Saturday 11th

Mrs Jiffler is visiting following her recent month in East Africa. We decide to check out the ‘Live Bait’ seafood place off Albert Square (well the Market Restaurant was full…). I’ve been itching to try one of their seafood platters for a while, so we order a large pile of crunchy sweet sea monsters.

The Madagascan crevettes are buttery and fragrant but are beaten hands down by sweet atlantic and tiger prawns. The meat in the Whitby crab is a bit scarce, and our waiter makes some excuses, the fun is in cracking open the claws though, and sucking out the delicious contents. Clams, mussels, more prawns and some whelks make up the rest of the platter, and I’m grateful to Mrs Jiffler who lets me take on most of the whelks. Three oysters each, gulped down expertly with shallot vinegar and green Tabasco (I wonder where I can get this, does Tesco in town have it?). Should have ordered a dozen come to think about it.

Mrs Jiffler orders crème brulee for desert (she is unable to refuse crème brulee) which passes the intial ‘satisfying crunch’ test and is apparently ‘as good as the one we had in Lille’ which, if I remember correctly, was described at the time as being ‘the best crème brulee ever’. The French like to credit themselves as the inventors of the Crème Brulee, while others believe it has Spanish roots. Few realise that the dish is believed to originate in 16th Century England...