Elliot’s 12 Stoney Street, London SE1 9AD
Contact: 020 7403 7436 elliotscafe.com
Price: Three courses: £26.15
One hour hence it would be hailing fat balls of unseasonal ice, but while B and I were lunching at Elliot's in Borough Market we sat outside. And even though the inside is where you'd get the it-vibe, the artfully exposed brickwork and the hordes of young life, there's something timeless and beautiful about watching the world go by, and the marketeers relieve their punters of 50 quid for some razor clams.
Oh, it starts well: this wasn't just garlic bread (£3.50), this was wild garlic bread, bright green and as fresh as a meadow, wrapped in a parcel of greaseproof paper. The density and chew of the sourdough struck a nice contrast to the garlic's youthful sap.
B had the Red Cow parmesan (it's a breed of cow, OK – brought back from the brink of extinction to make more cheese, for us) with a chestnut honey that transported me – without warning, like Rentaghost – back to Greece as an adolescent.
I remember tasting their honey and thinking, so this is what it's supposed to be like – delicate, heathery, light, a syrup rather than a paste, everything English honey wasn't. It was the only good bit of the entire holiday. The combination here was wonderful.
I had the squid with cauliflower and curry butter (£8); the squid was scored rather than in rings (the fishmonger told me archly the other day that rings are very 1990s), fresh, a perfect texture, appealingly charred.
The cauliflower looked like a purée but was more of a mayonnaise, all the flavour of brassica, none of the worthiness. The curry butter was very subtle; indeed, the most attention-seeking thing about it was its turmeric hue, as clear as a yellow diamond.
So everything was going swimmingly when the mains arrived, and they were…this is going to sound a bit Oliver Twist…they were quite small. B's mussels with nduja (an Italian sausage paste) and fennel (£12.50) would not have daunted a starter-eater or large child.
My ricotta gnudi (this is reading like a convention of vowelless foodstuffs) weren't huge either, and there were but four of them (£12.50). Imagine the inside of a ravioli, the ricotta, fused with the outside, the flour and egg, then rolled into a ball.
They came with artichoke and olives, and the whole lot arrived with a lovely watercress and gem salad and some fried potatoes, along with one of the best aiolis have ever had. Once you've had mussels with this hot but meaty and faintly sweet nduja, I wonder how long it would take you to return to a straight sauce marinière – maybe decades.
The creatures themselves were beautifully fat and fresh. And yet – I don't say this lightly, especially since it was the vegetarian option – I preferred my gnudi. The texture was so good, and the flavour such a brilliant pairing with the artichoke – both mild, but in different ways, one dairy and the other earthy. A couple of big black olives, and a drizzle of olive oil added a bit of punch.
Having complained there wasn't enough of the mains, I'm about to complain that my pud wasn't sweet enough. There's a voice in my head shouting, 'Go to KFC, then, you big lard-bucket.'
I had lime curd (£6.50) with 'milk jam' ice cream (this is a literal translation of dulce de leche, which I didn't realise at the time, because the accent wasn't exactly on the dulce), some very welcome chunks of English meringue, a topping of Italian meringue, and all served in a highball.
It really depended on what ended up in your mouth from any given spoonful; there were times when the sharpness of the lime was perfect against the meringue, and other times when it was too tart.
However, my overwhelming impression is of being charmed by food, won over from the inside out.
MARKET PIT-STOPS...
Cafe 1885 Snape Maltings, Snape, Suffolk (01728 688303)
In a cluster of Victorian granaries, also home to shops, galleries and a concert hall, this bright café prepares light lunches using produce from the monthly farmers' market. Chicken-liver parfait comes with red-onion marmalade and salad leaves from Newbourne Farm (£7.95)
Farm 99 North Road, Brighton (01273 623143)
The team behind this rustic café also runs the twice-weekly food market down the road. It's all upcycled furniture and scribbled blackboards here, with plenty of ingredients from the stalls. The fishmonger's oak-smoked haddock comes with roasted tomatoes and poached egg (£7.95)
The Goods Shed Station Road West, Canterbury (01227 459153)
After a few laps of the ground floor, where counters brim with chutneys, charcuterie and cheese, pause for lunch in the restaurant above. Try baked scallops with chard (£9), before beef with a creamy shallot sauce (£16.50)
