A Taste of Honey at Dokke, St Katharine Docks

Demi Perera makes a beeline to St Katharine Docks for a taste of honey at Dokke restaurant.

Well, it was National Honey Week from 22nd to 28th October and the nation was abuzz with some pretty sweet things (I had to do it). You’d be wondering why I’m interested in National Honey Week given that I live in London. After all, bees, birds and nature are all the domain of the countryside right? Best left to people who actually have an appreciation for it? Well, that wasn’t the case last week. London, not to be outdone by the countryside, hosted a range of honey-week related events. I, being of the inquisitive persuasion, went along to St Katharine Docks to find out how London got in on the act.

St Katharine Dock, which incidentally turned 190 years old in the same week, hosted a wonderful honey-based dinner at the utterly divine Asian- fusion restaurant Dokke. The restaurant is headed by luxury private island specialist Chef Neil Wager who’d created a special St Katharine Docks honey-infused menu for the evening.

We began with a G&Bee cocktail of gin, Cointreau, SKD honey, lemon and elderflower. Quite frankly, I don’t think I’ve had a better cocktail this year. Three dishes of salmon, beef short rib and Vietnamese chicken followed. Each dish had me re-reading the menu to check the ingredients. They were simply that good. It was astonishing that such combinations of flavours could be so delicately balanced on a plate. It was a remarkable dinner. Honey parfait and yuzu iced parfait was served with sake for dessert. Once again, it was bafflingly good. The sake, in particular, was a hit around the table; never before had I been persuaded to drink rice wine with parfait. I’m here to testify that I was glad I did.

Finally, I must mention the reason we had all gathered around a table at Dokke: honey. St Katharine Docks has its own hives. We were treated to an informative introduction to urban bee-keeping by Camilla Goddard. Camilla is the dock chief bee-keeper who also looks after 70 other hives across London from Greenwich to Brockley. She had a range of honey from across the world from St Lucian mango honey to lavender honey from Notting Hill for us to taste. It was fascinating to identify areas of London from the notes in the honey. I’m certainly a better person for it as I now have a sound understanding of pollen; bees from a single hive may gather as many as 50 types of pollen.

The big question was this: what can we do to encourage bees in the Big Smoke and how can those of us living in over-priced shoe-boxes help our city’s beekeepers? Camilla Goddard encourages us to start planting; plants, bulbs, trees as time and space permits. You can find a full list of plants for small spaces here.  She certainly inspired me to do a little more; I’ve contacted the caretaker of the building I live in for permission to plant herbs and flowers in a communal space. That beauty of bees is that they collect pollen from a variety of sources all throughout the year.

Camilla added this to conclude the evening:

Everyone assumes bees just need flowers, but trees are really great for them. If I was recommending something though, plant crocuses and snow drops. They come up in the early spring and give them a real boost when they need it most.

You heard the expert London: get planting!

St Katharine Docks is located at 50 St Katharine’s Way, E1W 1LA. Find out more at skdocks.co.uk/location.

For more about Dokke go to dokke.co.uk.

For more information visit bbka.org.uk.