All Training Ends Here.

Inside the Teahouse conservatory

The first occasion I visited Petersham Nurseries was when we decided to walk from home to the nursery to test our endurance and the feasibility of completing the Oxfam 100km Trailfinders walk. The walk was short of 20km..we decided it was not feasible. The walk was enjoyable but the welcoming sight of the selection of cakes and the simple, hearty fare was our respite. It was rather cold that day and the heartwarming fare was just what we needed as we tried to warm ourselves up. 

Petersham Nurseries has both a casual, canteen like Teahouse with a selection of hot food and cakes, as well as the one michelin star 'Cafe', which is the restaurant. The Teahouse, housed in a conservatory of colourful painted chairs and wooden and metal tables, was supplemented by a jet like heater to keep the patrons warm. The Cafe also housed a rustic store of homewares and gardenwares. 

This return visit was a result of a last ditch attempt at training for the Barcelona Half Marathon, which happens in a week. So after an 8-mile run around Richmond Park, on again this frosty and drizzly day, we ended up here. Again, cold and seeking refuge in front of the heater - but not a bad place to end after a spot of exercise. Food was simple and tasty, and extremely filling. A shared slice of Hazelnut, Pear and Chocolate cake rounded off the meal nicely but with a mental note to visit on a warmer day next time around. Definitely a nice spot if the sun was shining and as with other Richmond places, very family friendly.

Petersham Nurseries (Teahouse and Cafe)
Church Lane
Off Petersham Road
Richmond, Surrey
TW10 7AG

Cake selection in the Teahouse

Hot food selection

Rolled Chicken Breast stuffed with spinach and yummy vegetables

Pear, hazelnut and chocolate cake

Interior of the Teahouse

Inside the shop next to the Cafe

Some of the kitchenware available

A Corner Room

Of the Bethnal Green Town Hall. Quite simply, creative cooking and great service at very reasonable prices, especially for lunch. Two courses for GBP17/ three courses for GBP21. It is the more casual and more affordable dining option to Viajante, also in the Bethnal Green Town Hall, which was more refined, more creative and served delicious freshly baked bread with whipped butter. It also warrants its own post if I can ever find my pictures. 

This was my second visit. My first visit resulted in great appreciation for Iberico pork cooked pink. Juicy and tender and just cooked perfectly - memorable to say the least. Always apprehensive about revisiting the same dish, I ordered steak instead. My companions who had the pork said it was too salty. The dish itself was completely different to the one we had the first time around. The menu does change frequently but like the lamps that adorned the back wall, the Iberico pork appears to be a permanent fixture. Albeit, with variations. Enjoyed all my dishes but the dark chocolate thin crackers accompanied by the slightly bitter clementine with cinnamon ice cream was my favourite dish of the day. I like the bitter taste of fruits like grapefruit, and I love chocolate. Perfect combination for me. I am also just going through a crazy dark chocolate phase. Only when does a phase cease to be a phase? 

Corner Room

Town Hall Hotel

Patriot Square

London E2 9NF

Jamon Iberico

Seabass Ceviche

Hanger Steak

Sole on the Bone

Chocolate Clementine

Sweet Potato Ice Cream with 'popcorn'

Some of the dishes we had on the first occasion when it first opened in 2011.

Confit Duck with Girolles and Egg

The ever memorable Iberico Pork

Veal Cheeks with Pasta and Wild Mushrooms

This Little Piggy...

Ham Hock with Pork Belly and Puy Lentils

Went to market....who..me?..well, I suppose I am what I eat..but I mean the other little pork chop.

My favourite animal would have to be the pig, or rather, its' meat - for I don't particularly want to take it for walks in the park or throw the pig a bone. It is so versatile and used in abundance in Chinese and Vietnamese cooking that I grew up eating pork in all its forms. Stewed, Braised pig trotters with 'hair' for Chinese New Year, Roast Pork, Char Siu, Grilled Pork Chops with Rice (Com Tam), boiled trotters in Vietnamese soups (Banh Canh)...you name it...there was a way to cook it. This was every part of the pork. Intestines, liver, trotters, ears, marrow, blood. All of it. The whole concept of nose to tail eating was born long before Fergus Henderson started his St John restaurants. 

So needless to say, in the Western world, cured meats, terrines, crackling, accompanied with a glass of red simply added another dimension, another way, to enjoy this little creature.

Brawn, the sister restaurant to Terroirs, but over in the East Side served all of this. Brawn is the meat from the head of a pig, cooked and pressed into a block. This is then likely served on a wooden board, accompanied with bread. Well, it doesn't have to be, but it makes me want to eat it more then if it were served on a white plate. Just as everything is better dusted with icing sugar, everything looks better on wooden boards.

Ok, pork isn't the only thing on the menu but we ordered predominately this, throw in some salad leaves and a cauliflower and cheddar souffle. Pork scratchings, nduja scotch eggs (tasty!), mixed charcuterie platter, foie gras and a ham hock that was to serve three or more. There was four of us. The three or more did not account for the other plates we had already ordered, nor the extra chunk of pork belly that came with it. Nonetheless we ate our way through it and left Brawn feeling very much like the porker we had consumed. Great little spot at the end of Columbia Road worth returning for, but ordering just slightly fewer plates. Just.

Brawn
49 Columbia Road
Bethnal Green
E2 7RG

Pork Scratchings

Mixed Charcuterie Platter

Foie Gras

Cauliflower and Cheddar Souffle