Food and shopping

Published on Fri 14 Sep 2012

It's been a fairly fun filled few weeks. We went to London for the weekend last weekend, and had a nice time, despite the weather and being kept awake by a bazillion Brazillian paralympic athletes doing the South American equivalent of "Oggy Oggy Oggy" until the early hours.

We went to the BP Portrait Prize exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, which was very cool. I'm always impressed when people manage to paint something that could easily be a photo if you didn't know. I'm also impressed when people manage to use really wide rough brush strokes to make something that still looks lifelike. There was plenty of both. I wasn't sure about the winning paintings though - they seemed to mostly have been chosen because they featured nudity. I don't know much about art, but I know what I like etc. etc.

Other than a bit of pampering the highlight was a meal at Sushisamba, a (wait for it) Japanese/Colombian/Peruvian fusion restaurant at the top of Heron Tower (which is next to The Gherkin). The view was incredible, the service was incredible and the food was incredible. They had this orange painted tree too.

We may have gone a little over the top with our ordering, but I don't regret it. I'd not heard the word ceviche until that day, and now it's everywhere (I might be slightly addicted to Masterchef Australia and they're always at it). I think we got through about 6 different dishes, each of which was a proper explosion of taste in the mouth. I can't remember what we had now apart from that I had chocolate and chilli ice creams for dessert. Chilli ice cream is surprisingly nice, especially when eaten with a bit of chocolate ice cream, though I was only brave enough to try it because everything else had been quite so delicious. That wasn't the only encounter I had with surprising ice cream this month. 

We went to see Jeffrey Lewis at The Junction 2, where  I first saw him, very nearly 6 years ago (as he pointed out - that it was that long ago, not that I first saw him). I can't believe it was that long ago and that I was writing this blog back then too. It was the full band "Junkyard" line up this time, which I really enjoyed last time I saw them. They were good again but they mostly played the noisy upbeat songs that tend to be silly rather than clever and blur into one. I also found his brother who was playing bass a bit annoying with his constant interrupting and setlist choosing. He "showed" some of his great "movies" though - the one about the Cuban Missile Crisis was lovely and the 10-15 minute history of punk on the lower east side was also great (though I've seen it before). We got "Don't be Upset" which I loved immediately and seem to appreciate more and more as time goes by but no "Roll Bus Roll" and I think "Williamsburg Will Oldham Horror" might have had its day now... 

We went to Midsummer House the other week, which I think is generally considered to be the best restaurant in Cambridge. We had the 11 course "tasting menu" which might have been a mistake because I think it was designed to give you challenging flavours rather than necessarily enjoyable ones. It started well enough with a "foam of bloody Mary" and some delicious goats cheese in a tube of celery (wasn't so sure about the horseradish ice cream) and then some wonderful scallops, followed by turbot which was ok but not amazing, and some sweetbreads that were nice (as long as you don't think about what they are). The main course (pork belly) would've been lovely I think, if I hadn't been quite so full by that point. I didn't know what a pousse cafe was - turns out that (this one at least) was a shot of whisky a shot of Baileys and a raw egg yolk. It tasted ok and made me feel a lot less full. Who would've thought it on either count. The (three) desserts were pretty weird. Especially the lovage ice cream. I think the correct technique with dessert is to try and get the highest density of chocolate into it as possible, which wasn't really the case with any of these. I decided about halfway through that the trick with this kind of food is to try and get some of every flavour in each mouthful because they're designed to complement each other, but taste pretty strange on their own.

I've done a few fun gigs recently playing keys for Annie. The first was in York in someone's kitchen, which sounds less good than it was. A whole host of pretty great people have played there (Dan Mangan, Jacob Golden to name but two). I've never been convinced about the whole house concert thing, but based on this there's really something to it - the sound was great, there were plenty of people there and we got a wonderful breakfast. We had a quick wander round York the next day (they've moved the model railway from next to the station to Lincolnshire, which was the main thing I wanted to see) then went to an outlet mall just south of it. We were pretty sure we parked next to someone getting a blowie in the car park. They suddenly sat up looking sheepish. It's a slightly surprising place to do that kind of thing. At least go to a part of the car park that isn't right next to the entrance.

The second was at a small festival at a cricket ground in Berkhamsted. It was the first time they'd put it on and all things considered seemed to be going extremely well. Except for the beer queue, which this photo shows a small part of.

I was quite taken with this weather vane.

Seth Lakeman was headlining, but we had to get going well before that. We nearly went to Butterfly World on the way home, which promised a huge biodome in the shape of a butterfly's head, but on closer inspection (when you've gone through the huge gates, along the half mile drive and crossed the vast car park) it wasn't opening until 2013. What they did have (according to the girl at the till) was a small butterfly house and Ant World. Ant World.  

We did one in Hot Numbers, a cafe off Mill Road in Cambridge, supporting Alyssa Graham who's also from New York. It was sweaty, and they were very nice and sounded great and we had a very tasty curry after.

I went on Radio Cambridgeshire on Friday to talk a little bit and play some songs. It's been a while since I've been on the radio so I was pretty nervous the day before, but when I eventually plucked up the courage to listen back it wasn't too bad. Especially the playing. I did The Ghost of Paddy's Night Past, Watertight and Muscle Memory. I'm hoping to get a recording of it to stick up on here.