Tuesday 20 April 2010

School Holiday Treat - Polpo

One thing that you should know about me is that I am not an early adopter of technological trends. I don't particularly like technology, and I certainly don't leap to embrace it. I only got my first mobile phone about 5 years ago and I resent my dependence on it. I think mobile phones make people impolite and disorganised. I don't do Facebook. I don't do Iphones. I have an ipod but the poor thing languishes in my desk because I refuse to learn how to use it. And I don't do Twitter.

I must admit, there is a certain inconsistency in a blogger not liking technology, but it's not as if I was an early adopter of web-logging.

The drawback to all of this, is the "cutting off my nose to spite my face" element. I don't find out about the underground markets, the pop-up restaurants, the hot new eateries until they are mainstream, and even when I do hear about them I tend to refuse to go until the Tweeting classes are bored and have moved on to something else.

Which is why I have only now been to Polpo, on Beak St. And that's a shame, because it was lovely.

Jude and I decided that little plates of Venetian food would be just the thing for our Easter school holiday treat. Going at lunchtime also avoids the necessity of queuing, because they do take bookings for lunch.

We weren't entirely sure how many plates we should order, so we consulted with the waiter, and I think we got it bang on.

To begin with we had some chicheti and crostini - little, individually priced morsels. The chicken liver crostini was absolutely delicious. The parmesan and potato croccheta was as tender, velvety and cheesy as you could want (I could easily have made a meal just of them). Unfortunately the salt cod on polenta was less successful - the polenta was freezing cold and made an unpleasant base for the even more unpleasant woolly shreds of soaked salt cod.

Then we had a lovely fritto misto, a perfect rabbit terrine, a very delicious dish of pork belly with radicchio and hazelnuts and some absolutely gorgeous white beans cooked with wild garlic.

For dessert, Jude had a glass of vin santo, with very nice-looking biscotti for dunking while I had a honey and walnut semifreddo. I would have preferred the semifreddo in a bowl - I don't really like icecream cones - but it was very good, and as the last inch of the icecream cone was solid dark chocolate, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

With a bottle of wine, and a 12.5% service charge, it came in at £30 each. Very good value, I thought!

Unfortunately, it was so noisy that we didn't feel like sitting longer over coffee. There isn't much point in a long gossipy lunch if you can't hear the gossip! But definitely worth another visit, when the food is more important than the conversation.

By the way - Urchin now has her own blog. If you are interested in more photos of my beautiful cat, they can be found at http://urchinsphotos.blogspot.com/. I'm not sure how often that one will be updated, but at least once a week, I think!

13 comments:

kat said...

Funny Matt & I were having the cone versus no cone talk last night. I'm an ice cream in a cone person & he's not. Looks like a very nice meal.

Inspired by eRecipeCards said...

the new blog is a great idea... I just lost my beloved cat of 11 years. Sad to say, because I have a photo blog of my time in St Thomas, i have more photos of nameless Iguanas than I have of my cat. Take lots of remembrances... daily life

Deb in Hawaii said...

I prefer bowls to cones too but will make an exception for a cone filled with chocolate at the bottom. ;-) Everything you had looks delicious!

Alicia Foodycat said...

Kat - you lose the flavour of the icecream with a cone! It ends up dry and powdery.

Dave - I'm so sorry for your loss. 11 years! I think Urchin is the most photographed cat on the planet.

Deb - it was a great meal! I want to find some wild garlic so I can make those beans.

mscrankypants said...

I bookmarked Urchin's blog under my 'friends' tab as I didn't know where else to put her :-).

The white beans look superb.

Barbara said...

Cute way to serve the semifreddo! And it looks like a thoroughly enjoyable meal...sometimes restaurants are too noisy for conversation; but you have to balance that out with super food.

Alicia Foodycat said...

Cranky - Urchin will be delighted to have you as a friend! The beans were amazing.

Barbara - as long as you get one or the other it is OK!

Heather said...

I have a similar disinterest in things that hipsters have deemed "hot". In fact, no, I have a genuine dislike for them. Can't help. Face be damned.

Teresa Cordero Cordell said...

I've made my hubby promise that he will take me to London some day. I would love to visit some of the eateries that you write about. They sound absolutely scrumptious.

Alicia Foodycat said...

Heather, I'm too old to be hip! And it takes too much effort.

Teresa - you must! Definitely worth a visit.

Gemma said...

I'm a bit half and half on the tech side - blog yes, facebook yes, iphone no but want one. I had always said no to twitter but am starting to get tempted but I am very very anti e-book! Anyway, back to the point! This all looks delicious - must pay them a visit asap...

Choclette said...

If everyone was right up with the trends, how would restaurants keep going without those following after. Good for you I say, although it sounds like one technophobe speaking to another. I only have a really out of date mobile phone that was given to me about 10 years ago and I only use it when I'm travelling away from home! Admittedly I have started on Twitter, but have managed to stay clear of Facebook.

Alicia Foodycat said...

Gemma - my bookshelves fancy the ebook! You should definitely try Polpo.

Choclette - I do worry about that! What if they book solid for a month and then no one goes?

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