Our first stop was at a special Action Against Hunger pop-up and not a London venue at all. Four different restaurants had their turn at the tent, one for each day, and ours happened to be Michael Wignall's restaurant at The Latymer. The dish itself was one of rich complexity, especially on a tasting plate at a festival: slow-cooked pork belly with pork popcorn, white beans, smoked eel and sage & apple (left). It was a glorious, full-flavoured and well-balanced dish, kicking the day off to an impressive start.
Our next stop was a double at Jamie Oliver's city restaurant Barbecoa. Their menu was one of the more expensive of the day but two of their savoury barbecue treats looked good to us. Pulled pork is something anyone who eats meat should like so the pulled shoulder with coleslaw was a no-brainer. Along with this, we had the crispy pig cheeks with piccalilli (both right). These were both enjoyable but reminded me too much of a mass-catered barbecue to be as great as they might be in a restaurant.
Next up was a dish from Pollen Street Social's stand. Following a Christmas meal which blew our socks off, the wife and I were determined to try something from them. Their main course dish of slow-cooked ox cheek with apple pomme purée and turnip was comforting, soft and rich (left). It was never going to be as fine as the outstanding food in the restaurant but it was a rather pleasant dish in all.
We swung by Gary Rhodes' Rhodes 24 stall, a standard of festivals past, for the main course dish of braised lamb with fondant potato and onion with gravy (right). The lamb was nice - though perhaps a little too similar to the dish we'd just tried - and very soft. The onion and gravy was delicious but sadly the potato tasted a little undercooked, a mistake that anyone who has watched MasterChef will tell you is pretty poor.
The Savoy Grill was up next, with their Lake District sirloin steak served with Café de Paris sauce (left). I'd not heard of this sauce before and it is similar to Béarnaise without the strong tarragon flavour. In the event, the steak - which was cooked perfectly - did not really sing along with the sauce and left us wanting a bit more. Not a disappointment but nothing to write home about either.
One of London's finest (and now purveyor of a Michelin Star), Launceston Place was up next. They were serving a main course of slow-cooked pork belly with truffle mashed potato, apple jam and pork popcorn. The pork itself was pleasant enough and the combination was classic but the overall dish wasn't cohesive which I suppose is the very problem with Taste of London: restaurants have to pare their dishes back to be marketable as snack plates and sometimes it just doesn't work.
Oysters were next on the menu, as the signature dish from Kensington Place (left). At 4 tokens (£2) per oyster, they were about average for a market or festival and they were pretty fresh. What was nice about them was the break from some of the heavier food we'd been eating. However, as simple oysters, they were not a lot more than 'good'.
Continuing our seafood break in the day, we went for salt & pepper squid from Gordon Ramsay's Maze as another of the lighter dishes on show (right). It was indeed salty and spicy with chilli scattered throughout but it missed the mark on flavour overall. The squid itself was lost amongst all the seasoning and dressing, leaving us a little disappointed with the dish eventually.
We went back to meat with a stop at the Opera Tavern's stall and ordered their signature burger dish of Ibérico pork and foie gras (left). Slider-sized for easy festival eating and topped with truffled pecorino cheese, it was succulent, well-flavoured and perfectly-sized. My only criticism was that it was a little dry. It was certainly enough to pique my interest for a future visit. One thing that must be said is 14 tokens (£7) for a slider is rather dear, no matter how rich it is.
Another non-London venue had set up shop as a regular stand for the festival, with Heston Blumenthal's Hinds Head crashing the capital. As such, it was always going to be one of the places near the top of our list, and their braised ox cheek with smoked mash was a hearty plate, despite costing the equivalent of £6 (right). The meat was deliciously cooked as one would expect, with a delicious rich gravy. I couldn't really identify what the smoked mash brought to the dish; as a menu item it's something that tends to rile me as a diner: showiness for no real reason by and large.
Benares were of course one of our top targets, having long been held as the very best Indian food I've eaten anywhere. Their starter dish was a rustic-sounding chicken tikka pie with spiced berry compote (left). It was very rich, filling and satisfying, but it didn't work as well as I would have hoped. The crust was a bit too hard, making it more of a tart than a pie. The contrast of compote to filling was fun, but there was too much potato in it and I wanted more chicken pieces to contrast with the filling and sauce. Unfortunately the whole thing was just a touch too mushy.
Our next stop was one that has been as much of a fixture as any on festivals past: the heavenly chocolate mousse cake from Theo Randall (left). Still a sumptuously rich and moist chocolate cake with light, sweet mascarpone cream, this is something that I could (and will) happily eat once a year for as long as I can hold off diabetes.
Club Gascon presented the penultimate dish of the day, with a typically extravagant dessert. Their dessert for the day was a 'Wahoo Cornetto', imitating the popular commercial ice cream (right). Instead of actual ice cream, they combined mousse, fruit, crumble and armagnac, topped with "space dust". It was fun, light and charismatic in every way but taste, leaving little or no impression on us as a single dessert.
By this point, we were outrageously full and the only reason we had a dish more was to take the count up to an even twenty for the day. And the fact that we had precisely six crowns left. Usually priced at ten, Bar Boulud were trying to clear out their dessert of a berry cupcake and chocolate éclair, so we tied off the day and our spending by indulging (left). These were perfectly acceptable but no more: lesser versions of what you can enjoy on their afternoon tea menu. Besides, at this point I was in no mood for any more, particularly rich pastry. The cupcake was the better of the two, with a fruity twist adding something lively to the plate.After a few deep breaths, we were done. It had been a fun day, but a pretty exhausting one. And it had only taken three or four hours. As we reflected, we decided this would be our last Taste of London for a while. Several years in a row had taken their toll and a bit of the magic has been lost for now. Given that the 2013 edition is a few weeks away now (again, I hang my head in shame as to how long this has taken to post), I can't say I've been dying to go back this year and we won't be.
If you have not been, Taste of London is a great day out with some wonderful restaurants offering exquisite dishes. But it isn't cheap and it can get quite repetitive if you go for three or four years in a row. I would recommend it, but maybe every other year is the way to go.
Time for the menu of the festival, with this being one of those years where not a great deal stood out for me. In the spirit of equality and a big nod to my partner in crime, this is the wife's menu of Taste of London 2012:
Starter: Truffle Risotto from Gauthier Soho - "Still really good: creamy, nice taste and the truffle flavour is delicious"
Main Course: Slow-Cooked Ox Cheek from Pollen Street Social - "Creamy mash with delicate textured ox cheek and well-balanced sauce"
Dessert: Passion Fruit Tart with Strawberries from Rhodes Twenty Four - "The passion fruit was really strong and very nice with the strawberry. Excellent texture"
So there you have it. Not too dissimilar from what I would have picked if I'd been forced into it but it's good to get a slightly different perspective on things. I won't be there this year but I maintain that Taste of London is a great event in the food calendar and one which deserves to keep coming back.
