This weekend has been a delightful combination of eating, drinking and lifting. In between competing in an online competition with Brawn Power (seriously, if you lift, give the app a go) and catching up with friends, we’ve also indulged at Hispi, and treated ourselves to this, a seafood boil from Decatur London.
The original plans for those behind Decatur was for a huge restaurant launching last year in Hackney. But, as with most things, COVID happened and they changed tack, heading online. Personally, given my next plans for a London visit are very tentatively for September, I’m very glad they did, because the delivery option makes it available even to us, in our little flat in Manchester.
So what’s involved? You place the order for a seafood boil (with or without sausage), after they go live on a Friday (it used to be Sunday, but now seems to be Friday at 6pm). They go pretty fast, so get on it. The boil kit will be delivered the following Friday. It needs using within 48 hours, so it pays to plan for this. Along with the boil, you can order a selection of other add ins, like rock lobster (we added this), snow crab, clams, mussels, or chargrilled oysters.
In the kit is everything you need for the boil. Seafood (plus any add ins) sausage (if you opted for it), corn on the cob, “Decaturains” Seasoning (a secret blend of 12 herbs and spices), lemons, orange(s), potatoes, garlic butter, an onion and a head of garlic. Oh and instructions. Basically everything you’ll need bar the water and a pot to boil it in.
Once you’ve got everything, it’s easy. Fill your pot, get it boiling, add the spices, then everything else as instructed.
When it’s all done, you tip everything out into a colander, discarding the liquid (or most of it anyway). And if you have the space, tip it out onto the sheets of newspaper provided, before diving in. As we don’t have a dining table, it was bowls and fingers for us.
Then you can peel prawns, and dunk them in garlic butter, chew on tender sweetcorn, and in our case, pull apart lobster tail and eat it with our fingers.
Overall, it’s not the cheapest Friday night eat, but it’s very much worth it. The seafood is super fresh and tasty, it arrives really well packaged and chilled, and it’s so easy to do!
I suspect we’ll be doing it again soon!