You can accidentally have a degustation…

I have to explain this a lot since it happened.

There is a story behind it, but I’m guessing you already figured that bit.

It starts, as most of my adventures do, with an impulsive mood and the internet (that sounds far worse when I read it than it did in my head).

I was wondering if Deer Duck Bistro was open. It was a Tuesday, I was on a computer at the time, and one quick Google search led me to the answer. That answer was “Yes”. Of course this led to the follow up question, how easy is it to book a table.

Very, as it turns out. Next thing I knew I had booked a table for 5:30 that afternoon. I knew I had a limited amount of time, so I quickly searched the menu so I could order as soon as I sat down.

I managed top get there a minute or two after 5:30 due to traffic. I walked in, was happily greeted and led to my table.

Then I was told the menu options.

On the website, it does not say Tuesday is limited to degustation. If it did I missed it.

“Here are your menu options. The Chef’s Special, A Short Degustation or A Long Degustation.”

Oh. This is how you accidentally have a degustation.

I was  pressed for for time. The Chef’s Special was the shortest by the look of it. It didn’t have venison tartare. The Short Degustation apparently took an hour and a half to two hours. The Long, I assume, took half an hour to an hour longer. Both of these had venison tartare.

I only had one choice I could go with.

It took me a little over an hour and a half to have the Short Degustation.  Of course I was going to get the one with the venison tartare.

I shall tell you the dishes I remember.

It started with bread made with activated charcoal, butter and a small risotto with crab. This was actually a pretty tasty aperitif. The bread was black, and a lot tastier than I thought it was going to be. I am pretty sure the role of the aperitif is to get you excited for the rest of the meal. This was succeeding in this case. Appearance wise, I have seen better, but the taste of this was pretty good. The bread was delicious. The butter was beautiful. The risotto was ok, but the bread was what made the appetiser do its work.

Peppered Venison Tartare came next. This was my second favourite dish. It was beautifully presented. Peppered venison on top of pickled red cabbage. I could have eaten a whole plate of this. It was just as tasty as the Emu tartare from Detour but for different reasons. The peppered venison was really strong and combined with the cabbage made it this beautiful mix of flavours and textures. This was definitely over too quickly.

There was a salad next, it had salad ingredients. The bit that stood out most about this though was the raspberry balsamic mixed with truffle pearls. Whatever else was in the dish was pushed to the side by these two pairing. I am aware this is not everyone’s idea of a wonderful paring but if you ever get the chance it is worth a try. As this was a palette cleanser, it did its job admirably.

I remember the next bit as a little pie type thing with some sort of green vegetable strips on top. While this was still nice, it was my least favourite of the courses. The green stuff was good, but I was warned it may be a bit spicy. I didn’t find it spicy at all. I may need to take a friend who can’t eat chilli to let me know if there is any chilli in it. The rest of the dish was tasty. It had smoked salmon in it, and this was beautifully blended in with the rest of the flavours, but it wasn’t spicy.

Pasta came next, with smoked king oyster mushrooms, speck and some sort of truffle sauce. The whole thing was really tasty. I know I liked it but it is too close to my favourite to remember much about it. Aside from the truffle sauce was pretty good.

Now, some of you probably already know what my favourite dish would be. There is one thing I love to eat when I go out. I have had it roasted, fried, steamed (I love triple cooked) and with a whole range of sauces. I am talking about duck. This was sous vide duck, with a pear puree and a salted plum. It leapt like a rabid grasshopper into my top three duck dishes. The duck tasted beautiful, it was delicate and delectable. Every bite was incredible. I loved it. I would have happily stopped there. I was tempted to see if I could follow this degustation with another degustation, but I was running out of time by this stage, and it would have been ludicrously expensive.

Finally came the dessert. This was a deconstructed cheese cake, with mango pulp, mango pearls and pickled strawberry. Should you find yourself in this situation, leave the mango puree and the pearls until last. Take a mouthful of puree with the pearls in it and pop the pearls with  your tongue. The most intense mango flavour I have had in a while. It was amazing.

Right, I now need to go and find something to dessert like. Luckily I have halva. Night all, eat well.