Whether or not His Holiness ‘The High Priest of Smoked Salmon’ was busy sanctifying the servings on the night of my visit is not important as my portion of this saltwater aquatic vertebrate was truly blessed.
From the moment one enters this special brick tabernacle on the corner of Ferry Rd and Catherine Street an underlying feeling of quiet euphoria descends upon you and you know you will be led into pink and fleshy temptation.
The undeniably fashionable atmosphere, with such salutes to modernity as a blackboard wall, cutting edge artwork, slick, sassy couches and twenty first century kitchen views, is longingly wrapped in a cloak of post Victorian red brick .
A Pasqua Merlot 2010 and a chilled bottle of Christchurch water were enough to smoothly annoint my craving palate and start my conversational motor in readiness for a pleasant evening.
The smoked salmon and vegetable chowder with warm bread gave flight to any thoughts of the cold winter night outside, coaxing me without difficulty into accepting a main course of hot smoked salmon also. It wasn’t at all a case of too much of a good thing as both dishes were more than adequately plated, portion perfect and proud panoplies of local produce.
The silver jacket of the salmon shed its luxurious flesh without a flex of resistance, my knife falling through the succulent, exalted fillet with consummate ease, the taste so soft, so spiritual, so........utterly sublime.
Sharing the joy of the service were such well chosen and appropriate accompaniments as a warm potato salad, red pepper, courgettes, Kalamata olives, capers and basil all fully purged or cleansed of any sins they may have had in a previous life.
Amen.
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