lathany

To celebrate my 55th birthday (tomorrow), Dom and I went to Wildflowers for the first time. It was established by some of the former staff of Trinity, which is a favourite for us. Food and drink were awesome.

Menu:
Wildflowers focaccia
Cantabrian anchovy toast ‘la flor del Toranzo’
Moules farcies garlic & parsley butter
Stacciatella with shaved artichoke, lemon, pecorino & speck
Carabinero prawn & cuttlefish paella, blood orange allioli
Sugar pit Iberico pork chop, almond, mojo verde & loquat
A caramel stack dessert (didn't catch the name)

Drinks:
Rhubarb Spritz
Corn Silk Old Fashioned
Chateau Trians Rosé, Coteaux Varois en Provence, 2023 Provence, France

As ever a meal at Trinity at the start of the Autumn.

I started with a cocktail (Italian liqueur and prosecco). We were served little biscuits. Then a pre-starter.

Our wine was Pinot Noir, ‘Crimson’, Ata Rangi, Martinborough 2020 and excellent.

My choices:
Blue Belly Prawns, Smoked Almond, Grape and Cucumber
Cep and Potato Dumpling, Aged Parmesan - perhaps my favourite course
Roast English Duck, Beetroot Barigoule, Black Figs
And a cheese course: Seasonal cheeses, baguette and honey
Trinity Chocolate Tart, Roasted Vanilla Ice Cream

I also had a sweet wine with the last two courses (Tokaji Aszú 5 Puttonyos, Disznókő, Hungary 2013) and a coffee.

Current Mood: cheerful

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.

Current Mood: full

It was my team Xmas do today.

A rather good pub meal and mini golf.

Current Mood: sleepy

Last night, we braved the awful bus replacement service into London and went to Trinity for a very belated anniverary celebration (in the replacement bus service's defence, the home leg was good).

We had cocktails, five courses with white wine and then port / tokaji. There were the usual pre-dinner starters and warm bread rolls as well. My ones were:

Trinity Cocktail

First course: Cornish Mackerel, Cucumber Gazpacho, Labneh and Lovage
Second course: 'Hubert' Tomatoes from Provence, Cornish Crab, Lavendar
Third course: Chateaubriand of Lake District Beef 'Chasseur' (ie. lots of tiny mushrooms)
Wine: Semillon, 'Watervale', Mount Horrocks, Clare Valley 2020

Fourth course: Cheeses, quince, bagette rolls.
Fifth course: Clapham Honey Souffle, Beeswax Ice Cream
Tokaji Aszú 5 Puttonyos, Disznókő, Hungary 2013

The mackerel was little pieces in Gazpacho which I mopped up with the bread roll. The crab was the centre of the dish and very crisp, surrounded by tomatoes. The beef had a large tomato stuffed with lots of tiny mushrooms (and ran a close second for favourite). I don't have a list of the cheeses, but they gave us five including roquefort, another blue, a goats cheese and two milder ones. The souffle had the ice cream put in the middle of it and tasted very eggy. The cocktail itself was, I think, gin with two different floral vermouths. My favourite course was the crab, but it was all very good.

Current Mood: sleepy

Dom and I went to Elle & Fee's for lunch.

I had Eggs Benedict and a cocktail, he had a veggie burger and a diet coke. Both were excellent.

Current Mood: full

Yesterday was an important day - I drove up to Nottingham and back to collect Bea. This means that birthday dinner will be tonight.

However, Dom had arranged for a awesome cake which we started on yesterday.

Current Mood: sleepy

Friday evening we went to Annie's Burger Shack and had amazing burgers. Saturday we were a bit hampered by the lack of trams (all day fault) but made up for it by walking everywhere.

Saturday afternoon we visited Warhammer World. For the evening we went to Pizza Express for nostalgia reasons, where they impressed us with the speed and friendliness of the service, despite being very full. And, best of all, I got to spend time with Bea.

Current Mood: sleepy

We decided to treat ourselves to Hot Chocolate.

Discovering that Costa haven't got to their caramel versions yet, we went to Chai.

Current Mood: okay

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.

Current Mood: sick

I said we'd go out for breakfast. So we went early to avoid the heat. We avoided the worst, but it was still pretty hot.

Nice sausage roll and cappuccino though.

Current Mood: hot

Last week, well the three days I was working, was unexpectedly hectic. Mostly because the majority of my team were away so I picked up tasks that wouldn't usually fall to me. So it was a relief to get to the Jubilee weekend.

It's been quiet, relaxing and very welcome. Bea and I did excellent milkshakes on Thursday and then rather less good ones with Dom and Ryan on Saturday (same place, but different server and I think she was rather new and less good at adding enough flavouring). There have been various walks and a lot of bunting seen.

I've finally finished Kentucky Route Zero just over a year after I started playing it. It's only about ten hours of gameplay, but it's very intense (a separate post about that to come). I've also played a fair bit of Monster Hunter World (dual blades) and generally lazed around. Peaceful times.

Current Mood: peaceful

We went to the local pub.

I ignored the calories and had a good evening.

Current Mood: sleepy

I hadn't expected to make more than the meal on Friday which was our team Xmas lunch/afternoon. I had to go to an important meeting in the afternoon. Except... it was cancelled. So, feeling like an escaped toddler about to be recalled, I headed out.

The meal was the Xmas menu at the Nags Head in Covent Garden. Chosen in part because it had vegan options for each of the three courses. I had the brie, the turkey and the tiramisu. All very good. And I could drink as I wasn't going back to the office.

We then headed off to our Escape Rooms. Mine, for copyright reasons, was called "Blackwing's cave" and was superhero themed. Also, we started off in darkness. It was pretty good and I really enjoyed being there. After that I headed home as I was exhausted from an otherwise horrendous week.

Current Mood: sleepy

We've spent the weekend in Bristol - which could arguably rival Milton Keynes for its roundabouts. It was a lovely weekend and we did pretty well with the weather. Each day started with heavy rain, but it disappeared quickly.

Thursday we drove down in the afternoon and met Emma for a late afternoon walk. In the evening Dom, Ryan and I had dinner at a nearby pub - The Golden Heart.

Friday was Wales - Ceiswyn gave us lunch which Icarus begged for. We travelled to see a nearby castle in the afternoon. Friday evening was dinner at the Willy Wicket on Wick Wick roundabout.

Saturday we ended up in south Bristol to see Bernie, Lisa and Max. Also to see a lot of up and down. We had lunch at their local pub and an afternoon walk through the nearby cemetary grounds.

This morning we came home - detouring briefly onto the M3 when some of the M4 was shut.

Current Mood: sleepy

I meant to post this much earlier in the week, but on the second anniversary of our afternoon tea in London... we did afternoon tea in Windsor at the Sir Christopher Wren.

It was rather awesome.

Current Mood: sleepy

Last Tuesday evening we went to Cottons.

Pork smoked three ways followed by Jamaican Bun Bread Tiramisu. Along with three different run-and-diet-cokes (Appleton 12 Yrs (Jamaica), Nine Leaves 2015 (Japan) and Havana 7 yrs (Cuba). The middle one was my favourite.

Current Mood: sleepy

I've been cooking roughly once a week for a while. Because Dom is the main cook, I tend to do what I feel like and have something of a tendency to cook comfort food. Tonights was Shepherd's Pie. Earlier this month I made apple crumble and (jointly with Bea) stuffed peppers. Next week maybe I'll do Jambalaya, I have an easy receipe for it.

Current Mood: okay

Yesterday's window was a trio of geese.

Today Bea and I went to Costa. There I was able to confirm that the Spiced Cappuccino is indeed very tasty. (Bea had the Gingerbread and Cream Hot Chocolate.)

Current Mood: thoughtful

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.

Current Mood: cheerful

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lathany

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Entries tagged with food

Wildflowers

Trinity - 32 years together

Gymkhana

CPA Xmas

Trinity

Elle & Fee's

Birthday

The rest of the weekend

(no subject)

Xmas

Breakfast

Jubilee Weekend

Evening out with Ryan

Xmas afternoon

Bristol

Afternoon Tea

Cottons

Food

Geese / Cappuccino

Marwell Zoo