Bear Experience: Taste of London Festival Part 2

So this is just a continuation of part 1 of my Taste of London Festival post. If you haven’t already seen it, check it out here.

I will be following the same format, first the dish and then the restaurant. I will then be giving each individual dish a review and score out of 5. The dishes that I’m going to cover in this post are:

• Vegetable croquette of spiced chickpeas, lentils, corn, sweet potato – Café Spice Namasté
• Roasted Kangaroo fillet Goan style – Café Spice Namasté
• Peach melba ripple ice cream, meringue & toasted almonds – Oldroyd
• Chocolate mousse, cep mushroom fudge, brioche and lavender honeycomb – Vanilla Black
• Buttermilk fried chicken, bread emulsion, pickles, firecracker – M
• Heritage carrots & spiced chickpeas with labneh and pomegranate – Duck & Waffle
• Butter chicken tawa pulao – Jamavar

There was also a demonstration at the AEG Theatre by one of the top chefs at Le Corden Bleu.

• Lightly cured cornish mackerel fillet, daikon radish fondant, broad bean and petit pois ‘ragout’ and marine plankton beurre blanc – Le Corden Bleu

Vegetable croquette of spiced chickpeas, lentils, corn, sweet potato

So this was another one of bhabhis choices. To be honest it looked a bit messy (as you can see from the picture). Taste-wise it wasn’t too bad, but the croquette wasn’t as crispy as I would have liked. The sweet potato and white pea mash added a note of sweetness and creaminess to the dish. I just think it was a bit too much on one plate, it was reminiscent of an aloo tikki chaat.

Score: 3/5

Roasted Kangaroo fillet Goan style

So this dish almost defines the reason why I came to this festival in the first place. Never in a million years would I have thought, “hmm I think I’ll eat some kangaroo today”. Initially I was a bit hesitant, but then told myself, to become a “real” foodie, I will need to step out of my comfort zone sometimes.

I took my first bite of it, and straight away I was able to notice some similarities between other meats. It had a tougher texture as it was a leaner meat, but tasted quite like lamb. It was nicely spiced and the lentil and rice pancake sitting at the bottom in the sea of juice was enjoyable too. I don’t think it is something I would order again, but at least I can say I’ve tried it.

Score: 3/5

Peach melba ripple ice cream

At this point we thought it was time for something a little sweet, so we split up and Nishant and bhabhi came back with this.

It looked so pretty – it came with toasted almonds and little bits of meringue on top. I had just a bite of it, but in that one bite was a burst of flavour. You had the smooth peach ice-cream, crispy sweet meringue and crunch toasted almonds. The textures and flavours complimented each other so well. It wasn’t too sweet, heavy or crunchy, it was a dessert that had reached equilibrium between all the different mediums.

Score: 5/5

Chocolate mousse with cep mushroom fudge

Mushrooms + chocolate mousse…NOPE! I honestly have no idea why I bought this. Don’t get me wrong the mousse and brioche combination worked really well, when I managed to have that one bite without the overpowering mushroom flavour. There was too much of a flavour imbalance.

Even though there were two major sweet components to this, the “cep mushroom fudge” still held that strong “mushroomish” flavour. I didn’t even finish it because I was scared my palette would be ruined for the next dish I tried as the mushroom aftertaste can tend to linger around in your mouth for a while.

Score: 2/5

Buttermilk fried chicken

This was a nice change from all the unorthodox dishes that I had during the day. When I saw the fried chicken on the menu of M, I thought to myself, I need to have something normal. It was very simple, the plate came out and I took a bite straight away. The firecracker sauce was nice – it was peppery and slightly sour, but it had the right kind of kick that slowly hit the back of my throat. On its own, the chicken was light but wasn’t that flavourful, unless you use the dips (the other was a very heavy mayonnaise).

Score: 3.5/5

Heritage carrots & spiced chickpeas with labneh and pomegranate

Okay to be honest, we don’t really remember what this tastes like, all we remember is that it tasted kind of fresh. The fact that we don’t remember how it tasted is a testament as to the quality of the dish. Although it was probably one of the more pretty looking plates of food we had on the day.

Score: 2/5

Butter chicken tawa pulao

Okay so I’m guilty of giving in whenever I see “butter chicken” anywhere. Usually it is a combination of a thick, sweet and creamy sauce with marinated chicken. Nine out of ten Indian restaurants will have this dish listed on their menu.

On this variation I expected a more saucy outcome. Instead I got a lovely, spiced bowl of poha (flattened rice) with butter chicken pieces packed full of flavour. I loved the presentation because although some people might see it as messy, I just loved the colours. The warm orange poha, deep green coriander and small yet bright red chilli – as if it were a red gem on a crown of rice. This for me was one of the dishes that really stood out. It was warm, and even though there was no sauce, the chicken still had that signature taste.
Score: 4/5

Lightly cured cornish mackerel fillet

One of the highlights of the event was going to the AEG Theatre and watching a live demonstration of a sublime Mackerel dish. I was watching in awe as Chef Loic Malfait created this masterpiece. He demonstrated a number skills that are demonstrated at Le Corden Bleu:

• Filleting fish
• Curing mackerel using a vacuum pack and sous vide
• Preparing and braising radish fondant
• Steaming vegetables
• Reinterpreting a classic beurre blanc using plankton paste, adding a unique flavour

The radish (also known as mooli in Hindi) was like nothing I’ve ever had before, It was braised in butter and was delicious on its own and with the rest of the dish. The Plankton paste was something that I had never heard of, but it was amazing. There were so many new innovative and classic techniques used in the demonstration. Sous vide mackrerel was tender and just flaked off the skin. This is the kind of food I could get used to cooking and eating (once I practice more)

Score: 4.5/5

Thank you for reading, apologies for the super long post but hopefully it was enjoyable to read.