This week myself and the lovely Lauren from Belle Du Brighton were invited along to a very exciting Blogger dining experience at the newly opened Dirty Blonde bar in Brighton. We were treated to a sumptuous fine dining menu, with a catch! We would be blindfolded, and asked to dine in the dark. The evening would be a ‘Battle of the Bloggers’, where the aim of the game is to guess the ingredients in the dishes we were presented blindly, just from taste and smell alone. I have to admit, I did feel a little nervous about the experience, I just didn’t know what to expect! When I saw Lauren and I had our own little table and we would be blindfolded just during each course, not actually fed by the waiters (apparantly there was talk of actually feeding us….cringe!) I felt more at ease. Plus inbetween dishes we had a good old catch up chat and some wine – which always helps!
Dining in the dark is meant be a sensory experience that highens the senses and allows you to completely re-evaluate the way you taste and smell foods. It’s amazing how much of our opinion on food is put down to how it looks, so with that element out of the way you are able to let your senses take over and experience tasting the dishes using taste and smell alone, it really does make a huge difference, I was really surprised at how difficult it was!
The puddings and cocktails were the part I was looking forward to, I have always had a sweet tooth so was excited to try the Raspberry and Chocolate Mousse (one of the dishes I finally was able to guess correctly!). Guessing the cheeseboard was funny too, Lauren and I guessed cheddar and Edam, however found out they were something a lot more elaborate! The cocktails were strong, more like shots so the spirits were quite identifable, however again without seeing the colour of the drink it was hard to place the well known flavours in my mind, was a really odd feeling. I loved the signature Dirty Blonde cocktail and will be popping back for many more in the future I’m sure.
I had such a lovely time at Dirty Blonde, and would like to thank the team for having us for such a fun evening. The bar is completely revamped and looking so sylish, so please do pop down and check it out soon!
