{"id":6096,"date":"2015-06-28T07:00:43","date_gmt":"2015-06-28T06:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/janetgover.com\/?p=6096"},"modified":"2015-06-28T07:00:43","modified_gmt":"2015-06-28T06:00:43","slug":"the-best-and-most-expensive-cabbage-ever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/?p=6096","title":{"rendered":"The best and most expensive cabbage ever"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>
The glorious building. Even a damp evening couldn’t dull its beauty.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I have\u00a0recently had the most expensive meal I have ever eaten. I mean seriously expensive\u2026 and seriously good too.<\/p>\n

I had of course heard about Michelin starred restaurants. I never quite understood what a car tyre and a chubby marshmallow man had to do with excellent food \u2013 but when friends suggested an outing to one such restaurant, I was very pleased to go.<\/p>\n

The restaurant was the Paris House Restaurant <\/a>in the grounds of Woburn Abbey. That should have told me a lot. And if not, one glance at the building was enough. <\/p>\n

It was built in 1878 as part of The Paris International Exhibition. Apparently the then Duke of Bedford\u00a0 fell in love with it, had it dismantled and shipped to his estate where it was lovingly rebuilt to become\u2026 wait for it \u2026 accommodation for his staff.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also been a private dwelling and a hospital and of course is now a fine restaurant, with a bomb shelter in the back garden (as all the very best restaurants have).<\/p>\n

The dining experience is a tasting menu \u2013 eight or ten course \u2013 with an accompanying wine flight.<\/p>\n

\"SPRING<\/a>
SPRING LAMB with Turnip, Almond & Black Fig<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We chose the ten course and I have to say, I have never eaten food of this quality. It was amazing.<\/p>\n

\"SICILIAN<\/a>
SICILIAN RED PRAWN with Sauce Romesco, Pine Kernel & Bella Di Cerignola<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Of course, there is one in every crowd \u2013 or in our case two. The staff smoothly produced suitable substitutes for my diabetic friend. In fact, his desserts looked wonderful.<\/p>\n

\"Just<\/a>
Just one of the desserts prepared for my diabetic friend.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I was the other difficult one.\u00a0I thought the sommelier was going to protest when I told him I didn\u2019t drink white wine. But he put on a brave face and served me red wines,\u00a0even with the fish. He did a wonderful job of selecting them. They were excellent.<\/p>\n

\"JOHN<\/a>
JOHN DORY with
Cuttlefish, Bulgar Wheat, Preserved Lemon & Tomato – tasted good with a light red wine.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We had a leisurely meal ending with not one or two but FOUR dessert courses. They know their patrons well.<\/p>\n

\"BROKEN<\/a>
BROKEN TARTLET with Strawberries, Lime, Clotted Cream & Nasturtium<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So by now I guess you are wondering how much it cost. It\u2019s no secret.\u00a0The menu and prices are on their website. \u00a399 per person for the ten course menu. Plus \u00a350 per person for the six part wine flight. And then there is the cost of the bottled water, and the canap\u00e9s. And the service charge\u2026<\/p>\n

\"CHERRY<\/a>
CHERRY with Burnt White Chocolate & Rose<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Yes,\u00a0 it was far too much money to spend on a meal.\u00a0But this wasn\u2019t just a meal, It was an experience. The staff were brilliant. And the food exceptional. And if you were to ask me my favourite dish \u2013 the answer would be the cabbage. Cabbage???? Not just any cabbage but\u2026<\/p>\n

SPRING CABBAGE : <\/strong>Smoked Jersey Royal, Spring Cabbage & Gracilaria<\/p>\n

If, like me, you have no idea what gracilaria is, according to Wikipedia it is a red algae. And it makes cabbage taste like nothing on earth.<\/p>\n

Sorry there’s no photo of the cabbage. It was consumed far too fast.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have\u00a0recently had the most expensive meal I have ever eaten. I mean seriously expensive\u2026 and seriously good too. I had of course heard about Michelin starred restaurants. I never quite understood…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-my-travels"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7g6jm-1Ak","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6096"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6096\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}