Rather A Lot Of Dinners, Parties & Dinner Parties Over The Summer Months Of 1995

Ossobuco – picture by Stu Spivack via Wikipedia Commons

It was that sort of era, really, the 1990s. Dinner parties and small gatherings.

Listing The Events

• 24 June – “Tessa’s party” – Tessa played bridge with me, Andrea and Maz. She lived in Acton;
• 1 July – “Duchess Japanese meal” – that would have been at Momos on Queen’s Parade. Janie and I often ate there in those days, quite often making it a Friday evening treat after work. It was a superb, authentic Japanese place, run by Mr Asari. We still miss it. We decided to treat the Duchess to the place for her birthday that year;
• 15 July – “Kim & Micky [for] dinner” – at theirs I think. Janie and I went to the Canal Cafe to see NewsRevue the next day.
• 29 July – “John & Jolli” – that will have been John Thompson and his partner Jolita. I think they came to Sandall Close for a meal.
• 5 August – “Bernie, Heather & Dave” – these are people we met in China in 1993. We owed Heather & Dave hospitality as we had been to a party up their way (Bedfordshire/Northamptonshire). Bernie was a laugh.
• 26 August – “Dinner with Anthea”
• 27 August – “North China restaurant” with Andrea and others?

The menu is absent from Janie’s diary for the above events, but absent for:

An Ossobuco Evening With Daniel, Julie, Michael, Elisabeth, Kim & Micky, 3 September 1995

Daniel had migrated to Australia and paired up with (perhaps already married) Julie. This was their first visit to the UK together. Janie cooked a wonderful Ossobuco meal for all of us that evening.

Special in so many ways as a dish, this was also her signature dish from the first time Janie ever had me over for dinner, so it seemed appropriate:

Ossobuco At Janie’s Place, 16 August 1992

A very special evening, that one.

More Listings As We Move Into Autumn

• 10 September – “John & Mandy” – possibly our first visit to their place in Wanstead, as I wrote down directions;
• 14 October “Kim, Micky, Phillie & Tony” – dinner at Sandall Close
• 15 October “Michael & Elisabeth” – dinner at their place
• 4 November “Murray Elliot lunch” – Ros’s dad. We were off to see Ros in Turkey a few days later.