Adventures with Kake

On Monday I despaired at the falling-down-ness of my house.

On Tuesday I did a big pile of work and very little else.

On Wednesday a plumber came to fix my house! Again! We don't appear to be leaking any more, though we still have no downstairs lighting circuit.

On Thursday I went to Hawksmoor for

bob's birthday. It was pretty damn good. I shared a porterhouse with

ewan — his first ever steak. I wish my first ever steak had been that good (though I seem to remember it was in the Star back when the food was as good as the beer, so it can't have been bad).

On Friday I played Guitar Hero and watched girly TV with Richard.

On Saturday I did a little bit of Discworld hacking then had a takeaway from Banzi which consisted almost entirely of breakfast foods (congee and banh mi, though the banh mi was actually a pre-emptive strike on tomorrow's breakfast). Oh Banzi, your food is tasty, why do you not have online ordering? I would abandon Royal Margin (except for pho) if you did.

On Sunday I had banh mi for breakfast! Then I did a big pile of work.

On Monday I had an East London adventure! I started off fairly centrally, with lunch at Rochelle Canteen in Shoreditch, then wandered eastwards, taking photos for RGL along the way. I'd intended to stop for a break at L'Oasis, but it was closed (I found out later that it's closed for good), so I went to the Wetherspoons instead for a 30p pint of lime and soda.

Next, I got the Tube up to Upton Park, where I wanted to hunt out the Quality Foods branch I'd heard about. I found what I thought was it (and later confirmed the address was right), but it really didn't look too brilliant so I didn't bother going in. Maybe next time. Instead, I wandered across to East Ham and had a decent enough dinner in Thattukada (RGL review coming soon) before getting the Overground to Leyton for choir.

I have forgotten what I did on Tuesday and Wednesday. Probably just work.

On Thursday I went on a Metroland adventure! First of all, I went to Willesden Green, intending to have lunch at Sushi-Say, but alas it was closed. So I went round the corner to check out Taste Malaysia, but it was also closed. I ended up having a not-entirely-satisfactory fishcake in the Queensbury. But then it was back on the Jubilee Line, to change to the Metropolitan Line at Wembley Park, to change to the Chesham shuttle at Chalfont & Latimer.

And then I was truly in Metroland.

ewan has described Chesham on RGL as “a bucolic village in Buckinghamshire, far outside London and only connected by the Metropolitan Line”, which is a fair enough assessment. The main reason I was here was to visit the Queens Head, a Good Beer Guide pub which needed a proper RGL review, but my research had also revealed the presence of a bookshop (which I browsed around in but didn't buy anything from). Not only that, but on approaching the bookshop I spotted a couple of pubs, the Misty Moon and the Cock Tavern, which I of course had to try out. Then on the way to the Queens Head, I saw that the George and Dragon had reopened, so I had to go in there as well. By the time I reached the Queens Head, it was getting late, and a few sums revealed that there was no way I was going to get to Waterloo in time for the book group meeting I was supposed to be going on to — so I sent

ewan a quick SMS and headed back to Willesden Green to meet him for dinner at Sushi-Say (who initially said they couldn't fit us in since we didn't have a booking, but relented and squeezed us in anyway when we made it clear we were prepared to wait).

On Friday I did some work and then cooked saag and prawn patia for dinner.

On Saturday I overslept and missed the Tube Walk (but I did really need the sleep). In the evening I made saag aloo with the leftover saag from last night, and also did baingan ka bhartha to go with it. Then I killed my laptop by knocking a glass of wine all over it. Argh.

On Sunday I mourned my laptop and ate pizza from Cucina.

On Monday I went to choir! It was the first rehearsal after the summer break, and it was great; also good to see

techiebabe again.

On Tuesday I went on the first leg of the New Good Beer Guide Pub Crawl, visiting the White Swan in Whitechapel, the Hamilton Hall in Liverpool Street Station, the Hand and Shears and Fox and Anchor in Clerkenwell, the Museum Tavern in Bloomsbury, the Courtfield in Earl's Court, and the Leinster Arms in Bayswater.

ewan,

shermarama,

superpitching,

mjg59, and

wildeabandon joined in at various points along the way. We'd intended to eat at the Leinster Arms, but they were running short of food, so instead we went to Kiasu for Malaysian food.

On Wednesday I did the second leg of the New Good Beer Guide Pub Crawl, starting in Harrow-on-the-Hill with lunch at the Castle. While waiting for the bus to take me to the station ready for the next pub, I had a chat with a chap also waiting for the same bus. He told me he'd lived in Harrow-on-the-Hill for 40 years, but couldn't suggest anything interesting to do in the area — a shame, since I forgot to photograph the pub and hence will have to go back some time.

I also ended up having a conversation in the next bit of the journey; having got the bus to Harrow and Wealdstone, and waited 20 minutes for a train, the train got cancelled and I found myself chatting to a lady who'd also been hoping to catch the cancelled train. I never found out her name, but I did find out that she has a pretty similar attitude to life-work balance to me, and her sister is poly. When a useful train finally did turn up, the journey to Watford seemed to take pretty much no time at all, thanks to her company. In Watford, I went to the Estcourt Arms for a quick one, then headed to Watford's other station to get the Metropolitan line down to Eastcote, where I visited the Case Is Altered for some not-very-good food in an almost laughably bad environment, then beat a quick retreat to the Black Horse for a soothing half to get over it.

Thursday saw the final leg of the New Good Beer Guide Pub Crawl, a much more compact affair covering the New Prince (not actually a NGBGP but it needed a review) and the Lamb in Surbiton, the Boaters Inn in Kingston, the Builders Arms and Adelaide in Teddington, and finally the Railway Bell in Hampton. I'd intended to get food at the Railway Bell, but in contradiction to what both the Good Beer Guide and the pub's own website told me, they only do food at lunchtimes, so I drank my pint quickly and ran off to find a chip shop.

On Friday, Saturday, and Sunday I alternately worked and rested, though I did cook a fine roast dinner on Sunday evening, featuring expensive organic chicken roasted on a bed of black pudding, braised parsnips, celeriac stuffing, tamarind gravy, roast potatoes, and a tiny fraction of the frozen-pea mountain from the freezer.

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Adventures with Kake

Mostly (but not entirely) about reading Chinese menus. At the moment.

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December 2012

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