Monday, February 05, 2007

Chop, chop, chop

On a random chilly day in February there's really nothing better to do than go for a cockles-of-the-heart warming meal to a fine purveyor of meat and fish such as the Paternoster Chophouse, especially with the lovely m. This is another chophouse which is part of the extensive Conran empire as is so named, I guess, as it sits in the shadow of the mighty St. Paul's Cathedral.
The Paternoster Chophouse is modern, lively and rather popular place with an open plan kitchen so you can keep an eye on the progress of your lunch. And they really love their fish and meat! The menu has both a “catch of the day” and rather magnificently a “beast of the day”. Today the theme is definitely veal and the “beast of the day” is veal faggots and I spotted three other veal dishes.

Well I don’t want a total veal inspired meal so both m and I start with a rather lovely warm potted veal, prune and bitter orange marmalade. This was very good, the marmalade sauce was pleasingly sharp and zingy and complimented the warm veal mixture perfectly. An excellent choice for both of us! Then I plumped for the Galloway spit roasted fore rib, beetroot and horseradish and m opted for the Sutton Hoo chicken, Judas ear mushrooms and leeks with mash (naturally!) and buttered greens to share.

The fore rib was truly a magnificent beast, the fat yellow as it should be, clearly well hung and just cooked to perfection. The tender slices were accompanied by a little (sorry, large) pile of shredded beef (it's hiding under the mash!) which was also extremely moreish. You certainly can’t complain about the portions here. The vibrant purple of the beetroot especially intrigued me and I tried a bit. What was the surprise was that the horseradish was mixed with the beetroot and boy, it was hot. Eye-wateringly hot! Eating it with the beef calmed it down a bit and the whole effect was very tasty indeed. The mash was just perfect, the greens were great and I couldn’t fault any of it. Okay, it wasn’t the most attractive plate of food (mainly because it was so exuberant) but it was delicious so I’m not complaining.

And even though there wasn’t much room yet we ‘forced’ ourselves to share a dessert. We wanted the chocolate pudding with the parsnip ice cream because the combination seemed perplexing and just had to be experienced but the 15 minute lead time wasn’t a luxury we had today so we went for the sticky toffee pudding with caramel sauce instead. And as you see from my photograph, it looks like we were quite impressed! In fact it was very good, very sticky and unctuous and I just managed to take quick snap after we put our spoons down after having our fill!

After all that delicious food we really couldn't move, m and I utterly enjoyed our meaty meal. The provenance of the food is clearly excellent and the Paternoster Chophouse it is a temple to good British ingredients. They get three forks for their succulent meat and two spoons for the stickiest toffee pudding ever! Though I'm still full now!

1 comment:

Lisa Fain (Homesick Texan) said...

Mmmm, sounds delish. Next time I'm in London I'll have to go there.