Tom gets into the Spiga seasonal spirit

Nice little gathering to try Spiga’s Christmas menu the other day. As ever, appetising, with lots of their usual favourites on show. The pasta and gnocchi proved popular starters for some, but I tried the baked goats cheese on grilled aubergine and peppers, with balsamic. I’m not usually overly keen on the latter, but this was great! Excellent texture to the cheese, and the sweetness of the dressing worked well with the tanginess of the dish. The smoked salmon looked nice too, with asparagus (which – *important newsflash* – I have just heard is great for avoiding hangovers!) and a poached egg.

Mains were a hit too; there was turkey, a “bang-on” cod (marinated with herbs, in ginger, garlic and chilli sauce), and a baked, layered aubergine dish with tomato and basil sauce, mozarella and rocket, which looked superb – always impressive when a restaurant makes the effort to create really good veggie dishes. I had the sun-dried tomato crusted salmon with a saffron and prosecco sauce – the crust added a subtle extra dimension and the sauce packed lots of flavour. Lovely!

Chocolate tart with strawbs to finish – rather greedily I had one and a half of those, but don’t tell anyone. Don’t want to get a reputation as a glutton. What? Too late you say??

Wine of the evening was a Côtes du Rhône which seemed to impress all who tried it – excellent drop of festive medicine. I’ve been drinking a lot of these throughout 2012, and will probably manage one or two more before the year’s out.

Off to the North London Tavern tonight; must pick up a decent handful of asparagus on my way home…

Have a fantastic, food-festive new year!