Time for a spot of Yuletide dining

Acorn-fed Ibérico pig

This time of the year means festive lunches, and there have already been two thus far.

The first saw us back to Blacks for a third successive year, and where I’ve had issues with the food in the past. Fortunately, this was much the best visit in culinary terms.

A salad of hard boiled egg, endive and beetroot was pleasant, with a nice contrast between the richness of the egg and the bitter endive.

The game pie with red cabbage that followed was – if nothing like what you would expect of a game pie, being in a dish topped with puff pastry, and if having rather too much liquid in it – was perfectly edible and pleasantly filling.

A very slender slice of lemon tart with red berry coulis was pleasant without being overly exciting.

The second lunch of the week saw another return visit – this time, to Eyre Brothers on Leonard Street near the City of London, which describes itself as a tapas restaurant, no matter how very English the name sounds.

I started with grilled, smoked salmon, red onion, and crushed new potatoes with capers, dill and mustard.

Salmon, onion potatoes and dill

A very nice salad indeed – although from a personal perspective, probably with too much potato, since I get full very quickly. But the flavours were exceptionally nicely balanced.

After that, it was grilled fillet of acorn-fed Ibérico pig, marinated with pimentón, thyme and garlic, and served with patatas pobres – oven potatoes with green peppers, onions, garlic and white wine.

The restaurant advises that the pig (which had been feral) is grilled to medium rare, so I went with that too.

I can't say that I could taste the acorns, but that meat was a knockout – stunning flavor that packs a massive punch. Really very good indeed.

And we enjoyed caramelised, onions, roasted butternut squash and almonds, and spinach on the side.

Ginger and dark chocolate ice cream brought the meal to a close very pleasantly.

Citron tart

This was all washed down by a Lavradores de Feitoria, 2011, Douro, Portugal – a very pleasant red wine indeed: not too big, but fruity and with a lower alcohol volume than many other wines.

They don’t mess around with any ‘festive’ menus at Eyre Brothers, but continue to do what they know and what they do best.

Frankly, that alone is refreshing, when so many other eateries are going down the Christmas route.

I’d happily recommend Eyre Brothers – it’s smart, very good-quality dining, at prices that are lower than one might imagine.

Indeed, dinner on both days cost approximately the same, yet there was a substantial quality difference between the two.

That probably tells you something, although I’m not entirely sure what.

A little taste of Spain in the City

The festive season is almost upon us – so almost upon us, indeed, that the festive eating began yesterday, being entertained at Eyre Brothers in the City of London.

A very pleasant venue – which wasn’t there when I actually worked in the vicinity, but that’s beginning to seem like a very long time ago now – Eyre Brothers is dedicated to Spanish cuisine, but not, as is so trendy these days, just tapas.

As we nibbled olives and bread rolls, I ordered Brandada de bacalao (pictured left), which came with a soft-boiled egg, pimientos de piquillo, olives, capers and grilled bread, to start.

Brandade is an emulsion of salt cod and olive oil that’s also familiar in France as Brandade de Morue.

The only time I’ve eaten it previously was in a poor, touristy place in Paris, where it was only memorable for a bone piercing the roof of my mouth.

There was a single bone here too, but it was fished out in time. Otherwise, this was light and airy and a very soothing taste and texture.

The red pepper, olives and capers added a real burst of gutsy flavour and colour, while the thick piece of chargrilled bread brought texture, and the egg – cooked to perfection, with the yolk just running – seemed to bring the diner full circle to smooth, soothingness once more.

This really was a delightful and very satisfying dish.

Next up was roast Barbary duck with savoy cabbage, chesnuts and smoked pancetta.

It didn’t exactly bode well. Like an echo of last year’s pheasant at Blacks, was a leg and thigh, served in one piece, atop the cabbage mix, in a bowl.

That makes it difficult to cut – and indeed, sharper knives would also have helped.

Confit leg would work nicely like this – where the meat flaked easily away from the bone – but this was harder work although, once I managed to get to the thickest, brownest meat, it was tasty.

And the cabbage, chestnuts and bacon was very pleasant indeed, although the cabbage could possibly have been cooked a tad less.

Side dishes included broccoli – but I’m afraid that was taking the old al dente thing to the extreme of near rawness.

To finish, I opted for dulce de leche ice cream, which was pleasant and light.

Since the entire company was eating dark meat/game, we opted for a 2010 Quinta dos Roques from Portugal, which was bold and fruity and very enjoyable.

The fellow diner who also had duck was of the same opinion as me. But those who had the lamb said that it was excellent – and it certainly looked so.

It was good to see an eatery that hadn’t gone all insanely festive with the menu as soon as Advent had dawned, but was sticking with what it does normally.

Service was friendly and very pleasantly unrushed.

For all the small qualms, I’d be happy to eat at Eyre Brothers again.