7 hours Ago
I ended up chilled to the bone and, as our son needed ferrying to the cinema in Richmond, we decided to push through the Christmas shoppers and seek some sustenance there. We found a table in the Little Drummer Tea Room in Finkle Street – only a couple of weeks ago, we reviewed its sister tapas bar which is just around the corner in Rosemary Lane. The Little Drummer Boy Tea Room in Finkle Street, Richmond Our glasses steaming up the moment we opened the door of the tearoom, but, once demisted, I was expecting to choose from the usual menu of sandwiches, soup, wraps, quiches and jackets which would be followed by plenty of cake.
But this is Christmastime, and my eye was drawn to the seasonal specials blackboard. There was a traditional turkey dinner with all the trimmings (£15.95) or a turkey, cranberry and stuffing ciabatta served with pigs in blankets and chips (£13.
95). But I knew as soon as I saw it that I had to have the festive loaded fries (£12.95).
Chips topped with pigs in blankets, stuffing, brie, cranberry sauce gravy and Brussel sprout crisps. Brussel sprout crisps! Whatever will they think of next? Carrot and lentil soup at The Little Drummer Boy Tea Room in Finkle Street, Richmond Petra, my wife, faced a more usual choice: carrot and lentil soup or roast cauliflower soup; bread bun or cheese scone (£5.50 or £6.
50)? She chose the carrot, which was thick and lentilly, along with a big, crumbly cheese scone. She deemed it all very tasty and impressive. Festive loaded fries at The Little Drummer Boy Tea Room in Finkle Street, Richmond Skinny fries were the basis of my dish of delights, with large chunks of melting brie doused in a cranberry sauce dribbling down through them to make a fruity, cheesy festive gloop at the bottom.
On top were pieces of stuffing and little bits of pigs in blankets, which – small sausages swaddled in a bacon blanket just like Jesus was tucked up in the manger – are the epitome of Christmas. The small sausages should be chipolatas, a name which comes from the Italian “cipolla”, as the minced pork should be cooked with onion. The chipolata was first mentioned in a cookbook produced by Auguste Kettner’s Soho restaurant in London in 1877.
Kettner had apparently been chef to French Emperor Napoleon III before he opened the first French restaurant in London in 1867. Around 1890, it became renowned as the place to conduct your clandestine liaison amoureuse as Prince Albert (later King Edward VII) secretly courted his actress lover, Lily Langtry, there. She, it was said, loved to nibble on his chipolatas.
No one knows when the first chipolata was wrapped in bacon, but in print the concept made its debut in a children’s cookbook produced by an American character, Betty Crocker, in 1957. In this country, Delia Smith popularised the pig in a blanket in the 1990s and it became a festive phenomenon – supermarkets started pre-wrapping the sausages and now no Christmas plate is complete without a piece of pork concealed inside another piece of pork. Here in Richmond, the pigs in their blankets gave my cheesy, fruity fries a bit of salty solidity.
Finally, they were topped with Brussels sprouts crisps – single leaves of a sprout baked into a dark green, curved, crispy morsel. They were unexpectedly fabulous. The sprout, of course, is the most controversial of all vegetables – the reason you cut a cross in the base of the sprout prior to boiling is not to soften it but because in Medieval times, it was believed that the various demons lived between the tightly packed leaves and the incision was the only way to drive them out.
As crisps, the sprouts created a brief, enjoyable moment of pungency which did not threaten to mutate into a long drawn out farty episode. Although Petra sat consuming her healthy carrot soup and shaking her head while muttering something about cholesterol levels, the crisps completed an imaginative bowl of yuletide yumminess that with cranberry, brie and the pigs was full of festive flavour. And in the new year, the new Lebanese grill.
.. The Little Drummer Boy Tea Room in Finkle Street, Richmond THE DETAILS The Little Drummer Boy Tea Room 14, Finkle Street, Richmond DL10 4QB Web: thelittledrummerboytearoom.
co.uk/ Tel: 01748 850706 THE RATINGS: Surroundings: 7 Service: 8 Festiveness: 10 Food quality: 8 Value for money: 8.
