Sat
27-Jan-2007

kebabs in woking

I left work last night, Kings Cross was shut with emergency lights flashing excitedly, rush hour people thronging the streets. I started walking to Euston, bumped into Jordan and Andi on the way, ended up walking down to Russell Square by which the time the tube had recovered somewhat. Down to Waterloo, where I took the train with Matt, Lopa and Delia out to the suburban wilds of Woking, to their new house.

Russell and Delia have acquired a new kitchen gadget, a mini kebab maker, like one of those things doner kebabs rotate on. Russell cooked a lovely giant kebab of lamb and beef, with chopped onion and garlic, which he then scraped off so we could eat it with pitta. Afterwards, we played this Playstation game involving loads of hectic one-minute long Japanese games called things like "Bong the Monkey" or "Number the Fish"...

Tue
23-Jan-2007

mushroom risotto with hitler

Matt and I popped round to Abbie and Jim's last night for a marvellous risotto cooked by Jim, all mushroomy and sprinkled with parmesan.

We talked of this and that as we sipped wintery pink cava, and came on to the topic of right wing racist nutcases. I think we started with Jade Goody and ended up on YouTube watching Abbie trying to find videos of Hitler. There's quite a few with Hitler set to music of one kind or another. We particularly liked this rather stylish one.

Thanks for the dinner, guys!

Sat
20-Jan-2007

huong-viet

Me and Matt joined Michal, Rosie, Olla and Woody for a rare sighting of the Wellesley at a wonderful Vietnamese restaurant near Essex Road called Huong-Viet last night. It's in a kind of run-down Vietnamese community centre, and is crowded, loud, cheap and jolly. We had a great time, and got food all over the table! Rosie and Olla were both on good form, and seem to be looking at buying a flat. Come to Kentish Town, both of you!

Michal came back to our place with us - we watched Big Brother and argued whether Shilpa was more insincere or Jade more stupid and vicious.

Then this morning, Matt showed Michal how to use Excel while I made a chicken pie, a really nice homely Italian recipe from our Silver Spoon cook book.

Sun
14-Jan-2007

morocco decision lunch

Lots of us went round to Andy and Jo's today to enjoy a fabulous roast lunch, and also to try and come to a decision on our group holiday plan. Kate chaired the meeting and took minutes... and I think we may have managed it!

Sat
13-Jan-2007

vegetarian mousaka in the north west

Last night, Matt and I headed over to Tom and Emma's place, Kate was there too, and we all had a rather splendid vegetarian mousaka based around puy lentils. Later we played the Book Game, and sampled the works of JG Ballard, Jane Austen and William Burroughs, amongst others, and got delightfully drunk.

Tue
09-Jan-2007

the rambling smith and the butternut squash risotto

Jamie was on his way back from the Balkans over the last few days, stopping for a few job interviews in London before heading on to Wales. He came round to the flat last night, along with Kal, Andy and Jo, and I cooked a roasted butternut risotto, something vegetarian friends have fed me before but I haven't tried before. Lovely and garlicky and sweet.

We spent a lot of the evening resurrecting plans for our long awaited holiday to Morocco, exploring various overland options, hoping for some crazily cheap option we had overlooked to materialise (it didn't!). At one point, I almost bid on a £1,500 bus. Andy is fairly convinced that we should all buy a bus and then travel down in that, a big bus "so we can pick up chicks"...

Sun
26-Nov-2006

dinner at kal's

Al, Jim, Andy and I went north to Kal's house after the game of Executive Decision, finding Steve up there with him. We all sat about drinking and being merry, slagging off Robin Hood and Canada, and enjoying some lovely curry Kal had cooked. Matt came by later and we walked home around midnight...

Sun
08-Oct-2006

tito's

Matt up with Steve C, down in London for the weekend, and Jenny last night at London Bridge. We were going to see Foxes play, but they had transport problems and had pulled out, so instead we found a comfy Peruvian restaurant called Tito's and had red wine and various tasty, generous dishes like fried plantain and casava, or potato and meat cakes in creole sauce. Jon T joined us a bit later, and then we all went to two nearby pubs with other friends of Steve and Jenny's, finishing the night off with a pint of Kriek (pudding beer!) and catching all the last trains home.

Sat
07-Oct-2006

sunday dinner with matt's family

Lots of Matt's family came up to London today – parents, sister and brother-in-law, niece and nephew. We cooked them roast belly pork, and made mashed potatoes with my new toy, the potato ricer. This is quite an absurd implement – basically a huge garlic press – which turns potatoes into little tendrils of mash. We also had a classic pudding to match the increasingly cold weather – syrup sponge, with loads of cream...

Tue
01-Aug-2006

dinner at mostyn lodge

Andy and Jo cooked us a lovely meal at their flat at Mostyn Lodge this evening. We hadn't been to their flat before - it's very cool. Their area of Highbury, and particularly their road, is full of quirky houses and flats, mostly all mid-twentieth century modern builds, but with weird castle turrets, or slightly over the top suburban detail, and every house in a row looking very different. Mostyn Lodge itself is a glorious seventies vision, particularly inside their flat, with its brown and yellow futon living room and modern purple kitchen with high breakfast table.

We ate smoked trout on bruschetta and beef with creamed parsnips and a puy lentil and spinach accompaniment. It's so nice when other people cook lovely food for you!

Wed
14-Jun-2006

moroccan dinner

Over to Belitha Villas with Al, Steve, Kal and Andy. Jim and Abbie had prepared a Moroccan themed dinner to help us plan for our group holiday to Morocco, so we tucked into delicious salad and baked couscous pie thing as we debated over which routes to take, trains, planes and boats. Let's hope we actually make it there!

Mon
05-Jun-2006

dinner with kat and jordan

Yesterday it was another sunny, hot day. Mother London is spoiling us! I spent an hour at Parliament Hill lido with Al, before heading all the way down to the wilds of Ealing to Kat and Jordan's house. Jordan cooked a lovely butternut risotto, with gloriously large amounts of garlic! We drank and chatted, and watched Spaced and Hedwig, and Jordan and Kat put on some entertaining domestic arguments for my benefit!

Late last night, Matt and Phil arrived back in London after their ten day holiday in Barcelona and Sitges.

Sat
27-May-2006

friday night at la porchetta

Went out to La Porchetta with Michal, Ema, Agata, Kornelia, Paul and Alex last night. We all stuffed ourselves on pizza, then Al headed off to Wenlock Arms, while me, Michal, Paul and Kornalia had a drink under the lofty ceilings of Metropolitan Bar at Baker Street and had an enjoyable chat about jobs, play and what really makes you satisfied in life. We persuaded Paul and Kornelia to come back to Michal's to join Agata for a bedtime spliff, and finally me and Michal stayed up till the early hours taking coke and chatting about London...

However (today) spent lounging round their flat has to be some of the worst May weather I have ever seen! We drew the curtains and put the lights on so no one would be tempted to commit suicide...

Sun
30-Oct-2005

british sausage week dinner

On Saturday night, Aly, Richie, Helen, Andy and Bill came round to dinner. It was British Sausage Week, so Matt had a chance to try out the new sausage maker I'd given him for his birthday. He made Roman chicken sausages, and pork sausages with lots of herbs from the roof terrace. They were all delicious, and we ate them with mashed parsnip and potato, and a cider gravy. We also all got quite pissed and played an extremely loud and hilarious game of Articulate. Aly and Richie had brought their dog, Poppy, so Mouse spent most of the evening cowering elegantly under the bed, though she came out for a bit when we went to bed, looking suspiciously at Poppy before heading back under again.

Sat
15-Oct-2005

beef and knitting

Rachel and Chas arrived last night to stay on the sofa bed for the weekend. They are here in London for the Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace, where we have a UK Alpaca yarn stand.

I cooked a roast beef dinner for their arrival, and we all got rather pissed!

Tue
20-Sep-2005

archipelago

After working on the MPH corporate accountability conference during the day, I had a couple of drinks with Al in the Museum Tavern on Great Russell Street, before meeting up with Matt for my birthday meal out.

He took me to a restaurant we'd been meaning to try for some time - the weird and rather enchanting Archipelago on Whitfield Street in Fitzrovia. This is an expensive, but amazing place to visit. The decor is quite unique. There's a pile of pebbles underfoot as you enter, which throws you off guard, and then you find yourself in a dark, exotic room cluttered with random ethnic, plastic, ancient, modern things, from Buddhas to bead voodoo dolls, to bird cages and African masks. It's probably what you'd get if the Pitt Rivers Museum became a restaurant - a culinary curiosity cabinet, or perhaps a gastronomic wunderkammern.

The menu is a scroll tucked into a little treasure chest on the table, and is filled with dishes as bizarre and interesting as the decor. I had the 'Jamaican mountain chicken', which was in fact battered frog's legs cooked in a Thai style with cashew nuts and callaloo (spinach-like leaf) and lavender rice. Matt had wildebeest (gnu) with lobster tail. For pudding we shunned the chocolate coated scorpion, and Matt had 'African sunset' - granadilla bavarois topped with 24 crt real gold and champagne glaze! - and I had honey ice cream with an amazing white chocolate lattice and a honey-soaked bee on it. I couldn't quite bring myself to eat the bee, alas, but the ice cream and white chocolate almost made me weep with pleasure.

The lady who served us was very helpful, answering all our menu questions and generally being non-invasive but also on hand when we needed her. It was fantastic, as it should be at the high prices it commands. Well worth a visit.

Thu
19-May-2005

beltane video viewing in ealing broadway

Last night Matt and I went round to Paul and Kornelia's place to bring back her bowls she had left in Devon at the weekend and to watch their handheld video from the Beltane party. All the Poles were gathered there, and the food was warming and thoroughly Eastern European. Kornelia made a great fuss, since she claimed we hadn't actually visited for three years, and it was all lovely. The video was good - it conveyed the fun of the country dancing at Beltane very well and there were a few very amusing mini-interviews with various party people.

Tue
26-Apr-2005

kate's birthday

Matt and I joined Andy, Kal, Mary, Jim, Kate, Steve and Abbie at Belitha to celebrate Kate's birthday. Abbie cooked a marvellous roasted vegetable pasta wonder dish and we all chatted and laughed like the carefree children of London that we are...

Fri
28-Jan-2005

dinner at juicy's flat

We saw Juicy's brand new flat last night, out in Acton. It's very trendy, with stripped wooden everything, a classy living room filled with design classics, 200 GB MP3 collection (all of it house music, mind you!), beautiful modern fabulous kitchen and a bed made out of some kind of hyper modern material that moulds itself around your body! He fed us champagne, and delicious little Chinese dumplings, and then a super pak choi saucy rice setup. We enjoyed ourselves very much.

Wed
26-Jan-2005

anna & glyn

We had Anna and Glyn round to dinner at our flat. We drank lots of red wine and ate a very simple meal of baked potatoes. Big fat potatoes and copious amounts of red wine do go rather well together though, it has to be said. We had made pudding though - banana cake or scones and cream. It was marvellous, and Mouse was very well behaved!