So beautiful that my friend in Peckham in the deep South has invented and named a Martini after her. So I sallied forth from the north to sample the Misty Martini.
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| Misty Martini |
and tell me that in its depths you cannot discern this louche kitty.
Alas, we had to leave Misty to go to the restaurant du notre jour - or so it seems and not without good reason. Yes, it's Franklin's restaurant in Lordship Lane - again - and I'll alert you now to the fact that it's very likely indeed that in about four weeks' time you will find me there again, eating delicious food in wonderful company to celebrate the fact that I'm another year older - and still kicking against the... you know what.
Anyway, with the starter which Peckham friend had - do you think I should call her Scarlett from now on in homage to all that deep Southern charm? - you can tickle my tongue with your pickled plum any time. Really, I got to taste some and it was delicious.
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| Ox Tongue with pickled plum |
It's not as if I had any complaints either with my brawn. Oooh, I do like a nice bit of brawn and what a brawny brawn this proved to be.
And piled up to resemble an offal tower (boom, boom!).
Really lovely. Amongst the other things I like about Franklin's is that they call things by their real names. So, it's ox tongue with pickled plum or brawn with toast and cornichons. This is not to say that I have any objection to the use of languages other than English - quite the contrary - and if something is in an unfamiliar language and cuisine then I do appreciate a description of what it consists of. It does mean that I have a dislike of menus which go into huge amounts of detail of what the thing is - a reminder of those ghastly places where things are home-made (oh yeah?) and farm fresh (the battery farm perchance?) and so on.
Rant over and into the main courses. First up is Bambi chosen by Scarlett.
Later I did have the rest of Bambi's beans as I can never resist a good bean and very nice they were too (N.B. Richard - these were nude broad beans).
And of course, I also ate the main course I had ordered.
There used to be those photograph competitions (still are?) where you're shown a section of something and have to guess what the whole is. Hence the anchovy and fried egg which was part of...
because I thought it would be mean to keep you in suspense and also because that is a fine looking veal escalope. That's right, I'm a schnitzel girl. It's ages since I had a good schnitzel or indeed any schnitzel at all. It's probably why I fancied this when I saw it on the menu - it may not be a true Schnitzel Holstein but it was a great escalope. We had it served with the most delicious cabbage (I do like my greens as well as my beans).
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| Good light crunch |
And of course Franklin's chips of which I've written before, but they're pretty much a staple for us to order.
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| Fine chips |
For pudding, Scarlett chose the gooseberry tart - an excellent choice. Both from the side...
And taking an aerial view. You can get these very tiny little helicopters with cameras attached to photograph food from above.
And I had the brownie with ice cream. It was very nice ice cream, and the brownie was OK.
And from above. The helicopter's working overtime.
It was a tad dry and dense to be honest. Although what I will say is that I'm very fussy about brownies and very, very few meet my high standards. I have been known to use the brownie as a performance indicator to determine critical success factors in the delivery of patisserie/baked goods, assessing the brownie on its input, output, outcome and impact. The Franklin's brownie wasn't a bad brownie, but it was ordinaire.
To digress for a moment. I really like Sablé d'Or in Crouch End (for frangipane in particular), but they also fall down in the Brownie stakes. As with Franklin's, it's a bit moister but nothing much to write home about. At least they don't charge a fortune for it unlike Gail's Bakery which was absolutely horrible. Based on the input, output, outcome, impact matrix - the input had evidently been a quarter of a pound of butter (salted?) and chocolate/cocoa, the output was a very moist slab of brownie which promised much, the outcome is that not much was delivered except for butter flavoured cocoa, and the impact was a horrible butter-coated claggy taste in the mouth - mouthwash was not supplied. I've no doubt they used quality ingredients in which case what a waste.
So, sorry chaps at Franklin's, you're lovely, but I think I've come to the conclusion that when it's pudding time, your skills lie in tarts and that's what I'll stick to given half the chance (and lovely ice cream by the way).
On the brownie front, I've only found two that meet my requirements for soft, yielding, unctuous, chocolate brownie (unadulterated with nuts by the way, I like a nut, but a brownie is not a place for them in my opinion). Number one is Bea's of Bloomsbury (they have another branch in St Paul's and a summer pop-up in Spitalfields by Dennis Severs' house). Bea's do a fantastic Valhrona brownie - if you only have one brownie then make it this one. The other is Good for Food on Blackstock Road (Finsbury Park end). The reviews of staff manners seem a bit variable and are not something I'm able to comment on as I've only ever popped in for a takeaway brownie, but the brownies are good and I've no reason to think that the rest of the food wouldn't be of a similar standard.
The only other brownies which are truly superlative are those made by Paul A Young - again with Valhrona. However at £3.75 for the brownie and £4.50 for Christmas pudding brownie they are really quite expensive. The moral being that if it's Valhrona you are, to my mind at least, better off with Bea - in all senses. Just as an afterthought, the brownies are really the thing I like most about Paul A Young, for chocolate I much prefer Rococo and Scarlett and I were lucky enough to meet Chantal Coady, a true food hero. I must say I was quite tongue-tied. And you can taste before you buy and what you taste is delicious. Long live Rococo.
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