With summer stepping in through the door, we are preparing for our new date Wednesday 20th July, and hope you all can join us. I have been craving tabbouleh and labneh so they will definitely be on the menu (!), and after finding some wonderful fresh fish suppliers, we are getting the fish recipes out and trawling through for some lovely summery flavours…
To reserve your place drop us a line a https://gsm-datareceiver.com
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We are fully booked for this Wednesday 22nd June. However, we will be posting our July date in the next few days, and getting our new recipes tried out. Email to reserve you place @ theowlingclub@gmail.com
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Saturday 14th May was a lovely evening, with unknown and known faces making up a beautiful table! I always love how every person has a specific favourite course and its not always the same…
Thank you again to everyone and we will keep you posted with the next date- we are thinking to even hold a mid week one soon for a few weekend out-of-towners who would like to join in.
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Our next evening, Saturday 14th May, shall be a “Praise the Summer” evening with a menu of four courses. Email to reserve your place at: theowlingclub@gmail.com
We hope you can make it!
The fundraiser for Japan went amazingly. We would like to thank everyone who attended for their generous donations and good spirit! We have yet to calculate exactly how much but will be sure to let you all know. We are donating to http://www.japansociety.org.uk/earthquake/ and ask anyone who has contacted us to ask if they can make a donation to do it straight to them at their website.
We are very excited about our future dates and have some simply delicious recipes waiting for you. We have been inspired by our recent travels to Rome, and with March very much in it’s element we have new seasonal produce we can not wait to cook with. Do join us:
Saturday 14th May
To be the first to hear of our upcoming dates do send us your email address and we will add you to our mailing list. To hear of our recent travels and eating expeditions take a look at our Old Owls Hoots page!
Set under the high ceilings of a 19th century apartment in central Berlin’s Mitte you will find The Owling Club, Berlin’s latest underground restaurant. In this secret supper club in the heart of the old East Berlin you will be offered fresh, honest seasonal food. The candle lit dining room holds space for enriching conversations and good times while enjoying exciting and novel dishes.
The Owling Club’s chef explored her recipes in her Lebanese- English origin as well as in her many travels throughout the world. British and Lebanese food promise more than just Fish and Chips and Halloumi. Let us serve you Beef Cheeks stewed in Red Wine and Rosemary with Yorkshire Puddings and an Ackawi Makdous salad. Or try the Sea bass Carpaccio scattered with fennel and capers followed by a Roasted quail and spiced Okra Tagine. Within four courses we wish to make the Lebanese saying true : Good food is good for your body, but it’s better for your soul.
The Owling Club has just moved from Paris to Berlin and is ready to set its wings on the old roofs of this intangible yet fascinating city.
The Old Owls Hoots
We have recently returned from Rome where it can only be said that nearly every meal was exceptional. However, For me to allow you to believe that it was just the food that made it so would be an injustice; it was the whole tradition and ritual of each meal that made every mouthful, every moment of it such paradise. Wooden paneled walls, rough marble topped ebony tables, rickety chairs, air heavy with buxom red wine and game sauces laden with perfectly al dente rigatone, loud busy waiters, grappa (oh the grappa!), lashings of tiramisu that seemed to whisper my name from the dessert trolley…the list is endless but not without quality. And this I say hand on heart.
I would love to mention every establishment we frequented but will dedicate this writing to my absolute favourite. Our evening started by pushing through a heavy shaded glass door in to a dimly lit room where it became immediately obvious that we were outsiders stepping in to a land that had absolutely nothing to do with us. Or so we thought. Within seconds we were swept over to a table greeted warmly by not only the waiter, but all the people seated happily around us and sipping on glasses of prosecco before we had time to realise where we were. The start to the meal consisted of a bowl of invitingly juicy Mussels in a Marinara sauce, with the tomato, garlic, chili and wine all in perfect consistency. Beautiful chunks of thick fresh bread were there to help us mop up the glorious sauce when the mussels had been devoured, and a delicious dry white table wine to nip away any sadness that the course was over was a lovely accompaniment.
True Roman dishes were a must (when in Rome…) so I chose rabbit poached in dry white sherry and plenty of garlic. It was a dream, so simple yet so complex. I want to shake the hand of the person who came up with the idea. Don’t get me wrong I adore a red wine and rosemary rabbit stew, but there was something so subtle and soft about the flavours and texture combined that it is truly something worth mentioning. The added beauty was that it was all the rabbit meat, offal included, so the range of texture and flavour varied across the plate. My dining partner ordered the Oxtail, that came in a mouthwatering tomato and basil sauce. Sometimes such heavy sauces can drown their accompaniment, but this was beautifully laid over it, so it did not drown out the oxtail flavour, and yet you could taste its freshness, its pureness exactly, a knowing nod between you and the sauce that it had been made from the best ingredients by loving hands that day for you.
Although it was nearly impossible to imagine allowing another morsel in to my mouth after a much needed grappa, my eyes fixed on the tiramisu at the next table, and I decided I should partake in dessert. My dining companion agreed to share the dessert (I was a little relieved, and a little annoyed), and we had pretty much finished it off before the plate was put down on the table. I have experienced some pretty poor and rather insulting versions of tiramisu in my time but this was certainly not one of them. On the contrary this was so divine I can still taste it if I try hard enough, in fact I am trying right now.
So should you ever be in Rome and wonder where my idea of Utopia is, drop me a line first and I might just tell you…