Monthly Archives: May 2011

Jimeoin

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The Udderbelly is back in town bringing some of the fringe festival atmosphere to Southbank. When we arrived at the Udderbelly it was absolutely heaving – thanks to the vibrant bar area and great weather one supposes! We were here tonight to check out a set from Jimeoin, an Irish Comedian who was pretty big in Australia when I was back there ages ago.

I was struck by how observant he was though I guess as a comedian you need to be. He really notices the small details of how people interact with each other (like the goodbye game – no one wants to be the first to say goodbye, the talking dirty to a girl thing, the “loose” hug from a girl who is angry at you, imitating chickens, pigeons and swans.) His observation on the awkward laughs at comedy shows and the pressure on the person who organised the comedy tickets to have it be funny was particularly apt and relevant!

He used a lot of physical movement and, I don’t know if it was rehearsed that way, but it all seemed really impromptu but still having a flow. He even read us a poem to moving music.

An enjoyable 40 minutes.

The Ivy – 6 years on

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On a day where the weather was absolutely shocking and where transportation just refused to co-operate I was really looking forward to a nice warming pleasant experience at the Ivy with my fellow dinner mates Jenny and Nimet. When I came into the entry of The Ivy it was very crowded as a whole bunch of ladies had just come in. As one of the first faces the public sees you would think that the coat check girl would be a little more pleasant – but she couldn’t have been less friendly. She was very gruff and just grabbing coats without even any effort of welcoming or politeness. Great start! I didn’t actually have a coat so I slipped by this group and into the main restaurant to try and track down my friends.

The last time I’d been to The Ivy I don’t really remember rating the food so I was interested to see how much my views had changed after now having been to many more restaurants since. We were actually at The Ivy on an offer (which seems to suggest it is struggling to get customers in the door – it used to be that it was very difficult to get a reservation at all) which consisted of a set menu deal.

The bread we received was gorgeous and warmed. No cover charge this time.

For my starters I had the Brocolli soup with pinenut & raisin biscuits which sounded the most interesting out of the three options (Jenny had the Steamed English asparagus – literally three or four sticks of asparagus with béarnaise sauce and Nimet the Chopped salad with avocado, shrimp & tomato.) The soup didn’t come with any bread just the dressing of biscuit crouton. Soup was delicious and the biscuit was interesting – I liked the combination of the raisin and the biscuit was very rich and buttery and cheesy almost. Just wish there had been more of the biscuit!

For main the Minute steak that came with a side of Caesar salad and bowl of French fry chips (which were a bit overcooked) that Nimet had was probably the best value for money. Jenny’s thai-baked salmon with sweet pickled cucumber salad & rice sounded good but was quite simple. I was torn between the salmon and the Twice-baked pork belly with borlotti beans & sage – mainly because I’m not a fan of beans. Pork belly was actually very good though, it was not too fatty but still very juicy and tender.

Desserts were nice without being too stunning.

Overall food-wise I would probably say it was better than I remember it being but its always hard to judge when you’re only eating from a set menu.

Service-wise it was very disappointing! My pet hate – we weren’t offered any water (and oddly not even a choice of still or bottled) so I had to ask for water. And when I finished my water, instead of topping it up it was taken away!! When our mains were served the waiter knocked over and spilled Nimet’s drink and though he was very sorry about it and came back to cover the spillage with serviettes … he didn’t actually replace it! We waited to see how long it would take but in the end it took my asking for a replacement drink before it came. But on the other hand when Jenny’s plating was disturbed because he was rushing to serve it (this was when he spilt the drink) the waiter was going to go away to re-plate it and one waiter was very apologetic for bumping into me even though I had elbowed him. Talk about extreme service. Oh, Jenny had to confirm three times. Overkill!

The Ivy was a lot busier and hectic than what I recall from my last visit, tables were crammed in and everything felt crowded. Its no wonder waiters kept bumping into us or knocking over drinks etc. Not sure if this was because people were dining on set menu meals …

PS Still no photos or mobile phones allowed.

Azou

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Overeating seems to be the order of the day whenever Rehana and I meet up for dinner. Tonight’s venue for the glutton-fest was the North African restaurant Azou in Hammersmith. Apparently Gordon Ramsay picked it as the best North African Restaurant in 2010 in his TV series.

We started with Baba Ganoush which was pretty incredible and served with warmed pitta bread.

Our other starter was Brik – a Tunisian speciality of crisp thin pastry filled with potato, egg & tuna. This was absolutely massive and after having filled ourselves with both the Baba Ganoush and the Brik we were already reaching our limits! The Brik was tasty although tasted a bit too oily.

We really should have shared a main course, instead we got one each! Both of us liked the sound of the Tajines. Mine was the Tajine romanne (chicken breast in a sweet/tangy pomegranate sauce, garnished with almonds, raisins & caramelised onion) and Rehana the Tajine Marrakech (lamb and vegetables in an aromatic sauce.) Both were incredibly tender and juicy. I preferred my dish of course as it wasn’t lamb! Ha. But I do like sweat and sour combinations in my food and my chicken was perfectly balanced.

As you can imagine … no room for dessert!

Service at Azou was friendly and efficient. The restaurant is quite small so the tables are very close and intimate – moving around requires some care! It was very busy tonight – I wonder if its still the knock on effect from Gordon’s recommendation!

Rehana and I were so full afterwards that we walked to Barons Court before getting on the tube.

Zorb-It London

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I’ve been wanting to go zorbing for ages now and when work kindly got me a voucher to go do so I was very excited. However I’ve been having difficulty getting a booking for a venue close to London on a day that works so in the mean time when this offer on Groupon came up with Zorb-It London I jumped at it. To be called “London” was a bit deceptive – the venue was at Guy Lodge Farm, closest rail being Crews Hill Rail (half an hour out of King’s Cross) and another half an hour walk or short taxi ride. It was a nice enough day for a walk so Laney and I did so.

When we got to the venue, perfectly on time (early even), we were told they were running late! We couldn’t understand how they could be since each run ended up taking not very long at all! I wasn’t sure what I was expecting from a zorbing run but it certainly wasn’t this:

It seemed so basic and flat. How were we going to pick up any speed in our ball? And how long exactly was this roll going to last?? After watching a few runs it was our turn.

I’ve never really thought about the logistics of getting into the zorbing ball but I certainly wasn’t expecting that we would be required to run and dive into it! I had the benefit of watching Laney go first. She didn’t have enough commitment and ended up getting stuck with her legs still sticking out – so the dude had to push her in!

Having seen her get stuck I had no choice but to really commit. I was very worried I would miss the hole!

Inside I saw that Laney had been strapped in. She had the hard task of being on top so she had to hold herself up. I could see she was exhausted from doing that as she was struggling to stay in place. Still happy though! You would think that as you are in this bubble that you could relax and just let gravity take its course but the dude kept telling us to try and stay upright. Finally we were ready and pushed to the top of the “hill”.

A push and we were off. I could see where some of the momentum came from now – the dude actually pushes you for a long time down the hill before leaving you to go. He must be really fit from all that running and pushing!

In just under a minute our zorbing experience was over! Hard to describe how it felt in the ball – of course you have the sensation of spinning around and around. I had my back going down the hill so it felt unnatural the way I was rolling. I felt like I kept bumping my head too. Honestly – not the most pleasant of experiences! Getting out was another interesting event – you had to crawl out and it was not easy in the dizzy state we were in. As I emerged the guy shouted out “and she was born again”. And yes, it did feel like I was being born again … it certainly wasn’t the most graceful of dismounts!

So, was zorbing everything I’d hoped it would be? Hmmm … not really. It seemed like a lot of effort just for less than a minute’s enjoyment! If only the hill was bigger and the run longer. I’m glad I can now tick it off my list though.

Socialite Workshop Party at Graffik

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Socialite London has been around for a couple of years now and was set up as a members club to organise social events for members to mingle. Its aimed at young professionals who are perhaps wanting to expand their current social circle and in some ways it also seems to work as a singles mingles service the way it has profiles to “match” you to people who have similar interests, work / live in your area, etc. Su Yin invited me to an event they were holding tonight at the Graffik Gallery. I’ve never been into the Gallery before even if its in my hood – and I must admit the gallery, showcasing urban art, is quite cool.

Tonight’s event was a Workshop Party by Peter Dunne. Peter Dunne is a self-taught artist from Dublin with a particular skill in spray can painting. A skill he discovered when he was commissioned to do 300 pieces in a month and discovered he was only able to do it with spray painting. Think Banksy. Think those artists you see on the sidewalk who can create special images with just a few shakes of a spray can. This was what we were going to be learning tonight, gloves and face masks supplied.

In addition to the workshop we were promised a drinks reception and BBQ. They were very good at topping up everyone’s glasses or making the drink available to everyone but the BBQ was a shambles. There wasn’t any sort of order and the guy manning the BBQ wasn’t concerned about serving everyone in any sort of order. Fail number one.

Fail number two related to the actually spray painting part of the evening. The idea of the party was great, but the pulling it off was not so great. I’m not sure whether it was because more people turned up than expected by the space to watch the debrief and do the actual painting was very small. I was lucky to get a front spot for the debrief – I feel for those behind who probably couldn’t see anything!

To help with the painting Pete had also brought along plenty of templates and other tools. Although some people got quite creative and were building their own templates!

Then we moved on to the bit where we got to do our own painting. This really was a bit disorganised, not very well planned and not at all rehearsed. Because of the small space available in the court yard and the supplies, realistically only 4 or 5 people could paint at once (and there would have been about 20+ who paid to paint tonight.) Therefore, if you were an A-type personality and were willing to push your way to the front so to speak (and this went for both food and the art itself) then you’d be fine. The first group went in and they spent absolutely ages trying to paint something, if they didn’t like it they would start again, or if they were particularly selfish, would paint 3 or 4! After this had gone on for some time I could see that one of the organizers, the Nicole or something her name was, did eventually try to reign in the time people were spending painting but it was too late. It didn’t also help that the artist was quite friendly and willing to spend time individually – I mean it was nice that Pete was so friendly but he didn’t help with the turnover so to speak.

I had resigned myself earlier on to just watching, which really, was entertaining enough. There were some appallingly aggressive people at the event who were perfectly sociable and nice to talk to but put something in front of them and suddenly they turned a bit selfish. A couple of girls were treating the artist like their own special tutor forgetting there were actually other people who should have had a go too. The worst bit was when people started shouting for the paint cans instead of asking nicely for them – Black! Orange! Blue!

At least Su Yin and Shahid got in and painted something. That too was particularly amusing as Shahid was being competitive about whose painting was better. Boys!

Shakespeare’s Globe: Hamlet

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After nearly seven years of being in London I finally made it to see a play at Shakespeare’s Globe … joining Dave and his mates, Laney and Ying to see Hamlet.

Walking into The Globe felt so … special. The feeling of an open air-theatre was very cool. We decided to try the authentic experience of getting the standing tickets for £5. My advice if you get these tickets is to get there early so you can guarantee yourself a prime position. Although we weren’t late, we weren’t exactly early and ended up towards the back of the standing area. Which is not a problem … unless, you’re short like us!! And stuck behind tall people!

I had underestimated just how much concentration was required to both pay attention to the play and be standing. I think it was because I had to constantly move around to be able to see what was going on on stage, and we were stood next to these bunch of girls who insisted on standing nearly on top of us even though they had plenty of space on their other wise. Hilariously by the time we got to the interval Laney had been boxed in by the girl in front of her (who had unconsciously kept moving backwards) and the bags of the girls behind her. Literally she was surrounded and boxed in.

The play itself to the end of the first half was surprisingly fast-paced in terms of movement on stage, the energy the actors were displaying and their speech. I’m so unused to hearing Shakespearen English that some parts I couldn’t understand. Not to mention the fact that it was distracting that Joshua McGuire reminded me too much of another actor, whose name kept eluding me, and that was all I could think about! The cast is small and double-up on roles – which, to someone like me who isn’t hugely familiar with Hamlet, was confusing.

Although I enjoyed the atmosphere and the spirit of the evening, come interval my brain had had to much and we left! I’d definitely go again … perhaps to a play I’m more familiar with and perhaps I would opt to try the seats.

The Stonemasons Arms

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The Stonemasons Arms is one of the finer gastro pubs in West London, if how busy it was today could be taken as an indication. Victoria had booked a table for her leaving lunch and we’d arrived just after noon but it was already buzzy and extremely busy. The cool part of the Stonemason Arms, apart from an incredibly cute waiter who no doubt was from Australia, is that they have an open kitchen of sorts. It sits above and behind the bar but you can still see them cooking away.

Victoria’s recommendation at the Arms is the plate of chips. Chunky, gigantic portion .. I made the mistake of ordering that to go with my pasta (chosen because of the promise of truffle oil ..) – talk about carb loading. I made my boss Jill laugh though. Heh heh.

Keynoir does Circus

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James and I visited Circus for dinner tonight thanks to an offer from Keynoir (yes, my life is run by offers and discounts these days! Ha! Austerity measures!) I hadn’t realised until I checked back but its been nearly a year since my first visit to Circus … seems like only a few months ago!

I was really disappointed to find that the food seemed of a lower quality than last time – the mains were okay but our starters and desserts were quite disappointing. For example, my starter of chicken satay skewers (£9) were more like steamed pieces of chicken breast with slight grill lines rather than charred BBQ flavoured delicacies they should have been. At least the chicken was tender I guess. James’ Beef and Black Bean Empanadas (£8were nothing to write home about.

Ginger Pork Belly (£24) was pretty to look at and I was happy to get three good chunks of pork belly. Shame it wasn’t as tender as it could have been and had a slight burnt flavour. I ordered it with some very fluffily battered onion rings. James reported positively on his Star Anise Duck Confit (£26) which was nearly a meal on its own.

James was also happy with his Crème Brulee (£8) but my Ginger and Date Pudding tasted like it had come from a boxed dessert at a place like Iceland straight from the microwave. Good butterscotch ice cream.

On the positive, Circus are always constantly re-inventing their menu so food could be on the way up again the next time I come!

From an entertainment perspective we saw three different acts with the first on at 7.30. Which was a bit different from my last dining experience where they didn’t come on until quite a bit later than that.

I think James enjoyed himself tonight. Its different from anything he has been to before I’m sure!

Birds of Prey Centre Falconry

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What birds spend all their time on their knees?
Birds of prey!

The £18 for a £78 a hands-on Falconry Experience with Hawks, Owls, Buzzards and Falcons at the Birds of Prey Centre was too good for Su Yin and I to refuse. However, I hadn’t counted on it being so hard to organise – we must have changed weekends at least three times and with this weekend being basically our last chance to take advantage of the offer the weather was horrible – which meant the whole thing might have been called off! It wouldn’t have been so bad except that the Birds of Prey Centre was a £17 return train journey from London (40 mins on a direct train) plus a cab fare on the other end … but anyway. It did go ahead and it was a lot of fun. (The cab ride from the station was quite amusing – we’d pre-booked at a taxi in advance but four other people hadn’t so they all hitched a ride with us!)

There were clearly quite a few people who’d purchased the groupon voucher and who turned up today, even with the poor weather. We were split into smaller groups of max 20? which was a good thing as it meant that everyone got a chance to handle the birds – and I was impressed that even with time pressing and some birds misbehaving the bird handlers were all very patient and conscious of making sure everyone got their chance in the limelight.

It was p!ssing it down when we got the Birds of Prey Centre but luckily it held off for the most part during the actual experience even if it was still gray. Before the session started we were free to wander around and check out the birds. One particular bird took exception to Su Yin. Sooooo funny!

Our group started off with the owls – we got to “handle” two owls, and by handle I mean we got to hold out our arms, have the bird fly to us and land and then take-off again. Its all very safe as you have gloves you use so that both you and the bird are protected.

After the owls it was on to the “arena” where we got to see the Harris Hawks fly. Gee they are very fast! We also all got a chance to have them fly to us.

During all these demonstrations we were also given a few facts about the birds – for example, at the centre 900 baby chicks a day are consumed! (And no, they are not alive … I asked! The chicks come frozen to the Centre. To entice the birds a “fluffy” chick is used to entice.) The bird handlers were all very good and very knowledgeable. I guess taking us tourists around were more a second function that they have with the primary function being about raising the birds.

The photos with us and the flying birds are on Su Yin’s camera! If I ever get them from her I’ll post them up here at a later date …

After the fly and return session we got introduced to a couple of more birds. These ones we were able to hold for a longer time on our arms. The bigger one (I think his name is Levi and was a type of buzzard – he was really cute) was very heavy after a while!

After coffee and cake we headed back out to the Arena for a flying / hunting display by owls, hawks and then a stork! Very exhilarating to see the birds in action – they have awesome vision and the timing to grab prey out of the air was pretty amazing.

Finally, we got to hang around with these guys! Huge birds – fairly harmless to the extent you could put your hand into their mouth and come out none worse for wear!

A wonderful and unique experience. Allow three hours (not including travel to and from.)