Sorry it's been a while

I really haven’t been writing this very often, despite reminders in my calendar.

I have excuses, of course: whether they are valid or not depends on your perspective, but they’ve certainly slowed the process and had an impact on my eating.

A couple of weeks ago, I had to have a tooth extracted. These things happen and my dentist thought that it would be better extracted than reconstructed. I have a lot of respect for him, but this is evidence that things don’t always go they way they’re planned. The extraction was complicated because I take an anticoagulant, which means that there’s a possibility that I could bleed significantly from this sort of procedure. Obviously, it’s a known issue and there is a dentistry protocol to deal with it (packing the cavity, suturing, etc.) Well all this was done, but the bleeding wouldn’t stop! It wasn’t life-threatening or anything like that, but it was unpleasant and I spent the day going back and forth to the dentist trying different things. Eventually, he gave up and sent me to the maxillofacial surgeons at the local general hospital. By the time I saw them (I had to wait an hour, not bad, really) the bleeding had stopped and, fortunately, didn’t recur.

However, I woke the next day with a swollen face, again, not unusual after an extraction, but it worsened and in a couple of days I looked like a cartoon character – all I needed was the handkerchief tied around my head! Eventually, I had to go to an emergency dentist who diagnosed an infection (what a surprise!) and prescribed an antibiotic, that eventually cleared it up. It did delay the rest of my dental treatment though and it’s taken a while to get over it.

Anyway, back in the land of the living and eating, so just a brief summary of recent food events:

Went to The Church in the Jewellery Quarter of Birmingham. It claims to serve proper southern soul food. The premises are an old inner-city pub with limited eating facilities. Frankly, I didn’t rate the food very highly, though my main of shrimps and grits was pretty good. Others in the group had jambalaya (bland) and fried chicken (greasy). I wouldn’t go again and thing that the Times food critic had a very different experience.

Went to Buonissimo (our favourite neighbourhood Italian). Consistently good food and excellent service. Tuna carpaccio with seafood salad (lots of squid and octopus!) was truly delectable. Highly recommended.

Went to the Karczma – Birmingham’s Polish restaurant. Again, a very good meal (though we ate far too much). The traditional herring and sour cream starter was splendid, but it was eclipsed by the roasted pig’s knuckle that was rich, flavoursome and enormous! Thoroughly enjoyed this night out. Recommended.

Looking forward to Thursday this week when we’re visiting the Two Cats Kitchen, a new place (Jewellery Quarter again) that claims to serve ‘New Baltic’ food and is currently Trip Advisor’s No. 2 restaurant for Birmingham. I’ll let you know …