There's more to me than the words I read, is it a language that's new to you?

[venta]

Wandering around a rather damp West London on Sunday (judiciously avoiding the worst of the downpours by hanging out in cake shops and bus shelters), ChrisC and I found a rather nice Art Nouveau pub. It's somewhere in the Maida Vale area, and is called The Warrington Hotel. Both inside and out it's graced with the sort of OTT decor that would be sudden death in your own front room, but looks fantastic in a pub.

Some time ago I said on here that if people "were going to put barking things on menus", I'd order them out of curiosity. At the time, I was talking about brussel sprout fricassee. If I don't know what something is, I'll potentially order it to find out.

However, browsing the Warrington Hotel's menu (purely out of academic interest, as I was completely full of cake) I found myself getting quite cross with it. I wouldn't call myself a gourmet, but I expect to be able to comprehend a menu. Not this one! Nearly every dish contained at least one word I didn't know.

Now, ever since the day ChrisE and I sat together at a very posh birthday party in Mayfair and made a pact to pretend we knew what quenelles were, I've been aware that there's always some damn silly French word that someone will put on a menu just for swank. The odd one or two in a list of dishes I'll take in my stride.

In the Warrington... would you like to order spinach and ricotta spanakopita ? Would you like your meal served with sauce choron ? sauce gribiche ? tarragon velouté ? Probably no, thanks, since I can't stand tarragon. Maybe a nice salad of Treviso, white peach and Cropwell Bishop ? (I hope it contains actual bishop.) How about a nice grilled darne of halibut ?

In many cases, I can make a guess. I don't know what a darne is, but let's assume it's a cut of halibut. I'm going to assume that the bishop is really delivered in cheese form. Maybe if I want a pigs head terrine, I can just assume that a sauce gribiche is something that will go nicely with it.

I wouldn't have minded any one of these in isolation, but taken all together the pretension was a bit overwhelming. Out of interest, did anyone follow all the menu items ? My money's on mr_tom, if anyone. Does anyone feel that their dining experience is ehanced and the food more interesting becase of the mystery ? Would we be happier to hear we were getting eggy mayonnaise with our pigs head terrine ?

[Poll #1254047]

Once you've answered, click here if you want to know what it is.

Later research on the interweb revealed that The Warrington Hotel was recently taken over (and, according to many reviewers ruined, rendered atmosphereless and had its drink prices upped to ridiculous levels) by Gordon Ramsay. That might explain a lot.

Mind you I rather liked it, and I didn't think £2.40 for a Coke and a decent half of Broadside was all that pricey for London.

In irrelevant news, tonight I'm going to party like it's 1977 :)

Comments

[lathany.livejournal.com]

Having looked it up, it looks quite interesting.

In irrelevant news, tonight I'm going to party like it's 1977 :)

I daresay I'm missing something obvious, but huh?

[venta.livejournal.com]

Really, it would be more accurate to say I (and ChrisC, and I think onebyone and kauket too) will be partying like it's 1995 (http://walking-barefoot.com/news/ash-to-play-1977-gig/). I'm very excited :)

[lathany.livejournal.com]

:-)

Enjoy!

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

No 'Sick Party', I hope for your sake...

I'm taking no chances...

[venta.livejournal.com]

The trick is to leave after Darkside Lightside :)

Re: I'm taking no chances...

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Do you have to turn up before the start to catch 'Jack Names the Planets'?

Re: I'm taking no chances...

[venta.livejournal.com]

I think ChrisC suggested that they should be their own support act performing JNTP, yes :)

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Gosh, I don't think of spanakopita as being at all obscure, you can get them in any deli and I've made them several times. But maybe being a veggie they're more of a staple for me than you.

I had a similar experience in a restaurant in San Francisco a few years ago. Only, sad to relate, all the several things I didn't know were actually the names of vegetables, rather than obscure treatments and sauces. The only one I remember was "ramps" which is a kind of wild leek.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Yes, it looks as if more people know about spanakopita than not, so it's just my ignorance :) Wikipedia describes it as being like borek, and I'd have been fine with that, as I'm familiar with it.

I mind less if it's an actual ingredient I don't know - after all, ramps is ramps - it's the obscure treatments that I find more annoying. I'd be quite interested to meet a new and unfamiliar vegetable :)

[hjalfi.livejournal.com]

They're nice --- Greek/Cypriot (I forget which) spinach cheese pies.

Dammit. Now I want a giros.

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

I fail at food identification. The only one of your list I knew was tarragon velouté.

But you apparently predicted this, since it seems to be my turn at the lyrics game today. ;-)

[secondhand-rick.livejournal.com]

I can't stand tarragon

One of the nicest single dishes I've ever eaten was a baked egg in tarragon sauce starter. Mmmm.

[phlebas.livejournal.com]

Gribiche is eggy mayonnaise? I thought it was all about capers?

[venta.livejournal.com]

I only know what Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sauce_gribiche) has to say on the subject. It does mention capers, but not in a way that made it obvious to someone who hasn't eaten the sauce that they were a key feature :)