ELVERS: THE EPITOME OF AN EXTREME SEASONAL DELICACY

For self-avowed foodies like myself, it is no longer enough merely to do our best to eat in tune with the seasons. That’s as taken for read as devouring the latest mouth-watering gastro tome at bedtime (in my case Skye Gyngell’s “ MY Life in the Kitchen” and Sarah Woodward’s “The Food of France”).

What we really hanker after are those much anticipated ingredients of extreme and fleeting seasonality, which may only be around for a month or so. Their rarity, and in many cases the challenge of tracking them down, adds immeasurably to their culinary cachet.

One of the most recondite are elvers which I’ve long been intrigued to try and chefs such as Raymond Blanc and Mark Hix have raved about their fantastic, utterly distinctive sensation, but their outrageous cost and scarcity meant that the experience had eluded me for a long time, only adding to my insaitable gastronomic curiosity.

Elvers are transparent matchstick sized baby eels which instinctively make an extraordinary three year journey from the Sargossa Sea (a seaweed covered body of water between Bermuda and Puerto Rico, which is roughly the site of the infamous Bermuda Triangle) where they always spawn. No-one really understands their extraordinary migration pattern. Young eel larvae drift on the Gulf Stream for about three years travelling up to 4000 miles before reaching European fresh water rivers such as the River Severn where they evolve into juvenile elvers. They really are only fished with silk nets in estuaries of the Severn on nights with a new moon as they shy away from light. They have a barely there fishiness which has to be experienced rather like the freshest most delicate just fish anchovies.

Finally, I had my elver experience last week at The Goring’s elegant David Linley designed dining room where they’re included in a remarkably good scrupulously seasonal 3-course lunch menu £32.50 served with bacon, fried capers, crisp pig’s ear, poached egg and a lemon dressing – sensational and well-worth waiting for. (www.goringhotel.co.uk) I strongly advise all elver virgins should hurry along as they are unlikely to appear on the menu beyond April and do check they have netted a catch before counting on them. Elvers may also be found on the menu of the wonderfully glamorous seafood deluxe menu at Scott’s, re-designed by the hugely talented Martin Brudnizki (surely the next über restaurant designer). Dining at the green onyx and stingray-skin bar below the chartreuse green marble mosaics and breathtaking chandelier is as chic as snaring a table. Strictly seasonal sea vegetables such as sea beets, sea purslane, sea lettuce and slightly later in the season samphire often appear as wholly felicitous complements to sublime fish dishes. At Scott’s, elvers are currently served with Old-Spot bacon, equally extremely seasonal goose egg and wild garlic @ £35 for a starter! (www.scotts-restaurant.com)