350. Friday Night At The Wilderness.

 

  Sunday lunch at Gulp may have been an experience for a man and his dog (see previous Blog) but the preceding Friday night at The Wilderness was definitely a human thing. The place was buzzing at full power, Alex Claridge was in the kitchen, the steam was wafting over the cooking area, Sonal Clare was in charge of the drinks, the background music was pounding away (perhaps just a little too much for an old bloke) and the menu was crazy. But was it any good, this concession to the the march of autumn?

  My dining companion wanted to indulge himself in the 10 course tasting menu and, being easily, led and went along with him.

  The opening snack was something everyone should experience at least once in their lifetime apart from me who should experience it every day or, preferably, several times per day - an exquisite, crispy croquette of pigs head with sweet bursts of apricot. 

  Then a chunky beef tartare with a bit of chew to it but very tasty. Next Cornish mackeral with slices of grape - sweet and sour. A great dish.

  For the second time this week, previously at Purnell’s, I worked up a frenzy of pleasure for a dish that included beetroot - an exquisite beetroot ice cream served with a very pleasing ajo blanco, how I do love cold Spanish soup, especially when it was as good as this. Highly memorable.

  There followed nicely cured Chalkstream trout with the popping pleasure of its roe and an espuma with its gift of ginger. How gloriously, deeply orange. One fault for me, though not to my dining companion, was the following shitake bread pudding - I just don’t like its texture with barbecued shitake.

  The turbot was accurately cooked but I thought the smoked eel sauce stole away the pure flavour of the fine piece of fish - I should have enjoyed a more subtle accompaniment.

  And so to the main - a fine uncomplicated dish of nicely cooked venison with buxom blackberries (sadly my photography skills eluded me at this juncture and the result was a very fuzzy picture (unusable) of a two fine pieces of meat.

  The desserts -

 ‘Mascarpone’ - a delightful crème caramel - exceptionally enjoyable with the use of Pedro Ximenez in the dish  - accompanied by a rather dull pastry which I could have done without particularly as another pastry in the the form of a cacao tart served with very old balsamic was to follow.

  Finally, two mignardises hopped on to the table - well actually they were delivered to it by Chef Claridge with whom it was nice to exchange a quick couple of words - a little, intricately-decorated chocolate frog each, to see us on our way.

Rating:- 🌞🌞.