Rosemary Lane

9 Courses to celebrate a Very Important Quarter of a Century 

Lots of celebrations seem to have fallen very closely together this year for us - there was Chinese new year, then my Mum's 50th, my parents' silver wedding anniversary last weekend and now Mother's day... so my Mum is certainly enjoying herself!

Today's post is about a gem of a restaurant called Rosemary Lane, which is where we celebrated my parents being together for 25 years. 

It's an unassuming name, for an unassuming restaurant in a very odd location. Though it is about a 10-minute walk from Tower Bridge, the immediate vicinity is quiet and residential, with very little in the way of shops or really any reason to head there. When thinking about where would be suitable for our celebration though, I had remembered a friend having a many course meal there for a special occasion who had mentioned it, and lots of reviews seemed to agree this was a place worth journeying to. 

I have to add that we do not frequently eat meals of such quantities though my blog thus far may seem otherwise - certainly I am a foodie, and any Chinese person who denies their love for food would raise eyelids - but sometimes big celebrations call for an expansion of the stomach!

Cristina, the chef, originally from and trained in the States, runs this little restaurant from what I can see is a clear passion for food, and good food at that. She sources her ingredients mainly from Borough Market and on Saturday's if there is enough demand will offer a tasting menu. Depending on what is in season and available dictates what she decides to masterfully rustle up. 

We spoke over the phone several times in the upcoming week to iron out details of meal - I love the personal touches that smaller establishments can offer you so that you can organise something perfect! She catered for our dietary requirements and was happy for us to arrive a little ahead of the couple to put up some balloons.

The evening finally came and we were greeted by two friendly waiters. The restaurant was small and had no diners yet at 7pm on a Saturday, but it was cosy and inviting. Though other diners later did arrive, it is true to say without our party of 10 it probably would have been a very quiet evening! The intimate settings were perfect for us however.

The menu was laid before us and we were all very excited to dig straight in - clearly a lot of thought and imagination had gone into it.

Each course was wonderfully fresh and innovative. It was quite unlike anything I had seen or tasted before. We started with four starter courses, mainly being vegetable-based - but that doesn't mean bland or unexciting - quite the contrary; the menu was littered with very unusual ingredients and techniques, the sort you have to google! And with courses like Crab claw salad, what's not to like?! 

The waiters were attentive and the place lovely and quiet so we could hear each other 'ooh' and 'ah' at each dish. And when the starters made us feel surprisingly semi-full, we were given an Intermezzo fruit drink in preparation for the main courses - like your interval at a concert!

The two main courses were more substantial - a prawn and chickpea tomato stew, and then my what turned out to be my favourite dish - duck confit pie with parsnip mash that was a smooth as the inside of a Lindor truffle.

At this point I was definitely feeling full, but when you know there is only one course left, it's got to be had. Plus, dessert is dessert!

The dessert, strawberry and rhubarb fool, came out in quaint little glasses and really had that wow factor. The talking quickly subdued and all that could be heard were the chinking sounds of teaspoons scraping the bottoms of the glasses..!

Finally, to bring the evening to a complete end we enjoyed tea with an anniversary cake (also excellent!) bought from Paul - we each managed a slither because you just can't have a special occasion without a cake..!   

I'll let the photos do the rest of the talking but if you have a special occasion coming up, give Cristina at Rosemary Lane a ring ;) Details at the bottom of the page. 

(Sorry about the darkness in some of the photos - still learning how to use the new camera!)

Oh and Happy Mother's Day! Hope you have spoilt her rotten :D

Our Menu

The Menu detailing the 9 courses - reading it felt like waiting for a show to begin!

The Starters I - IV

i) Cauliflower and lemon zest veloute

ii) Blue Crab Claw Salad with soft herbs

iii) New season asparagus speaks wrapped in prosciutto and melon thyme mayo (Simple but just perfectly put together - the melon and mayo really made this something else!)

ix) Fresh garden pea, mint and spring onion flan with a little salad of daikon, mange tout and beetroot (This was very interesting in flavour and texture - the flan turned out to be like a not-quite-solid vegetable puree which tastes better than I am describing, promise!)

x) Mushroom banana shallot target, lemon creme fraiche

The Intermezzo

xi) Intermezzo Frappee (delicious!)

The Mains

xii) Sauteed prawns, Romano pepper and chickpeas in a plum tomato and cilantro sauce

xiii) Duck leg confit pie with parsnip mash (my favourite dish of the night - so comforting and yet light)

Dessert(s!)

ix) Strawberry and rhubarb fool (as beautiful for the mouth as it is to the eye)

And we thought we were full...!

And because no celebration is complete without cake...

x) The light and beautifully layered "La Framboisier" from the French patisserie chain Paul (also found in France so they are the real deal!) - if the 9 course meal hasn't been so impressive, this could have easily been the highlight - definitely the cherry on top of the iced cake!

Mum and Dad, here's to another glorious 25 years! ♥♥ 

Restaurant:
Rosemary Lane, 61 Royal Mint Street E1 8LG 

http://www.rosemarylanerestaurant.co.uk/
A la carte lunch and dinner Monday - Friday
Tasting Menu's on Saturday evenings by request
Closed Sundays

Patisserie:

Paul, all around London: http://www.paul-uk.com/

A New Year, a New Blog

Happy Valentine's

Less than one week into the (Chinese) new year of the Snake and already much has happened... I can tell it will be a busy year! It is my last officially as a medical student and hence partly why I decided that it might be nice to capture these moments in a new blog. 

The new year kickstarted as always with our Tuen Nian Fan 團年飯 "reunion dinner" - the Chinese version of new year's eve which is traditionally celebrated with lots of food with your nearest and dearest. 

We are always fortunate to spend this with dear friends of ours who are splendid cooks. They put on an annual feast, and in recent times this has consisted of 10 dishes - each one carefully named to bring some sort of fortune on all who eat it, but also to cleverly reflect the ingredients of that dish. For example the Chinese word for "prawn" also sounds like the word for "happiness" and hence the dish "Be happy and smile always" features lots of prawns! Ingenious, right?

Here are a few of the courses to feast your eyes on! (These were served at the same time, as is the sharing Chinese way, only the table wasn't quite big enough for all 10 to be devoured simultaneously!)

Dessert featured a very interesting sweet potato, coconut and ginger l0-layered pancake, quite fitting as Pancake day was only a few days away. 

The Menu

The next day I then rustled up this cake to say thanks for our dinner. As I was born in the year of the snake, it seemed like the natural thing to do! I was happy with the result, though must admit that I pre bought Battenberg and Angel cakes to make it! Although I love baking, time constraints don't always allow me to do so, but I've learnt you can still make something special without having to turn on the oven! 

This was very easy to put together as the fruit and cakes were already very colourful which meant not even icing was required! 

The cakes were two Battenburg loaves and one round Angel cake (pink and yellow sponge with buttercream on top which I took off).  As this cake is made from lots of sections it's important to have whatever you wish to serve it on ready before hand - I covered a cake stand in foil so we could write on it before beginning the preparing.

The Batternburgs were sliced into one inch pieces, and the Angel cake into six equal portions. The angel cake was just over twice the height of the Batternburg slices so I could fill each pair of Batternburg slices with small chunks of  strawberry. I then arranged the slices on the stand, so the round Angel cake produced the curves in the body of the snake. Once the snake was assembled, I  used the buttercream leftover from the top of the Angel cake as decoration to hold in place blueberries.

For the face, I sliced a strawberry lengthways as you can see, using just the second (or third) quarter of it. The blueberries eyes were held into the face using toothpicks (toothpicks are so helpful!), and the tongue is a strawberry calyx (the leaf on top of a strawberry) that has been cut. I also used one of these for the snake's 'crown', and used the rest as a sort of grassy bed.

See more easy-peasy cakes here: No-need-to-bake Novelty cakes

My Mum also made this Lor Bak Gou 蘿蔔糕, a savoury cake that is made from a type of large white turnip. Our family friends love my Mum's, so much so that they sometimes demand it! It is a time-consuming dish to make however as the turnip must first be shredded and prepared - luckily for Mum, this part is always my Dad's contribution to the cake!

 

Today I am off to an "alternative Valentine's feast" - looking for to it!