A tourist in my own city

Pig in the woods pop up, Hot house Hackney

Pig in the woods popped up in the Hot House near London fields station for a 5 course feast, courtesy of the Phantom Pig, who create culinary events all over town.  This time it was on the roof (in a  marquee) of the Hot house. Even better it was only £35 for what you see above, which for what i got, was some of the best food I’ve had in relation to expenditure for a very long time.

Popcorn and caraway butter, arrived quickly on my arrival luckily as i was starving by the time i managed to find the place, and smoked salt butter was really flavourful with the soft sour dough, it was hard to save some for the soup to arrive.  The soup, parsnip, with bacon and white chocolate was sweet and silky smooth with the parsnip still the lead favour through the bacon and white chocolate.

Then onto the Sea Bream, served as a tartar on a smear of grapefruit gel, a sliver of turnip on top and olive oil powder with a winter salad. A very light and fresh dish, with a nice tartar with a bit of acidity and firm bream.

Next up was for me the star of this menu, i would have been happy if i had turned up and been given a huge portion of just this. 42 hour beef shin, horseradish and potato puree, alliums, ash. The smoothest potato puree you could wish for with a subtle horseradish heat, topped with a piece of beef that at no point needed a knife to be used. The beef wasn’t falling apart of its on accord, but as soon as the side of a fork was pressed down a juicy chunk came off. The gravy was a very rich, i assume the braising liquid, and caramelised shallots added a sweetness to the meal.

The palette refresher was ginger beer snow (granita) with cream soda air and flowers, by this point as it was about 10pm it was starting to get a bit cold in the marquee, so although it was really refreshing it was making me a bit to cold to have the whole thing. Although as I’m not a fan of cream soda the ‘air’ was really nice with the gingery ice.

The dessert that came was a masterpiece in textures. Bitter sweet chocolate bar, malt marshmallow, peanuts, crumbs,vanilla creme fraiche served with warm peanut milk. The chocolate bar, was the texture of a torte with a pile of chocolate and peanut rubble with the charred and gooey marshmallow, with a warm peanut butter milk that helped the rich sticky chocolate bar melt in my mouth. I would have preferred the peanut butter to have been less subtle in the milk.

There was nothing on this menu i could even start to complain about and as i said to start the value for money is almost unbeatable. If you ever see a Phantom pig event and can go i urge you to book the ticket and give it a go for yourself, I’m sure you will not be disappointed.

Bell and Brisket, Dukes Head

Bell and Brisket serves salt beef in generous quantities inside either a Brick lane bagel or black rye bun.

The black rye bun was really flavourful and very soft, I had the ‘Kount von Kraut’ in the rye which was dill and garlic kraut and melted cheddar. The kraut makes every bite so juicy and with the sharpness from the vinegar in the kraut making a good contrast to the delicate beef, which has great flavour and the melted cheddar adding a richness the pickled fillings cut through so well. On the bagel i had the ‘Viscount Kimchi’ which was kimchi and melted cheddar. The kimchi had a noticeable heat form the chilli which i like, and once again generous amounts of the amazing salt beef. The third one also on a bagel was the ‘Lord Rupert’ which consisted on pickled red cabbage, gherkins and melted cheddar, possibly my favourite combination, as the gherkins, pickled cabbage and salt beef is a combination that can never be bad. Next time i would have this one on the black rye.

The fries we went for were the hot ones, fresh horseradish and melted cheese, there was a good amount of the horseradish that was cooled down by the melted cheese. Most importantly there was a quality chip underneath the toppings, as however good the toppings on flavoured fries are if the fries aren’t good nothing can save that.