Its 10 days to Christmas! Where did the year go? We both cannot wait for Christmas break to just relax, spend time with loved ones and hopefully not binge on too many chocolates ha!
We had to return to Pollen Street social to try out Chef Jason Atherton’s taster menu. As you know, our first visit was for Social Sunday when one of my foodie dreams came true and we got to try dishes from not just Jason but Tom Aikens and Tom Sellers! What an experience that was! Knowing the event was for charity was a plus and the even bigger bonus was Neal getting an autographed copy of Social Suppers, Jason’s cook book! Coming back was never in doubt, it was just a matter of time.
No matter how many times we go on our food adventures, each restaurant and chef is unique and a true master of their craft. I can almost certainly say that I know a menu is going to be fantastic from the entrée and chef Dale and his team came through with it! We had the lunch taster menu which was 10 courses paired with wine.
Our first course was called Afternoon tea which was mushroom soup and parmesan which looked like a latte with extra cream! Huh? Is what you are thinking right now, yep! The soup came served in a mug and on the top, was the parmesan; but, the parmesan was parmesan foam which was plopped on top like a dollop of extra cream when you order coffee with extra cream – genius! Let me just say this now, the word genius will be appearing a lot with this entry because well this taster menu was just that – genius!
Dish number three was called Jersey rock oyster ice cream, oyster leaf. I don’t know about anyone but when I hear the word oyster, I don’t immediately associate it with cream or ice cream for that matter. I think shellfish and slurping . Boy did I get that wrong! This dish was an oyster ice cream served in a shell with an oyster leaf. I Looked at this course and thought to myself, there is no way that is going to taste anything like a shell fish much less an oyster and yep! I was wrong again!! It was the creamiest oyster I had ever had!
The other dishes were mouth watering delights, truly delicious as was the cheese course
I reckon that for chef’s, when pulling their menu’s together, aside from knowing the dishes are going to be flipping amazing, they throw in something that is just unique. You could say it is their ‘signature dish’ like in Restaurant story, you get storeos. For Pollen street social, it has got to be the dish called ‘the game’. When you hear the word ‘GAME’, what comes to mind? I think an animal or a quarry dish, right? Ha! Nope! The game dish was dessert! you read right PUDDING ! We were given 5 types of ice cream (which were all the same vanilla colour) served in a magic Chinese box and a list of 5 flavours. We had to guess the flavours behind each window on the Chinese box! Now, I ain’t no sweet tooth but ice cream is ma THANG or, so I thought ha! Let’s just say I did better than Neal lol.
Head chef Dale Bainbridge turned up and showed out! No word of a lie! My man took ice cream to a whole new level whattttt!!! It was GENIUS!
cheers
Ndidi
p.s the five flavours were – cereal, coconut, goats’ cheese, artichoke and apple pie. Guess which ones I got right?
