401.Pretheatre Dinner At Hotel Du Vin.

 

    I was in Stratford upon Avon to see what degree of mauling the RSC was inflicting on the works of Shakespeare on this particular occasion - the victim being Love’s Labours Lost which the RSC had delivered to its audience so perfectly and memorably ten years before, setting it in a long lost Edwardian England - it’s now remembered as the Downton Abbey version - with the lines being delivered by mature actors who knew how to do it. This time, I had read that the production was to be set on a South Pacific island and the four lords were to be multi-billionaires attending a resort there. Ho hum.

  Clearly I was going to need some food prior to viewing the play. As I was again staying at the Hotel du Vin in Rother street and having previously enjoyed an excellent dinner there, it seemed most convenient and  pleasing to dine there again in its Bistro du Vin. The service was spot on on this occasion having had its ups and downs on my last visit. Wishing not to overindulge prior to an expected ordeal in the theatre I went straight to the main course. This was very well cooked, meaty, tasty hake, with a successfully crispy skin accompanied by a gorgeous velouté riven through with the delicious flavour of tarragon and crispy deep fried capers. The Parmentier potatoes looked a little anaemic but were enjoyable and well cooked all the same.

  I could not resist the opportunity to have tarte tatin for my dessert though I was a little anxious as the fruit used in the ‘tarte tartin of the day’ was billed as being pineapple. Tarte tatin, in my humble opinion, only really works with apple, and pear if you’re lucky. In the end this turned out to be a pineapple tart rather than a tarte tatin - the pastry was light and reasonably successful but the tarte had none of the unctious gooeyness and caramelisation that one would lust after in a triumphant tarte tatin. To make matters worse the chef had opted to place a rather naff demi-Maraschino cherry at the centre of the warm slices of pineapple adding to the impression that the restaurant was not offering sophisticated fare. On the other hand perhaps the tart might have been dreamed up to serve as a witty little joke by the chef though I doubt it.

  Needless to say my love’s labours for the tart were lost as they were for the play itself - this production being best described as ‘energetic’ and left at that.