Malapascua trip

I've just returned from a very enjoyable diving trip in Malapascua, the Philippines with the Pretty Lady and some other friends (CW, KY, FZ and the Divernator). I saw thresher sharks (ticking one item off my shark to-see list), a blue ringed octopus, sea snakes, decorator crabs, some sort of (big) moray buried in the sand, filefish displaying, mandarin fish mating and mantis shrimp.

Less enjoyably, I got stung by jellyfish 6 times, missed a mola-mola and a manta ray by 2 minutes on 2 separate dives, and was given a nasty shock when someone went dynamite fishing nearby. More conservation, eat less seafood please.

It's happening again...

Last time, I saw this:



Now, I'm hoping to see this...:

...and this:

I'm going to dive Malapascua (in the Philippines) and visit the thresher sharks and manta rays at Monad Shoal!

(Great hammerhead and manta ray from Elasmodiver, and the thresher shark from Dive Phillipines).

Pinhead Gunpowder

I'm still working my way through the teas that the Pretty Lady bought for me from a shop she still hasn't taken me to yet. This one took a little while to grow on me, simply because I couldn't find a good time to drink it. Eventually I realised that since it had a real food-like quality to it, some savour that isn't normally present in tea, it was best drunk when I was quite hungry. Works too - lines the stomach until I can get to the kebab shop.

The tea comes in little black beads, exactly as described - pinheads (large ones) that look and smell like they are made of gunpowder. They're not really very appetising - someone I showed them too remarked that they looked like hamster droppings. No matter.

Pinhead Gunpowder
Oolong tea
China (Zhejiang province)
Golden brown, slightly cloudy

Preparation: About thirty or forty pinheads. Got to have a lot of tea in order to get the flavour. More is more, and first steeping is best. This is a tea that does indeed benefit from slightly cooler water.
Nose: Bitter, vegetal, smoky.
Tasting: Bitter salty, herbal smoke, minerally, slightly metallic, hints of smoked ham.
When to drink: When hungry so that I can last that bit longer before stuffing my face. It's quite substantial, funnily enough.

This tea is also known as Pingshui Gunpowder (平水珠茶). Although some websites claim that it's a type of green tea, mine definitely tastes oxidised. I think it's oolong tea prepared gunpowder style. Apparently Morocco is a major consumer - they brew the tea with mint and serve it up as such. Given the tight rolling into little beads, it's no surprise that the tea expands as it sinks to the bottom of the cup. Quite the show.

Dalwhinnie 15 yo (Rock you gently)

My cousin FY was kind enough to give me this bottle. I've tasted Dalwhinnie 15 yo before, at FM's tasting party, but it was great to have the chance to enjoy a whole bottle and really explore what this whisky had to offer (Answer: quite a lot!).

It's a Highlander, which in my mind usually equates to big bold flavours. However, I found this particular expression to be quite restrained, not very 'bouncy', but jiggling / rocking just a little, if that makes sense. It was best enjoyed when I was in a reflective mood. Which just goes to show how much variety there is in the world of whisky, and how little I know.

Anyway, we'll start with the usual tasting notes:

Dalwhinnie 15 yo (OB)
Single malt - Highlands
Golden
43% ABV

Nose: Sherry, beer, coconut, salted butter, vanilla and mint. Some very slight smokiness.
Mouthfeel: Medium body, thickens in the mouth. Egg white, mouth coating.
Tasting: Sweet. Cookie dough, vanilla, sherry, cream. Hints of smoke and tobacco leaf.
Finish: Medium length. Peanuts, some tamarind, slightly astringent.

I found this whisky interesting because it lacked barley. It was very subdued, and so I thought: why not add back some cereal flavours? So I'm going to try this whisky in combination with breakfast cereals. Early drinking? Why not.

1. Marks and Spencer Deliciously Nutty Crunch

The Pretty Lady eats this for breakfast most days (I'm not a regular cereal eater, as I miss my 2 thosais, coconut chutney and lamb curry with coffee made with fresh milk - best breakfast in the world). Anyway, the toffee and caramel in the cereal stand out, and all of a sudden it tastes like granola. The whisky has enhanced the oat and nut flavours, with a big hit of cream. Raisins too, where there were none before. The influence of the oak is more apparent.

2. Honey Loops

Oof. Cardboard, brown paper, marker pen. Lots of rice and wheat notes from the loops, but there's precious little else. Not even honey. The non-food smells and flavours aren't very enticing, although on occasion I do find them interesting when tasting whiskies. Not with my breakfast cereal though.

3. Cocoa Pops Mega Munchers

My favourite cereal as a kid. Not that mum let me eat a lot of it. Coffee, cocoa notes (not surprising). The whisky becomes medicinal, iodine-laden stuff. Bitter and herbal, but some pear flavours do appear. Not a great combination - I miss the sweetness of the whisky here.

4. Kellogg's Frosties

My second favourite cereal, and something mum let me eat a little bit more of growing up. The cookie dough notes in the whisky metamorphose to bubble gum and cotton candy. Lots of artificial strawberry and grape flavours. Like a visit to a fairground. Some oaty notes do appear in the whisky.


The Marks and Spencer's cereal takes the prize by a long way. I think the lesson is that Dalwhinnie 15 yo needs nuts (probably unsalted) to be enjoyed properly. I look forward to working my way through the rest of my bottle with some walnuts or almonds.

The Brickhouse

Continuing the theme of restaurants found in out of the way places, the Brickhouse is certainly a venue that doesn't keep in touch with its surroundings. It's in Banglatown, that warren of streets east of Bishopsgate that includes Brick Lane. Among the curry houses and sub-continental supermarkets sits the Truman Brewery, an exhibition space that also shelters natty pubs, a South African barbecue joint and the Brickhouse.

It is a combination nightclub, cabaret and restaurant. The entrance is whitewashed walls and formica counter, but once you get through the plain white door, there's a dance floor, mood lighting, an interesting bar, and wait staff dressed all in black. The booths on the second floor are great for viewing the little stage, where anything from jazz to Cirque du Soleil style mid-air acrobatics is staged.

I visited while on a stag night. There were 6 of us and we took a booth on the second floor. If you're seated on the edge of the booth though, like I was, it's a little difficult to see the performance. It's a startlingly intimate venue; we witnessed a cabaret show, where the androgynous performer twirled on a rope a'la Cirque du Soleil at second floor level. She would have smacked the watching diners in the head if she had extended her foot just a little further.

The Brickhouse

152c Brick Lane

London E1 6RU

+44 (0) 20 7247 0005

The food is served as a set menu of three courses. I started with tomato consomme, which was probably the most innovative dish I've eaten outside the Fat Duck so far. The idea of a tomato consomme is unusual enough in itself - it's the distillation of essence of tomato into a pale pink clear broth. The chef (the kitchen is headed by Matthew Reuther) had paired it with diced cucumber and a scoop of goat's cheese sorbet topped with a deep-fried, crispy basil leaf. The flavours went very well together, refreshing and unusual (if slightly unattractive in appearance after the sorbet melted).

I then had lamb done 2 ways - roasted chops encrusted with bacon bits and breadcrumbs, and poached pieces of what tasted like the rib eye on samphire. Accompanying these were semolina dumplings, a single roast cherry tomato, and a balsamic reduction of jus. The chops were perfectly done and perfectly enjoyable, but the samphire seemed to be a tad overcooked. But just a tad.

At this point I was starting to get more than a little annoyed at the service. We had waited about an hour for our main course, and told our waiter so. He apologised and was kind enough to put the side dishes (mash, roast carrots and green beans) as well as another round of drinks on the house. So we decided to order our desserts.

For dessert, I was very interested in the Eccles cake with Stilton ice cream, but as it took too long I decided to opt for the cappucino creme brulee instead. It came in a cappucino cup, milk foam sprinkled with cocoa powder overlaying a coffee-flavoured creme brulee. The sugar shell was nice and thick the way I like it, but I think overall it was too sweet. I would probably have preferred the Eccles cakes.

The hens then joined the stags after dessert, and everyone went down to the dance floor. Round about midnight, they had cleared away the tables from the dance floor, switching from restaurant to nightclub. The music was a mixture of contemporary hip-hop and dance, not quite to my taste, and anyway the Pretty Lady was waiting at home, so I said goodbye to both groom- and bride-to-be, and left.

Would I go back? Yes - for the tomato consomme alone, if nothing else. The chef is talented and creative, and I enjoyed his food very much. I think the Pretty Lady would too.

Scores:

16 July 2008: TFQ = 26, CS = 27, S = 10, AD = 8, VfM = 6. Total = 77 points.

*but only because of the poor service.

What does this mean?

Erben Kabinett 2002 (sugary stewed apricots)

This bottle was given to me by YY and CL for my birthday this year. I decided to open it when we had SY, JY and the Yogababe for pizza. SY is leaving London soon, so this was sort of a farewell lunch. It turned out to be fairly popular, especially among the ladies.

The reason was the sweetness - I'm more used to the dry Rieslings, so this one was something of a surprise. Since we were having pizza from Lupa, the wine, while starting off cloying, was able to compete with the strong flavours we were getting from the garlic bread, Italian sausage, pepperoni, chilli flakes etc etc. Not a bad combination, even if it was stumbled upon by chance.

Erben Kabinett 2002
White wine
Germany (Rheinhessen)
Unknown grape blend - probably a fair amount of Riesling

Nosing: Lychees, apricots, prunes, overripe grapes (no surprise!).
Mouthfeel: Lush, sugary and syrupy, like concentrated Ribena.
Tasting: Cooked apricots, pineapples, pears, hints of grapefruit and more lychees.

It's made from early harvest grapes, hence the Kabinett designation. The Spatleses, much beloved of Red Hare's mum and dad, are of the next stage in harvesting (more than 25% sugar, apparently). The stages, in order of early to late, are Kabinett, Spatlese, Auslese, Beerenauslese, Eiswein, and Trockenbeerenauslese. The last is for grapes afflicted by noble rot.

The wine is made by a largish German producer, Franz Wilhelm Langguth. They also make the (in)famous Blue Nun range. They are the product of a merger between 2 German wine firms - Sichel, from Mainz, and Langguth, from a town in Rheinland Pfalz. Besides Blue Nun (several wines here, including an eiswein) and Erben Kabinett, they also make an Erben Spatlese and and Erben Auslese.

Eyre Brothers

Sometimes, restaurants survive in the strangest places. A few months ago, on my way to a meeting in Shoreditch (of all places...) I stumbled across Eyre Brothers on Leonard Street, near Old Street tube station.

Hmm, I thought to myself. This place looks interesting - but why isn't it crowded? After walking back and forth across the front door at several different times of the day, including lunch and early dinner (I had a lot of meetings), and discovering that it was never really very crowded, I decided to give it a try. And I'm really glad that I did.

Eyre Brothers
70 Leonard Street
London EC2A 4QX
+44 (0) 20 7613 5346

The restaurant is split into a dining area and a drinking area. A long bar stretches the length of the room. You can eat a full three course meal in the dining area, or sit in the drinking area, drink a lot and nibble a choice of tapas from the menu scrawled in chalk on the boards above the bar. I've done both, and both times I had a lot of fun.

First, full-scale dining. The food is Iberian in conception, and yes, that includes Portuguese. No surprise, as the eponymous chef and front of house, David and Robert Eyre, grew up in Mozambique. The co-head chef is João Cleto.

On my visit with the Pretty Lady, I had sliced octopus drizzled with paprika and olive oil to start, grilled lomo de pata negra (loin of a very tasty breed of pig) with roast potatoes as a mains, and a saffron creme brulee. All were extremely tasty, although I felt very guilty eating the octopus (they're amazingly cute and intelligent when alive, and you can actually play with them underwater if you don't frighten them away). There was a great deal of paprika in both the octopus and the lomo, but the sweet heat of Spanish pimenton is something I can't get enough of anyway. Perfectly boiled and thinly sliced octopus and soft, slightly rare, flavourful iberico - what could be better?

I can't remember what the Pretty Lady had to eat, as she actually enjoyed my choices a lot more, especially the saffron creme brulee. It was another one of those "aha!" ideas - simple, yet utterly delicious. Saffron and vanilla together are extremely tasty.

On another visit, we started by swigging sherry at the drinking area (they have several bottles, ranging from dry Inocente and Tio Pepe to sweet Pedro Ximenez, with every shade of dryness in between). Then we moved on to tapas - chorizos de picantes, prawns sizzled with garlic and chilli, fried peppers (pimentos de padron) and a salt cod tortilla. The tortilla was the best I've ever tasted, much better than the stuff available even at Barrafina, or even in Spain. Light, just holding together, the egg just set and flavourful from the salt cod. Perfection.

Eyre Brothers isn't usually very crowded, even on Friday nights at 7 pm. The staff tell me that it's due to the slightly out of the way location, but people in the know do turn up here and enjoy the food, the wine and the friendly staff. As I will in the future.

Scores:

14 July 2008: TFQ = 26, CS = 27, S = 16, AD = 8, VfM = 6. Total = 83 points.

What does this mean?

Domaine des Cassagnoles 5 yo

I had this little tipple at Eyre Brothers, and having read quite a bit about armagnac in recent weeks, decided that it was worth writing a full tasting note about. Now I'll have to go back to the East Room and taste my birth year armagnac again - properly.

This is one of the cheaper armagnacs. It retails for about £29 a bottle at the Whisky Exchange (yes, buy your spirits from them please - they really care about the quality of alcohol). Like whisky though, quite often the cheap ones are still good ones. I enjoyed a snifter of this quite a bit, partly because it suited the food (simple but good tapas) I was eating quite well. It was listed on the menu as 6 year old (VSOP), but I'm fairly sure this vineyard doesn't do a 6 year old expression.

Domaine des Cassagnoles 5 yo
Single producer armagnac - Ténarèze (Gondrin)
41% ABV
Red brown

Nose: Chocolate cake, white grape, salt caramel.
Mouthfeel: Medium bodied, clingy like a good port.
Tasting: Sweet. Limes, green tea, prunes, apricots.
Finish: Medium length. Lime peel, orange blossom.

My trusty reference book (Armagnac, by Charles Neal) rates Domaine des Cassagnoles as a "average producer", and their 5 year old expression as "commercially correct". Talk about damning with faint praise. I suppose that this could well be true when rating it in comparison to great armagnacs, but on its own merits it's quite enjoyable.

The producer, Domaine des Cassagnoles, is in a small town called Gondrin in the Ténarèze producing region. It's run by Janine and Gilles Baumann, who've been making armagnac since 1974. The sole grape used is Ugni Blanc, the same grape they use to make Cotes des Gascogne white wine, their vineyard's main produce. On their website, they list 4 armagnacs available - 5 years, 10 years, Hors d'Age (20 years) and a "blanche" eau de vie, for cocktails.

Vineyard size: 65 hectares
Chai: Organised, cement and dirt floor, humid.
Soil: argilo-calcaires (clay with a high proportion of limestone).
Barrels: Gascon, Vosges, Limousin.
Grapes: Ugni Blanc (100%)

- from Armagnac, by Charles Neal.

Pacha Papa

On our recent trip to Peru, the Pretty Lady and I were often at a slight loss in Cusco when it came to meal times. We were on a relaxed holiday, electing to play it by ear, so we couldn't eat at restaurants where we needed to make a reservation at (we missed eating at Cusco's best restaurant, Cafe MAP, because of this). No matter - Cusco is full of eateries, ranging from tourist traps that haul in unsuspecting gringos (or chinos like us) to homestyle joints that serve local food for cheap prices to locals and the odd tourist venturing off the beaten path.

Pacha Papa veers more towards the tourist trap end of the spectrum, but one that is good value for money and serves local specialities with more than a hint of authenticity. We went there twice over 5 days. Adjacent image from foodite at flickr, because we didn't happen to take any holiday snaps. More at his flickr photostream.

Pacha Papa
Plazoleta San Blas 120
Cusco, Peru
+51 (84) 241 318

The restaurant is located in San Blas, the artist's quarter, slightly bohemian, and a 5-10 minute climb up the hill behind the Plaza des Armas. It's a slightly uncomfortable walk for us sea-level dwellers. However, once there, it's a little square with a church in the middle, with the restaurant located in the courtyard of a Spanish colonial house.

The tables are wooden, the chairs are just a step above benches, but the service is good and the food tasty. There is a large earthen oven (almost tandoori-like) where the meats are grilled and the pizzas baked. Also available is "pachamanca", a meal where the food is placed in a pit and grilled under hot stones (we didn't get this of course).

The menu has the usual gringo fare of pizzas and pasta, but in the section entitled "menu tipical" in the menu, there's a selection of Andean grilled meats (including alpaca and guinea pig), well-known Peruvian dishes such as pork adobo and lomo saltado, as well as three or four Peruvian stews. There's also the Peruvian corn beer, chicha de jora, and corn lemonade, chicha morada.

On our first trip there, I had a mug of chicha de jora - it came with a massive head on top, with cinnamon sprinkled over. The beer itself is malty, sweet and tangy, more like a soft drink than a beer. It's not very strong - about 4% I think - and it's very thirst quenching. Unfortunately I was suffering from a cough that restricted me to a single mug.

I also had olluquito con charqui - olluco tubers, potatoes, onions, dried alpaca meat stewed with aji pepper. The alpaca didn't really taste of much, because of the sweet-sour heat from the aji. It's spicy, even to my cast-iron tongue and stomach, and quite insidious because there's a delayed timelag. The first few spoonfuls were mild and flavourful, then the heat smacked me in the back of the throat. Whew! The Pretty Lady had a variation thereof, with grilled beef and no aji pepper. I thought that tasted better, as there was more flavour to the meat.

On our second visit, I had a sort of mixed grill - roast beef and roast alpaca with quinoa, plantain and vegetables, grilled in the earthen oven. The alpaca was the standout part of the dish - roasted perfectly medium, sweet and rich, and a horsey gaminess that put it just this side of exotic. No wonder people like eating it. The Pretty Lady decided to go for whole mountain trout (yes, fish at 3,000m!) which was roasted with fennel. Fish and fennel is always a great combination, and this did not disappoint - the trout was oily and rich, offset by the fennel's aniseedy flavour.

We also had rocutos rellenos (chile pepper stuffed with minced beef and cheese) and papas rellenos (mashed potato molded around a filling of minced beef, onions and what tasted suspiciously like olives, then fried). Both were pretty tasty, and came in reasonably sized portions too. The latter was often a problem in Peru, because neither myself or the Pretty Lady are used to the American-sized mega-helpings that the restaurants served to gringos.

Total cost for each visit was around 80-90 soles, or about £18 for two people. It's expensive in Peru, but cheap in comparison to a London night out. In any case Pacha Papa is a great place to experience traditional Andean cuisine made with local ingredients, and a decent drinking den, especially if like me, you like corn beer.

Scores:

11 July 2008: TFQ = 24, CS = 23, S = 14, AD = 6, VfM = 8. Total = 75 points.

What does this mean?

Sea serpent week!

It's sea serpent week at the ever-entertaining, quirky and knowledge-enhancing Tetrapod Zoology!

Hook Island tadpole
Moore's Beach monster
Something no one seems to know anything about
Tecolutla monster
Where are all the dead sea monsters?

It would be fantastic if there were still plesiosaurs and pliosaurs swimming around in the oceans today. Given that mankind has fished out just about every tasty aquatic creature though, it's extremely unlikely, and getting more unlikely by the day...

Albannach

Good whisky bars are thin on the ground in London. I know of a couple, Albannach in Trafalgar Square and the Salt Bar near Edgware Road, while there's a new place called Whisky Mist that opened with great fanfare recently (although this seems to be the kind of place that serves Monkey Shoulder cocktails rather than good malts...). I'm going to be visiting all of them eventually, and if anyone knows of others, please drop me a line in the comments. Remember, more whisky = good thing.

Recently, the Yogababe and I got together with some friends, LS, SY and KY, for a little farewell meal (LS is leaving London for pastures new). The Pretty Lady couldn't join us. We decided on Albannach, since there was a Top Table offer, and I'd been itching to try the restaurant for some time. I've been to Albannach a couple of times previously, but mainly for the whisky.

Albannach spreads itself over 3 floors. There's a lounge / nightclub in the basement, called Doon (inside joke for Scotsmen), a bar with sofas and tables on the ground floor (as well as a chandelier made out of stag antlers), and a restaurant on a mezzanine level, where whisky tastings are also held. The bar is where I've generally tended to loiter, sipping and tasting whiskies while propping up a little round table.

Albannach

66 Trafalgar Square

London WC2N 5DS

020 7930 0066

First off, the whisky. The selection is extensive, although some of the bottles seen on the website have since been finished. Au revoir to the Port Ellen 24 yo and the Laphroaig 10 yo Cask Strength - they had run out when I asked for them. Nevertheless, I've tasted a number of beauties there - Aberlour a'bunadh Batch #22, Caol Ila Cask Strength, and a Talisker 20 yo 1982 among them. The great thing about Albannach versus the Salt Bar is that at Albannach you get your whisky in 50ml measures. The Salt Bar apparently (as it says on their website) serves its whisky in 35ml measures, which is neither here nor there of course.

The restaurant is small, seating perhaps 30 people. The menu is short and to the point - starters, main courses, and desserts, perhaps 5 or 6 of each. There's also a set menu that's pretty good value, £12 for 2 courses and £18 for 3 courses. I chose to order a'la carte, ordering a rabbit terrine with piccalilli and quail scotch egg to start, a ribeye of Buccleuch beef with dauphinois potatoes, cavalo nero and wild mushrooms for a mains, and a Scottish cranachan and shortbread for dessert. The Yogababe had a trio of cured fish, a wild mushroom risotto with Inverloch cheddar crisp. The others had various other items, with KY's and SY's a loin of venison, thyme potato cake and parsnip puree worth mentioning.

As always, good produce tends to end up in good food. After all, most chefs are at least reasonably skilled. I enjoyed my starter, although I thought the rabbit terrine was a little under-seasoned. No matter - the typical gaminess of the rabbit came to the surface, offset by the tart picalilli (shame about the fact that there was just a dab of it). The scotch quail egg was interesting - somehow the yolk was still liquid!

My rib eye steak was delicious, but it was Buccleuch beef after all. It was perfectly cooked, and the dauphinoise potato was very well done. The mushrooms didn't taste wild though, and I would have been a lot happier if they had included some morels. However, I was very happy with my cranachan - whipped double cream on top of a mixture of whisky, honey, and raspberries (with a little bit of shortbread on the side). There was supposed to be oatmeal on top, but there wasn't - not that I think it would have improved the dish much.

I also liked the Yogababe's trio of cured fish - whisky cured salmon (but of course!), smoked mackerel pate and sardine escabeche. Great little idea for a dish - tasty, simple and keeping in with the Scottish theme.

Unfortunately, the service left something to be desired. Despite the small number of diners, the two wait staff could not seem to keep up with requests. I asked for a tasting glass a few times, for example, because they kept serving me whisky in tumblers. Nevertheless, I thought the food was of a decent standard, although slightly expensive. I guess the diners do cross-subsidise the whisky drinkers, because the whisky is fairly priced and quite worthwhile.

Scores:

9 July 2008: TFQ = 24, CS = 25, S = 10, AD = 9, VfM = 6. Total = 74 points.

What does this mean?

Como te llamas, alpaca?

There are 4 species of South American camelids, the llama, the alpaca, the vicuña and the guanaco. On our trip to Peru, the Pretty Lady and I saw all 4 species (the guanaco took some finding). The llama and the alpaca are the two domesticated species, while the vicuña and the guanaco are wild. It's not clear whether or not the llama and the alpaca are domesticated versions of the vicuña and the guanaco. As can be told from their family name, they are closely related to camels, and form a clade, Camelidae.

First up, the llama. We saw many camelids in the company of locals, but not all of them were llamas - in fact a large number of them were alpacas. Llamas are beasts of burden in Peru, much like the donkey or the horse, and we saw several laden with packs. However, llamas can only carry approximately 30kg a day (according to our Inca Trail guide) and are thus less useful than a human porter.

The adjacent picture shows a herd of llamas at Machu Picchu. Their job is to crop the grass growing on the terraces, living lawnmowers if you will. There was a baby llama born just 4 days before we arrived at Machu Picchu, but there were so many tourists surrounding it that we couldn't snap a picture.

Next up, the alpaca. They are very similar to llamas, but are slightly smaller, and are prized for their wool and their meat more than llamas are. We couldn't tell llamas from alpacas, so we got some tips from one of our guides, Emilio in Puno. According to him, the key is to look at the ears. Llamas have straight ears, while alpacas have slightly curved ears. It's not very clear from the adjacent image what shape the alpaca's ears are, but Emilio assured me that they were definitely, incontrovertibly, alpacas. The hotel we stayed at in Puno had a herd of alpacas on the grounds, all used to tourists standing around cooing over them.

Alpaca meat is gamey and rich, like a cross between aged beef and venison. It takes on smokey flavours very well, and I loved the grilled alpaca steaks that so many restaurants served. I also had alpaca in a stew, with onions, rice and aji pepper, but the rich sweet gaminess that characterises the meat was lost in the stew. Shame.

On to the vicuña, a wild species of camelid very much prized for its soft wool. Vicuña wool is at least as good quality as cashmere, and very much rarer, as the animal is heavily hunted and poached to get at the valuable wool. They can be distinguished from the alpaca and llama by the spindly deer-like legs, a feature that also makes the baby vicuña look like Bambi. The adjacent image is of a baby vicuña that a Quechua woman near Sillustani. She was selling photo-ops to tourists.

Also near Sillustani is a large lake with an island in the middle. On that island live a herd of 2,000 vicuñas, protected and managed sustainably for their fur. There is only a single gamekeeper, and he's responsible for keeping away poachers.

Last, and hardest to find in Peru, is the guanaco. The guanaco occupies a slightly different habitat compared to the other 3 camelids - it lives further south, in Bolivia, Chile and Argentina. To see one, we had to go to Lima zoo. But we managed to take a picture, and that's the adjacent image. It's got the vicuña's spindly legs, but is much larger, comparable in size to the llama.

It's not easy to tell the 4 species apart. Clearly, the wild animals have spindlier legs, and resemble deer more. The llama is also slightly larger than the alpaca, as is the guanaco compared to the vicuña, but for the domesticated species at least, large alpacas overlap in size with small llamas. There's the ear test, as described above, but it's hard to tell. I also suspect that alpacas have a slightly shorter muzzle compared to llamas, but the guide wouldn't confirm this. I wonder if you could tell by taste?

Guinea pigs

Ah, guinea pigs. They're illegal to eat in the UK, since there's apparently a law that prohibits animals classified as pets from being consumed as food. So Peruvian restaurants in the UK aren't allowed to serve guinea pigs, even though it's their national dish (I know, I asked a few).

No matter - on our trip to Peru, I was determined to partake of their national dish. So I did - I had cuy al horno, or roasted guinea pig. It turned out that they weren't that easy to find. At Pacha Papa, a (slightly touristy) restaurant the Pretty Lady and I visited twice, the cuy needed to be ordered a day ahead. Not ideal for my random walk derived restaurant choosing strategy. All in all, I think I only visited 3 places where cuy was available instantly, and two of them were the simple roast in the oven.

Anyway, guinea pig has really sweet meat - a bit like Chinese char siu, except that the sweetness is in the flesh itself rather than derived from a barbecue marinade. I can see why the Peruvians like it. It tastes like I thought rabbit char siu would taste like. The adjacent image shows a guinea pig roast I had in Cusco. As you can see, the kitchen has removed the head, and divided the body into 3 segments. I've eaten one segment, so the guinea pig is actually slightly longer than the portions on the plate suggest.

The one problem about guinea pig roast is the skin. It's rubbery, hard and tasteless, and I suspect is not really edible. Maybe it was left on as a test - what Terry Pratchett calls the Sheep's Eye test. That is, what the most disgusting thing that you can leave on a tourist's plate and have him still eat it? Unfortunately I only caught on after I ate most of the skin...

Never mind. The other reason why Peruvians eat guinea pig is probably because they are quite abundant. In Puno, near Lake Titicaca, we stayed at a hotel that had their guinea pig farm (maybe) in the lakeside garden. The adjacent image is of a denizen of the garden. And it wasn't easy to get either - those guinea pigs were slippery buggers and difficult to sneak up on. Hardly surprising, as the guinea pigs that were friendly to humans in Peru were probably eaten long ago.

So, guinea pig has sweet and tasty meat (shame they don't allow them to be eaten in the UK). This probably applies to most members of the rodent family. In any case in South America they make a habit of eating rodents - the capybara, largest rodent in the world, is a popular delicacy. Not least because they are semi-aquatic and considered to be fish by the Catholic church, hence eligible for consumption on fasting Fridays.

Four o nine

The Pretty Lady's cousin, SY, lives in Clapham. She invited both of us, Yogababe (her classmate - yes, the world's a little small) and her brother JY for dinner in Clapham one evening at Four o nine. It was a interesting little place - leather sofas, leather-upholstered chairs, wooden floors, walls stencilled with images of Clapham High Street. The restaurant is reached by means of a private entrance in Landor Road. You reserve, pitch up, ring the bell and ask to be let in.

Four o nine
409 Clapham Road
London SW9 9BT
020 7737 0722

We sat by the window, which was a slight mistake because of the setting sun shining onto the table, but after the sun set it was cosy and comfortable, despite the full restaurant. It was an unexpected little gem. The chef used to work at Chez Bruce before branching out on his own, and while I discovered this after we ate at the restaurant, it definitely showed. The food was quite delicious.

It was pretty early, so we had the restaurant pretty much to ourselves. We began with cocktails - I had Tommy's margarita (not sure how this differs from a normal margarita, but it was less sweet than the usual ones, and therefore that much refreshing). The Pretty Lady had a pineapple caipirinha which seemed a magnificent idea when I saw it in the menu, and worked really well too. It's the kind of drink that makes you go "Now why didn't I think about that?"

Anyway, SY, JY and I started with a pork dish. It was a medallion of pork belly on a bed of salad dressed with sweet mustard and topped with a poached egg. The pork was slightly underdone, which normally would be a little unpleasant (given the taste of British pigs), but the slight raw taste went well with the mustard and the smooth egginess of the poachie. It was quite brilliant.

The Pretty Lady and the Yogababe had chilled mint pea soup with truffled mascarpone. It was almost the consistency of mushy peas, but was cool, refreshing, and sweet. I couldn't taste the truffles, but the mascarpone dotted in the soup gave it a light dairy tang that cut through the sweet peas. Very good indeed.

JY and SY had sliced roasted lamb shoulder on a bed of summer beans (looked like ratatouille, but done with beans) and pesto. It looked very good indeed, but I didn't manage to steal a forkful. The expressions on their faces seemed to say they enjoyed it though. I do regret not tasting it, but it's another excuse to go back.

The Pretty Lady and I had spatchcocked roast chicken with morels, spring onions and new potatoes. The chicken was good - moist, slightly crisped skin with give - and the morels were bursting with jus. The spring onions were done just al dente, and the new potatoes had been browned in what tasted like chicken fat. Great execution, although I'm minded of Tyler Cowen's advice to never order roast chicken in restaurants (why? because it's popular, and hence easily survives the competitive process to get on the menu without necessarily tasting great). It wasn't half bad though, and I couldn't cook this myself.

The Yogababe had a cheese plate for mains (she's now a social animal eater, and we're not really that social, we're just family). Decent selection of Neal's Yard cheeses - I particularly liked the Stilton. It was slightly overripe, more to my taste than the 'Babe's.

We moved on elsewhere for pudding though, so I didn't get to sample the fresh ginger ice cream that I was eyeing earlier. Oh well. Plenty of excuses to go back now. The Pretty Lady thought the food was slightly overpriced, and that may well be the case. But the decor is quirky, the location a little out of the way, the food is tasty, and the cocktails aren't too sweet. A little more expensive seemed okay to me.

Scores:

3 July 2008: TFQ = 25, CS = 25, S = 12, AD = 8, VfM = 6. Total = 76 points.

What does this mean?

Slyrs, the German whisky

During a recent trip to Munich, I was mooching around airport duty-free with the Pretty Lady when I spotted this:

Bavarian single malt whisky, distilled at Slyrs distillery in Schliersee, Bavaria. It was a 3 year whisky, distilled 2004. According to Celtic Malts, the barley is wood-smoked, not peat-smoked. I wonder what it tastes like.

Unfortunately I didn't buy it (I was toting a 1 litre bottle of Lagavulin Distillers' Edition at that time), due to space constraints on my little whisky shelf at home. Maybe I can find a little sample bottle somewhere. Or I could wait till they release their 12 year old expression in 2015...