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May30
Or, rather, from Miami, or even (by the time I write this up) hello from England, Miami sends its regards. Just BACK from a trip to the US of States to visit Clare's bro and sister-in-law in the pan-handle bit of the Americas. Tiring flight over to Miami. I am not a good flier at all, and nine hours plus an hour's delay is too much for me, hope we have the wind with us on the way home.
Our hosts live in a fabulous tenth floor corner appartment in the Venetia building (I think) and so we get a free holiday in the proper hot heat. There's a balcony running right round, and the whole shebang overlooks a bay and marina and things, the view is quite spectacular. Our first day we went to Lincoln Road to find dinner and had our first humungous American feast in Nexxt. This has the biggest menu around, so there would be food for all of our special dietary needs, and was a hit. Lincoln Road is lively and eccentric, an enjoyable place to hang out.
Next day, first full day of our holiday, a trip within a trip, to Key West. This is the Southernmost tip of the Southernmost tip, and a big long drive on slow roads, but we broke it up with a couple of stops. First a roadside distraction of tarpons and pelicans, these are mostly tame but hungry aggressive buggers that you can feed, and if you'renot careful they'll feed on you. This is a place called Robbie's and like a few places we saw in Key West they have a live webcam set up - if you were tuned in at the right time you could have seen us being fed on.
Next stop Duck Key for our dolphin encounter. This is quite a fancy resort were we'd booked a swim with dolphins, and it was just fine. We had a little lecture first on the sea and how to take care of it, then into the water with these mighty beasts. It was just the three of us (being slightly off season, post spring break and pre summer) and there were six flippers with us, ranging from about three years to over thirty - I didn't realise dolphins lived so long. It wasn't the emotional experience I'd heard about, but glad I've done it, and have some pictures.
Key West is a real party town, the sort of place Americans go to let their hair down, it's hard late drinking and lots of fairly shops. Tacky, but fun. We went in lots of bars that I will try and find the names of later, some of these had webcams too so if we were organised we could have phoned you and you could have seen us drinking. A few of the bars have live music and comedy and it was of a Roy Chubby Brown type standard with songs called "Fuck You" and "Fat Ass Bitch". Certainly felt a bit redneck in at least one bar, and it felt unusual for me the blackest man in the place. I didn't carry on drinking back at the hotel like Clare, Emma and Kev, so I managed to get up for a nice relaxing breakfast reading USA Today - the other three looked and smelled of death by the time they'd struggled out of their pits. Not sure if it is like me, or not like me, to be the first to bed. Anyway, Key West is well worth a visit, look forward to it if you're off on a Carribean Cruise, I expect you are...
Saturday, WHOPPING night out, did a few hotel bars, a club where a friend of a friend was DJingand ended up cool indie dancing at Buck 15. This was my favourite night out of the week, though it nearly ended in drunken disaster. Two of the wives bounded up to the DJ booth to ask for some 'Jovi a little too enthusiastically, and basically smashed the whole place right up. Music was off for about forty five minutes, and we were not at all popular.
Since here (there, hmm, excuse the mix of tenses I wrote up some of this in situ) we have eaten a humungous amount, there's lots of vege choice here, possibly we've been helped out by having locals with us to assist. We've had most types of food that's been on offer so far, and large portions of each. I stocked up with vegan treats in Wild Oats, a Fresh and Wild / Planet Organic type place, but I've brought some of it home as I had no difficulties eating out everywhere. This might be the chain that is taking over one of our chains, don't think I made that up...
One day we hit the beach proper style, trunks on, in the water, everything... we'd only been splashing about for twenty minutes or so when I noticed lots of people were stood at the water's edge looking in just a short way down the beach. Then I realised there was no-one in the water down that way too. Then people starting shouting and running and trying to get out of the water, a rapidly emerging Mexican wave heading our way - what could we do but start screaming SHARK! SHARK! EVERYBODY OUT OF THE WATER!
I can't remember if I ran out and left Clare in the sea, probably. As it turns out, she was safe, we all were, the coastguard appeared with a quad bike and a megaphone repeating "That is not what you think it is", the massive fast moving shadow beneath the surface of the water was apparently some more friendly tarpons.
Clare and our fellow traveller (and flatmate of old) Emma have been playing tonnes of Pacman, old school stylee, on a plug in TV game of Kevin's. It's a [froogle]Namco retro game[/froogle] number, with authentic arcade action, amazing to think that it's got the equivalent of five old arcade boxes in the base of the joystick. Gameplay is all, and this is fun, so much so that they've each bought one to take back. I hope they'll work OK on a UK type TV, or there might be tears.
I'm not much of a fillum buff as you may know, but while here we did catch TWO movies in the same day. First off, to the cinema for The Davinci Code. I hate trips to the cinema generally, but we did well this time, getting a comfy row of the best seats in the house, and there was none of the usual irritations of UK cinema, no whooping kids etc. The film wasn't at all as bad as I'd been led to believe, it was enjoyable, though the story itself is nonsense. The film, the book, and the tale they're based on have enough little factual bits in there to give the impression that the whole is more truthful and substantial than it is - real people, real things, mostly undesputable, so when small bits of rubbish are dropped in that the bigger bits of rubbish are built in, you might not notice. Also where there little messages and subtle visual messages in the film too? Was Silas' body laid out in a particular way for a reason? And that Victor Hugo poster? Are these clues left for us? Or are you just a mental if you read too much into this? It's entertaining enough, don't take it seriously. Bible-tastic. Let me re-write this later, I'm sure I have a point worth making. Hmm this site points out more of the rubbish. Second movie was The Weather Man btw, cool in a downbeat kind of way.
Did a bit of a blitz of clothing purchasage in Urban Outfitters... seemed to take a little while to warm up - when we first went in the door I was disappointed, everything was a bit crappier than I remembered, but then we got some great bits. My vintage style Lynyrd Skynyrd shirt has drawn positive comments from random strangers in the street. Do they not go in that shop? You could all have one of your own! I know we have one in the UK but everything's less than half price in the US versions. Hmm, the other option is that people were gently mocking me...
Went to the Dadeland mall, via some outlying shops... bro-in-law Kev took us there in the car to check out some local shopping action. First stop wsa possibly Target, a superstore that sells everything imaginable, where we picked up a couple more gifts, then on to Container Store. This place only sells storage "solutions" but it really is fabulous, not just boxes and things as I first suspected but all sorts of DIY type things relating to keeping your house in order. I can't do justice how cool it was, maybe I'm just a nerd for that sort of thing, but I loved it. Been looking for a thing to go inside our cupboards and organise all the stuff that's on the floor for AGES, and not been able to find anything like I wanted, or even explain to anyone just what I was after, but this place did the deed. Not sure (at the time of writing, 7.30pm on Tuesday) how I will get all this stuff home...
Next onto the mall proper, usual suspects for stores I suppose, but some great places like Brookstone for gadgety type things (like Sharper Image but a bit cooler), Arango for chic designer houseware type things, and some big smart department stores like Saks and Nordstrom. Didn't get much for ourselves but bought gifts for other people in each of these.
Spent one night eating drinking playing pool and bowling at Lucky Strike bowling, this was great. We ran up a huge tab and just about killed Kev - he's been in America too long, he just can't keep up the drinking pace any more. Lucky Strike is a bit of a celeb hangout apparently, but that's probably the LA branch of it, we saw no-one of note.
To get our quota of tackiness up, we did a "duck tour" of Miami, this is an amphibious type vehicle taking is on a round round the town. It was fun for us, but I've no doubt embarrassing for a local like Kev with all the audience participation. Look, there are some people on the beach, everybody quack! There are the houses from Scarface and Miami Vice, quack! Here's where Giani Versaci was gunned down, QUACK QUACK QUACK!
Our last days felt a little more subdued, though we still ate and drank lots more. We had another meal in Nexxt (not quite as good as the first time) and then boldly headed off to find boozing action on our own. Cafeteria took too long to serve us to hang about and The Playwright was a bit rubbish (and while I'm being negative, Miami is no place for pedestrians generally, bah) but Sushi Samba was nice and quite swish (think I got that right, we ate in a restaurant with a similar name too, Sushi Siam) and then Finegan's Way had a band on and was just the sort of place I'd been hoping for.
Flight back was fairly dreadful, a badly behaved toddler screamed all the way home, with headphones in I got a couple of hours kip though. I did get to go through one of the new explosives scanners - it blasts air over you then picks up particles from around you, to tell what you've been in contact with or what you have in your pockets. Clare missed this treat... Great to be met at the airport, good work Jim, and then we spent the day unpacking, winding down, and watching TV. Even took in a couple more films, Walk The Line and The Truman Show, both actually great. Maybe I'm getting into movies again. Our plants all survived our week away, the Pacman game works fine, and the picture frames we bought are filled and looking good. Welcome home us.
2006 :: Comment / reply
Apr2
Started the weekend with a super rarity, drinks in Farringdon. Been trying to meet up with a couple of the Fareham boys who are commuters too and work in the area, and this week no-one had a good excuse not to do it, so it's all on - To
The Eagle. It's a very famous joint, the first gastropub ever. Not been there before, though I've been to many that are apparently imitators, so it was a bit of a surprise. It's a small old boozer with most of the bar given over to a kitchen, and a great reputation for food, and a good range of drinks too. I had olives to start from their small tapas then a great rigatoni made with aubergines and things. The other chaps (Rich and Ro) were more adventurous, going for cockles and anchovies to start, and then pork belly (too fatty - duh) and the biggest lamb chops I ever saw. A great evening, only marred by a huge trek home, though that was eased by a cab to the station. Had an age to wait for the vomit comet, though I was slightly entertained by a huge police operation at the station. There was an assault of some kind on a train into Waterloo, which resulted in a few police an dozens of community support types running around Keystone Cops style trying to track the miscreant down. I think it was a flasher, was it you?
Clare was off to see The Cure at The Albert Hall Saturday night, so I had big ideas to achieve at lot on my own. This didn't quite pan out, but I did have a quiet night in and do quite a bit of cooking. Had an urge to make some soup, a spicy cabbage number so I looked up some recipes. Got a big list of spices from a couple of recipes and did my shopping, but when I got back could I find the same recipes? Didn't save them and had no joy, so a lot of the herbs and spices went unused. Made a splendid batch of soup, and some dahl to go with our curries in the week. Everyone's turned their noses up at the idea of the soup, even before I'd got the pot on, but it turned out great. It's not slowly stewed cabbage, boiled until it turns stinking and grey, it's a light and spicy stock with half a head of shredded cabbage added at the end, maybe I will post the recipe later. Something for you to look forward to there then. Watched Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire later, didn't like it at all at first, but got into it later. There's quite a cast to this one, though I couldn't figure out who Ralph Fiennes was, he was Lord Voldemort of course.
Up early this morning and went for a stroll, trying to find a rumoured new bar, Impressions, on Tontine Street. No joy at all, I think it might be a wind up. Saw lots of interesting half developed buildings that I wanted to snap pictures of, be nice to look back on when the area is fully done, but the camera was playing up.
Did some work on my gigography, finding a few more out there too, and while there's only ever a tiny crossover I'm saving them in del.icio.us...
Now Clare's back and we've had a mini Clarke Cup, a game of cricket on the dartboard which Clare won, though it was fairly close. then a best out of five on the pool table, and it's over to me. Then after the official game, a few more frames which saw me slipping, but, it doesn't count, see? Then Clare invented a new game , which we'd play for money, I should have been suspicious at this point... It's round the clock, but starting from twenty, whoever loses has to pay whoever goes out first whatever number they are left on. So I was still on three when Clare went out, so three quid - could be expensive if you're really bad. Foolishly perhaps I played again and lost another fiver, but took it back on a winner takes all game of pool. So we're all evens. Got to head round to fix the father-in-law's computer, and then heading back later to cook more curry. A good weekend all told!
UPDATE: And the Clarke Cup issue is resolved, a close round of cards and then a dull game of backgammon and Clare has defeated me :-(
An evening of chilli pie and TV crime drama awaits.
2006 :: Comment / reply
Mar16
Folkestone is in danger of becoming a culinary wasteland. Sure, it has the usual collection of OKish Chinese, Indian and Pasta / Pizza joints. But, with the exception of the cosy Kapetan Michales, you have to go to Sandgate or Hythe to get a half-decent meal.
Which is why we were looking forward to the opening of the subterranean Timothy's Wine Bar, adjacent to Barclays Bank and across the road from Iceland. We went there on Spanish Night and, while it was a memorable night, it was for all the wrong reasons.
Dragging a vegan along to any restaurant is always asking for trouble. But any self-respecting , semi-competent chef can rustle something up that doesn't appear to have had all elements of flavour, texture and enjoyment extacted from it, and that is verging on edible and tasty. And, anyway, we had sent along an advance party at least a week beforehand to forewarn them that we had a lettuce-botherer coming. The owner seemed delighted at the challenge, especially when we handed over £80 as a deposit.
Anyway, the night itself. Free sangria on arrival - nice touch. Abundant Spanish decorations - ie, flamenco guitars and matador hats - tacky. And, at one point it looked as though one of the staff had put on a comedy "Manuel" moustache, except that it turned out to be real and was very definitely not meant to be ironic.
Then came the food. Starters were a set number of tapas dishes (including chorizo, frittata and a pork dish none of us had eaten before). It was all quite nice, if a little boring. The problems started, however, when we reminded them that we had a vegan with us. It soon became clear that they had not prepared anything for him, but we were re-assured that the chef would rustle something up especially. 5 minutes later arrived a hastily thrown together combo of lettuce, lettuce, lettuce, tomato, lettuce, apple and lettuce. Big warning bells could be heard tolling ominously in the distance.
Now, bearing in mind that this had been billed as a Spanish culinary night and was being charged at £25 a head, what happened next borders on the ridiculously inept and misjudged. Main courses, we were told, were Paella and Beef. What arrived was in fact, stringy, bony, dried out chicken that looked and tasted like it had been mixed with pre-ccoked rice and peas. Where was the seafood, the saffron, anything that is normally associated with Paella ? As for the beef. I really cannot do this dish justice. Imagine school dinner beef. Washed-out slabs of grey, fibrous, meat that had clearly come from a very unhappy cow, slapped on a plate next to boiled sliced carrots and soggy roast potatoes. In fact, I am doing school dinners a dis-service. At least at school, it only cost about £2 and you could usually take your chances with boulder-like Yorkshire Puddings and volcanically hot brown water (gravy) as well.
Not content with this, the owner then subjected our vegan chum to that sort of hectoring, slightly hysterical, questioning that every vegan must have encountered at some point in a restuarant - "So, no cheese then. Or eggs. What abot egg noodles ? No ? What do you eat then ? Do you eat ginger ? Lettuce ? Well, look, what do you want to eat ?". Eventually, having obviously scoured the darkest recesses of the kicthen cupboards for any ingredient that definitely couldn't cause offence, our pal with special needs was served up a delighfully sloppy concoction of soup, cous cous, tinned veg and chilli.
Now, even at this stage, all of this would have been bearable in that stiff upper lip kind of way if it hadn't been for what happened subsequently. When we were asked by the owner in that traditional restuarant game of manners, where the rules say that he has to ask whether we enjoyed our meal and we have to express sheer delight through gritted teeth, we made the cardinal sin of speaking our minds. Of course, upsetting the balance of nature in this way is unforgiveable. Qiute clearly there couldn't have been anything actually worng with the meals or the experience we had recieved at the restuartant thus far. The fault most certainly had to be with our ability to enjoy it. The owner assured us though that he would mention our concerns to the chef.
5 minutes later we are approached at our table by another bloke (who looked a bit pished) whom we took to be another of the proprierters, after we saw him talking to the other owner. This chap then preceded to argue with us for having the temerity to critise the cooking by his... wait for it... wife!!! It seems that this bloke was, in fact just a mate of the owner and it was his wife that had done the cooking that night because she was Spanish. Turns out, that not only had she never cooked in a restuarant before (and had never before cooked the dishes we were eating) the reason the food had been so bland (ie, no seafood in the paella etc) was because English people wouldn't eat it. This is, I presume, the same English people who year after year make Spain their favourite holiday destination and to whom, paella has become almost as close to a national dish as chicken tikka mosalla. And, the same English people who have paid £25 to come to a Spanish culinary evening - which would, I hope you will agree, presuppose at least some familiarity and enjoyment of traditional Spanish food.
Anyway, we left soon after. It wasn't all bad. One of the 2 puddings was OK and drinks were included in the £25 a head - although we didn't know that at the time and are still not sure if that was because we complained about the food.
But there are serious points here. Firstly, this was sloppy management and terrible customer service. £25 a head is not cheap and people expect quality results. Its not on to use paying customers as guinea pigs, espeically when it involves your mate's wife doing the cooking. It you are running a restuarant, do us all a favour and hire a professional chef. Also, if you say you are going to cater for vegans and people make a point of checking this with you first before booking, make the bloody effort on the night ! Vegans might be slightly weird and are best avoided, but they too deserve to eat properly and should not be seen as just a means of off-loading your excess salad ingredients. If you make an effort with vegans and veggies more generally, you'd be surprised how likely proper foodies will want to come back - even the most die-hard meat-eater likes a break now and then. But most of all, you cannot let members of public harangue your customers. It doesn't matter if they are your mates or whether their wives' are doing the cooking, to me, they are still just members of the public. If I have a problem with a restaurant's food or service I will speak to the owner / chef etc. I won't go round to other tables and complain. Similarly, I don't expect other members of the public to discuss my complaints with them, especially with the collusion of the owner.
Maybe things will improve at Timothy's. I probably won't take my chances and find out, and nor will any of the rest of my party, or any of our friends and acquitances whom we talk to. And thats the point really - pissing off 8 people can lose you potential custom of 50 or so. And in a small town like Folkestone, thats not good for business.
But, for anyone reading this - make up your own mind. And if you need any encouragement, it seems that after the success of Spanish night, they are intending to do a School Dinners night...
2004 :: Comment / reply
Events:
Number One Cup The Joiners 11 Feb 1996 and Bennett I think
