CanTina Supper Club, Brighton

Knowing I was visiting Brighton when all things foodie was going on I hoped that I'd find myself a supper club for my empty Friday evening, and much to my delight my dreams came true! When scouring through the Food and Drink Festival brochure I saw CanTina staring back at me, and after a little more research I knew I had to get myself booked in due to the glowing reviews from internationally acclaimed magazines such as Olive and Grazia.

The name of the club itself,  'CanTina', is a lovely play on words combining the Spanish term for canteen and the patron of the clubs name, Tina. The night I attended was in fact it's 2nd birthday (Hoorah!) and there was a really nice mixture of those who were regular attenders, and others (like myself) who were visiting for the first time.

Tina's sitting room is beautiful, perfect to fit a long table to seat 20 people (cosily!) and the welcome I received was so friendly I knew I was in for a fantastic evening of spectacular food and company.

Mini Cuppa Soup

After a beautiful welcome from the host including a delicious Rhubarb Fizz cocktail, we weren't kept waiting long before our soup course arrived - a delightfully cute mini cuppa soup of Tomato, Roasted Pepper and coconut sambal was placed in front of the extremely peckish diners! The aroma filling the room from these tiny cups was unbelievable, and as soon as I tried it I could understand why. The wonderful fresh flavour of vine tomatoes and that smokey flavour of the roasted peppers really complimented the coconut and cream on top: it certainly left us wanting more!

Carrot Fritter

Next to follow was our starter of carrot fritters with mung beans, peppers and saffron labneh. This was a course I was extremely looking forward to, and it didn't disappoint. I won't even begin to predict the different spices in this dish as I am positively sure I wouldn't be able to, but they just danced on your tongue in an unexpectedly sweet rather than savoury way.

Spiced local mackerel

Being a fish fanatic the fish course of spiced local mackerel with pickled pumpkin and cucumber, and walnuts was an absolute delight. I loved the contrast of the warm smokey fish with the tang of the pickled vegetables and the earthy crunch of those walnuts. This course was also served with Nick Beddows' sour dough baguette, this was also so yummy and the sour taste really went well with another relatively sweet dish. I am also told it is a mean feat of culinary genius to get sour dough baguette shaped so all credit goes to Nick for his achievement!

Beef Kofte with Broad beans

Again the smells wafting from the kitchen had us all dying to sample another one of Tina's inventive dishes, and the next was her main of Beef kofte and broad beans with herbed freekah and chopped salad with tahini sauce. I had never tried freekah before, but to me it was similar to quinoa in its cereal like taste but had a much nicer chunkier texture which suited the fresh pop of flavour from the broad beans. The beef was also amazing, again, perfectly spiced and cooked pink and juicy in the middle - as it should be.

Blackberry, Honey and Polenta cake

I have to say when the first plates of dessert were bought out I was a little sad that the evening had drawn to a close (seemingly) so quickly, but I suppose time flies when you're having fun! In my opinion she had saved the show stopper course until last: Blackberry, honey and polenta cake with poached blackberries and ginger cream. This was incredible (and I'm not usually a dessert person at all)! It was served warm so the ginger cream melted onto the crisp sugary shell and the sweet sticky cake went perfectly with the poached blackberries which added a much needed tartness.
This was served with the most divine dessert wine, (I wish I had taken down the name) which rounded off the fabulous meal absolutely perfectly.


Dessert Wine

Nick with his Raspberry choccies!

The thing I love about this supper club (and, in fact the one I attend in Norwich) is that people of all generations, cultures and backgrounds can come together and maintain in depth conversations over our joint interest in great food.

Another reason I love supper clubs is that you are pushed to try things you wouldn't usually try and you are exposed to flavour combinations you would have never usually considered. This was incredibly true of this dining experience in particular. The herb and spice combinations in all of the dishes we tried were so different to anything that I have ever tasted before, and, true to form, I enjoyed all of them!

At £35 I think this supper club was outstanding value, five courses, plus a welcome cocktail, a pudding tipple, coffee and handmade raspberry chocolates.
The excellent reviews for this supper club are well deserved and seriously I advise anyone in the area to book yourself (well in advance) into this club which happens twice a month on a Friday evening. Tina is a wonderful host, and the night went down an absolute treat, managed like a well oiled machine...I just wish I could visit every month!

Worth also mentioning is that Tina can cater for large parties with unique and inspired dishes, as well as sizable dinner parties (if you don't feel like working yourself too hard in the kitchen!)...her website http://cantinabrighton.wordpress.com/ has all of the details you will need!