The other day, I had a salmon sashimi salad at Appleby’s in Stoney St, B0rough Market, London. It was superb.

Here is how it was done.

Raw (very fresh) wild salmon sliced into sashimi chunks (3 cm by 2cm by 1cm). Put onto salad leaves. Use olive oil only as a dressing.

If you cannot get fresh wild salmon, use farmed salmon but confit it for 20 minutes to kill off any potential parasites.

To confit salmon, cut into serving sice chunks, cover in olive oil and heat to 45-50 degrees centigrade for 20-30 minutes.Do not allow the temperature to rise above 50. Use a thermometer and a bane marie. To get the temperature right, put a lot of water in the bottom holding pot or tray.

Serve the confit cold

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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/wine/7594068/Wines-with-wow-factor.html

Good piece on my favourite Italian wines. The second wine of Ornellaia is superb. The best non Tuscan producers to look out for re Italian Wines are : Gaja and Giacosa.

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April 2010

Address: 65 South Audley Street, Mayfair, London W1K 2QU

Telephone number: 0207 493 8988

Website: http://www.kaimayfair.co.uk/kai/kaihome.html

Date of visit: 16 April 2010

Approximate cost per head: Be prepared to spend £75+ per head excluding desert and drinks.

Comments on wine list/beer: Really up market list. Never mind the Petrus or Ch. Margaux, they even have 2 years (1995, 2001) of Le Pin. But, there are a few “lower” price gems. By the way, the Le Pin is pretty good value as the current retail price is about the same.

Summary:

Kai holds a Michelin star since 2009.

This is an up market Chinese with prices to match – whole crispy duck @ £57, hot and sour soup @ £11 a bowl (or soup plate in this case). Most main courses are around £24.The portions are good size and will easily feed 4 as part of a multi-course meal.

The restaurant occupies two floors – ground floor and basement. There are a couple of Chinese chairs and a bureau in the front of house; otherwise, it is decked out like a normal posh western restaurant.

We has Wasabi prawns and crispy duck to start with which were all nicely presented. The prawns were huge, tasted fresh and not frozen and the light coating of mayo with wasabi was a delight. The crispy duck was fine and not greasy. One of us had the hot and sour soup which looked thick and dark brown – chilli oil and vinegar were provided to accentuate the taste.

Next came the lamb with szechuan pepper, chicken with cashew nuts and black pepper beef. They were served with boiled and fried rice. The fried rice were “golden” which suggest that only egg yolks were used.

The lamb was “chopped” not minced and was cooked in a dark soy based sauce spiked with szechuan pepper. The chicken was tender. The beef was “interesting”. Chinese black pepper beer is steak au poive without the cream and usually enhanced with a small drop of black bean sauce. This version has “maggi” sauce.

We had a bottle of Spanish Albarino (£28) and a bottle of 2001 Cahors (£78). Both wines were fine but the Cahors was surprisingly light not the dark brooding wine that I expected.

This is Chinese food at the top end catering mainly for a non-chinese clientele. The reason is that it was strong on presentation but flavouring wise was a bit anglicised. A similar restaurant is China Tang in the basement of the Dorchester.

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Address: Paley Street (name of a Village), Nr Maidenhead, SL3 3JN (M4 J8/9 then A330 towards Ascot left onto, B3024)

Telephone number: 01628 620 541

Website: http://www.theroyaloakpaleystreet.com/

Date of visit: 14 April 2010

Approximate cost per head : Set lunch : £17.50 for 2 courses, £21 for 3 courses. A la carte approx £30 for 2 courses

Comments on wine list/beer: Fullers on tap, extensive wine list including first growth Bordeaux. There is a recommended “short list” which is better value

Summary:

I haven’t been here since they were awarded a Michelin star.

On this day – Wednesday lunch time – the place was fully booked.

Two of us had the set lunch (identical order) whilst the other two ordered from the a la carte and had the same main course.

I had Scotch Egg (£3.50 each) which is suppose to be what Parkinson (yes, Michael Parkinson and his son Nick owns the pub) would eat as his last meal. Here, it’s served warm with a runny quail’s egg in the middle and crispy panko (Japanese bread crumb from honeyed white bread) on the outside. I always have it when I am here as it’s right up there on my favourite all time list.

Next (off the set lunch) I had whitebait followed by white sausage (veal?) and mash. The whitebait was a little bit over seasoned for my taste. Why do people “over salt” deep fried food in a restaurant?

The white sausage was great and came with heavily reduced onion gravy.

One of my friends had chicken liver and pasta as a starter – the rest of us all had the whitebait – and he said that it was quite good. He and A N Other then had the oxtail and kidney pie. This is a Heston Blumenthal invention which is always on the menu of the Hind Head (Bray). The oxtail makes the gravy in the pie more gelatinous. The pie was served straight as a top crust pie, no garnish or anything in addition – this is a place where you will have to order side dishes if you want vegetables. Cabbage is £3.75 a portion.

Two of my friends then went on to have the rhubarb crumble which received very high marks.

The food was washed down with two bottles of Bandol (£30 each). In restaurants like this, try to go for a country wine as they tend to have pretty good suppliers – ditto The Fat Duck &The Hand and Flowers.

The bill including coffee, service and a few beers came to just over £200 for 4. The service was pretty good. By the way, the bread (free) is pretty nice and you can get tap water off a jug.

We all had a great time.

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Address: 2 South John Street, New Quay, Ceredigion, SA45 9NG

Telephone number: 01545 5650680

Website: www.thehungrytrout.co.uk

Date of visit: April 2010

Approximate cost per head for 2 courses: a la carte £30. Evening set meal £19.50 for 3 courses

Comments on wine list/beer: Very poor. Wine from £12 a bottle for house wine

Summary:

The Hungry Trout is a restaurant with rooms sited on the sea front in New Quay. There are a few pubs and cheap eateries (no McDonalds or Starbucks yet) in town and The Hungry Trout is about the only upmarket restaurant since the closure of Ty Thai. They are open from breakfast till dinner.

The place was more than half full on a Thursday evening which meant that they were doing quite well.

Let’s get the negatives out of the way. Firstly, our table cloth had stains on them – they look recent rather than stains that won’t wash out – I don’t think that they change the table cloth after every sitting. Secondly, the bread basket was minimal – two slices of baguette per person. Finally, I tried to order wine off the special list (around £30-£50) but they haven’t got any. In the end I had to settle for a bottle of Chilean red which was awful at £12.45.

Now onto the food. I had kidneys with bruschetta (£6.25). It was served with a very nice creamy mustard sauce. The kidneys were not over cooked and was the highlight of the meal. Next I had the black welsh beef sirloin streak. I asked for chips instead of the boiled potatoes that came with the steak (£18.45) – it was not an issue. My friend ordered the lemon sole. (£19.95). The steak was OK and the chips came salt free and were not greasy. The accompanying vegetables were cooked al daunte. The sole was slightly overcooked. Not bad was the conclusion but not great. Service was very pleasant.

Parking here can be a problem. You need to park on the main road or in the public car park sited on the edge of town.

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Name of restaurant or pub: Tibits

Location: 12-14 Hadden St, (off Regent Street), London W1B 4DA

Web site: http://tibits.co.uk/e/

Telephone number: 020 7758 4110

Date of visit: 9 April 2010

Approx. cost per head: £25

Comments on wine list/beer: An Excellent mid-priced wine list spanning Europe.

Media link:

Review:

Located in Central London, just off Regent St and a short stroll from Piccadilly Circus, Tibits is part of a 5-chain family-owned European restaurant chain. The other 4 locations are in Switzerland, where the idea for Tibits was born.

Tibits offers a mourthwatering array of fresh, organic, vegetarian food – in a hot & cold buffet style – and you pay by weight. The offering includes dishes from all over the world, providing a real fusion of flavours – from freshly made guacamole to oodles of noodles, a veritable selection of hot foods such as cannelloni and specials that change daily. A typical main course will set you back bewtween £10 – £15, depending on how hungry you’re feeling.

The welcome and service throughout was attentive and friendly, as was the overall atmosphere of the restaurant. Considering the very central location, Tibits finds itself nestled in a perfect, secluded spot – ideal for a quiet and releaxing lunch or a nice romantic meal.

Dave Lamont

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http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/food_and_drink/article7091703.ece

The Chinese and Italians have been doing this for years. Anyway, this is quite interesting if you are not worried about handling meat and blood.

Please note that Times online continues to have a link problem – if you can’t get through on this link, try timesonline, lifstyle and culture.

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April 2010

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/apr/07/wine-food-and-drink

Apparently 2009 is going to be the greatest year in living memory.

As someone who has been buying and laying down wine since 1980, I can say that buying en primeur is well worth it. In a good year even the “cheap” wines are good for laying down. Look for wines in the Cru Bourgeois class or second growths and lower.

My recommended wine merchants are:  Tanners, Charles Taylor, Armit and Berry Breothers.

Here is an article for laying down wine. My advice is to keep it between 7-25 degrees C. The reason is that at 4 degrees, water expands and it could push the cork out and start leaking air. At 30 degrees, the tannin will undergo an irreversable chemical change and ruin the wine (red).

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/apr/10/keep-or-drink-wine-review

I don’t agree with the above article!

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April 2010

Location: 21 Decembrie 1989 Blvd, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

Web site: http://www.casaardeleana.com/

Telephone number: +40 (0)264 439 451

Date of visit: 07/04/2010

Approx. cost per head: €10 – very good value

Comments on wine list/beer: Romanian, and rather good

Review:
Casa Ardeleană in Cluj-Napoca, Transylvania bills itself as a traditional restaurant and seems to live up to this promise as far as I was able to tell, which wasn’t very far. The decor and atmosphere are rural and no-nonsense respectively.

The starter, a mixed plate of cheeses, meats and salad with chunky bread, and ostensibly for two, fed four of us easily. Particularly nice were the goat’s cheese and, surprisingly, the pork fat (although the deep-fried pork fat was not so delicious!). My Transylvanian friend recommended that the pork fat be eaten with onions, which proved a good combination. As it turns out they really do eat lots of onions and garlic in this neck of the woods.

The above was accompanied by a shot of the local plum brandy which, at 52% proof, is not for the faint-hearted, as well as a very-nice Romanian red, of which more below.

Romania has a lot in common with those other countries in Europe where romance languages are spoken. Wine is produced and drunk in high quantities, digestifs are very popular, and, I am reliably informed, Romania has more types of cheese than France. The Romanian word for thank you—multumesc—is also often replaced by the word “merci” by the locals.

For the main course one of us had a lamb kebab which looked very nice, while the rest of us had beef steak presented on a hot stone. The meat is served quite raw and one simply slices it and waits for it to cook to one’s liking before getting started. I enjoyed this self-cook method, and the meat was of a high quality. This came with various side dishes including mushrooms, chips and a basic salad.

It just so happened that another round of rum brandy was served, as was a second bottle of an excellent local 2007 Pinot Noir. The grapes were from Moldova (the region as opposed to the neighbouring country, the Republic of Moldova, which is historically, ethnically and culturally, yet no longer politically, joined with Romanian Moldova). The provenance of the grapes is clearly important, as it was something my local companion was keen to point out.

The wine went by the splendid name “Immortality Pinot Noir – The Legend of Transylvania”.

There was no room for pudding.

- Damian (d@staffordnet.org.uk)