It Was a Perfect Day «

It Was a Perfect Day

Thursday 3rd October 2013

I took 56 years on Tuesday very quietly but in a new outfit of which more later. Essentially I’m pushing cream and bone right into October. It was a country birthday in the bosom of friends and so much kindness shown.

Last week was the official side. The Multis lavished Storey upon me. It’s a new restaurant formed from an old toilet block right by Tower Bridge on the south side. The Photo Multi spotted it from a bus in June but it’s taken this long to get in so booked is it.

At Storey they’re cooking with seaweed, grass, coal and rabbit. We had the ten course tasting menu, although it was finally more like fifteen courses. There were three un-menu-ed amuse bouche, a surprise cheese course and two petit fours courses (if you see what I mean), one of which was in a bottle.

The first amuse bouche was a cod skin crisped, blobbed with tiny dots of creamed cod’s roe and sprigged with a herb. There were several more aspects but I can’t remember what they were. Will have to go back to revise. £75 for the 10 course option plus wines of course. The second amuse was a nasturtium flower into which had been tweezered some oyster confection. A candle was placed on the table and lit. It turned out to be the dripping as in the bread and dripping course. Beetroot came with coal oil and horseradish done as snow by some wild new technique. A duck was shown, cooked in a pot, then taken away to reappear the course after next styled on the plate with tiny discs of burnt cucumber and six or seven other things. One of the puddings was puff pastry that had been cooked, dried in the oven, pounded, re-dried etc. It really did taste like a breakfast cereal without milk. Another pudding was an almond cream with dill ice cream. One of the after-puddings came in a bottle reminiscent of school milk. We all thought Margaret would appear at any minute and snatch it.

The Blond Multi was a little gruntled at Storey. I could tell he longed for a good square meal (no, I didn’t say ‘meal). Storey is a noble experiment. The odd thing is for all the elaboration, the range of flavours is a little limited and just a touch austere if not harsh.

But thrilling to have taken it.

How lucky I was.

Tomorrow I dine at the heart of the Daily Mail. Oh dear! But will hear all about the Ed Milly scandal from the mouth of the horse.