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NEW YEAR NEWSLETTER Times like this, you need Le Café Anglais more than ever. When we opened we promised ‘affordable glamour’ and that is what we like to think we have delivered. The glamour is in the room, the ambience, the scale of the menu and wine list, in the food itself and in you the clientele. The affordable is in the transparently honest pricing of that menu, in the ridiculous bargains (the 3.50 hors d’oeuvres, the 4.50 chicken leg, the crazy, fully garnished 10.00 plat du jour and the best value (16.50 for two courses) set lunch in town. We have decided to add to these follies with another crunch busting bargain, the twenty pound dinner in the evening during the week. At £20.00 for two courses, £25.00 for three, £30.00 for two courses with half a bottle of wine (125ml with the first course, 250 ml with the second) and £35.00 for three courses with a half bottle we reckon you’ll want to come every night and save on the gas at home. The ‘twenner’ has already started: come and see for yourself.
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| | | | | | ATTENTION ALL LOVEHEARTS | | | | | | Fresh from our staging of La Boheme with The English National Opera at Le Cafe Anglais, who could doubt that it is simply the most romantic venue in town? All true romantics will want to come and be our Valentines on February 14th. Start with a Kir Royale, a Sicilian or some Electric Soup if it’s a bit chilly and proceed to a shockingly reasonable £50.00 menu stuffed with truffles, oysters, foie gras, chocolates and other surefire aphrodisiacal delights. The less romantic can have a Parmesan custard to share, an oyster fritter and a chicken leg for the usual consideration. The lights will be down low, tables strewn with rose petals, the place awash with pink champagne, gypsy violinists lurching over your table..... how can you resist? Some of the above is true but the place is filling up fast so book now for this chance of a little earthly paradise. Alternatively, come along anyway, with free Bellinis for tables of five and over (got to fill them somehow!) | | |
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| | | | | | WINE DINNERS AT LE CAFÉ ANGLAIS | | | | | |  Following the extremely successful wine dinners and responding to customer demand - we are proud to announce a new schedule of stimulating evenings of Bacchanalian restraint and Dionysian discrimination. These evenings represent not just an opportunity to learn about a winemaker or a region or perhaps a grape nor just an opportunity to taste (and drink) wines of legendary stature at a very reasonable price but also an opportunity to meet winemakers and fellow oenophiles in a highly congenial setting. It goes without saying that the kitchen rises to the occasion and we have enjoyed some brilliant wine and food pairings and many sensational dishes on the way. Please book early: we anticipate a heavy demand for these events.
The first dinner of 2009, on March 2nd, is an evening of Hermitage. Not just any Hermitage, but the wines of Jean-Louis Chave, regarded by most as probably the greatest exponent of the Syrah grape that’s Shiraz to you down under in the known universe.
Starting with a small tasting of the whole range - from the scintillating, orange blossom, almond scented, divine Hermitage Blanc all the way through to the ludicrously expensive, highly sought after, plutocratic Cuvée Cathelin and the simply heroic Vin de Paille, the evening will progress with a dinner of epic proportions, enriched by a succession of great wines, including three vintages of the wine that is the heart of the Rhône and close to the heart of all oenophiles, the great Hermitage Rouge. £175.00 a head is the ticket price, I’m afraid, but a price that represents ridiculously good value.
 On April 6th we take another trip down the Rhône valley, this time in the company of John Livingstone Learmonth. Many of you will know that ‘the Seagull’ is the preeminent expert on the Rhone: less of you may know that he is probably the least pompous and the most amusing of all wine writers.
This evening is not so much a tour or an overview of the area as an absolute romp. In every other way it's the usual formula: great wines, great food and a very reasonable £70.00 a head.
We have been drinking and selling the Sancerre de Chavignol from the Delaporte family for over twenty five years. It is the benchmark Sancerre, embued with that mineral, flinty quality that elevates that wine above the general run of Sauvignon Blanc.
We will taste and drink not just the white, pink and incredibly popular red wines but the Delaportes have promised to bring over some museum stock and we can have an opportunity to discover the extraordinary aging potential of Sancerre Blanc. At £65.00 a head, this bargain evening is scheduled for 11th May.
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| | | | | | | | | | WINES TO CRUNCH WITH | | | | With the Euro digging in its heels as the 163 rides off into the sunset, there are some who regard our decision to have an all European (actually it’s a German-Swiss-Austrian-French-Italian list, if one wishes to be precise) wine list as a bit of a, erm, mistake. Don’t you believe it. We believe there’s still better value and better wines to be had in Europe than overseas even with the change in the exchange rate. Good New World Sauvignon Blanc still costs more than Reuilly, a good Bourgogne Rouge is a good deal better value than a New Zealand Pinot and a Syrah beats a Shiraz hands down. If you want to drink good wines for under thirty 163s it is more than possible (have you tried our house wines and, if not, why not?): they just won’t necessarily have names like Chablis, Sancerre or Côtes du Rhône Villages. We will showcase the sort of thing we mean in the set dinners but here are three worthy of mention.
Grüner Veltliner Strasse Hasel 2007 , from Birgit Eichinger in the Kamptal area of Austria is a steal at £25.00. Delicately aromatic with hints of peach and apricot, it has a freesia like white pepper quality and beautiful, very pure fruit character. If you are bored with Chardonnay and do not want the acidity of a Riesling or Sauvignon Blanc, this wine is bound to appeal.
We are rather lucky to have stumbled across a cache of Château Nardon 2002. From a crumbling tower in the Entre Deux Mères, Château Nardon’s owner makes a claret that we have been following for a while, the 2005 having been much appreciated last year. He does not do much else, however, apart from wandering around his library and collecting whatever art he can afford. He should have sold his 2002 some time ago but some of it seems to have got left behind. This suits us very well, as 2002 was a fine structured vintage whose strong tannins made it somewhat unattractive when young. Now it is a lovely, cedary claret with the leafy, minty nose of a fine St Emilion. It is not the biggest wine on the list but proper claret at the snippy price of 26.50.
Who wants to drink boring old Corbières? We do, when it is the Vieilles Vignes 2005 from Château Fontarèche at £22.00. This is a brooding, powerfully scented wine, redolent of those classic Southern grapes, Syrah, Grenache, Mourvedre and Carignan. It has that gamy, ‘Garrigue’ quality, spicy with a hint of wild herbs but the juicy fruit quality dominates the finish. Just the thing with roast hare, daube and the prevailing East winds. | | |
| | | | | | A WORD IN PRIVATE | | | | The private room at Le Café Anglais is available for morning conferences, tastings, lunches, afternoon teas and christenings, early evening drinks parties and dinner parties for up to 26 people. With high standards of service, bespoke menus and its exclusive, wood panelled ambience, it is the ideal place to celebrate any important event. So far we have had book launches, funerals, endless birthdays (including a 90th), a redundancy, numerous christenings, a wrap and an annual general eat-in. Please ask Nicky Lynskey (nicky@lecafeanglais.co.uk) or at reception for an information pack and prepare to be pleasantly surprised at the reasonableness of the prices and the scope of the menus.
Paul Levy writes: ‘Thank you very much for our completely successful Strachey Trust dinner in the private room last night. The food was wonderful and very generous - everyone was full of praise for the choice of menu and its execution - even the sole, genuine vegetarian. Added to which the young man who served us was impeccable, and deserves some real recognition for his coolness under fire. He was unflappable, completely attentive to everyone's needs and wishes and coped brilliantly with his 18 charges. If you ever need a testimonial to the excellence of your private catering arrangements, I'll be very happy to supply one. Best wishes, Paul’. | | |
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| | | | | | | | | | THE RUDDY BROWN BROTH | | | | It's a funny thing, but we tend to think of 'Mediterranean' food as summer food. This could be that most of us tend to visit it in the summer months and form our ideas of its climate and gastronomy from this experience. It is easy to forget that the French and Italians, for example, have their winters too. In the same fashion we think of fish soup and terraces by seaside cafes and not, as the French are as likely to, huddled around a table indoors, near a warm fire protected from the icy blasts of the mistral in the depths of winter. Not that Soupe de Poissons is especially Mediterranean. Anywhere in France where they have fresh fish, and this pre-eminently includes Paris, they have that ruddy brown broth and its accompaniment of croutons, cheese and rouille. Some pretty rotten examples I've tasted, too. Thin brackish soups devoid of body or flavour are offered up with a few desultory slices of dry baguette, some feeble pink mayonnaise masquerading as rouille, and the inevitable grated cheese.
The cheese if you really want it and I’m not crazy about it - should be Gruyère and is easily done. The rouille is another matter. French chefs are always too restrained when it comes to the brick red sauce, taming it down to a degree of politeness that robs it of any force or purpose. I like a rouille to be chilli hot, to reek of saffron and garlic and to invoke a degree of caution after the first mouthful. I can get a bit tricksy over the croutons too, I'm afraid. Too often they are just bits of dry baguette, not even toasted, and it won't do. Thin rounds of baguette have to be fried an even golden brown and then rubbed with a clove of garlic when still hot. It's time consuming but there you go. It may seem like wilfully extravagant use of olive oil, but you can save the stuff to use later to fry the spuds in or somesuch purpose. There's no hiding the fact that the whole enterprise involves a bit of work. If you think the croutons are a bore, wait until you have to pass the soup. Whether you put the thing through a triturator (mouli to you or me) or a blender, it's still got to be passed through a fine sieve afterwards and nobody can really claim it's much fun. Sometimes taking pains means exactly what it says.
The rest of the soup making is relatively plain sailing, once you have got the fish. There is plenty of guff about what fish should be in a fish soup. As a general rule oily fish such as salmon, mackerel or tuna should definitely be avoided. The inferior flat fish are not much cop either. The heads of red mullet, cod, hake and the finer white fish are excellent. Dogfish, weaver, wrasse and snapper are all excellent but my cheap and available preferences would be for a combination of gurnard, whiting and conger eel to give the right mixture of flavour and body to the pot. Fishmongers are few enough these days and well worth making friends with for many reasons but none more compelling than that a kindly disposed one will come up with a great bounty when you start asking for bits and pieces for the soup. | | |
| | | | | | FISH SOUP | | | | 1.5 kilos of fish: conger eel, gurnard, whiting (Other options: dogfish, weaver, wrasse, snapper)
2 onions
2 fennel
2 leeks
1 bulb of garlic
1 tin plum tomatoes
1 tablespoon rice
1 chili
Basil, a few leaves
Saffron, a generous pinch
Olive oil
1 bottle white wine
Clean and gut the fish, taking care to remove the gills. Cut into thick (4 cm) rounds and put in a large bowl.
Slice all the vegetables and add them to the fish, together with the tomatoes, herbs, spices and white wine.
Cover, refrigerate and leave to marinate overnight.
The next day, drain ingredients in a colander, saving the liquid in a bowl underneath.Heat a large frying pan and, with a little olive oil, brown the pieces of fish. In a large saucepan stew the rest of the ingredients, also in a little olive oil, for a few minutes.
Add the browned pieces of fish, pour over the marinade, add the rice and a little water to cover and simmer gently for one hour.
Whether in a mouli, a food processor or a blender, break down the soup into the finest puree possible and then pass through a very fine sieve.
Bring back to the boil, adjust seasoning and dilute with a little water (unless you have fish stock).
Serve piping hot with plenty of croutons and rouille.
ROUILLE
1 potato (cooked)
Saffron, another good pinch
2 chillies, or 1, and some harissa to finish
4 cloves of garlic
3 egg yolks
150 ml olive oil
100 ml fish soup
Juice of a lemon, salt & pepper
Chop up the potato, the chillies and garlic and put in a small pan with the soup and the saffron.
Reduce till very thick and then cool.
Put in a blender and mix.
Add the egg yolks, mix again and then add the olive oil in a thin trickle, adding the lemon juice if it becomes too thick.
Add the harissa at this point if available.
www.ft.com/leigh | | |
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| | | | | | POETRY CORNER | | | | | | Winter is icumen in,
Lhude sing Goddamm,
Raineth drop and staineth slop,
And how the wind doth ramm!
Sing: Goddamm.
Skiddeth bus and sloppeth us,
An ague hath my ham.
Freezeth river, turneth liver,
Damm you; Sing: Goddamm.
Goddamm, Goddamm, 'tis why I am, Goddamm,
So 'gainst the winter's balm.
Sing goddamm, damm, sing goddamm,
Sing goddamm, sing goddamm, DAMM.
Ezra Pound, 1914 | | |
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LE CAFÉ ANGLAIS is open seven days a week, closing only on Christmas Day and Boxing Day.
We serve lunch and dinner in the restaurant 12-3.30, 6.30-11.30 and the bar is open 12.00-11.30.
The private room seats up to 26 people and is available for hire for breakfast meetings, lunches, teas, drinks receptions and dinners.
Please see our website www.lecafeanglais.co.uk for further information or ask info@lecafeanglais.co.uk or telephone 020 7221 1415. We are at 8 Porchester Gardens, W2 4DB.
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