41 at The River Cafe

Carlos!

Exactly a year ago I was driving home from Stansted having flown back from Ibiza the morning after the best day of my life and a long lunch at one of the happiest places in the world, The Blue Marlin.

My birthday lunch last year involved 9 hours; a white sandy beach; 1 fabulous handsome and charming waiter, Carlos; 5 luscious women; a single petrified geezer; several magnums of Provence Rose and ice-cold Albarino and an obscene quantity of the most delicious strawberry cocktails.

The Magdalen Arms

Brilliant. Thank Christ. Finally! Ladies and Gents after years of suffering the mainstream, chainy, below-average culinary desert that, inexplicably, has been Oxford’s food scene for a good long time with few exceptions, there is now somewhere to go for delicious, original, gorgeous tasty cooking and a menu that makes you want to order everything on it.

Dabbous Round Two!

Lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky me, me, me! I got to go to Dabbous again yesterday for my second visit and sample the new menu – its first major change since doors opened in January, and blimey, it was even better. So I won’t go into any history or detail, if you want the background read ‘Woohoo Dabbous!’my original post, but here I will just update you with pictures and descriptions of the new dishes tried yesterday.

El Celler De Can Roca. Asombroso!

El Celler De Can Roca

It was back in 1992 that I first heard of El Bulli at a barbecue in a friends back garden. Morne asked if I’d read that weekends review of some amazing restaurant in the middle of nowhere amongst the mountains of northern Spain. It told of how the chef there was creating incredible things, stuff we could barely imagine and had never even heard of let alone tasted. How this was going to be huge. Over the next few weeks I heard more snippets on the grapevine about this place and about Ferran Adria. I took a chance despite the rumours that it was impossible for a mere mortal to get a reservation and emailed requesting a table for lunch the following April, at the beginning of their new season. They emailed straight back confirming my booking.

Woohoo Dabboo! (mega new restaurant: DABBOUS)

Dabbous. Open for business.

This week the incredibly talented chef, Ollie Dabbous, opened his eponymous brand-spanking new restaurant ‘Dabbous‘. Located in Fitzrovia at 39 Whitfield Street, London, a few of us were lucky enough to be guests at his ‘soft opening’ for cocktails Monday evening followed by their first ever lunch service the next day. Things did very nearly go with a bang, or at least a flame,

The Old Butchers in Stow

The Old Butchers

I’ve just spent a lovely few days ambling around Oxfordshire with my wonderful mum and dad who came to stay for the weekend. It’s a pretty rare occurrence with me in the past having frequently been unavailable due to work commitments, and them tied up most of the time with Grandparenting duties – and to be honest I spend most of my available spare time hanging around in their neck of the woods anyway, Cornwall being the most beautiful place in the world and where my heart lives!

Lunch at Petersham Nurseries

Petersham Nurseries Cafe

I am probably one of the least green-fingered people on the planet (despite my school nickname of ‘Greenie’ which I hated). I don’t know why I’m such a disaster in the garden; well it might be something to do with the fact that I usually go away frequently during the main watering season but apart from that I’m really not doing anything wrong!

‘Allo ‘Allo, Brasserie Blanc

'Jericho' arty shot courtesy of Ruby

Yesterday after suffering the unusual, to me at least, ordeal of a one-and-a-half-hour-long prize giving at a private Oxford girls school – don’t ask – I was rewarded with lunch at Brasserie Blanc in Jericho, and thankfully I wasn’t driving ’cause I was oh-so-ready for a drink after that!