Blaggers Banquet – 15th Nov 09

Posted on Nov 17, 2009 by Neil in misc | 6 Comments

So, I disappear for a month long jaunt round south america and come back to see the foodies in my twitter stream talking about a ‘Blaggers Banquet’.  Much confusion ensues until I find some information from Niamh at eatlikeagirl.com, which explains that the concept is to host a banquet where all the food has been blagged from providers.  Whether it is the salt, gin or meat.

The concept sounded great, but alas it was on a Sunday AND in London.  Nevertheless, I decided that on Sunday morning, whilst sitting in Birmingham having my lunch that I would indeed attend, that evening the Blaggers Banquet, at Hawksmoor.
 
Nothing like a pop down to Euston, a tube across to Liverpool St, a wander in Spitalfields market before arriving at Hawksmoor (after walking past it twice) just before 6.
 
There was a good crowd, with what appeared to be an even amount of Bloggers/Blaggers – who had been prepping the veg, venue, and goodie bags all day, to punters – aka me.
There was some amazing attentive service, Martinis and Canapes were had.  Before being seated for some familystyle food service, along with matching wines.  We had some lovely Monkfish to start (which had been driven up from the coast that morning), then moved onto a Beef Stew, Lamb Hotpot and Buffalo Steak with Bernaise sauce.  Yes thats correct, three different meats for mains – I certainly enjoyed the food – but felt a bit full by the end of the course.
 
The table, by now was full of plates, and glasses – everyone seemed to have a few cocktails, red and white wine, plus some water.  It was amazing to think that everything being consumed had been donated in the name of charity – and just shows what can be done with determination.
 
Raffle time commenced, where I managed to take home both the Bols Genever and the X chocolates.  2 prizes from 5 tickets is a rather splendid result.  There were some other fabulous prizes including a cookery lesson with Thomasina Miers, no dud prizes here!
 
Dessert – well Jelly Boobs by Bompas and Parr and Chocolate Fondant Cake.  The jelly was lovely, and half the fun was watching the ’staff’ release the jellies from the mould.  I do like this trend of having two or three things per course!
 
It was a delightful time, and certainly worth the effort to get there and back ( I ran out into a taxi to the station at 11, got back at 2AM)
 
As well as the auction on the night, I believe more goodies will be appearing on eBay here: Blaggers Banquet Ebay Horde.
Further pictures on the night from me : Blaggers Banquet (Picasa)

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6 Comments

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  1. Food.By Mark says:

    Nice succinct write up! Oh God, I make a minute appearance in the background of one of those photos. ARGH. :) Great to meet you too mate.

  2. catty says:

    Great little write up and I still love the photo of Euwen :) but what happened to the photo of you with jelly boobs all over your face? ;)

  3. Lizzie says:

    Now there’s a drunk face if ever I saw one… Really glad you came, what an effort you made!

  4. When you say your table was covered with glasses, don’t you mean it was covered with tehbus’ glasses? He had 4 or 5 drinks on the go all night. Glad you had a good time, especially as you came so far for it and in spite of my sucky waitressing.

  5. Neil says:

    Mark – Was great to meet you to, some top pictures came out of your camera – those of me mainly involve a shot of me laughing!

    Catty – It’s a hard life, some things just don’t make the cut!

    Lizzie – Glad I made the effort, would have been gutted to hear how great it was from everyone else!

    Jassy – Waitressing was fine, and hey we fed you to – so thats always good. tehbus did have a lot of glasses on the go – the way it should be!

  6. Helen says:

    So gutted I couldn’t make it to this! It looks brilliant. A great effort by all involved.

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