It being Valentines Day today, and also half term, Mrs4 and me managed to get a few hours sans offspring and go out for our biannual adult lunch. These used to be called dates and happened regularly, but when your life is littered with little charges the opportunities present them selves less often.
Escabeche is in the West Bridgford area of Nottingham (Londoners should think ‘sarf of the river) and is run by the Perkins family. They have two other excellent restaurants in Nottingham, Escabeche being the most recent development.
Set just off the high street,the building is modern but with an eclectic interior design style. The point is in the name. It specialises in mediterranean themed dishes in a Tapas style.
Whilst they do a ‘lunch special’ I definitely wanted to try the main daily menu. I knew its contents having spent to long checking it over before printing it as part of my (don’t mention the) day job.
Mrs4 likes tapas as much as I do (as witnessed by her ability to consume the largest Seafood Platter in a Barcelona back street restaurant a few years ago, sadly no picture of the centre piece, a whole cooked octopus straddling the platter with his tentacles caressing his piscine companions) so it took 20 mins to choose. This is what we decided on.
Marinated olives, pitta bread drizzled with honey, tzatziki, hummus & beetroot tapenade. That helped us through the menu until we made the big decisions.
First up, a simple tomato, mozzarella & basil salad. Always pretty…..
Next, Haloumi Fritters in Tempura batter with Harrisa & Lime Mayonaise. Harissa Mayonaise is a great idea which I will definitly use.
This arrived at the same time as the Patatas Bravas. A good tapas regular and in this case crispy seasoned roast potatoes with a mildly spiced tomato based topping with more basil.
Next out of the kitchen came the two mains. These little bad boys really upped an already well played game. First to land was Mrs4’s choice. Moroccan Lamb Stew with carrots, chickpeas topped with yogurt, coriander and toasted almonds.
This had been slow cooked and was melty and tender. Whilst not over spiced in the Moroccan style it was Moorish rather than Spanish.
Landing shortly afterwards and also served in the same type of ‘just cooked’ pot, my choice, the dish that I crossed the river for. A Spanish country classic, Duck Leg Stew.
Another slow cooked, hearty and flavoursome dish. Cooked with carrots, barley & tiny button mushrooms, this is type of thing I could eat everyday. When we go back, whatever other selections we try, I would include this.
The last dish to arrive was grilled Mackerel with celeriac, apple & sultanas. More Moorish influence, incredibly tasty and wonderful to look for the 15 seconds before Mrs4’s fork nailed it. I like enthusiasm for food!
And so utterly sated, choosing a desert wasn’t easy but if a job needs doing, I’ll give it a go. We went for a two spoon share of chargrilled Pineapple, marinated in chilli with a coconut foam, coconut sorbet, lime & orange zest and tapioca (word missing, I’m sure it has a name, I’ll look it up and get back to you). Another really interesting combination and beautifully painted on the plate.
An utterly first class lunch. I’ve had lots of great Tapas meals but this was one step ahead.
I would recommend Escabeche to the committee. I hope their venture continues to be successful . They had a good turn out today and a Valentines evening bash later in the day.
If they did a recipe book, I’d buy it.
adrian4 
Down By The River
…..The River Trent to be precise. I had a little time to kill yesterday afternoon and whilst it was cold, the sun was out and the air was crisp. I had to go to West Bridgford so although it was match day at Nottingham Forest I found a place to park and went for a walk on Victoria Embankment from Wilford Suspension Bridge (like a toy Golden Gate) up to Trent Bridge. There are several full size images here so apologies for the slow loading. I think they are worth it.
The late afternoon sun on the river was very dramatic, lots of long shadows and strong contrasts. I used HDRPro on several of these to keep some detail in the foreground and most are post processed in Snapseed. All are taken from my phone. The one below goes against the basic principle of looking directly at the sun. I still have ‘white spot’.
The image below has a bit of the Hitchcock about it. There were a about 50 gulls sitting to the landing dock all looking at me in a menacing way. I shouted at them to try to get a bit of movement but all I got was a shrug and funny looks from passers-by. This one is full size, shot with HDRPro and tweaked in Snapseed.
The last image is a full iPhone5 panoramic from the mid-point between the bridges. Uploaded at the full size so you will get the best effect if you open it in another window. The resolution from the new iPhone is really quite impressive.
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Filed under Comment, Hipstamatic, iPhonography, Nottingham, Photography
Tagged as architecture, Arts, HDRPro, nature, River Trent, Snapseed, Sunset, Trent Bridge, Victoria Embankment, West Bridgford, Wilford Suspension Bridge