Monday 2 August 2010

Tom Aikens and the Cloudy Bay Shack, Parson's Green

Last weekend saw the arrival of Tom Aikens and the Cloudy Bay shack in Parson's Green. This was a pop-up beautiful old-fashioned van serving Tom Aikens' food matched with Cloudy Bay wines. I won't talk much about the wine as I was a bit hungover at the time!



Deep fried paprika squid with garlic and paprika aioli. Yummy squid with spring onions, coriander and chilli, a bit like the garnish of Thai-style salt and pepper squid. At the back is Dorset crab with chilli and ginger, served on a leaf of endive. I only tried a tiny bit but apparently it was good.




7 hour braised lamb with sweet braised onions. Looking at the picture, the lamb is probably not the one you think. The onions look more like a rich stewed lamb and the lamb looks far too light! In fact, this was a kind of summery version of braised lamb. It came apart in long light strands, which sounds horrible but had incredible flavour. The only thing I felt it lacked was something to mop up the juices, eg mashed potato or even a spoon. This was paired with a delicious Pinot Noir.


I do think they missed a trick not offering a dessert, but perhaps Cloudy Bay don't feel their wine matches sweet dishes. All in all, a nice thing to do on a summer's afternoon, watching Tom Aikens hard at work, listening to jazz, dog-spotting and whiling away an hour or so in the sun.



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