Christmas. It is what it is.
The race is on. 10 days to Christmas and counting. By Kate
Christmas is coming. How do I know this? Well for one thing, a well dressed, very respectable and rather maternal looking middle aged lady started to sing Disco classics in the bar at 6pm last night.
Her heartfelt rendition of ‘I am what I am’ was particularly striking. She sung with great conviction, apparently oblivious to the eyebrows rising all around her.
Our beautiful (even if I do say so myself) Christmas window, the now customary Eucalyptus mirror decorations and mini Christmas trees and Poinsettas in the shop are of course another clue.
The marauding hordes seem to be descending earlier this year, which is a good thing. There is a point in December where it becomes almost impossible to tease individuals out of the morass, there is simply an amorphous, many limbed mob, baying for wine, which flows in and out of the doors like an unruly tide. I am feeling rather wearied by it slightly earlier this year as it is now almost 2 years since our last proper holiday (The Stroke last December rudely interrupted the Jan 09 break), so am currently hoping I will make it through without incident.
I may need the odd restorative sip of very natural wine.
Speaking of which, we had our inaugural ‘Natural wine and live music’ tasting last week and it was quite wonderful. Anyone who does not yet know the pleasure of drinking something extraordinary while listening to a really good piece of music which has been specially matched to it is seriously missing out. Frank Walden who put together the band and the music section outdid himself and we had pieces from Duke Ellington and John Coltrane among others.
It was quite an event to get off the ground but if there seems to be the demand, we very much hope to do it again next year, so please do let us know if you would be interested.
Perhaps I should have mentioned it to the Disco Diva yesterday.
Finally, for now – although I really will try to do regular-ish postings from the Seasonal Front Line in the next 10 days – a note on my posting about Bagna Caude. 2 notes actually.
I really must have been overly soaked in Moscato D’Asti when I recorded 15 hours for the Bagna Caude. It is 1.5 MAXIMUM and generally more like 45 minutes. I realised this when making some about 2 weeks ago. Talking to Christian last night confirmed it. He feel about laughinng.
3 hours in and it really did not seem right at all. It was caramelising and that kind of flavour does not sit well with garlic and anchovies. I somewhat rescued it by pouring in some milk but it would have been better not cooked that long. It was still not bad though. And seriously good with chips. A new great Italian/English food and food match!
Thank you very much also to Allison who is saving the world inCopenhagen
Speaking of which, we had our inaugural ‘Natural wine and live music’ tasting last week and it was quite wonderful. Anyone who does not yet know the pleasure of drinking something extraordinary while listening to a really good piece of music which has been specially matched to it is seriously missing out. Frank Walden who put together the band and the music section outdid himself and we had pieces from Duke Ellington and John Coltrane among others.
I really must have been overly soaked in Moscato D’Asti when I recorded 15 hours for the Bagna Caude. It is 1.5 MAXIMUM and generally more like 45 minutes.
3 hours in and it really did not seem right at all. It was caramelising and that kind of flavour does not sit well with garlic and anchovies. I somewhat rescued it by pouring in some milk but it would have been better not cooked that long.
Thank you very much also to Allison who is saving the world in
