Terre à Terre

As my last post was ever so slightly tailored towards the meat lovers, I thought I'd charge off on a completely different tack, put my carnivorous side on the back burner and see what the world of vegetarianism has to offer- all in the name of research, of course. For awhile my wonderful mother and I have been eyeing up Terre à Terre, the South Lanes dwelling vegetarian restaurant, much loved by friends of ours, so we decided that the summer sales provided the perfect excuse for us to head into Brighton and get our veggie juices flowing.

Located on East Street, Terre à Terre is positioned within the swanky South Lanes shopping district and is a mere pebble's throw away from the beach. On entry, Terre à Terre has a bit of a Bill's vibe with their own veggie produce lining the walls. I've always been a fan of this farmhouse, homegrown, take-away-some-of-the-magic approach to restaurant food so was instantly pleased.

For the occasion I whacked out a new hat and an old dress; a loose fitting dress, thank god, in preparation for the feast that was to come.

As it was a beautiful sunny day, Mum and I sat on a table on the quaint outside terrace and got down to business expecting the menu. An absolute blinder of a menu, the choice was really overwhelming. Everything looked outrageous. Take a look for yourself. I know, right? Who needs meat when you can have something called 'Better Batter Lemony Yemeni Relish'?

As first timers, the waitress recommended the Tapas Plate so we could get an all-round experience of the menu. Ordering large, frosty glasses of Prosecco and a some cheeky deep fried Grana Pedano green olives (stuffed with ricotta, garlic, chives and lemon zest), we settled into drooling over the various vegetarian masterpieces being whisked past us.

Here we encountered my only criticism. Despite there only being a handful of people in the restaurant the service was really quite slow. We gobbled up our (utterly delicious) olives and were left tapping our fingers. However, when the pièce de résistance came out I could understand and forgive the wait. It was nothing short of a work of art:

'Tapas Plate' just doesn't do it justice. Let me walk you through this vegetarian beauty. Right to left, we started with a gorgeous, perfectly seasoned ratatouille with mozzarella, pesto, basil leaves and even more Grana Pedano olives, firm and meaty on the outside with molten pools of garlicky ricotta on the inside. Next came the shot of beetroot soup with sourdough crisp bread. To our surprise, this was Mum and my favourite dish. Don't get me wrong, I like beetroot, but I find it has a mild, delicate flavour which is lovely but doesn't really slap you round the face. This soup, especially when combined with the yoghurt and crisp bread, was to die for and I would happily have lapped up an entire bowl of it. Next up came the deep fried corn cakes with 'chilli chelly jelly', avocado hash, lime mojo and a candied chilli. The sweetness from the jelly and the citrus from the lime and avocado complimented the rich corn cakes beautifully. Then came a little nod to the oriental: a bean sprout and pomegranate salad, sesame hoisin tofu and wasabi cashews. I'm usually not a fan of tofu, my past experiences deeming it rather tasteless and wet, however the sesame and pomegranate flavours lifted it and allowed it to hold it's own amongst the big guns. The plate then shifted its geography from Asia to the Middle East, in the form of a creamy aubergine zhuganoush dip accompanied by crisp flatbreads dusted with a mind blowing array of spices. Lastly we arrived back at a firm favourite of mine, halloumi, this time in a hot beer batter casing and attending the party with quails eggs and a tomato salsa. My suggestion would be to start at this end; halloumi needs to be eaten when hot and it had got a little too chewy by the time we got there, but was still delicious nonetheless.

We also had a side of Truffle chips- chunky chips tossed in grated Grana Padano, truffle oil and parsley with Lemon Garlic Herby Mayonnaise. Truffle oil is one of my favourite things as it is and when combined with fluffy potato, parmesan and garlic mayo, it was like hitting a whole different level of food porn. So. Damn. Good.

Although our savoury stomachs were full to pop, our second 'pudding' stomachs were twitching. We decided to share an old favourite of Mum's, vanilla ice cream with a single shot of espresso and a shot of Amaretto. Unfortunately we got way too excited on its arrival and had already demolished half of it before I remembered to take a picture. Here's a shot of our work in progress:

The sweet booziness of the Amaretto balanced out the strong bitterness from the espresso, while the vanilla ice cream provided a rich, creamy and cooling base. It all melted together to form one big satisfied eye roll. Rather humble compared to other, more exotic options on the menu- I'm looking at you, 'Oolong Has This Been Going On'- it proved its worth and I would highly recommend it. I also ordered a salt caramel truffle on the side to satisfy my salt caramel addiction, which was a little mouthful of heaven.

I love meat as much as the next carnivore, but Terre à Terre certainly gives the animal kingdom a run for its money. Creative, experimental, artistic and delicious, the chefs at Terre à Terre deserve a Turner prize as much as anything else, but they also seriously know flavour. So hang up your steak knives and give veggie a whirl. If anywhere will turn you toward the green side, it's here.

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