To celebrate their first Christmas since opening, award-winning restaurant Hammer & Tongs, in Farringdon, has announced plans to launch a special South African Braai menu – an African style of cooking that uses an open fire, generally fuelled by wood.
Slow-cooked entirely over Sicklewood and Blackthorne, on an open fire, the menu will offer guests the chance to enjoy two courses for £20, or three courses for £25. With the possibility of accommodating groups from two to 80, the restaurant’s atmosphere intends to evoke the sight, smell and sound of the roaring braai in the open kitchen, with a service style reflective of the braai’s primal elements of smoke, fire, food and good company. At Hammer & Tongs, the huge braai burns all day, visible to diners, and almost all of the menu is cooked over wood.
To begin, the three course menu features a starter of braai’d butternut soup, rich with sweet squash complementing the braai smoke. Next, a Cape Malay marinated Barnsley chop harbours flavours of coriander, cumin, fennel, cinnamon, clove, chilli, mustard and ginger, and is served with braai roasted Brussel sprouts (a far-cry from the perfunctory, opinion-dividing Christmas dinner classic) and dry roast chips. To finish, dessert consists of Cape Brandy pudding steamed over the embers of the kitchen’s three-meter long grill, fired-up each morning with Namibian Sickle Bush to impart a smoky flavour.
Available now, until 23rd December, Hammer & Tongs’ South African braai Christmas menu costs £20 for two courses, or £25 for three, and is served all day. Each diner will receive a complimentary glass of sparkling wine, while a selection of expertly curated South African wines is also available. Further information can be found here.
Hammer & Tongs can be found at 171 Farringdon Road, London, EC1R 3AL.
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