Sybaritic

DINING AL-FRESCO proximate to London Bridge bound traffic may seem an unconventional escapade. However such teeming soon melded far away as the sun shone sufficiently on the wide, warm table in Savoie-Moroccan restaurant's La Cave furtively tucked cobbled courtyard.

My father was taken aback by an apéritif of Mexican packaged tequila-spiked Desperados beer (which was actually Alsatian). Resembling an alcopop, it tasted of ginger. I chose a grapey, butterscotch-scented honeyed Portonic fashioned from Eduard Dirk Niepoort's cask aged white weakened with tonic over ice.

A sybaritic starter of vanilla suffused scallop shell with puff pastry top was followed by 'toasted' sea bass with snug bone marrow, all coated in a sweet, milky foam. Despite the overt resemblance to cuckoo spit, this was the most marvellous meeting of textures I have encountered this year.

05 Albariño from Bodegas Valmiñor blossomed alongside, yielding a dusting of white pepper, gardenia, clementine and sunflower oil.

Further Link: Oxford Beer Database