On Line

You Can Email at
info@n16mag.com

In this issue

Armani and Trotsky
Torture in the Town Hall
Martin Rowson
Pa' Flanagan
Diane Abbott
News in Brief
A Very Personal Message
Festival News
The Cannabis Debate
Stokey's Baroness
Risk and Restaurants
Matthew's Gospel
Music Listings
Gifts for Green Fingers
Things For Kids to Do
Hackney Crisis
Speak Out!
Here Comes The Sun
Angry Brigade
Listing to Port
Our Man in the North Bank
X-word

Advertisers

Page by Page
p1 - p2 - p3 
p4 - p5 - p6
p7 - p8 - p9
p10 - p11 - p12
p13 - p14 -p15
p16 - p17 - p18
p19 - p20 - p21
p22 - p23 - p24
p25 - p26 - p27
p28 - p29 - p30
p31 - p32       

N16 Editions

Issue 16
Issue 15
Issue 14
Issue 13
Issue 12
Issue 11
Issue 10
Issue 9
Issue 8
Issue 7
Issue 6
Issue 5
Issue 4
Issue 3
Issue 2
Issue 1

OnLine Edition
Designed by
The N16 WebWorks

Risk, Reward and Restaurants
by Ethel Minogue

Eating out in Stoke Newington provides slim pickings for followers of fashion but for customers intent on eating well at reasonable prices the choice is rich. Some of the new ones like ‘Petit Coin’ and ‘Ruchi’ in Church Street shot straight to the top in the popularity stakes. The public’s thirst for something new partly accounts for this, but it also true that keen competition means restaurants and cafés have to be on their mettle from day one.

I am often asked why a promising new restaurant that seems popular should suddenly go out of business. Restaurants depend upon regular patronage and ultimately we get the restaurants we deserve.

The restaurant business is one of the fastest growing sectors in the British economy. As consumers we have become more confident and our taste increasingly sophisticated. We therefore demand more than just decent food and drink.

What restaurants sell is not just sustenance but theatre - we want the experience to be entertaining and relaxing. Each of us has an instinctive feeling of what constitutes value for money - we may feel that a very expensive dinner eaten over several hours in a grand palace of gastronomy in the West End has been worthwhile. Similarly we may decide that a hastily snacked lunch in a pub or cafe at a set price is a rip-off.

Although there may be no comparison between the two we may decide what the restaurateur set out to achieve and judge each place on its merits. Today’s prospective restaurateur has to do his or her homework more thoroughly than ever. A terrifying 80 per cent of new restaurants go out of business within the first year. Each year food writers anticipate a revival in British food and each year it fails to happen. I do not count ‘Modem British’ which, although it is innovative, is mainly favoured by a new breed of young chefs who tend to eschew their native cooking and use ingredients from around the world.

This needn’t be so. Plenty of scope exists for a chef wanting to experiment with ‘new’ ingredients while sticking to produce from these shores. Because of the national inferiority complex about British food many native ingredients are overlooked and have been all but forgotten.

Happily this is not the case at Les Gallois - 97 Stoke Newington, Church Street, London’s first Welsh restaurant. Les Gallois was opened last October by Phil and Margaret Vickery.

The aim behind the venture is to use top quality produce from their native Wales, presented with the flair and creativity associated with French cooking. Phil Vickery told me he has found it difficult to promote the idea of Welsh cooking, even in ‘foodie’ Stoke Newington - people have not always taken the idea seriously - often laughing at the idea of Welsh food and making snide comments about leeks. I remember a similar reaction when I opened the first Irish restaurant in London - all those potato jokes.

Those who overcome their prejudice are agreeably surprised. The quality of the food is exciting making use of fine Welsh produce - lamb from the salt marshes, Black Mountain beef, excellent venison and lavabread (a type of seaweed). Les Gallois also offers a great selection of Welsh farmhouse cheeses.

On the night we visited, we had a glass of the red and white from Cariad, which was of excellent quality. Diana Andrews, the winemaker from the Vale of Glamorgan, has deservedly won many International awards for her Cariad wines. The Cariad list ranges from £12.25 to £13.96 a bottle.

We began our meal with a classic leek soup (£2.50) which was full of flavour. We also tried fish cakes with lavabread, orange and lavabread jus (£3.75). The balance of fish to potato was a bit low but good nevertheless.

The main courses were of a higher standard altogether. My friend chose the ‘special of the day’, a very generous helping of venison (£15.50) which was rich and very tender. I had the saltmarsh lamb, which comes with lava gravy and leeks poached in red wine (£12.30). This was also perfectly cooked and on a par with the famous lamb pre-sale of Northern France. The main courses arrive with a selection of al dente vegetables and new potatoes. This was washed down with an excellent bottle of Graves (£16.95) produced in France by Welshman Bob Watts. The wine list is not large but is well chosen - apart from the Cariad wines the list is French and fairly priced - a good Muscadet sur Lie is £11.95 and a Fitou £11.50.

There are vegetarian options, a traditional onion cake, served with wilted spinach, tomato and tarragon sauce (£8.50), savoy cabbage and mushroom roulade is £9.50.

Desserts are on the blackboard - we tried a delicious chocolate truffle torte (£2.75) and a platter of Welsh farmhouse cheeses of superb quality.

Les Gallois is open from Tuesday to Saturday from 6pm. to 11pm with a Saturday and Sunday lunch from 12 noon until 3 pm. Welsh breakfasts are served from 10 am on Saturdays. They have a Christmas menu 3 courses plus coffee and chocolates (£19.75).

Telephone: 020 7254 1025 for bookings 
or visit the website at www.les-gallois-wales.co.uk

Next Page