We were treated to a very nice dinner at The Ginger Pig by Matt and Jane during our time in Brighton. Yup, I have a fantastic bro-in-law. :) It's a gastropub located just 5 minutes outside the city at a very nice converted old building near the water. Obviously, I don't know very much about historical buildings so all I can offer is that it's an old building. Hehe... A very nice looking one though. :) Inside, it has wooden interiors and dim lighting giving it a cosy and warm feel which was very welcome seeing as Brighton was quite windy and temperamental while we were there.
It took us a while to decide on what to have for dinner. They had so many nice things on the menu - so difficult to pick what to have. We were especially intrigued with the wild rabbit rilletes with pickled carrots, pea mousse, peas and mustard on the starter menu. As soon as I saw it, I knew that I was going to have it. And before I knew it, Matt & Jane decided that it looked pretty good so we all went for it, sharing between couples. This, for me, was the star of the evening. I loved how it was presented on a wooden block and it was utterly delicious. The combination of rabbit rilletes with pea mouse and the mustard was just amazing.
Then it was time for our mains. Ryan went for the Roast rump of veal with braised veal croquette, roast garlic puree, wilted lettuce, capers, lemon & parma ham.
Matt had the Lamb, leek & raisin pie with creamed mash potato & spring greens.....
and Jane had the above. This was one of the blackboard specials so I couldn't look it up online but remembered it was a black bream dish.
Grilled fillet of brill with jersey royals, beetroot, shaved fennel salad & a orange dressing. I really like my fish. It was fresh and very nice except I thought the combination of ingredients lacked flavour. Too subtle for my liking. I like flavours that are more distinct but it was still a lovely dish.
For dessert, Ryan and I shared the tonka bean pannacotta with poached rhubarb & ginger ale jelly. If I wasn't already so full, I think I would have wanted one all to myself. This was superb. The tonka bean used to make the pannacotta gave it such a distinct flavour. It was quite surprising really because I didn't think I was going to like it when I tasted it for the first time but I ended up polishing it off in the end.
Matt & Jane shared the set of dark chocolate cream with olive oil jelly, sea salt & orange madeleines for their dessert and they really love it. I'm not a big fan of dark chocolates (more of a milk chocolate person) but it looked very decadent and yummy and they enjoyed it very much! The olive oil jelly was a bit weird though. I didn't try it but it looked rubbery!
I love trying out good food when we go travelling. I know we get a great selection of restaurants in Sydney too but we definitely don't get gastropubs or good pub food in Sydney. It's definitely an English thing and seriously, the food that you get in those pubs is quite surprising! I never expected to get such quality meals in pubs ever. We went to a couple more gastropubs while we were in the UK and I can't wait to share them with you.
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