Protected: GM’s Birthday Part 2!

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Birthday Celebration at Lindsay House

Last Friday was GM’s birthday :)

One brilliant thing about celebrating a birthday in April is that it coincides with London Restaurant Week so I booked lunch for him and I at Richard Corrigan’s at Lindsay House, my treat of course :)

We’d seen a bit of Richard Corrigan’s cooking on telly and had always wanted to eat at his establishment so it was with much anticipation that we traipsed off to Soho bright and early for our half 12 booking.

We got to the location which was in a quiet bog-standard, slightly run-down Soho street and by the looks of it we were starting to get a bit dubious as to whether a chef of Richard Corrigan’s calibre would based his restaurant there. However, we walked on down, after all run-down or not, anywhere in Soho is a prime piece of real estate; I know I’d give an arm and a leg to have a pad there.

And there it was! Very understated.

However, once we crossed the threshold it became apparent that Lindsay House wasn’t quite a restaurant along the standard of Pizza Express but was one that took its business very seriously. We rang the doorbell and was greeted by the sort of waiting staff that can only be found in fine eating establishments; friendly but yet very very polite and exuding an air of quiet confidence. So far so good! (Although by this time GM and I were feeling that we might have been a bit underdressed as we were expecting it to be more along the lines of an upmarket Cafe Rouge and were wearing our most casual outfits having gotten up slightly late and just flung any old thing on. Oops.)

After taking our coats, the waiter ushered us into the ground floor dining room and gave us a corner table near the window which was nice. I like a bit of natural light. As we were there for an early sitting the dining room was empty except for a couple of tables. It did fill up quickly after 1pm so it was nice that we got there earlier to enjoy a bit of quiet dining time to ourselves.

We had a limited menu to choose from but considering the price (2 courses for £15, 3 courses for £25) it was a bargain because limited choices or not, we knew we would be getting some fine food.

Especially since after our orders were taken, we were surprised with an amuse-bouche of celeriac soup and a ballotine of pork (I think)! An amuse-bouche with a £15 menu, tell me that’s not a bargain. You won’t find that at Bella Pasta!

The soup was especially delicious, very highly seasoned and creamy.

We were offered bread and GM had a white roll whilst I opted for a slice of soda bread. And I have to say that the soda bread was to die for. It was nutty, slightly chewy, full of texture and sweet and salty at the same time. It was the best thing I ate that afternoon. But that could be because I’m a big bread lover.

I chose the ballotine of ham knuckle, pea beignet and gribiche dressing for my starter.

I really liked the pea beignet. “Beignet” is French for doughnut and essentially what I had was a ball of mashed up peas covered in batter and fried. I think it worked very well with the slightly bland ham knuckle and gave it a bit of a fresh twist, as did the gribiche sauce. Gribiche sauce is apparently a sauce traditionally made of chopped capers, cornichons, parsley, shallots, hard-boiled egg, olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper. Whatever it’s made of, it certainly livened up my ham knuckle.

GM opted for the sardines on toast with soft-boiled hen egg and harissa (hot red sauce). He enjoyed it immensely and from what little I had of it, it was very good. We both concurred that it was better than my ham knuckle which we both found a little bit boring, but that could be because we don’t normally eat a lot of sardines but we do eat a huge amount of ham. Haha.

We both had the wild rabbit stuffed with mustard fruits and warm potato salad for main. It came with a little pot of mashed potato for us to share. The mashed potato was good, creamy but not overly smooth. My portion of rabbit was a bit too pink in the middle for my liking and I swapped it with GM who then gave me all his mustard fruit stuffing because he’s not keen on fruits in his savoury dishes.

The portions might not have looked very filling but looks can be deceiving as we were so full after our two courses that we decided to skip dessert and have tea instead. We were given some complimentary truffles which was a nice touch.

And that was the end of GM’s birthday lunch!

Whilst Richard Corrigan’s food wasn’t the most exciting, it was the sort of good solid fare anyone would enjoy on any given day, but done to a very high standard and with enough touches to ensure that it wasn’t bog-standard boring.

We really enjoyed our lunch and we would go back anytime for some great food and comfortable ambience, even if there wasn’t a killer deal on offer.

We walked off lunch by indulging in a bit of weekday window shopping in Regent Street and Oxford Circus, after which we came home and had the birthday cupcakes that I made GM! :)

Oh Happy Day :)

I don’t have many talents. And the little I have are all minor talents, such as being able to pick out spelling mistakes at a glance, typing very fast and an unerring ability to fancy the most expensive item in a shop (which is incidentally more of a curse than a talent, but still).

However, in amongst my list of frivolous talents is my skill at gift buying. If I know you even slightly I will know what appeals to you and regardless of my own taste I will be able to choose an item that you will love. For real. That’s why I’m designated Gift Buyer in the office. I once picked out a leaving present for a co-worker whom I detested and felt as far removed from as if she was from Uranus (haha) and I was from Venus (the feeling was mutual) and she loved it! Until she found out who chose it I’m sure, hahaha.

With that little story, I now cunningly segue into the main point of this post. Which is: it’s Jo’s birthday! :)

Happy Birthday Jo!!! :)

May this year be a wonderful and funfilled one for you, and may your school and personal life be smooth sailing and trouble free :)

I have bought a present :) The first time I saw it, I thought of Jo and I think it’s something she will really like at this moment in time.

And here it is………………. ta-dahh!!!

It’s a set of 3 printed block canvases to decorate her room with :)

They are 25cm X 25cm so they might be too big to send in the post all at once. We’ll see. In any case, Jo has said that she doesn’t mind receiving them the next time I meet her face-to-face :)

Okay Jo, I hope you like them! :) (Even if you don’t, try to pretend you do in the comments and only tell me the truth in email so that all that stuff I said up there about gift buying being one of my little talents isn’t completely invalidated please! Hahaha! XD)

A Perfect Sunday Brunch

The past weekend was quite a busy one. I say “weekend” but I really mean Friday and Saturday nights. And I say “busy” but it was more along the lines of going out, sitting/standing round with friends and drinking a bit.

So due to the excessive (or not, depending on what your individual alcohol tolerance level is) drinking, by the time I got up on Sunday I was feeling slightly under the weather and had a funny taste in my mouth. True to form though, I wasn’t put off my food and was actually hungry. I was craving something savoury for my tastebuds to wake them up from their drunken stupor but on the other hand wanted something that would also soothe my throat a little, bearing in mind that I’d ill-advisedly had a weeny bit of a kebab the night before which not only gave me a tummyache but also a bad throat.

Following my tastebuds’ instructions, I made century egg and lean meat porridge accompanied by fried noodles.

I hadn’t had century egg for nearly six months because as I said in my previous post, I often forget what foods are available to me and can go without a certain food for quite a while until it’s brought to my attention again. I’ve always loved century eggs though, so I really enjoyed that porridge and it might well be my newest addiction now and I will have to make myself cook it again soon!

Do I Have Egg On my Teeth? :B

A couple of days ago, GM and I had a very yummy brunch.

First off I have to say that I’m not a very good cook. I really admire people who can throw things together and whip up cool dishes willy nilly because I have to be told what to cook, or follow a recipe. At best I can throw together a stir-fry with leftover ingredients but that’s about it.

I also always forget dishes that I’ve made before! What I need is a database of previously made dishes for me to refer to everytime I’m stuck on what to make and need a reminder. Maybe something in the form of an Excel spreadsheet which I can pull up for ideas. How technical.

Anyway that morning I looked in my fridge and we had nothing :S How sad. But we had four eggs! So I was thinking “Boiled eggs?” because that’s just how much (or little really) imagination I have, absolutely no creativity at all. Whereupon I actually remembered there was such a thing as an egg sandwich :D Yay!

You might be thinking that an egg sandwich isn’t very creative at all, and you’d be right. But that just goes to show how blank my mind is when it comes to thinking of different ways to prepare my food. Now I truly understand why Ah Ma used to ask us “What do you want to eat tomorrow??” for hints on what to cook for the next day’s meals!

So back to my eggs. I made scrambled eggs on toast which were done to perfection even if I say so myself; very fluffy, very creamy and very delicious, but perhaps not that good for the waistline. Well, you win some, you lose some! We enjoyed them tremendously, and I haven’t looked in the mirror since so I have no evidence as to my waistline expanding. Which is good news because “seeing is believing” and if I haven’t seen anything, I can’t believe right?? X]