Cambridge Edition December 2024 - Web

FOOD EDITION

From historic pubs to trendy bistros, the city has something to suit every taste and occasion The Parker’s Tavern festive set menu

and sage pesto. The Three Horseshoes in Madingley has 24-hour, Asian-style pork belly and a roasted butternut squash, celeriac and chestnut wellington. The Rupert Brooke restaurant at Grantchester is serving turkey and trimmings, including pancetta-roasted brussels sprouts. Alternatives include pan- fried sea bass, braised short rib of beef and curried butternut squash and parsley pie. Recently revamped Browns on Trumpington Street has a festive menu featuring turkey with cranberry stuffing, garlic and thyme roast potatoes, mulled wine-braised red cabbage and brussels sprouts with chestnuts. There’s braised blade of beef with buttered mash, fillet of sea bass with sauteed La Ratte potatoes (a ‘fingerling’ potato good for mashing), maple and cinnamon-glazed pork belly and a vegetarian root vegetable, walnut and almond tart. The Ivy Cambridge Brasserie offers turkey ballotine with apricot, cranberry and pork stuffing, pig in blanket (alas, singular), sprout and parsley mash, truffle sauce and cranberry chutney. Alternatives are pan- fried sea bass fillet, foraged wild mushroom and truffle linguine, goose, turkey and duck shepherd’s pie or 8oz sirloin steak.

features slow-cooked turkey accompanied by chestnut and thyme stuffing with bacon- wrapped chipolatas, brussels sprouts and roasted fondant potatoes. Alternatives are potato gratin pie with Lincolnshire poacher and comte cheese, roasted Cornish cod and King’s Lynn brown shrimp fish cakes or barbecued celeriac and piccolo parsnips. Fed up with traditional poultry options? Stem & Glory on Station Road offers a veggie festive menu comprising a plant-based ‘beef’ flank from Redefine Meat or mushroom wellington made with minced ‘duxelles’ mushrooms, both served with wild thyme roast potatoes, honeyed smoked carrots and parsnips, greens and rich, smoked, red wine gravy. You could also go for its festive Tuscan gnocchi, or even the Three Kings bowl of king oyster mushrooms, novocado (a carbon-sensitive alternative to avocado), kimchi, samphire and capers. It’s all planet-friendly – and different from the norm.

MEATY MENU Steak at Cambridge Chop House (above); festive feasting with Cambscuisine (top)

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