Project 22 : FridayFoodClub meets the modern pantry

On Monday, 7th November I was fortunate enough to attend Project 22 where The Friday Food Club with the modern pantry. Their aim of the evening : provide a great 5 course meal with some vino in London on a Monday night, for £35 – and of course, they never let us down.


As we know I am a late comer to the supper club world. It was by sheer chance that I came across the delightful Lee Behan at FridayFoodClub via twitter. I tweeted Lee over his regular supply of #FoodPorn. I attended my first FridayFoodClub event at his home back in October where Dhruv Baker, masterchef winner 2010 was in the kitchen with up and coming Steve Acton. The evening was one of the highlights of my year; not only was the food and wine both excellent, but having attended on my own, I have subsequently met the most wonderful bunch of foodie friends and I now see them all regularly. For food. And wine.


I was rather excited when the mail went out about his team up with Anna Hansen from the modern pantry. Everyone seems to have eaten at the modern pantry and experienced the infamous sugar cured prawn omelette. Everyone apart from me of course.
On this occasion I decided to include some girlfriends as I wanted them to enjoy the delicious food and experience a truly wonderful inexpensive evening for themselves.


Upon arrival, my friend quickly perused the menu placed in front of us. She quickly reminded me of her allergy to nuts! I had clearly forgotten #badfriend. Lee being the star he is, handled my error with grace and ease and quickly removed all traces of nuts from her future plates (thank you again Lee).


The courses were as follows:


Deep fried quails eggs with a cornish custard cheddar.
This dish was sheer heaven on a plate for me. Quaint quails eggs perfectly deep fried, yellow yoke oozing from the centre over a luscious cheddar custard. I could have eaten a bowlful of the custard alone!

Second course was the brown crab pancake which completely blew me and my taste buds away! Succulent brown crab combined with zingy lime and lemongrass, a sudden kick of spice resting on a thick crispy pancake. There were hints of sweet corn and avocado. Every mouthful teased my palate, like notes in a song, wanting more.

This was quickly followed by the palate cleanser . I loved the different combinations and flavours of the honest roasted beetroot set against the goats cheese taken to another dimension by the macadamia nut and fennel crumb.

The main course consisted of a very dirty wood pigeon served on braised leeks with truffled chips accompanied by pureed chestnuts infused with vanilla . The pigeon served on the bone tasted rich in iron and earthy goodness. I have never eaten wood pigeon before and was surprised how liverish it tasted. For some people the flavours were too much... I loved it!! The truffled chips were a great combination and contrasted against the richness of the bird.

And finally we came the Bomb Alaska - Anna style. Ground pumpkin seed base, with a rose water ice- cream and a tumeric infused meringue … sweet and salty like a marriage made in heaven and the perfect way to end a truly scrumptious evenings.

All I can say readers is make sure you get to the next Project 22 at the modern pantry! There is no where in London you can eat and drink this well for the price.

Goes with the flow

So TheSingleEater turned in to TheSingleDrinker on Saturday night.  It was partially by accident and as a woman, I wouldn’t necessarily condone drinking alone for safety reasons, but sometimes you just have to go with the flow.

Earlier in the day I had met my BFF for a stroll around Borough Market, after which we would have a little lunch in a nearby restaurant. Upon arrival at the market, both BFF & I realized we hadn’t been to the market in over a year. Now I love a market and I used to love Borough Market – but it annoys me now. For one, I don’t like crowds and unless you get there for 8am, you will be bumped and bustled along for ever checking to ensure you're not being pick-pocketed. Moan Two – the market is overpriced: Now I don’t mind paying for food – but charging £4.30 for Quince or charging £4.00 for a piece of focaccia is daylight robbery!

After a little bump and grind, we wandered down to Bermondsey Street to The Garrison. I have eaten at this lovely gastropub before, and I adore the eclectic décor and magnetic vibe of the place. This little spot also holds a special place in my heart after enjoying a very memorable evening with a beautiful and special friend.  

Even for a Saturday afternoon, The Garrison did not disappoint. BFF and I started with a peach bellini, a real one I must add and not one of those artificially flavoured things. Since this was merely a little lunch, we only ordered Guinea fowl mains, which was excellent - moist and juicy.

I had invited a long lost school friend to join us for drinks. Long Lost Friend had recently made contact after years of silence. We'd lost contact in the days before the internet and we'd both lived around the word. We had  spoken a few times over skype in previous days and this was our first official meeting.

It’s always interesting when you catch up with people you haven’t seen in years. Not only have you both have changed physically and emotionally, regardless of how intimate you had been in the past, nothing will ever replace those periods of absence.

Long lost friend and I had both been looking forward to our reunion and the conversation flowed easily, and so did the drinks. BFF left, we spoke more intimately and yet we still only scratched the surface of our past. We wandered through the now dark isolated streets of London, changing venues and drinking more.  We joined tables of people we had never met and included these strangers in our story of both past and present, sharing intimate fragments of our lives.

At some stage long lost friend left me to meet other people. I had always known this had been his plan but suddenly, here I was in the blur of booze alone with complete strangers. What interested me the most is that I did not for once think – should I go home? Instead, I went back to the table, finished my drink and ordered the group the next round.

In the beginning

Most of my friends are all married. It’s OK – I still love them regardless. In fact I have even got used to the fact that I am the gooseberry. I mean they’re a couple, a pair, one half of the other. They are always do couple things together – like dining together, drinking together, holidaying together, seeing movies or going to the theatre together….

Ironically, my partnered friends all think I have this wild life – which sometimes I do - but it’s not all swinging from chandeliers drinking champagne until the early hours of the morning! I mean don’t get me wrong, I have a lot of fun but there are also plenty of things I haven’t been able to do because I was crippled by the fear of doing things on my own.

That was until recently when I joined twitter. I really struggled with twitter initially. I couldn’t understand why people liked it or what they were going on about. Let’s be honest, to me it felt like I was eaves dropping in on strangers conversations. I felt like I was intruding, stealing snippets of their lives by reading their private discussions – except they weren’t private conversations. It was all over the internet. Why would people want to do this? That was, until I discovered the foodies and my whole world opened up – and now, you can’t keep me quiet.

I will say Twitter and the Foodie world which lies within has been a revelation for me for me personally. You could say this is one of those few light bulb moments in my life time.  Suddenly, I had access to other people who like me, enjoyed food. They enjoyed really good food too. I started following tweeples avidly, reading about restaurants new and old, supperclubs and peoples experiences – and there were pictures too - stunning photos of menus, tables and food. I had discovered this hidden world. I wanted to try these restaurants. I wanted memorable foodie experiences the others were talking about – and again I felt left out, being a one and not a two.

It was at this moment that TheSingleEater was born. I was and am going to eat these meals and experience these restaurants and supperclubs with or without my friends.

Welcome to my new world people.