Just had a really delicious lunch at a little neighbourhood restaurant in Bristol called Flinty Red. We'd been before earlier in the year and had not a mind-blowing lunch, a sort of ok one but I somehow felt we'd been unlucky and that it was essentially very good, so glad we gave it another go.
Today, we started with sugar cured trout with pickled lemon,a little plate of slivers of house cured organic fish and a dice of fresh tasting lemon preserve, delicious with the close textured dark sourdough bread and a tiny bowl of good extra virgin olive oil.
Next we shared another two small plates, I had a salad of buffalo mozzarella with rosemary farinata and black olives, I'm so into farinata (a sort of polenta pancake) since I discovered it at Terra Madre in Turin in October.
The torn mozzarella was tender and milky, a very delicious combination served in a non traditional way.
My friend had a perfect winter salad of Mimolette, chicory, pomegranate and coarsely chopped toasted almonds, sooo good, simple and fresh tasting.
Our middle course was a sharing plate of braised octopus with harissa, coriander and potato which I didn't love quite so much. If I'm not mistaken it was frozen and was mostly cuttlefish.
Our small main courses were also very good, I had a little roast quail, crispy skin but still deliciously pink and juicy inside on a base of chicory salad. Tim had slivers of seared onglet with mashed swede and black pepper, rare and gorgously beefy.
There is a huge revival of interest in this 'forgotten' cut of beef, it's cheap but I'm sure not for long now that so many chefs have rediscovered it.
Thank goodness the plates were small so I still room for pud, I can never resist affrogata (vanilla ice-cream with a shot of expresso) so I had to have that as well as a warm doughnut with maple syrup cream.
Flinty Reds cheeses come from La Fromagerie in London, so they are bound to be interesting and in top condition.
Today it was a mild pecorino Castagnolo and a Caprino di Riforano.
I had a glass of Manzanilla as aperitif
And a glass of a delicious bio-dynamic red wine from Haut Languedoc called Gravillas 2010.
Today, we started with sugar cured trout with pickled lemon,a little plate of slivers of house cured organic fish and a dice of fresh tasting lemon preserve, delicious with the close textured dark sourdough bread and a tiny bowl of good extra virgin olive oil.
Next we shared another two small plates, I had a salad of buffalo mozzarella with rosemary farinata and black olives, I'm so into farinata (a sort of polenta pancake) since I discovered it at Terra Madre in Turin in October.
The torn mozzarella was tender and milky, a very delicious combination served in a non traditional way.
My friend had a perfect winter salad of Mimolette, chicory, pomegranate and coarsely chopped toasted almonds, sooo good, simple and fresh tasting.
Our middle course was a sharing plate of braised octopus with harissa, coriander and potato which I didn't love quite so much. If I'm not mistaken it was frozen and was mostly cuttlefish.
Our small main courses were also very good, I had a little roast quail, crispy skin but still deliciously pink and juicy inside on a base of chicory salad. Tim had slivers of seared onglet with mashed swede and black pepper, rare and gorgously beefy.
There is a huge revival of interest in this 'forgotten' cut of beef, it's cheap but I'm sure not for long now that so many chefs have rediscovered it.
Thank goodness the plates were small so I still room for pud, I can never resist affrogata (vanilla ice-cream with a shot of expresso) so I had to have that as well as a warm doughnut with maple syrup cream.
Flinty Reds cheeses come from La Fromagerie in London, so they are bound to be interesting and in top condition.
Today it was a mild pecorino Castagnolo and a Caprino di Riforano.
I had a glass of Manzanilla as aperitif
And a glass of a delicious bio-dynamic red wine from Haut Languedoc called Gravillas 2010.
