The entire team involved in delivering this evening really did themselves proud!
I'm not going to provide a full review but I'd like to share a few photos of the menu board and some of the dishes as well as my brief thoughts on each dish.
Cornish Skate Cheeks - moist, posh fish nuggets. Nice!
Scottish Razor Clams - served on the half shell; the perfect canapé. Really fresh; transported me to the Med!
Steak Tartare + Quail Egg Yolk - what a clever way to make a canapé out of something you'd not expect as one. Very nice indeed.
Tea Smoked Mackerel - possibly my favourite of the canapés; fantastic flavour and texture.
Caerphilly Sticks - greedy bastards on the other side of the room scarfed too many of these, so never got to taste one!
Deep Fried Calves Brains - never had brains before; not what I expected. White and creamy, I wouldn't have realised it was meat rather than dairy, if I'd not been told. OK but didn't thrill me. But at least it didn't make me gag, as it did one guest!
Rare Hare Loin - cooked nice and pink and tender, worked well with the roast pumpkin, walnuts, salad and dressing.
Slow Cooked Mutton Shoulder - oh my, this was incredible! We literally spooned the meat off the bones and onto our plates. Rich, meltingly soft and very popular. Really fabulous mash too and I have discovered that I rather like salsify!
Roast Hand of Pork - Already stuffed by the time this came out, I still managed to eat not just one but two helpings, it was that good! My neighbour gnawed contentedly on a trotter. I stuck with the soft, soft meat.
Heritage Apple Trifle - this is the only dish of the evening that I didn't like at all. No bother as it was followed by...
Blackberry Eton Mess - which turned out to be huge squidgy meringues sandwiched together with cream and gorgeous whole blackberries and blackberry sauce. I am sure I detected hazelnut in the meringues too but was poo-pooed on that front by fellow guests, so don't know. I love meringues, and they're easy to make too, but these were a cut above and I had seconds again!
Served with the above were three beers - Badger Original Ale, Fullers ESB and Thornbury Jaipur IPA. I do not drink beer. I really don't. Not even lager but certainly not full on malty or hoppy stuff. Somehow I rather liked these beers with the food and whilst my table mates switched to wine, I necked enough beer to render me a wee bit tipsy. But just a wee bit!
Fit to burst, I did manage to find space to taste the tiniest slivers of some nicely matured Lancashire as well as some invigoratingly fresh curd cheese kindly sent up by Leagram Dairy. The Bull & Last team paired the cheese with home-made oat cakes, pickled grapes & damson cheese.
Pete would have been envious of the Islay-heavy Compass Box Oak Cross Whisky that rounded off the evening. Me? I thought it smelled of muddy socks and gave it a miss!
I'm yet to work my way through most of the goodie bag contents we also went away with but have promised myself a return visit to The Bull & Last!
Note: Just realised I exported all the images above with (c) of Peter J Favelle. They're actually all (c) to me but as they're just snapshots, I can't be ****ed to redo so I'm leaving them as is! :)
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3 comments:
Such a good night and great food. Agree re: the consistency of the brain. I wouldn't have been shocked if I had been told it was mozarella. Lovely pics.
Greedy bastards? What a charming way to talk about your fellow guests... I didn't see that either, perhaps they didn't make enough.
Heheh, the greedy bastards bit was (mostly) tongue in cheek. For all I know they skipped the caerphilly, I've no idea, actually! :)
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