meemalee

First impressions of Taste of London 2009 were not great. Thursday afternoon, Susan Smillie of the Guardian's Word of Mouth tweeted to say that everyone was being evacuated . I rang my friend Lou in the French Flair Theatre to ask what was up - she said nothing was up. Five minutes later she texted me to say "You were right - there's been a security alert" (when I saw Lou later she was mildly outraged that Twitter let me know about the bomb scare before she did). Anyway, after almost two hours of what Lou calls a "deep routine search", the gates finally opened at 7pm and hubby and I were stampeded by hordes of hungry members of the chattering classes. After stalking a couple of chefs (step forward Wozza and ze lovely Jun Tanaka ), I made a bee-line for Dinings for Wagyu Beef Tataki with Ponzu Sauce and Porcini Oil (£3) and Three Sushi Rolls (£4) ie Foie Gras Roll with sweet soy; Tuna Roll with Creamy Wasabi Sauce; King Crab Roll with Spicy Taramo Sau...

So Sir Paul McCartney is exhorting us to have Meat-Free Mondays and for once I'm impressed. Don't get me wrong, I love the Beatles, but I've always thought Macca was a bit of a tool partly due to the McCartney/Lennon credits squabble and partly because a few years back, I went to see Theatre of the New Ear (amazing Coen Brothers / Charlie Kauffman play ) and, just before it started, Paul and then wife Heather Mills marched in front of the audience and stopped just so he could do a thumbs-up "Ayyyyy!" in the style of Arthur Fonzarelli . Heather looked really embarrassed and I actually felt sorry for her. Then they traipsed up the aisles to sit eight rows behind us. Heh. Anyway, I'm a rampant carnivore, but even I can see that it would be better for the planet's future to go meat-free where possible and everyone can do it at least one day a week. Therefore I present to you my favourite vegetarian Burmese dish - Egg Curry aka jet-u jhet (literally ...

It's my 50th blog post! To celebrate, here's the moment we've all been waiting for - The Great British Menu 2009 Homecoming Banquet ! With your host - Ross Kemp ! (straight after posting this image, my computer crashed - such is the power of Ross Kemp ) Sadly, this doesn't mean that Jennie Bond has been put out to pasture - rather that Grant Mitchell is hosting the banquet itself and JB keeps her gig as voice-over (though she's not actually invited to the event itself, ha). The chefs Kenny Atkinson , Shaun Rankin , Nigel Haworth and my fave, Glynn Purnell arrive at RAF Halton House the day before the banquet - the latter two have rather sweetly driven themselves down. There's some flashback action, with scenes of Kenny dressing up like Tina Turner in combats, and of Glynn being patronised in a Brummie spice factory - "We Have. To Grind. Them Sloooowly. Or they. Will Get. Burnt". To remind you, the menu they'll be preparing will be: Salad of A...