[food] Vanilla Black
Jul. 6th, 2019 10:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kaberettA few weeks ago now, on a Friday, A & I went to Vanilla Black, in what was initially a belated birthday celebration (A having been wretchedly ill with a cold on my actual birthday) but morphed into, also, a Progress On The PhD celebration.
(I note slightly sheepishly that I apparently failed to post write-ups for 2017 and 2018; I think I know which notebook I scribbled in, so maybe I'll try hunting those down, but in the meantime: whoops.)
We considered, briefly, the five-course tasting menu, but while two of the five courses were the starter and main we were both very interested in, A had previously had the dessert and I didn't want it, and the other starter and main were the ones we were less interested in, so á la carte and nicking bits off each other's plates it was.
The amuse-bouche was two tiny shot glasses filled with virgin Bloody Mary, served with exactly four home-fried salted crisps. The top of it was mostly froth (sorry, probably "foam", isn't it), where as you got further down you found very finely diced (and remarkably sweet) tomato. Lots of acidity, reasonably well balanced; we both liked it well enough but we weren't blown away.
The bread, on the other hand, was a half-grain sourdough (perfectly pleasant, but I've got fairly used to having interesting sourdough readily available) and... rosemary potato bread, with lots of bonus nigella seeds, which I adored. The accompanying butter was mostly "smoked hay" (remarkably dark, slightly bitter, I like the taste of smoke but A doesn't) with a wee dollop of thyme butter on the top, sort of like a monochrome fried egg in reverse. I was a massive fan, and am contemplating recreating the potato bread. [fx: pause while I rummage around and get out The Big Book Of Bread and see what it has to say on the topic, hmmmm]
After which came starters. I ordered Whipped Londonshire, Branston Pickle Toffee and Sourdough (Celery and lovage jam and walled garden salad); A had Baby Fennel, Creamed Lemon and Toast (Fennel purée and ice, basil and lime).
Because this is how we play this one: I was really very happy with my salad and very glad that I'd ordered it, but Adam won, and I was very glad he'd ordered that too, such that I got to try it. The star to my mind was the fennel ice, a fennel granita I'm contemplating attempting to replicate at home (because it tasted wonderfully sweet and wonderfully anise-ish, both at once, in a way that the fennel I'm getting out of the plot does but supermarket fennel never quite seems to live up to).
The sourdough was present essentially as a crumb; the Branston pickle toffee was fascinating thin shards that tasted unmabiguously of Branston<, not just of vinegar, while simultaneously being so utterly texturally different that it was a very confusing (in the best way) culinary experience. The celery and lovage jam was also particularly amazing, and reminded me that I've recently come around to the idea of wee pickled onions (see cronch, passim). Which is particularly impressive to my mind because I've only relatively recently started coming around to the concept of celery at all.
(The whipped Londonshire was light and foamy and very identifably cheese, and went very well, but wasn't to me a standalone star.)
For mains I had An Entire Plate Of Celeriac (Celeriac Profiteroles, Dill and Raisins (Vanilla roasted celeriac and pickled red cabbage)) and A ordered Malted Barley, Potato Cake and Greens (Parsley and vinegar).
Adam thought I won this course, and certainly it directly inspired my own subsequent Celeriac Three Ways at home (fondant, mash, crispy deep-fried shreds). The profiteroles were filled with a fantastically velvety and very deep brown celeriac reduction, of some kind; the roasted celeriac was present as batons; there were, additionally, very thin celeriac wafers (which I suspect but did not confirm with staff were achieved by dehydrating and powdering celeriac, then reconstituting it into biscuits using egg). The pickled red cabbage was a decorative sprinkle that I very much enjoyed; the raisins had also been gently pickled, plumped up by soaking them in a vinegar that complemented them very well, and provided excellent additional sharpness. In addition to the above there was A Green Sauce-like Paste, which with hindsight I suspect was the dill, though at the time I got quite confused about the fact that Adam also had A Green Paste, which was very definitely parsley.
I thought A's plate was also delicious: the potato had been mashed and formed into rounds, on top of which were neatly stacked the malted barley along with some finely diced veg (definitely featuring carrot). This again had a lovely balance of rich and savoury and earthy flavours against the sharpness of the vinegar, present as delicate little jelly cubes, and I would happily have nicked more of it than I actually managed while distracted by my profiterole.
Dessert consisted of Carrot curd, blueberries and whipped olive oil (rye grains and cucumber ice) for me, Liquorice panna cotta, bergamot curd and coriander (liquorice stick and fennel pollen) for A, and bonus it's-my-birthday freebie Coconut sorbet, toasted rice mousse and coffee (Coconut crumble and coffee sponge).
I am very glad that I tried my order, and happily ate all of it, but it was Deeply Weird and I'm not sure I would actually order it again. Like: the olive oil very definitely did taste of olive oil, and they'd very definitely aerated it enough that it looked like a whipped cream or possibly a water-based foam (not, in fact, dissimilar to my whipped cheese in the starter), and instead it tasted immediately and unambiguously of really pretty fancy olive oil, which again gave me enough cognitive dissonance to be... confusing.
Because they're apparently having A Moment, my blueberries were lightly pickled; the rye grains were again present as a toasted textural crumb; the cucumber ice definitely tasted of cucumber but was a little odd in context (and I think I prefer Ruby Violet's iteration of same); honestly I might, having now thought about it, have been happier replacing the cucumber ice in this dish with the fennel ice from Adam's starter, but there's an incentive for me to try things out at home, I suppose. The carrot was... very a texture. It did all go together! It was An Experience I am glad to have had! It is not my favourite thing of theirs I've ever had.
I was, unsurprisingly, particularly fond of Adam's bergamot curd. It is always interesting to me to try panna cotta that I can eat with a clear conscience, but fundamentally I find the texture slightly unnerving. He was pleased! He cronched his liquorice! I was glad to try it and meet its flavours.
The bonus dessert was particularly welcome because it had been the thing that was approximately third on both our lists, that I'd not been willing to order because of the inevitable caffeine, that Adam had therefore kindly not ordered so as to have a dessert I could sample, but that I'd been interested in the uncaffeinated portions of. My absolute favourites were the coconut sorbet (which tasted of coconut, I keep forgetting how nice it is if it's Actually Good, and also how hard Actually Good coconut is to come by in this country) and the toasted rice mousse (because I am a perpetual fan of toasted rice, and might try to replicate this at home). The coffee was present at least in part as an interesting simultaneously-moist-and-crunchy Pile of Dirt, as people so often Do with coffee, and I sampled it cautiously and appreciated how it went with everything else and stole a second taste and then regretfully ceded the rest of it to Adam. Even I didn't hate the coconut crumb, which is not my normal attitude to dried coconut, so there we go. To my amusement, I think this was actually my favourite of the three we got, which makes it particularly aggravating that I couldn't eat it "properly", but there we go.
I... have not particularly noted drinks. They had a twenty-year-old tawny port available as a dessert wine on this occasion, which I drank with great appreciation. Adam has now got the point of 20yo tawny insofar as he enjoyed smelling it, but didn't particularly get anything out of drinking it that he doesn't get from ruby or LBV, which is why he's not allowed to drink my personal stash and was only permitted a couple of sips of this glassful. I also had the Luscombe apple & pear juice, in which on this occasion I particularly noted the vanilla, and how well it complemented my vourses various. Cocktails: plum, thyme & rum punch (with prosecco and blackberry); and cloudy apple, elderflower and gin. Both v pleasant & went well with everything in their own ways. Much pleasing. Very enjoy.
We will, of course, be going back.
(I note slightly sheepishly that I apparently failed to post write-ups for 2017 and 2018; I think I know which notebook I scribbled in, so maybe I'll try hunting those down, but in the meantime: whoops.)
We considered, briefly, the five-course tasting menu, but while two of the five courses were the starter and main we were both very interested in, A had previously had the dessert and I didn't want it, and the other starter and main were the ones we were less interested in, so á la carte and nicking bits off each other's plates it was.
The amuse-bouche was two tiny shot glasses filled with virgin Bloody Mary, served with exactly four home-fried salted crisps. The top of it was mostly froth (sorry, probably "foam", isn't it), where as you got further down you found very finely diced (and remarkably sweet) tomato. Lots of acidity, reasonably well balanced; we both liked it well enough but we weren't blown away.
The bread, on the other hand, was a half-grain sourdough (perfectly pleasant, but I've got fairly used to having interesting sourdough readily available) and... rosemary potato bread, with lots of bonus nigella seeds, which I adored. The accompanying butter was mostly "smoked hay" (remarkably dark, slightly bitter, I like the taste of smoke but A doesn't) with a wee dollop of thyme butter on the top, sort of like a monochrome fried egg in reverse. I was a massive fan, and am contemplating recreating the potato bread. [fx: pause while I rummage around and get out The Big Book Of Bread and see what it has to say on the topic, hmmmm]
After which came starters. I ordered Whipped Londonshire, Branston Pickle Toffee and Sourdough (Celery and lovage jam and walled garden salad); A had Baby Fennel, Creamed Lemon and Toast (Fennel purée and ice, basil and lime).
Because this is how we play this one: I was really very happy with my salad and very glad that I'd ordered it, but Adam won, and I was very glad he'd ordered that too, such that I got to try it. The star to my mind was the fennel ice, a fennel granita I'm contemplating attempting to replicate at home (because it tasted wonderfully sweet and wonderfully anise-ish, both at once, in a way that the fennel I'm getting out of the plot does but supermarket fennel never quite seems to live up to).
The sourdough was present essentially as a crumb; the Branston pickle toffee was fascinating thin shards that tasted unmabiguously of Branston<, not just of vinegar, while simultaneously being so utterly texturally different that it was a very confusing (in the best way) culinary experience. The celery and lovage jam was also particularly amazing, and reminded me that I've recently come around to the idea of wee pickled onions (see cronch, passim). Which is particularly impressive to my mind because I've only relatively recently started coming around to the concept of celery at all.
(The whipped Londonshire was light and foamy and very identifably cheese, and went very well, but wasn't to me a standalone star.)
For mains I had An Entire Plate Of Celeriac (Celeriac Profiteroles, Dill and Raisins (Vanilla roasted celeriac and pickled red cabbage)) and A ordered Malted Barley, Potato Cake and Greens (Parsley and vinegar).
Adam thought I won this course, and certainly it directly inspired my own subsequent Celeriac Three Ways at home (fondant, mash, crispy deep-fried shreds). The profiteroles were filled with a fantastically velvety and very deep brown celeriac reduction, of some kind; the roasted celeriac was present as batons; there were, additionally, very thin celeriac wafers (which I suspect but did not confirm with staff were achieved by dehydrating and powdering celeriac, then reconstituting it into biscuits using egg). The pickled red cabbage was a decorative sprinkle that I very much enjoyed; the raisins had also been gently pickled, plumped up by soaking them in a vinegar that complemented them very well, and provided excellent additional sharpness. In addition to the above there was A Green Sauce-like Paste, which with hindsight I suspect was the dill, though at the time I got quite confused about the fact that Adam also had A Green Paste, which was very definitely parsley.
I thought A's plate was also delicious: the potato had been mashed and formed into rounds, on top of which were neatly stacked the malted barley along with some finely diced veg (definitely featuring carrot). This again had a lovely balance of rich and savoury and earthy flavours against the sharpness of the vinegar, present as delicate little jelly cubes, and I would happily have nicked more of it than I actually managed while distracted by my profiterole.
Dessert consisted of Carrot curd, blueberries and whipped olive oil (rye grains and cucumber ice) for me, Liquorice panna cotta, bergamot curd and coriander (liquorice stick and fennel pollen) for A, and bonus it's-my-birthday freebie Coconut sorbet, toasted rice mousse and coffee (Coconut crumble and coffee sponge).
I am very glad that I tried my order, and happily ate all of it, but it was Deeply Weird and I'm not sure I would actually order it again. Like: the olive oil very definitely did taste of olive oil, and they'd very definitely aerated it enough that it looked like a whipped cream or possibly a water-based foam (not, in fact, dissimilar to my whipped cheese in the starter), and instead it tasted immediately and unambiguously of really pretty fancy olive oil, which again gave me enough cognitive dissonance to be... confusing.
Because they're apparently having A Moment, my blueberries were lightly pickled; the rye grains were again present as a toasted textural crumb; the cucumber ice definitely tasted of cucumber but was a little odd in context (and I think I prefer Ruby Violet's iteration of same); honestly I might, having now thought about it, have been happier replacing the cucumber ice in this dish with the fennel ice from Adam's starter, but there's an incentive for me to try things out at home, I suppose. The carrot was... very a texture. It did all go together! It was An Experience I am glad to have had! It is not my favourite thing of theirs I've ever had.
I was, unsurprisingly, particularly fond of Adam's bergamot curd. It is always interesting to me to try panna cotta that I can eat with a clear conscience, but fundamentally I find the texture slightly unnerving. He was pleased! He cronched his liquorice! I was glad to try it and meet its flavours.
The bonus dessert was particularly welcome because it had been the thing that was approximately third on both our lists, that I'd not been willing to order because of the inevitable caffeine, that Adam had therefore kindly not ordered so as to have a dessert I could sample, but that I'd been interested in the uncaffeinated portions of. My absolute favourites were the coconut sorbet (which tasted of coconut, I keep forgetting how nice it is if it's Actually Good, and also how hard Actually Good coconut is to come by in this country) and the toasted rice mousse (because I am a perpetual fan of toasted rice, and might try to replicate this at home). The coffee was present at least in part as an interesting simultaneously-moist-and-crunchy Pile of Dirt, as people so often Do with coffee, and I sampled it cautiously and appreciated how it went with everything else and stole a second taste and then regretfully ceded the rest of it to Adam. Even I didn't hate the coconut crumb, which is not my normal attitude to dried coconut, so there we go. To my amusement, I think this was actually my favourite of the three we got, which makes it particularly aggravating that I couldn't eat it "properly", but there we go.
I... have not particularly noted drinks. They had a twenty-year-old tawny port available as a dessert wine on this occasion, which I drank with great appreciation. Adam has now got the point of 20yo tawny insofar as he enjoyed smelling it, but didn't particularly get anything out of drinking it that he doesn't get from ruby or LBV, which is why he's not allowed to drink my personal stash and was only permitted a couple of sips of this glassful. I also had the Luscombe apple & pear juice, in which on this occasion I particularly noted the vanilla, and how well it complemented my vourses various. Cocktails: plum, thyme & rum punch (with prosecco and blackberry); and cloudy apple, elderflower and gin. Both v pleasant & went well with everything in their own ways. Much pleasing. Very enjoy.
We will, of course, be going back.
(no subject)
Date: 2019-07-06 10:24 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2019-07-06 11:01 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2019-07-06 11:47 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2019-07-07 12:59 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2019-07-07 01:10 am (UTC)(In addition to the formatting thing, you are going back and forth between initials and names in describing the person you went with.)
(no subject)
Date: 2019-07-07 03:52 am (UTC)I like to think that they bought this from the farmer in Stardew Valley. It's one of the more lucrative of the pickles one can make in that game.
(no subject)
Date: 2019-07-07 06:37 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2019-07-07 10:25 am (UTC)(fix'd, thank you!)
(no subject)
Date: 2019-07-07 10:26 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2019-07-07 02:01 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2019-07-07 02:15 pm (UTC)(It is welcome and helpful. <3)
(no subject)
Date: 2019-07-07 02:43 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2019-07-08 06:56 am (UTC)Thank you!
Date: 2019-07-09 08:14 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2019-07-09 08:48 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2019-07-09 08:49 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2019-07-09 08:49 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2019-07-09 08:51 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2019-07-09 08:52 pm (UTC)(I see your PM and have Get To That Then on my todo list.)
(no subject)
Date: 2019-07-09 08:55 pm (UTC)Re: Thank you!
Date: 2019-07-09 08:57 pm (UTC)