The Stag
Heading to the reopened Stag tonight, for what I'd describe as "free feed!"
Zomato has acquired the restaurant website Urbanspoon, and is now organising free feeds for food bloggers. I haven't actually met another food blogger in the whole time I've been doing The Feed Report. I hope they don't beat me up. :o
This event seems like a good promotional idea for new (or reopening) restaurants. You'd want to hope your feed was good though. If it wasn't, you'd probably just want to invite the polite food bloggers, and leave me out. :)
Ten minutes until six, and I'm the only blogger here. I take a look around. The place is certainly not a pub any more. It's got fancy, brand new decor. Things are looking up!
Ok, a few people have arrived now. They're all sensible adults. :(
Some of them have proper cameras, not just phones. :|
We'll be able to choose an entree tonight, and then a main.
And then… :(
People are making small talk. Turns out other bloggers write their reviews later, not at the table. Strange…
I've received an excellent tip. Do not touch the food before everyone has photographed it. Hand may be amputated otherwise.
Veal, olive, blue fin tuna, caper sauce.
I'm already full of capers. :)
This is a pleasant pile of ingredients. I'm not sure how they go together, however.
There are lines of grey sauce on the veal. These are very fishy, and become the dominant taste of the dish, and make the whole thing taste like tuna mornay.
Blue swimmer crab, roasted lobster sauce, bottarga.
The table has erupted with people making hilarious Boomerang animations of their food on their phones.
Pasta isn't usually very interesting, so I often avoid it. I wasn't entirely sure I was going to be eating pasta. For some reason, I thought I would be eating a guitar. :|
Crab-flavoured pasta is very common, but this is much better than usual. The pasta has a very smooth, strong seafood taste. The pasta is also square-shaped, not cylindrical. That's more interesting than it sounds.
News update: there will be 'zert!!!
We all look through our dessert menus.
"Cheese is not a dessert!", I declare.
The table erupts into spirited debate.
Moscato jelly, macerated berries.
This dessert looks fancy. Not as fancy as the others' desserts though. They have a layer of actual gold on top of them.
Might attract pirates though. :|
The pannacotta is very mild indeed. That's fine, but the raspberry sauce is extremely strong. Any amount of it simply overpowers the taste of the pannacotta. I apply the sauce to the pannacotta in carefully metered doses.
The night has now come to an end. Maybe eating free food with other people isn't so bad after all.