Lamb and Colgate anyone?

By Paul Fulford on July 23, 2008 10:28 AM |

In which universe does a combination of mandarin orange sorbet, mint foam, passion fruit, rack of lamb, various vegetables and a wheat salad seem a good idea?

This combination was served to me at a friendly backstreet restaurant in the beautiful old part of Mallorca's capital Palma this week and was horrid.

While the individual components of the dish were fine - with the exception of the mint foam which tasted like something you'd spit our after brushing your teeth with Colgate - there were simply too many flavours screaming for attention of the plate.

I firmly believe that chefs should seek to push boundaries and I'm a huge fan of modern Spanish cooking, but this dish was an incoherent mess.

Which was a shame because it was the only dud meal I had during a Mallorcan holiday that turned into a bit of a culinary expedition (my family and I ate out 11 times in 10 days, not including the odd sandwich and breakfast).

A hand-made burger topped with seared foie gras and served with a port wine caramel was a thing of unbridled joy, especially washed down with a bottle of local red wine...and there wasn't a hint of toothpaste anywhere on the plate.

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3 Comments

narin said:

Good grief you've made me hungry now. That burger sounds amazing. The Colgate less so. I'm so glad I have some lamb fillet in the fridge for later.

For a minute there I actually thought you were blogging from Spain, I would have been seriously impressed by TMM's kit!

Hope you had a fab holiday anyway and the return to Birmingham isn't too depressing!

Paul Fulford said:

Great holiday, thanks, Narin.
The burger was amazing - all the more so because it came on a thin slice of sightly crisp bread rather than in one of those big, pappy buns that stick to the roof of your mouth.

Steve Dyson said:

Fans of Restaurant Spy should click onto our Editor's Chair blog to find out about a food review issue that's come up in Paul's absence... http://blogs.birminghammail.net/editorschair/

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