Many thanks

We have to thank Darren, Hazel and the rest of the people who worked so hard to provide us with such a delightful food tasting session last night.

La Pedrera has a new chef who wanted us to sample some of the items that may be included in the restaurants’  menu. We were invited to try three starters, three main course items and three desserts and make comments about each.

The three starters included, melon and orange, spicy tomato soup and fried camembert in cranberry sauce. Our favourite was the soup. However, as a light refreshing starter, the melon had a delicious zing  of orange. and the fried camembert was ripe and creamy with a crispy coating – just as it should be.

The main courses included;  lemon chicken, chilli beef with tacos and pork in a cream sauce. The pork proved to be favourite here because of its delicate sauce. For us the chicken lacked its essential  lemon zest and the chilli was too mild. I understand that the chef had held back on making the chilli spicy in order not to  upset too many people. He can of course make it as spicy as people would want.

For the desserts, the chef prepared Spanish lemon tart, strawberry ice cream with shortbread and finally apple and cider crumble. The lemon tart and the ice cream were joint favourites. The tart was just that, sharp on the tongue with a creamy texture set in a light pastry case. The homemade ice cream was just as strawberry ice cream should be, bursting with the rich flavour of fruit. 

By this stage, the chef was probably exhausted having prepared so many dishes for more people than was anticipated. The finale was therefore sadly disappointing. The crumble topping was burnt and very dry in texture and there was very little apple to compensate. Having made a supreme effort though, it was easy to forgive the chef for this mistake.

I feel sure that Darren, Hazel and the chef will read through our comments carefully and take note of the helpful notes that we made. With a little fine tuning, the final dishes should be delicious.