Eating Out – Page 14 – Ian Louis Harris

What A Megillah…An MTWD Dinner, 4 December 2008

There is a long, almost self-explanatory thread on MTWD planning this dinner – between October and the event itself on 4 December:

Here is a link to page one of two of the thread.

Here is a link to page two of two of the thread.

Just in case anything ever happens to Sportnetwork, here is a scrape of Page One…

…and here is a scrape of Page Two.

The subplot to the planning was a whole load of nonsense which got one site user banned and had several others incensed.

At one point in the e-mail trail Barmy Kev and I talked about boycotting the evening, which would have made it very interesting indeed as I get the impression that, in the end, it was just the two of us who turned up and dined.

Sometimes I wonder whether we should have renamed the site MTWLTWTL (Middlesex Till We Lose The Will To Live).

We went to the O2 Centre on Finchley Road.

We plotted lots of interesting stuff for the MTWD website that evening by all accounts.

Strangely, I don’t think anyone ever attempted one of those MTWD Xmas dinners again. I cannot imagine why not.

Dinner With John White At The Pearl But Total E-Mail Silence, 19 November 2008

Nothing in the e-mail trail about this. Nothing at all. Not setting it up. Not cancelling it.

The e-mail trail stops with John apologising that he will have to miss my Gresham Lecture a couple of weeks before this date…

Commercial Ethics: Process or Outcome?, Gresham Lecture, Barnard’s Inn Hall, 6 November 2008

…but I know that John came to the lecture because I even wrote him into the script and handed him a bootleg CD as he dashed off to his unavoidable engagement that night.

So I guess we must have spent some time talking to each other on the telephone during those weeks. I remember talking on the telephone. That’s what we used to do to arrange things before e-mail and messaging and things.

Anyway, it was my trusty payments log that helped me solve this one, as I spent a suspiciously John & Ian dinner sum at The Pearl on the very night recorded in my diary.

Pearl At Renaissance Chancery Court – click here for a link.

Here is a review from a year or so before we went.

Review scraped to here just in case – after all, the place is long gone now.

I remember a good but pricey meal. The company, needless to say, was excellent. John must have chosen the place because I paid.

Do you remember anything else about it, John?

Dinner With John White at Hereford Road, Preceded and Followed by a spot of cricket at Lord’s, 3 September 2008, plus a snippet on 4 September 2008

Wednesday 3 September 2008

One of the regular/irregular meet ups between me and John White. John had not yet been to Lord’s to see proper (i.e. red ball, white clothing) cricket, nor had he yet done the pavilion thing.

As it was my turn to choose the eating venue, I hatched a plan for the meal to be at Hereford Road (which I was sure would be to John’s taste) and for both of us to finish work early for a change, starting our late afternoon at Lord’s. My e-mail to John a couple of days before:

We’re meeting early at Lord’s if you are still on for that – I have 4:30/4:45 in my diary. I have booked Hereford Road for dinner – excellent restaurant between Lord’s and my place – owned and cheffed by the former chef from St John.

So John joined me at Lord’s for an hour or so of cricket and the informal tour of the pavilion, then the restaurant, both of which he seems to have enjoyed – John’s subsequent e-mail words:

As always a lovely evening. It was very kind of you to let me into Lord’s. Although nobody is really that interested I have been endlessly describing the various bars, characters and atmosphere of the place. I don’t know if you won? Orient managed a 2-0 win away at Walsall on Saturday if you’re interested.

The restaurant got and still gets good reviews:

As for the cricket, I did return the next day…

Thursday 4 September 2008

…but again only for the last couple of hours, primarily as a convivial meeting place with Steve Tasker to go through some UNISON business; probably thinking through project budgets for 2009. I’m sure we got to see a bit of cricket and enjoy a beer at the end of the day as well.

As for the Friday and the remainder of the match – I wrote that up at length at the time for both MTWD and King Cricket – all linked up and explained through the following Ogblog piece – click here. Rain-affected draw for those uninterested in clicking through to read the slapstick exploits of Ged and Charley “The Gent” Malloy, yet interested in an ancient match result.

A Quieter Couple of Weeks, Ending in Gastro Bistro, Clapham, 6 July 2008

After the wonderful yet strange evening in Uxbridge 24 June, a quieter couple of weeks before the next excitement.

25 June

There was an England v New Zealand ODI at the Oval, which I didn’t attend but I was able to catch the end of it on the TV after work. The scorecard – click here – reveals how close the game was but does not reveal the controversy over Collingwood’s captaincy after he insisted, against the advice of the umpires, on progressing a run out appeal in unusual circumstances, against Grant Elliot – the Kiwis went on to win the match anyway. The Sussex v Middlesex match that evening seemed tame by way of comparison; I’m pretty sure I listened to most of it:

27 & 28 June

The last T20 group match was at the Oval against Surrey. I know I missed it completely, because Daisy and I were taken out for dinner by Jamil and Souad – I’m pretty sure we went to Noura in Belgravia, but Daisy’s diary should confirm or deny when we get around to checking – see “A Couple of nights out”.

27 & 28 June

A yes, we indeed had a couple of nights out:

A Brace Of Birthday Dinners For Daisy, 27 & 28 June 2008

4 July

Following a working week that looked quite light on meetings and evening engagements, but did include another Z/Yen Boat Trip on the Wednesday, on the Friday, I took a day out at Uxbridge. Middlesex were hosting the visiting South Africans in a warm-up match.

I wrote quite a lengthy report for MTWD on that day – click here.

Here is the scorecard from that tour match.

6 July

A relatively quiet weekend culminating in a lunch out with my mum at Gastro in Clapham. I had not seen this Jay Rayner review – click here – when I booked it.

It seems to divide opinion on TripAdvisor too – click here.

Actually, Janie and I rather liked the place, but I do recall that the Sunday menu was not quite as advertised and in any case the dishes on offer were of an kind unfamiliar to mum, who got a bit shirty about it all.

I’m not too sure how the matter got resolved but I seem to recall the lunch event being salvaged somehow, I think through some good staff making appropriate amounts of fuss around mum and looking after her nicely. Or did we move on to another place to get that fuss? Janie might remember.

I do recall resolving not to book such a place again for mum – the familiar “old-fashioned Italian or French bistro” places she’d been to before being the best bet for her now. Oh well.

A Brace Of Birthday Dinners For Daisy, 27 & 28 June 2008

Friday 27 June – Jamil & Souad

On the Friday we had dinner with Jamil & Souad. Both of our diaries are silent on the details of where we went, but I’m pretty sure they wanted to treat Janie for her birthday so my guess is that we went to one of the well posh Lebanese restaurants they favoured at that time – i.e. probably Noura in either Curzon Street or Hobart Place.

Those two are always jolly company and would have been extremely hospitable.

Saturday 28 June – Kim, Micky, Anthea and Mitchell

Again both diaries are well light on detail. There were thoughts of another Sandall Close party for that evening, but I think the combination of Charlie’s graduation the day before and Phillie’s poor health meant that idea was shelved. There is a half plan for Hil & Chris to come down in Janie’s book, but I think that was when we thought we might have a party. Janie notes in different coloured ink, which looks over-riding:

Annies…+ Kim, + Anthea…
…followed by cab bookings.

Annies will have been the Strand On The Green branch (I don’t think Ive been to the Barnes branch) and I must admit that neither Janie nor I remember much about this particular evening. It will have been enjoyable and I do recall liking the food and ambience in Annies.

I think that evening replaced one planned for a couple of week’s earlier (14 June), when we were hoping to see DJ too.

Provence & St Tropez, 22 To 29 April 2008, placeholder and links

This was a bit of an unusual week away for us. Kim had been persistently asking us to join her and friends in St Tropez for her birthday for a few years. We’d insisted that we didn’t think that St Tropez would be “our thing”. She wondered how we could judge such a thing without giving it a try.

So, our cunning plan to please everyone including ourselves was to arrange a fly-drive week in the South of France, initially doing our own thing for a few days…

and then joining up with Kim, Micky and others in “San-trop”.

Auntie Janet at Ultimate Travel helped us to construct our itinerary but I cannot find any papers from her, only this quote from her e-mail/invoice:

French Expressions holidays including flights;

Automatic car hire throughout and three nights accommodation

in a Junior Suite at L’Auberge du Chateau de Berne on a bed

and breakfast basis

So, in brief, we flew to Nice and picked up a car for our week in France. We stayed three nights at the delightful Chateau de Berne Hotel and Spa.

We did a bit of touring…

…together with a lot of resting, wining and dining; three nights there. Lovely sun deck for reading; great to try their wines and we even played some ping pong (Daisy’s favourite, because she normally wins).

Then on to St Tropez for four nights at the Tahiti Beach Hotel…

…where Kim and Micky regularly stay. We arrived the day before the others, so played tennis and then ate at a Vietnamese restaurant named Bahn Hoi, recommended by Anthea. Very nice but also very pricey. That’s St Tropez for you.

Next day we have an early morning snoop around the market…

…then finally meet up with Kim and Micky for lunch at Tahiti that day.

We worked off the lunch on the tennis court. Dinner that evening is at Villa Romana, with Robert, Fiza and their son/girlfriend too. A very fashionable place but it is heaving and displeases me; food ordinary apart from the price:

Next day, we played tennis in the morning. Indeed, we played tennis at Tahiti on the tennis court there a few times. Not the best surface we have ever played on, but far from the worst. As our short stay went on, we found it harder and harder to play tennis for an hour; a cautionary tale for all of us.

Same gang as last night for lunch at Tahiti; then after siesta an evening at a St Tropez nightclub, Stefano Forever.

I was dreading this one but actually it was more fun. As it was pre-season, the show was a tryout and we were the only guests, so we got to have a lot of fun as audience participation could only be us…

…and we were the only possible invitees to the after show party…

…Janie even tried her hand at pole dancing…of sorts…

…she got a wee bit better at it remarkably quickly when she actually took up pole dancing some 10 years later:

…but I digress.

The final day was Kim’s actual birthday. Despite the excesses of the night before, lunch between the four of us (the Robert Anthony family, perhaps knowing the score, made themselves scarce that lunchtime) was a boozy and celebratory affair:

Indeed, after siesta Janie swore that she couldn’t make it to the arranged dinner for six of us (son and girlfriend were gone by now) at L’Auberge de Maures, but then changed her mind. In this photo, I look almost as rough as I felt.

In truth, our view that this sort of eating and drinking extravaganza is not really our thing was reinforced by this trip, but we made Kim happy for her birthday that year and at least we can now say we’ve tried it.

Lots more photos, including those above, in this Flickr album, but surely more for the cognoscenti (i.e. those who were there) than for general consumption. I probably can construct a few good tales from the trusty journal once I get around to it; for now here is the indecipherable scribblings: Provence and St Tropez April 2008 Journal Notes.

Three Nights Out In A Row, Culminating With Homayoun Shajarian & Dastan Ensemble at Cadogan Hall, 6 February 2008

Barbat Credit to Galassi at the English language Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0 — Barbat
Credit to Galassi at the English language Wikipedia
CC BY-SA 3.0

It was a bit of a social whirl early that week, with two work-related evenings Monday and Tuesday, then an interesting concert Wednesday.

Monday 4 February PEFC Evening at the House of Lord’s

This was a dinner organised by the Programme For the Endorsement of Forestry Certification Schemes (PEFC) about the world’s forest resources. In truth, I don’t remember all that much about the evening. We (Z/Yen and an expert panel) were doing a governance review with PEFC at the time. This event coincided neatly with a day in London with the governance review panel, most of whom attended the dinner in the evening.

I have a vague feeling that Zac Goldsmith might have been the guest speaker for this one, or perhaps I am getting confused with a different evening at the Palace of Westminster. Anyway, my e-mail trail suggests that the evening was a great success.

Tuesday 5 February Monique Gore Evening at the Kiwi Kitchen

This was a fun informal works outing organised by Monique ahead of a relatively long holiday in her native New Zealand. We went to the Kiwi Kitchen on the North End Road – sadly now closed. It was a fun place and I recall the food being pretty good too. The only on-line Trip Advisor review that I can find (most have been closed down along with the restaurant) says:

“Perfect food, wonderful value for money”

Reviewed 17 April 2009

Following a trip to New Zealand in January, we were missing the flavours of NZ and since we were in London decided to try out this restaurant. What an absolute gem!!
The food is cooked to perfection and the portion sizes are more than adequate – if you decide to go I would suggest taking a very large appetite!…

My abiding memory was that we had a large contingent of the Z/Yen crowd, not least the UNISON team. Coincidentally, the restaurant had a Kiwi Sauvignon Blanc named Unison on the wine list, which I decided we simply had to choose to mark the occasion. It was pretty good wine too.

I wonder whether Monique took any pictures that evening – she often did – if so, I’ll subsequently up one or two of them if she is good enough to provide them.

Wednesday 6 February – Homayoun Shajarian & Dastan Ensemble at Cadogan Hall

Janie and I were keen to try this Persian classical music, so we made an unusual decision to see a concert on a Wednesday evening (Janie treats patients at home on Wednesdays, so is a reluctant traveller into central London for the evening on a Wednesday).

This concert was worth the trip, not least to see/hear unusual instruments such a the barbat and tar (lute-type instruments), kamancheh (a spiky fiddle), tanbak, dayereh, daf, dammam & kuzeh (percussion instruments).

The Dastan Ensemble – click here for website – are a leading ensemble in their field. A fair chunk of London’s Iranian community turned out for this concert, plus a sizeable minority of interested folk like ourselves. Not all of the audience was reverent in the way a European audience would be for classical music; for example quite a few people moved around or made noise during pieces. Similarly, the ensemble had little sense of London concert timing etiquette, performing several encores and thus keeping us at the hall till well after 10:00 if I recall correctly.

We won’t be rushing to see Persian classical again in a hurry; it didn’t float our boat to the same extent as Indian classical (for example) does. But we were both glad to have tried it, even in the middle of a busy week.

Contrasting Care And Attention To Lower Limbs: An Afternoon & Evening With Mum At Woodfield Avenue And Newton’s, 1 February 2008

Janie is a very good-hearted sort, as evidenced by her diary entries for this afternoon – listing a whole load of stuff to take over to my mum’s house that afternoon for our “half-holiday” and evening with mum. A busman’s half-holiday in Janie’s case, with chiropody equipment and massage oils listed.

In short, Janie will have given a great deal of care and attention to mum’s feet and shanks when we visited her at Woodfield Avenue that afternoon, ahead of dinner at Newton’s in Clapham.

Newton’s had been recommended by John and Lily Hogan, who were keen on that place. To be fair, it had good reviews back then and writing more than 10 years later (January 2019), although renamed 33 Abbeville now, still seems to be well regarded by the locals.

We were also attracted to the place by the offering of slow-cooked lamb shanks; a dish we all like(d) and don’t often see on modern restaurant menus.

Unfortunately, the care and attention that Janie gave to my mother’s feet and shanks did not appear to be replicated in those served to us at Newton’s. Our guess is that the shanks we were served had not been cooked for anything like long enough, making the central purpose of our visit more than a little disappointing.

At that stage of her life, mum found it difficult to keep her disappointment to herself…

…and at that stage of long, hard-working weeks, Janie and I were not in the very best of moods for awkwardness either, so I don’t think the visit ended quite as well as it should have done.

We did not return to Newton’s to ascertain whether our poor meal there was a one-off problem – quite possibly it was but we were none of us “second chance” types for restaurants – especially mum.

This picture actually four year’s later at Noddyland, taken by Kim or Janie

A Quiet Start To The Year, 1 to 14 January 2008

We had a relatively quiet start to 2008, with everything that went on towards the end of 2007, we’d booked little at the start of 2008.

5 January

A gathering at Kitt & Julia’s place in Sandall Close. A good chance to socialise a little with neighbours etc.

9 January

I went to Aidrienne Da Donka’s funeral that day. The Da Donka’s lived next door in Woodfield Avenue. If I recall correctly mum couldn’t face it, being so close to dad’s passing and at the same location, so I moved my (copious) work around and represented the family at that funeral. This was the first of what seemed (to me) an unlikely number of such funerals within 12-18 months or so of dad’s passing.

12 January

Dinner at Amaya with Kim & Micky. Top notch Indian grub. Looks as though we stayed at my flat afterwards. I’ll be honest and say that I don’t much remember this evening…

…but strangely Daisy remembers lots about it. She even remembers eating “zip-up lamb”. Crumbs – that’s some memory in January 2019 from someone who claims to have almost no memory.

We do both remember the evening being a success though as everyone enjoyed their grub as well as the company.

The Art of Lee Miller followed by Dinner at Cambio de Tercio, Z/Yen Staff Christmas Event, 14 December 2007

The above picture, from Cambio de Tercio, is possibly the last photo taken of me before I grew my beard over that Christmas break. I suspect I should be “crediting” Monique for it, or possibly Jez given the proximity of the photographer to Sarah.

Earlier in the evening we had all enjoyed a cultural time at the V&A. Most people followed Linda’s lead to The Golden Age of Couture, but I was keen to see photography instead; The Art of Lee Miller. I think Janie had already seen the couture, so some folk joined us for the photographic exhibition.

Cambio de Tercio is a fine restaurant and we indeed had a very fine meal there.

The song that year was, ♬Santa’s Using PropheZy At Z/Yen♬ to the tune of Santa Claus is Coming To town:

SANTA’S USING PROPHEZY AT Z/YEN
(Sung to the tune of “Santa Claus is Coming To Town”)

He’s made an edict!
He needs to know why!
He’s out to predict,
He will classify;Santa Claus Is Coming To Z/Yen,
PropheZy has done it again,
Santa’s using PropheZy at Z/Yen!Santa’s making a list,
He’s checking it twice,
His model works out
Who’s naughty and nice.

Santa Claus Is Coming To Z/Yen,
PropheZy has done it again,
Santa’s using PropheZy at Z/Yen!

He predicts when you’re not sleeping,
He predicts when you’re serene,
He computes if you’ve been bad or good,
In Support Vector Machine!

A Santa index,
A Santa Claus game,
A Santa benchmark,
The answer’s the same;

IndeZy is coming to Z/Yen,
ExtZy is coming to Z/Yen,
PropheZy is coming to Z/Yen.

The boys and girls in Z/Yen-land,
Want to know the reason why,
Each name has got to start or end,
With a Z and then a Y.

They’re eaZy to use,
They’re peaZy to play,
No sleaZy abuse,
When done the Z/Yen way;

IndeZy is coming to Z/Yen,
ExtZy is coming to Z/Yen,

Here’s Bruce Springsteen’s version of Santa Claus Is Coming To Town:

I seem to recall that a very good time was had by all that evening.

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