Thursday - Monday

I seem to be writing catch-ups again. I’m not going to apologise for this; life’s complicated and busy.

We were promised ‘mild’ weather this week – another error by the forecasters. It’s been grey and misty and cold ...

In terms of food, it’s been a varied few days:

Thursday

I went out to eat with a ex-student. An excellent evening of food and conversation. Got to ride in her black Mercedes convertible, which was an interesting experience (also interesting to be in a car that does fewer miles to the gallon than mine!). Wouldn’t be a vehicle I’d choose though (and the fact that the trip computer insisted that we were travelling at 14 mph while stationary in the car-park was cause for some concern: if that bit isn’t working, what about important things like ABS?).

We ate at the Dilshad in Selly Oak (Bournbrook, really) which I contend is still the best ‘Indian’ (Bangladeshi) place nearby.

We ate:

Special Biriyani. Naan

Friday

Indian delivery! (Ali had wanted Indian food and this was a way of achieving it).

We ate:

Special Biriyani (there’s a theme here, I think)

Badshai chicken (tandoori chicken, minced lamb, egg)

Naan

(all from the local Indian takeaway)

Actually, it wasn’t great L - sauces were too spicy. The naan was nice, though.

Saturday

Shopping for food. I had the start of a cold, so we didn’t do very much, as we were saving ourselves for the evening.

We went to the Liaison Restaurant’s ‘pop-up’ at a garden centre next to Birmingham airport (fun to see planes coming over at about 200 feet!). This is the penultimate pop-up because the garden centre has been sold for redevelopment (Pretty sure I mentioned this in an earlier post).

We ate:

Wild mushroom  velouté (amuse)

Minestrone with ham hock tortellini, pecorino & parsley crisps x2

Braised ox-cheek pudding, rump steak, smoked potato gratin, Gentleman’s Relish butter x2

Gin & tonic pannacotta, angostura syrup, lime chocolate crisps (Bob)

Pear & vanilla tart, Baileys sabayon, toasted walnuts (Ali)

It was a really nicely cooked meal with some good flavours. We thought that the main course pudding needed a more substantial crust, but the flavours were excellent. Not sure about putting a ‘crisp’ in soup – it wasn’t very crisp, really. The desserts were interesting: the gin & tonic thing was splendid, but quite astringent. The tart was pleasant, but unexceptional.

Sunday

Cold is developing nicely by now, so again we didn’t do much.

We ate:

Kidneys Turbigo (look on Google if you want a recipe, possible origin of the dish is that fine chap, Napoleon who seems to have eaten dishes named after his battles, Turbigo is in Lombardy).

Monday

Cold now very well-developed. Ali’s got it, too (I think it originated with her mother). Visits to GP and new pills to try!

We ate:

Seafood linguine (Prawns, squid, mussels in an onion, garlic & cream sauce with basil and parsley).