The Tap Room
Gene Gonzalez
By that time, my food had been greatly complemented by a good choice I made for the evening, a Stella Artois gold from the Tap.
It was fresh, flowery, creamy, but not sweet with touches of herbs and lavender that played "gigolo" to my food. My last dish arrived and tickled my curiosity as to what the difference was between Steak and Kidney Pudding, which I ordered, and the regular Steak and Kidney Pie, which they had on the menu.
The difference was that the pudding was a deep-dish pie that lent itself to a wonderful but controlled intensity of beefiness and gaminess from the kidneys. (Talking about guy food, it had a side order of homemade baked beans.) I poured some brown sauce, and my throat and palate were actually begging for a dark Guinness Stout or a red ale (which they will have on tap by next month, so more excuses to go to Cebu).
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| Scotch Eggs | |
If there is a steak and kidney pie that can be served to James Bond, this one would be highly recommended.
I got to see Chef Dietmar and Chef Robert at the Pub on my next visit and left it totally to them as to what food to recommend. Chef Dietmar started me, to my surprise, on Smoked Salmon Roll-ups stuffed with wasabi cream cheese and grape leaves stuffed with rice or dolmades from the deli. Next came a very traditional Beef and Guinness Pie. The ground beef was tangy, moist, and strongly redolent of dark beer, giving it a soy-like caramelized character.
Next came a bubbly Casserole of Artichoke with Raclette surrounded by crisp slices of their house French baguette. For these rich dishes, I chose a Hoegaarden Vith Bier from the tap, a rich white wheat beer with steamed sweet corn aromas and custard flavors.
Our chefs were on a roll and brought out two more dishes. These were Scotch Eggs or sausage enrobed eggs served with chutney tartar sauce and an authentic homemade Branston pickle of glazed onions with a sweet sour tinge of Worcestershire sauce.
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| Potted shrimps with Welsh toast | | The other dish was Potted Shrimps with some Welsh rarebit toast with the cheese just meltingly oozing on the palate with gratin marks that gave the sauce its characteristic toasty cheese notes.
As a last beer, I took a St. Louise Kriek Lambic, a special beer made with wheat, barley, and cherries with no introduced beer yeast. During late summer, the vats are opened so that cherry pollen falls and the natural wild yeasts start the fermentation. This is a good ending or a beer to be taken when you have a one bottle limit. It is creamy with maraschino aromas and juicy, ripe black cherry flavors with a heavy and long vanilla-like finish. (I wonder if I can pair this off with dark chocolate?)
Halfway through this rich beer, I lit up a Cuban and got into the throng of more ribald pub conversation.
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