John is one day younger than me. We have often celebrated our joint birthdays together over the decades. It seemed fitting, 40 years after we first celebrated together…
…to meet around the time of our birthday.
It was my turn to choose and John’s turn to pay. I chose Lita Marylebone, which has received excellent reviews as a relatively recent opening.
Life took me to that Baker Street Quarter of Marylebone a little early on a glorious summer afternoon, so I took a short stroll around friends and family sites…
…took some tea outdoors in a cafe and sat reading in Paddington Street Gardens South until dinner time.
Then Lita.
The conceit of the place is sharing plates, which both John and I like. I sense that the maître d’ encouraged us to over-order, by suggesting that we order three plates from the small category, three from the medium and two from the large plates. Perhaps I should have asked him if those numbers were for rotund people like himself, or slim-jims like me and John.
Still, it was great to taste so many utterly delicious plates:
- Wildfarmed sourdough, cultured butter
- Kentish radishes, smoked cod’s roe
- Smoked Basque sardines, ajo blanco, cherries
- Salad of Romana courgettes, artichoke, ricotta, basil, mint
- Strozzapreti, Aylesbury duck ragu, Parmesan 36 mth
- Linguine, St Austell mussels, Cornish cockles, palourde clams, bottarga
- Slow cooked Cull Yaw, celeriac, preserved winter truffle
- Cornish monkfish, fennel, heirloom tomatoes, bouillbaisse
Plus some Ratte potatoes, which were surplus to our requirements but very interesting/different from your regular taters.
We chatted about all manner of things and the evening flew by. I took several pictures of John (see also headline picture), but he didn’t take any pictures of me…
…but that was OK, because my earlier appointment had been all about pictures of me – about 300 of them.
