As the famous saying goes..”too much of anything is bad, but too much good whiskey is barely enough.”
It was my night for cigars and some exquisite single-malt Scotch paired with some flavoursome food from Thyme@thelakes restaurant.
The theme for the night would be peated malts in which barley grain, or damp malt, is exposed to the smoke of a peat fire in order to arrest germination which enhances the flavour ..wait..wait…all this talk about slow burning coals and vapors takes me back to the moment I had the slow roasted beef ribs paired with my Bowmore, dare I say a match made in heaven for our mains.
Lets rewind time or should I say ‘thyme” to where little parcels of delight greeted us as we sat down with our single malts. There were the duck cigars( I wanted more of those , and I had to be restrained from the kitchen ), braised lamb with cous cous and mushroom tartlets together with the Irish Connemara and Ardmore. All great on their own, but better together. Off to a good start then!
The order of the night progressed from lightly smoked to Yes ! You thought it, full cigar drowning in my whiskey ‘The Laphroaig’, guaranteed to make the hair (or for some, hairs) on your chest tingle.
Slow braised pork belly with apple, pear slaw and my Achilles heel ‘pork crackle’ came next paired with my favourite fairly subtle whisky on its own (an easy and enjoyable everyday whisky I reckon) The Auchentoshan . No wonder the Scottish have it for breakkie due to its sweet and delicate nature.
Sad thing was the night was coming to an end, the chocolate pudding with hazelnut ganache played brilliantly well with the rich sweetness of my favourite, (I’m allowed to have 2 favourites ) the Japanese Hibiki Harmony.
The night was an absolute winner, as we walked off praising the chefs, whiskies and Erica Richards to the bar wanting a night cap, I’d applaud and say bring on a cocktail night guys!.
Cheers;
Shyam