Food

Celebrate BBQ Week With Uncle Nearest and Meat & Co

Celebrate BBQ week this week in style! Uncle Nearest has partnered with Meat and Wine Co to create a bespoke whiskey and food menu.

To start we had delicious warm, fresh sourdough artisan bread with beef dripping butter, extra virgin olive oil and smoked sea salt. The Jack’s Creek wagyu rump and dry-aged rib-eye tartare with confit egg yolk and parmesan crostini was one of the best we’re ever had.  We loved the lightly friend calamari with cucumber, onion, lemon and nam-jim sauce.

For mains we had a sample of three skewers that form part of BBQ week. The chicken skewer with Mozambique basting with peri peri and lemon. Boerewors (South African beef sausage) was something new that we hadn’t tried before. They were coated with coriander and cumin, chakalaka sauce and onion rings. The salmon skewer with African chilli, miso, sesame, soy, spring onion, ginger and garlic was our favourite- it was simply bursting with flavour.

We were then treated to steak that had been encased with flavoured artisan Wagyu butter and dry-aged in house for up to 6 weeks. This provides unparalleled tenderness and flavours whilst reducing waste from traditional ageing processes. So tender and so divine!

For desert we enjoyed the mouth-watering chocolate and hazelnut fondant with a melted white chocolate centre and hazelnut praline gelato. Our favourite was the malva pudding featuring apricot coulis, vanilla ice-cream and freeze-dried raspberries. Soft and spongey with a crunch from the raspberries.

Each skewer will be paired with an Uncle Nearest cocktail, all three cocktails having been created for this partnership. Uncle Nearest honours the world’s first-known African American distiller and is the first spirits brand to be named after an African-American, a man named Nathan Green who was known as Uncle Nearest. We sampled both the 1884 and 1856 whiskey. Both can be enjoyed near, on the rocks or in a cocktail. The 1884 has notes of vanilla and fruit, whilst the 1856 has notes of caramelised nuts and cinnamon. Both are sweet, smooth and subtle.

The Australian steak-house The Meat and Wine Co has now opened its first UK branch in Mayfair and plans to continue to expand in Europe and America. It  prides itself on its African influences and Australian dining experience using premium grass-fed and grain-fed beef. It uses the ‘braai’ cooking method – the South African term for cooking on an open grill for a social gathering. The Schezen peppers for the sauce for the calamari are from Australia!

Much of the decor is made in South Africa and shipped over. Wooden tables, black seating, weaved ropes and striped cushions give an earthy and homely but classy feel.

Hurry as the menu is only available through BBQ week (29 May to 4 June).

For The Meat and Wine Co

Address: The Meat and Wine Co, Curzon St, W1J 5HU.

Instagram: https://instagram.com/themeatandwinecouk?

Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/themeatandwinecouk

For Uncle Nearest

Website: https://unclenearest.com

Instagram: https://instagram.com/unclenearest

Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/unclenearest