I don’t go to as many conferences as people often think, but I do probably photograph my food at most of them…
Recently I was attending a review meeting at Aston University and we had dinner the night before at the Aston Business School. Unlike a lot of conference dinners we had a choice, which is always nice. Also not only a choice, but we could choose on the night. Normally choice is either completely limited to a single choice, or if there is a choice you have to make that choice weeks in advance. I’m not a fan of that as often what tickles my fancy weeks ago, is not what I want to eat on the night! So having the choice on the evening I am eating is a real treat.
For my starter I went with the warm tartlet of chorizo, mushrooms and roasted shallots.
In other words a quiche! It was quite tasty and very nice. It was well presented too.
For the main dish, I went with the slow cooked blade of beef with a bourguignon sauce, served with dauphinoise potatoes and green beans.
The beef was very tender and was full of flavour. I would have liked more sauce, as in places the beef was a little dry. The potatoes were great and the beans were beans.
I was tempted by the other dishes on the menu, the slow braised shoulder of Moroccan lamb with North African cous cous when it arrived on the table looked really nice.
The cassoulet of beans with Gorgonzola polenta and roasted aubergine also looked great.
What was nice was that there were two vegetarian options, most times you have the single choice of a mushroom risotto.
So what about to finish with, well I am a sucker for cheese and biscuits and went with that.
Very nice, even with the large amount of celery, which I never eat. I did feel that if you provide four biscuits it would be nice to have at least four pieces of cheese. I felt short-changed with the cheese, it needed more cheese, or more different cheeses.
Must mention the excellent service, any place which has a table of twenty as we did and know who ordered what is a real bonus. The food came out and was served to the correct people. So much nicer than someone holding out a dish and calling out “who ordered the fish?”
Overall it was a really nice meal, nice to have a choice, cooked well, great service and nice surroundings.