Nobu - London at The Metropolitan

Through many of my blog posts now, I have declared my love for most things Japanese. Although not yet lucky enough to have visited the country, I am fascinated by its culture and cuisine. Occasionally though, I hear something that is a little strange, even for a certified Japanophile like myself.

No, I’m not talking about the eating of the potentially fatal puffer fish, ‘Fugu’ or the live ‘Dancing Icefish’ known as ‘Shirouo nor Odorigui’ or even the semen filled male fish genitalia ‘Shirako’ – all of which I’d happily, and in fact am quite keen to, eat.

Instead, what I find strange is the occasional, ‘odd custom’ – one such being, the common assertion that some Japanese Wagyu cattle are ‘massaged by virgins’. The massaging, I get… I appreciate that the massage may help muscle tone, tenderise the meat and relax the beasts… but why ‘virgins’?

I came across something similarly ‘unusual’ to me, recently at Nobu London.

Firstly, unlike Nobu’s business partner Robert De Niro, I do not claim to be a saké connoisseur. (De Niro, apparently prefers to drink his favourite saké from a wooden cup made from the Japanese cypress tree, with a little salt sprinkled on the rim).

However, I do like the occasional drop of the stuff and when I saw that Nobu offered three different Saké Tasting Trays, I ordered the most expensive one…

It was the third saké in the selection that made me do a double take: Ongakushu – a 10 year old, semi dry, smooth delicate Saké from Hokusetsu, ‘aged to the sound of soft soothing music.’

Could this be right? It turns out that Ongaku-shu, translates as “musical saké.” Aficionados claim that sakés, which have been shipped by boat, develop a deep taste as the saké is smoothened by the undulating motions of the waves… this makes sense.

Subsequently, the saké brewery (or kura) Hokusetsu, to, apparently, ‘recreate the wave-effects’ play the ‘New Age music of Japanese composer Kitaro to the bottles stored in a special cellar’ - I’d love to taste some that has been aged to punk rock; perhaps a reggae saké or even some that has been getting down with some dubstep?

Thankfully the rest of the meal did not question my sensibilities.

In a vain attempt to fit in with the rest of the hip ‘beautiful people’ that filled the other tables, I started with the customary bowl of Edamame beans. These are offered as you sit down, before being shown the menu. With a cost £4.50 for a small portion, next time, I’d give them a miss and peruse the menu first as there are other appetisers that are a little more exciting and possibly better value for money.

I ordered several dishes from across the menu sections – a mixture of favourite ingredients and dishes that sounded interesting. The waitress asked if I’d like them in any particular order or if I wanted the kitchen to decide the best order to send them – I left it to the chefs to make the decisions.

Arriving first, a crisscrossed tower of Asparagus with Egg Sauce and Salmon Roe – the asparagus was cooked perfectly; the Ikura (salmon roe) added delicious pops of sweet, salty, fishy goodness that worked wonderfully with the tangy hollandaise-esque sauce. A top dish.

Grouping the veg dished together, an Avocado Tempura quickly followed– I selected the avocado over the other tempuras on the menu on the strength of the dish I recently had at Gaya Rive Gauche par Pierre Gagnaire (see here). This was great and something I’d definitely choose again.

I ate the vegetable dishes, with Nobu’s own Cho-Daiginjo YK35 Saké – the dry, delicate fruity and floral flavours working wonders to balance the richness.

Next to arrive, showing off Nobu’s well-known Peruvian influences and presented beautifully, was a Jumbo Shrimp with Yuzu Truffle Sauce – the powerful citrusy yuzu truffle sauce had a fantastic citrusy ceviche-like flavour enriched with heady truffle. A big fan of mushrooms, they came as a welcome surprise as they were not listed on the menu. However, it was the perfectly plump pieces of jumbo shrimp that really made this dish the stand out one of the evening. 

Another dry offering, I found the Junmai Daiginjo Yurara Saké with fresh, light notes of lime and peaches had a great synergy with the shrimp dish.

Tasty but not enough to wow me, the next dish to come was Crispy Pork Belly with Spicy Miso and Ginger Salsa – the crispiness on the outside of the cubes of pork was very good; inside however, I found them were a little dry. Whilst the spicy miso sauce was a winner, the ginger salsa seemed style over substance. 

Next up, came my chosen selection of sushi and sashimi: Soft Shell Crab Roll, Mackerel Nigiri and sashimi of Abalone and Turbot. As these dishes were ‘from the sea’, I chose to have these with the aforementioned Ongakushu (musical saké) – its smooth, delicate flavours working well for me… maybe there is something in this musical malarkey after all?

Encased in wafer thin sheets of daikon the Soft Shell Crab Roll looked impressive but I found this addition unnecessary and dry. After eating the first couple, I discarded the dry daikon for the remainder and to my mind they were much improved. The crab was deliciously sweet, the coating crisp with the tobiko (flying fish roe) adding a burst of seasoning.

Abalone is often compared to squid and large clams in flavour and texture but I find the unique flavour incomparable, this had wonderful buttery edge to it – enhanced particularly well by the milky, unfiltered Nigori Saké.

It was the first time I have had Turbot as Sashimi and I found it was not as soft and yielding as I expected it to be and was a little disappointed. I’m not sure is this was just a bit of a duff piece so would be keen to try it again for a second opinion.

I drunk the final saké of the selection on its own without a food pairing: Honjozo Kinpaku-Iri – a dry, rich Sake with floating gold leaf, usually saved for special occasions.

Having sat down to the meal at 21:30, it was getting late so I decided to skip dessert and instead finished my meal with some Hōjicha Green Tea. Hōjicha differs from most green teas as it is roasted over charcoal (as opposed to steamed) - although not a usual favourite of mine, tea with its umami rich, smoky and earthly flavours is a great way to end a late meal due to its naturally low caffeine content.

Nobu London at The Metropolitan is a top place to eat – it’s easy to see why it has maintained its Michelin star since 1998.  I’m now keener than ever to return to London to try out the newer Nobu Berkeley Street that has held its star since 2006… they even do a Japanese Afternoon Tea, which sounds fabulous.  

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Parkers Arms, Lancashire

When I first moved ‘oop north’ from ‘down sarth’ I remember going out for the day to deepest darkest Cheshire with my fiancée and my future in-laws. Playing up to the Guy Ritchie cockney wide boy stereotype, for a bit of fun, spotting some sheep in a field, I asked, “What are they?”

Clearly thinking city boys like me were all a bit thick, the look on Jeanne’s face (the mother-in-law) was priceless as she as she informed me they were indeed sheep.

Taking the joke a step further, I enquired, “So what is a sheep? What do they do?” Still, I think, unsure if I was for real she asked if I had heard of lamb?

Feigning a penny drop moment, I said, “Ahh… so that’s what they look like before they have been peeled?”

Now obviously thinking her daughter was dating a complete dinlow, she patiently explained the whole deal; I couldn’t resist one more stir, and asked, “So, are they wild ones?”

There seemed to be lots of ‘wild sheep’ roaming the hills on our recent trip out across the beautiful rolling Pendle hills – some even seemed ‘tame’ enough to come right up to the roadside.

Anyway, enough of my bleating… I could go on about how wonderful a drive through the Lancashire countryside is, but I’m sure ewe already know that… instead I’ll skip to the food – there was a lot of it!

I first got to know about the Parkers Arms in Newton-In-Bowland, (near Clitheroe) Lancashire, mainly though Twitter, where chef/proprietor Stosie Madi shares her passion for food and the North West.

With her French and Lebanese heritage, like me, Stosie may not be a native North Westian but is clearly someone who is hugely proud of the region she has made her home. The menu reads like a celebration of the best we have to offer in the region – including the finest produce from the Ribble Valley and products such as Cockerham Salt Marsh Lamb, Morecambe Bay Cockles and Bury Black Pudding.

Of course, through twitter Stosie knew I was coming and knew I write a blog and was keen to show off what they have to offer - subsequently, along with the dishes we ordered a 'few' (massive understatement) extras generously made their way from the kitchen.

I promise you this overfeeding of me has in no way influenced my opinion of the Parkers Arms – it has however influenced my opinion of Stosie, her business partner Kathy and her brother AJ as warm, generous people, brimming with an infectious passion for food and hospitality.

We started the meal with a selection of nibbles – Breads, Black Pudding Sausage Rolls (flaky pastry), with Parker’s Piccalilli, Parker’s Bowland Pork Crackling with Apple Dip and Potato & Wild Garlic Fritters with a Tomato Relish. 

It was immediate that the level of skill in the kitchen is exceptional. The garlic fritters were just perfect; so light and fluffy… the standard is well beyond your standard pub fayre.

The drive out had already been worth it - every flavour sung out; every item wonderfully balanced and seasoned; the sausage rolls had so much flavour and the piccalilli was top drawer, it should be sold in jars at the bar.

In addition to the nibbles we ordered, to ‘get my opinion’, Stosie sent out a variation on the Black Pudding Sausage Rolls made with a ‘hand-raised’ or hot water crust pastry and Parker’s Chicken Crackling with a Wild Garlic Mayonnaise.

My opinion: the flaky pastry offered a more traditional sausage roll experience but I preferred the hot water crust pastry on texture and the flavour of the pudding was stronger. The chicken skin too was preferred by my wife and I to the pork as it moreishly light and crisp – we concluded that both should be regular menu items and the wild garlic mayonnaise should be sold in jars alongside the piccalilli… I would’ve bought some, for sure!

To start, I selected the Formby Asparagus, Pilling New Potatoes, Lemon Mayonnaise with Home-cured Loch Duart Salmon and Duerden’s Watercress – as you can see from the menu description, both locally sourced and high quality produce play an important part of Parkers Arms’ ethos. This dish was full of spring freshness.

My wife ordered the Smoked Dunsop Bridge Trout Parfait, Royal Cucumber Jelly and Parker’s Crisp Breads and said, “It’s the bestest thing I ever did taste.”

I would have tasted some too but, in true Stosie style generosity we also received a portion of the Potted Bowland Ham (Jambon Persilée) with more of that gorgeous Parker’s Piccalilli and Bowland Beer Bread to share and then a jubilee special Goosnargh Corn-fed Coronation Chicken Pot Pie with Creamed Mash… each!

The potted ham and the pie were both very good and the mash exceptional. As mentioned before, every item of food showed faultless cooking – the pasty could was just as you’d expect, the coronation sauce rich and flavoursome.

I adore gurnard, and could not resist the Butter Roast British Gurnard Fillet when I saw it on the menu. The fact that it was served with Isle of Man Queen Scallops, Greaves Dry Cured Bacon, Bowland Wild Garlic with Garden Nettles Gnocchi and Blackpool Tomatoes Dressing made it all the more appetising.

The fish was great and the foraged wild garlic and nettles leaves were pleasingly different to the usual accompaniments. The gnocchi however did not really work for me and I found the tomato dressing too sweet for my taste – the only dish of the entire meal that I was not completely convinced by.

My wife’s Cockerham Salt Marsh Lamb however, was a triumph – the distinctly flavoured meat raised on the Lune Estuary salt mashes is always a treat. Generous portions of the loin, leg and breast cooked with such passion, care and precision made it truly magnificent.

The lamb was served with Carron Lodge Butter Roasted New Potatoes, Morecambe Bay Cockles with Cockerham Samphire and the attention to detail once again evident in their painstaking peeling of the Pod Vegetables.

Fit to bursting, I was not sure if I could handle a dessert when AJ suggested a small tasting of each. This seemed a good compromise but then the full potions started to arrive – not that I am complaining, they were all delicious.

My wife and I shared the New Season Strawberry Tart… summer on a plate. The strawberries were so good my wife said, “You just can’t get strawberries that taste this good these days, can you?” – I knew what she meant.

We also shared the Jubilee Cherry and Chocolate Roulade – a proper dessert of fabulous classic flavours. The chocolate was thick, the ice-cream smooth and the sauce sharply sweet – delicious.

My chosen main of Gisburn Cream Lemon and Wild Bowland Gooseberry Posset with Elderflower Jelly and Lemon Shortbread was nothing short of a sensational synergy of flavours with more great technique on show through the meringue sheet wafers and shortbreads.

My wife’s Local Cheese Plate was attractively presented – I only tasted one of the frozen grapes so I can’t comment on the dish but she was pleased with what she had been given.

The Petit Fours featured excellent homemade Salted Caramel Chocolates and Strawberry ‘toffee apples’ with lovely thin crisp candy.

I have recently dined at Tom Kerridge’s two-Michelin-starred Hand and Flowers in Marlow and have visited other Michelin starred gastropubs, such as Michael & Nick Parkinson's Royal Oak at Paley Street and The Harwood Arms in Fulham – it’s a bold statement but if each of these were stood next to each other in a row, the same distance from my house, I’d choose the Parkers Arms every time! 

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BBQ Handmade Noodles King, Manchester

Having just read Jay Rayner’s review in the Guardian (see here) of BBQ Handmade Noodles King, it has prompted me to rush out my take on the delights (and not so delightful aspects) of Manchester’s finest purveyor of barbequed animal organs… on sticks.

Possibly recommended to me by the same ‘mutual friend in the north’, Jay’s right about the Christmas baubles and lights that bizarrely still hang from last year – I think it’s one thing leaving them up… but these were switched on! It may have been May but Merry Christmas all the same!

It's May but Merry Christmas all the same!

Not so merry was the murky green fish tank, grubby paintwork, tattered blinds and dead and dying plants that decorated the space – a voice in my head did ask, if the front of house is this minging what is going on behind the scenes in the kitchen?

Spying the interesting looking fish dish being enjoyed by a couple at the only other occupied table, I was reminded of the promise of authentic Chinese food and resisted the urge to turn around and run – all in all, I’m glad I stayed and wasn’t ill afterwards (which was a bonus).

After a good while leafing through the pages of the sticky menu, not being able to work out what the fish dish was, I called the waiter and (due to our language barrier) managed to inform him, through my tourist like pointing that I wanted, ‘What they’re having.’

Although I don’t think he still quite understood; seemingly thinking what we ‘actually’ wanted was the theatre of a flame and a large bowl set on the table, he suggested we have it with sweet and sour chicken – thanks to my ability to use primitive sign language to mime a fish and a bit more pointing I elicited an ‘Ah!’, a big smile and crossed my fingers.

When the first next other dishes I ordered were the Stir fried pig’s bowel with pointed barrel chillies and Braised duck’s tongue in soya marinate the waiter finally understood that he had a customer in his midst that was determined to not be fobbed off with the bland and unimaginative, MSG laden Chinese food that as a nation we have come to accept as the norm.

One of the reasons for ordering the duck’s tongues was the fact that the previous day I had bought a copy of the Mugaritz cookbook and noticed a delightful looking recipe featuring tender leaves, herb shoots and four crispy looking tongues – whilst I didn’t expect a carbon copy of the Mugaritz dish I was somewhat shocked when a plate piled with about eighty little fellas arrived.

The way to eat one is to hold it in your fingers, bring to your mouth as if you are bout to French kiss it and then bite down, shredding the flesh from the cartilage within. The meat itself is slightly chewy but with a real smacker of duck flavour - finger licking good.

The stir fried pig’s bowel with pointed barrel chillies came as another huge portion – it was one of the better dishes; especially the chillies but I still failed to finish it (until the next day, thanks to their doggy bag policy).

The fish, served in the gastronorm tray was magnificent – the chilli sauce intensifying the longer we left it. By the end of the meal I had quite a sweat on… a wonderful dish that I’d order again if only I could work out what it’s listed as on the menu (I think I’ll take my iPad in next time and just point to the picture on this blog).

From the BBQ section, I fancied the rabbit legs (but they had run out) and the lamb’s ovaries (there had been a rush on these too, or perhaps it was just the wrong time of the month).

Instead we ordered the BBQ Chicken Heart Skewer, BBQ Fish Balls Skewer (considering the rest of the menu, you’d be forgiven for thinking these are fish testicles), BBQ Aubergine Skewer and BBQ Baby Squid Skewer.

The aubergine was greasy, soggy and was left after just one bite. The fish balls were average at best. The squid was a little overdone but pleasant enough but the hearts were fantastic – well cooked, deep and richly flavoured and so moreish.

  

As well as ‘things on sticks’, BBQ Handmade Noodles King is naturally best known for its handmade noodles and these did not disappoint. The noodles were spot on. The garlicky Beijing meat sauce was oily, smoky and flavourful - enriched with some kind of bean (probably a kidney or haricot type brown bean) and hoi sin.

Sir Fried Chinese White Cabbage, Stir Fried Fresh Squid with Garlic Chives and some Beijing Mixed Meat Dumplings completed the order – which was easily enough for two (especially as my wife didn’t feel like eating much).

The dumplings were not great – the filling was good but the skin too thick and served too cold. The cabbage and squid were tasty and also made their way into the now rather full doggy bag for the next day’s lunch. 

Feeling stuffed, I couldn’t find room for the amusingly misspelt dessert of, ‘Crispy Sweet Plumpkin Cake’ – I do however, recommend the very refreshing Red Iced Tea.

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