The big meat-versus-veg-off

I've been reading a lot of Anthony Bourdain recently, a man who should be celebrated purely for his very eloquent attacks on vegetarianism. It takes a brave chef to marginalise a whole group like that. And if you don't know how I feel on the subject, this post will make it obvious.

Mildred's on Lexington Street in Soho is one of the celebrated vegetarian restaurants in London, and it was absolutely packed on the weekday evening we tried to visit. Leave your name at the counter, and there was a 30 minute wait. The usual Soho trendy crowd included a children's television presenter whose name escapes me; I've been good at my celeb spots recently (more on that later).

I really liked the variety in the menu at Mildred's actually, I could have happily eaten most of it. I think the secret is that even though it is vegetarian, and they are fans of alfafa here, what they serve is certainly not that diet friendly. Take the mushroom ravioli starter, which was enormous, and very very rich:

I also chose an equally cream and cheese laden main of sun-dried tomato, mozzarella and ricotta cake, served on a bed of spinach in cream sauce:

We also tried their borlotti bean burger special, which we tried to make slightly healthier by having a salad instead of fries:

We had to go and take a walk around the block afterwards because we were so so stuffed. And this was after sharing a starter and not having pudding, which I guess completely negates all the vegetarian arguments about it being a healthy diet. After all, cakes and biscuits are all vegetarian, no?

On the other end of the carnivorous spectrum, I finally made it to the original St John Smithfield this week. Somehow it has taken me this long to go there, mainly because the Bread and Wine in Spitalfields is so close to my house. Again, I was uncomfortably stuffed after the meal, to the extent that I stayed up until 1:30am watching bad telly in order to try and digest. And again, a celeb spot, although this one was way more exciting. All the boys fell in love with Thomasina Miers, who is very pretty in the flesh, helped by a very small skirt.

Anyway, the food! We had the (un)lucky vantage point of having a table right next to the kitchen, with a countdown of how many specials were remaining that night. This led to much over-ordering, including a shared starter of duck hearts and green beans, and braised lamb with white beans, on top of 3 courses each!

Four out of our table of six went for the signature roasted bone marrow with parsley salad. Personally I found it to be much less of a favour sensation than the others, although this might be to do with the fact that I was feeling hard done by because two of my bones contained hardly any marrow. Plus, politeness prevented any sucking of the bones which was what Caris and I really wanted to do!

For mains, we tried to order something different for everyone. I had the roast veal with turnips, first time I've ever really had turnips, but I think this was the best main of all. Mmmm....

Smoked eel with bacon and mash came with some amazing thick-looking bacon, but we found the whole combination to be salty in the extreme:

We liked the brill with leeks:

Mallard with swede:

Grey partridge with braised red cabbage looked impressive, with an impressive price tag too (the most expensive main at over £25 IIRC), but again, not a flavour sensation when compared to other game birds:

We did have several desserts, plus we had birthday cake for Eugene, but honestly, by now, I was finding it hard to put any more stuff into my house. That bone marrow is so so so so rich, you can just eat that for your dinner and already feel tremendously full.

Jesus, I feel stuffed just posting that! I really really need to start that detox soon, if only my friends would stop leaving town...