Souper Troupers

What a year this month has been! Dranks were dranked, celebrations hogishly celebrated, Kitty got a new kitten, there are 2 soups! Waspish January assumptions were squashed, pulped & gargled, the gastronomes are the new norm. In the bleak midwinter we’ve danced around the pagan pyre, daubed in the splatterings & ephemera of feasting, frivolity, freedom. When the world might end on the weekend, live for lunch, laughs & love. Hey, we’re feeling positive, maybe.

At lunch we continue with our £26 set menu for January. Huzzah!

A tale of two soups. The first a ribollita chronicled in this e-zine recently. The second, beyran çorbası. Originating in Gaziantep, Turkey and generally taken as breakfast to get the day going. We slowly roast & pick lardaceous hunks of lamb shoulder that provide flavourful fatty funk. Aleppo peppers & garlic are fried and exorcised of their depth & heat to enrich the broth, rice is cooked, finally lemons are squeezed at serving, their juice both cutting & propelling. And that’s it. One to write home about, First class po(s)ttage.

A tagliatelle ‘alla Bosaiola’ or Hunter-style is full of mushrooms, fennel sausage & cream, available with or without a healthy dose of Winter truffles. And, a gratin of salt cod with potato & spinach is finished with breadcrumbs. Served alongside a winter tomato salad, also at lunch and dinner.

For dessert at our small Platos concept, an orange, yoghurt & filo cake. It’s baked in the oven then doused in orange syrup and zest. Best taken with our bitter chocolate sorbet or as we call it Telly’s Chocolate Orange.

MORTADEAL OR NO DEAL

For a quick snack, light lunch, early apero or part of your larger dining vista, a mortadella & butter panino is available. At lunch and between 5-7pm this comes with a glass of Lambrusco for £15.

To paraphrase:

Eat at a local Quality Wines tonight. Get the Peará sauce. Have a cold glass at 4 o’clock in a mostly empty bar. Go somewhere you’ve never been. Listen to someone you think may have nothing in common with you. Order the panino. Eat a panino. Have a Lambrusco. Have two. Be open to a world where you may not understand or agree with the person next to you, but have a drink with them anyways. Eat slowly. Tip your server. Check in on your friends. Check in on yourself. Enjoy the ride.

Hope to see you all soon.

Marcos, Nick & the Team