The Mission With The Ralvins

One of our favourite Island places is The Mission. This classic tin tabernacle, built in 1895, has been converted by our pals at Vintage Vacations into a truly unique property. Available for holiday lets (we’ve hired it ourselves a couple of times), it is sometimes also used as a venue for the occasional pop-up dinner.

There are only two suppers each year at The Mission and we attended last week’s sell-out event. Vintage Vacations had done a cracking job on Christmasifying the venue – the hall was well and truly decked! Like all of the Mission dinners, this was a social affair with opportunities to mingle and chat with fellow guests. A vast moon booth had been erected which gave us further opportunities to lark about and get to know our fellow diners. Although it was a bring-a-bottle affair we were greeted into the the twinkly vintage wonderland with a sparkling prosecco and sloe gin cocktail.

Rosie and Calvin from The Ralvins (R[osie]+[C]alvin, see?) brought their ’boutique’ street food indoors to The Mission and cooked up a fabulous three course supper. This talented couple have honed their skills in five star luxury chalets in the French Alps, although the food influences of these seasoned travellers are quite global.

For starter we enjoyed creamy roasted red pepper and goats cheese soup, served with assorted fresh bread. This was followed by the stand out dish of the night, aromatic pulled roast lamb. The lean and soft meat was exotic and spicy, having been prepared with The Ralvins ‘Rub Tub‘, their own blend of festive herbs and spices. It was served  with pomegranate and red wine sauce, plus veg and a spectacular bacon-enhanced tartiflette. Perfect for a winter evening. The Ralvins are justly confident about the appeal of their spicy blend, so much so that they have put it into production! Cat bought some Rub Tub on the night; it’s not just for meat – Cat used it to give her mushrooms a delicious Moroccan-style flavour.

Dessert was a pretty, lilac-hued tarte myrtille des Alpes (Alpine blueberry tart), served with a mild creme de la creme de cassis (blackcurrant liquor cream). A lovely finale to the meal. After dinner we gossiped and drank and played with the table’s glowing balloons until it was time to go home.