Saturday, August 22, 2015

Bollywood To Wellywood

On Wednesday night we went to One80 for their dégustation menu, Bollywood to Wellywood, and to celebrate Tor’s birthday. That, at least, was the plan…but, due to a lack of bookings, the restaurant decided to cancel the event. But as we’d already booked for 8 people, the chef, Chetan Pangam, gave us the dégustation menu. It helps that Tor is on first-name terms with him!

We weren’t provided with a menu – instead, Chetan came out and explained each dish in detail. Naturally, I’ve forgotten most of that detail, so these are my fuzzy memories of what we had.

To begin with,we had a bottle of Joiy. This is a sparkling Riesling in a 250ml bottle, with a  wedge of lime tucked in the top – brainchild of winemaker Chris Archer, who sees a future for wine in RTD form and an international identifiable brand.  This was accompanied by a canapé, – a vegetable chat on a roti. 


Next up was a beer-battered oyster with a spiced mayonnaise:


Third course (we’re up to three already! And that’s not counting the Joiy!) was a spicy lentil and coconut soup, with naan rolls (one plain, one garlic & onion), and we’re still on starter-style foods:


We got another wine match with this, a Camshorn pinot gris. Next up was a pork terrine, which was a bit overwhelming, and was the one course that I felt could have been left out. It was also about 4 times too big (I say this in retrospect – at the time I ate the lot):


OK, now we’re really cruising. Next out from the kitchen, accompanied by a dry Pencarrow sauvignon blanc (is there another kind? Actually yes – you can get dessert versions) was a salmon dish with cauliflower done 6 different ways - dried, puréed, pickled, crumbed, bhaji'd, and grilled.


The next dish was vegetables - mushrooms and curry icecream, served with Alpha Domus Barnstomer syrah. Not, perhaps, the greatest wine/food combo I've come across.


To cool things off after that, we had a quick melon sorbet.


Next up we had a lamb rogan josh, served with a crusted lamb cheek, carrot and turnip. and spicy puy lentils. We had a Gibbston Valley pinot noir with this:


Phew. that's the lot! Apart from pudding of course...and why have one pudding when you can so easily fit three on a plate? There's a rose-petal crème brulée with biscotti, a baked alaska containing kulfi, and a yoghurt cardamom cream: 


This all proved too much for me, and I was unable to get through all the desserts. The finishing touch was a ginger and cinnamon tea, with a Schoc truffle:



No comments:

Post a Comment