Rare Tea

Jay Rayner turned out to be great company and - this may sound absurd - more interesting to listen to than the lovely sound of my own voice effusing about tea. Besides, I did have to pause occasionally to eat.

We ate at Restaurant Nathan Outlaw at the Marina Villa Hotel in Fowey, Cornwall.

I began with tongue (apt in my loquacious case) on a bed of pea shoots with an intriguing smoked mayonnaise. It was both rich and light; a great starter. The sun sank slowly in the harbour and I drank too much wine.

My main course of rose veal (rose means it’s pink because the calf hasn’t been crated but allowed to run around) was locally sourced and quite wonderful. This was really good cooking. Not overly complicated or astoundingly surprising but clever and interesting none the less. Jay’s pigeon was enhanced by a subtle rather than showy chocolate sauce. My poached pear (among the three puddings we ordered unable to decide and happily greedy) was cunningly stuffed with a delicate amaretto mousse.

Of course we finished with a pot of my wonderfully fragrant oolong tea. I know Jay was riveted by my lengthy description of the intricacies of the craftsmanship that goes into producing this excellent tea – from the careful bruising to the fastidious rolling of the whole leaves. He was, of course, far too polite to overburden me with questions and thoughtfully changed the subject to his latest novel giving me a chance to drink my tea.

It was a wonderful dinner/supper/tea thanks to the brilliant company and food. When the seagulls woke me early the next morning I realised that Cornish beer after Cognac might have been a mistake and was very, very glad to sip a silver tip tea.

Read Jay’s review here

When Jay Rayner, the Observer restaurant critic, invited me for dinner on the 28th June he asked me to promise to limit my tea conversation to thirty minutes. Naturally he wants to talk about the dinner. He may even be afraid that I might be other than endlessly fascinating on the subject of tea. Hard to imagine, I know. Anyway, I promised.

People do, however, get confused by what is meant by tea and what is meant by dinner. Some people call the evening meal tea and some call it supper who don’t call it dinner. Dinner, of course, might also refer to lunch. Tea-time is all the time but could be oolong and cucumber sandwiches at 4.30 or, inexplicably, coffee and cakes at five.
Mistakes, therefore, are wholly understandable and entirely innocent.

I’ll do my best and keep you posted.