Lunch 6 - Caroline, Keith, Louis and Penny

Tues 16th Aug - dinner at The Castle

Before I report on the above dinner, there waa another in-betweener meal (one which didn't quite fulfil my criteria for one of the 52 lunches) - dinner with Penny at Cibo! - an Italian restaurant in Summertown - Penny had the spaghetti vongole, I had the pasta (can't remember which kind) with meatballs (and I requested, and got, at no extra charge, chillies). I went to ASK in Clerkenwell a number of times and had their excellent spaghetti meatballs with chillies, but when we went recently to the Oxford branch the same dish was very disappointing. Couldn't fault Cibo's though, and I'm sure we'll be back (gained points for leaving the parmesan on the table, lost points for the musak!)

The flat from The Castle

The Castle from the flat

Clerkenwell has an amazing range of high quality restaurants and gastro pubs such as St John, Hix, Smiths, Zetter, Redhook, Bistro du Vin, The Eagle, etc as well as the usual suspects such as Pizza Express, but it's also possible to find a straightforward pub with a straightforward menu, such as The Castle. It's extremely convenient as it's literally across the road from our rented room - and we met up with Caroline and Louis from the top flat, and Keith from the flat across the hall for dinner there. The Castle claims to be the only pub with a pawnbrokers licence - not sure they use it, or need it though, might be interesting to try and pay for your meal with your watch though (might need more than my Swatch!). So, I had a small but excellent lamb shank shepherd's pie and Penny had - well, check the photo, can you guess what it is yet?? I seem to have had several Eton Mess's lately, and this was definitely the best so far - possibly helped by the fact that it included a good slug of Sloe Gin! For what it was I couldn't fault it really - I'm sure we'll be back!

Louis, Caroline, Keith

Penny's dinner...

Background music has the be Love's The Castle - genius (best ending, ending, ending, of any song)

Lunch 5 - Janet and Penny

Wed 10th Aug - Dinner at The Trout

I've decided to be a bit more selective with my criteria for 'lunches' - so I haven't included the 2 meals we had when the neighbours took pity on us (as our kitchen is still being extended and re-fitted): Hilary and John Maddicott had us, and another neighbour (Ian Davey-Wilson), over for dinner (Russian Fish Pie), and later that week Janet Walker cooked up a great Beef Stifado, or when Penny and I went to The Spice Lounge in Summertown, and had our version of Indian tapas (i.e. just lots of starters), or champagne and nibbles at The Champagne bar in Paddington Station with Penny's sons Oli and Nick (Nick heading back to Sydney, after coming over for a couple of days for a a wedding...).

But I think last night, when we took Janet to The Trout for dinner, does count as one of the bona fide lunches.

The Trout is perhaps the most famous of the local pub restuarants - favourite drinking place for Morse, or perhaps favoured by the director of Morse because of the situation, by the river, etc. Penny had the scallops of the day, then a pasta, Janet had crispy duck salad, and I had prawn and avocado salad (although I'm convinced there was no avocado), Pork Milanese (which was a huge pork chop rather than an escalope) and Eton Mess. Nothing specific to complain about, but it seemed to lack a lightness of touch, over-complicated, under-presented, and the chairs were extremely uncomfortable. Perhaps better to do as Morse did, and sit by the river on a sunny evening with a pint.

I was playing the live Levon Helm CD earlier in the day, and this song was still swimming around my brain (doesn't get much better than Levon and John Hiatt!