Foodie abroad: return to Raby Hunt

You will have noticed that there have been quite a few posts recently about eating out. You might be forgiven for thinking that D and I have been eating out a lot recently; you would be right. After eighteen months of home cooking and takeaways, getting back out into the world of restaurants and multiple courses and wearing something other than pyjamas to eat has been extremely gratifying.

A couple of weeks ago, we were lucky enough to be treated to a meal at one of our old favourites, Raby Hunt just outside Darlington. We've been there a couple of times before - most recently in 2018 - and the menu has definitely evolved a bit since then to make it EVEN MORE FANTASTIC. Yes, I am shouting. That's how good it was.

As always, practically impossible to pick a highlight in the menu which heaved with influences from across the globe all delivered with the utmost of refinement. I think the majority of the party favoured the snack type dishes at the beginning - the tempura prawn has to be seen (and crunched) for the batter to be believed and the pastrami and foie gras sandwich was out of this world (and has potentially ruined all future pastrami sandwiches for me).

Tempura prawn!

Pastrami sandwich!

A frankly sinful brioche was served with the most glorious French smoked salt butter (you can buy it here - I'll be getting some in for Christmas). It was one of the nicest bread courses I think that I have ever had and I would walk back there to eat it again.

Brioche! Butter!

The chef's signature razor clam, celeriac and almond dish was still on the menu and, if anything, even more buttery and luxurious than before. I just adore this combination of textures and flavours.

Razor clam!

And another shellfish course - the lobster ravioli with sauce Americaine - was a particular favourite of mine (and I may have been caught in a sneaky finger-swipe-and-lick to ensure that not one drop of the fabulous sauce was left for the dishwasher).

Lobster ravioli!

Desserts require special mention as well. My goodness, but we have had some brilliant desserts this year. Here, we were served an amazing millefeuille with chocolate and hazelnut cremes - my Dad described this as tasting like a Ferrero Rocher and he's not altogether wrong.

Mille feuille!

And finally a Baba au Kirsch. I'm not always a big fan of boozy puddings (I like my booze in a glass, thank you) but this had just the hint of a kick tempered by the rich chantilly cream and the texture of the sponge was pure velvet.

Baba au Kirsch!

What made this experience even more special (and thank you to my lovely Mum and Dad for being kind enough to treat us) was that we were at the Chef's Table, which meant eating while watching the kitchen at work. For food obsessives like us, this is the equivalent of a backstage pass and we (well, I) was quite giddy. And we had a brief word with executive chef James Close at the end, who  recommended to us a Mexican restaurant in Durham which we will go and check out in due course.

Yet another fantastic experience then - 2021 is shaping up, in its latter half, to be a veritable embarrassment of riches in terms of dining out.. As D pointed out to me as we drove away the next morning, replete and a little bit sleepy, it's going to make picking my dishes of the year an incredibly hard task. What a lovely, lovely problem to have.