Food Fest: London Reviews and Burwash Manor

 

Like the snowdrops bursting through winter's chilly soil, like a sleepy bear lumbering from his cave and blinking into the sunshine, the Cambridge Spy returns, perhaps for the last time. Was he captured by his enemies, imprisoned in some Arctic Gulag and forced to escape on the back of a friendly wolverine, riding for weeks and surviving on nothing but wolverine fleas until he reached civilisation? Possibly. His lips are sealed.

 So many yogs, so little time...

The Spy's food reviews and meandering waffles are now being disseminated a little more widely than before, and so time is brief. He can only hold off his enemies for so long before he moves on once again, and so will quickly furnish you with his weekend exploits. On Friday, he was reviewing the best frozen yoghurt joints in London: the high point was when he found himself in Snog in the Soho's red light district, next to the Thai massage parlour on one of Snog's giant fairy toadstools looking out onto a bookshop advertising 'private XXX preview booths' in bright neon lights. 

Saturday saw him reviewing the amazing Imamo St James in Mayfair, London, getting to grips with the high-tech joys of E-Table, the world's first interactive ordering system. The overhead projection technology allows diners to order their food from the table-top menu, as well as choose from a range of virtual ‘tablecloths’, use ‘chef-cam’ to watch the chefs working in the kitchen, book taxis, check out local clubs for some post-prandial pleasure, and even play games such as Battleship (particularly useful if your fellow diners turn out to be total bores; you can always take out your frustration by firing holes in their submarines). However, even better than the technology is the menu, and seeing as a picture is worth a thousand words and all that...

A green Pandan macaroon filled with Yuzu-flavoured white chocolate mousse with a lemongrass and coconut sorbet, artistic blobs of milk chocolate sauce and electric-green spikes of spun sugar

 Battered shrimp in a seaside crate

 Interactive table fun with fellow diners

 Seabass, the best tempura in the world and a cocktail concoction of Bourbon with fresh strawberry puree, mint, wild strawberry liquor and Aztec chocolate bitter

A single herbed scallop floating on an ocean of blue sea salt

Come Sunday, The Spy's favourite weekend jaunt is a toddle along the river to Grantchester, for an Orchard scone. He then tramps a little further over the fields to Burwash Manor in Barton, a beautiful collection of shops and tearooms that include a top-notch butchers and The Larder, packed with local produce and excellent deli items. They have just finished a two-week food extravaganza of tastings, talks on foraging, cookery demonstrations and the like, and he was there for the finale: local jams (the quince was his favourite and there is now a jar sitting in the fridge), local chutneys on sausages (a red onion chutney went into the shopping bag) and smoked chicken and salmon from the local smokery. Last week, it was ice creams and a beautiful table of cupcake samples that perpetuated the biggest fizzing sugar rush. And although the fortnight may be over, everything can still be purchased from The Larder's groaning shelves, so here is a little taster just to whet your appetite:

 Chilli jams and chutneys alongside delicious local sausages

 Delicious jams, homemade on the kitchen table, also available in the Cambridge market alongside fudge (Tuesdays and Saturdays)

 Free samples from the local smokery

 A cornucopia of goodness

 Very expensive baked potatoes can be purchased here: better to make up a picnic from the deli

The fish in this pond are pure evil: they eat ducklings and can only be placated with expensive Italian rosemary-studded ham from The Larder