Marra Marra* take 2

Just when we’d dried our tears and come to terms with not being able to make it to this months pop up, the stars aligned and the opportunity arose, and so, you lucky devils, we have a more than welcome return of Marra* ! A very different vibe, but a resounding big fat smash out of the ballpark once again.

This one took us on a journey of many a surprise; calling in at the likes of a crab custard, cherry soup and a massive sausage. I know I know, I’ll stop teasing- read on for more.

As we weren’t expecting to try out the goods of Lewis Bassett’s staycation at Marra, we hadn’t done what we normally do: think about it every day for the week leading up and discuss what we’ll be having (had we done this though, we’d still not have been prepared). We visited for the Saturday 12 o clock service, again, not our norm and ,I’ll admit, while it’s not fancy pancy kinda deal,  it’s a special type of meal, and I personally wasn’t sure how it’d be having this at lunchtime, but I can confirm the space lends itself to both day and evening very well, if you had any doubts.

In house elderflower soda for me and 0.0 beer for Matt. Laveleyyy. Kicking things off was a trio of nibbles- slices of picked marrow, an almond blancmange and a lil bite of deep fried yogurt, with some kinda jam on top, forgive me, in the whirlwind of flavours the jams ingrediental makeup has escaped me (please don’t take my blog away from me!). Either way, yep yep yep. The pickle on the marrow was gentle and sweet, the blomonge was unlike anything I’ve had, and the yog hit all the crispy creamy combo hopes and dreams.

Next up, beer bread and butter. The bread was made from the yeast that comes from beer production, and was glazed in a Guiness.. glaze. Sticky, molassesy, banging. Can’t go wrong really can you? But, I shall challenge, this is about as right as I’ve ever known bread to go, frankly.

We then had a taste of both the starters on offer- a cherry soup with crème fraîche, and a crab custard. It was probably around here it became clear how impressive Lewis is and the refinement of his palette. The soup was incredibly unique- sharp, sweet and, I thought, almost cocktail like- likely because there was a mention of rose in there? Now I’m not a cocktail drinker, and so sharing this one worked well for me, but a refreshing delight nonetheless. The crab custard was silky smooth and perfectly balanced, topped with all sorts of good things (again, if you want specifics this ain’t the time nor place unfortunately).

Then was the mains. In all of our unpreparedness, we did manage a cheeky look at the menu on the drive there, and both agreed we’d be going for the sausage- a Lake District scotch- but the team had kindly prepared us one of everything to try, and- this is directly to the team- ThankYou! The alternative was a pea and courgette pudding. They came with smoked new potatoes and a simple yet yum salad. We both loved each dish a hell of a lot, and were particularly taken back by the pea pud. It was, I’m assuming, a suet-based encasing (the same things as my grandmas stew dumplings are made of, and I hope you’ve been lucky enough to have something similar, the ultimate source of stodgy- in the best sense- comfort). Fab. And lest we brush over the sausage! Never mind sausage party, this was a gala worthy triumph. Not your average banger- no crispy skin here folks. Instead we were blessed with a gurthy package (too far?) of rich, meaty goodness (you’re the one making it dirty now) with a generous duo of sauce and a fitty fit fit gravy. Both dishes went beautifully with the accompanying sides and we were left two happy, carb-stuffed chappys.

Finally, we had a brown butter cake with earl grey ice cream and apricot. Appropriately the cake was fairly dense; you wouldn’t want it any other way. The ice cream was unmistakable and punchy along side the more subtlety tangy apricot. A well rounded bowl of pure satisfaction, go team.

In true Marra* style, we even got some lil shortbread bites, made in the tradition, local way. How lovely.

As I round off, I apologise if there’s someone out there wanting some drama or negativity (if so, try the news babe) but I see your point. It would be an interesting turn to read some plot twist and see how my writing works when it’s not paragraph after paragraph of pure ego stroking, but what can I say, Marra is, as far as we’re concerned, top tier. There were things that were new to us, and maybe we didn’t fully appreciate- apparently there was rose in the blancmange, as the refined guests to our side noted- but it felt like a masterclass, and as someone who can only dream of reaching that level of cheffery, I feel lucky to have been sat front row.

Lewis clearly put so much thought and care into this pop up, each dish served with an in depth, heavily considered back story relating to the area and traditional techniques.

We loved it all, no surprise, and can’t wait for the next one.