The Sportsman

Haven't been to good updating the blog the last couple of weeks but have been out chowing down at quite a few restaurants as well as getting back into cooking again which has been ace! There's been three standout meals over the last couple of weeks, one was with my brother at Italian restaurant Assaggi for all the wrong reasons which I'll go into next time, a wonderful meal at Arbutus though I ruined it by having Tripe (Disgusting) & the best meal of the lot was at The Sportsman in Seasalter near Whitstable http://www.thesportsmanseasalter.co.uk/.

The Sportsman is a Michelin starred pub which serves local produce as well as lovely ales. It was Daisy's brother Sam whose idea it was to go so I booked a table for sunday lunch & we bombed it down the motorway to get there for 12:45. It's in a lovely part of Kent & The Sportsman from the outside just looks like a nice local pub, very unassuming. On arrival we ordered a local Whitstable ale & peruse the menu which is written on a blackboard. There's lot's of tasty fish & meat dishes & there's probably 3 or 4 things I would quite easily have if not more!

Big Mack

We order at the bar then get shown to our seat where we have lovely homemade bread of Focaccia & soda bread with homemade butter & olives. All very tasty. My starter arrives which is "Smoked mackerel, bramley apple jelly & horseradish on soda bread" which is amazing. The sweetness of the apple jelly with the smokiness of the mackerel & horseradish is delicious! A wonderful starter. Sam had "Slip sole grilled in seaweed butter" which was served very simply by itself but tasted wonderful & fresh & Daisy had "3 poached rock oysters, pickled cucumber & avruga caviar" which she thought was the best of the starters but I didn't get to try any because she only had 3. A little bit gutted. 

Hake

On to mains where I had "Roast hake fillet with cherry tomato sauce & oyster mayonnaise". It was incredibly amazing! The fish was so fresh & the tomato sauce was light & had little hints of lemon thrown in. One of the best fish dishes I've had this year. This was served with sides of new potatoes & mash which were both done to perfection. Sam had the "Roast rack (served pink) of Monkshill farm lamb & mint sauce"which was tasty & Sam enjoyed it but was a little bit disappointed overall. I think he wanted it to be a bit more like a home roast rather then a restaurant style roast, if that makes sense! Daisy had "Gurnard fillet with bouillabaisse sauce & green olive tapenade" which was also delicious. The Bouillabaisse sauce was so tasty & the gurnard was beautifully cooked. It was a bit difficult to decide which was the best out of the fish dishes  but both were excellent.

Crumbles

Dessert was a classic "Apple crumble & Jersey cream" for me, which was tasty & very filling, Sam had "Rhubarb sorbet & burnt cream" which consisted of sorbet with popping candy, a creme brulee & a delicious homemade shortbread whilst Daisy had "Cream cheese ice cream, pear puree & ginger cake crumbs" which was excellent. 

We finished off with a good coffee & some petit fours that sort of tasted purely of butter with a bit of chocolate chucked in. We all pulled funny faces whilst eating them! With the meal I had a delicious house white & a lovely sweet sherry with the dessert & Daisy continued with the Whitstable ale. All very good value, nice friendly service & would definitely go out of my way to eat there again! A wonderful meal & a lovely pub to. 

Angels & Gypsies

I've been living in Camberwell for nearly a year & had been trying to get to a tapas restaurant the whole time called Angels & Gypsies http://www.churchstreethotel.com/restaurant.asp , which I had heard was excellent, so on my last day in Camberwell (now in Kilburn) I decided to treat myself & go. It was a fairly quiet Saturday lunch time so I popped over to the Hermits Cave pub, had a Campari & soda then went back & got a table by the window.

Squidalicious

The whole menu sounded fantastic but because I was by myself I had to order sensibly & went for the "Calamari Romana style with orange alioli" given to me as a sort of starter. T'was delicious! The squid was tender, the coating was crispy & the orange alioli garlicy & tangy. One of the tastiest squids going.

This was followed by "Organic slow roast pork belly with clementines, rum plum jam & green apple salad" with a side of "Spinach with chilli & garlic". The pork was amazingly tender, a lovely crispy crackling top & the green apple salad with the rum plum jam was mind blowing! A beautiful plate of food. My side of spinach was very tasty with a little heat coming from the chilli, it complemented the pork very well & I felt full but not stuffed. Room for dessert!

Rum plum jam & green apple salad

MMMMhhhhhh

I'm a big fan of Creme Caramel so that's what I went for. It was perfect, very light & the caramel had a lovely orange taste to it. Delicious for a hot day.

There was so many other things on the menu that sounded amazing like the "Welsh mountain Lamb cutlets rubbed with lavender & rosemary" & the "Watermelon, Manchego rocket & caper salad" which sounded particularly "Muy Bien" to me.

The service was great, I had a lovely light red wine & the bill was very reasonable.  Angels & Gypsies is definitely an amazing tapas restaurant & if you're not familiar with Camberwell then
  you need to do so & go for some knockout tapas!

Gidleigh Park

Amused

Daisy has been a way in Devon, Ashburton to be precise, doing a month cookery course here http://www.ashburtoncookeryschool.co.uk/ which by all accounts was excellent. I went up a couple of times over the month & we scoffed our way through most of South Devon. One place I was really interested in going to was Gidleigh Park, a 2 Michelin starred hotel within Dartmoor National Park where Michael Caines is the executive head chef http://www.gidleigh.com/restaurant.

Toms & melons

We went for saturday lunch & had a beautiful drive through Dartmoor, then into the grounds of Gidleigh Park which is stunning. On entering we were shown to the lounge, a very comfortable & spacious room & ordered 2 aperitivos & browsed the menu. There was the Signature menu, A la carte menu & Seasonal Lunch Menu, all sounded amazing. We decided on the 3 course Seasonal Lunch menu & ordered in the lounge where we were also given a Amuse Bouche of turbot which was delicious.

Salmon

We were shown to our table which was very nice & ordered a local Rose' which was lovely & Daisy had a glass of Sancerre which was equally good. There was some amazing homemade bread & another wonderful Amuse Bouche of Crab Bisque. There was a little wait, then our starters arrived! I had ordered "Tomato & melon salad with tomato jelly & basil oil" & Daisy had ordered "Loch Duart salmon with tagliatelle of courgette & cucumber beurre blanc". We were pretty excited. Both dishes looked exquisite, my tomatoes were tangy, the scoops of melon with the basil oil were very refreshing & there was a crispy side of fried bread I think, should of asked but very good. I really enjoyed the dish but I wasn't wowed on first impressions though thinking about it after I actually thought it was excellent & was glad that I ordered it. Daisy's salmon was beautifully cooked, the courgette tagliatelle wasn't what we were expecting but in a good way & there were salmon eggs exploding every so often in the odd mouthful. It was quite a salty dish but very tasty & I had quite a few mouthfuls of it.

Porky

Jackson  

On to mains! I ordered "Local pork loin with pea puree, boulangere potato, girolles & a marjoram pork jus" WOW! The pork was a little rare, I recently read how the food safety & Inspection service had lowered porks cooking temperature, so it was very juicy & tender, the boulangere potato mind blowing & the pea puree & girolles all combined to make this a wonderful dish. KNOCKOUT!

Daisy had "Cornish pollock with leek puree, wild mushrooms & a chive butter sauce", cooked to perfection. The pollock was delicious & the buttery sauce, buttery! Again a great dish & I can't remember thinking of any gripes. Amazing Mains!

Dessert! My favorite part were both extroadinary! I had "Banana parfait with chocolate & lime sorbet" Thin crisp chocolate stacked up with the banana parfait in between & I wasn't sure about the sound of the lime sorbet but it worked perfectly. Absolutely delicious. Daisy had the "Poached cherries with tuile basket & cherry & Kirsch ice cream". The cherry ice cream was absolutely lovely & the poached cherries divine.

We followed this by having coffee & petit fours in the lounge which were almost as good as the dessert. It consisted of one little dumpling, a mini creme brulee & a pannacotta. All amazing as well as the staff who were all friendly, very professional & the manager Sue Williams came & had a chat with us which was very nice. Next time at Gidleigh Park a room for the night would go down very well! Might have to start saving.