Table For 10

In meinem Kurztrip nach London habe ich eine große Entdeckung gemacht!
Nachdem meine Arbeitskollegen und ich den Tag im Unilocal Office verbrachten, sind wir zum Supper Dinner gefahren um dort gemeinsam zu Abend zu essen.
«Supper Dinner» war für mich ein völliges Fremdwort. Ich konnte mir darunter absolut nichts vorstellen und fragte also nach. Man kann sich das, wie ein bezahltes Essen bei Freunden vorstellen, die für eine bestimmte Anzahl von Personen ein Abendessen vorbereiten und zu sich nach Hause einladen.
In Frankfurt habe ich noch nie von so einer tollen Möglichkeit gehört und war umso gespannter als wir vor einer Zweier-​Jungs-​WG in London standen.
Der eine war etwas schüchterner und übernahm die «Host”-Rolle, während der andere uns ein 3 Gänge Menü vorbereitete, das von vorne bis hinten sehr gut schmeckte. Besonders begeistert war ich von dem Eistee-​Vodka-​Welcome-​Drink mit Sorbé. Aber auch das Essen war köstlich und hätte besser nicht sein können.
Ich fragte mich, wieso es so eine einfache und banale, aber doch fabelhafte Möglichkeit sein Abendessen zu genießen, nicht nach Frankfurt oder gar Deutschland rübergeschwappt ist.
Nach einiger Diskussion war klar, dass man in Deutschland ein Gewerbe dafür eröffen müsste, während es in UK formal einfacher zugeht.
Also wenn ihr mal etws von einem «Supper Dinner» hört, solltet ihr das unbedingt mal ausprobieren!

Flipé un poco cuando vine a este sitio porque no tenía ni idea de a lo que venía. Se trata de un «restaurante» vietnamita ubicado dentro de una casa particular que regentan dos chicos jóvenes absolutamente estupendos y amables.
Está un poco perdido y escondido, pero merece la pena. La cocina vietnamita es deliciosa y disfruté cada uno de los bocados que pude dar en los muchos platos de los que consistía el menú que había concertado uno de nuestros jefes. Delicioso.
El sitio, creo, se dedica a albergar cenas y reuniones de grandes grupos que, normalmente, no tienen dónde meterse en una ciudad como Londres, puesto que todo suele estar hasta arriba de gente y meter 15 personas en algún sitio no es tan fácil como podría parecer.
Es una casa acogedora en la que, creo, viven los dos chavales que gestionan. La comida la hacen ellos en su cocina en el momento y el otro la sirve en el salón para los asistentes. Un concepto que no había visto hasta ahora y que me parece una idea estupenda para quienes tienen problemas económicos o quieren innovar ofreciendo espacios diferentes donde celebrar almuerzos, cenas o reuniones.

Comment décrire ce moment que j’y ai passé … J’ai eu la sensation de manger viétnamien chez des copains avec des plats à me retourner les papilles (si vous me lisez les amis, vous cuisinez très bien, hein ! mais là, c’st vraiment High Level …)
Le concept, c’est de manger dans un appartement qui n’est pas aménagé en restaurant, mais vraiment comme à la maison. Pas forcément évident à trouver, il faut sonner au pied d’un immeuble, et dès l’ouverture de la porte, on saisit qu’on est reçu avec une belle chaleur humaine.
Une fois les manteaux posés au dressing, un des nos deux hôtes nous propose un cocktail maison à base de thé «Whitechapel» (dont ils gardent le secret) et d’une boule de glacé à la vodka: ça donne quelque chose de très fruité et frais, une belle entrée en matière ! Je grignote en même temps (apéro oblige !) des petits morceaux de fromages et de saucisse épicée disposé sur la table.
Et le repas commence, on s’assoit, et la succession de bouchées /​plats commence ! La première dégustation sera l’une des plus marquantes de ce que j’ai pu gouté en cuisine vietnamienne: une feuille couverte d’un petit amoncellement qui se mange en une seule fois: j’ai vraiment été surprise par les différentes textures, craquant, fondant, les goûts successifs qui se dégagent, une vraie belle découverte !
Et tout s’enchaine, rouleau de printemps maison, soupe de nouilles et de canard, panacotta à la feuille «panda» qui s’apparente au goût de la coco.
Les 2 propriétaires prennent le temps de venir nous parler, expliquer les plats, l’ambiance est très décontractée et surtout amicale…
Je pense qu’on né peut y passer que de bons moments !

So… I had my first experience of a Supper Club last night. I’ll do my best to give you a blow by blow account.
Firstly (not really applicable), but it was a PIA to get there! The tube was being it’s usual unreliable self and the taxi got really lost. Not surprising, as the venue was a flat in Whitechapel. That being said (even though we were 30 minutes late), it was worth the journey!
We arrived at an unassuming tower block and was greeted by MJ (one of our hosts of the evening). We were ushered into a lovely flat, decorated with pop icons on the walls and living room furniture cleared out to make space for 2 tables and chairs. We were given a fruity welcome cocktail (or 4) with a boozy sorbet floating in it and our lovely hosts had provided olives, cheese, garlic sausage, crackers and dips for pre-​meal snacking.
After we were seated began a 5 course feast! We had prawn toast, summer rolls, duck soup and another starter of trout served on a betel leaf. The dessert was pannacotta with fresh fruit. All of it exceptionally fresh, tasty and interesting. After the meal was over, more cocktails were consumed with a side order of good conversation and great company.
I would not hestitate to try another supper club after my first experience. Give it a go while you can (but note that Table for 10 are taking a break until 2014).

Went to Table of 10 with some friends and we had a blast! It was like being in a restaurant, but way more comfortable, as it was in someone’s home– and the hosts, Damon and MJ made us feel right at home. There were plenty of food from the start– nibblies and cocktails were delish. As Damon was in the kitchen, MJ made sure we had everything we needed and was so sweet and attentive. The food that kept coming up from the kitchen was presented beautifully and tasted awesome. I have an allergy to prawns and told him in advance, so my spring rolls had scallops in them instead– yum!
Each dish that came up had a different flavour– and being Vietnamese, it was important to me that they tasted right– and they certainly did. Way better than any restaurant on Kingsland Road. All the flavours of home cooking were there, fused with innovative perks and elegant presentation made this a truly memorable night out. You can tell that Damon is truly passionate about food– he came out of the kitchen at the end of the night, looking exhausted, but with a happy glow. Can’t wait to make my next booking!

We had such a fantastic time at Table for 10. The boys are so welcoming and the atmosphere could not have been more fun on the night. We’ve been to a few sup’clubs and each has been good fun but there is something that sets these guys apart from the others. It may have been some of the best and inventive Vietnamese dishes we’ve had anywhere in London, or perhaps the amazing cocktails which were also deceptively strong, or their generous spirit which flows through out the night with seconds (and thirds) for some our favourite dishes, or maybe it was just a bit of star dust in their living room — whatever it was it worked!
Loved it and will be going back as soon as I can.

Table for ten gave me one of the funnest food experiences (and dinner parties in general) I’ve ever had. Supper club — having dinner at other people’s homes. I really hope this is a concept that spreads to Oslo as well, it was such a memorable experience for me!
Let me start with giving my regards to the hosts, because they really made the whole experience complete and they deserve all the flattering they could possibly get. I just wanted to take them home! Open, honest, and very interested in my wellbeing as a guest. I’m not going to lie to you: This easily gets me over as a fan. But seriously, the atmosphere made everyone at the dinner party forget that we had just intruded someone’s home.
The food was also outstanding. I did especially like the fried chicken with spicy kimchi mayo for dipping (I know, who thinks of that?) and the rice udon soup with pork. Simple and spicy (if you wanted it to be. I did!). Or wait, I liked the summer rolls the best. I’m having difficulties to chose, as you can see.
But still, there were so many other impressionable things as well! From the starting cocktail I helped myself to more than one serving (the hosts came with even more after dinner), the really cute oreo cupcakes we got with us as we left, and just how nicely the table was set up, and home made ice cream. I’m just going to have to summon in up with a «Wow… «The whole compostition of the night was obviously thought through down to the very last detail. Any housewife would have been truly impressed.

Take off your shoes and feel right at home… well, at least this is what I did, when I entered the flat of the hosts of this Whitechappel-​based Vietnamese Supper Club. What, you don’t know what a supper club is? — Well, let me educate you! A supper club is when a person, who’s passionate about cooking, opens up his or her home to strangers and serves them with delicious food.
The two guys behind «Table For 10» are a perfect example of this: one of them is the currently-​amateur-​but-​aspiring-​to-​be-​a-​professiona­l chef and the other is his self-​proclaimed sous-​chef and gracious host. Together, as a team, they offered us a most memorable dining experience: upon entering their flat, we were served a cocktail made of elderflower-​liquor. And while we were awaiting our food, we nibbled away on home-​cured Vietnamese ham and other delicious stuff.
And here’s what we had chosen for dinner: we started off with Fried Butter Chicken (served with a spiced mayonnaise) and freshly made summer rolls. Both of these were finger-​licking good. Then we were offered a miniature bánh-​mì, which was the perfect transition to the main course — Banh Canh Cua. (According to the hosts, you won’t find this Southern dish in many places in London, which is unfortunate as it combines all the elements of the south — colour and indulgence.)
Dessert was originally meant to be mango and sticky rice, but due to a «steamer-​accident», the aspiring chef spontaneously whipped up some home-​made coconut ice-​cream with mangoes instead.
As I mentioned in the beginning, I felt right at home. And this was mainly due to the fantastic hospitality of the hosts. You could really tell that they love to entertain, as they didn’t simply treat us as paying customers, but as guests at their house. In the end, they even gave us a little present: oreo-​cupcakes that another talented friend of theirs had baked (see photo). In the end, we had such a good time chatting with them, that we probably stayed a little bit too long and left them cleaning the kitchen until late in the night…
As a last note I would like to say that typically at a supper club, you get to mingle with other culinary-​curious folks; and these are most-​likely people that you haven’t met before. In our case though, we had made a special arrangement, as we wanted to have a team-​dinner and given that there was 14 of us, we arranged a separate supper club just for us. In fact, I can highly recommend others to copy this idea — it seriously is a company outing that no one will easily forget. In fact, we had a very international group and our two Spanish team-​mates were so impressed by this experience that they simply had to kiss the hosts on their cheeks…
If you’re curious about other supper clubs, have a look at
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