Mash, Copenhagen Airport

09/03/2015 Robin

London. Paris. New York. Munich. Everybody talk about… OK, I have to tell you that we need to skip over that delightful Bavarian city, because today, we are going to Copenhagen.

And there are a great many things that I like about Denmark, not least the two outstanding friends who live there who have always shown me the real meaning of Danish hospitality – you know who you are. The endless restaurant choices. History. The Little Mermaid. The Carlsberg Elephants. Carlsberg. Probably. Hygge.

And the Danes are noted as being the most happy nation on the planet. And the reason for this is Hygge. What? Yes, Hoo-Ge. Let me quote from Meik Wiking’s excellent book on the subject, The Little Book of Hygge. ‘You know hygge when you feel it. It is when you are cuddled up on a sofa with a loved one, or sharing comfort food with your closest friends. It is those crisp blue mornings when the light through your windows is just right…’.

The subject of hygge has taken on a life of it’s own in recent times, and I for one think this a very good thing. In a life that’s full of demands – work, family, social media, guessing how far Sheffield Wednesday might go in the Championship this season – hygge enables you to kick all of those demands into the long grass and chill, under a blanket, with a few candles lit, enjoying a glass of your favourite bottle of wine, watching the sun set over a beautiful scene. Sounds alright to me. Kayleigh Tanner does an excellent job of blogging about hygge, so take the time to check out her thoughts at hellohygge.com. My favourite article introduces seven Nordic words that you’ve likely never heard of but will help you build your understanding of the essence of hygge.

With all of this talk of hygge, I’ve become distracted from a dessert that likely epitomises the essence of the entire subject…! This evenings delight came courtesy of Copenhagen airport steak house, Mash. And they did a pretty good job too. Sugaring was light and thin albeit a little bit ‘tooth sticky.’ The custard was carefully flecked with vanilla pod and warm, but very slightly curdled. This doesn’t always ruin a score, but highlights a chef that perhaps wasn’t quite on the ball in the preparation phase… However, the absolute highlight was the scoop of passion fruit sorbet on the side. It was A M A Z I N G. A complete contrast to the sugaring. Well, Mash, you nearly smashed it, but a slight curdle in your custard knocks you back to a worth 6/10.

Kura skymning. God fornøjelse. Tak.

The Broadway Hotel, Broadway

18/02/2015 Robin

England. It is a quaint country. Characterised by differing regions, each with their own uniqueness. People. Architecture. History. Landscape. Dialect. Sports teams. Beer. Etc. It’s this tapestry of personality which makes traveling through England a hugely enjoyable experience, with towns and cities sometimes only miles apart offering the visitor endless opportunities to experience this tapestry effect in action. Sheffield and Manchester. Portsmouth and Southampton. And I’m not just talking about football.

The Cotswolds are situated in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in south central England and offer the visitor an unrivaled English countryside experience with it’s rolling hills, pretty villages, constant supply of cream teas and houses built with the distinctive oolitic limestone, also know as Cotswold Stone.

Equally exciting for the visitor is the wide variety of things to see ranging from the expansive country estates of Blenheim Palace and Sudeley Castle to the Cotswold Falconry Centre and Adam Henson‘s (the jolly red-headed rare breeds protector from the BBC’s Countryfile) Cotswold Farm Park. His rabbit stroking zone and tractor rides are particular highlights…

Broadway is situated to the northern end of the Cotswolds and is a jewel to behold, and a hugely popular tourist attraction with both British and international visitors alike. It’s overlooked by Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown‘s and James Wyatt‘s impressive Broadway Tower which offers some of the most spectacular views over the surrounding area.

However most importantly, it’s home to the Broadway Hotel, the purveyor of the subject of this post, namely the Cinnamon crème brûlée with spiced berry compote…!

In fairness, the ‘come hither’ warm sticky toffee pudding (as chosen by one of my dining comrades) was almost the cause of my abandoning the firm and singular expectation of this blog namely, ‘If its on the menu, you have to order it…’.

Normally, an air of mild panic sets in if a chef plays with the flavours in the base brûlée custard, but on this occasion their cinnamon infusion was subtle and almost Christmassy in execution (despite this being a February evening…!). Combined with the buttery shortbread and crisp, palette cleansing berry compote, this was in fact a fine and surprisingly enjoyable custardy culinary interlude! Maybe it was the dark evening, or the day spent outside exploring the local area in the brisk February weather, but my tastebuds were suitably aroused by what the spoon threw at them hence, the Broadway Hotel’s cinnamon special earns a respectable 7/10. Good job Broadway Hotel…!

The Winking Owl, Aviemore

08/02/2015 Robin

I always try to live by the following code: Life is to be filled with as many experiences as possible; don’t say no, say yes! Well at least try to if you think a) you’ll have a good time, b) it won’t taste too odd, c) nothing will get broken (well, it’s a not a party until…), d) life and limbs will remain in one collective piece, e) you learn something new, f) you don’t learn something new, but you have an extraordinary amount of fun trying, g) you realise that the experience makes you feel 142% more alive than before you tried it. Etc.

For me, life affirming experiences have mostly included some kind of outdoor pursuit. Not sure why, they just seem to provide the necessary mix of pushing beyond the normal comfort zone of everyday life and a healthy dose of humankind’s most accessible drug. Adrenaline. To prove this point, your author has; jumped out of planes, jumped off cliffs into raging seas, dived to the bottom of the sea, flown light aircraft, water skied, ridden a motorbike at 167mph on a track, fallen off a motorbike on a track, tried snowboarding, stopped snowboarding, loved the high speed thrill of snow-blading, had a massive crash on snowblades, windsurfed, sailed yachts, capsized dinghies, climbed up things and abseiled back down them. Amongst other things.

Which brings me to the location of this post – Aviemore in Scotland. Twelve months ago, one of my partners in crime in many of these adventures (and the host of the New Years Eve post) asked me if ‘I fancied trying some winter mountaineering’. Yes, of course, I said. Simply put, life is for living. And Scotland is a beautiful place in February for living. The Caledonian Sleeper train from London delivered us promptly into Aviemore at 07:40, where we met our weary but highly skilled mountaineering instructors, Mark and Kenny, freshly back from the Alps who were to be our guides for the weekend.

Once delivered to Aviemore’s ski station, an hour’s brisk walk brought us up to the base of Fiacaill Coire an t-Sneachda. Now, I have seen some beautiful winter peaks in my time, but never by foot and certainly not one that I knew I had to climb soon after…

To cut a long story relatively short, my climbing partner Thomas and I had to learn a lot about snow, ice, ice axes, ropes, safety equipment, and sub zero decision making in a very short space of time, whilst enduring 40mph uphill winds, flying ice and the pure thrill of looking back down 300m of almost vertical slopes that we had just climbed up. A truly special experience, the effort of which was neatly summed up by Thomas before attempting our second climb of the day.

But as with all outdoor pursuits, the day must end with a major refuelling, which brings me to the subject of this post. The Winking Owl is one of Aviemore’s finest eateries, and thankfully allowed me to continue the quest…

Tonights presentation was a Chocolate Orange Brûlée and included both a hand made cardamom shortbread and a beautifully executed rolled chocolate straw. Experience to date largely makes me fearful when a chef decides to mess with the base custard, however tonights effort was quite remarkable. It maintained a very original chocolate orange flavour, so much so that this could have been mistaken for a Terry’s Chocolate Orange. Or as one dining partner suggested, was it the ‘love child of a chocolate mouse and a crème brulee’…?! Each to their own. Whilst sporting a somewhat heavy texture, the custard was smooth and light on the palate, again providing echoes to the original Chocolate Orange. In the end, the key question is whether something other than a simple vanilla custard crème brulee really is a crème brulee? Is it like the Eskimos with their 20 different names for snow? It’s all snow, right? A worthy 7/10. Well done Winky – I’ll be back for more next February…

County, New York City

09/01/2015 Robin

New York in January is very cold. Not your average ‘a bit chilly’, but jeans-freezingly, ear-snap-offingly, flag-a-cab-down-quickly kind of cold. This is week has been no exception with lows of -14c, and that was without the wind chill factor… Oh to be a polar bear. Or inside, under a duvet.

The writer of this blog has been to the Big Apple many times over the years, and I simply love it. It’s the ultimate city. Almost as good as London, Paris or Sheffield, but with something extra. It’s stuffed with cool. People. Shops. Restaurants. Bars. Clubs. Shows. (OK, except those guys in Times Square who dress up as Buzz Lightyear and ask for cash if you want to take a selfie with them….). It never sleeps. You can get a drink any time of day or night. There are endless things to do and see. And it has the most diverse global recruitment plan for taxi drivers.

When I arrived for this trip, the first thing I did was plumb in a New York based magazine to my Flipboard to see what would come back. Eater NY grabbed my attention with an article covering The 38 Essential New York Restaurants for January 2015. With first night jetlag getting the better of me, a quick decision took me to the ABC Kitchen, a Jean-Georges Vongerichten restaurant, based on the offer of a well-to-do burger. Classy, I know. But with no custard-based desserts on the menu, a rather outstanding ‘Sundae‘ grabbed my attention. Salted caramel and candied popcorn and peanuts. I rest my case, your honour.

The following evening, we ventured to find the next place on Eater’s list, namely the Gramercy Tavern, which was fully booked. A swift two doors up the road found a table at the fresh, funky and noisy County. Reminded me of a Swedish sauna with restored barn walls, stainless steel, funky carnival light bulbs and exceptionally tall staff. Ultimately a way better choice, primarily because of the vanilla bean crème brûlée…

Initial impressions offered hope…! Presented in a very French shallow oval ramekin, there were no fuss or frills. The custard was room temperature smooth, with no hint of curdling, but missed the promised vanilla bean. Good-ish so far. However, the caramelisation was hard and a little sticky on the teeth and the overall feeling was that it simply lacked something to make it stand apart from the others. Whilst well executed, a somewhat middle-of-the-road result meant County NYC can only earn itself an average 4 / 10. Better luck next time…

Footnote: Hopefully you remember what you were doing and where you were on the 11th of September 2001. I know exactly where I was. If you get the chance, take the time to pay your own respects at the 9/11 memorial. It’s beautiful and is a fitting tribute to those who perished.

Chez Millard, New Years Eve 2014, Ascot

31/12/2014 Robin

New Years Eve is a very special day. It’s marks the end of one year and beginning the next one. I apologise in advance for the obviousness of this statement. Metaphorically, it’s the day that allows the chucking out of all the baggage from the last twelve months with the hope that it wasn’t labelled ‘return to sender’, and the opening of the first page of a new novel which isn’t yet written.

With resolutions in hand, the 1st of January demands a new focus on abstinence, especially after the excesses of the previous week, and a steady hand on the tiller of expectation setting for the year to come… Now, the author of this blog knows quite clearly that abstinence is something which has to be avoided given it’s premise: If it’s on the menu…etc. Fortunately, my New Years Eve party chums were a good mixture of ages and so the resolutions came in many flavours; improve my handwriting, spend more time keeping up with old friends, ride my bike for 120 miles in a day, study hard for important exams, amongst others. I love this kind of optimism. To lean into the idealistic just briefly, it’s these kind of wishes that give hope to the idea that anything can be achieved if a little effort and focus is applied… And your author hopes that you also found the 5 minutes on New Years Eve to consider your own resolutions for 2015. Feel free to tweet them to @trinitycream so we can fuse custard-based dessert blogging and New Year resolutions in one Twitter feed!

I have some wonderful friends, and tonights affair was hand-crafted by the lovely Vikki in honour of the endeavours of this blog. Based on a James Martin recipe, the crème was prepared through the careful fusing of eggs, caster sugar, cream, milk and vanilla pod, to be then caramelised by our own fair hands hands. The whole process led to much discussion about what new ideas should come to Trinity Cream in the coming months. More on that soon…

To the caramelisation – we decided two approaches were needed – a plumbers blow torch and a grill – to see how the results differed. We captured the blow torch attempt in this somewhat chaotic video…

You will have noticed that the plumbers blow torch was way too fierce hence scorched the demerara sugar. Whilst the end result was not unpleasant, it did produce a rather thick and treacly topping which took some spoon bashing to break through. We suspected a less powerful chefs blow torch may have been a better choice. The grill produced a markedly different result…

Clearly, Vikki is a culinary genius. The custard was very smooth and delightfully flecked with vanilla pod, leaving a very subtle hue upon on the tongue. It was neither too sweet nor too heavy, and being of the softer side of set, slipped down very easily. Much debate was had about the sugar. Is demerara the best choice? Or should one choose muscovado, caster, icing or straightforward refined white sugar for the topping? I sense a taste test coming in a future post… We accompanied dessert with a superb Beerenauslese, an Austrian Burgenland dessert wine as supplied by my official (ahem) Austrian wine supplier Rene, which offered the usual amazing velvet smoothness with gentle plumy notes.

And so to the score… Being truly objective, it was as good as the Brittany Ferries post, but in a different way. By not being produced by a hardened professional chef, it gained from the attention to detail, self-help preparation and the fact that it was made purely to feed the myopic needs of the author of this blog! Hence a sure-footed, plumbers blow torch fueled, genuinely excellent 9 / 10 is awarded. Nice one Viks. 🙂

Footnote: One of our junior dinner guests enjoyed her first ever brûlée this evening… and an empty bowl is a good enough recommendation for me. Perhaps a new convert to the cause?! All three other children refused to participate after an initial dip of the spoon. It seems more work is required by the author of this blog to encourage the junior readers to take up the challenge themselves!

Happy 2015!

Washington Duke Inn & Golf Club, Durham

15/11/2014 Robin

Finding ways to enjoy oneself on a weekend when away from the family in a foreign country can sometimes be a challenge. You are missing them, but you don’t want to wallow in your own self inflicted pity, so what should you do. Simple. Call any available workmates, hope for decent weather and go and do something you’ve not done before. Today’s escapade involved a well known but less often played sport (at least in Europe) called American Football. Or as my American brethren confusingly refer to it, football. Surely that’s football, where 22 players chase a round ball around a field for ninety minutes trying their best not to bite each other. Seemingly not. That’s soccer. Perhaps we could solve this continental divide once and for all and agree on the name Association football. Not sure the marketing guys can do much with that…

The location for this foray into USA-style football was the impressive Duke University, home of the ‘Blue Devils‘. Their opposition were the equally superbly named ‘Virginia Tech Hokies‘. My only previous experience of the game was during my teenage years when annual school ski trips would coincide with the Super Bowl, the grand finale of the American Football season, and we would watch this helmeted showdown on a fuzzily tuned 14″ TV on the coach on the way to the airport. Suffice as to say, none of the rules stayed with me, so you can imagine how many times we had to ask the locals for an explanation. The most confusing was seeing one of the eight or nine referees on the field throw his underwear on the field, only to have the stadium commentator refer to it as a ‘flag’…

It’s also no surprise that American Football is one of the most lucrative sporting series in the USA. And you can see why. One hour of clock time covers the entire played game, yet the entire event lasts close to four hours! Imagine the volume of burgers, beers, bagels, doughnuts, TV rights and advertising that can be sold to fill all the spare space… I rest my case. Perhaps comparing NFL team revenue to various small country GDP’s is a more eye opening stat…

Post game sustenance was sought at the Washington Duke Inn and Golf Club, a beautiful country club surrounded by manicured gardens and a championship golf course. Thoroughly outstanding crab cakes were followed by a Vanilla Bean Crème Brûlée with Citrus Sugar Cookie.

Presentation was quietly decadent with simple fresh fruit flourish and the Citrus Sugar cookie. The ramekin was French-style shallow with a thick layer of darkly caramelised sugar. It took two stabs of the spoon to breakthrough to a room temperature and very light, smooth and gently citrus-toned custard. Despite the title, I couldn’t spot the vanilla pods flecks, but that may have been to due to the exceptionally subdued lighting on the Bull Durham bar’s terrace. In particular, the very smooth and delicately citrus custard afford this evenings subject a worthy 8/10. Right up there with the best. 🙂

Footnote: It was freezing sat on the terrace, as evidenced the need for full outdoor gear, but why we resorted to wearing napkins on our heads whilst practising our pirate scowls is still a mystery.

Midi Station, Brussels

09/09/2014 Robin

Business Meetings. I’ve been to a few. Sometimes meetings can be fun. You like the people you are meeting. They say things that you agree with. You say things that they agree with. Everything is going just fine. You go home knowing a win-win was achieved and the world has moved forward a step or two. These kind of meetings normally take place in an office or a meeting room somewhere where the chairs are suitably comfortable and the refreshments are pleasantly average. Then you have a meeting somewhere else, perhaps a railway station concourse, or an airport lounge where the culinary options are slightly more, well, varied.

In my view, the best business meeting location is the one held in a restaurant. You and your co-meeters have something to distract you from the meeting subject matter. The menu. Perhaps the wine list, if the sun has passed over the yardarm (somewhere in the world). The only challenge to this whether to have two courses or three and whether your business acumen will stand up to the test of postprandial somnolence.

Thankfully, the meeting that catalysed this post was the second of the day, held in a restaurant, the first meeting being of the pleasantly average type. Midi Station is a large ballroom style eatery just outside Brussels Central Station which at the time we were there, was empty. Our hosts were of the hospitable type, and promptly requested the menu on our arrival, where I found exactly the kind of mid-afternoon snack I was looking for…

And as you can see, this one was a lot of fun. Two small dishes sat side-by-side in a jaunty 45 degree offset. Those Belgians! Alongside the excellent presentation (loving the sliced strawberry) was a cool and smooth custard, sat underneath an slightly over done caramelisation. Just at the edges of the dish, the sugar was scorched and had a blackened treacly flavour. Whilst this in itself was not terrible, it meant an otherwise excellent sugar top left a toasted treacle tinge on the tongue… This should have scored more based on simple and classic presentation, but those toasted undertones mean only a 4/10 score. Better luck next time Midi Station.

Comocomo, Brussels

08/09/2014 Robin 1 Comment

Travel has it’s up’s and downs. For work, it usually involves rushing from airport, to hotel, to meetings, to dinner, to after drinks, then back to the hotel for half a nights sleep. Repeat until you go home. The trick is leaving just enough time to actually see something of the place you’re visiting so you go home with some sense of the place, people and their culture.

Whilst this post is Brussels-based, a recent trip to Athens afforded a couple of hours to visit the Acropolis first thing on a Friday morning. We arrived just on opening time, so were through the gate an hour before the mass of tourists had finished their buffet breakfasts and had boarded their coaches… Following a brisk walk through the lower level ruins of amphitheatres, discarded marble work and bath houses, we arrived to a largely deserted high point. Whilst I could post the textbook image of the Parthenon, the more magical moment was watching the Greek Army cadets raising their national flag silhouetted against the early morning Athens skyline. A moment without conversation was enjoyed whilst they silently went about their daily ceremony. Magical.

So, back in Brussels, on the ‘to dinner’ segment, Comocomo was recommended by our hosts as the best Pintxos in Brussels. Comocomo is a fusion restaurant in the sense that it combines Japanese sushi bar conveyor belts and colour-coded plates with Basque Country Pintxos. Eating with fingers is the accepted way to eat as that’s how it’s done in the Basque. I was sure I noticed a small flicker of contempt from our waiter when asked for a fork… The Pintxos were excellent, as evidenced by the plate stack. I think I may have overdone it…

Relations with cutlery were thankfully resolved with the dessert course. This petite brûlée arrived via conveyor and was simply done. No fuss. No pretence. A 2mph delivery. Custard and sugar in a (fortunately) small earthenware dish. Like the restaurant, this was a casual and unfussy final course. Sugaring was light and nicely crackable with a simple spoon tap. The custard was cool, not cold, light and deliciously smooth. It was decidedly on the right side of sweet and big enough to be shared with my dining fellows. Which is exactly what we did, and worthy of a neither outstanding nor terrible 6/10.

Brasa Steak House, Raleigh, North Carolina

04/09/2014 Robin

Readers of this blog will know that I travel to the USA a few times a year, primarily to Raleigh in North Carolina. It is a lovely place. For a Brit, the weather is great pretty much all the time. April and October are the best months with good temperatures and lighter humidity. Since I first came here in 2005, a lot has changed. Many blue chip organisations have large locations here, and as a result, a lot of local people have moved here for work = lots of traffic.

More importantly, the number of restaurants have grown exponentially and there is a veritable plethora of choice. My first real love was Second Empire, located in downtown Raleigh. It’s an old Victorian era building with an exquisite menu introduced to me by my mentor and career educator Barrie Parker with a hugely varied menu. My second love, was my first introduction to sushi and sashimi at the lovely, and somewhat low rent Waraji. It’s nothing fussy or pretentious, just simple Japanese fayre simply presented with cold Asahi beer.

However, tonights quirky and somewhat left field brûlée was at another culinary first for me, at Brasa the Brazilian Steak House. For those of you who have not had the pleasure of a Brazilian steak night, the concept is simple. You control a Green or Red beer mat traffic light system. Green = bring me meat, lots of of it, don’t stop. Red = seriously, stop. Do I look like I need more protein?! (Cut to shot of Monty Python’s Mr. Creosote).

Once the meat is done, the desert offerings come to the fore. And a Chocolate Brûlée was the choice in hand. Lets just say it was ‘interesting’. Spoons for the table were ordered, just in case. In fact, it was interesting. Overtly rich and dark. Caramelisation under done but somewhat lost in the black depths of the chocolate. In truth, it wasn’t really a crème brûlée in the traditions of Trinity Cream, but it did explore culinary boundaries that this kind of pudding should. Take something and change it. See what happens. For me, it was just a tad too dark and heavy, and lacked the sweetness I hoped the chocolate would impart. Perhaps they used dark rather than milk chocolate. A good interpretation but only worthy of 5/10.

Château des Vigiers, Monestier

11/08/2014 Robin

Château des Vigiers is the product of some forward-thinking Swedish (and possibly Danish) wealthy-folk who decided to rescue a decaying château surrounded by enough vineyard and fruit groves to plough a championship standard 27 hole golf course through it without spoiling the view. They also turned the old piles of stones (ahem, château) into a spectacular hotel and spa. I’m lucky that my dad likes to play golf, this is one of the best courses around this area of South West France and he is a member here. The three loops of nine holes provide a rigorous test of anyone’s golfing abilities, whilst offering the tourist a quintessential French golfing experience. They also run a great brasserie, managed by the enigmatic and charming Nils.

Tonight’s steak was excellent, as was Vigiers own rosé which complimented the balmy summer evening and three times cooked chips perfectly. And naturellement, the dessert menu provided the opportunity to continue the quest… Again, as seems to be the way when in France, presenting brûlées in a wide but shallow ramekin appears to the de facto method. This delight offered a lemon infused custard which was refreshing light and smooth which reminded me of those classic homemade lemonades. The sugaring was light but not completely caramelised as evidenced by the lightness of the finish, but had it been more heavy burned it probably would have overtaken the subtly of the lemon custard. A good effort in a lovely location deserving a respectable 6/10.

The quest to find the greatest ever Crème Brûlée. There's only one rule: If it's on the menu, you have to order it…