Being a Civil Carnivore: St. John Bread & Wine

For my 21st birthday, my loves and I went to St. John Bread & Wine in Spitalfields, one of the offshoot branches of St. John, which is known for its “nose to tail” dishes (eating every part of the animal). As for the roasted suckling pig pictured above, the dish can only be ordered with parties of 10 to 15 or more. Luckily, there were other birthday celebrations going on as well, so I got the opportunity to get up in the pig’s grill and snap a picture. PETA would assassinate me if they knew. Sadly, I did not taste the pig (the aroma in the room was swooning), but I had some other pretty awesome dishes!

First observation of the night: I literally didn’t understand half the menu. Piccalilli, ramson, kohlrabi, ticklemore, sea purslane… and most interesting, faggot?

Yes, it’s always wonderful to learn about new foods, but not knowing the ingredients of almost half the dishes on the menu? I was overwhelmed. When the waiter came over to the table, I interrogated him like a suspect, dragging every detail out of him. And if you were curious, “faggot” means a bundle, which was a meatball of offal.

For the table, we had some scrumptious bread and a pleasant Plume rose, which was quite appropriate since this branch specialized in “Bread and Wine.”

The dining style mimics a tapas style in which there are little plates of food rather than a straightforward three course meal. The dishes are meant to be shared amongst the table, but there are usually some main style dishes as well. Since everybody had different comfort levels for food, we decided to order our own dishes.

When I understood the menu, two of the small dishes really caught my eye. I made my friend order the Ox Heart, Celeriac, & Mustardand I ordered the Middle White Faggot & Swede so we would be able to try both.Like I mentioned before, the faggot is a meatball of offal, and the swede is a turnip puree. I loved the faggot dish! The sweeter turnip puree balanced the saltiness of the meatball, and one without the other made it either too salty or unsavory.

For a main, I had the Ox Tongue, Watercress & Pickled Walnut.Maybe it’s because I am Chinese, so I have been exposed to lots of exotic ingredients. There are lots of Chinese dishes that include ox and pig tongue, pig ear, intestines, and the like, therefore ordering ox tongue seemed nothing out of the norm. A few of my friends, however, couldn’t even bear the thought that I was enjoying it. Yet, my girlfriends who were open to trying new things, also really enjoyed it! The tongue paired really really well with the watercress, which was topped with a nice balsamic vinaigrette.

After lots of great conversation, laughs, and good food, we concluded the meal with some freshly baked madeleines.They were warm, spongy, and a perfect delight - they really made my night! We promised ourselves we would go back to Spitalfields, enjoy the market, and spend the afternoon with some more madeleines.

All in all, St. John Bread and Wine is a highly recommend. Although I was a bit disappointed at first when I couldn’t reserve a table at St. John, I am really glad we ended up at the Bread and Wine branch. It’s much less formal, cute and welcoming, with a jovial pub-like feel. All the other parties happened to be birthday dinners, too, so we all sang “Happy Birthday” multiple times. A wonderful birthday dinner indeed.

P.S. Thanks Jess for letting me use your camera!

Had some wine and cheese while I was cooking. The red wine is from VillaMelnik, my girlfriend’s vineyard in Bulgaria. The Gorwydd Caerphilly cheese is from Trethowans Dairy, which I purchased from Borough Market.

I made the most tender butter garlic roasted chicken with some brussel sprouts on the side. Melted butter, threw in some garlic, seasoned the chicken, and popped it all into the oven. The roasted garlic was amazing! Love love love garlic.

More Adventures In Borough Market

Fresh rubharb, more amazing oak roasted tomatoes, polish sausages, and brownies - oh, Borough Market, can you please marry me?

I returned to Borough Market, and this time, I was armed and ready with my camera and some cash. Took better photos and bought some awesome delights instead of obsessing over free samples…

My girlfriends and I entered the market from the east side where we encountered a huge brownie skyscraper. I just had to have one.You’ll just have to visit yourself to see that huge free-standing tower. So we trudged along, me especially happy with some really good devil’s food in my mouth, trying samples, looking here and there, buying cheese and some other vittles, and I came across some pastries that looked peculiarly similar to Chinese egg tarts…I asked the lady behind the stand what these pastries were, and she replied that they were Portuguese Egg Tarts. Portuguese? I couldn’t fathom how similar in appearance, yet different in cuisine these two tarts were. After doing some research when I arrived home, I discovered that these Portuguese Egg Tarts (also known as pastel de nata) actually made their way to China. Some theories suggest that the Chinese egg tart came from British custard tarts and became a part of Hong Kong cuisine since Hong Kong was a British colony. Other theories pose that the Chinese egg tart came from Macau, a past Portuguese colony. The popularity of these tarts integrated into dim sum, a Southern Chinese specialty (mainly Hong Kong and Guangdong), which actually makes sense because the southern ports were the most westernized at the time.

Yet, the most epic experience of the day was tasting my first raclette.Raclette is a Swiss dish of melted cheese, potatoes, pickles, and traditionally, dried meat. The word “raclette” comes from the French word “racler,” which means “to scrape.” The huge cheese round is meltedthen scraped onto the dish. The dish tasted amazing, but I instantly turned my brain off thinking about the calories.

As we ventured more into the Jubilee Market side, we came across Oliveology.Although I did not taste the olives, I had some of their honey. And that honey was probably one of the best honeys I have ever had. Unfortunately, I do not think they sell their honey online (I couldn’t find it on their web site), but their bees produce flavored honey as well. They harvest honey from bees from specific areas, so for example, honey from the bees around chestnut trees produce their wild chestnut honey. I had no doubt that I was able to taste the hint of chestnut - wonderful.

Next to the Oliveology stand, there were strands of Polish sausages. You always see Polish sausages advertised in your Costco hot dog or elsewhere, but I wanted to eat authentic Polish sausages. After having some samples, the girls and I split a mini sausage for forty pence.The piece was much bigger, I just forgot to take a photo… I found out that these sausages are “smoked” and cooked literally by hot smoke. After hours of smoking, the sausages finally carry that smoky flavor. A bit salty for my tastes, but a tastier snack than Slim Jims.

We ended the trip by browsing through the chocolatierwhere I had another free dose of chocolate.

Oh, Borough Market, so attached I am to you.