A Scandinavian Supper
On a recent scan of grubclub.com to check out what was new in the London food scene I came across someone relatively new (to me), and with her quirky sense of humour, a Scandinavian theme, all in East London I couldn't resist!
I was looking forward to being amongst a smaller group as a stranger in someone's home again, the root of the supper club culture. And I wasn't disappointed! Not a detail was overlooked. What a great night!
Martha, nicknamed Muffy since she was a child, was a charming host, introducing her courses with humourous anecdotes of her pets Olive and Maurice, previous relationships gone array, and quiting her job in September to get more serious about food. You want to be friends with her and her housemate right away.
The location is a gorgeous ground floor space, open wide to a green garden out back, which was soon full of guests and a constant flow of trays of Pickled herring on mooli radish, Swedish meatballs with lingonberry, and Raggmunk (potato cakes) with sorrel and wild garlic aioli. Wash that down with the cocktail she offered made with her grapefruit, tarragon, black pepper infused vodka.
Martha's first course was a trio of homemade rye smorebrodd: beetroot pickled egg on Danish Blue cheese, blueberry Gravalax, and ox heart tartare (yep!). Adventurous, a lot of work, and visually gorgeous.
To give you an idea on Martha's sense of humour, for her main she said she included a Swede purée not because it's Scandinavian but because, well they're called Swedes. Ha! Along side her stuffed lamb, cabbage roll, and homemade bread AND homemade butter everyone was overjoyed!
And as if that wasn't enough, she brought out what I may give the title of "all time most ambitious dessert". These Swedish Princess cakes were layer upon layer inside of fruit puree, marzipan, whipped cream, berries (and I'm sure like three more layers). There was a challenge going on to see who could finish!
Martha's passion fruit and pomegranate schnapps did the trick and had guests chatting into the wee hours of the morning. Well done Martha!!
Go to a MuffDining Supper Club. Eat their food. Bring your own wine.
