the Saturday. I was still spoiled for choice but it was a little frustrating that there were very few changes between the sessions - I fully appreciate that they’re bound by how much beer had been sold during the day so I shoulder my share of the blame. Still a slight disappointment for a "Beer Festival".

The token system (the bane of many a beer festival) initially seemed a little overcomplicated but actually worked well resulting in quick service - £10 bought you a sheet of 20 tokens and then beers were priced depending upon third / half or pint serving and scribbled off the sheet accordingly as payment. As you got to the end of a sheet it did become slightly problematic to figure out if there was enough left for a round as you couldn't actually see the prices until you saw them scribbled on the pumps – adding a thirds / halves / pints prices to the board would’ve been a great help. I did enjoy the extra challenge of achieving a FULL HOUSE by getting my sheet crossed off right down to the last token.

Entertainment wise - the background music and bands were ideal for the event, I wasn't sat too far from them but they were just pitched at the right level (volume and intensity wise) whereby I could easily drift in and out of paying attention and they didn't ruin conversation. It all felt very well planned, major kudos for getting this so right - must've taking some serious planning given we were all essentially sat in a giant echo-y room it could have all gone wrong pretty easily.

Food - All of the food traders across the weekend were different enough to sound interesting and make the food alone a major temptation for visitors. Saturday showcased sweet treats from Ginger Tart, Andy's Low and Slow BBQ, Fu-Schinkens with their steamed buns and Comida serving up a range of Spanish themed goodies. I decided to follow my nose and I was lured over to the Comida stand and once there it all sounded pretty enticing so I just asked them to sort me out with a taster set from the menu. They sorted me right out. I ended up with a pair of Deep-fried Croquetas, a 'Blue cheese and squash' and a 'Black truffle and cheese'. Honestly, i'm glad I didn't have to sit and watch me eat these, I was a like a dog with a bone as soon as I got a sniff of them - they hit the spot like only deep fried cheese dipped in some wonderfully thick alioli can.

I also dug into their Montados', which after a little research i'm told are essentially toppings on bread. The flavour combinations on offer (I had one of each) were smoked salmon, tinned squid with Spanish ketchup and aubergine with a padron pepper speared on top. The squid was my favourite but I thoroughly enjoyed all three, I'll definitely have my eyes peeled for any future supper clubs they arrange. Whilst not the first food I'd think of as ideal for snacking on at a beer festival it certainly filled me up and kept me going through the evening. 


Overall, I had a hugely enjoyable day out and was impressed with what was accomplished; especially considering the last minute issues with the original venue. I jinxed myself by mentioning early on that the poster looked too wintery for the end of January - my god it was cold in there at times which is absolutely out of their control, just wish i'd stuck a thicker jumper on. I’m certainly looking forward to a summer winter beer festival where I’ll be able to feel my fingers for the 24 hours afterwards.


Regarding the new venue, there is currently a Kickstarter under way to 'supplement existing investment'. It appears that they've wrapped Grub, Shebeen and Blackjack under the banner of Keystone and are running a campaign offering rewards including tickets to a Shebeen festival in May. There's a link to the Kickstarter here – clearly they have some big ideas and I thoroughly recommend you take a read for yourself and do what you can to support them, I've already chipped in. Manchester is certainly short of the type of venue they are hoping to set up and I'm excited to see how things progress.

Monday 9 February 2015

Le Gavroche - London

Le Gavroche is an institution, originally opening back in 1967 (hope they've got something special planned for the big 50!) and currently holding 2 Michelin Stars. Despite his TV commitments, Michael Roux Jr currently oversees the kitchen and is often seen roaming the dining room greeting his customers, I'm devastated to say that unfortunately I didn't get to shake his hand or get a snap with him on this occasion but despite that minor blow I am pleased to confirm the entire dining experience was one of the finest I've enjoyed in this country. 
The restaurant itself is hidden away on a backstreet in Mayfair, surrounded by residents' parking spaces filled with sports cars that i'm sure would have car nerds drooling into their pre-dinner glass of wine. The doorway to Le Gavroche is framed by a miniature hedgerow packed with flowers and it appears like an oasis to welcome you in and save you hustle and bustle tourist mayhem taking place around Hyde Park and general stench of money on the streets.

After a pleasant greeting at the door, I was lead into the waiting room which had the lights turned down and immediately felt very reassuringly classy and traditional with lots of beautiful old furniture and paintings around the room. It was like  enough for 20 people or so, not a traditional bar by any means. Entertainment was provided by a table complete with pompous arseholes spouting off at the top of their voices about how their partner should've had a boob job, numerous lap dancing clubs they'd visited recently and how much money their children had made that year, not a group of men but several couples. All very tasteless and not exactly the sort of entertainment and human beings i'd hoped to be surrounded by to be honest. 
We moved into a quiet corner and a couple of quick canapés appeared alongside drinks at the bar area and which appeared appealingly retro. I enjoyed a bottle of Roux Brew, the beer that Michael Roux Jr had recently commissioned for the restaurant. After a series of tastings from various breweries, he settled on this light grapefruit ale from FourPure which was light, citrusy and perfectly complemented the food to come so I stayed with it throughout the rest of the meal.
We were lead downstairs by one of the infamous maître d twins (I can back the blurb on the website now which states you can only tell them apart from the lapel pin), only for one of them to switch places half way and be lead off by the other. I'm not sure if this happens for everyone but it was a lovely slightly baffling piece of showmanship all the same. 

The dining room itself is very extravagant – much larger than I imagined and utterly old school. Lots of gaudily framed paintings of the Roux family and with metal animal sculptures on each table (we had a frog and a giant cock on the shelf behind us). The cutlery had miniature chubby chefs as the handles and Michael Roux was painted onto the plates - utterly mental. The dining room is underneath the building and was very dark and cool (as in temperature) as a result which enhanced the atmosphere, wandering downstairs on a lovely bright summers day and the contrast of entering an entirely darkened dining room added a lot mood-wise to the whole feel of the occasion. The severe lack of light wasn't the best environment for photos and there was no way I was letting loose with the flash i'm afraid (that's my attempt at an apology for the darkened shots to follow). 
It was an easy choice to order "The 'Menu Exceptionnel'" their grandly titled taster menu at £124 per person (inc cheese course and coffee), but I did notice that some of the a la carte prices were pretty intense. Think £50 plus per course in some instances, which could easily lead to a bill getting out of hand pretty quickly - I suppose if you're eating at Le Gavroche in the first place you're pretty prepared for that eventuality.

The bread selection was made up of a rye loaf, a crisp white mini-baguette and a country roll. None of this new-fangled modern sourdough nonsense. The bread was offered often, usually with a careful line along the theme of "more bread to dip in your sauce sir?" and always accompanied with brand new butter to keep it fresh and at optimum temperature. They must get through so much butter, we had at least 5 partially eaten portions of the stuff.

"Souffle Suissesse" 
The opening course set the scene pretty perfectly for the indulgence to follow. In fact, i'm pushed to remember ever eating a richer first course than this on a taster menu - a giant cheese souffle that was perfectly risen, ready for the air to be released like from a balloon (but without the farty noise). Digging in was similar to pulling melted cheese from the top of a perfectly cooked pizza - strands of it going everywhere. Complete and utter luxurious comfort food - the double cream sauce was perfect for mopping up with fresh bread. 

"Terrine Marbree de Foie Gras aux Epices Gelee au Madere et Croque aux Champignons" 
Easily the most generous single portion of foie gras I've been served in one go, just look at the size of it! The richness was slightly broken up by the spiced crust but as you'd expect, this absolutely continued the luxuriousness that started with the souffle. The portion of crispy mushroom toast, which was served as a mini sandwich on the side added some great crunch to the whole dish. 

"Langoustines Poelees, Petits Pois, Cebette et Jambon de Bayonne" 
I breathed a sigh of relief at the first delicate course to be served. This dish was made up of two fat juicy and langoustines presented on a bed of chopped air dried bayonne ham and fresh peas. The preparation of the sauce had eeked every last drop of pea flavour out of the vegetables and was combined with a dash of spring onion for a tiny hint of tartness.

"Filet de Maigre Parfume as Ras-el-Hanout Fenouil et Riz Rouge de Camargue" 
The pastilla was stuffed with red rice and flavoured with 'Arabian spices' accompanied by the stone bass fish served within a thin, crispy pasty roll. The meat jus and denseness of the pastilla made for quite a dense and unusally meaty fish course. 

"Joue de Porc Braisee et Fumee, Cromesquis de Couennes" 
The crispy belly ravioli was for me one of the highlights of the entire meal - think a deep fried wonton from the Chinese turned up to 11. The portion of braised and smoked pork cheek was succulent and delicious. The course came topped with the thinnest and crispiest sliver of pigs ear , which was accompanied with a thick red cabbage sauce - tangy and great with the deep fried elements.

"Supreme de Pigeon, Gaufres au Mais et Sauce aux Cassis" 
By this stage I was starting to feeling uncomfortably full and the generous portion of squab pigeon here wasn't helping at all. The soft juice soaked corn waffle with sweet blackcurrant sauce was not a combination that I particularly enjoyed but made perfect sense with the rich meat.

"Le Plateau de Fraomages Affines" - Selection of French and British Farmhouse Cheese
The cheese trolley had to be seen to be believed, I could smell it coming from around the corner before I could hear it and was drooling with excitement. I was like a kid in a sweetshop presented with a choice of upwards of 50 cheeses with crisp bread thins and a selection of chutneys. The choice was overwhelming with no apparent end to how many we could order -  a hugely memorable showpiece and it was excellent to have it included and not be 'upsold' to midway through dinner. 

"Truffle Chocolat et Sorbet, Cerises Pochees et a l'Eau de Vie" 
It came as no surprise given the luxury of the food that had preceeded but this was one of the most extraordinary chocolate desserts i've ever tasted. A scoop of rich dark chocolate ice cream served on alcohol soaked cherries and then a piece of fine rolled chocolate stuffed with mousse and a harder truffle within mixing the flavours and consistencies of the chocolate with every spoonful. It was glorious.

"Cafe et Petit Fours"
A double espresso (which was taking no prisoners strength wise) came accompanied by a tray of petit fours, then followed by chocolates and nougat but honestly by this stage I was genuinely worried about needing to be carried out of the restaurant so only really picked at them. There was a mini chocolate mousse tart, berry with icing sugar, biscuit at the front and a variation on a brandy snap. 

There were certainly some fantastic individual courses here - the pigeon, foie gras, cheese souffle, pig cheek, in fact as an a la carte menu I'd happily choose anything I ate again. My only possible complaint was that as someone with what i'd consider a pretty unstoppable appetite at the best of times, i'm still surprised that a taster menu so utterly overwhelmed me like this and honestly leads me to wonder whether many people could overcome this mountain of richness. I was in at The Ledbury the next evening and had to tone down plans for their taster menu as I was still utterly stuffed almost 24 hours later, I've never known anything like it.

I will say that eating at Le Gavroche was definitely an experience I'm glad to have enjoyed, the service was out of this world with no end to the attention to detail, the surroundings, the welcome and the overall atmosphere were truly memorable. The authenticity of the old-school feel I've already referred to just isn't something that could be duplicated without this depth of history and can only be created by year after year of outstanding food. The full taster menu was £124 per person and whilst I completely appreciate this is a huge amount of money for a meal, as a special occasion only (my waistline breathes a sigh of relief) I do believe it to represent genuine value, especially with the cheese course, coffee and petit fours included. A very special meal indeed.

Le Gavroche on Urbanspoon

Wednesday 4 February 2015

Craft Nerd vs Supermarket Beer - Part 2

Here's the second part (find the first here) of Ian's supermarket craft beer reviews. If you'd like to chat about any of this he can be found on twitter or untappd and i'm he sure would welcome a chinwag.

It's all Ian from this point onwards:

Day 5 – Wednesday

The Lawn Mower - Backyard Brewery/Carlsberg - £1.50 as part of a 4 for £6 deal – 330ml
By this stage I was feeling a bit fed up, I realised that I had front-loaded what I thought were likely to be the better beers and had three days worth of filler to get through. This is an attempt at an amber lager and much like the other Carslberg effort it is seems like a tweaked version of their standard product. Drinkable but not sure why you would bother….Rating 5/10


Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference London Porter – Shepherd Neame - £1.66 as part of a 3 for £5 deal – 500ml
I had relatively high hopes for this, decent enough brewery and a change from lots of pales/lagers. Initial impressions were reasonable, the aroma was faint but it seemed to have the right texture for a porter. But then I tasted it. Whatever merits this beer had were completely wrecked by a horrific metallic aftertaste. Another clear bottle and another that would ordinarily have gone down the drain. In date, but I can’t help but think this wasn’t in great condition. Rating 3/10

Day 6 - Thursday

Metropolitan Brewing Company Under Currant Pale Ale – Greene King - £1.25 - 330ml
I was now really craving a decent beer, in fact just something that wasn’t dull or flawed. Unfortunately I wasn’t massively encouraged by the remaining stash of 4 beers. I thought I would suck it up and get stuck into the least promising. It was actually better than the IPA in the same range, with some of the blueberry character you expect from Mosaic (this being a single hop pale). However it lacks any real bitter snap to balance it out and it ends up a bit cloying. Rating 5/10


Marks and Spencer Organic Scottish Beer – Black Isle - £2 as part of a 3 for £6 deal – 500ml
Reasons for optimism – M&S were clearly winning this taste test and Black Isle are a decent brewery. Reasons for pessimism – I wasn't that attracted to a beer with added honey. Difficult to criticise this beer as it is exactly as described, a pale beer with added honey, but that aside it is pretty one dimensional and dull. Aside from the delicate honey flavour I can hardly remember it, but if you like honey its worth a go. Rating 5.5/10

Day 7 - Friday

Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference American Pale Ale – Genesee - £1.75 – 330ml
American Pale Ales need a serious amount of hops for aroma and bitterness. This was clearly lacking in both, plus with a bottling date in June 2014 it was hardly fresh, which is also vital in these beers. There was faint mango aroma but the malt dominated the flavour, so it just wasn’t right. One to avoid. Rating 4.5/10


Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference Tap Room IPA – Genesee - £1.75 – 330ml
For obvious reasons I wasn’t filled with optimism as I approached my final beer. This shared a similarly dull character with its sibling, there was some bitterness present but it was pretty crude. Not enjoyable overall and another to avoid. Rating 4/10

So, overall a pretty uninspiring seven days of drinking. Only two beers that I would actually buy again and a couple of others that have some merit. Not a great return, even when taking into account the potential bargain prices. It was clear from this sample that M&S are way ahead of the competitors. The worst of their beers were at the same level as the best from Sainsbury and Tesco. Even though they are more expensive they offer better value generally. The Tesco ranges had little merit, with only the rye pale being something I would even consider buying again. Very cheap but little actual value. I think that overall Sainsbury were bottom of the pile as their beers were no better and often worse than the Tesco equivalent and more expensive. Frankly most of them tasted pretty stale. The Carlsberg beers were fault free, but pretty dull. If I needed to buy beer in Tesco or Sainsbury I would pick up cheap Brewdog, Sierra Nevada, Goose Island etc and ignore their own labels.

I wasn’t massively surprised by the quality of the beer on offer here, but it is disappointing that the introduction to craft beer for many people could be via such a disappointing range of beers that offer little of the quality that you can quite easily find from good microbreweries.