Raj Mahal, Tiptree

Station Road
Tiptree, CO5 0AZ Map

The Raj Mahal was my local Indian restaurant when I lived in Essex. It's been through a few names over the years - "Tiptree Tandoori" and "Balti Raj" are a couple that I remember. At the moment it's calling itself the Raj Mahal. Every so often, when I visit friends and family over that way I pop in for a take-away or a meal.

They do a great Vegetarian Set menu that includes Aloo Puri, Vegetable Balti, Vegetable Mossala, Vegetable Samosas, Bombay Aloo, Pilau Rice and a Naan. This is a meal for two, but there is so much there, that with an extra rice it is easily enough for three or even four if you're not overly hungry. It all tastes great, especially the balti and the mossala and at about £20, it's a bargain!

Dedham Art & Craft Centre, Dedham

High Street,
Dedham CO7 6AD Map

http://www.dedhamartandcraftcentre.co.uk/

The Dedham Art and Craft Centre is a converted church in the middle of Constable country. It has three floors of furniture, crafts and pictures and tucked away in the corner of the ground floor is the tearoom.

It claims to be totally vegetarian, however when we popped in for lunch the blackboard advertised a dish with tuna in it. Aside from that however, the rest of the menu was meat and fish free.

I started with a broccoli and stilton soup which was very nice. Not too strong, it had a nice cheesy taste. It was served with a couple of slices of sliced bread and would've been much nicer with a fresh roll, or a chunk of unsliced bread.

Following the soup, I chose one of the quiches that was on the menu. There were quite a few of them and I had one with Brie and Cranberry. I'm not a big fan of quiche, but this one was really nice. It came with the choice of salad or jacket potato, and I had the potato.

I was there with my parents and they had a vegetable and herb crumble which I tried a mouthful or two of. Again, it was very nice. Oh, and the portions are very good.

The service was very friendly and the prices are reasonable. If you're in Essex and want a tasty, filling lunch then pop along to the Dedham Craft Centre.

Brasserie Blanc, Tunbridge Wells

Five Ways,
Lime Hill Road,
Tunbridge Wells TN1 1LJ map

http://www.brasserieblanc.com

I'm quite a big fan of Raymond Blanc, having eaten and cooked at Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons, and received a signed copy of Blanc Vite, which has some great veggie recipes in it, for my birthday.

I'd heard and read some very mixed reviews of Blanc Brasserie, but I was keen to try it out for myself so, on a bright and sunny Saturday lunchtime, we popped along to give it a go. As it was such a nice day we decided to sit outside on the shaded patio.

They offer a set lunch menu called "Dine with Wine" which I decided to try. This offers two courses for £11.50 or three courses for £14 each with a glass of wine. My wife decided that she didn't fancy anything from there and decided to order from the a la carte.

For the first course I had Smoked Potato Croquettes with Cranberry Dip. The croquettes were very nice and had a deep smoky flavour. They didn't, however, go with the dip at all. My wife had Maman Blanc’s Miscellany of Salads which was a selection of different salads dotted around a plate.

It looked really pretty and some of the salads were very tasty, especially the tomato one, which had a dressing that was made to be soaked up with the remaining bread on the table.

For my main course I had a Goats' Cheese and Almond Risotto. It tasted fine, but the rice was overcooked giving it a "rice pudding" texture rather than the al-dente crunch that risotto should have. It also appeared that the chef had left the skin on the goats' cheese as I found two strips of something that I hope was the cheese skin. I dread to think what else it might have been. I pointed it out to the waiter and he looked as mystified as me, but I heard nothing more about it.

My wife had Salmon Fillet and Chips which she said was really nice.

The service was friendly, but a bit slow between the courses. After about a fifteen minute wait after the starters we had to enquire as to the whereabouts of our mains, but apart from that it was fine.

Overall, the lunchtime offer was reasonably good value for money, even with the overcooked risotto. The a la carte is a bit on the pricy side - starters are around £6 and mains average out around £13 -£15, although the only vegetarian main was a bargain at £7.50!

Brasserie Blanc wasn't as bad as some of the reviews I've read have suggested, but it could be better. If the a la carte menu was more reasonable, we might be tempted to go back one evening, but as it is, the quality of the menu, in my opinion, just doesn't justify the cost.

Palio, Tunbridge Wells

84 - 86 Grosvenor Road,

Tunbridge Wells, TN1 2AS map

http://www.palio-restaurant.com/

We walk past Palio just about every time we go into Tunbridge Wells, yet it's taken us about a year to actually walk through the door.

The restaurant itself is very bright and airy and we got a friendly welcome as we entered and were shown to a table.

The menu is pretty good, with quite a few veggie options on the starters and pasta menus. They also have a pizza menu available at certain times. For starters, I had Vegetali al Forno, described as oven roasted vegetables drizzled with mint flavoured extra virgin olive oil. The dish consisted of peppers, fennel, courgette, globe artichoke, aubergine and provolone cheese. It was very nice. The artichokes, especially, had a lovely flavour and, for me, an antipasti like this is a perfect start to an Italian meal.

My wife chose a starter of Melanzane Parmagiana of which I had a taste. Now, this is one of my favourite dishes - the best I've had was at Trattoria Bagutta in Milan, so I'm a bit fussy when it comes to this dish. Palio's version was okay, but nothing special. It was obviously cut from a larger dish and tasted a bit bland.

For main course my wife had Pollo Alla Griglia, which was grilled chicken breast served on a large musgroom. The menu noted that the chicken was free-range, which was good to see. My wife said that, again, it was okay. The sauteed potatoes that were served with the chicken were very nice, tasting quite strongly of garlic.

My main course was Crespolini, spinach, ricotta and parmesan pancakes in a tomato and bechamel sauce. It arrived a the table impossibly hot, but once it cooled down, it was a quite pleasant dish, and the aforementioned potatoes did a very good job of mopping up the last of the sauce.

The portions at Palio are very generous - the vegetables I had to start could easily serve two wih some accompanying bread - and the prices are fairly reasonable. The service we had was very friendly and professional, which made a fairly regular meal that little bit better. We were discussing on the way home how much difference good or bad service can make to a meal, and we both agreed that the service at Palio made the difference for us to add it to our "one to go back to" list.

National Vegetarian Week - Friday

Today is the last day of my Vegetarian Week at work. With apologies to Carol Blymire, this is Gaz Cooks Keller as I decided to do a dish from the French Laundry Cookbook - Parmesan Crisps with Goats' Cheese Mousse.

It's a fairly easy dish to do, just a bit time consuming as you can't do too many crisps at a time or they will go crispy before you get time to shape them. The mousse is straightforward as well and is very tasty.

I also took in some Mango and Chilli Sorbet that I had made a while back. The chilli in it gives a really good "kick" after the sorbet has melted in your mouth, and it was quite fun watching the surprise and delight on my colleagues' faces when they tried it.

It's been a fun week. I've enjoyed cooking the dishes and my workmates seemed to have enjoyed eating them. If nothing else hopefully it's shown that veggie food can be tasty and exciting and is not just lentils, tofu and salad!

National Vegetarian Week - Thursday

Last week I got a new cook book, The Vegeterranean, and I thought I'd try something new for today's offering.

The book calls it Torri di Zucchine Ripiene con Crema di Piselli, which translates to Courgette Towers Stuffed with Pea Cream.

There's a fair bit of prep with this, preparing the courgettes and making the puree, but once it's put together, it looks great and tastes pretty good too. The almonds that finish the dish off are toasted and then have icing sugar sprinkled over them. Their sweetness really goes well with the pea cream and offsets the slight bitterness of the courgette.

The courgettes and the cream both benefitted from spending some time in the 'fridge and they were well received in the office.

National Vegetarian Week - Wednesday

Vegetable Sushi is something I did for the first time during my Cordon Vert Foundation course. Since then, I've made it several times and it always goes down well. And today was no different. In fact, it disappeared the quickest of all the food this week.

I made two sets of Nori rolls, each with different fillings. The first had carrot, red and yellow peppers, umboshi paste and wasabi, and the other had shitake mushrooms marinated in sherry and roasted red pepper. I served them with a dipping sauce made from shoyu, ginger juice and sesame oil.

National Vegetarian Week - Tuesday

Today is an East-Meets-West dish. It's something I came across in Rose Elliot's Veggie Chic and it sounded really interesting. As it's asparagus season the dish, Sesame Roasted Asparagus with Wasabi Vinaigrette, seemed the perfect thing to try.

It's fairly quick to do. You toss the asparagus in toasted sesame oil, sprinkle with salt and pop into the oven. Then you make the vinaigrette, which is a combination of wasabi, rice vinegar and sesame oil. The book says that the sauce is better if made up to a day in advance.

I made the sauce yesterday evening and roasted the asparagus this morning before going into work. After a quick taste, I decided that sesame oil and wasabi goes extremely well with asparagus.

When I arrived at the office, there were only a half-dozen or so people in and I wondered if I'd made too much as I put out the two plates with a pile of asparagus on each.

I needn't have worried. By lunchtime, there were only a few stalks left and everyone said how much they enjoyed it.

National Vegetarian Week - Monday

National Vegetarian Week is organised by the Vegetarian Society to raise the profile of vegetarianism. This year, I decided to make a different dish every day to take into work, to show them the variety of veggie food that I eat, as I'm sure some of them think I survive on salads.

It's difficult to create a dish that would be suitable for an office and be practical for me to create, so I decided to stick to buffet-type food.

For today's dish, I decided to do something that was a bit of a favourite on the Creative Cookery Cordon Vert course that I did as part of my diploma, Leek and Courgette Mini Muffins.

The recipe is fairly easy - you finely slice some leeks and saute them with some garlic, grate some courgettes and add them to the pan, then mix all of that with some flour, curry power, paprika, onion seeds, eggs, milk and olive oil. Once it's all mixed you pop it into a mini-muffin tray and stick it in the oven for 25 minutes.

I only have a single mini-muffin tray and it only has twelve holes. As the recipe I have makes about 40 it took me a while before all forty were cooked.

Although they are quite tasty on their own, they're best eaten with a filling of cream cheese, guacamole or some kind of "dip" and I took some cheese into work to serve them with.

They seemed go down pretty well, and although there weren't tha many people in the office today, there were only two left on the plate by the end of the day, which yours truly finished off.

Tuscan Reunion

About a year ago I went to Italy to do a course at Organic Tuscany. It was great fun and we've all kept in touch since. This weekend we all met up for a meal at which I volunteered to cook.

I decided to start with a mixed antipasti, followed by an asparagus risotto for main course and finally a tiramisu for dessert.

The antipasti I based on the veggie antipasti that they do at Carluccio's. It consists roasted peppers with pesto - I used a selection of green, sundried tomato and aubergine pesto, green beans with mint and garlic, mozzarella and caponata. The caponata recipe is in Antonio Carluccio's Vegetables if you want to try it. It's the best caponata recipe I've tried, and everyone seems to enjoy it whenever I make it. If you make it, then make it the day before, as it tastes much better after the flavours have had a chance to mingle. Also, make a lot of it, as it is great stirred into pasta, as well as part of an antipasti plate.

For the main course, I did an asparagus risotto. This was one of the dishes that we made in Tuscany and, as asparagus is in season at the moment, it seemed the perfect choice. I like to drizzle a little lemon-infused olive oil around the outside of the risotto after it is plated, just to give it a little extra "something".

Finally, it was time for the tiramisu. This was a favourite on the course and this was the first time that I had got around to making it. I've always been put off of tiramisu as I always feel that it had that '70's "Abigail's Party" kind of feel to it, but I have to admit that it is a really nice dessert. I decided to go a bit "posh" and serve it in a cocktail glass, which worked quite well.

It was a great afternoon, and I hope that everyone enjoyed the food. The plates were all empty at the end of each course, so I guess that means that they did!

A Dessert to Delight!

Last week I made another trip to Benares, on yet another TopTable deal. The food and service was as good as my last visit, but I have to make a special mention of the dessert as it was something else.

The picture doesn't do it justice at all, I'm afraid.

It was described as Tandoori Banana Crumble and the plate consisted of a baked banana, topped with nuts and various crumbs accompanied by chocolate amaretti biscuits and, what I can only describe as a "pistachio milkshake," complete with straw.

On its own, the banana would have made quite a pleasant pud. However, when a scoop of the banana was eaten along with a slurp of the bright green "milkshake" the flavour was superb!

Well done to Atul Kotcher for making one of the very best desserts I have ever had.

Tunbridge Wells Bar and Grill, Tunbridge Wells

84 High Street,
Tunbridge Wells TN1 1YB Map

http://www.therestaurantbarandgrill.co.uk/tunbridge.html

I've never been tempted to visit the Bar and Grill, always suspecting it to be a steak and burger joint that would give you "chips with everything".

When a colleague of mine recommended it, my wife and I decided to pop along one sunny Sunday evening.

From the moment we entered and were greeted by one of the waiters and shown to our table, I knew that my previous impression was completely wrong.

As it was a nice evening, we decided to sit in the courtyard at the back. The tables are nicely spaced to allow a good amount of privacy and the area is covered by shades making it an extremely pleasant place to eat.

There isn't an extensive menu for vegetarians, but compared to a lot of other places, it's not bad. There was a risotto, a lasagne and a Thai green curry. There are also a couple of suitable salads, and a selection on the starters menu.

We started by sharing a mezze selection that included falafels, hummus, tzatziki, pitta bread, baba ganoush, olives and filo samosas stuffed with spinach and cheese. The portion was a nice size for the two of us and it was extremely tasty, especially the samosas.

My wife had the fish and chips, with mushy peas for her main. It was all presented separately with the fish on the main plate and the chips and peas in side bowls, which gave me the chance to have a taste of them. The chips were great, although the peas were a little on the runny side for my liking.

For my main course, I chose the vegetable Thai Green Curry. It was pretty good, well presented, with sweet potato, peppers, mangetout and bok choi in a bright green, spicy sauce. It wasn't too spicy, although it did have a slight bitter taste to it and the vegetables were nice and crispy.

And so to dessert. The dessert menu had a vanilla creme brulee, however the specials menu was boasting a passionfruit version, so I had to try it.

Oh dear, oh dear... I'm not sure how they did it, but the whole dish appeared to be covered in a thin oily film and the caramelised topping was like a thin, sticky, rubber layer over the top of the custard. The custard itself tasted okay, but it was thick and gloopy rather than the nice firm custard that I like. So, I'm afraid that it only managed to scrape a two on the chart.

Apart from the creme brulee, it was great. The service was really good, from start to finish and I'm certain we'll go back. When we do, I'll try the brulee from the main dessert menu and see if they can redeem themselves.

If you decide to go, and I recommend you do, then I've been old to avoid the tables right at the back of the restaurant as they are quite dark, making it quite hard to see what you are eating.

Suchitra's Tunbridge Wells

71 Calverley Road,
Tunbridge Wells, TN1 2UY Map
http://www.suchitras.com

During a conversation at the gym my wife was recommended a "Thai restaurant, just a bit further along from Mooli." Suchitra's seemed to fit the bill, so we paid a visit on Sunday evening.

The restaurant is nice and airy and the tables are a nice distance apart. It stretches a fair way back and has a sort of "garden area" with a large gold Buddha staring in through the window at you. It also appears to have a wine bar in the basement.

To start, I chose Tofu Tod, which was deep fried beancurd served with a chilli sauce. It was a fairly nice, but fairly standard Thai starter. My wife had Chicken Yum, which was chicken mixed with various Thai spices and salad. She said it was the best that she'd had since leaving Australia, seven years ago!

My main course was Fried Aubergine with Basil in a Yellow Bean Sauce. It was very nice, the aubergine had a nice texture and it was quite spicy but you could still taste the sweetness of the sauce. To accompany this, I had beansprouts with spring onions and mushrooms and fried rice with mint and chilli. Both were very nice, the beansprouts especially. My wife had Pad Coriander Chicken, which consisted of chicken, coriander and chilli, which she enjoyed.

The portions were generous, which meant that we were both too full for dessert. The service was friendly and efficient and the prices weren't bad either, with main course dishes being around £6-£7. We were both quite impressed and plan to go back sometime to try out some of the other dishes on the menu.

Cafe Spice Namaste, London

16 Prescot Street,
London E1 8AZ Map
http://www.cafespice.co.uk

Cyrus Todiwala is a regular on the various Saturday morning cookery programs and is the Executive Chef of the Cafe Spice Namaste restaurant in Aldgate. I've been wanting to go there for quite a while and the opportunity finally came up earlier this week.

The restaurant is about a five minute walk from Aldgate tube and seems to be an old school building or similar. We were seated in one of the corners and, although the room is fairly large, the atmosphere is still fairly intimate.

While we were waiting for our starters, we tucked into poppadoms with a selection of pickles. A couple of the pickles were really tasty. One of them I can only describe as a spicy Branston pickle, the other was quite fruity and tangy.

I started with a vegetarian selection of appetisers. These included a stuffed potato cake and Cyrus's famous Beetroot and Coconut Samosa. They were all really tasty, but I would certainly recommend the samosa.

For main course I had Paneer Shashlik Raiwalla. This is a dish very similar to ones I've had at other restaurants and is a combination of cheese, peppers, onions and tomatoes cooked on a skewer. One of the problems with this kind of dish, I've found, is because paneer cheese is fundamentally bland, when you have large chunks of it, the flavouring of it has to be good, otherwise the dish gets very boring. The spicing and flavouring of the cheese was absolutely spot on, and I could've eaten it all night.

To accompany it I had a dish from the specials menu that consisted of various pulses and nuts that was okay, and a dish with spiced pumpkin and aubergine that was much nicer.

My fellow diner had a barramundi dish that he said was better than the one he had at the Cinnamon Club.

The dessert menu arrived and it had a dish called Zafrani Creme Brulee, so I had no choice in the matter.

A short while later, a creme brulee turned up at our table. This was the first time I have ever had a creme brulee delivered that was on fire! It was quite spectacular as the blue flame licked its way across the dish. It tasted great too. The custard was of a nice consistency and it had a delicate cardamom flavour. It ranked 8.5.

The meal was very enjoyable and the service was very friendly and timely. There was always a waiter around when you needed one, but they weren't overly obtrusive during the meal, which was really good.

From my side of things, it was a little disappointing that there was only a single veggie main on the menu (wonderful though it was) although there were a host of veggie side dishes. Despite that minor niggle, I plan to go back sometime, hopefully in the not too distant future.

The French Laundry, Yountville, USA

6640 Washington Street, Yountville, USA
http://www.frenchlaundry.com/

The French Laundry was voted the World's Best Restaurant in 2004. Since then, it has remained in the top four and is best restaurant in America. I got the cookbook for Christmas and, although I've not made anything from it as yet, the recipes look wonderful.

So, when we booked our holiday in California I just had to try and get a reservation. If I could get it for my wife and I's wedding anniversary, then it would be just perfect.

The French Laundry only take reservations two months in advance, so for a couple of days in a row I was on the phone trying to get a table. Eventually I managed to book one for lunch on the day of our anniversary.

From then until the day we went I was excited and hoping that it would live up to all my expectations.

So, did it? You bet. And some...

We were seated just in front of the fireplace and our waiter wished us Happy Anniversary and introduced himself. We were then given the menus and the waiter explained them. The French Laundry has two nine course menus, The Chef’s Tasting and A Taste of Vegetables. Each menu changes daily, depending on the ingredients available which means that no two meals you have here will ever be the same. They also have a policy of only using an ingredient once in each menu, so that each course is a new experience.

My wife chose the Chef’s Tasting menu and I chose the Taste of Vegetables. Because of the ever changing menus, the French Laundry does not offer a set of wines matched to each course, instead the sommelier will talk you through the wine list recommending bottles that will match your selection. This was quite a difficult job as, for us, he had to find a wine that would match two different menus. But he did very well indeed. I can’t remember the wine selection, but he suggested that we started with champagne, have a half bottle of white between us for the first couple of courses, a red for the middle few and finish with a dessert wine.

Very shortly two small “ice cream” cones were delivered to the table. These were an amuse bouche, we were told of a salmon sorbet for my wife and a sundried tomato sorbet with fennel crème fraiche for myself. The flavours were great, it looked superb and it was an excellent start to the meal.

Then came the first course “proper”.

I had Tokyo Turnips, which consisted of baby turnips, perilla shoots (a kind of mint) and a pine nut puree. The turnips were sweet and crunchy and the pine nut puree was great.


My wife had Cauliflower Panna Cotta which came with caviar. She hadn't had caviar before and said that it tasted like a roast dinner.

Next up were a couple of salads. Mine was a Salad of English Cucumber which, as well as the cucumber, had charred scallions, avocado and was dressed with yogurt. Again (and you're going to to get fed up with me saying this) all of the ingredients were incredibly fresh and very well presented. The Chef's menu had a Salad of Big Island Hearts of Peach Palm which was accompanied with radishes, coriander shoots, a coconut "gelee" and a date coulis.


Next, I had Asperges Vertes en Feuille de Bric This consisted of asparagus (which has just come into season in California) the stalks of which were coated in a wonderfully light batter, pearl onions, lambs lettuce, Castelmagno cheese and a black truffle coulis. I will never be able to eat asparagus again without thinking of this dish - it was amazing.

My wife had Nicoise Olive-Crusted Fillet of Atlantic Halibut, which she enjoyed.

Next up was something that I thought just didn't sound right, Hand-Rolled Potato Gnocchi. It sounds okay so far, but it came with peas and a "Madras Curry Emulsion." Italy and India? Surely it couldn't work? It did. The curry flavour of the emulsion was very delicate (certainly not a "Madras" as we know it) and didn't interfere with the wonderful fresh crisp flavour of the peas, and the whole thing really worked well.

From the Chef's Menu, my wife had Sweet Butter-Poached Maine Lobster "Mitts". These were accompanied by peas, white asparagus, mint, red chilli and passion fruit emulsion. The pink of the lobster, the green of the peas and the yellow emulsion meant it was a real feast for the eyes as well as the palette.

None of the portions were huge, but I never felt that they were that small either. After every course I was eager to see what the next delight would be. Every course was beautifully presented and both mine and my wife's were delivered together. The timing between courses was fairly short, but we never felt rushed.

Next on the menu was a "Fricassee" of Baby Artichokes. This consisted of tiny globe artichokes and baby carrots with a mustard vinaigrette. Again, it was the fresh taste of the vegetables that was most evident, perfectly accented by the vinaigrette.

The All Day Braised Kurobuta Pork Belly that my wife had was accompanied by a really smooth mashed potato, greens and maple syrup.

Next for me was a dish I was really looking forward to. Crispy Hen-of-the-Woods Mushroom. My previous experience of Hen-of-the-Woods was during the mushroom foray I did, where we discovered it at the foot of an oak tree.


The mushroom was really tasty and, as the description said, quite crispy which was quite an odd sensation for a mushroom.

My wife had Elysian Fields Farm Lamb Ribeye. She loves lamb and really enjoyed it.

And so, onto the cheese course.

I had Timanoix cheese with butternut squash, toasted pecans and maple syrup. My wife had Shropshire Blue with grapes, endive, watercress and green peppercorn "aigre doux". Both were lovely, but if I had to choose, then the Shropshire Blue would win. It was gloriously creamy with a lovely "sourness" that blue cheeses have.

Next up were a couple of sorbets. The Taste of Vegetables menu had a Sour Cherry Sorbet with Sesame Nougat and the Chef's menu has Diane St. Claire Buttermilk Sherbet with Field Rhubarb.

By now, it was time for dessert and we were realising that we were getting to the end of the meal.

Just before the dessert was delivered, a couple of small pre-desserts were delivered. My wife had a creme brulee and I had a sort of creamy set custard. The creme-brulee was nice (7.5) but had it been made with the custard that I had it would have topped the chart.

My dessert was Crepe Soufflee. This was essentially small banana pancakes and was served with Guinness ice cream. It was lovely and the ice cream, although a bit odd on its own complemented the bananas very well.


My wife's dessert was Granny Smith Apple "Bavarois" with Dijon mustard ice cream. As with the crepes, the ice cream on its own was very strange, but went very well with the apple. Once again, the presentation was wonderful.

Following the dessert were some petit fours and coffee. We were presented with an Easter Egg, some shortbreads, a French Laundry clothes peg that had been clipped to the napkin when we arrived and a copy of the menus.

To my delight, we were also invited to visit the kitchen.


It was interesting to see the chefs at work. There was none of the frantic action or cursing that we all have come to expect from being exposed to so many "Gordon Ramsay" reality TV programs, it was all very quiet and controlled.

So, that was it. The end of possibly the best meal I have ever had. It was certainly a fantastic way to celebrate our wedding anniversary. The setting of the restaurant is wonderful and the service is perfect. As a bonus, on that particular day, Yountville was having a wine festival, so after the meal we made our way there and were able to sample some more of the region's wines.

The French Laundry was a wonderful experience. I would love to go back if I ever get the chance. It's not cheap, but nowhere of this calibre is. The nine course menu is $240 and on top of that you have to add drinks. Luckily, service is included in the price, however we were so impressed that we left a bit more, a don't begrudge a penny (or cent) of it.

Greens, San Francisco, USA

Building A, Fort Mason Center, San Francisco
http://www.greensrestaurant.com/

Greens is on the northern coast of San Francisco and looks out over the marina. If you are lucky to get a seat near the window, you can get a great view of the Golden Gate Bridge.

It is a completely vegetarian restaurant with an ever changing seasonal menu.

We arrived early and had plenty of time to peruse the menu while we waited for the staff to finish setting the restaurant. Then we were shown to a table by the window - yay!

We started with a Mediterranean platter to share. It was really nice, with artichokes, hummus, quinoa and a gorgeous tomato chutney, the recipe of which is in the Everyday Greens cookbook, which was a good enough reason for me to buy a copy.

For mains my wife had a red curry and I had a vegetable filo dish. The red curry was nice, with a nice Thai-style flavour. The filo dish was good too with a nice selection of fresh vegetables, beautifully cooked.

For dessert I had an apple tarte tatin which was very tasty, although it would've been nicer if there had been a little more of it. My wife had a selection of sorbets that she wasn't that impressed with, describing them as "dry".

Despite that, we both had a really nice evening. The service was good, and the restaurant itself is comfortable, really airy and the view is great. If you're in San Francisco, it's definitely worth a visit.

California Dining

Well, not just California as we stopped off in New York for a few days before flying onto San Francisco. During our couple of weeks in the US we ate at some really nice places, some of which I'll mention below.

The House of Vegetarian - 68 Mott St, New York, USA
As the name suggests, this is a vegetarian restaurant in New York's Chinatown. The menu here reminded me of the Pink Giraffe in Oxford as it was mostly mock meat and fish. However, we decided to try their vegetable dishes rather than go for the veggie duck, fish, chicken etc. We had a few dishes, the best of which was braised broccoli in brown sauce. All the food was nice, but the broccoli stood out. Also, the portions were huge. A word of note - they only take cash, probably the only place that we went to in the US that did.


Katy's Place - Mission Street between 5th and 6th, Carmel USA
Katy's is well known for breakfast in Carmel and it's easy to see why. The menu is enormous and there are fifteen different versions of Eggs Benedict! So, obviously I had to try the veggie version. It was lovely. And huge. Three eggs, three muffins, mushrooms and home fries. Yumm!


Robin's Restaurant - 4095 Burton Drive, Cambria, USA
We visited Robin's last time we were here and I'm pleased to say it is still as good. I started with spring rolls and then had a tempeh laksa. Both were nice, but the tempeh wasn't needed in the laksa, it would've worked much better I think with shitake or oyster mushrooms.

For dessert I had a lemon creme brulee, which was really nice - a good 8.5 on the scale. It was good to see that Robin's was as good as we remembered.

CATAL 1580 Disneyland Drive, Anaheim, USA
It was a nice surprise to find a restaurant as good as this in Disneyland. It was quite popular, but we didn't have to wait too long after putting our name down until we were called. The waiting staff were very knowledgeable of the menu and the service was great. The food was pretty good too.

I started with artichokes (I had a bit of an artichoke frenzy while I was in the US...) and my wife had scallops, both very tasty and well presented. For mains, I had a wild mushroom risotto, which was very tasty and had several different kinds of mushrooms and some truffle as a bonus!

Dessert consisted of a trio of small desserts which included an unpotted creme brulee (6) and a panna cotta. It was all very nice and the whole experience made a very nice end to our holiday.

Back to Boxwood

As promised in my December blog entry, I returned to the Boxwood Cafe to try out their Vegetarian Taste of Boxwood menu, and very good it was too. It is a six course menu (or seven if you opt for the cheese course) and can be matched with wines if you want it.

The first course was Jerusalem artichoke soup with roasted shallots. It was served in an espresso cup and was gorgeous. My Mum used to make a really sloppy concoction of artichokes and milk which I never liked, so it was really a revelation to have such a tasty dish.

Next up was Poached Burford brown egg, creamed potato and cep sauce. Again, this was great. The egg was perfectly cooked and the potato was really creamy and smooth. The cep sauce was divine and really complemented the egg.

After that was Baby beetroot, barrel aged feta, blood orange, pear and pine nut salad. The beetroot was sweet and the whole salad was really fresh and tasty.

I've not had white asparagus before, but my wife who works in Germany a lot of the time tells me that they say over there that it is much better than green asparagus. I was eager to test out the claim with the next course Grilled white asparagus, fontina cheese and barigoule vegetables.



To be honest, it was not that special. The asparagus was certainly not as tasty as the green asparagus, and it was only the cheese that gave the dish any real flavour. Also, I find it odd that all the top chefs harp on about seasonal cooking and here we have asparagus served up in March.

The next course was Risotto of roasted violet artichoke and herbs. Ahh, back to the good stuff. Perfectly cooked rice with gentle artichoke flavours. Wonderful.

Finally, for dessert there was Valrhona hot chocolate fondue, marshmallows, biscotti and fruit kebabs. Hold on! I hear you cry. Marshmallows on a vegetarian menu? Surely they have gelatine in them? I quizzed the waiter about this and he admitted that they did, indeed, contain gelatine. Tut, tut. Is this Ramsay's little joke? Still, no matter, I had the dessert without the marshmallows and it was lovely. The chocolate was gorgeous and wonderfully silky. The fruit (bananas, raspberries and blueberries) was wonderfully fresh and tasty.

We had wines matched to each course and these were really nice, especially the sparkling red Bouvet-Ladubay that we had with the dessert -it was really different. The service, as you would expect, was superb and really friendly. It was a great evening, and I'd quite happily go back sometime.

The Pink Giraffe, Oxford

43b St Clements Street
Oxford OX4 1AG Map

http://www.thepinkgiraffe.com/

If you've got an aversion to "mock" meat products then the Pink Giraffe is probably not the place for you. As well as the "vegetarian" chicken, beef, pork, ham and duck it has bean curd and vegetable dishes on the menu. It is the most extensive vegetarian menu I have ever see at a Chinese restaurant.

They offer several set menus, including ones for meat, vegetarian and vegan.

We chose to have one of the vegetarian ones and started with a very spicy vegetarian Tom Yum soup, that was absolutely packed with vegetables. This was followed by salt and peppered bean curd and "vegetarian chicken" satay.

Once we'd finished this, "vegetarian beef" in black bean sauce, "vegetarian chicken" in wine and hot garlic sauce, bean curd in yellow bean sauce and rice were delivered to the table. It was all quite tasty, but there was probably a little to much of the mock meat for me, I would've preferred a few more vegetable dishes mixed in.

Given that it is now around fifteen years since I gave up meat, my memory of what it tastes and feels like is probably pretty bad. However, the textures brought back a few memories and the "beef" was scarily real. However you feel about meat substitutes. if you look at it just as an ingredient to add texture and taste to a meal, then it works quite well in these dishes.

The portions were a good size, and I was too full for any dessert. With drinks and a tip, the meal was about £20 per head, which I think was a bargain.

Mooli, Tunbridge Wells

57 - 59 Calverley Road,
Tunbridge Wells TN1 2UY Map

http://sherpakitchen.com/2_Mooli/page/home.php

One of our favourite restaurants when I lived near Edenbridge was the Gurkha Kitchen in Oxted. When Atul Kochhar, of Benares mentioned in an Observer interview that it was in his top five Indian restaurants in the UK, we were really pleased for them.

When I heard that they were opening a sister restaurant in Tunbridge Wells, called Mooli, it was immediately put on our list of places to visit.

We popped in on Saturday evening shortly after they opened on the off-chance that they might be able to fit us in. They said that we could have a table until 8pm, which suited us fine.

While we were perusing the menu, we were presented with spicy poppadums and pickles. Personally, I would have preferred plain poppadums as the spices detracted from the taste of the pickles, a couple of which were very good.

The menu is very similar to the Gurkha Kitchen, and I started with Dayalu, potato cakes made with lentils, spinach and fresh herbs, served with sesame pickle. They were very tasty. My wife had prawns, which she said were lovely and went extremely well with the mint puree that they were served with.

For the main course, we both chose dishes that were favourites in Oxted. I had Chayu which was mushrooms filled with lightly spiced cheese, peppers, tomatoes and onions, served on a sizzling platter. They had a sweet spicy flavour and were just as good as I remember. My wife had a lamb dish, which she said was really good. To accompany the main courses we had beans and cabbage in soy sauce, and potatoes and courgettes in a spice and herb sauce. The beans were great and went really well with the mushrooms, providing a nice counterpoint for the spicy/sweet filling of the mushrooms. The potatoes, were nothing to write home about, next time we're there I shall try something else. We also tried out the Patina Patre, an unleavened bread with mint, which made a pleasant change to a plain naan.

It took a while for the dessert to arrive, but when it did, we found out why. My wife chose a fruit platter, which was huge! It had banana, red and green grapes, apple, pineapple, orange and kiwifruit, all of which were sliced and presented nicely - the pineapple especially. This is really a dish to share.

I had heard good things about the Holy Sweet -grated carrots cooked in milk, honey and nuts and served with vanilla ice cream. I always like to try something a little different if its on the menu. The aubergine dessert I had at Tas is still something I still talk about and I have to say, Holy Sweet is probably going to be the same. It was gorgeous, tasting similar to a sticky toffee pudding. It was also nice to see little dots of real vanilla seeds in the ice cream.

The food was great and presented nicely and the service was good. An apology for the delayed dessert came without prompting and a dropped spoon was retrieved and replaced almost without me noticing.

So, what was the damage? For the food, a couple of white wines and a cobra (well you have to, don't you?) and service, it came to about sixty quid. Not bad at all and we're both keen to go back.