Some friends of ours encouraged us to play hooky from our usual Friday activities and we took the train out to Whitstable for a leisurely lunch at the Sportsman Seasalter. It was a perfect day for it, too, beautiful blue skies filled with puffy white clouds giving us fantastic views from the train.
My friend knows the chef at the restaurant, and he very graciously allowed us to bring a bottle of bubbly with us. We chose a bottle of Bruno Paillard NPU 1990, part of my Christmas gift last year from my husband. We decided to drink it as an aperitif while we were reviewing the amazing menu and making our choices. Rather worryingly, the bottle opened with a soft 'pfft', but thankfully demonstrated enough fizz and mousse once it was poured. Everyone marvelled over the colour of the champagne, a rich, brownish-honey-colour that you often see with aged calvados. The richness came through in the flavour, too, which had just a touch of oxidation that added depth to the acidity in the champagne.
It was a great start to a meal that included a main-sized portion of home-made pork terrine as my starter followed by some wonderfully fresh lemon-sole fillets in pea puree. We also had some fantastic still wines from the restaurant's list with our food - I would recommend both the Albarino Vionta Rias Baixas 2008 (loads of flavour but clean and crisp) and the Châteauneuf-du-pape Domaine du Vieux Lazaret 2007 (juicy fruit without any tannins) that we drank to the non-bubbly drinkers out there.
It will be so hard to go back to real-life following a Friday afternoon like that.
Many thanks to our friends for organising the day and to the chef for allowing us our bottle of bubbly!!
Showing posts with label sportsman seasalter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sportsman seasalter. Show all posts
Saturday, 18 September 2010
Sunday, 18 January 2009
Date Night - Jan 09
A while back, when my husband and I realised how little time we actually spend together, we decided to set aside one night each month just for us - Date Night. The rules of Date Night are pretty simple: it never gets cancelled, it's just the two of us, and we treat it like a date i.e. we do something fun and there's no talking about work or other heavy problems.
This month is the first time we didn't have Date Night on it's established night. One of my husband's colleagues is moving to New Zealand and his leaving drinks were booked that night. Ordinarily, one or the other of us would simply send regrets to the event, but this was different, him moving so far away. As an alternate, we decided to take the dog and drive out to the shore this weekend, have some lovely walks on the beach, and lunch at a gastropub, The Sportsman Seasalter, that some friends introduced us to.
We had a great time, especially since we had blue skies and sunshine yesterday, missing all of the heavy showers that came later in the day. The fresh air and beach were exactly what we needed to refresh ourselves from London. Lunch, as always, did not disappoint.
A nice surprise was that the pub had some sparkling wines by the glass, so we each started with a glass of Pol Roger White Label, a champagne I've often seen in shops, but one that is so 'name-brand' that I had never bought it before. Shame on me, as the champagne was a slightly sweet apple, with loads of bubbles. It was fantastic with the home-made foccacia and brown soda bread that quickly arrived on our table, as well as with my husband's starter of whisky-smoked salmon. It didn't hold up quite as well with the almost pure-cream broth of my mussel and bacon chowder, but the apple flavour was wonderful with the big chunks of bacon at the bottom of my bowl.
Part of the ensuing conversation we had was about how often we were reverse wine snobs. This champagne was very drinkable, but we had passed it by so often in pursuit of smaller champagne houses - less-well-known varieties and makers - because we never know when we're going to see them in the shops again. I'll have to make more of an effort to buy the name-brands even though I know I'll see them again and again, simply because they don't disappoint.
This month is the first time we didn't have Date Night on it's established night. One of my husband's colleagues is moving to New Zealand and his leaving drinks were booked that night. Ordinarily, one or the other of us would simply send regrets to the event, but this was different, him moving so far away. As an alternate, we decided to take the dog and drive out to the shore this weekend, have some lovely walks on the beach, and lunch at a gastropub, The Sportsman Seasalter, that some friends introduced us to.
We had a great time, especially since we had blue skies and sunshine yesterday, missing all of the heavy showers that came later in the day. The fresh air and beach were exactly what we needed to refresh ourselves from London. Lunch, as always, did not disappoint.
A nice surprise was that the pub had some sparkling wines by the glass, so we each started with a glass of Pol Roger White Label, a champagne I've often seen in shops, but one that is so 'name-brand' that I had never bought it before. Shame on me, as the champagne was a slightly sweet apple, with loads of bubbles. It was fantastic with the home-made foccacia and brown soda bread that quickly arrived on our table, as well as with my husband's starter of whisky-smoked salmon. It didn't hold up quite as well with the almost pure-cream broth of my mussel and bacon chowder, but the apple flavour was wonderful with the big chunks of bacon at the bottom of my bowl.
Part of the ensuing conversation we had was about how often we were reverse wine snobs. This champagne was very drinkable, but we had passed it by so often in pursuit of smaller champagne houses - less-well-known varieties and makers - because we never know when we're going to see them in the shops again. I'll have to make more of an effort to buy the name-brands even though I know I'll see them again and again, simply because they don't disappoint.
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