Go The Whole Hog | Il Porco At Bunga Bunga, 37 Battersea Bridge Road, London SW11 3BA
The order of service… Pork, pork and pork!
Italian-inspired Bunga Bunga in Battersea have collaborated with The House of Peroni to launch IL PORCO – a wonderful Italian pork fest washed down with Peroni. Two words we find very hard to resist: ‘hog’ and ‘roast’. There was no way we were missing out on this, even if the easiest way to get there from the Southbank was to splash out on the Thames Clipper up the river.
Setting the scene… Photograph: www.poshbrokebored.com
This meat feast is held upstairs at the L’Osservatorio – a twinkly conservatory room decorated for the festive season, we loved the baubles hanging from the ceiling. We’ve stolen the idea for our home, having Bubble and Squeak means we need something that couldn’t get wrecked (they’ve destroyed pretty much everything they can get their paws on.)
A vision in blue…
Head chef Alexis de Naray has created an indulgent three-course menu paired with Peroni inspired cocktails. Kicking off with a starter of pork scratchings, olives and caramelised red onion home-baked focaccia (although boar sausage replaced pork scratchings on our preview visit.) The best cocktail of the night: The Peroni Limoni – a blend of Peroni Nastro Azzurro, limoncello, peach liqueur and lemon juice was served alongside this starter.
Pig on a plank…
Porky perfection!
What arrived next was a ridiculously large wooden platter showered with porky delights. Slow cooked shredded pork shoulder, pig cheek arancini, pig fat roasted potatoes, whole roasted porchetta, slow cooked sticky ribs, garlic and rosemary pork loin medallions and pork and apple sausages wrapped in pancetta. Every cut of meat was cooked perfectly, the potatoes crispy and golden, pretty faultless really.
A little something for the vegetarians…
Not forgetting the aubergine parmigiana, celeriac remoulade, baby carrots and Bunga’s special BBQ sauce. The pig didn’t steal the show, the veggie sides were brilliant too. The most exciting part for me was that the arancini was cheese-free! I’ve never been able to eat risotto balls before for this reason, I almost devoured the whole lot, thanks Alexis, I love you.
‘Waiter, it appears that someone has dropped my orange’. ‘Oh! It’s fennel. I see, it’s meant to be there…’
The cocktail for this pairing (alongside a large bottle of Peroni on the table) was the Peroni Speziato – Peroni Nastro Azzurro with orange, fennel, black pepper and rosemary spices. It sounded good on paper but we found it a little too sweet.
Even the brownies couldn’t escape the power of pork!
I don’t know how we managed to eat anything else, but what I do know that undoing a button on my jeans certainly helped. Bacon brownies with maple syrup ice cream was paired with a Peroni Strawberry Fields – Peroni Nastro Azzurro, strawberry puree, lemon juice and mint.
The brownies intrigued us but only contained a hint of bacon essence, apparently the first batch was too bacony so they calmed it down a little. The ice cream arrived in miniature cones on a custom-made Bunga Bunga gondola, nice idea but it meant you couldn’t eat the two together.
Fancy it? IL PORCO launches at Bunga Bunga this month, the date is yet to be announced, we shall update this post as soon as we get the news!
bungabunga-london.com
37 Battersea Bridge Road,
London, SW11 3BA
Telephone: 020 7095 0360
Email: ciao@bungabunga-london.com
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We ate as guests of Bunga Bunga, this does not affect our review in any way. We always write with complete honesty.
