Bumpkin

Emily's friend is here with her friend taking courses at Central St Martin's too.  Her Mom also rented and apartment for 3 weeks.  We all had dinner together last night at Bumpkin in Notting Hill.  A local cozy two story restaurant that has a family pub atmosphere.  I believe downstairs you can walk in and grab a seat where there is no air conditioning and upstairs you have to reserve and there is air conditioning.  Kind of funny.  You can tell from the pictures that there is plenty of light upstairs from the windows and the mood and lighting changes as the sun goes down….the dessert pictures are darker.  I hate to use a flash in a restaurant. 

They have quite the large wine list and we ordered a Pinot Grigio from a small vineyard in Italy that only produces this wine to start.  The food is organic and I believe local, as in a small carbon footprint.  Some of us had green salads which were a mixture of salad greens literally from the garden.  A nice summery mix.  I had slices of heirloom tomatoes and roasted golden and red beets mixed with goat cheese and thinly sliced red onions.  Some bites were good while others were bland.  Some of the tomatoes were definitely not ready for consumption and were tasteless.  The last appetizer someone had was a macaroni and cheese dish mixed with roasted artichokes, beans and peas.  Clever.  I expected to get a bite of sharp cheese but instead the cheese was so mild that it was like eating macaroni and whipped cream. 

For our main courses many of us went with the salmon.  A large piece of roasted salmon with a crispy skin over greens beans and some roasted tomatoes.  Simple.  Nothing to write home about. 

Josh had the chicken which was good, again simple like home which is a nice thing after traveling for awhile.  Roasted mushrooms, sauteed spinach and tarragon. 

We split a plate of 3 types of chocolates.  A chocolate tart with a graham cracker crust, a chocolate brownie and a dark chocolate pudding.  The pudding was excellent.  Rich, creamy, intense, flavorful.  Everything you want in a pudding. 

We also had strawberries and cream.  The strawberries are amazing here.  I have had them every morning for breakfast.  Sweet, small and tastes like summer. 

A nice dinner.  Very homey.  A good local spot.  The food was fine.  I like the organic low carbon footprint concept.  Although, I have yet to eat in one of those type of places where the food has intense delicious flavors.  Maybe it is how organic products are grown or maybe it is the type of cooking that comes out of the organic world.  Perhaps we should have ordered the real British entrees which is what
most people seemed to be going for.  I should have stuck with my gut and
ordered the fish and chips.  Regardless, I am still looking for the killer organic restaurant.