Wednesday 11th January
Working at home all day today so nipping out for lunch and some food shopping seems like a good idea to get away from the PC.
A sandwich from the ‘Quality Sandwich Shop’ downstairs makes up for this week’s earlier M&S disappointment. One day I’ll finally comprehend the peculiar rule of economics that means a small sandwich shop in an expensive location off Piccadilly can sell me a lovely fresh sandwich, made in front of me to my specifications using quality bread and ingredients, and still charge 45p less than M&S…
Dinner has to be something that takes the minimum of effort to make while I’m working, but will give me maximum distraction and satisfaction while I’m eating. The butcher is selling a massive box of chicken wings for £2.50 so I go for some of those. At the fruit and veg stall the box of Lollo Rosso looks cheerful, and dense looking fennel bulbs are cheap, so I buy both and spend the rest of my lunchbreak wondering what to do with them.
I decide to roast a dozen or so chicken wings for tea. This involves getting my hands dirty rubbing the wings with olive oil and the juice of a lemon. I arrange them in a roasting tin with most of the fennel sliced up and tucked in between the poultry pieces.
While this is in the oven I dress a salad of leftover tomatoes, yellow pepper, fennel bits, and the lollo rosso with EV Olive Oil and white wine vinegar and munch in the lounge with my flatmate. We discuss Iran’s nuclear capability, and how the old Simpson’s cartoons look a bit primitive these days. After an hour or so the chicken is ready and the fennel is blackening satisfyingly. I eat the lot out of a bowl with sticky fingers.
Thursday 12th January
Submitting work and having a couple of jars… well more of an almighty bender with friends means that food is pretty much for fuel purposes only today… pizza and wine with a couple of friends is the highlight.
Friday 13th January
A serious hangover. Luckily there is a giant pear left in the fruitbowl and this helps provide enough sugar to get me to the train station to catch the Pendolino down to London.
A friend of mine from work is moving on to a new job so we’re off out celebrating. Dinner is at Oscar’s Italian Restaurant / Pizzeria in Kings Langley. This is probably my favourite casual eatery in Hertfordshire, and the ‘Oscar’s famous pizza’ is up to scratch. I always seem to come over with a graving for gorgonzola and artichokes in this restaurant, and this pizza comes with both.
Saturday 14th January
A lazy morning leads to a stroll down Upper Street in Islington in search of lunch. Ken Hom’s restaurant ‘The Yellow River’ is celebrating its eighth birthday. Apparently 8 is a lucky number according to Chinese custom so they’re knocking out two courses for eight quid. This is enough to convince us…
The restaurant is a mix of oriental styles, so we order Jasmine tea and mix and match Cantonese with Thai. My variation on Tom Yam Gai soup is a revelation. Hot enough to clear the most stubborn hangover, with a unexpected blast of tomato flavour it’s easily the best thing that I’ve eaten since this year. The Cantonese Sweet and Sour Chicken (I wanted to see how Ken Hom likes it) was good too. Definitely on a par with Sweet Mandarin in Manchester.
My fortune cookie tells me that I am ‘Radiating Ideas’. I’m certainly inspired by the Tom Yam Gai and I’ll be in Chinatown next week rummaging through Kim’s Thai Supermarket…
We pick up some meaty salmon steaks from a cracking fishmongers on Essex road and head home via the Hen and Chickens pub near Highbury Corner. They look after their beer there and I have a beautifully kept pint of Deuchar’s IPA.
For tea, I throw the salmon steaks in the oven with a bit of lemon and serve them whole with baked mushrooms and ripe goat’s cheese (apparently from a goat called Ethel). The fish was expensive, but the meat flakes up gently under the fork and tastes clean and rich. I contemplate using the shiny skins and strong bones to make up some fishy stock, but its not my kitchen, and not everyone will tolerate a fishy scent wafting up the stairs. We share a ripe and fragrant mango for desert and I pick the skin clean with my teeth. I’m worried about the stringy bits of mango that are still stuck there…
Working at home all day today so nipping out for lunch and some food shopping seems like a good idea to get away from the PC.
A sandwich from the ‘Quality Sandwich Shop’ downstairs makes up for this week’s earlier M&S disappointment. One day I’ll finally comprehend the peculiar rule of economics that means a small sandwich shop in an expensive location off Piccadilly can sell me a lovely fresh sandwich, made in front of me to my specifications using quality bread and ingredients, and still charge 45p less than M&S…
Dinner has to be something that takes the minimum of effort to make while I’m working, but will give me maximum distraction and satisfaction while I’m eating. The butcher is selling a massive box of chicken wings for £2.50 so I go for some of those. At the fruit and veg stall the box of Lollo Rosso looks cheerful, and dense looking fennel bulbs are cheap, so I buy both and spend the rest of my lunchbreak wondering what to do with them.
I decide to roast a dozen or so chicken wings for tea. This involves getting my hands dirty rubbing the wings with olive oil and the juice of a lemon. I arrange them in a roasting tin with most of the fennel sliced up and tucked in between the poultry pieces.
While this is in the oven I dress a salad of leftover tomatoes, yellow pepper, fennel bits, and the lollo rosso with EV Olive Oil and white wine vinegar and munch in the lounge with my flatmate. We discuss Iran’s nuclear capability, and how the old Simpson’s cartoons look a bit primitive these days. After an hour or so the chicken is ready and the fennel is blackening satisfyingly. I eat the lot out of a bowl with sticky fingers.
Thursday 12th January
Submitting work and having a couple of jars… well more of an almighty bender with friends means that food is pretty much for fuel purposes only today… pizza and wine with a couple of friends is the highlight.
Friday 13th January
A serious hangover. Luckily there is a giant pear left in the fruitbowl and this helps provide enough sugar to get me to the train station to catch the Pendolino down to London.
A friend of mine from work is moving on to a new job so we’re off out celebrating. Dinner is at Oscar’s Italian Restaurant / Pizzeria in Kings Langley. This is probably my favourite casual eatery in Hertfordshire, and the ‘Oscar’s famous pizza’ is up to scratch. I always seem to come over with a graving for gorgonzola and artichokes in this restaurant, and this pizza comes with both.
Saturday 14th January
A lazy morning leads to a stroll down Upper Street in Islington in search of lunch. Ken Hom’s restaurant ‘The Yellow River’ is celebrating its eighth birthday. Apparently 8 is a lucky number according to Chinese custom so they’re knocking out two courses for eight quid. This is enough to convince us…
The restaurant is a mix of oriental styles, so we order Jasmine tea and mix and match Cantonese with Thai. My variation on Tom Yam Gai soup is a revelation. Hot enough to clear the most stubborn hangover, with a unexpected blast of tomato flavour it’s easily the best thing that I’ve eaten since this year. The Cantonese Sweet and Sour Chicken (I wanted to see how Ken Hom likes it) was good too. Definitely on a par with Sweet Mandarin in Manchester.
My fortune cookie tells me that I am ‘Radiating Ideas’. I’m certainly inspired by the Tom Yam Gai and I’ll be in Chinatown next week rummaging through Kim’s Thai Supermarket…
We pick up some meaty salmon steaks from a cracking fishmongers on Essex road and head home via the Hen and Chickens pub near Highbury Corner. They look after their beer there and I have a beautifully kept pint of Deuchar’s IPA.
For tea, I throw the salmon steaks in the oven with a bit of lemon and serve them whole with baked mushrooms and ripe goat’s cheese (apparently from a goat called Ethel). The fish was expensive, but the meat flakes up gently under the fork and tastes clean and rich. I contemplate using the shiny skins and strong bones to make up some fishy stock, but its not my kitchen, and not everyone will tolerate a fishy scent wafting up the stairs. We share a ripe and fragrant mango for desert and I pick the skin clean with my teeth. I’m worried about the stringy bits of mango that are still stuck there…
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