St. John Restaurant

Saturday 28 May 2011, London

London is so easy after LA. We can (and do) walk everywhere. Everything (the city, the buildings, the roads, the cars, the people) is of a manageable size.

In the afternoon we walk north-west, through Regent's park, to the Showroom gallery. Here we have our first in-person meeting with Kobe, the artist I'll be working for in Venice. He is full of smiles and introduces me to all his friends, putting me significantly more at ease about this whole Biennale business.

From here we retrace our steps, then it's straight on, south-east, for dinner at St. John's.

As you see below, St. John is a nose-to-tail eating establishment. 

Roast Bone Marrow & Parsley Salad

Peas in the Pod

Quite simply, a bowl of fresh sweet green peas. For balance.

Working the marrow pick

Assembly - toast, marrow, a good pinch of rough sea salt, topped with a pile of parsley salad. 

The parsley salad is vinegary and delicious, loaded with tiny capers, oniony bits (think very small white onion, or maybe the white part of a spring onion - not overpowering, even for anti-onion me), and, well, vinegar dressing, cutting right through the richness of the marrow.

Mmm, delicious.

Lamb Tongues, Butterbeans & Green Sauce

Similar in texture to beef tongue, but more subtle in flavour. Rich and deliciously buttery sauce.

Cornish Potatoes alongside Spring Greens

Lightly roasted potatoes, soft for squashing into our saucy plates.

Chard of some description, strong and crunchy in texture, still perfectly bright green, lovely and buttery.

Plenty of parsley.

Chitterlings & Radishes

Intestines of a pig, which I would like to see raw so as to properly understand what exactly we were eating.  They seemed to have been cured - in a brine, or salt - and tasted a lot like strong bacon, but with quite a different texture... Extremely rich. Nice long crunchy radishes for a fresh peppery bite. Also some tiny spinach wilted into the salty sauce.

To drink we had only one glass each - me of the house white, and Finn a pint of pale ale. Oh, and loads of water.

By the end we were both far too jet-lagged-whoozley-woo for dessert. Had we been up to it, Strawberry Eton Mess would've been our pick.

Time for a refreshing walk back to the hotel, and a long long sleep.

14 June 2011