The General Chat Thread

Faith wrote: »

I really need to learn to speak up for myself :mad:. Asked for beef shin at the butchers (twice, I even repeated myself) and he gave me diced beef rib. Of course, in typical useless fashion, I just accepted it and paid twice the price compared to shin.

Is it suitable for slow cooking, does anyone know?

Faith,

Get yourself into Ashley O'Neill's in the Market - Grand Parade exit. Sells beef chin on and off the bone. Really good quality.

Loire.

So just to update you on the meal at Blanc as promised for those interested! We arrived there and I was immediately engaged with the ambience in the place, it was full of people having a lovely time, a lot of laughs resonated around the venue, the kitchen was in full view of diners and most importantly of all, the food looked delicious! Yay! We had an aperitif while looking at the menu (Peroni for Mr. Merkin and an elderflower cordial for me) and after fever-pitch excitement we decided on what we were going to have. For a little sharing plate we had fresh anchovy fillets with anchovy butter and crusty bread which was delicious, the fillets were plump and tasty and the butter was wonderful – was strong but not fishy.

Mr. Merkin then had the Moules Marinières with white wine for Hors D’oeuvres. While the mussels themselves were plump, the actual taste of the liquid was really quite insipid which was a little disappointing. What was absolutely lovely was that every bottle of wine was sold by the glass which was wonderful and very inclusive I thought! If I wasn’t pregnant Mr. Merkin and I would have just ordered a bottle per course but with his mussels he had muscadet and it was really lovely. I had elderflower cordial all night. I opted for the Charcuterie selection: Bayonne ham, Rosette de Lyon salami, pork rillettes, Coppa, herbed Savoyard sausage, pickles, sourdough. A staid choice perhaps but I was opting for fish for mains so wanted some meat! It was distinctly underwhelming.The bayonne was fine, the salami ok and the rillettes really tasty BUT the baby pickled vegetables were absolutely rank. They had been pickled in something extremely sweet and syrupy which offended my taste buds!So the baby veg were like candied veg almost if that makes sense?

For Plats Cuisines Mr. Merkin had ]roast breast of Barbary duck, blackberry sauce, Dauphinoise potatoes accompanied by lovely Fleurie. The duck was good. Not spectacular but good and there was a little too much blackberry sauce but overall a good meal. The portion of duck was generous so he said another type of potato may have been more suitable as the portion of dauphinoise was gargantuan, it took up half the plate. As for my main course? Oh guys, I have tears in my eyes as I write this and I know my dear pals in the foodie forum will empathise with my level of upset! I ordered the whole spiced baby turbot with roast vegetables, crushed spring onion new potatoes. Sounds sublime right? It arrived without a fish knife so I needed to use an ordinary knife to remove it from the bone and the fish was not only surrounded by but sitting *on* a bed of whole CINNAMON sticks and STAR ANIS. :eek: I always believe fish should be the star of the dish and besides from being fried in butter and a little seasoning it really shouldn’t be interfered with too much, certainly not where its flavour is lost or compromised. And I adore things like bouillabaisse so I know and love fish. The taste of the turbot was nowhere to be found and in fact in tasted like it had been smeared in liquorice allsorts before being baked in a cinnamon-laden apple-pie. It was in all honesty inedible. In fact we had a wonderful waitress looking after us for the night and she came over (without being prompted) and said “you really don’t like that do you?” I told her no and she didn’t seem at all surprised. She offered to get me something right away so I opted for a second starter which I knew would be quick to prepare. I opted for an Alsace bacon, poached egg, soused potato & frisee salad which was OK, a salad is a salad. I was gutted to be honest. Anyway, we still had a wonderful time but the food was really not at the level I had hoped or expected.



Mr. Merkin opted not to have a dessert and instead had some Hennessy followed by espresso. The dessert menu was very disappointing as it was limited and lacked the wow factor that should be indicative of that part of the meal. I opted for Valrhona triple chocolate dessert, chocolate mousse, chocolate crumble & chocolate sorbet. It came in a little old-fashioned sundae glass with each component piled on top of the other. The mousse was wonderful, velvety and light. The sorbet was actually a very dense chocolate ice-cream and the crumble was inedible – large and clumpy chunks of chocolate which had been made with ground almonds and lots of white flour so dense and unappetizing.


So to surmise, we had a wonderful time because of the atmosphere etc and we had a great laugh but the food was a big letdown. It wasn’t overly expensive but it just fell short on so many levels. I mean we left happy, left a really generous tip because the service was wonderful and we had a nice time but the star of the show (the food) just disappointed us on so many levels. I'm sure that wasn't helped by the fact that we were practically wetting ourselves in anticipation beforehand!



I’m not sure if it is because we both love cooking so much and we continue to improve and consequently our standards are just becoming higher or higher or what. I asked the waitress how often Blanc popped his head in and she said she had been there a year and he’d been there twice but I don’t in all honesty believe he would have been at all happy with what was dished up that night! The head chef was from the Middle East and there was a very strong underlying influence in the food and it just didn't work - everything savoury has sickly sweet undertones is that makes sense?


So there we have it guys, I wouldn't go back!

Animord wrote: »

Oh how disappointing Merkin! I tend to agree about sweetness where it shouldn't be.

I see Heston has been closed down again due to food poisoning. What is the world coming to?

:eek: That is shocking! Which restaurant?

You'd have thought that any staff member who works with food would have the sense to not go to work if they have a stomach bug!