Some of our most successful events are our “Something Fishy” evenings, held with John and Brendan from Jonathan Norris Fishmongers on the other side of the roundabout from us. The boys are as keen about their product as we are, and really good cooks as well.

Each evening features 4 sea creatures (perhaps shellfish / squid / flatfish / round fish): one of the boys demos how to prepare said creature – gutting / filleting / shucking etc – whilst the other beavers away in the kitchen. Once the demo is over a simply cooked but tasty dish appears. This week’s mouthwatering menu was

• Scallops with smoked Toulouse Sausage
• Griddled squid with sesame oil, chilli, coriander and lime
• Plaice fillet in Japanese Panko breadcrumbs
• Whole baked wild salmon with samphire

It tasted as good as it sounds. Previously we served 2 wines pre course. However we noticed that several of the wines were well suited to more than one dish. So this time we offered a list of 8 wines, gave our suggestions of course, but allowed people to select a pour as they wish. The wines were as follows (best matches in brackets though most were good allrounders):

• Champagne Gallimard Brut Reserve NV (£23.50)
• Txakoli Getaria 2009 Ametzoi (£11.50, squid) 
• Gruener Veltliner Gmoerk 2009 Anton Bauer (£14.50)
• Venezia Giulia Bianco “Blanc des Rosis” 2007 (£19.00, scallops & sausage)
• Chassagne-Montrachet 2007 Fontaine-Gagnard (£35.00, plaice)
• Provence Rose “Pink Floyd” 2009 Ch. Miraval (£14.00)
• Morgon Cotes de Py Vieilles Vignes 2005 Stephane Aviron (£17.00, salmon)
• Maranges 1er Cru La Fussiere 2007 Bruno Colin (£22.00)

The Txacoli is a light, spritzy, tangy Basque white. It’s a staple of these evenings and is really flexible, though the Toulouse sausage was a step too far – the rich North Italian Blanc de Rosis, a blend of Fruiliano, Pinot Grigio and several other varieties was best here and also very good with the salmon (it works well with meatier white fish too). The Chassagne was a decadent but successful match with the relatively humble breadcrumbed plaice (though this was as good as you’ll ever taste). We are very keen on lighter reds with meaty white fish, salmon and trout. The Morgon (a beautiful fruity but mellow top-end Beaujolais just hitting its stride at 5 years old was a very good match in my opinion though there were a few dissenters in the group – it can take a while to get your head around reds with fish! The tangy fresh Maranges (red Burgundy Pinot from a less well-known village) was also well-liked.

The next “Something Fishy”  is to be held on Wednesday 20th of October, 7.30pm to c. 10.30pm. The menu will feature (subject to availability) crayfish, mussels, sardines or mackerel and, finishing on a real high note, turbot. Our final event for 2010 will be on Tuesday November 16th; the line-up is yet to be decided.  Tickets are £60 per person. Call us on 020 8985 1549 to book tickets.