Invited over to Darryl and Jayne’s for a bit of Scouse spicy scram and a few bottles of wine, Darryl was not surprised to see me turn up with a couple of bottles of Riesling.
Our mutual mate, Tony, calls Riesling sugary shite but that is unsurprising from a man whose wine sophistication is measured by the fact that he thinks Beaujolais should be served at 25 degrees centigrade.
Multi-talented Morgan Meunier arrived at our table after the meal, presumably looking for a round of applause for his culinary artistry. “Was everything OK?” he wondered. Super. “Was there anything specific we particularly liked?”. The seabass with crayfish and tarragon ravioli and lobster velouté was my favourite, but why were all his dishes so bloody complicated?
Fortnum and Mason is my secret preferred meeting place in London because its 1707 basement wine bar is discreet, well located, and staffed by knowledgeable people who serve wine in the correct Riedel glasses.
Another weekend in London and another opportunity to knock off a “trophy” restaurant – this one from the effing Gordon Ramsay stable. If you swear by food as much as I do, then you start to appreciate that London is really the place in the UK to do fine dining. There simply isn’t the demand for it in Manchester, for example. Not one Michelin star in the city! Sure, there are plenty of good eateries, but the overall experience is just better in London, and surprisingly, not always that much more expensive.
“Armstrong and Miller in Gay Threesome Shocker” read the headline, admittedly only in my head, as the comedy pair walked past us with an unknown accomplice, perhaps a BBC commissioning editor?
“I didn’t know they were gay” Fred said. “They aren’t” I replied, “so far as I know anyway”, although judging by their choice of fruity shirts one cannot be 100% certain.
We had a decent table near the magnificent bay window atop the ageing Whiteley’s Shopping Centre. The stars were enveloped by the bay. The atmosphere is light and airy and the service prompt, efficient, courteous and professional. Our mop-topped waiter looked like an early 60’s Beatle, so I assumed he was French (as a nation they do like old music – I mean, walk around any public space in France and Phil Collins persists like a 1980’s itch that is weeping puss). When he described the cheese I realised his French accent was completely fake “erm….. I is Polish” he admitted. Nonetheless, serve he did, and he was knowledgeable about wine as well as food.
I am quietly pleased that I have finally managed to get this weblog onto a new platform, a new ISP and new publishing software. I am still using the excellent Wordpress, but have upgraded to version 2.5.1. My previous version (2.1) was error prone and insecure – spam was starting to appear in my scheduled posts! I strongly recommend anyone using Wordpress to upgrade.
The new Wordpress platform is pretty good, but it is much less intuitive than I expected. Loading and managing pictures for example, is in theory much easier, but in practice I think there are still a few bugs that need ironing out. I can also see that many of the new improvements have been aimed at non-technical users like me. However, as with all open source software, it is ultimately designed by techies who don’t quite understand how us Muggles think.
As with all software upgrades in my experience, the problems arise in the database conversion. This is something to watch out for if you are moving up several Wordpress versions in one go, like I did. I had numerous problems that a friend with some SQL knowledge kindly sorted, in exchange for a couple of bottles from my inner cellar.
To celebrate my new platform I am drinking an unoaked Chardonnay from Virgin Wines. Pensilva Estate The Cross 2006 Coonawarra Chardonnay is not what I expected. Does it hit the bulls eye or should it merely be hung out on a crucifix to die?
I’ve been sent to Coventry. Not in the metaphorical, but literal sense. On business to be precise. I have a 9:0am meeting in the morning with Barclays Bank and to travel down to get there reliably from Leeds would require me to rise and shine at 5:0am. No self-respecting wino does that.
The marvels of modern technology mean that my laptop simply connects via a 3G card to the internet, and using something called “VPN” (nothing to do with panty lines, no) I can work as if in the office, from anywhere in the world, although at 10% of the speed. All of this means that instead of finishing work at about 7pm, I am still at it at 9:30. Fortunately, La Cucina is still open on a Monday night and most of the remaining customers are Italian, which is encouraging.
After my review of Sam’s Chop House raised a bit of a storm about people’s privacy, I was reticent about reviewing the sibling, Mr Thomas’s. After waiting for about 243 minutes behind a twitcher’s tent, I finally found a moment when the coast was clear and grabbed a quick snap (below). If only the atmosphere inside was as interesting….
If the Wolseley is the best restaurant in London, then what about the provinces? Leeds, for example, has a proud tradition of brewing beer, staffing call centres, building the world’s first Dalek shaped skyscraper, and breeding people who say “eeh bah gum!”. So surely not a place for fine dining then?
I found Palacio de Monsalud at the Sunday Times Wine Club.
It is inexpensive (£7.42 per bottle) and I think it arrived in one of those bin end cases that always looks great value but invariably disappoints on balance. The smell on opening was prunes. A heavy thick set wine that reminded me of Port, despite only 13% alcohol. Some spice in the form of French mustard may have been false interest introduced only by the smear of Dijon mustard on my pork sandwich.
At first I assumed the wine was spoiled but as it developed I think it just tastes crap as a matter of course.
I suppose, not surprisingly for a wine that smells of Port, it went better with cheese than anything else.
But I thought that Spanish wines were supposed to be great wines at great value to us Brits. There was nothing here to inspire me to write anything interesting or informative….sorry.
Stumble It!
