Coffee-infused pale ale and jalapeno cornbread

I’ve been making a policy recently of ordering good craft beer when it’s on offer instead of wine which is how I came across this stellar pairing at the newly opened Caravan restaurant in Kings Cross. (Terrific - I’ll tell you more shortly.)

They have a brew made for them by Camden Town Brewery which is infused with their own coffee - one of the things they’re known for (the coffee, not the beer). It didn’t have much of a coffee flavour, just enough to cut the edge of the sweetness of the American-style ale but it was absolutely cracking.

We actually ordered a number of dishes with which it rubbed along fine including fried chicken and watermelon (a surprisingly good combination) and some opulently cheesy grits with truffle oil but the dish I’d recommend - and the only one they’ve brought over from their Exmouth market branch - is the most outrageously moreish jalepeno corn bread with chilli butter. Which I recommend you order with the beer while you try and decide what to eat. The menu is so good it may take some time . . .

 

Chablis and snails

I’m a great believer in eating and drinking like the locals when I’m on holiday so when we stopped overnight at Le Pot d’Etain in L’Isle sur Serein in Burgundy last week there was nothing for it but to order a starter of snails with the Chablis we were drinking.

I realise this won’t go down that well with some of you - snails apparently topping the list of least favourite foods according to a survey that's just been released - but I must confess I like them.

The taste of course you’re matching is not the snails themselves (though they have an earthy quality that demands a wine of some power and persistence) but the garlic and parsley-flavoured butter that anoints them.

That calls for a crisp dry white in my book and none better than Chablis though the 2007 1er Cru Les Forests (right) from Vincent Dauvissat was probably a rather better example than we needed though it did come into its own with our mains of stuffed rabbit and sea bream with Mediterranean vegetables as you can see on my Facebook page. A young Chablis (2010 at the time of writing) or even Petit Chablis from a good producer would have been fine.

Other options would be Muscadet, Picpoul de Pinet and - oddly - a fresh style of non-vintage champagne like Taittinger which I can remember once drinking with snails in Reims. As you do.

Incidentally the Pot d’Etain is well worth an overnight stay not only for its snails and spectacular wine list but its really excellent cheeseboard which I’ve posted about on my cheese blog here.

Grilled aubergine, red pepper and goats cheese baguette and Le Fruit Défendu rosé

It’s been so steamingly hot this past week down in the Languedoc (sorry to rub it in, rain-sodden folks back home) that there isn’t any alternative to rosé for my match of the week. That’s what I’ve been drinking (albeit from different producers) with everything.

The best match though - and I offer you this as much as a great sandwich suggestion as a food pairing - was a sarnie I rustled up for my vegan daughter to eat on the plane and then made one for myself as it looked so delicious. It was grilled aubergine, red peppers (also grilled) and basil stuffed into a baguette and drizzled with olive oil - only as I’m not vegan and there was goats’ cheese in the fridge I slathered some of that on the base of the sandwich too.

With it I had a glass of the nearest bottle that was open, a 2011 Fruit Défendu rosé from Domaine Magellan in the next door village of Magalas - a really nice dry rosé made mainly from old vine Cinsault with a little Syrah. Cinsault can be bubblegummy but I note they say on the website they don’t control the temperature over much “This old grape variety doesn’t appreciate being treated too technologically”.

Linlithgow Wines seems to have it for £6.76 a bottle which is a very fair price. When and if the sun next shines I can strongly recommend it. And the sandwich.

 

“A few glasses of wine and lots of rubbish food”

What to recommend as my match of the week in this astonishing week for British sport, and especially athletics? Well, what else but Jessica Ennis' post-event treat of “a few glasses of wine and lots of rubbish food”!

For many of us, of course, that’s the norm rather than the exception from a highly disciplined training regime - well, maybe we’re healthier than that but I doubt most of you subsist on energy bars and bananas, as Jessica reputedly does

I’ve been unable to find out exactly what JE does drink but I’m guessing as a young wine drinker it’s going to be something like Pinot Grigio, New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc or rosé - all versatile wines to accompany a spot of hard-core snacking

Or, as she used to work in Pizza Hut, maybe a glass of Sicilian red or a ripe fruity Merlot would hit the spot?

If she fancies a burger she could always crack open a bottle of classed growth claret as recommended in this feature I wrote for Decanter on fine wine and fast food: she should certainly be able to afford it after last weekend but sounds like she’d settle for something a good deal more modest than that.

So perhaps she’s just going to put her feet up in front of the telly and watch the rest of the week’s events with a large tub of popcorn and a glass of prosecco. Or, better still, celebrate with a bottle of English sparkling wine like Nyetimber or Ridgeview Cuvée Merrett (both currently on offer at Waitrose at £22.49 and £17.99 respectively). And also very good with chips ;-)

If you'd just won an Olympic gold medal how would you celebrate?