Another Food Blog

I couldn’t be bothered to get out the wok, so I cooked it all on the stove top. Big, bite-size chunks of chicken were sizzled first, then in went three colours of fresh pepper, a big mushroom cut up, and red onion. I let all this simmer with the lid on for a few more minutes, then added two teaspoons of black bean sauce. That was it: no more spices or flavouring, not even black pepper. It looked and tasted delicious as I ate it with chopsticks made by prisoners on Vietnam’s Con Son prison island. With it I drank a Sainsbury’s New Zealand 2006 sauvignon blanc – very stylish.

It’s that magic time of year when undergraduates parade through the streets in their finery to the Senate House, and leave as graduates. There’s quite some ritual to it. You have to be touching the praelector’s finger as he is touched by the Vice-Chancellor; the educational spirit apparently flows through him into the young graduands.

The graduands have a big celebratory multi-course dinner in college on the eve of graduation, and the ones unlucky enough to have early graduations next day, often do so with big hangovers. The new graduates and their parents have champagne and sandwiches on the Senate House lawn, and some can sit down to lunch or tea. I was fitting in meals between going off to photograph graduating friends, but the food was within the spirit of the occasion, featuring soft rolls spread with mayonnaise and filled with fresh poached salmon and cucumber slices, sprinkled with black pepper and lemon juice. This was followed by fresh raspberries and fromage frais, and accompanied by Pimms No 1, which I always fortify with a measure of gin as well, and adorn with lime and cucumber slices.

Le Deuxième in London’s Covent Garden district is one of three French-style restaurants under the same ownership. First was the Café du Jardin, and more recently came The Forge, but the second in the chain was, unsurprisingly perhaps, called Le Deuxième. I went there for a basically business lunch. It’s light, clean and airy, with an unobtrusive décor. My shrimp tempura starter was excellent, largely because of the sweet Thai dressing which came alongside to dip it in. Similarly my pan-fried veal fillet with a slab of mozzarella cheese was delicious. It came with rosti potatoes, elegantly shaped into a rissole, and red pepper chutney, which seemed to be chunks of soft, sweet red pepper. I couldn’t fault the food, nor indeed the wine, a New Zealand Mansion House Bay Marlborough sauvignon blanc. I don’t know whether or not it’s good value because someone else was paying; but that was a really good lunch.

There was a launch party in London for my new children’s science fiction books, Children of the Night and Dark Visitor. Guests enjoyed Casillero del Diablo Chilean pinot noir from Casablanca Valley, Dona Dominga, a Chilean chardonnay/semillon blend, and an assortment of English ales with names like Tanglefoot, Old Speckled Hen, Spitfire, and Hobgoblin among others. The food included a selection of sandwiches and fruit, and some jam doughnuts (which are probably called ‘jelly donuts’ in the US). In my brief speech I pointed out that on that same day 44 years previously, President John F Kennedy had stood up in Berlin and declared himself to be a jam doughnut. He’d intended to say “I am a Berliner,” but by adding the ‘ein’ he’d actually said “Ich bin ein Berliner,” which means “I am a jam doughnut.” In honour of that occasion there was a tray of jam doughnuts laid out, and guests happily tucked into them.

On the same day 210 years previously, I pointed out, Charles Newbold had patented the cast-iron plough. Although it was initially rejected by farmers, who thought that the iron might poison the soil, it eventually caught on. Naturally I said I hoped for a similar cast-iron success for my new books….

I was there with a children’s editor to talk about my forthcoming book, The Waters of Andros. I ate an amazingly light but satisfying meal, starting with the croustade of quail’s eggs with hollandaise sauce, and going on to the fish of the day, sea bream. Both dishes were extraordinarily tasty, but relatively insubstantial. My fellow diner started with a crayfish, avocado and bacon salad, which looked big enough for a main course, and went on to the lobster omelet, which proved too big to finish. Both were declared excellent, though, especially with the pickled cucumber. Of Nobu, Ivy and Wolseley, the Wolseley was declared winner on combination of food and ambience. I’m not so sure, but it’s close.

It’s actually on the corner of Denbigh Street and Warwick Way in Pimlico. It’s had various makeovers, and I don’t go there often, maybe every ten years, because it seems too expensive for what it offers. I had the calamari fritti (deep fried squid rings), which were nice enough, but pretty ordinary. Then came pan-fried monkfish with clams (very good), shitake mushrooms (nice), and leeks. My companion ate “Tuscan bean salad” (shown in photo) of aubergine caviar, red peper pesto, stracchino cheese and garlic croutons (hard garlic bread). Weirdly, it all came in separate little dishes. This was followed by asparagus risotto with basil essence, declared “not bad.” The wine was a Borgo Thaulero Montepulciano rosé at 12 percent, which was the best part of the evening. The wines were too expensive, and the dishes cost about 50 percent more than they should have done. If this place cost two-thirds of what it does, I might go more often. As it is, I’ll report back in a decade.