Tea and Tapas with El Pirata de Tapas and Lalani & Co. | Lady ...

El Pirata?s Tea and Tapas ? a first for London?

You know when you go out for dinner at a really nice place and for some reason just don?t feel like wine yet the only other option is sparkling water or juice which kind of brings the whole vibe down just a tiny bit so you end up having wine to save face anyway? Well, fear not my friends, I may have found something for you that is surely going to catch on in this wonderful city which happens to be the spiritual home of tea?

Tea and Tapas. A meeting of minds took place when Nadeem, one of the brothers from family run boutique tea company Lalani & Co, was having dinner in Westbourne Grove?s Michelin recommended El Pirata de Tapas and got chatting to the owner. Rumour has it that they swapped cards then many moons later, after much thought and discussion, Roberto Mata, called Lalani & Co and suggested they sit down and talk this through properly. Out of that came a matching of tea with Spanish cuisine, in much the same vein as a good wine?sommelier would pair food with the notes found in a fine wine.

Lalani & Co, whom I met at Pistachio Roses? High Chai Banquet launch a few weeks ago, very kindly invited me (and Friend R) for Tea and Tapas along with journalists from across the food and travel world and I got to experience one of my favourite London food nights ever. Sitting around an intimate table for ten, getting to chat away to tea experts, great chefs and foodies who really understand what?s in front of them, I think I may have had my food-happy face on for the majority of the evening. I don?t understand how they did it ? there?s no way I could bring out flavours like this in my own kitchen, even with the extensive amount of tea I?ve stashed away over the years ? it was a night that made our tastebuds dance and we were still buzzing about it at the end of the week.

Single serve tea pot created for Lalani & Co by local British ceramic artist Billy Lloyd

It probably helps that the food was prepared by chefs who really knew what they were doing. The Head Chef had spent time working in El Bulli and his influence really shined. This stuff was incredible.

The tea is served in glasses, like you would drink a wine or a whiskey so it really feels like you are drinking tea as part of the meal (as you would somewhere like China or Turkey, where again, tea is often served in glasses).

The Tea & Tapas menu begins this week and will be trialled for the month of November. Don?t be fooled by naturally assuming Spanish food and tea wouldn?t go together, it works well, very well. Here?s what you can expect:

1. Spring Reserve 2011 Darjeeling from the LaKyrsiew Garden. Only 15kg of this delicate tea was produced from this tiny husband-wife venture in Meghalaya, India, and it is the perfect way to begin a meal. They said this tea serves to open up the taste buds. On the night we went it was served with:

• seared tuna, ajo blanco, marinated almond
• prawn tartare, egg yolk citrus sauce
• roasted fig with cheese foam and crispy ham (though it was all good, this was incredible)

Clockwise: Spring Reserve 2011, LaKyrsiew Garden tea, tuna, prawn tartare, roasted fig

2. Silverleaf Green, picked exactly one year ago, with only 10kgs produced each season, from the LaKyrsiew Garden. This was served with:

• seared scallops, cauliflower puree and grilled mandarins (stunning flavours and completely unexpected)
• fresh cod, pil-pil sauce

Clockwise: Silverleaf Green tea, scallops, cod

3. 1st Flush Jade Oolong, April 2012 from the Jun Chiyabari Garden in the mountains of Nepal (I know, I didn?t know Nepal produced oolong either, but it makes sense). It came with:

• langoustine and ceps risotto with Idiazabal cheese emulsion
• serano ham croquettes (the highlight of the evening for me personally; R found out that to create the smoothness of the croquette, the white sauce inside is stirred non-stop by a chef for 90 minutes, really hard, over a very hot stove, the effort showed).

Clockwise: Nepalese Jun Chiyabari Garden, 1st Flush Jade Oolong, risotto, croquettes, dessert

There was also dessert which was a ganache of white chocolate, jelly mint and cookie dash. It was delicious and came with wine but at this point I was so full that I only had a few mouthfuls. It is rare that I can?t squeeze in dessert.

Overall, I loved how well the notes in the tea complemented rather than competed with the exceptional flavours and textures in the food. Unlike wine which is often used to cut through some textures and add balance, they needed to keep the food light during the first two courses order to match the light body of the tea which suited us just fine. The oolong (which Nadeem referred to as the rose wine of the tea world) was able to work with the richness of the croquettes and risotto ? I loved it and didn?t find myself wanting to reach for a glass of wine at all.

My understanding is that El Pirata?s Tea and Tapas menu starts this week. I?m not sure what the price is but from the rest of their menu, you?re not going to break the bank if you go, but you will come out having had a very memorable meal at a place which would be perfect for a date (yes Mr Man, that is a hint). Don?t you just love how London acts as this incredible melting pot and brings together different worlds to result in something unique and wonderful?

El Pirata de Tapas can be found at 115 Westbourne Grove, London W2 4UP and you can find Lalani & Co?s boutique tea served in fine establishments such as Browns, Nobu, the Modern Pantry and online at Gauthier Wines.?

P.S. There are some really interesting stories about the tea gardens that Lalani & Co source from, keep posted for more on this ? I really love the human element to the boutique tea industry so will find out more for you soon.

Beautiful oolong tea from Nepal

Source: http://ladylovescake.wordpress.com/2012/11/05/tea-and-tapas-with-el-pirata-de-tapas-and-lalani-co/

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