So, yesterday we had our offal dinner at the Dock Kitchen. As you know from my previous post, I had devised the menu and Stevie and his chefs cooked my recipes, very well I may add. The dinner was a great success and everyone seemed to be having a terrific time. We did too. I had put the lamb’s head interlude on the menu more for shock and fun value, not expecting everyone to want to eat or even touch the heads. But every single table not only ate the cheeks and brains but they also ate the eyes. Well, almost all did. I think one lady didn’t. I went from table to table to show how to get the eye out of its socket and to cut off the black part which is the iris before they could eat the fatty fleshy bit. Perhaps it was my irresistible charm and humour (!) that convinced them; or perhaps it was because the eye looked totally innocuous and rather appetising.

Anyhow, they all seemed to enjoy it as they enjoyed the stuffed tripe and the Jerusalem mix made with pieces of testicles, sweetbreads, liver, kidney and heart marinated and sautéed very quickly (Sami Tamimi gave me the recipe when I was writing Mediterranean Street Food) which we served on tandur bread baked by a pretty Brazilian young chef — actually they are all very young in that kitchen, and pretty. Here are a few photos of the dinner which you will be able to see in the autumn on Great British Food Revival in their offal episode! And for those of you who want to try some experimental offal, go to Blanch & Shock’s offal dinner tomorrow, all part of Sustain’s nose to tail fortnight. It is sold out but you may get lucky if they have some cancellations!

The lamb’s head picked clean!

Young Alex Duda putting the bread in the tandur oven.

One head coming out of the tandur.

The heads after they were baked for two hours in the oven and before being crisped up in the tandur.

Click here to view the embedded video.

It’s this time of the month again when I bring you my belly dancer of the moment. Last month, I strayed from the golden era dancers to feature a contemporary belly dancer who happens to be my ‘cousin‘. But I am going back in time again to introduce you to Houriya Mohamed who taught Tahiya Carioca, my favourite belly dancer, how to dance before starting to resent her for stealing the limelight from her. Houriya is nowhere near as pretty nor as sexy as Tahiya but she dances beautifully and I love the mise en scene from the opening scene of the lady en silhouette reading the dancer’s coffee cup to the supporting belly dancers emerging from oversized coffee cups. I also like the lyrics which only those of you who speak Arabic will understand. The clip is from a 1949 film, Fatima wa Marika wa Rachel, about a man who falls in love with three women, each of a different religion!

Every now and then I go to a restaurant which I adore. It happened at Noma last summer and at Dabbous this winter. And yesterday, it happened again at Agapé Substance. A tiny space decorated with perfect taste including the most beautiful bouquets of strips of wood from Vacherin boxes. As for the cooking, it is meticulous without being prissy with fabulous ingredients and perfect seasoning. Some have described the chef, David Toutain, as a culinary genius and I have to say I totally agree. He is exceptionally talented and supremely creative. If you are visiting Paris, you have to eat there. I am only sorry we didn’t take my group on the culinary weekend with Francois Simon but we had an amazing degustation dinner at le Comptoir and another cooked by the great critic himself. So, we didn’t do too badly.

And why isn’t Agapé Substance on the 50 best restaurant list (for what the list is worth)? It certainly deserves to be there, and high up too! Hopefully next year. Anyhow, here are a few photographs of our lunch which was not only exquisite but also terrific value at 65 euros, especially when I compare it to my miserable 73 euros lunch at the Bar à Huîtres which consisted of a few oysters, a couple of overcooked langoustines and a bowl of flabby crevettes grises with a glass of lukewarm Chablis!

The restaurant is one long room with the dining area (one long communal table and a couple of small tables against the wall seating 24 in total) at the front and the kitchen at the back. I don’t normally like communal tables but they have the seating organised in such a way that you don’t feel cramped. Plus the waiters seem to glide in and out without bumping into each other or you, and they never reach over which is another of my pet peeves in restaurants. And there is no noise from the kitchen which is amazing.

We started with a stunning cold soup made with algae. The waiter suggested we try the algae ‘crumble’ before he poured the cold soup over it to get the full flavour and it was very good advice. Here, I have to warn you that I may not get all my descriptions right. I really should have taken notes instead of relying on the spare menu, and worse on my fading memory!

We were then given a series of nibbles that were edible works of art starting with delightful sheets of beetroot and the prettiest baby radishes.

Then we got wild garlic sponge and crisp potato rolls. Each mouthful was a delight. The savory shortbreads topped with trout roe were less successful. The roe was delicate and delicious but the biscuits were not as good as they looked.

We then moved onto serious dishes with the first being a very subtle and supremely refined combination of white asparagus, quail’s egg and some sort of caviar. One day I need to learn to cook eggs the way Toutain and other great chefs do them, to a wobbly perfection.

And I don’t think I have ever had a more perfectly cooked slice of Turbot. The calamar was also grilled to perfection.

As for oysters, I don’t normally believe in their aphrodisiac quality but the way the one I was served looked and tasted, I am ready to become a believer!

We then had a symphony of cheese with both a purée and a thick soup on the same plate. Not particularly appealing as an idea but quite delectable in reality. The same with the perfect hen’s egg laid on a smooth polenta (here again, I hope I am right about the polenta) garnished with crisp grains of corn.

The peas that came next were topped with a gorgeous slice of rhubarb. They were again perfectly chosen, cooked and seasoned.

We finished with fabulous sweetbreads that were crisply seared on the outside and left almost raw on the inside. The piece of offal was sprinkled with a few grains of salt that added a touch of crunchy saltiness to an already perfect seasoning.

Oddly enough, the desserts were the only slightly dissonant note in an otherwise perfect meal. Neither the olive oil ice cream nor the chocolate dessert were exceptional. They were very good but not like the rest of the meal although the thin shards of meringue that were spiked in the ice cream were very pure without any eggy taste. A perfect meal, a beautiful setting, and great company (with Paula too) not to mention the sunny weather were a great way to say goodbye to my favourite city!

Last time I was at Petersham Nurseries, it was sunny and warm and Skye Gyngell was cooking. Last night was wet and miserable and there was a new chef at the stoves, Greg Malouf of Momo’s fame in Melbourne. Greg has moved to London, and he will be offering his wonderful modern take on Middle Eastern food at Petersham Nurseries. Dinner last night was quite delicious, particularly the rabbit in the picture above and the lamb and frikeh which he served afterwards. And before that, the best tomatoes (from southern Italy) I have had this year in London, served them with a soft curd cheese sprinkled with a little chilli and dried herbs. A marvellous start to the meal. And to finish, luscious meringue topped with cream and berries alongside a refreshing sorbet topped with the most adorable camel biscuits.

I hope that next time I will go there — which I will be doing despite the nurseries being exactly the other side of town from where I am — I will get to walk through the lovely narrow lane leading to the nurseries in less dramatic weather conditions!

On 8 May I will be teaming up with Stevie Parle at the Dock Kitchen for a lamb nose to tail dinner. The evening will start with the acceptable face of offal: a welcome drink served with delicious chicken wings marinated in Aleppo pepper, allspice, Lebanese 7-spice mixture and cinnamon, lemon juice and olive oil and roasted in the restaurant’s tandur oven. For starters, we will offer a mini offal mezze: poached lamb’s tongues stuffed with pistachios and served on a bed of lemony mixed leaves and herbs (I learned the recipe at one of Aleppo’s best restaurants, Zmorod); lamb’s kidney baked inside a potato (I found the recipe in Ambrose Heath’s Meat); and Jerusalem Mix bruschetta (Sami Tamimi gave me the recipe when I was writing Mediterranean Street Food, initially a sandwich, I have smartened it up into a bruschetta for the dinner).

For the middle course, we are providing some entertainment by serving each table with one or more lamb’s heads (depending on the number of diners) for you to eat with your hands, tearing off the cheeks and pulling out the brains and eyes — I will show you how this is done unless that is, you are familiar with lamb’s heads! The main course is one of my favourite dishes, ghammeh or stuffed tripe, served with a lemony/garlicky broth. As for the dessert, it will also be offal: candied cock’s combs (Chris Cosentino gave me the recipe for the new edition of Offal, the Fifth Quarter) served with a saffron milk pudding. I hope that those of you who are in London will join us. And if the weather is sunny, you will be able to sit outside by the river. The menu may be tweaked as we test the recipes in the restaurant’s kitchen. I will do an update here if it is.

Ps. It is a coincidence that Sustain are celebrating nose-to-tail eating for two weeks during May with many chefs taking part including the talented youngsters at Blanch & Shock!