BBQ at Helen and Guys, followed by Jill Dupleix's broad bean crostini with parmesan

Now we're talking Bank Holiday scorchers - 23 degrees, bring it on!

Naturally we kick off the hottest day of the year with some extreme exercise: Ana runs over Chiswick Bridge and back at high speed with Tina for an hour, and I crank out a better-than-last-time sunny 18K around Richmond Park. In fact I'm going so well I slightly lose track of time, only to be jolted out of it by an irate call from Ana pointing out I'm currently 20 minutes late for the BBQ at Helen and Guy's.

Luckily they are super laid back people, and with the advance party holding the fort before my arrival, everybody's happy playing in the sunshine. Apart from Guy, who's busy cremating sausages that even Milo won't eat. He's pretty good at a veggie kebabs though, and does a mean marinated lamb pitta. I have three.

However the problem with great hosting - if it can be even thought of as a 'problem' - is the fact you end up getting back later than planned, slightly heat struck, tired and with limited desire to cook dinner. Or even eat anything. Well, maybe something small?

Obviously spending a zen-like 25 minutes podding broad beans slightly changes matters, and we settle for the lovely Jilly Dupleix's small-but-perfectly-formed broad bean crostini. It's the taste sensation that's sweeping South West London!

sources
broad bean crostini with parmesan - Jill Dupleix, Delicious, May 2008, p82

going out in style & spaghetti with roasted tomatoes, prawns, garlic & basil

If there's one thing I've learned through my multiple redundancies (thanks media "career"), is the value of leaving in style, but I think lunch at the Officer's Mess at St James's Palace probably tops the lot.

I would tell you about the menu but sadly I can't. Not for reasons of State secrecy you understand, but more because after several-to-many bottles of fizz and claret, some cigars and pretty much most of a decanter of Madeira later, I can't really remember what I ate. It was nice mind.

Luckily for what's left of this blog's culinary reputation, whilst I'm liberally stuffing snuff up my nose from this...

...and modeling a natty range of new headwear...

... Ana's at home cooking up delicious-looking storm.

Again, I can't tell you what it tasted like as I was asleep on eventual re-entry to the flat, but it looks amazing.

sources
linguine with roasted tomatoes, prawns, garlic and basil - Debbie Major, Delicious, Februay 2008, p24

eating for Blighty

The worst thing about coming back from holiday isn't having to return to reality, although after two weeks living it up in the Hammer with the amazing Harlocks, reality bit hard. As bad as that sounds, what's worse is coming back from the lovely Harlocks at least 400 stone overweight. In fact, after all the Timbits, brewskis and cake, Ana had to check me in as heavy luggage, and we paid excess on Milo.

Still, it was brilliant and this being ostensibly a food-blog, we'll focus on the culinary highs with a Top of the Pops-style countdown.

In at number five, it's Canada's Crazy Craft Brews

We're only just waking up to the whole craft beer movement over here in Blighty, but it's well-established over there. In fact one of the beers Dr John first introduced me to over 10 years ago, Sleeman's, is now a big boy, but still churns out a nice brew. Like all good surgeons, his medicine cabinet was well-stocked with an amazing range of craft beers as well as a veritable lake of IPA, which is the new craze sweeping the frozen north.

It was all delicious, but personal faves from the fridge were Creemore Springs UrBock, Steam Whistle, Hops & Robbers, a Pumpkin Ale (but I can't remember who made it), the brilliantly-named Dead Elephant Ale, and this bad boy:

I'm really looking forward to drinking Carlsberg and Stella again. Not.

Still hanging in there, Delia's Lime & Chicken Curry is a non-mover at four

Ahhh, it's tradition!

A surprise entry at number three, a BBQ, in minus 21C and snow
No seriously. It pretty much snowed most days whilst we were there, and the temperatures hovered around sub-freezing, so naturally John spends an hour outside barbecuing steak in the dark and sleet. I mean, obviously. It was delicious though, and I thoroughly recommend he does it again.

More Dr John at number two, with his amazing breakfast special
Turkey slices, green tomato, two sorts of eggs, and cheese in a sandwich - what is not to like? I had two...

And top of the charts for yet another year, CHICKEN WINGS!
This year featuring an amazing new Wings Up delivery boy...

Everybody loves those spicy, sweet and sour wings

Beers, wings, steak, pancakes, cakes, timbits, giant pizzas, wine, crisps, salsa, skiing, more timbits and breakfast BLTs - yet another diet is definitely starting once we've got over the jet lag.

I'll leave you with this final highlight of the holiday:

Yay Canada!

Date Night: Mango & Silk

Here's something slightly different. One of our resolutions this year was to have a monthly 'date night' where we do something that doesn't involve bickering about the washing up or discussing DIY projects.

*Obvs* we're not going go out every month but we'd thought we'd kick off by going for dinner, because we're ker-azy youths, and not middle-aged parents living in South West London.

So, having coerced lovely Lucy to babysit with the offer of non-carb-non-alcohol soup and as much wine/broadband as she could handle, we head out to the bright lights of Sheen (you can go too far in case him indoors wakes up), to discover... ...Sheen doesn't have an awful lot of restaurants really.

After dithering outside of Lofty Turtle whose menu looked great, but was packed with herds of other almost-40-somethings having their own date nights, so we ended up at the other end of the high street for a curry in Mango & Spice.

The chef comes with some pedigree, and I've heard it's part of the new wave of Indian restaurants: All sleek lines and modern interpretations. It almost nails the modern British Curry vibe, yet still manages a modicum of flock material, but the food was pretty good meal and service was really friendly.

We shared a Samosa Chaat starter, which was fruity-hot and moreish, followed by Tandoori Chicken for her and Kozhi Vartha for me, plus the usual dhal paraphenalia. I think I won the battle of the mains, particularly as my unctuous, meaty gravy was perfect for a cold night.

Portions weren't huge, and strangely neither was the menu, but the food was well presented and well-cooked. Overall, I'd say it was pretty good, and we'll be going back post Canada (woot!) if only because they do a Sunday buffet which might just be the perfect opportunity to start Milo's curry education.

Even better, there were no date night arguments and we had an ace time. 

Now, here's a picture of Lucy's soup:

sources
chickpea and tomato soup with chorizo and green chilli - Bill Granger, Delicious, February 2008 p68

bill granger's quick roast chicken with shallots and white wine, and milo's burger

Being insufferable middle-class types, we've got two anniversaries: our wedding anniversary, and the anniversary of the day we first started going out 'officially'. Today is the latter and was something that grew in significance the longer I resisted getting married, but has waned since then and particularly so since Milo came onto the scene.

However who knew what was going to happen in Quids Inn on Swansea Kingsway 17 years ago (a pound to get in, a pound a pint), so we've decided to re-celebrate our unofficial anniversary with a day of treats for us all. Obviously as soon as the pressure to 'have fun' is put on it all goes a bit pear-shaped, but low-level bickering about my driving and where to park in Richmond Park aside, it turns into a lovely day, even if all the treats were concentrated on a smallish person rather than on my lovely wife.

Still, having spent all morning pottering in the sun we all played Batman in the park, pointed at deer and ate ice creams, before repairing to our local gastro-pub, The Victoria, for Milo's dinner and several celebratory chenin blancs for us. I said we were middle-class. The pub is run by celeb chef Paul Merrett, with the wine list curated by Olly Smith, even more importantly it knows about portion control for the kids menu:

One burger the size of his head later, we take a virtually comatose Milo home to bed and whilst Ana also zonks out, a victim of white wine, I get a hearty portion of Bill Granger's quick-roast chicken on the go. Yes, that is a crust of bread soaking up the juices...

Even better, and this is probably more of sign where we are as a couple 17 years on from our hedonistic student youth, we spend our anniversary not making the beast with two backs, fuelled by champagne and passion, but snuggled on the sofa watching the last two episodes of The Bridge/Broen/Bron, stuffed with chicken and wine, and fighting for space on the foot rest. In many ways it's better.

sources
quick roast chicken with white wine and shallots - Bill Granger, Delicious March 2012, p57

a slightly drunken burger with lucyfer

Something tells me spending every waking moment panicking about wine, and then desperately trying to sleep when I'm not, hasn't endeared me to the whanau. After yesterday's post-Southbank coma, Ana's had enough and returned to the IoW for some quality Kay and Mike time. Me? I need a drink.

Luckily Miss Lucy Ferguson happens to be at a loose end and after some random wandering around South Kensington, we alight in the floral splendour that is The Hereford Arms on Gloucester Road. It's a beautiful night, and for one reason or another we're both in need of a debrief. Or a pre-brief you're Lucy.

Both of us at least pretending to have an interest in food, and surrounded by some pretty tasty restaurants, the conversation soon turned to dinner. Naturally there really was only one choice for two half-cut people, one of whom was wielding a folded-up bicycle:

Man I look like my dad (when my photo is taken in an out-of-focus manner, by a slightly drunk woman and I'm stuffing beef into my mouth in what looks a concentration camp)...

sources
burgers - Byron

Vintage at Southbank

Hmmm, if I ever wanted the definition of 'hubris', remembering this weekend's events might well become my go-to reference point. Well, Friday anyway.

Thursday night I was fairly happy with everything I'd organised, and if not exactly sleeping like a baby, I had a modicum of peace of mind. Little did I know by about 1500 on Friday I'd be close to tears, with no jugs, no glasses (I ordered too late), no staff (sent off to the warehouse to find jugs/glasses), no customers and a very angry man looming over me. I was definitely having second thoughts about this new career.

However, once the cavalry arrived in the form of the boys with the long-lost glassware, Tom and Richie P from the office, and we started selling some booze, I was a much happier bunny. I was also knackered. By the time we finished at 0100 Sunday night/Monday morning, I'd pretty much worked three 20 hour days, and all of them fuelled only by Polish sausage and Breton cider:

In the end, whilst hardly setting the financial world alight, it was a brilliant if painful introduction to the world of events. Running them is totally euphoric, you're pretty much running on adrenalin (and sausage) for the entire time, so you're either massively depressed and emotional (Friday) or amazingly high and emotional (Saturday-Sunday), before hitting a big crash on Monday.

Thanks to everybody who came down to see us: Lucyfer, Tangela, Harry, Sash & Matt, Layla, Edders, Sophie and Emma, Uncle Gerald - you all made my weekend a much happier place - and most of all to Ana who didn't see me all weekend, until Sunday when she, Milo, Kay and Mike came out for fizzy drinks.

If you're interested, and seeing as I didn't have time to take any piccies, here's the official work view of the weekend.

I'm not sure I'm looking forward to the next one.

persian-style lamb and rhubarb stew

Rain, rain, go away, come again another day! After yesterday's day out with Kendra, Brian and Finn, today it's my turn to shoulder the burden of entertaining Milo, so Ana can have some precious time to herself, having had him all week.

Feeling slightly better after a much-need lay-in, I put our usual weekend plan into action: Swimming, followed by Waitrose. There's an added twist this time however, because when we get home my mum and Jan are in the kitchen drinking coffee, as they'd come up to collect the tent. Grandparents are a fantastic Milo-distractor!

As it's only looking slightly dodgy, we take our lives into our hands and go for a walk into Barnes, ostensibly to get Milo's haircut but are soon diverted as the weather closed in. Luckily we only get soaked twice, on the way there, and coming home.

On the way we discover our chi-chi sweet shop is somewhat-unsurprisingly closing down. So we fill up with jelly teddies, storybooks, rubber snakes and candy canes before giving the walk up for a bad job and taking refuge in the newly-redone Sun Inn, where Milo has his dinner, and we have a snifter or two, accompanied by some much-needed chips.

With my mum and Jan happily tootling home, I finally get around to cooking. I was inspired by a two-for-one offer on lamb AND rhubarb in Waitrose, and having finally dug out the recipe, figured it was the least I could do. It's also quite warming and quite, quite moorish (oh-ho!). It does take two hours longer than I planned though...

On the upside, I discovered I'd forgotten to add a vital step to the recipe - the addition of the coriander - which I've now amended. Enjoy!

Food of the Milos
After yesterday's burger, and the whitebait on holiday, Milo again surprises us in the pub by having sausages and mash. The sausages aren't a surprise, you understand, but the mash was pea and potato mash, and the whole lot was swimming in thick, onion gravy, all of which he ate with only a modicum of ketchup on the side. Our money is on "Growth Spurt".

sources
persian-style lamb and rhubarb stew - somewhere in Delicious, now right here!

a taste of thailand at l'atelier des chefs, and burgers

Brilliantly, a full nine months after Kendra gave Brian and myself our combined birthday present, today we finally manage to take advantage of her plentiful cornucopia, viz a morning cooking Thai food at L'Atelier des Chefs.

Partly this has taken us so long to organise as we just haven't bothered (okay, mainly because), but the Byzantine booking system added on at least two months, and then we had to find a non-challenging meal for the B-Dog. Given his well-documented negative-love for shellfish, I was pretty surprised we ended up doing the Thai course, as a quarter of our meal consisted of mussels and fishcakes. That menu in full: Thai fishcakes and mussels in Thai green sauce, Thai Green Curry and pineapple upside-down cakes.

It was quite a good set-up. The kitchen was just big enough for the 25 people in there, the ingredients were pre-laid out (although we had to peel, chop and de-beard), and the chef was really useful and interesting. Although not an amazingly in-depth cookery course, it clearly caters for the swift-cooking of easy-yet-really-tasty-meals, I did take some things away from it:

• I feel pretty good about de-bearding and cooking mussels;
• I've got a good idea about creating an amazing Thai Green Curry paste;
• I now know never never to allow Brian to make any sort of quenelle - his OCD can't take the strain.

Here we are doing various cooking-y things:

Cooking fishcakes:

The green curry paste, pre-blitzing:

Fishcakes and Thai-Green Mussels to start anybody?

Brian and a china leaf of curry:

The quenelles that almost killed Brian:

Replete with Thai-goodness (and loaded down with saucepans, mixing bowls and celebratory aprons), we complete our birthday-thingy with a trip to Brian's new pub, The Warrington. Ignore the Ramsay bit, cos it it ain't no Ramsay pub now, but you should deffo go because inside is amay-zing. It was supposed to be a special brothel for the clergy in the Victorian era, and it really feels lush and Roccoco. I can easily imagine snuggling up next to the fire, with a hearty whiskey or a real ale.

Even better, by the time we get back the girls (and small boys) are in need of both a walk and some food. The day's deluge means the most we can expect is a brief trip to Hyde Park to convince ourselves it's cocking chucking it down, and then a swift run to the pub for a burger-based lunch.

Cooking? Pints? Brief walks? Pints? Burgers? More pints? Hurrah for us! If only it was my birthday again *sigh*. Only three months to go...

thai-style salmon, broccoli, salad and new potatoes

'Twas the night before camping, and all through the house nothing was stirring, not even a mouse. And neither was a Milo, or even a babysitter - in this case Miss Angela Hazel White - both of whom were firmly asleep when we got home from Book Club.

This week we're at Beth's (or "The Boss' Wife" as she must now be known), for a discussion of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, which was a good deal more fascinating than the inevitable three-to-four hour tiresome discussion about school, despite only rating a measly two stars.

Much more welcome is Beth's thai-style salmon, accompanied by salad, broccoli, salad, and lovely, lovely children, one of whom was speed-reading Harry Potter, one of which made us dessert (pavlova) and another of which ate the dessert.

I suppose I was more cantankerous RE school chat as I wasn't drinking, and  knowing you've got an evening of school chat between 3-4 teachers requires a minimum of three bottles of wine for any non-teachers in the group...

bad ballet, chilli faux pas and lovely kendra's lovely birthday

This post is going to be a 3-in-1 bumper edition (lucky you) mainly because we didn't cook anything for three whole days. This was only partially planned, and by not cooking anything you do have to take into account the fact I did spend several hours simmering a chilli whilst reading Biggles, but we'll come to that.

So, other than getting up at 5am to entertain her grandson, the main reason Kay had come up was because her and Ana were going to Royal Opera House to watch the ballet on Wednesday night. This meant I had to get home early to pick Milo up, however who should we see walking up the road whilst we were counting stars in the frankly-freezing early evening, but mummy and grandma. Apparently there had been an almighty cock-up with the trains (South West trains' cock-up rather than Ana and Kayosaurus'), so they missed the ballet and came home with a bag full of consolation wine and beer. My original plan had been to get Milo into bed, and then cook up the massive chilli I'd been roped into to making for the Nursery quiz night on Friday, with maybe have a smidgeon for my tea. Instead Ana belligerently ordered pizza, and I sat in the kitchen occasionally testing the chilli whilst reading the aforementioned Biggles.

Friday then was Nursery Quiz Night and I know for a fact I was looking forward to a) wiping the floor with the other parents using my amazing trivial knowledge, and b) wiping the floor with the other parents with my amazing chilli. One of the other mums in our team had also made a batch so there was a certain amount of intra-team banter about whose was best. Banter which didn't take into account the fact they'd simply tip the five or six different chilli into a big saucepan and cook the lot up together. We came joint second-to-last as well.

Finally then, lovely Kendra's lovely birthday! Having spent the day in the car on a flying visit home I was more-than ready to be royally feasted by Mr Tom Aikens in Tom's Kitchen, which looks a bit like Ollivander's Wand Shop from the outside.

Anyway, in between discussions of Argentinian barbecue techniques, a discussion of whether Little Eyolf is Ibsen's funniest play, rugby and working with Jean-Luc Picard, the delightful company of the birthday girl (closer to 40 than me), Mr Brian Bolger (a New Zealander, and therefore only to be trusted marginally), and the super couple of the acting world, Mr Alan Alan of the Alan Alan's Pearce and Mrs Caroline "And then all her clothes fell off" Martin, Ana Louise and myself were treated to the following:

• Spicy crab cakes (me)
• Baked scallops (Ana & Caro)
• Beetroot & Feta Salad (Brian, Kendra & Alan)
• Steak (Ana & Kendra)
• The world's smallest Shepherd's Pie (me)
• Seven Hour Confit of Lamb (Alan & Caro)
• Cod and Chips (Brian)

It was all amazing, and my initial misgivings about the size of the Shepherd's Pie were allayed by it's moist densosity. I couldn't have had another, although I might have given it a go.

smoked mackerel and coconut fishcakes

After last night's book club at Beth's, tonight we're at the thin end of the month. It's not pay day until Monday, but we've got three dishes planned, it's just a question which order we eat them in. Curry feels more like a Saturday night thing, and we're planning to eat en famile on Sunday, which leaves fish cakes tonight.

Unfortunately I forgot that although Anna Hansen's recipe is remarkably easy (and tasty), you do have to let the mashed potato mixture cool down before you add the fish. All of which means we don't eat until quite late.

Luckily the cakes are quite 'dense', so our hunger pangs are quite easily satisfied. I even got the eggs right this time *despite* forgetting The Hairy Biker's top poached egg tip:

To be honest, I'm not being entirely honest when I say "we" were starving by the time we ate this evening, because I wasn't. This was almost-completely because I went for lunch with co-colleague Tom Morgan at the Indian YMCA. £8 for fish curry (he had chicken), rice, poppadoms, chapati, dhal, and chana masala? No wonder he looks so happy!

Food of the Milos
Sausages big and little are out on the razz today at nursery, before heading over to Melissa's in Surbiton in the afternoon. The traveling clearly affects his diet because today he gourmandises for Blighty.
Breakfast: honey on toast. He has rice cakes, apple and a satsuma on the way back from Nursery;
Lunch (at Melissa's): Pasta with cream cheese and ham, yoghurt, rice krispies and marshmallow squares. Melissa also provided him with a picnic to eat on the way back in the car, consisting of a ham sandwich, mini jaffa cakes and some dried mango;
Dinner: Sausages, spaghetti and yoghurt.

sources
tea-smoked salmon and coconut fishcakes - Anna Hansen, Delicious, August 2010, p62

ana's birthday

The lovely Ana's birthday dawns bright and beautiful, but our plans for a day spent shopping and lunching are dust in our mouths because the boiler man coming to fix the heating at 1300...

So with limited time we offload Milo onto Julia and head into Richmond for some light shopping, however we discover a spanking deli instead. Giuliano's is next to our usual Richmond Pub of Choice, and looks a bit intimidating, but in fact the staff are really nice and everything looks brilliant. I would have quite literally had everything but made do with bolognese with cappelletti pasta, whilst Ana had basil and cheese ravioli, as well as four pannetone. These were gifts you understand.

We also had some fizz to drink with our take away back home where "hey presto!", our heating is back online. Can there be any better birthday gift?

Sadly Milo lucked out of this culinary glory, and had to make do with broccoli and macaroni cheese, not that he was complaining. Apparently the trick is to grill the cheese at the end:

With him done we head out for dinner with Kendra and Brian at the brilliant About Thyme in Victoria/Pimlico. Seriously, go there it's fab and still a secret just about, although apparently the concierge at the Manderin Oriental is now recommending it...

For the record we had:

• Fizz - lots
• Piquillo peppers stuffed with cheese, fillet steak with fries, and creme brulee (Ana and Kendra)
• Beetroot and mozzerella-stuffed courgette flowers, steak and poached pear & ice cream (me)
• Piquillo peppers, sea bass and espresso (Brian Bolger esquire)
• Red wine - lots
• White wine - a surfiet

It was marvelous. Hurrah for birthdays!

more singapore noodles

It's Johnny Osborn's 40th today - hurrah!

Sadly this means there is minimal foodie updates today. This partly because I have to dash into town to fix something at work, and by the time I get back I have to leave to catch the lads post-Twickenham. When I get to the pub it's clear all 40 years are telling on the assorted slumped figures in England attire, and not even Jon's elaborate and extravagant choice of dinner in The Thai Elephant can jerk people out of their post-rugby malaise.

Behold - volcano chicken!

I wish I had Volcano chicken rather than a less-than-impressive-compared-to-yesterdays-Singapore-noodles, and 15 bottles of fizzy lager.

book club: roast lamb and chocolate & apple crumble

Just a quick one tonight as we spent a delightful evening out at Beth's chi-chi Putney mansion for this month's Book Club. To be honest I'm a bit wary after last time's school-chat fueled disaster, so I bring a bottle of preventative Red and give Ana the car key, however tonight is a triumph!

First off everybody had read the book, Five Little Pigs, which is a first for a long time, and not only did we all like it, we could discuss it for at least half-an-hour. We even managed to get into an argument about Love in a Cold Climate. It's like Uni all over again, apart from the fact we never did this sort of thing at college, which would explain our appalling degrees.

Heavyweight literary discussion over, Beth serves up a beautiful leg of lamb with cubed roast potatoes and the biggest mini-broccoli I've ever seen, followed by a chocolate and apple crumble.

I'm stuffed and not a little drunk...

leftover butternut squash macaroni cheese

It's a beautiful day today, so naturally we spend most of it trying to extract as much of a lay-in as possible from Milo, before reluctantly getting up and heading out into the Autumnal sunshine.

Ana has to buy Jude a present for her birthday tonight so whilst she heads over to Barnes Book Shop, me and Milo go to the playground for an hour or so before rendezvousing at the Pond. It quickly becomes clear we only have a 50% success rate (like I didn't know) - Ana has got the book she wants, but Milo turns up with a massive graze on his chin, having performed some sort of no-handed-no-looking stunt on his bike. I pretend not to know what she's talking about.

He's okay, but it does take a trip to new favourite place in Barnes - The Treat Garden - for some marshmallow snakes and a giant Victorian lollipop to cement this fact in his mind.

On the way back we dodge the rain and have a late lunch in The Treehouse. As she's out tonight, Ana only has the French Onion Soup, which was surprisingly nice. As the shopping isn't coming until 9ish, I have the burger, and Milo has a veritable forest of sausages and chips. It's possibly the best burger I've had from there, and I reckon they were the best sausages he's had. H-Bone Willoughby was also having a late lunch, so maybe her star power made the Chef go the extra mile?

With Milo conked out, and Ana living it up in a Thai restaurant in Wandsworth, I make do with left-overs and a costume drama double bill - Part 3 of Pillar's of the Earth, and the rest of Sense and Sensibility for "work". No pictures I'm afraid, but I *did* drink a whole bottle of Merlot on my own, which might explain something.

shepherd's pie & venison

No, not the promised-but-yet-appear Shepherd's Pie as cooked in India care of Mr Rick Stein, but Shepherd's Pie as cooked in Wandsworth Common care of Mrs Jude Judy Judith Hawes. And yes, that's actual deer, as shot in Northampton by Mr Pat Hawes Esquire, together on the same plate, at the same time!

Yes yes, times are a-changing this weekend as the usual Saturday fandango gets realigned to accommodate the beginning of the rugby season. The most immediate and obvious change is the fact we've moved onto eating two evening meals a night now.

Kinda. Tonight we're out visiting the delightful Hawes', who's very marvellousness goes up a notch when it's revealed not only is there Shepherd's Pie, red cabbage and peas for dinner, there's also fillet of deer with boulangerie potatoes. Even better, it's not an either/or choice - and that's a situation we both embrace.

The pie was particularly delicious, rich and moist with a lovely slightly-crispy potato topping, but more surprising was the deer. Ana's never had it, and I've only had really really irony venison in a restaurant in Exeter so initially we were only being polite. However it was beautiful. Not too strong, tender and really hearty. I think by dint of fact we both had seconds of the venison, we may become converts to the Game erm game.

Obviously realising having only two main meals might leave us a bit peckish, Jude followed it up with a mango and raspberry pav, and some chocolate muffins whilst Pat had to retire to digest. Two dinners a night, I definitely recommend it.

Although thinking back, given I had three portions of pie and two venison steaks, that would make five dinners a night. Good job it's the rugby season...

drinking with daviss and pete

Russell's Week on the Sauce: Stage Two kicks in today, with a high-powered post-business meeting with Mr Davisss Taylor and Mr Peter Magnus Leary Esquires.

We discuss the current political and economic situation in France at present in trendy Carnaby Street watering hole The White Horse.

France done, we skip over to The Sun & 13 Cantons for one more. It was a bit of a risk to be honest because whilst the Horse is always 10 deep at the bar, The Sun is much smaller and much busier. It's usually rammed with awful media types wearing trainers and t-shirts and with hair and stuff, and definitely not a place to pitch up with a small suitcase on wheels. Surprisingly it's fairly empty as most people seem to be drinking on the pavement, so not only do we get a pint fairly quickly, Davisss' teeny tiny chariot doesn't cause too much damage.

I think it is a sign of how much we've matured that we head off into Soho for dinner whereas a few years ago we'd simply have got a packet of nuts and several more rounds of beer. On Magnus' recommendation we go to an Italian he knows on Dean Street. Curiously it isn't there when we arrive but there is one two minutes down the road. Maybe his internal GPS is off?

Il Siciliano is fairly atmospheric inside if the food is a bit hit and miss, and I feel exactly like Don Fabrizo in The Leopard - hurrah for Book Club. The house red is rough as boots though. Me and Leary opt for parmesan-stuffed meatballs for starters and Davisss has the bresaola salad, all of which were fairly good I think.

It goes a bit pear-shaped over the mains though. My vongole was pretty good but I think Davisss' illegal veal escalopes were dry and Magnus was left bewildered by the arrival of his bolognese in a bowl with a crispy, cheesy top.

We finish the evening in Dennis Nilsen's favourite pub, The Golden Lion, for a quick pint to remove the taste of rough house red.

As there's no photo-record of this great event I feel there's space to stick something else up. Luckily I've got a new obsession, thanks to Radio 7, Armstrong & Miller's fake Norwegian band Strijka from their pre-BBC days when they were good. Here's Tjildsen, which I pretty much listened to 1 billion times today, and then annoyed Lucy Ferguson with. Please, don't applause now

drinking with anil and pete

Whilst ana and milo are entertaining brenda's and benny jack and eating tomato tart, it's the beginning of Russell's Week on the Sauce: Stage One - Anil & Pete in the hat & stick on Great Titchfield Street, before having a fairly good curry in Shikara opposite.

Can't remember what I had, I think it was a chicken rogan, but of more interest was what I had for lunch earlier. I'm bored of buying sandwiches from M&S/Pret/Whatever, and summer isn't as good as winter/autumn for left-over lunches, so currently lunches are a bit meh!

However I have discovered a number of exciting new possibilities now we've moved offices, and the first one to catch my eye (advertised as "brilliant at curing hangovers and colds" outside) is a Vietnamese street food restaurant called Pho. I had the chicken noodle soup to take away and it. was. amazing! Really fresh and zingy, and massive portions.

I deffo recommend it if you're ever out in town.

the white lion, walkern & mediterranean salad

More visiting today. This time we're going to the country to visit Jacqui and Tristan who used to rent our flat in Dyer's Lane before we moved into it, and whom we bumped into in New World Wellington about five years later. They very kindly put us up and and then let us steal all their NZ friends once they'd returned to Blighty, so they're clearly top people even if they are foreign.

We haven't seen them since our wedding, but diligent Facebooking on Ana's behalf drew us back into their orbit and I for one am very pleased, particularly as they have a beautiful dog retriever-cross called Tui.

Like the troopers they are, the pair of them take us to a picturesque country pub called The White Lion, with a massive(ish) kids playground at the end of the garden. The food and service is pretty good - I think we all have burgers apart from Jacqui who had retro-70s gammon, egg and chips, complete with pineapple ring, and Milo who had sausages. Half of which ended up being donated to Tui, or "Fella" as Milo insisted on calling her because he confused her with Sophie's lab.

It's a lovely day but I find when you're visiting people, you do spend most of the journey home piecing together the half-conversations you've had, because you miss half of everything that's said as one of you has to be swinging or sliding or running around rather than relaxing with friends you haven't seen for ages.

We're going to do it again so maybe I'll pick up the bits I missed next time?

By the time we get home three hours later (thanks M25), we're both knackered and starving. Hustling a very well-behaved monkey into bed, I've only got enough energy to knock together a quick Ana favourite for dinner: mediterranean salad, this time with caper berries. She's only mildly challenged.



Then it's to bed to read a chapter of The Leopard, before getting a semi-early night ready for tomorrow's DRIVING TEST - ARRRRRRRRGH!

Food of the Milos
We're a bit all over the shop this weekend but today is pretty good *if* snack and chip heavy: Boiled egg and fruit bread for breakfast, snacks in the car up to Letchworth, sausage and chips for lunch, snacks stuck on the M25 (mainly marmite rice cakes) and then a smorgasbord of cheese, avocado, raisins, cherry tomatoes and cherries for dinner.

sources
mediterranean halloumi salad - Delicious, June 2010, p24