It was the foodie hen-do of all hen-dos. It began on Friday with dinner for the bride to be (Emily), the hen’s sister Polly and myself. Dinner on Friday was at Sam’s of Brighton, I had rib-eye steak, perfectly cooked, served with chunky (proper) hand-cooked chips. Emily’s partridge was a little tight and difficult to eat, but the flavour was good. Polly chose Thai-spiced sea bream which she quietly enjoyed I think, but didn’t say much… A bottle of powerful red from Ribera del Duero was divine.

On Saturday we were sensible all day, knowing that a gourmet dinner and drinking marathon was coming. Polly had arranged for a chef-friend of hers to come and cook a three-course dinner for 15 of us. I loved being responsible for the food & wine-matching element. I had spent hours ‘umming’ and ‘ahring’ over the right combination, plus a few essential tips from the food & wine matching queen Fiona Beckett.

I chose Australian Green Point fizz for the afternoon’s drinking… recommended by the lovely Johnny Ray, Telegraph Weekend. A great value sparkling wine for £10 – it showed enough depth of flavour to stand on its own.

We then moved on to roast peach bellinis with wild mushroom, fig and Parma ham crostinis, olives and bread. Then to start, I enjoyed roast pumpkin, goats cheese and caramelized walnut salad, other chicks gobbled up potted brown shrimps, chicken liver pate with spiced plum chutney, pan fried chicken livers with pomegranate and watercress. For all this I chose Albariño Martin Codax 2008 Rias Baixas – it is one of my fave white wines and always impresses! A white wine of enough strength to complement the many flavours of these dishes, but yet not overpowering and gentle on the palate.

For mains I opted for slow cooked pork belly with herb Puy lentils, black cabbage and grilled apple - it was good but I think a little more slow cooking was needed to get the fat fully dissolved so the meat falls apart. The ‘hen’ had venison with red wine, juniper and chestnuts while there was some great fish being eaten - black bream with herb orzotto and gremolata and cod wrapped with prosciutto and sage with pea and garlic cream. At this point we drank Yering Frog Pinot Noir 2008 which was actually a little powerful in flavour, more than I has imagined. Believe it or not, the richer (Decanter gold award winner) Ch. Moulin Mont Milan 2007 was better, a joy – very smooth.

Three puddings on one plate - Bakewell tart, treacle tart, berry granita and clotted cream were accompanied by a scrummy dessert wine Concha y Toro Late Harvest Sauvignon Blanc 2006. Good old Majestic!

And yes believe it or not, after all of that, we still managed a night of dancing at Funky Fish, with lots of vodka red bull – oh dear! A little sore the next day to say the least, but it was so worth it! What will be eating and drinking at the wedding?

Georgie

Tags: Brighton, Funky Fish, Sam’s of Brighton, Wine

This entry was posted on Monday, December 21st, 2009 at 10:00 am and is filed under Drink, Food, Restaurants, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.