Last Wednesday night I made significant inroads into eating Everything but the Oink at The Captain's Table, in Outlaws Yacht Club. It was the first pop-up restaurant that Outlaws had hosted and the guest chefs were the team behind The Greedy Pig, a wonderful cafe on North Street. As you can probably guess, Jo and Stu from The Pig are lovers of all things porcine and their menu for the evening promised to be a nose to tail dining experience.
I saw the menu in advance but I had kept it from Z as I knew that she would have a problem with at least one of the courses. I was right and sadly it was the first out of the block. I thought that the savoury beetroot jelly containing morsels of ear, trotter, tongue and cheek was a brave and tasty way to start the evening, I get the impression others weren't convinced. To give Z her credit she ate about half of her serving before giving up. It wasn't the cuts of pig that put her off however, she just doesn't like jelly, neither sweet, savoury or infused with vodka.
The next course was more conventional, a rustic pate of shoulder, belly, liver and pistachio nuts. Aware of what was still to come, I only took one piece of the proffered bread, but that meant that my bread to pate ratio was out. That didn't really matter as the pate bore more than a passing resemblance to rillettes and I have been known to eat that by the bowl full.
I'll admit that I was a little bit disappointed with the next course. Due to no fault of The Pig or Outlaws, the advertised spleen was no longer on the menu. It turns out that the man from DEFRA had decided that this little piggy's spleen wasn't fit for human consumption. Not only was this disappointing but it was a stark reminder that I might not get all of Breakfast when he does go to slaughter. Everything is in the hands of the vet.
On the Yorkshire tapas plate, the spleen was replaced with tripe rolled in cured ham. It was accompanied by grilled heart skewers, quails egg scotch eggs, and a celeriac remoulade. All three were fantastic but I could have eaten a mountain of the heart kebabs.
Next up was "Three Little Pigs", a trio of boudin blanc, chorizo tortilla and the daddy of all sausages, black pudding. Unlike the tapas plate, this one was bulging with piggy goodness. I can only imagine the fun Stu had in making his own black pudding. It is something I want to try, but I have a feeling that blood may be one of the items of Breakfast's anatomy that I am denied.
By the time the final savoury course arrived, protien fatigue had begun to creep around the room. I for one was not going to be defeated and soldiered on. I'm glad I persevered as the slice of rolled roast belly pork was sublime. It actually reminded me of the Bath Chaps that I made earlier this year, without having been cured. The bitter kale and the creamy mushroom and kidney sauce really set the pork off too.
Finally we had reached the last plate, dessert. Pear poached in elderflower cider with brown bread ice cream is the kind of desert that I would probably choose from a menu but I was finally full. Z on the other hand, who had bitten off more than she could chew a couple of mouth fulls into the roast pork, suddenly found a bit more room for pudding, washed down with a glass of mulled cider.
We got the chance to say thank you to Jo and Stu before wandering off into the night to sleep it off. We needed to relieve our babysitter so couldn't hang around and chew the fat with them. I know that Jo had been worried about giving people enough food and Stu had been working like a Trojan to get everything prepared. Jo needn't have worried, there was more than enough food, if anything the three little pigs could have been littler. It was clear too that Stu's efforts in the kitchen had really paid off.
I don't know if the next Captain's Table at Outlaws Yacht Club will feature The Greedy Pig, but whoever it is that next takes up the tiller will have to go some way to match the standard that has been set. You could say that I have almost finished the nose to tail challenge that I set myself for this year, but Breakfast is still running around his pen at Swillington farm and until I've sampled all he has to offer, the challenge is still on.
