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Alla piogga lunch -
Circa
Unfortunately Monday’s deluge coincides with a planned
al fresco meal at Lewes’ most renowned restaurant, Circa.
We make do with a table by the window, overlooking the statue-filled
garden, which we watch getting greener. Circa have introduced
a specially priced summer deal whereby you can have main course
and a pudding for £12.95. A pleasant Polish waitress
arrives with the menu: there are three choices for either
course. I go for the confit duck-leg, celeriac seaweed, fondant
potato and onion oyster roll (should cost £13.75) and
the goat’s milk pannacotta, saffron crunchy and poppy
orange jelly (£6). We splash out on a bottle of Italian
chardonnay (at £12.95 the cheapest on the list).
The duck’s succulent, and the celeriac seaweed, a kind
of chic leek, has that taste explosion properly cooked Chinese
boiled vegetables give you. The most exciting element of my
pudding is the gold-coloured saffron crunchy, which sticks
to your teeth like Dime Bar. I attempt to snap half of it
in half so Nick can taste it: it explodes into what might
best be described as smithereens. No matter. In return I get
a try of his fruit pudding in cinnamon tempura, a kind of
posh man’s Christmas pud. On leaving, the Polish waitress
asks me if I’m from South Africa. I tell her I’m
from Lewes. Soon after I realise my front is covered in saffron
crunchy crumbs, melting in the rain. |
