Thursday 15 May
We've been setting up informal duels
between the chefs of Christ Church and Brasenose; the former got the stage for Andi
and Joel's last night in Oxford.
ChCh cantered to an early lead
with its starter of asparagus soup with crispy pancetta (bacon, really),
featuring a breaded fritter of savory "goats' curd" (i.e. soft
cheese) in the middle, and a glass of Givry Francois Lupp 2009.
But it fell back with the main,
"char-grilled chicken supreme" (i.e. leg and thigh) with black
olives, pesto (a few dabs, but mainly tomatoey sauce) soaking the new potatoes
and parmesan now-not-so-crisps. Again a
red was served with the main whatever its nature, in this case Colle Morino
2002.
A definite statement was made with
the lemon meringue tart, looking like a nailbrush, served with orange jelly,
creme fraiche ice cream, and smears of lime and cardamom yogurt. Unfortunately the meringue was so hard that
any attempt to fork it up squashed the lemon curd underneath.
So on the whole, dessert honors go
to Brasenose, starters to Christ Church, and nobody wins with mains, because it
was all chicken legs underneath.
We had some port and fruit as
dessert in the SCR afterwards, so it was a real sendoff for the people who had
to get up and go off in a taxi at 5 AM.
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