Osteria St. Ana, Rome

The Italians know a thing or two about food, they are renown the world over for their dishes, for the care of and use of fresh, tasty local ingredients. However, in common with the rest of the world, they are more than happy to take advantage of tourists with lazy, poor quality, expensive fayre situated within a stone's throw of major tourist attractions. A lesson I know take with me everywhere is: Never eat or drink at an establishment on the edge of a square. Never. The atmosphere would have to be out of this world to counter balance the shite, expensive food served and I have yet to find a place where the ambiance is that good.
With that in mind and after a delightful day taking in the Colosseum and the Vatican Museums, I ask the receptionist at our hotel to recommend somewhere for dinner. In her unique brand of Italian English she recommends Osteria St. Ana, where she goes to eat with her friends, with the caveat that it is not expensive and not touristy. I believe I said something along the lines of 'Perfecto!'
We walk through the balmy evening and across Piazza del Popolo, down a side street to the restaurant and sitting at one of the intimate outside tables. We start with an appetizer, a selection of antipasto including Parma ham, a mozzerella ball, parmesan cheese shavings drizzled with honey, warm ricotta, fresh gala melon slices and peeled figs. The quality of each and every ingredient is beautiful. It's at this stage we realise, having ordered a primo course each, a seconda course each and a bottle of Rose wine, we have ordered too much.

Antipasto

Since I'm in Rome I want to eat, not only Italian, but as the Romans do so I have Bucatini all'amatriciana a lovely thick spaghetti in a hearty pancetta, tomato and chilli sauce, the al dente pasta showing it's quality as opposed to anything you usually get in the UK. So after finishing this with gusto, I know I still have one more course to go...

Bucatini all'amatriciana

 which is another Roman classic: Baccala alla romana, salt cod in again in a hearty tomato, onion and olive sauce. I'm really enjoying the flavours of the typical Roman dishes, but I know I'm almost sunk in terms of stomach capacity as I just manage to finish the fish, but unfortunately have to leave most of the sauce.

Baccala alla romana

I have to turn down dessert. I just about manage the espresso and settle a very reasonable bill which came to around €40 per head (around £35) and stagger down the street very satisfied.

Cheese & Onion Tart followed by Poached Apricots

Carnivores have a certain amount of scepticism when people claim that you don't need meat to form a good meal. I'm close to being one of them but I don't quite agree as I hope to prove with today's Cheese & Onion Tart.

Cheese & onion tart

Onto a ready rolled puff pastry sheet, I pour thick wedges of onion that I have softened and caramelised for half an hour in a frying pan, together with chunks of blue cheese and a small handful of thyme before giving it 20 minutes of oven time before serving with a salad and a glass of Bergerac Rose. As in the place in France, which had a TV series you know...

To finish I have Poached Apricots, for which I simply simmer halved apricots in a basic sugar and water syrup flavoured with half a vanilla pod for 15 minutes, before removing the fruit and boiling down the syrup to the required consistency. Yummy!

Poached apricots

 

St. John Bread & Wine, London

The menu

Often when I'm in London on a weekday for work I like to meet up with my sister or another capital based friend and take on one of the Big Smoke's restaurants. My sister, never a slouch when it comes to fashion, as per her blog, or choosing a restaurant takes me to St. John Bread & Wine, a restaurant serving British dishes opposite trendy Spitalfields Market.
We arrive at 6.45pm into a dining room that is as sparsely decorated as it is sparsely populated at this time, with the kitchen and bakery behind a tall bar at the rear of the room. The menu is not in the traditional style of starters, mains and desserts, but rather the single A4 sheet has a list of dishes that are rather like British tapas, which my Sis and I share.
The first dish to arrive was Globe Artichoke, Hen's Egg & Cress. The egg is hard boiled with just a smidge of liquid yolk at it's centre and the artichoke came as a cold, stiff cream which actually worked really well the cress, egg and crispy breadcrumbs.

Globe artichoke, hen's egg & cress

Next came Sweetbreads, Peas and Bacon. The sweetbreads being not as crispy as I usually like it and the peas were a tad al dente for my taste, but the resulting sauce on the plate was superb, excellent for soaking up with our bread.

Sweetbreads, peas & bacon

Next was Potted Hare followed in quick succession by one of the specials: Rabbit, Carrot and Pig's Trotter. The hare came cold and was in effect a rough pate and was well complemented by a surprisingly tangy pickled chicory. I expected, as special that the rabbit would be better than it was, although it was tender, it was also underseasoned.

Rabbit, carrot & trotter

Potted hare

After these 4 simply presented dishes, some olives (adequate), some bread (decent) and a glass of wine each, we are both quite full so decide to share a dessert of Honey Mousse and Prunes. The mousse was surprisingly light and was a delicate counterpoint to the heavier, juicy prunes.

Honey mousse & prunes

By the time we finish, the restaurant was packed and the lack of soft furnishings in the place are very much apparent as the room is now quite loud. Overall, we spent £30 each and though the food was decent it was not as good as the hype I had heard about the place. Good, very good even, worth a visit, but not worth the hype.

Griddled Monkfish and Mango Sauce

After many hours travelling, a ridiculously one-sided international football match and a recharging sleep, I wander in a bit of daze through the supermarket to refill the fridge. I find that the reduced items shelf is always worth a rummage and I strike gold today finding a reduced Monkfish tail, such items are usually prohibitively expensive for day-to-day eating, so it is with some glee I stash it.
Being reduced it HAS to be eaten today, so I fillet it, griddle it and serve it with a salad and a sweet mango sauce. The Griddled Monkfish and Mango Sauce has both a pleasing meatiness and richness of fruit.

Griddled Monkfish and mango sauce

Malaysia Review

My original intention was to do a bit of posting while I was on holiday, but lack of time and internet access scuppered my intentions somewhat, so instead I'll cherry pick my dinner highlights over 2 weeks on the Malaysian island of Penang.
Unusually for Malaysia where there is a surfeit of places to eat out in the first proper dinner I have is cooked by my Grandma at my Mum and Dad's house. A second rare event for my Grandma to cook for me as she lives in Australia and it's been many a year since that last happened, the highlight being the chicken that had been seasoned for a day, though the local prawns were good too.

Grandma's dinner

 

 

 The next night I had Roti Canai, a simple dish of a rough flatbread with curry sauce and is widely available around Malaysia. I had this at a coffee shop on Gurney Drive and it was merely adequate, you can get better, but it provided me with a pleasing taster.

Taking on a roti canai

The Friday was taken up my the Mother's 60th Birthday Dinner with just the 8 courses! Unreal! This was a feast for the 30 to 40 people that my Mother had invited. It had no rice with it and was very rich. The strangest item was a cold seafood jelly with prawns and squid, but also contained fruit and was covered with Marie Rose sauce! Very bizarre. My highlight of this spread was the stuffed braised duck.

Cold seafood jelly

Stuffed braised duck

 Needless to say dinners for the next couple of days after that were on the light side. However my next dinner, possibly my favourite all trip was at a Japanese BBQ restaurant, close to Island Plaza called Kan Nichi Kan. I've never been to such a place before with a small pit in the centre of every table with an extractor fan immediately above it. We had one of the set menus which consisted of different plates of thin strips of raw marinated meat and seafood. Ah... so that's what the pit and air extraction system is for! The waiter places a dish of hot coals in the pit and places a mesh over it; everyone's a chef tonight! The meat is beautifully seasoned and fresh; obviously freshly cooked, but the best were the meaty prawns with a certain sweetness to them beautiful! Definitely a place worth seeking out if you're on the island.

Japanese BBQ

Everyone's a chef!

Shrimps on the barbie!

 What's a holiday without an all you can eat buffet? We eat like gluttons to the point of excess at the Park Royal Hotel dinner buffet, serving everything from Roast Beef to a chocolate fountain, I'm so stuffed by the end that I have a little play with my (third) dessert plate...

Park Royal hotel buffet dessert (No 3)

Over the next few nights I realise that I am starting to tire of the Chinese food, there are plenty of multi course meals with the seemingly ubiquitous steamed fish in sauce, which was nice the first couple of times, but by the end of trip I realise I'm actually quite sick of.

The ubiquitous Chinese steamed fish in sauce

However, that's not to say that there were not more highlights before the end of the trip. My Aunt's friend made a home cooked meal of Penang style Laksa, Biriyani and Bacang.

Bacang, Laksa and Biryani

The Bacang, the pyrimid of sticky rice containing a filling of usually savoury items was the best of the lot. The filling in this case being pork and chinese mushrooms.

An opened bacang

One more highlight was in the last dinner before leaving, again at a Chinese restaurant (I'll be off the Chinese food for at least a couple of weeks when I get home!), but this time a crispy duck pancake. All the other components are the same except instead of shredded duck meat, a single piece of crispy duck skin is placed in the rolled pancake. This has an excellent crunch to it; a highlight of the meal.

Crispy duck pancake

In general I've really enjoyed the food on this trip, but I've had my fill of Oriental food for at least a few weeks...

Midsummer House, Cambridge

No dinner today, at least not at a traditional time, however after this lunch there is no need to eat for the rest of the day. I was taken out to Midsummer House and had the Taste of Midsummer Tasting Menu. All I can say is: wow. No scratch that: WOW! I’ve never had anything quite like it. I savour every bite and I take plenty of photos to record the event. I have a glass of South African Rustenburg Red with the mains and a glass of Muscat with the desserts.

The Menu

2nd course: Celery, goat's cheese and horseradish

3rd course: Sauteed scallop, celeriac and truffle

4th course: Sweetbreads, pistachio, maple syrup & mouli

5th course: Roast Seabass, slow, braised chicken, Jerusalem artichoke, truffle, roasting juices

6th course: Beef fillet, braised suet pudding, Chantenay carrots, red wine

7th course: Pousse cafe

9th course: Warm kumquats, lemon thyme ice cream

10th course: Caramelised apple, cinnamon ice cream