A hot early summer afternoon in Digbeth. I arrived early for my lunch at 670 Grams and had an amble around the streets near the Custard Factory to update my memory of the street art that was exhibited all around. Then on to the restaurant where chef Kray Tredwell was keeping cool in his shorts by the open entrance door. But there was no need to worry for another chef - Andy Stubbs of Slow n Low - was hard at work in the kitchen above preparing the lunches. This was to be a six course collaboration by the two chefs.
To start there was a remarkably good cabbage dish which transformed the edibility of cabbage from chore to unbearable pleasure.
Then on to a remarkably delicious and visually beautiful - all gilded and glittering - mackeral dish which did for humdrum mackeral what the first dish did for cabbage. Then a magnificent portion of excruciatingly tender and tasty ox cheek with charred maitake and the improbability of cherryade sauce, one of the world’s greatest gastronomic developments. It seems that centuries have passed since I last drank cherryade. I lusted for a glass of it and Chef Tredwell obliged me with a can of the drink to down with the ox cheek. It is clear that any sommelier who does not add cherryade to his wine menu is not the sommelier he/she ought to be.
There followed a dish of barbecued pork collar with elements of pineapple and gooseberry to balance it.
The dessert of toasted seeds and honey sorbet was a pleasure but the final course was, perhaps, a little underwhelming - an undistinguished grilled half banana with a hazelnut mousse and chocolate soil. Despite this, it had been a pleasurable meal with many enjoyable elements; a collaboration of note.
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