Scarcely a week after I rejoined the lemmings of the City of London, I'm stuffed silly. Yessirree, Bob, all I've been doing is pigging out. At this rate, I'll need all the bonuses I can get just to pay the tips.
It began with a bit of S & M in Leadenhall Market. Sausages and Mash, dash it, get your mind out of the gutter. Some lovely mashed potato laden with butter and Dijon mustard was shovelled at prodigious rates into a cavernous maw, and the two spicy sausages - thingummyshire and whatsthatplacerton - followed in quick succession.
The next day found me loosening the old belt a notch at the Sauterelle in the Royal Exchange. This is a French restaurant of some distinction (possibly the distinction one obtains by being next door to Hermes and the like), and I tucked into a three-course set menu that included such delicacies as Wild garlic and potato textures, parmesan beignet, baby globe artichoke (starter), Day boat Cornish Pollock, olive oil potato brandade, sea greens, red pepper and olive dressing (main), and Lemon and pine nut parfait, orange curd, fennel and mint ice cream (shoot me now, someone). At least that's what the names sounded like.
Brief rustles in the web of time went by digesting this repast, and there I was on Gutter Lane, more apropos than one can imagine, presenting myself for lunch at Manicomio. Italian, won't you believe it. The ground floor of this purpose-built modern island in the midst of the City's ancientness is a fine deli, but I passed it by with nary a sigh, and ascended to the first floor, where, accompanied by colleagues, I demolished a Mendoza Malbec '09 from Argentina, Char-grilled squid with chickpeas tomato, chilli and garlic (starter), and Tagliatelle with rabbit, sage, lemon and spring onions (leaving me remarkably fragrant and the office strangely deserted a couple of hours later).
I'm not sure I want to go on. Will this week be any lighter? I doubt it. More prandial socialising approaches.
3 comments:
Nice! And what wrong with fennel and mint ice cream?! Sounds delish.
It's the orange curd that did me in.
You must have had seriously cool breath after that ice-cream!
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