It won’t come as a surprise to be prompted that the Collective Review is all about assessments, analysis and appraisal. In fact, that’s the main reason why we are here. So I thought we might do the food thing this time, and turn Bytes into Bites in order to evaluate a couple of recently-purloined menus.
The Jazz Standard is a long-established eaterie located just north of Gramercy Park in downtown Manhattan. To say that the place is roomy would be an understatement, as there are three floors to cater for the carnivorous clientele. It was the genial basement area that provided the dining experience when Miss Ann and yours truly joined friends to see the Houston Person Quartet last month. Houston is a tenorist of the highest order, with a resumé that speaks of gigs with Buddy Johnson, Richard ‘Groove’ Holmes and Billy Butler from the Bill Doggett Combo. Judging by the delights that were to befall us, one could only hope that the band got a free dinner as well as a decent fee.
Not to be influenced by the plateful of fresh oysters that arrived on the table to next to ours, I settled for a half-rack of Memphis Baby Backs. Ribs turned out to be the house specialty, so this was my preference over the Kansas City Spares and the Texas Salt & Pepper Beef feast. Regardless of the fact that there wasn’t a finger-bowl in sight, these juicy little tenderizations were, shall we say, just out-of-sight. Equally pleasing was the Sauvignon Blanc; a 2008 Sancerre, Fournier, from the Loire Valley. The description in the wine-list spoke of peach and gooseberry, and for once the palate was not deceived. I say that, because so much vino plonk tends to get served in live-music establishments. It was highly appropriate that our order of warm pear and sour cherry crisp (laced with a generous serving of toasted almond ice cream) arrived just as the Person-to-person quartet was achieving its most mellow mood. Indeed, the tone and the taste buds were truly as one on this memorable occasion. In terms of the information highway, the Jazz Standard can be found at http://jazzstandard.net.
At this point we high-tail it across the Atlantic to the North West corner of London known as Hendon. And there we stop and ask directions to the Jewish, Chinese restaurant whose co-owner prays to only one guitar God. This is a genuine question and most of the locals would know the answer. Philip Pell happens to be an ultra-loyal Duane Eddy fan who has wisely kept his day job rather than toting a Gretsch 6200 for a living. What’s more he took his lead from Marco Polo rather than Marco Pierre White, and he named his elegant dining establishment KaiFeng after a ninth century city in East-Central China. By way of a reminder, China’s a long way from Church Road NW4.
When I flew over with the delectable Miss Ann, we experienced the usual round of long-haul hassles. So, much so, that the experience of relaxing in the confines of an Oriental oasis with a Rabbi scrutinizing the comestibles, was far more reassuring than the sight of a kilt-wearing Scotsman going through an X-ray security machine at JFK. Philip is what you might call a hands-on restaurateur, in that he is a Sommelier as well as an acting maître de. To our table he brought a selection from the bill of fare that included generous portions of steamed sole with ginger & spring onion, a Tibetan fiery lamb curry, and what seemed like a lifetime’s worth of barbequed beef with black pepper, mushrooms and pancakes. As a guru of the grape, he made sure we partook of a bottle of Puligny Montrachet ‘les Nosroyes’; a 2002 white Burgundy that dissolved all memories of the battery acid we’d been served earlier at 35,000 feet. Finally, when le Café et Nurofen arrived we knew we’d found the ultimate way to stave off jet-lag
After playing a concert at the Royal Festival Hall, back in October, Philip invited Duane Eddy and his wife Deed to dine at Kai Feng. Duane proceeded to endorse the meal by telling his host – “the Duck is to die for”, to which Philip replied, “there’s no need to do that. We can deliver”. All that you could wish for at Kai Feng can be found at http://www.kaifeng.co.uk. Cool cuisine by anyone’s standards