Scousetro Club February 2012

The first ever Scousetro Club, hosted by the fantastic Lunya, was a huge success, with over thirty people in attendance, the restaurant team ran a really excellent night. The menu, which can be seen below, offered very good food that was also challenging. The accompanying wine package offered suitable choices for all and service throughout was excellent. For a first event this couldn’t have been better, good food and a great atmosphere, it doesn’t get better than this.

I was very pleased with Lunya’s menu, for a very reasonable price, it offered lovely food, but more importantly it was challenging. Certain ingredients such as the Presa Iberica or cockerl crest were new to many of the guests. Our first dish of red tuna sashimi was a simple presentation of very high quality and very fresh fish. Simple classic combinations and a great start to the meal.

‘Flavours of the Sea’ our second course was a real challenge, beautiful ingredients such a fresh lobster and smoked anchovy combined with beetroot gazpacho, liquorice foam, caviar and orange jelly. I really loved the foam and gazpacho as a combination that paired beautifully with the sea food, the orange jelly was a bit of a shock to me. I’m not sure if the combination of salty seafood and orange work for me, but it was a dish that got everyone talking.

Cockerel crest with langoustine risotto, was another interesting plate of food, the confit cockerel crest, was so very soft almost meltingly so, carrying delicate chicken flavour. The langoustine made an excellent combination, a form of surf and turf, although a few of us felt the risotto was a bit too punchy for such delicate ingredients.

The main course, presa iberica was, for me, the stand out dish of the night, primarily for the stand out quality and originality of the meat. Presa iberica is the muscle from the back of the Iberico pig’s neck, due to the foraging nature of the pigs it is well developed with a deep red colour and fat marbling. At first glance it could easily be confused with steak, indeed if I hadn’t known it was a pork I may not have spotted it. It was richer than a normal pork but still with an underlying pokiness. Seared and served medium rare with an olive oil emulsion it was beautiful, top marks for originality.

Our dessert was the dish that perhaps didn’t quite live up to the rest of the menu, a dense sweet rum sponge was very good but the banana on top wasn’t caramelised enough, leaving the whole dish too firm. A larger serving of the chocolate ganache and white chocolate sauce would also have benefited this plate of food.

Judging from the feedback everyone had a great time, meeting new people with an interest in food and trying interesting and challenging food made for a great evening. I would like to thank Peter and the team at Lunya once again for all their work and also all the guest for trying something new and really helping with such a relaxed and friendly atmosphere.

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