In celebration of the Islay Whisky Festival 2024
Let's start with the most obvious one, and here it was the prevailing feature - oak and smoke! Think tobacco, burnt toast, venison, peanuts, tofu, plums and coal tar. On the palate there was no respite: incredibly smoky, like beef jerky and Mexican ancho chillies dried over hickory-smoked wood, as well as a plate of smoked tofu pad thai. Additionally, that medicinal, maritime flavour was always lurking in the background. Following the addition of water we opened an old smoker barbecue pit, added smoked olive oil to barbecued langoustines and black cardamom to a hot dog. To taste, we tucked into a beef massaman curry and smoked mackerel maki rolls.