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Apparently he checks Google blogs for reviews of his shows so here’s mine….
ADORABLE! I laughed the whole way through, especially at the random quadratic equation formula joke. I swear I did exactly the same thing at school – wrote the formula for deriving dy/dx on my thigh and then popped to the toilet when I needed to use it, forever after imprinting on my brain.
I don’t really go to comedy gigs much – in fact I basically only ever see Daniel Kitson – so it was nice to see someone different. He didn’t have any hecklers – perhaps the Soho Theatre is too polite an audience – but he’s not at all antagonistic in the way that Kitson is so it’s doubtful he ever would.
Today I discovered a place of rare beauty – Princi. A Milan import apparently, and run by Alan Yau of Busaba, Wagamama, Yauatcha and Hakkasan fame….(and more recently Sake No Hana and Cha Cha Moon – neither of which seem particularly good). I had three chocolate chip cookies for a pound and then a slice of cinnamon, walnut and chocolate chip cake. I wanted to try more but I was feeling a bit sick. Later on I popped back for a slice of courgette pizza but I couldn’t even eat half. Pathetic! I need to go back with more people so I can try EVERYTHING! Maybe around 20. I don’t even need to know them – as long as they let me share their cakes and pizzas. Anyway, it’s on Wardour Street – close-ish to Oxford St. – nearest tube is Tottenham Court Road. It’s hard to miss – at least even I in my normal dreamlike state wandering from record shop to record shop was stopped dead in my tracks by the sight of a glistening golden brioche sitting plumply on the counter looking out at me.
From a chocolate fondant at Gails Bakery. I thought I was going to pass out. It was the most intense chocolate experience of my life. I couldn’t feel my hands and I had to sing to myself to stop myself from freaking out. This will teach me to have a cake that weighs the same as a small brick just before bedtime.
I’ve also noticed that whenever I do have to sing to myself to calm down (see August 2007, Big Chill, post-monstrous green pill episode) it is always the song Buffalo Soldier by Bob Marley. Unfortunately I only know one line from it and then the oy, yoy, yoy, yoy, yoy…bit so it gets a bit repetitive but it does do the trick in these sort of circumstances.
I read the Metro on the way to Brent Cross to take my mind off the fact that I was going there – the vacuum that sucks away my soul and leaves my bones and brain aching. Actually it wasn’t that bad: there was a small stall that sold organic crystallized ginger, which is possibly my favourite snack food, so I bought a bag and it kept me happy for the duration, even as I queued behind an old woman who smelled like wee and kept asking me questions in John Lewis. Anyway, back to the horoscope: “For the third day running, the Moon is in your opposite sign of Aries, and the frustration of not being able to do much is beginning to show, even for famously laid-back Libra.” I was quite stunned as 1. I don’t believe in horoscopes and 2. It fit my last few days exactly. I was just thinking this morning that reading a lot is only fun if you have to make time to read rather than having the luxury of being able to read all the time. This morning I woke up, read some of Richard Russo’s Empire Falls, got bored, picked up Herzog by Saul Bellow, got bored again, and then tried to read a John Cheever short story. The same thing happened. I shouldn’t complain as I start work on Monday and this is probably my last guilt-free day off for…well, probably forever actually.
The last few hours have been spent experimenting with homemade hummous. I bought chickpeas, tahini, lemon juice and nice olive oil and have spent a long, messy time transferring the mixture from bowl to bowl to try and get the creamy texture you get in restaurant and shop-bought hummouses. (I now think there may not be a plural for hummous). FAIL. It’s not possible. Unless perhaps I spent another three hours taking each spoonful of hummous seperately and trying to smush it further. Or I added the entire bottle of olive oil. Anyway, it tastes good, it just has a lot more texture than the one I usually buy. Hopefully people will eat it and it won’t sit there forlornley and lonely like a sad little pot of hummous that no-one loves.
miso-glazed salmon with asian broccoli salad and brown rice
for the miso-glazed salmon:
two tablespoons of white miso (I found this in Chinatown)
two tablespoons of mirin (I found this in that most exotic of locations – Tesco)
two tablespoons of brown sugar
two tablespoons of soy sauce (I use Kikkoman)
stir it all up until it’s in paste form and then spread over two fillets of salmon
cover and put in the fridge for a couple of hours or overnight to marinade
then bake on 170/180 for 25 minutes or less depending on how you like your salmon cooked. I think I did it for 20.
I served it with brown rice dressed lightly with toasted sesame oil and an asian broccoli salad made as follows:
Dressing – two tablespoons of soy sauce, two tablespoons of japanese rice vinegar, two tablespoons of toasted sesame oil, two tablespoons of brown sugar
pour this over steamed broccoli or any other green vegetables.
A really delicious, healthy and simple dinner.
Is pathetic.
The episode I watched for about five minutes last night included a recipe for cooked smoked salmon which went something along the lines of:
1. Buy a packet of cooked smoked salmon
2. Open it
3. Put it in a dish
4. Eat
Apparently she also pimps out frozen mashed potato. FROZEN MASHED POTATO! That’s really quite foul. Just buy some potatoes, boil them, mash with butter, milk, salt and pepper and you’re done.
Delia, I think you can do better. No gold stars for you.
Damn this is a good album. I bought this by mistake a while ago and haven’t listened to it seriously yet.
*Puts on serious music-listening face*
It’s a electro-techno-folky hybrid with some very good tunes indeed. The type of tunes that get stuck in your head all day and you have to listen to over and over again.
It also has words. This pleases me because I very rarely like music with words (apart from hip-hop) and for some reason it makes me feel more connected to the rest of the human race who generally seem to prefer music with lyrical content.
They are good words too. I particularly like the line in “Give Me More” – “I awake in the middle of days, After dreaming about plays, I’ll never make, That’s okay, There’s a big hole in my life.”
I can relate to this as virtually my entire life is spent in a day-dream apart from the rare occasions I am concentrating on something or someone. I’m always thinking about books, plays, films, comedy series, music – anything I can make. Of course I never actually do it because I day-dream all the time but one day I will I’m sure of it.
Tonight I went for sushi to Cafe Japan. Had the sashimi bento which was enormous – they cut the sashimi pieces way too big. Each slice was approximately half a fish. It made me feel a bit sick. It’s good value but they could show a bit more finesse with the slicing. I can’t help thinking that some Jewish people must have complained about the normal Japanese delicate portion sizes and they’ve turned them into slabs to please the natives. Had a lovely evening chatting away to my friends though so I’m not complaining.
1. Nasu Dengaku at Asa Kusa/Bento Cafe in Camden – I love this custardy, sweet, aubergine dish and could eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner quite happily
2. Chirashi sushi at Ten Ten Tei – Brewer Street, Soho – loads of raw fish on top of warm, slightly sweet rice. Yum.
3. All the soups at EAT and their soda bread – this is pretty much what I eat every day for lunch.
4. Maze, Gordon Ramsey – Went here for my birthday – the peanut butter and jam dessert was SO delicious.
5. Apoorva in Fort, Mumbai – we feasted on loads of different breads, curries and dhal and it was all gorgeous, especially the dosas.
6. Steamed fish and rice, with fresh salad on the Trikora Beach, Bintan, Indonesia. Perfect.
7. The Singaporean feast at the President’s residence in Singapore.
8. Massive, giant prawns at KaDeWe Berlin.
9. The Mango and Coconut smoothie I had at the Boqueria, Barcelona
10. Poffertjes in Amsterdam – tiny, hot pancakes covered in butter and powdered sugar.
11. My grandma’s marron glace ice-cream. She’s the best ice-cream maker in the world.
12. Nutella cupcakes prepared by myself.
I promised to make some cakes and biscuits for Pesach a while ago and today I was scrambling around looking for the easiest recipe possible so I could go out and enjoy the sunshine.
I came up with this: the world’s easiest, tastiest and quickest cookies.
Simply mix 250g smooth peanut butter (I used Tesco’s organic creamy peanut butter) with 250g of caster sugar (I might try brown sugar next time). Mix until smooth. Then add one teaspoon of baking power and one egg. Mix it all together well.
Get a large plate and pour a generous amount of sugar onto it. Then take a little ball of the dough, roll it in the sugar and press it into a small cookie shape. This should make around 20 cookies. Put them all on a baking tray lined with grease-proof paper and then cook in the oven on 180c/350f for 10-15 minutes. I did it for 15 but you could try a little less.
They are light yet deliciously peanutty and sugary. They are also gluten-free for anyone that is worried about stuff like that.
Other than that I’ve been listening to quite a lot of new music this week. Things I would recommend are:
Gonzales: Solo Piano – beautiful, atmospheric piano music.
Clark: Body Riddle – sometimes ambient, sometimes drill n’ bass, always genius.
Trentemoller: The Last Resort – I’ve been listening to this for a while but I finally went out and bought it. It’s the best house music I’ve ever heard.
N.O.H.A. – Balkan Hot Step – probably the most fun balkan beats type tune I’ve heard so far. Amazing to dance to – a proper party tune.
That’s all for now………
I am finally exercising again. I’m even enjoying it. After about 10 trips I’m beginning to see the pay-off from hours of sweating, huffing and puffing over machines and weight contraptions. For anyone who lives close to the Swiss Cottage Leisure Centre I would definitely recommend it. They have spent millions of pounds renovating it and buying new machines and it is now as good a gym experience as you can have. Apart from my Williamsburg gym which I loved despite the awful trainer who hated me for no apparent reason, this is my favourite place to exercise so far. Actually, scrap that, the outside gym at the Moulins de Mougins looking over a beautiful French valley was a bit nicer. As is running outside in Regents, Hyde or Richmond Park. Well, it’s a good indoor place to exercise anyway.
They also have a very enticing cafe downstairs called Del’ Aziz – there are mountains of delicious looking cakes and breads in the window as well as a long salad bar inside serving freshly made pastas, salads, sandwiches and soups. I haven’t sampled anything yet but I have been lusting after their frisbee sized meringues. Another good thing about Swiss Cottage is the farmers market on the weekend – it is like a mini-Borough with Flour Power, a long cheese stand, meats, fresh vegetables and fruit and some Japanese guys making fresh sushi and sashimi. Again, I haven’t tried anything yet apart from dipping some bread into an astonishingly fragrant olive oil, but I do enjoy a browse.
Last week before I went to the “So-Called Seder” we went for sushi at Bento Cafe in Camden. I hadn’t been before so I was excited about trying a new sushi place in London. I had a sashimi bento box which was 10.50 and came with 2 slices of tuna, 2 slices of salmon and 2 slice of mackerel sashimi plus a pumpkin croquette, 2 veggie gyoza, a green salad, miso soup, pickles, brocolli and steamed rice with sesame seeds. The sashimi was deliciously fresh and everything else was good quality too apart from the miso soup which was quite watery and tasteless. I especially enjoyed the pumpkin croquette which was dipped with a sweet, sticky sauce. I will definitely be visiting again and trying some other items from the menu – in particular the aubergine with miso dressing that I saw someone else eating at another table.
Let’s face it – it was never going to last long.
I managed it for 2 months to the day and the most unlikely of meat-constructions – the humble meatball – what was caved me in. I had previously thought it would be a slab of caramelised foie gras but in the end it was a far more common experience.
I think maybe it was the extreme desire for something exciting in my life other than endless regressions.
The end is in sight though….Friday. And on Friday night I am getting excruciatingly painfully drunk. I shall make a fool out of myself, lose a shoe, drop my drinks and perhaps pretend I can break-dance.
Until then, back to STATA.
