Last night my Sister-in-law and I attended a Japanese supper club hosted by Jhenn AKA The Vegan Ronin. I had heard about the night on the blog of a mutual friend Fat Gay Vegan and was aware of the work Jhenn had done when she was head chef at Veg Bar in Brixton which my Sister-in-law and I had visited in the Summer. We booked the dinner through Social Belly, a new site linking diners with hosts in London and at £24 it was great value for money.

Having never been to a supper club before we weren’t quite sure what to expect. Jhenn and her husband Ed were both very welcoming and told us lots of stories about their time living in Japan. There were 3 other guests, 2 of which I was aware of online as we followed eachother on instagram. It was great putting names to faces and loving getting to know new interesting people.

For our first course Jhenn had made us a selection of soya dishes. This included a soya cake, a salad and some spongy tofu that had been frozen and then defrosted to change its texture. We also had some warm fresh soya milk which was really tasty and creamy.

Next up we had a potato salad with soya beans, braised daikon, bamboo and spinach, squash with adzuki beans, millet “eel” wrapped in nori and stuffed dumplings. Everything was so delicate and beautifully presented.

Following that we had a dish made by Ed known as Ed’s balls! In Japan it is common to get battered octopus as a snack, so this is the vegan version. A cube of konjac is battered and deep fried and topped with a brown sauce similar to HP/Worcestershire sauce, Japanese mayonnaise and nori flakes. This was a real treat and very different from the other dishes we had tried.

To end the meal we had miso soup, rice and sweet potato and pickles. This reminded me of the traditional breakfast I had had in Japan and is designed to fill you up if you are still hungry. I definitely wasn’t so I had a half portion of rice!

Lastly we were treated to some Japanese sweets. We had coffee jelly made with agar served with soya cream. Two rice balls one of which was covered in sweet adzuki beans and a sesame seed crisp.

All the food was amazing and I’m so glad we tried it out. Jhenn helpfully wrote up out menu so we could remember what we had.

If you’ve never been to a supper club before its something I’d really recommend you do. You get great food and get to meet other people in a relaxed environment. I can’t wait to book out next one!

Plumes x