Another Food Blog

I tried to get into Fish! Near Southwark Cathedral, but it was a warm evening and the same idea had occurred to everyone, so there was a significant queue. London being what it is, I was able to transfer within minutes to Seabass on James Street. Both seafood restaurants are only minutes away from Tube stations on the Jubilee Line. I’d been to Seabass before and rated it very highly, and confirmed that view.

I began with taramasalata which had a nice home-made feel about it, The authentic version should use carp’s roe, but some of the packaged versions use cod’s roe. This was genuine and very good. I went on to have monkfish, a favourite of mine. I’d expected medaillons of it but no, it was a large section of monkfish tail, fortunately without the membrane. It was gorgeous, soft and moist. In fact it was beautifully prepared. The wine I had with it was a sancerre, a Domaine G Millet ‘05 at 12.5 percent, with an up-front taste of grapefruit, then lemon.

Someone finally told the goons at the Met Office that summer was fast encroaching and so - true to form - sun burst onto the Cambridge scene this week. Feeling summery - and extravagent in M&S - I bought some scallops… apparently hand dived.

I started off by putting some brown rice and a chopped clove of garlic to boil. I also began to heat a heavy-based non-stick frying pan. Under the grill, I put the asparagus (on special offer, also at M&S) under a hot grill - it took around 10 minutes, turning regularly.

Into the hot frying pan, I placed the scallops having seasoned them with a little salt and fresh black pepper. After about 5 minutes, as they began to colour, I turned them over and cooked for another 5 minutes. Onto the plates it all went and I was very happy. A nice summery chardonnay went along with it and - to fill a small hole - some cheese and biscuits afterwards.

A slightly unusual place for a bar, above a bank, but it works very well. Carlito’s of York Street, Clitheroe has been decorated with very modern, mostly black furniture and wall hangings, with silver patterning for highlights. There were also many neutrally-coloured water features, slightly backlit with light blue. Thus, my bright magenta mixed fruit cider stood out well. It was served in a narrow tall glass with ice, which filled three times from the pint-sized bottle. It was very fruity, like a blackcurrant cordial and just perfect at 4% for the very hot, sunny day. The staff were very friendly and brought over to my table some menus for the wine and the small bar-food dishes, in case I wanted to return of a weekend.

We strolled along the Promenade des Anglais (appropriately) and stopped for lunch at La Canne a Sucre (the sugar cane). Their day’s menu at 22 euros (about 34 US$) allowed two courses and coffee, with a choice of three or four in each. I chose a Nicoise salad (appropriately), which came with lots of tuna and the anchovies and egg. Very good. Then I ordered escalope of veal. What? On the seafront at Nice and not ordering seafood? Well, this was my only exception, and it was pretty appetizing. I finished off with a small black coffee and felt very satisfied. The beer at 4 euros a litre might have helped.

Roc de Lussac Lussac St-Emilion is an absoloutely fantastic bordeaux that’s currently half-price at sub-six-quid in Sainsburys.

It’s a deep and rich red in colour, and is full of berry and fruity smells: cherries, blackcurrants, and plums, along with a slightly spiceyness and liquorice. It says ready to drink or store for up to three years, but I reckon it’d last longer. I’ve found the 1961 available for $450 a bottle, and I’ve seen the 2003 available for that same - bargain - £11 full price, along with recommendations that it’ll last for years.

We enjoyed it with that splendid roast beef and with venison sausages. It’d also go well with other game or strong cheeses as the full-bodied wine will easily hold it’s own. I might go and buy a few dozen more.

Walking round the Old Town at Nice during the day, one of us picked out Le Grand Bleu as a place worth visiting for dinner. We duly did so. It’s an outside place, serving customers at tables in an enclosed are in the middle of the (pedestrian) street. There’s a really good display outside of the seafood they serve, which is usually a good sign indicating fresh, high quality ingredients.

I began with the fish soup with croutons. This is the brownish Mediterranean seafood soup served with toasted breads and with grated cheese and sauce to cover them in before floating them in the soup. It was a good job because they brought the croutons and titbits first, which gave us all something to nibble on during the wait for our first courses. We started with Kir Royale again, and then drank a Saint Roche ’06 rosé at 13 percent.

My soup was delicious, but the stuffed oysters another of us ordered also looked pretty good. I went on to eat coquilles St Jacques (scallops) for my main course, and found it ideal, in that it was extraordinarily good, but without there being too much of it. I even had room to steal some coupe Calvados apple sorbet from someone else’s plate. Just think: there are hundreds of good seafood restaurants in Nice. One could really get used to the place…

I went with friends to Nice on the Mediterranean coast for a few days. As you’d expect, it’s famed for its seafood, so that’s what we tried. We chose La Maison de Marie, a much acclaimed restaurant set off the pedestrian area leading to the Old Town. It’s a charming place, and we chose to dine in the leafy courtyard set well back from the street.

We began by ordering kir royale, the bright pink aperitif made my mixing champagne or sparkling wine with crème de cassis. That set us up to peruse the extensive menu. I began with the medaillon de chevre chaud, facon Marie. It was a really nice disc of cheese done in breadcrumbs (top photo).

One of us had the octopus to start with (second photo). He pronounced it excellent, though some would blanch at its appearance.

I went on to have grilled swordfish with clams, a la Provencale (third photo). It was tasty and succulent, and went quite well with the Domaine Pieretti ’07 Couteau du Cap Corse, a Corsican rosé at 12.5 percent.

I rather liked the look of the mixed fried seafood another of my friends chose as a main course (fourth photo). It looked very substantial, but it didn’t stop him going on to finish with a dessert whose name I forget (fifth photo).

We went on to one of the many pavement cafés and rounded out the evening with cognac and cigars.

One of the grandest and best-known stately homes in Britain is Castle Howard. It’s in Yorkshire, about fifteen miles north-east of York and set in about 10,000 acres of its own land. The estate has been incorporated into a limited company by the Howard family so as to better maintain the estate whilst not having to hand over ownership to the nation. It came to fame in the 80s in a television series of the classic novel, ‘Brideshead Revisited’ by Evelyn Waugh.

I enjoyed a scone in the sunshine, alongside my glass of Pitchfork Chardonnay, an Australian wine of 13.5% which was unoaked, with tropical fruits on the nose and a buttery body. The scone came covered first in strawberry jam, then in clotted cream (a serious over-indulgence).

The house and gardens were utterly magnificent, as can be seen from the website (to some extent) although I thought a lot of the garden could have been greatly improved. Perhaps I’m spoiled by the magnificent work of the gardeners of Cambridge colleges, but I don’t think box-shaped hedges look good anywhere! The rose garden, however, was magnificent, as were the various magnolia bushes, with their light, lemony scent.

Absolutely delicious, this was a very surprising rosé Merlot. It was a decent 13%, and although not as dry as I tend to prefer, it made up for this in other ways. It was an intense colour and from the Central Valley, like a lot of Chilean wines I’ve enjoyed. It was a snip at a mere £3.19 from Tesco, with a nose that was strongly like lychees and a little fragrant, like roses. The body was strongly of redcurrants, including the light tang and ever so slight sourness. The finish was crisp and short, bringing out again the fragrant part of the nose. A really good find, so long as it’s consistently this interesting!

In theory, moving to California (as I just have) should make it easier to eat healthfully. Amongst other things, the Golden State is known for its population of health nuts.

But it is also home to some of the best, most tempting food around. One of the biggest trends of the last couple of years has been an explosion in frozen yoghurt shops. (I’ve blogged previously about Pinkberry.) While yoghurt sounds healthful - and these establishments certainly oversell the supposed health benefits of yoghurt - it’s usually loaded with sugar and fat. The non-fat varieties are especially full of sugar.

After catching an afternoon film on Friday (Baby Mama, which I liked but did not love), the Greedy Girls of Silicon Valley stumbled upon Yogurtouille in San Mateo. I quickly deemed it “the great place with the awful name”.

I love the way this place works (click here for my video tour and explanation): You take a cup or bowl (or sugar cone bowl for 50 cents extra) and then serve yourself as much yoghurt as you want, choosing from a dozen or so flavours. Then you move on to the toppings station, where you can pile on as much of as many as you’d like. They have confectionery toppings like Kit Kat pieces, mini M & Ms, crumbled cookies, granola, graham cracker crumbs, hundreds and thousands, and chocolate chips, plus a variety of fresh fruit and nuts: blackberries, kiwi, strawberries, pineapple, mango and more. You can take as much or as little as you can pay for, and the total cost is 35 cents per ounce.

I especially like this because you can take a tiny amount if that’s all you want. As I found out, though, taking a tiny amount just makes you want to go back for seconds. I tried a bit of the marshmallow flavour, a bit of the chocolate flavour, and a bit of the peanut butter flavour yoghurts. They also had green tea flavour, a variety of fruit sorbets, and a rather nice but mysterious flavour called “original tart”. Too many jokes…

This place will be hard to walk past again without going in and indulging. They do have a no added sugar blueberry yoghurt, which I sampled (they are generous with the samples), but I know I won’t be truly satisfied unless I indulge in the non-fat, sugar-heavy varieties. Against my better judgment, I know I’ll return.