I was at a Halloween party dressed as a Dungeons and Dragons character. The food was unbelievably good, and the photo shows only a small part of it. There were many different cheeses, plus many Halloween cakes. I thought the spooky meringues looked cute – crisp outside, soft and chewy inside. And the pumpkin cake was gorgeous. The pumpkin biscuits were spicy, and the plate of black and white chocolate pieces was very tempting….
I wanted to use up the surplus mushrooms before they turned, so decided to sauté them for lunch. I rough chopped them, including the stalks, added garlic, and cooked them lightly in a mixture of olive oil and butter. I turned the heat off and let them stand just for a minute with the lid on to keep them hot, while I split and buttered a wholemeal roll. On went the mushrooms, pepper, and finally some chopped flat leaf parsley. The mushroom juices soaked into the roll making it a really tasty lunch. I ate some fruit to follow.
I returned from Scotland to Cambridge and picked out La Margherita on Magdalene Street. I wanted something warm and filling, so I chose cannelloni con ricotta, rolls of pasta filled with spinach and ricotta cheese, and baked with a béchamel and cheese sauce. It was completely delicious, and I drank the house Sicilian red alongside. It was a perfect match.
I didn’t come back empty handed from Scotland. I brought back a box of Walker’s Scottish biscuit assortment for others to enjoy. It contains five varieties. There is regular chocolate chip, Belgian chocolate chunk, chocolate chunk and hazelnut, oat and cranberry, and white chocolate and raspberry biscuits. They are baked at Aberlour in Speyside (also home to some good whisky) and are variants of their famous butter shortbread. My preference is for oat and cranberry, largely because I really like the taste of oatmeal.
Marls and Spencer are offering a range of £10 “Dine in” meals for two. The deal is that you pick a main course, a side dish and a dessert, all from a range of several options. You similarly pick a bottle of wine from several choices, and the whole lot costs just £10. It is very good value indeed.
I tried it out, choosing 28-day matured beef roulade as a main course. It has a Spanish style minced beef, pork, chorizo and smoked paprika filling, and comes with a bag of sherry vinegar sauce. For the side dish I picked garlic mushrooms with a soft cheese and breadcrumb topping.
As a dessert I chose morello frangipane slices which I served with crème fraiche, the only thing I added to the meal. The wine I selected was their own M&S Cotes du Rhone, a quite acceptable, indeed agreeable, wine. Preparation took no trouble at all. Everything simply had to be heated in the oven for the time specified. A good meal for two with drink, and all for a tenner. Remarkable.
I woke up in Rusacks Hotel to see the 18th green of the St Andrews Old Course outside my window, and behind it the Royal and Ancient clubhouse. I had quite a light breakfast of poached eggs on toast.
They were delivered hot and soft to my table, which is quite difficult to do. Before that I had a bowl of porage, as I do when at home, though with honey in place of my usual maple syrup.
After my meeting at the International Politics Association of the University of St Andrews, the committee took me for dinner to the Nahm-Jim, a restaurant in Market Steet which serves both Thai and Japanese food. In 2010 it was a finalist in the Gordon Ramsay restaurant of the year competition. We shared a plate of dumplings to start with (excellent), and then I went on to eat their Scottish scallops, Thai-style – pan fried in garlic, oyster & miso sauce and served with a spicy seafood dip. These were quite brilliant, with a touch of spicy heat, but not enough to overpower their flavour.
The puddings ordered by two of the group looked pretty good. There was sliced mango with coconut rice, beautifully presented.
And there was the mixed berry fruit-topped cheesecake accompanied by a scoop of ice-cream. Both were first class, we were told.
I travelled up to St Andrews on the East Coast line. It took 5 hours and 23 minutes, and there was in-seat catering during the journey. We received tea, coffee, sandwiches, and a choice, if we wished, of a warm quiche with salad. It was not bad, with cheese and peppers and quite good pastry. It helped that we could also have wine, and all of this was included in the ticket price. Now I used to like taking lunch in the restaurant car, which no longer exists. But to be honest, the new service is better….
I picked up the habit of asking for a pizza to be served sliced when I order it. It makes them easier to eat or to share. This was La Reine pizza at Pizza Express, featuring prosciutto cotto ham, mushrooms, olives, and onions as well as mozzarella and tomato. It’s a good combination of tastes, and I looked up the nutritional information now published on it.
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Calories 722; fat 21.6; carbs; 90g; protein37.2g; sodium 0mg
The estimated percentage of calories from fat is 27.6%; from carbs 51.2%; from protein 21.2%
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These are quite reasonable figures, given that it’s a pizza, and there’s no saturated fat or salt.
Awana is a Malaysian restaurant in Chelsea. I went there for my birthday the other day. I started with a spicy (as hell, in a delicious way) soup which contained unusual clusters of mini fungi (pictured). The soup really was lovely. I followed it with a noodle dish.
Lovely flavours, can’t fault it. The wine was good too and the price was very reasonable (using a toptable discount).
However, the service was a bit off and when I asked the reception desk if I could have some soap (the lavatory had run out) the man behind it said ‘has it been stolen again? Why do you guys keep stealing the soap?’. Now… I know what he meant, clearly ‘you guys’ are the customers, and we’re all the same, and we’re all thieves… it struck a slightly discordant note which added to the wine waitress saying as she took our order ‘just a bottle of wine then?’ Yes… Just a bottle… thats where I usually start for a dinner for two!