Rambling in Camden

On Sunday night I rambled to Camden with Y, my sister and brother-in-law, into a stranger's house to eat dinner - it would be our first secret supper club (for the uninitiated, the recent phenomena in London in these credit crunched times is for people to set up restaurants in their own home).

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We were all a little nervous - is this a little dodgy? We looked around the street, possibly for one last time (who knows, these people could be lunatics and we may never get out alive!) and ducked into a house. It felt like we walked up about 4 flights of stairs (stepping over recycling bins, exercise bikes - maybe we are in the wrong house?) to a lovely room holding 4 large tables. Most of the 20 diners had already arrived and, after being greeted by our lovely hosts, we were installed into a corner table (set for 5 - the lovely but no doubt long suffering housemate of Miss Rambling Restaurant ("Miss RR") was forced to share his living room with 19 strangers, and more intimately with our table).

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There was a great buzz in the air and the feeling that we were doing something a little different, possibly illegal and being part of some fabulous underground sub-culture soon kicked in.
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Our wine was whisked off to the fridge and our glasses were filled with a beautifully aromatic mulled wine.
Whilst we sipped our wine we had time to check out the night's menu. The theme was the "Flaming Dinner" and our table was decorated suitably for bonfire night with red chillies, glow in the dark sticks/bangles (hard core ravers presumably know the technical term) and party poppers. Our menu was to be Bonfire Pumpkin Soup, Roast Beef with Autumn Sprouts & Yorkshire Puddings, Flaming Fruit.

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The kitchen was separated from the room by a sarong strung up on string, from which emerged the lovely waitresses with steaming bowls of soup. The soup was pumpkin with a beetroot reduction, some soured cream (from memory) and pine nuts. The soup was spicy and delicious and I particularly enjoyed the addition of pine nuts. What I loved most however was the presentation - a fork sitting across the bowl with a toasted bread man speared on the other end. Guy + fork = Guy Fawkes! Once this was explained to me (I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed) I thought it hilarious.
.(For the Aussies, a brief explanation of Guy Fawkes night is here - in a nutshell, Fawkes, wanting to restore Catholic rule, planned to blow up the Houses of Parliament while King James I and the entire Protestant, and even most of the Catholic, aristocracy and nobility were inside. He was arrested a few hours before the planned explosion, during a search of the cellars underneath Parliament in the early hours of 5 November. In commemoration of the plot [give them a break, we glorify Ned Kelly the bushranger in our country], on 5 November an effigy of Fawkes is burned, often accompanied by a fireworks display) Our main was a slice of roast beef covered in gravy, a little Yorkshire pudding and Brussels sprouts with bacon and chestnuts. This was thoroughly enjoyable - not about to set the world on fire (that was dessert!) but a lovely meal.
Dessert was "flaming fruit". The lights were dimmed and a large plate of chopped fruit (pink grapefruit, rock melon, mango, possibly apple?) saturated in rum was brought to each table. Our waitress, and later Miss RR's slightly pyromaniac inclined flat mate, tried and finally succeeded (spectacularly in fact) in lighting the rum. Our plate of fruit was on fire!! Perfect for the night's theme! The fruit was served with cream and was still very alcoholic, despite the flames. I loved the idea of the dessert and it was such a novelty, but I couldn't help hankering for a little chocolate, pastry, cake, oozing custard - but that's just my personal preference for indulgence!
I'm so glad I finally made it to a secret supper club. I was buzzing when I left simply because it just felt like such a cool thing to do! My head was full of thoughts all night, firstly about which supper club I would seek out next (have booked in Sheen Suppers for early December today!), and secondly whether Y & I could do one ourselves. We discussed what seemed like a fabulous idea at length ... watch this space.
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Thanks Miss Rambling Restaurant for a fun night and for opening our eyes to this underground world of dining!
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Wth many thanks to my sister for bringing along her far superior camera and thus taking far superior photos.

3 courses at the Rambling Restaurant was 20 pounds each, BYO alcohol.