Sun 17th July 2011 - Dinner at the Bell, Hampton Poyle
When I worked at the MRC I always made a point of attending the weekly seminars, because, no matter who the speaker was, or how tangential the subject was to my own work, there were always nuggets of information, and glimpses of overlapping interests.
This awareness of the potential for learning from other disciplines led us to the RSM Medical Innovations Summit where 12 speakers from all branches of medical sciences gave short presentations of their innovative work (it was probably the talk about the bionic cat that convinced us to go!). Luke Alphey talked abut his work genetically modifying mosquitos to combat dengue fever, and Nina Alphey (a mathematical ecologist) asked one of the speakers about sharing ideas across disciplines, which led me to seek her out at the next break, as she clearly was one of those rare people who consider the bigger picture. We quickly learned that they live about a quarter of a mile from us here in Kidlington!
One of the great things about living here is that the open countryside is virtually on our doorsteps, and we planned to take the 20 minute walk to the next village, Hampton Poyle, and The Bell restaurant, for dinner. However, the rainy season (aka summer) arrived, and we wimped out and drove.
The wine menu seemed sparse and focussed, but the food menu was extensive and dense, and included the 'Gentlemans lunch' and the 'Ladies lunch' (which were not only sexist but importantly left out the apostrophes!!) and several ingredients were oddly capitalised: 'pepperoni, mushroom, tomato and Mozzarella pizza'?? We also had to look up daikon, which turns out to be Asian white radish, and Arbequina olive oil. A rule of thumb is that the length of the menu is inversely proportional to the quality of the food, but actually the food was excellent. The pork belly was the best I have had (thin crispy skin, hardly any fat) but was partially chosen as it included 'gooseberry jus' - I have been predicting for some time now that gooseberries will be the next cranberry, and if anyone knows how I can invest in gooseberries, please get in touch! The chocolate pot was rated 9/10 by Nina, although both the Eton Mess and Summer Pudding had too high a proportion of cream, and Penny felt that the Crab Linguini failed to approach the current gold standard for this dish, as served up in The Lord Nelson Brewery Hotel in Sydney!
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| Penny |
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| Luke and Nina |
We talked mainly work: mosquitos, mesothelioma, modelling, the media, and probably other things beginning with m that I've forgotten! But the recurring theme was how to break down the communication barriers between disciplines.
PS the loos were rather fine (see photo) especially L'Occitane liquid soap!
PPS worth checking out Dengue Fever the 'World's Premier Cambodian Psychedelic Rock Band'
PPPS all the cars in the Bell's car park were silver, grey or black - why have car colours gone so conservative? Answers on a postcard please!
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