I was going to write a blow-by-blow description of every course, but then I realised that would almost certainly be excruciating reading. I’m verbose enough already. With that in mind...
Food highlights: The mushroom and the ice cream.
I reckon the king brown mushroom (served with the pig’s trotter terrine) was the best thing that appeared on a plate all night. Way tasty. It must’ve been cooked in a stock of some description. Next to me, Janine complained that it had too small a head (is that what you call it?) compared to the rest of it. I offered to take it off her hands if she was sufficiently offended by its shape. She was too smart for that though.
I wonder how many people have tried making crystal malt ice cream since the dinner? Probably a few. For those who weren’t there, David said he steeped the crystal malt in the milk and cream which later became the ice cream. There was something crunchy in there too – crystal malt praline?
And the bread made with Guinness. At the end of the night I was wondering why I was so full, but now I remember just how much of the bread I ate.Beer highlights: They were all really good. We’ve been lucky that we haven’t had a dud at any of these dinners yet. That said, when you put beer in front of a room full of homebrewers you’re sure to get some, ahem, discussion on the relative merits of each beer.
Personally I think my favourite was Geoff Daly’s stout – big, gutsy and seriously dry. He said the beer’s finishing gravity was 1.020, but I reckon he might want to consider calibrating his hydrometer. Though when eaten with sweet desserts most beers would seem quite dry. Great stuff.
Fun times. You can rest assured that this dinner will definitely be returning for next year’s conference. There’s less capacity at the restaurant than at the rest of the conference so you’ll need to get in early if you want a ticket.(Many thanks to Sarah Anderson for the photos.)
