This was a very special dinner for Charity and me, as it was our 6th wedding anniversary.  We booked at Fifteen in London, one of Jamie Oliver’s restaurants.    

 

We’re experiencing some technical difficulties, so I’m going to talk about the olives and the bruschetta here 🙂 The olives were fresh, that’s right, not cured! We had never had fresh olives before so we were very surprised by their creamy texture – similar to an avocado, but firmer- and their sweet, mildly fruity flavor. They were a great way to start an awesome dinner!   

The brushcetta pretty much blew our minds! Our mouths were salivating with delight and the excitement of the totally unique flavor combination peaches and sardines?! So weird, so delicious. The charred exterior of the bread added smokey flavor as well as crunchy texture. It was perfectly dressed with a really nice, fruity olive oil. We could have eaten at least 3 plates of this awesome dish!!!   

The pork and beef bolognaise was rich and meaty. Not sure what kind of cheese was on it, but it was creamy and had a nutty, mildly fruity flavor – maybe a young Parmesan or Reggiano? The pasta was cooked al dente. The toothsome pasta with the rich, meaty sauce made this course filling and deeply satisfying.  

Good, but not our favorite dish. Somehow I missed the “black olive sauce” part of the description on the menu. As neither of us are huge black olive fans, I think we made a bad choice here. However, it was still pretty good. The briny, tomato sauce with little salty black olive punches, complemented the sweet, salty seafood. The clams and mussels were juicy little sea gems and the fish was perfectly cooked. I’m sure black olive fans would love this dish. We didn’t love or hate this dish, but we ate all of it 🙂 

 Whoa baby this was good! By this point in the meal, we were stuffed, but we had just enough room for some stinky cheese and thinly sliced honey-wheat bread. There were two cheeses, a pleasantly stinky Roquefort and a lovely aged English Cheddar, served with a sweet and spicy apple cinnamon chutney and succulent Madjool dried dates. The waiter suggested a complex Bordeaux to complement all the cheesy, fruity goodness- Heaven!