FEBRUARY! universally known as love(rs) month if valentine’s day is your thing! And no! I am not being a sour puss lol! I just think there are other things that make it a unique month. It is the shortest, albeit, the coldest month of the year. Plus, payday comes round quick no? It is also the month that gets an additional day every four years, but more importantly, it is the month when I come full circle in my journey round the sun!
For Din dins today, we are in Salon where the menu is guided by the seasons, plant based (they serve non-plant based too) with majority of the produce sourced in the UK. Yep, we outchea, supporting the locals – farmers, suppliers, and ting! Salon offer an evolving menu of four to seven courses as well as an extended menu. A quick glance at the menu, we decided to do things a little different, why? because we are food adventurers, plus, why not? Anyway, we asked chef to make us his favourite dishes from the menu and Jeez, he turned up and showed out with some dishes boi!
Started off with some warm cheese and onion gougeres – I wasn’t too keen because, well, onions! The cod’s roe, sourdough flatbread and ‘nduja croquettes, aioli – yummy! It was the right balance of saltiness and texture. Usually, the dips for croquettes are in a separate side dish but not this croquette. The aioli dip formed the base of the croquette which i think was brilliant. It also made certain you have the right amount of sauce on your croquette lol!
The lamb fat potatoes, anchovy was interesting – it was soup! Lol, yep! A thick soup which is exactly what you need for winter, talk about curve ball ha! This is why we love going on food adventures and giving chefs creative space to do their thing! I mean lamb fat potatos? I think some sort of potato like roast potatoes or something, but, here, it is a potato soup that is creamy and just lush!
We progressed to raw beef, anchovy, Jerusalem artichoke. Before, you lot go err raw beef?! think beef tartare and yes, it was good! Layered on the top was artichoke (looked like chips) which gave the dish texture and perfect for scoping up all that yummy beef! The wild garlic tortellini was morsels of tortellini in garlic sauce and that was it! No gimmicks – simple and so delicious!
There can never be a pork dish on any menu that we are not going to try! I mean, do you know Neal? lol! We tried the Duroc pork, radicchio, burnt pear. The verdict from the pork belly expert, aka, Neal, was- bloody good! The pork belly was healthy size with crisp skin, bonus points for the extra crackling! Even though the flavour of raddichio tends to be bitter and spicy, combined with the burnt pear, if anything, added another depth and layer of flavour to the dish. We also tried the fish course ad the cream sauce in this! phewwww!!!!
When I read the dessert – coffee, chocolate and amaretto, I was a bit hesitant. Why? well, I don’t do coffee at ALL. If you are not serving me the hand dripped blanc et noir queen amber (or its equivalent) nope! Not interested! Turns out my fretting was all for nought! This dessert was a two-part series. I know you lot are thinking what in the world is a two-part series dessert? It is two desserts plated up separately but eaten together? Now, I have just made it more complicated right? lol! I promise you, that is what it was though. We were given 2 dishes, the first was a scoop of a yogurt / ice cream thingy magig rolled in nuts and served with dates in syrup on the side, the second was a layered goey goodness of chocolate, coffee and amaretto. All I am saying is D A N G!!!!!
Ahh Salon!, thank you for a delightful meal!
Happy born day to me!
Cheers
Ndidi
