Lathany

Dom bought me a meal at Gymkhana for my birthday and today we went for Indian food and paired wines.



The Pride parade outside was a bit of a surprise as I'd not really thought about how it was still June (we'd celebrated at work at the start of the month). Excellent food.

I've been ill for nearly two-and-a-half weeks which is the longest in quite some time. I suspect it was actually covid despite the negative test. I'm mostly better now, but still operating on my one ear being partially blocked. I was never horribly ill, but I'm very tired of the lack of hearing and the cough.

However, it was still an excellent Christmas. The dinner (gammon roast) all cooked to time and was very tasty. The presents generally went down well with their intended. A picture of my favourite here - a necklace made from a coin. Also, the advent calendar, whilst rather more "woodland animals" than Christmas-themed, was also rather good.



And I still have a week in which to do the various things I planned for my holiday.

Yesterday's wedding was a lovely event. Held at Wookey Hole. Including caves, hog roast, mead and a penny arcade.



The wedding cake was... different (cheese!). The whole event was well-lit.



We retired exhausted but happy.

The window today was a birdhouse... again.

I've made a chocolate cake for Dom's birthday. It's always a slightly fragile cake (it works on egg whites), but worthwhile. And Dom has interesting (other) food plans for dinner.

We spent the weekend near Winchester. We stayed at the Marwell Hotel, which had a rather fine tasting menu. It was about eight courses with matching wines. The wines were generous portions and the courses were rather excellent. For once, I failed to pick up a copy of the menu, but thought it was a good selection (I remember egg, cod and pork being among the dishes) and, for once, went back and forth between white and red wines.

We visited Marwell Zoo on the Saturday morning.



The tiger was rather like Reeve.



On Saturday afternoon we headed into Winchester and took a pilgrimage up to the hospital and the unit where the twins spent the first month of their lives. We didn't go in - but it was odd to be back again.

Sunday evening we ate in the bar, dodging a large number of wedding guests. Again the food was good - I had burger & chips and chocolate fondant. Also I tried both passion fruit and violet gins. The former tasted great, the latter was a lovely purple.

All-in-all a great weekend.

I woke up yesterday morning feeling snuffly and we nearly cancelled our booking. Fortunately I recovered across the day and so we went to Chiswick to try the tasting menu with wines of La Trompette. It was our third ever visit (previously July 2004 and August 2009) and the first time we'd tried their tasting menu.

Pre-starter
These were little pieces of fish (I think) sitting in a sort of shell of the type that Chinese restaurants sometimes do. They were good and the bread arrived at the same time - we think it was wholemeal sourdough.

We decided not to have aperitifs (even though both looked good - a rhubarb gin and tonic and a variant on Bucks Fizz). We knew from experience that if we were drinking the paired wines, that was probably more than enough in itself. Actually, by the end I concluded I could have managed an aperitif, but didn't know at the start!

Canapés
These again were fish, this time more substantial and involved a sort of fish coleslaw with sliced vegetable and, I think, a form of chorizo. Very tasty and the chorizo was very strong.

First course
Food: Raw gilt head bream, pickled shimeji, English wasabi, bonito and shiso cress
Wine: Bacchus, Sandbar, Lyme Bay, Devon, England, 2015 and a Riesling
The course was completely cold and delicious. It looked like a small salad and tasted much better. The wine on the menu was the Bacchus which was very much like a Sauvignon Blanc. However, the sommelier told us that there was an alternative on offer - the Riesling. So, of course, we each had a different one and compared. I think I slightly preferred the Riesling which was slightly less crisp. Both were good though.

Second course
Food: Hand rolled linguine, black winter truffle and aged parmesan
Wine: Anjou Blanc, Coteau des Treilles, Pithon-Paillé, Loire Valley, France, 2013
We concluded that this course was mainly a vehicle for truffle tasting, but was gorgeous all the same. Pasta in a lovely, creamy/cheesy sauce with a generous helping of black truffle shavings. Lovely and one of my favourites. The wine was good too - crisp and a nice contrast.

Third course
Food: Isle of Orkney scallops, new season ceps, lemon and hazelnut
Wine: Blind Tasting
This was Dom's favourite course and one of my favourites. The scallops were simply amazing, the little mushrooms were gorgeous and the sauces went really well. The blind tasting was also very interesting. It arrived in completely black, opaque wine glasses so that we couldn't see the colour. We sniffed it, I declared it to be Chardonnay, then I tasted it and I was no longer sure it was a white wine! At the end, the sommelier told us that it was a Chardonnay, but a very unusual one. Certainly it was utterly unguessable for me on taste!

Fourth/main course
Food: Barbecued shortrib and croustillant of beef, purple sprouting and roasting juices
Wine: Saint Emilion Grand Cru, Château Lassègue, Bordeaux, France, 2009 or an Italian red
There was an alternative - Cornish turbot - but we both went for the beef, in my case because I wanted a red meat and a red wine. The beef was excellent, as was the broccoli and the juices (including, I think, a walnut chutney). It was also the largest course - probably because it was the closest to being a main course. We were given a choice of wines again, so again had a glass of each. The Bordeaux was a lovely red, I guess the term is "full-bodied" and Dom's favourite, I slightly preferred the italian red which was slightly lighter, and had a few different flavour tones. This may be my favourite course - with strong competition from the scallops and the dessert.

Fifth course/palate cleanser
Food: Yorkshire rhubarb and blood orange
This worked really well as a palate cleanser. It was somewhere between cold fruit and sorbet and the two flavours worked well together.

Sixth course/dessert
Food: Caramelised banana soufflé, gingerbread, passionfruit ice cream
Wine: Vidal, Ice Wine, Peller Estates, Niagara Peninsula, Ontario, Canada, 2014
Finally the dessert course. The souffles arrived very hot and the waitress took the spoonful of ice cream and inserted it into the top of each. The result was really impressive - it's one of the best desserts I've had as part of a tasting menu. I liked the ice wine too - cold and sweet, as wanted.

We ignored the optional cheese course and I had a coffee (an Americano as they don't do filter) which arrived with a pair of chocolate truffles. We then paid and waddled back to the train station.

Overall the staff were friendly and knowledgeable, the service was the right speed and the meal overall felt like a meal - not too little and not too much. Perhaps more importantly, every course was wonderful. Usually some work much better than others. We did have favourites, but also liked the others a great deal. It is expensive - as tasting menus including wine tend to be - just short of £300 for two, both with wine (including my sparking water, my coffee and the tip). But well worth it as a lovely evening out on a special occasion.

The Xmas presents I received were:
- Three Legions by Rosemary Sutcliff
- Goldenhand by Garth Nix
- The New Watch: (Night Watch 5) by Sergei Lukyanenko
- Will Save the Galaxy for Food by Yahtzee Croshaw
- A Body Shop collection (Moringa)
- Hyacinths
- And a board game.



I've started Three Legions and feel I'll soon be into all the rest before much of 2018 has passed.

The legal part happened on Friday when I was in London. The large event was on the Saturday in a hall near Kew Gardens.

The afternoon started with the ceremony itself.



Then there was the cold buffet. Here's a picture of the bride and groom.



There was also wedding cake.



And finally music, dancing and chat.

bateleur bought me some flowers to say thank you for looking after him.



Hopefully Reeve won't try to eat these.

I'm still ill, although it's mostly fading now and the cough sounds much less painful. I've realised that I never posted about my birthday at the end of March. I went out for a curry on the Saturday before (the duo's first restaurant curry) which was rather fine. Then the day itself included fizz and cake. My presents were mainly books, but also a wonderful spiced rum.

I have read three of the books I received for my birthday:

• Superior Saturday by Garth Nix - Book six of the series and only one to go. I still enjoy these, although I have been reading them infrequently and have had difficulties always remembering where I was. I think it's a good series, but not in the same league as The Old Kingdom books. Although I should really reserve judgement for when I'm finished.
• White Night by Jim Butcher - I find that I regard these in the same way as Pratchetts; namely reliably enjoyable. However, Dresden appears to becoming more unstoppable with every book.
• The Islands of Chaldea by Diana Wynne Jones and her sister Ursula Jones - This is the book that DWJ was writing when she died. Her sister finished it and I can't tell where the join is. It's a good read, it's standalone and I enjoyed it, although it is not in my list of favourites.

We have also seen a couple of films this month (courtesy of Lovefilms).

• The Hunt - Danish with subtitles. It's the story of a teacher wrongly accused of being a paedophile. Needless to say it's a fairly harrowing story, although well-acted by all the cast including the child. Its tensions come from wondering what will happen to the man rather than wondering whether or not he did it (the film is very explicit about the fact he is innocent). I think I would recommend it, but with caveats about content.
• The Devil Wears Prada - A graduate wanting to be a journalist applies to a fashion magazine for a role without knowing that "a million girls would die for" it and is then awarded the job. She ends up working for a very exacting editor-in-chief who expects her to go beyond the boundaries of her job. Anne Hathaway is the graduate and Meryl Streep takes on the role that may or may not be based on Anna Wintour, editor-in-chief of Vogue. The result is interesting, but a little too in awe of the fashion industry (apparently all the designer labels made this one of the most expensively-costumed movies in cinema history). I enjoyed it, but felt at times it wanted to be Pretty Woman, although it's a much more acidic film.

I'm now about to start the visits round. I'm hoping that Scotland won't bring back more of my cough.