PICKLED FORK POP UP

Friday saw us venture into the deepest darkest depths Wandsworth in search of the Barmouth Kitchen, home of the Pickled Fork.  As some of you may or may not know our first encounter with the Pickled Fork was at the Brixton Diner which was utterly incredible.  At the time Pickled Fork were a duo however Chris and Alex have now gone their separate ways in terms of cooking but they are still great friends and share an allotment.

We arrived bang on time for once, and were greeted by Alex.  He showed us to our table after explaining that he would start serving once everybody had arrived.  With our bottle of red breathing we sat and admired our surroundings.  Its funny how London differs so widely from area to area, street to street even.  Take for example the stark difference between Peckham's kind of grunginess to this area of Wandsworth with its tree lined streets, big houses (that are actually still houses and not split into 4 tiny flats) and quaint little cafes.  The reason I am blabbing on so much about this is it is the first time we have ever been to a pop up in a place that has as many high chairs as adult chairs and pots of crayons everywhere (not that this is a complaint).

Anyway enough about that.....

So the menu is a set 4 course menu, this menu changes every month with different produce coming into and going out of season and Alex also told us that he gets bored if he cooks the same things over and over (who wouldn't to be fair).

 Our first course was served around 8pm and from the second the plate was put in front of us we knew we were in for a real treat. 1st up was a crumpet topped with cheesy cauliflower goodness,crispy pig ear paired with fermented sultanas and charred endive (something we have never had before). Every single element on this plate worked so well together, the saltiness of the pig ear with the bitter char and mature cheddar was just fantastic...so good we actually asked for seconds and may have cleaned the plate for Alex!

Up next was a beautiful dish of vegetables from the allotment served with cows curd. The pickled red cabbage puree is something neither of us have ever had before and made a lovely change to the usual 

cabbage we have around Christmas time. The vegetables were cooked to perfection and this made for a really tasty dish.

After a short interlude Alex delivered our main which was a taste sensation - venison wellington with leek lasagna and liquorice gravy. Sounds strange we know but again top credit to the chef for his fantastic pairing and seasoning. The venison was cooked perfectly and wrapped in lovely flaky pastry, it appears venison is becoming one of our favourite meats and this dish helped show how versatile a meat it is. For the third time of the evening we became members of the clean plate club.

Reading the menu prior to arriving desert was the course Sarah was least looking forward to as she doesn't like rhubarb however, she left the pickled fork pop up being a huge fan. The dish was arranged in such a way that the whole milk pudding (which was delicious) was to be used as a palate cleanser for the other elements of the dish including the doughnut and fudge which were both very sweet but totally awesome.  

Overall we had an absolutely superb evening with banging food which was definitely restaurant standard if not better. We really cannot put into words how good Alex's cooking is and if you live in London and haven't been to one of his pop ups your really should! Below is next months menu and you can book through edible experienced...oh we failed to mention it is BYOB also!!