at Sophie's

London - Restaurants - Steak Houses

A lovely spontaneous evening. The relatives were down in London Friday night catching the Warhol exhibition at the Hayward and were debating where to eat afterwards. Caroline hankered after Ping Pong (again) but John wanted novelty and steak. As it happened the Evening Standard had an article that day about businesses beating the recession - Sophie’s steakhouse was one of them (a branch has opened recently in Covent Garden), so we decided to try it.

I was a bit alarmed by the red neon outside - a bit too similar to another rather touristy steakhousy chain. However, inside is more sophisticated, with rather beautiful teardrop lights, lots of warm wood and leather. The room is much larger than appears outside, and the place was busy, yet we got a table immediately on arrival at 9:30 p.m. (they don’t take reservations).

Service was brisk, efficient, and just the right side of friendly. The food arrived quickly: very handsome, generous burgers and fish cakes. They take care to get your steak the way you want it: my steak salad was perfectly rare, juicy and tender. My brother didn’t want his steak “stupidly rare” but he didn’t want it medium either; a tricky request which the kitchen delivered; no complaints from John.

I didn’t enjoy the blue cheese dressing on my salad - I like a more intense dressing, perhaps with actual crumbed cheese. This dressing absolutely drenched the leaves and was way too creamy and bland. I had to check with the waitress that it actually was blue cheese dressing. I’ll take her word for it.

I had a toffee and vanilla milkshake for pudding: sugarholic’s heaven - toffee crumbles, yum!

All in all a rather pleasant experience. I’d be happy to go again if in a carnivorous mood. I’m giving it 4 stars - one star being a benefit of the doubt star, for the salad dressing.
Check out my review of Sophie's Steakhouse & Bar - I am hedgiecc - on Qype

Anniversary - Elizabeth 1

Today is the 450th anniversary of the coronation of Elizabeth 1.

2008 review

My annual check-up and review!

What was your favourite song in 2008?

Kings of Leon’s Sex on Fire

What was your favourite album in 2008?

Radiohead: In Rainbows

Are you richer or poorer?

Ha ha. With the ongoing credit crunch and collapse of the property market, like many thousands of others my net worth has probably taken a big hit. It’s possible my flat may already be in negative equity.

I’m not bothered. I love my flat and have no wish to move, have a steady job and can pay the mortgage.

Just in case, I have now got full insurance against illness, accident or redundancy – although it’s vaguely possible I may be let go, the other possibility is that my company may cease trading, so it’s best to be prepared.

I diversified my income streams this year and am looking to continue this process in 2009.

Thinner or fatter?

I think about the same, although general fitness still needs more attention.

What kept you sane in 2008?

Music.

Which personal accomplishments in 2008 are you most pleased with?

Being there for relatives in distress.

Expanding my revenue streams.

Continuing to blog while computerless; hitting my target of an average of 12 posts a month, with monthly totals being more consistent overall.

Finally replacing my apple mac – bought a brand-new powerbook 13” in November.

Buying an almost-new Nikon SLR off eBay.


What was the happiest moment of 2008?

Ingrid, Peter and family visiting.

What was your saddest moment of 2008?

My mother had a difficult year, but by December things were looking massively up for her.

Which bad habit are you most motivated to break?

Procrastination and hoarding are endemic issues with me – I have improved over the last few years but still need to be constantly aware. Flow.

What are you looking forward to in 2009?

One of my drearest friends is coming to visit London in the Spring.

More travel. I have promised the niece and nephew a trip to Rome in May; a German visit is on the cards; I would love to go to Poland if possible. My brother, sister and I plan to bring my mother across in the Summer – I may have to fly out to Johannesburg to collect her. If so, I would like to combine that with a visit to friends in Cape Town.

Fleet Foxes

My first CD of 2009:


Actually, very good indeed. Quite folky but subtly updated.

Snowy knows all

“Tell yourself, if you like, that it was just that Tintin hasn't yet met the right girl. Or maybe that it's only a stage he's going through. But if you expect a Belgian Catholic born in 1907 to have unmasked the hero of his blockbuster series of comic adventures as an out-gay activist and homosexual icon, you expect too much. Hergé was no Andy Warhol (Hergé's great admirer). But Snowy saw everything; Snowy knows all. And Snowy never tells.”

- Matthew Paris’s provocative yet hilarious outing in The Times

London - Food & Drink - Bakeries

1) At work I was drafted in as an amateur (cheap) stylist on a food shoot - the very trendy (expensive) photographer demanded an array of photographic comestibles from Baker & Spice.

2) My friend Mark works in the food industry in Cape Town, South Africa. On a recent research trip to London Baker & Spice was top of his “must see” list.

3) On their website Baker & Spice have a section offering catering on private jets.

The above gives some idea of what the B&S experience will be like - some, but definitely not all.

My photographer was probably thinking less of visual aesthetics than of her stomach. As gorgeous as they are, B&S creations focus more on superb (largely organic) ingredients and technique than on visuals. The food is appetizing, no doubt, but in a slightly hippy, good-earth, bountiful Mother Nature home-made sort-of way. Dainty chi-chi cupcakes you can find elsewhere.

I somewhat fancied a slice of blueberry cheesecake - although it looked huge and generous, I was slightly nervous it would turn out to be disappointing stodge. The risk was escalated by the vertiginous price of a slice - second mortgages required.

I needn’t have worried. This was the Platonic ideal of cheesecake - although my relationship with it was savagely carnal and all-too-brief. Rich and smooth and yet deceptively light, the creaminess was set off by the tartness of the blueberries. Addiction at first hit.

The service amused me. The staff seemed to regard the shop/cafe as their personal space and accommodated customers’ needs grudgingly. While we were there two of them gossiped loudly about an absent colleague.

For those of us on average wages, go there for a treat. For those of us with private jets, go for it!
Check out my review of Baker & Spice - I am hedgiecc - on Qype

best exhibition of the year

The British Museum and the V&A are putting on tremendous shows at the moment. My best of year award goes to Francis Bacon at Tate Britain. It has to, really - Francis Bacon is without question the greatest British artist of the 20th century; and this is a fantastic appraisal of his work. It’s still on, and I am planning to go again to spend some quality time amongst the carcasses.

best book of the year

Although it was published years ago now, I’m going to nominate Thomas Pakenham’s The Scramble for Africa . Another category with very meagre pickings - I resolve to do better in 2009!

best movie of the year

Yikes! According to my blog I hardly saw any this year. Out of a very slim field, the stand-out is Burn After Reading. Apologies to all those who preferred the Coen brothers’ other movie No Country for Old Men; I’m just too cowardly to see really scary films.

theatrical experience of the year

A good year for me. Very memorable was the London premiere of Damon Albarn’s/ Jamie Hewlett’s Journey to the West at Covent Garden - a spectacular and joyous production in a house feverish with anticipation. I didn’t enjoy the CD nearly as much, though.

Peter Hall’s production of Pygmalion at the Old Vic was a complete delight; however my most memorable theatrical night night this last year has to be the NT’s mind-blowing Revenger’s Tragedy.

my meal of the year - Wapping Food

Every meal out was pretty special this year. Hakkasan with Liz back in March for my birthday was absolutely wonderful; a real pleasure - even down to the hard-won doggy bag.

Trinity still slightly disappoints - my first visit was with the tardy relatives, who arrived two hours late for Sunday lunch, and one can’t blame the restaurant for the food in those circumstances. I chose badly on my second visit. The neighbours rave about it, and it is good to have a smart and decent restaurant within walking distance. I just need to be won over; for me it seems to be missing the Xfactor.

Wapping Food has the Xfactor in spades. Ingrid, Peter and I went just before Christmas an it’s absolutely magical. It’s in a refurbished power station across the road from the Prospect of Whitby in Wapping - modern art covers the towering walls and courtyard; banks of candles gutter on the old power station machinery. A really full-on event space, with bags of character and charisma. But the food is wonderful too - quite simple things superlatively cooked. I had a chunky, intensely fishy potted mackerel to start and a barbecued pork chop for my main course, which was the platonic ideal of pork chops - perfectly, juicily piggy, yet subtly enhanced with smoky barbecue flavours. The custard for my wonderful apple and plum crumble was just to die for. Some criticize the service at this place, especially the owner’s allegedly uncertain temper, but we had excellent, friendly and helpful service and the owner herself graciously put us back into our coats and gave us directions to the docklands light railway. So no complaints from me there.

Whoever selected the music has exactly the same taste as me; however, I have to say it was slightly too loud. But Ingrid and Peter didn’t complain.

I very much look forward to my next visit to this place; I might be brave enough to invite the tardy relatives.

Twilight

The book is kiddie fiction - a bit Mills & Boone candy with some bite; very entertaining nonetheless: the film is faithful to the novel’s wonderful sense of place and atmosphere but improves the plot in crucial respects: notably, it increases the sense of menace as the evil vampires approach the little town of Forks, and speeds up the story. The special effects are a bit average, but are made up for by some delicious camerawork and the beautiful actors. The acting is uniformly good. Altogether, a quality adaptation and one the sequel’s director will have a challenge to better. I would pay more attention to the vampires’ make-up, especially in the neck areas. They were a bit white-face from the chin upwards.

The soundtrack is excellent too; quite adventuresome for the target audience - Muse, Radiohead and Debussy feature.

Statuephilia

I can’t recommend this exhibition at the British Museum highly enough - the sculptures have been chosen and placed so intelligently; they really open up a dialogue with their surroundings. There are only 5 works, but all of them are fabulous. Tourists were clustering around Marc Quinn’s solid gold life-size Kate Moss with cameras; there were ‘no photography’ signs in front of Damien Hirst’s gaily coloured ranked skulls in the 18th-century bookcases in the Enlightenment Gallery: boo hiss. I really feel like sneaking back and taking a surreptitious one.

Mr Hirst has really gone down in my estimation: after making in excess of £100 million from his autumn auction he laid off the staff of assistants who actually made the works - into a savage recession. Lovely.

Round and Round the Garden

I finally saw the third part of Alan Ayckbourne’s The Norman Conquests trilogy early in December. Despite my reservations about the first episode, and despite reports that Round and Round the Garden was the weakest segment, I loved it. in the timeline of all three plays, RRG starts earliest and finishes last. Therefore, strictly speaking, I think one should see this one last, as it gives the final perspective on Norman’s shenanigans - although the plays convincingly demonstrate that humans are not susceptible to “final” analyses.

Appropriately for its outside setting, there is far more physical comedy in this play; but also some of the funniest lines. The audience was in raptures - the night I went had the most tumultuous applause of all three evenings.

Table Manners
Living Together

more prezzies

My niece and nephew gave me a box of hand-made (by themselves) chocs - absolutely stunning. F made brandy-soaked chocolate cherries and T made whisky and champagne truffles. They are actually spectacular - far superior to shop-bought. I arrived in Cambridge to find T looking a bit like a truffle himself: covered in a light dusting of cocoa powder and with hands, face and t-shirt generously smeared in melted chocolate. His mother was beside herself, but determined he finish his task. Making boxes of chocs for relatives and friends seemed to be their Xmas party trick.

I'm back!

Back from the Xmas festivities in Cambridge, with my final deadline for 2008 looking quite daunting. Never mind, just get stuck in. Here goes . . .



I came back to find my poor tree in a very desiccated condition. Oh well.

Apart from humungous quantities of food, we had lots of wintry countryside walks in Cambridge - usually at sunset. That’s when my relatives usually come out to play.

I got Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight for Xmas - devoured it in hours; it’s highly readable and entertaining despite its many glaring faults. Funny to have socially acceptable, conservative “family values” vampires - my vampire frame of reference has always been the far more subversive Anne Rice version. Have to see the movie.

I’m very impressed with my mother. Fresh from her pre-Xmas “nervous breakdown” she scored a new boyfriend just before Christmas - in a target poor and competition rich environment. I’m impressed. And surely, if my 77-year old mother can do it, I can too?? The lucky 81-year old boy is showering her in flowers and meals. They had a date picnic with the Xmas hamper I sent.

That’s enough for one post - got another 9 to go!

Festive visits

It's annoying that whenever life speeds up and I have lots and lots to write, my writing time shrinks.  In fact it's shrunk so completely I haven't blogged for a while, so must start catching up as quickly as possible because I'm off to Cambridge tomorrow and will be off-line again until the weekend at the earliest.

Company lunch today, plus massive work deadlines, plus my friends from SA who are doing the tourist thing in London are quite determined to visit me again tonight.  Could have been a bit of an imposition, but I'm so totally organized for Christmas this year it's pretty remarkable - ALL my presents are wrapped already, and everything I'm taking to Cambridge is in a neat pile ready to be stashed in an overnight bag at a moment's notice.

It seems I have a talent for entertaining children. I'm not all over them, not do I talk down to them, but for Ingrid's two I did plan to keep them entertained on their first visit chez moi - the little boy I plonked in front of my computer (He's a Mequest fiend), and the little girl helped me decorate my tree while I chatted to her parents.

I had an extravagant pile of pastries from Macaron awaiting them for tea. My inner domestic goddess's camp predilection for cake stands has been thwarted by a lack of storage space in the kitchen: however, said goddess was thrilled and inspired recently by a window display at Zeitgeist (I think) - one can make one's own cake stand out of plates and wineglasses.  Luckily I have comedy wine glassses (an unfortunate gift) which were just perfect as makeshift cake stand supports. Very effective, and the children loved it.

So much so that whenever they saw "Clapham Common" on tube maps afterwards they demanded their mother take them back to my flat. Even if was was working, which I most assuredly was.

So I wasn't really expecting to have to entertain again, but hey ho here we go.  I suppose one of the things children have to learn is that repeat gigs are never the same. Luckily Mequest is still there; Romy will have to make do with my Tintin collection.

rebirth

O.M.G. !!! - like a vampire fresh from the tomb, the 80s are back!

I have so pre-ordered their debut album already from Amazon; gives me something to look forward to in January! (comes out January 12)

anniversary

Hard as it is for me to believe, but this is my third anniversary in my very own little flat - already I’ve been here a third of the time I was in the previous house with Ivan and Liz.

The shock of events in the last three years has really changed me; time flies when you are struggling to cope!! My finances took a massive tumble after my redundancy and almost every day since I’ve worried about keeping the flat; it’s quite extraordinary that I’m still here and just-about solvent after three years. Where will I be next year?

Hopefully, still on an upward track. My income streams are now diversified so another redundancy by itself will be less traumatic financially (and emotionally, I now know I can survive) - and also I now have insurance against loss of income.

prezident

As we near the end of the seemingly interminable Bush years, even the President himself turns to the question of his historic legacy:

“I don't spend a lot of time really worrying about short-term history. I guess I don't worry about long-term history, either, since I'm not going to be around to read it -- (laughter) -- but, look, in this job you just do what you can.”

Andrew Sullivan, from here.