Category Archives: Food

Curioser and Curiouser: Mad Hatter’s Afternoon Tea at Sanderson

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Capitalising on the recent release of Alice in Wonderland by Tim Burton the Sanderson were: “[inviting their] guests to “tumble down the rabbit hole” and enjoy the wonderful world of [their] Mad Hatter’s Afternoon Tea. The chefs here at Sanderson have toyed with traditional British afternoon tea in the same way that Lewis Carroll played with logic in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland; creating an afternoon tea filled with numerous gastronomic adventures.”

Sounds promising no?

We couldn’t get a weekend booking it was apparently so popular, even considering the Sanderson had extended the menu for another month! So, Su Yin and I left work early to make a 4pm booking. When I was making the booking we were warned that we’d only have until 5pm to enjoy the afternoon tea but other groups were still turning up after this time to partake in it. Guess the hotel thought that as long as people were buying they’d be supplying!

When we arrived for our booking we were very surprised to see that the place was packed. Yes with women but we were wondering shouldn’t these women have been at work. Ha ha! Yes I know we ducked out from work early but hey we didn’t leave THAT early. Ladies wot Afternoon Tea!

Service felt a little slow and slack – a pace which was set from the outset. Our waiter took an age to come and greet us after we’d been seated, then the tea took a while to come out, then the afternoon tea tier took its time making its way to our table and they never really made an effort to top our hot water. When we asked a waitress it took her at least 20 minutes to remember to come refresh it. This was the bad. The good was that they got my hint that it was Su Yin’s birthday so they passed the message on to the chefs to decorate one of the plates and put a lit candle in the cup cake.

Disappointingly from a tea perspective the Sanderson didn’t have a unique tea list. Well, it was this or our waiter just couldn’t be bothered getting gone?

But anyway where is the Mad Hatter’s theme you ask?

It was in the rainbow coloured finger sandwhiches which was supposed to consist of (from back to front): Egg mayonnaise and cress on brown bread; Cucumber and Black pepper on beetroot bread; Smoked salmon with cream cheese on green spinach bread; and Ham and English mustard on yellow saffron bread. The colours were very subtle but the flavours were not.

It was also in the Chocolate and Raspberry Crackle (with popping candy!) cupcake and Hazelnut and Passion Fruit Tart topped with White Rabbits pocket watch. Unfortunately they must have run out of the Queen of Hearts Tea Cake. The substitute instead was cup made of chocolate filled with strawberry foam (nooo!!! Foam!!!).

Finally, it was in the Pineapple Lollipop (which turned our mouths from hot to cold) and the Mint Choc-Chip Ice Cream Lollipop (which literally exploded in a single bite).

I really dug the concept of this afternoon tea and I felt it really did quite suit this funky and cool boutique hotel. Apart from the hit and miss service Su Yin and I had a wonderful afternoon.

Launceston Place

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Probably one restaurant that doesn’t have a Michelin star but deserves is Launceston Place near High St Kensington. I fell in love with Launceston Place just under two years ago when I tasted the “Roast middle white pork risotto, crackling with apple sauce” served at the Taste of London festival. Its been on my to eat at list ever since. Finally today I can officially tick it off my to do list and I can say that I was pretty impressed though I felt the service was just a little bit off.

Today my lunch date was Jo. She arrived a few minutes before me and impressively the restaurant gave her a paper to read whilst she waited. Nice touch. On the table was also some chilli crisps (parsni possibly though Jo wasn’t sure what they and they were put on the table before I got there) tied up in Launceston Place logo bearing ribbons.

Our amuse bouch was a cauliflower soup and truffle mousse which we were told to drink like champagne. Normally when I dine my dining partner and I will get to the amuse bouche straight away but Jo was still going on her bread and crisps so she left it sitting there for a bit. Strangely one of waiters came along and started to either take it away or insisting that we needed to put it to the side. We couldn’t understand why because its not like they were bringing our food just yet. I think he confused our table with another as our food came about 10 minutes later – plenty of time for Jo to finish her food.

We were on a set menu deal of 3 courses for £20 which was pretty good value (though they do suggest you supplement your main meal with a £5 vege side …) We had a pretty decent choice of starters and mains (three each) and though desserts had three options too – but one needed both diners to select it (apple tart and home made clotted cream) and one was a £10 supplement (cheese).

My starter of Beef, Beetroot and Wild Garlic Risotto looked like this:

I know right? What the heck threw up on my plate! Very nice flavours by you didn’t really want to look at the plate too long otherwise you’d throw up from the plating. Sorry Launceston Place but what were you thinking! No doubt, however, its one of the most colourful dishes I’ve had in recent times. I’m not too sure where the risotto was but I liked the beef.

Jo had the Mushroom and Wild Herb Cappuccino as she was intrigued by the concept of a cappuccino which wasn’t coffee.

Cute dish but does it look familiar? Yes, very much like our amuse bouche. Its always a danger to go for a starter which is described as “Cappuccino” because you know that there is a very good chance that its going to be very similar to the amuse bouche, even though the flavours are not exactly the same!

The main was my very favourite part of today’s event. The Gloucester Old Spot Pork, Parnsips and Parsley was perfectly cooked. Great crackling and though the pork was extremely fatty (nearly an inch of fat!) the whole pork was very tender and juicy and tasty. On the other hand was not a fan of the side: a potato cake with bacon, appeared to have been deep fried and the bacon/ham had that distinctly stinky pork flavour that I don’t like.

I got a bit excited by our pre-dessert and ate it before I took a photo! It was a creamy orange and dark chocolate mousse. Actually it looked a bit like our amuse bouche. How odd!

Dessert, Banana sticky toffee pudding, Guinness ice cream, was delicious. Jo, however, was not a fan of the Guinness ice cream.

I felt that Launceston was a little up and down today from the food (weird and odd presentation on my starter but a most amazing roast belly pork dish that I could have eaten over and over again) to the service (like that waiter trying to rush Jo to finish her amuse bouche for no good reason but then the added touch of giving Jo a newspaper to occupy her whilst she waited for me). Overall, however, I would be happy to come here again. Pretty decent value for money.

Putney Pop-Up: Phil Howard’s The Square

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A new way of fund-raising for Haiti has recently hit the Putney area. The Putney Pop-Up Restaurants involves taking on fabulous restaurants, restaurateurs, showmen and chefs to produce a series of pop-up restaurants at the Phoenix Bar & Grill in Putney during March only. Chefs/restaurants involved include Matthew Harris, Bibendum; Rowley Leigh – Le Café Anglais; Atul Kochhar – Benares; Bruce Poole – Chez Bruce; Helen Puolakka – Skylon and many others.

It was lucky that Sandra had spotted the teeny weeny tiny article in the evening standard about this fund-raising event a few months ago as it certainly does not seem to have been well advertised. Word of mouth, however, has been more than enough advertising it seems if the fact that most of the events have been fully booked out anyway, including tonight’s Philip Howard (of The Square – a 2-michelin starred restaurant) meal which Sandra was luckily able to get us a booking for. Second nights for some of the chefs were also needed to be put on to accommodate their popularity. Luckily I was also able to get us a booking next week for Rick Stein (The Seafood Restaurant) so tune in for that review.

We didn’t try booking anymore because two meals is just about what I can afford anyway (starts at £60 with the food not including extras such as drinks, tea/coffee, extra fund-raising contributions and service)! Plus it would probably be not very fair to deny other people an opportunity to participate in this event.

The Phoenix is a lovely newly renovated pub about a 15-20 minute walk from Putney Bridge tube station. I joked to Sandra that most other people dining tonight would have likely caught a taxi or got driven to the venue! Ha ha! It has a nice little outdoor area but on this wet evening we were all dining inside. Inside gives the impression of being quite cosy as all the rooms (around about 4) are split up to fit between 5 up to 10 tables rather than being one big open space.

Sandra and I were the first diners to turn up tonight. We were greeted by Rebecca Mascarenhas, owner of The Phoenix, well-known restaurateur and organiser of the Putney Pop-up. It felt rather awkward really as number of chefs and the waiters were kind of standing gathered at the entrance (where there were a number of lounges as a waiting area) and they all turned to look at us as we walked in. We were about 10 minutes early so we thought we might have interrupted their preparations but they were more than happy to seat us. We were followed very closely by another group who I think were from some sort of special organisation as they were directed to another room which they didn’t fill with diners until the rest of the rooms were filled.

So, out of the £60 we were paying for food tonight £50 was going Haiti. I didn’t quite know how the drinks situation would work because there was a short wine list which including contributions apparently of 120 from Jancis Robinson, and contributions from Liberty Wines, Laytons and Bibendum Wine. I’m not sure that any of the wine money would go to charity but the £10 corkage per bottle on B-Y-O certainly does. Sandra thought it seemed a bit tight not to order a glass of wine (glasses averaged about £9.50) but since it wasn’t going to charity I didn’t think it would really matter. Not that I would normally order wine anyway!

Bread was plentiful tonight and because when we arrived it was relatively quiet the waiter continued to bring bread around at least 3 or 4 times until both Sandra and I had had enough. The butter was delicious! Mmmm!

The special charity dinner tonight consisted of four courses: an amuse bouche, a first course, a second course and dessert. Phil Howard’s menu seemed to be a cross between what they offered at The Square (e.g. the Smoked Loin of Venison with Beetroot Purée, Root Vegetables, Pickled Pear and Green Peppercorns which Sandra had for her main and the Brillat-Savarin Cheesecake with Passionfruit and Lime we had for dessert) or variations.

What I did notice about all the food that was served tonight, perhaps with the exception of the dessert, was how messy and not delicate the presentation was. I was actually expecting delicately plated dishes but if felt like most of them were plonked and piled on top of each other so when you look at the pictures the food doesn’t actually look all that great. I’m sure great care was taken with the presentation but they were not how I’d pictured how the dishes would come. They tasted great though so that is the main thing!

Our amuse bouche was a Salad of Beetroot with Eiswein Vinegar, Goat’s Curd and a Balsamic Cream. This to me was a disappointing amuse bouche in concept because I couldn’t count on my hand the number of times I’ve had this kind of combination in restaurants in 2009. The delivery, however, was a little more unique. The balsamic cream was a nice touch and I liked the fact the beetroot came in an assortment of colours! It was quite odd to pick up a pale square of something to find it was actually very strong tasting of beetroot!

Sandra and I had the same starter: Ravioli of Scallops and Langoustine Claws with Wilted Iceberg, Champagne Foam (aaaaargh!!) and Clementine. What an interesting combination to throw in the clementine! I really quite liked this dish even though, as I mentioned earlier, it looked to be a wonderful mess of flavours!

Where Sandra moved on to meet with the Venison for her next course I continued on with seafood with a Loin of Monkfish with an emulsion of spätzle (a type of pasta), Cauliflower, Salsify, Chanterelles and Truffle. Sandra loved her Venison. She said the smokiness of it was amazingly concentrated. I loved the intense mushroomy flavour of my dish – could it be that I can taste truffle at last (I’m still not convinced it was the truffle I was tasting … damn my inability to taste it!)

When our waiter was bringing out our pre-dessert we must have some sort of horrified look on our faces because he had cause to comment that we shouldn’t be scared! I think he thought we thought what he was giving us was our cheesecake dessert? Who knows! The pre-dessert was very cute. I loved the fried donut touch which I kept in my mouth as I ate the rest of the treat: vanilla yoghurt, blood orange jelly and blood orange mousse.

Dessert (the cheesecake)! Yum. Sandra commented that the orange bits tasted like the orange solero ice block! They really did! It was a nice dessert … more cheesecake would have been appreciated though. Heh heh.

At tea-time the push for the raffle tickets came. It was kind of weird – Rebecca came over and said would you like to buy raffle tickets? She didn’t say at first how much they were or what they were raffling so we were a bit confused! Turns out they were raffling vouchers for various restaurants. To be truthful at these fund raising events you could hardly begrudge buying a raffle ticket or two no matter what they were raffling off!

Additional treats were a take-away box of nougat and truffles which tasted like salted choc caramel truffles with a rice crispy shell. It was divine.

Its quite hard to be judging of an experience like tonight – one-off, staffed by volunteers (service tonight was a bit hit and miss e.g. none of our dishes were really explained to us), raising money for a good cause. However I reckon a good night was had by all and we couldn’t believe how quickly the night had gone. After a slight misunderstanding with our coats (buried under about six others it took us about 15 minutes to find them!) we were off.

How sad for the night to be over! … until next Tuesday then to see Rick. 😉

Pearl by Jun Tanaka

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Pearl is Jun Tanaka’s modern French restaurant. Jun, who bears a passing resemblance to my brother (it could be the long hair!), has been heading up this restaurant since June 2004. The restaurant is located in Holborn in the Renaissance London Chancery Court, a luxury hotel. It’s a very elegant location with sensuous designs, lots of pearl! The best thing about it was that everyone’s speaking volume was very muted so we didn’t have to shout over each other to be heard. Additionally I like how they had set up the room so that at the two people tables around the edges the chairs were faced inwards so that no one had their back to the rest of the room. Jenny’s seat was slightly facing towards the kitchen and we were both excited to see Jun moving in and out of it. Wonder if he prepared any of our dishes tonight?

We dined off the set menu deal (3 courses for £37.50 plus cocktail). On the set menu there were three starters, three mains and three desserts (though one was for cheese at an additional £10.). Both starters and mains gave a choice of a fish, meat (pork ) and vegetarian options. Despite having three options both Jenny and I went for the same starter and mains only differing when we got to our desserts.

First up whilst we were deciding on the menu and waiting for our cocktails was a pre pre amuse bouche with four little treats: a sort of scallop carpaccio, cherry tomato oozing with goat’s cheese, a miniature black pudding and a mushroom risotto crumbed and fried. Cute and unexpected!

Our cocktails were quite strong. As usual my “allergy” decided to make an appearance and I must have been red enough that my waiter expressed his concern for me not once but several times despite the fact I reassured him that I was fine. He even offered to change the dessert options to a non-alcoholic dish!

The amuse bouche of golden raisin puree, celeriac foam, almonds and parmesan was tasty. I commented to Jenny that I was a bit over amuse bouches that were basically foams or veloutes. What a snob! Ha ha! But its so rare that the amuse bouche doesn’t consist of foam of some sort. I guess it’s a vehicle which allows for intense flavour to be infused in a very small package.

Our starter was served very quickly after – Pollock Brandade with Caramelised Squid Crisp, Quail Eggs and Parsley Vinaigrette. It was a very attractive dish especially when placed on the centre of the table where a light was glowing from below. Eating experience-wise the squid was surprisingly chewy but the pollock was moist and strong flavoured. My favourite part of the dish was the quail eggs – which were breaded and fried.

Roast Fillet of Pork with Black Pudding, Choucroute and Smoked Mash Potato was served for our mains. We hadn’t realized what Choucroute actually was but it turned out to be a couple of sauerkraut with different varieties of sausages. Jenny didn’t like the sausages so I got to benefit. Heh heh. The pork itself was very well cooked (tender and well seasoned) and the ring of black pudding around it was surprisingly effective. The smokiness in the mash potato, however, wasn’t very identifiable. The presentation of the plate was not as pretty as our starter as it seemed like a big ole mess of sauces, meats and veg thrown onto the plate!

Which takes us to our very pretty desserts! After a pre-dessert of coconut couscous (we’re not sure if we misunderstood our waiter as it seemed mostly like a rice pudding), mango and passion fruit we moved on to Tiramisu (Mascarpone, Coffee, Amaretto Ice Cream) for Jenny and Prune (Poached Prune and Almond Crumble Almond, Ice Cream). Jenny’s Tiramisu was nothing I’ve seen before with the Tiramisu wrapped in a sheet of caramelised sugar and my dessert was presented on a rather long plate which very nearly didn’t fit on the table – it was an awkward fit at any rate. I liked it though actually breaking down what was going on on the plate the components were rather simple. I did particular like the little cake.

Service tonight was fairly decent except for the waiter who kept checking up on me and my alcohol tolerance (it did get a little annoying despite his best intentions) and he also happened to be the guy who was supposed to top of our water which I had to ask for and which he took over ten minutes to address. Otherwise all our dishes were explained well which is what I would expect from a good restaurant. Food did come out very quickly though so we were in and out in just under 90 minutes.

Comparatively speaking with restaurants in the same or similar league the deal we had tonight was a little on the pricey side so not the best value for money meal. Still, overall the experience was pretty good and its always a plus when you actually know the chef the restaurant is attached to is actually in the kitchen!

Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream

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For Christmas last year Jules got Sandra this Ice Cream making machine. As with all things new for the first couple of months they both expressed an enthusiasm for the machine which sounded like they were making use of it nearly every couple of days – mainly making frozen yoghurt I think. Sandra invited me over this weekend to try and make Delia’s Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream which she describes as half dessert half ice cream.

But before work comes sustenance and today it came in the form of a delicious chicken pie from the markets that Jules and Sandra visit most weekends. Yummo!

We started making the ice cream at about 2pm. Steps included pureeing strawberries and making a syrup, crumbling and baking the crunchy bits, making the custard base for the ice cream, combining with curd cheese and yoghurt ready for freeze-churning in the ice cream maker. This only took 45 minutes to get to this stage. The freeze-churning stage took about half an hour to chill the machine and nearly another half an hour to freeze churn.

Then it was time to quickly fold in the strawberry puree and the crunchy bits. I think we ended up with too much strawberry puree because they ended up being less ripples and more strawberry flavoured ice cream! (Did anyone notice in the photos that I’ve switched to sweats! Heh heh. Sweats with maximum expansion to fit in all the food I was expecting to eat today.)

Delia suggests that you need to freeze the whole mixture for 5-6 hours! 3-4 hours actually was enough for us and just enough time to watch a movie and for Sandra to make us some dinner – lasagne! Delicious lasagna!

So the finished ice cream product looked like this coming out of the freezer. Okay – at fist glance it doesn’t look fab (in fact Jules commented that you couldn’t tell looking at it whether it was savoury or sweet! Cheeky! Ha ha!) but once served it started to look like the genuine thing.

Taste-wise it was pretty good though it was a lot less creamier than I was expecting it to be. We might try rocky road next time …

Caro’s Big Chicken

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I so blame Caro for the pain I’m in at the moment .. and not my weak resistance to all things food! Ha! Tonight I caught up with Caro, Nate, Gaspar and Caro’s mum at their place. Caro promised me a big roast chicken and boy did she deliver. A beautifully roasted chicken with some beautifully roasted veges and gravy. Oh and champagne to celebrate Friday night! I was in absolute heaven. If I could have I would have eaten it all but I didn’t want to be rude. 😉

I think actually what tipped me over the edge was some camembert cheese Caro pulled out for dessert. Come on woman – who would resist that! Certainly not me! Ha ha.

But speaking of big, its not been that long since I’ve last seen Gaspar but boy has he grown. Nearly 10 kilos and at 9 months already wearing an 18 month old’s clothing – he is going to be massive! He’s just getting to that stage where he’s starting to want to crawl around. His laugh is so infectious – though I love the fact that as soon as he gets near anyone’s hair he immediately reaches for it!

As always I appreciate the lengths that Nate and Caro to go to take care of me. I hope one day soon I’ll be able to return the favour. Might have to practice a bit though to get up to Caro’s standard.

The Gate Vegetarian Restaurant

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Vegetarian food? Who me? Well, I couldn’t believe it but tonight I enjoyed a 3 course vegetarian meal, not a meat in sight, and I left very satisfied … if a little lighter in the pocket (£34 for 3 course meal one softdrink and service …)

The Gate is located in Hammersmith. Run by Indo-Iraqi Jewish (as they describe themselves) brothers the food is inspired by their grandmothers – a mix of Indian, Arabic and Jewish cuisines. The brothers pride themselves on sourcing the best ingredients and as a consequence the menu changes monthly (though noting there are permanent signature dishes).

The menu makes for an interesting read. Though options, such as Laney’s starter of butternet & cashew samosa and my starter of carciofini appear straight forward the description that follows is not. For Laney she had “deep-fried filo pastry stuffed with butternut squash, cashew nuts & cauliflower, served with a date & tamarind sauce” to look forward to where I had a “baby artichoke stuffed with dolcelatte & a wild mushroom duxelles, fried in a crispy beer batter, & served with a puy lentil salsa & lemon & garlic aioli”. I guess the rather large descriptions are necessary for a vegetarian restaurant as all the better to draw you in. Starters were nice if not terribly memorable. My carciofini was lovingly cooked if a little slightly light on the seasoning side.

Mains of truffled risotto cake (sautéed pied bleu, hedgehog, oyster & chestnut mushrooms, served on a truffle risotto cake, with a creamy cep sauce, rocket & parmesan) and aubergine schnitzel (layered with applewood smoked cheddar, basil pesto, roasted red peppers & plum tomatoes, served with potato dauphinoise & pan-fried kale & finished with a horseradish cream sauce) were much better. It took a while for me to get into the flavour of the aubergine schnitzel but once I found it I didn’t want to stop eating (though the smoke cheddar flavour wasn’t as strong as I wanted it to be.) It was quite lovely. Laney loved her risotto cake which I think had to win the dish of the night. Still not sure what hedgehog is though … (other than those cute little spikey animals that is).

At the end of the two courses I was actually feeling pretty satisfied but of course it didn’t take much encouragement from Laney to opt for a dessert. She opted for a vanilla cheesecake and, even though I knew my stomach would regret it for its heaviness, I opted for the a coconut rice pudding served with caramelised pineapple. Damn me and my weakness for all things rice!

Service tonight was very friendly and efficient. Atmosphere was good with a lot more people turning up around 7.30. The Gate strikes me as the kind of place for regulars – located in Hammersmith and inside church grounds people are hardly likely to stumble upon it that’s for sure.

Overall as a vegetarian restaurant the Gate was pretty impressive – I didn’t miss the meat in my meal tonight at all which is rather surprising though I suspect come tomorrow morning I’ll feel a little hungrier than normal. Food quality and presentation is at a high level though if I’m to have a minor gripe about it I did feel, in the dishes we at tonight at any rate, that because the dishes had so many things going on that the flavours inevitably mixed too much and as a result had less of an impact than expected. Price-wise its probably quite a bit pricier than you’d imagine for paying for a non-meat non-seafood meal so I won’t be coming here every week but I’d be happy to come out their seasonal offerings.

Vapiano

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Annie’s sister, who I’ve never actually met, has been visiting with any for the last few weeks (mainly on a whirlwind tour around Spain) but leaves tomorrow to return to Oz. To give her a proper send off Annie got a few of us to come out for a meal. We ended up at Vapiano which is a German Based Italian restaurant chain. Its actually a pretty big chain internationally with locations including Australia, Estonia, Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Romania, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and, naturally, Germany.

This is no ordinary Italian restaurant. It’s a pizza pasta bar where food is made to order. Each customer coming into the restaurant has to pick up a chip card at the front door which you then use to wave in front of the counter when ordering your food and drink. Chargers are then accumulated on the card and there are no problems with splitting the bill. It’s a very casual restaurant with heaps of dining split over two floors. It does get very busy, however, and if you’re in a big group like we were then it could get difficult to find space all in one area. Even on a Sunday night it was heaving.

The great thing about Vapiano is that you don’t have to rely on a waiter or waitress (except to clear the tables) – its help yourself so you can go order your food whenever you want how often you want. This is ideal when in a big group, so you can stagger your orders so you can keep your table, but may be awkward if you’re trying to keep the table but you all want your food at the same time. Because there’s no service there’s no pressure to finish your meal and get out of there so you can stay as long as you like.

Food is surprisingly good and cooked fresh in front of you so you can see it all happening and also customise your dish (in terms of amounts of salt, chilli, pepper, garlic etc.)

An interesting option to add to my portfolio of food.

Rib night!

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Sandra and I thought that we haven’t been out for a set of ribs in a while so we dragged Jules and Pat out to Blubeckers in Ruislip. If you recall Blubeckers is a chain of restaurants/pubs which Sandra has claimed has the best BBQ Ribs ever.

Blubeckers is a very popular venue – even booking a week in advance we were lucky to get a booking for tonight and we had to give the table back within two hours. Still, Jules and Sandra at least are pretty efficient eaters so we still managed to fit in three courses tonight!

As I found last time I came to a Blubeckers the menu is actually pretty good and the food that is delivered is equally up to the task. Tonight I started with an absolutely gorgeous creamy seafood chowder that came with light fluffy warmed baguette. I actually would have been quite happy to have a main meal version of the chowder it was so good. Pat also went for a liquid starter with his French onion soup. He cleaned it up pretty quickly. Jules and Sandra had some battered prawns which looked pretty scrumptions.

At Blubeckers ribs come in sizes of Light, Classic and Legendary. We all very wisely chose to go for the Classic ribs which are about the size of a normal set of ribs. It was more than enough especially when accompanied by a big bowl of chips (which I didn’t even get anywhere near finishing) and coleslaw. The ribs were as tender and delicious as I remember though now thinking about it they are less BBQ ribs than stewed ribs though the BBQ sauce it comes with is pretty damn good.

Somehow we all found room for dessert though I don’t know how. I’m thinking I won’t be eating for at least 24 hours after tonight!