Well, this meal was elegant.. or was it minimalistic? It certainly won't put any weight on! I lost 2 pounds last week, which nearly brings me back to where I was before I went to Scotland.... only 2 more pounds to get to my one and a half stone!
The situation is weird.... an old redbrick manor house, approached by a lovely country single track lane.... and then you go over 6 lanes of the M5, and then you're in lovely woods... Ros and Andrew saw a deer! It sits in a Y shape between the M5 and the M49, with Cribbs Causeway in the wide top. On arrival, we walked past lion fountains and over the red carpet to the big front door, and joined the others on sofas for a drink, a tiny canape and olives perusing the menu in the sitting room. The day being wet and windy, we would have liked a roaring fire in the large fireplace.
After a forgettable amuse bouche, I started with diver-caught scallops... well, scallop actually... with a tiny square of pork belly and 1mm squares of chorizo jelly (I think), some strange cocoa beans and a smear of gaszpacho which was hardly worth mentioning. Scott had a Snail Garden... 3 garlic snails on a mushroom soil with tiny vegetables growing in it! Julie's duck egg looked really tasty. We all had different mains. Elmslie's fish looked well cooked and Lee and Ros's lamb was chunky but had us in hysterics as they searched in vain for the ratatouille! My tiny cylinders of rather tough duck wrapped in a leaf with blobs of apricot puree (and other blobby things) was so small, it looked like a taster dish. None of the main courses has enough to satisfy our hunger, so we had to go for the extra cheese board. Good variety and tasty cheeses helped to fill the hole, and by the time we had the chef's refresher of strawberry with balsamic jelly with cream (yummy) and the excellent but again, small, desserts, we had probably had just enough food. Scott's 8 textures chocolate looked the most interesting desert... very dark and thick with the chocolatiest chocolate, but the Sauternes verrine with creme caramel, caramel cream and William pear was absolutely delicious. The meal was pretty and tasty but a tiny bit mean and worked out around £70 per head.
The company of 7 Singers was fabulous, and funny, and we spent quite a few hours in the sumptuous dining room, admired the over-the-top luxury toilet, wondered at the French accents of the waitor and sipped the three £45-a-bottle wines very slowly indeed! With 6 of us being almost the same age, I felt very close to these people and enjoyed the evening immensely! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWqJOSHO7GI
Saturday, 25 June 2011
Thursday, 16 June 2011
North East Scotland! Boath House, near Forres, Moray
After an "Experience Week" at Cluny Hill College, part of the Findhorn Foundation, my friend and I decided we should treat ourselves to a special celebration meal. We had been living on mounds of salads and vegetables all week, which left me feeling healthy but vaguely dissatisfied and rather yin and light headed. When we booked they asked if we had any dietary requirements. My friend listed wheat, dairy, cod, shellfish, meat and they didn't bat an eyelid. A special menu would be created!
We walked from the carpark up the impressive sweeping drive of this small and beautiful Georgian mansion, which along with it's 20 acres of lawn, marshland and woods, had been bought derelict and restored by the owners. We were welcomed with a drink and canapes and our own individual and different menus. Our table was a little bit disappointing, in a small sideroom and not looking out onto the glorious gardens.
We started with expresso cups of soup, mine celeriac and truffle, my friend's was butternut squash. Both were very tasty and warming. I gulped at my foie gras rolled in crushed pistachio with a sliver of pear (don't usually eat this!), whilst my friend ate an artistic gathering of tiny wild asparagus and shavings of celery decorated with flowers. We both ate the salmon which was cooked slowly in a waterbath to give a strange raw texture. It came with wafers of beetroot, beetroot jelly and a tiny stuffed quail's egg. I had duck breast with delicious pak choi and rather horrid warm radish. My friend had a rather hilarious heap of weeds and tiny viola flowers which made us laugh. The Morangie brie with wafers of crispbread and grapes was delicious, as was the trio of deserts... hot chocolate fondant, cool chocolate coil and cold salty buttercotch ice cream. My friend gave me her strawberries and kiwi as she doesn't eat them which went very well too!
At nearly 11pm when we finished eating, there was still enough light up in those northern climes for us to explore the garden, getting wet feet in the marsh walk, and seeing all the vegetables we had eaten grown in the superb walled garden. A great evening!
Oh... and the sad news is, that in spite of the mounds of vegetables and salads I have eaten, and the fine dining, I have put on two and a half pounds this week! A vegetarian diet obviously doesn't suit me!
We walked from the carpark up the impressive sweeping drive of this small and beautiful Georgian mansion, which along with it's 20 acres of lawn, marshland and woods, had been bought derelict and restored by the owners. We were welcomed with a drink and canapes and our own individual and different menus. Our table was a little bit disappointing, in a small sideroom and not looking out onto the glorious gardens.
We started with expresso cups of soup, mine celeriac and truffle, my friend's was butternut squash. Both were very tasty and warming. I gulped at my foie gras rolled in crushed pistachio with a sliver of pear (don't usually eat this!), whilst my friend ate an artistic gathering of tiny wild asparagus and shavings of celery decorated with flowers. We both ate the salmon which was cooked slowly in a waterbath to give a strange raw texture. It came with wafers of beetroot, beetroot jelly and a tiny stuffed quail's egg. I had duck breast with delicious pak choi and rather horrid warm radish. My friend had a rather hilarious heap of weeds and tiny viola flowers which made us laugh. The Morangie brie with wafers of crispbread and grapes was delicious, as was the trio of deserts... hot chocolate fondant, cool chocolate coil and cold salty buttercotch ice cream. My friend gave me her strawberries and kiwi as she doesn't eat them which went very well too!
At nearly 11pm when we finished eating, there was still enough light up in those northern climes for us to explore the garden, getting wet feet in the marsh walk, and seeing all the vegetables we had eaten grown in the superb walled garden. A great evening!
Oh... and the sad news is, that in spite of the mounds of vegetables and salads I have eaten, and the fine dining, I have put on two and a half pounds this week! A vegetarian diet obviously doesn't suit me!
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