Post show - it's back to Caesar's palace...

It was a good show.  There was a brass band from Shaftesbury in neighbouring Dorset.  There was a stand staffed by the owners of the local pub, Babs (she's a local girl) and Tony (he's from Yorkshire, they're different up there - a direct quote from the local village mag, required reading for everyone I'd say - it's, um, it's unbelievable).  Anyway, Babs supplied Gerry and I with a lovely Pimm's each - thanks, Gerry and we perused their new menu and I took a copy back for Richard so that he could see it too. 

I think it's quite a tricky thing to do - to run a pub/restaurant in a small village.  Pitched one way: jacket potatoes at £6 - one can just as easily stay at home and bake one's own potato.  Pitched another way: steak at £15 cooked any way you like - one could just as easily stay at home and grill one's own steak the way one likes it.  It's difficult I think in this day and age to revive the 1970s Berni Inn and present it as something new and refreshing - complete with pineapple ring on the gammon.  However, it's heartening that Babs and Tony cater for coeliacs (do they cater for anyone else I wonder?).  And as someone (I know it was one of the ladies) wrote in the Three Towers, the magazine for Fovant and Sutton Mandeville, if you want your egg runny, let them know and that's what they'll do.  Alternatively, if you want to run a mile, it's beautiful countryside and lots of flora, fauna and wildlife to spot as you jog along.

I did a raid on the jam, preserves and chutney stall featuring home-made produce from the ladies of Fovant and Sutton Mandeville, and a few shop-bought items that had strayed in.  I eschewed the latter for the former and, thinking of Dalston, purchased Romesco and Ginger jam, and Gooseberry and Elderflower jam.  Now, almost everyone I mentioned this too - Gerry and Richard for starters, said of the Romesco and Ginger jam - oh, that'll be quite spicy.  This would have been my thought exactly had not one of the lovely ladies (they're definitely ladies and not women) informed me when I was looking at it that it was Romesco the vegetable not Romesco the sauce.

In fact, it turns out that it's Romanesco the vegetable, a brassica.  Whichever.  Dalston is an adventurous soul and I knew he'd be happy to experiment with ginger flavoured cauliflower.  In fact, he loved it (and the gooseberry and elderflower) and I tasted a bit and agree.  In look and texture (difficult to see from the outside because it just looked like large bits of cauliflower in amber jam) and taste it resembled a milder version of the yummy stem ginger in syrup one can get - but much better.  So, ladies, I hope to be back (courtesy of Gerry and Richard) and on my return I will once again delve into your more esoteric delights ready to deliver back to Dalston.  Your jam made it to Hackney, but won't make it out again (because it will all be eaten with satisfaction).

Romanesco cauiflower

Anyway, back to Caesar's Palace and supper.  I don't know how he does it but Gerry makes the most delicious Caesar salad.  I can hear his reaction as I write this though, it goes something like this "honestly Amanda, all it takes is some (evenly - where do you think Richard learnt his knife skills - from the master of course) diced chicken, a ripe avocado (diced) and so on and so forth.  I'm sure he's right, really I am, but it just tastes absolutely yummy.



An upright Caesar salad

 And here's another shot, simply because it is a thing of wonder.



In the prone position, photographed from above

Richard is allergic to chicken, and so his was without fowl but with bacon. 


And parmesan.

Nestling amongst each of the salads, both Caesar and - what would the other one be? - let's call it Calpurnia, above fowl suspicion, was pancetta which I'd bought from London, cubed and sautéed by Gerry.  Usually, I buy 750g or so from the ever-superba Gazzano, most recently run by the late and lamented Joe Gazzano.  Still owned and run by the family, there are very good reasons why it has been a centre of excellence for over a century.  On this occasion however I didn't make it down that far and went instead to James Elliott on Essex Road, totally free range and smoked, of course.  Mangiano e buon appetito a tutti!