Tidbits

THE BOYS ARE ON THE WAGON

THE GIRLS ARE ON THE SHELF

THEIR COMMON PROBLEM IS

...THAT THEY'RE NOT SOMEONE ELSE

THE DIRT BLOWS OUT

THE DUST BLOWS IN

YOU CAN'T KEEP IT NEAT

IT'S A FULLY FURNISHED DUSTBIN

...SIXTEEN BEASLEY STREET

Festival Hall has the cleaners in - great view from Baylis Terrace

The Shed at The National

Was an interesting week last week, only just catching up. Started Friday night with tickets for The Shed to see Mission Drift, a fabulous musical about money and America - great performances, brilliant music. The Shed itself is a big red box with 'legs' sticking up, for all the world like a giants' table knocked over in a gust of wind. I'd been curious about it but also decidedly uncertain as it appears to be a small windowless box whenever I catch sight of it from Waterloo Bridge on my way home on the 59 bus. Not a fan of enclosed spaces, me. Then I read an interesting piece about the architecture that piqued my curiosity and soon after an email offered cut price tickets - had to be a sign. I was completely bowled over by it once I got inside, it has the extraordinary sense of being ten times as big inside as it appears to be on the outside, and wonderful with it.

In the Shed

The show started at 7 so we joined a few others at the tables dotted about on the Baylis Terrace for homemade ham sandwiches and a glass of wine from the bar. It was cold but not freezing - there was actual late afternoon sunshine - and is probably the most summer like thing we've done this year...

 Late Sunday afternoon treat of slow roast pork with salads - I persist in the notion that it's summer! Great meal before going out and plenty for lunches in the week.

Sunday night we had tickets for the Palladium, a thrill in itself, to see a comedy evening headlined by John Cooper Clarke, a wordsmith I have loved for decades. I first saw him in Sydney about 30 years ago, playing the Trade Union Club in Surrey Hills, he was just stood on the floor with the crowd around him, spouting the most extraordinary poetry at a million words a second. He was beyond stick thin - I swear my wrists were thicker than his thighs, dressed in a black suit with a white shirt, and an enormous head of spiked black hair. Impenetrably dark ray bans completed the look. I was completely blown away by his brilliance, his use of language was like nothing I had ever heard, a great spume of nasty and bitter and funny in a totally foreign accent. I left the club that night giddy with the thrill of it.

I've seen him a few times since, often as I get the chance, initially convinced he'd be dead in no time from the out of control drug habit.

But somehow that didn't come to pass, instead he cleaned up, having starred in an ad for Sugar Puffs with the honey monster a few years before that happened - a notion that is as bizarre as it sounds.

Been there...

He's gained all kinds of recognition over time, as students who loved his every word went on to be teachers, with enough influence to get his poetry into schools, even Twat made it on to the curriculum for GCSE. Mr Gove, it's for you.

Tidbits

I know it's spring because we had the first strawberry smoothies for breakfast on the weekend, and they were pink glasses of frothy fabulousness.

The defining food for the week though was this wonderful top rib roast that I cooked Sunday. Well I say cooked, but in many ways I simply warmed it up. I was taken with the idea of slow cooking it, John at Ginger Pig had said low and slow was best. When I googled for it the first thing that came up was Heston and his suggestion to cook it in the oven for 4-6 hours. At 65C. And I couldn't resist! Actually I was out for the afternoon so I left the man in charge of the thermometer with instructions to take the meat out when it got to a core temperature around 55C.

He kept a neat list of where it was at....

 

We wapped it out at 6.30, then sealed it all over in a really hot pan, then left it to rest for an hour. It was wonderful, richly flavoured, really juicy and tender. Made a perfect Sunday dinner.

Lots left over though, so as well as lunches thought I'd get a bit creative for dinners.

 I figured it would make a brilliant thai style beef salad so marinated slices and chopped up lots of  crisp and crunchy things and tossed the lot together for a very pretty bowl of food 

Still had plenty left - it had been over 2kg when I bought it - no I don't know why I decided to buy so much!

thought it would make for a fine curry - it did, with cucumber raita and coriander chutney

And the rest of the curry is in the freezer for a fabulously quick dinner one night soon  

We had two lunches out this week, came down to one to love and one to avoid.

 This pretty bowl of veg was part of a disappointing tapas collection at Boqueria on Acre Lane, which was a shame, had been looking forward to it, made a (totally unnecessary as it turned out) reservation and everything. It was so empty when we arrived the man thought it was shut. This was okay, but underseasoned and very thin on flavour. It was part of a menu that was a special advertised as being the food of the Roca brothers. Ha!

If the veg had too little flavour this puckered pea puree had way too much and all of it horrible, it tasted the way bad fish shops smell. Guessing the Roca brothers don't serve anything like this, either.

Saturday we took a walk to Victoria, a place that is pretty much a wasteland for decent food to try a new place I'd read about. A Wong. They make individual dim sum and I love that you can order them one at a time. For some reason there is a horse, akimbo, outside. 

A tiny bowl of Chengdu street style tofu, gloriously silky 

We did share an order of mu shoo pork pancakes 

Everything else was single serves - we have to go back so we can both eat our way through the entire menu. And also go in the evening for the tasting menu, it also sounds brilliant.

Love A Wong big time!