Sashimi Girl in Stroud Green: It's Franklin's with friends, preceded by kitty and cocktails

A fine forkful - find out of what further down

So, here I am, in Stroud Green, being virtuous and updating my blog (and having a rest day from the gym). I'm listening to my birthday present from Dalston, magical violin sonatas by Biber. I'm a very lucky woman. And what better way to illustrate this than to describe the delights of my birthday, spent with Scarlett, Rhett and, you know who...

Misty

It was a day which, like Mary Poppins [don't you just love Julie Andrews? I do] was practically perfect in every way. Dalston was in Deutschland, admittedly, but I was consoled for his absence with wonderful company and the odd...

Passion fruit Martini

cocktail (or three). First up was the passion fruit Martini, made with vodka (at my request), by Scarlett. Truly scrumptious. A teensy bit difficult in the pouring from the shaker due to the presence of the passion fruit seeds. So, for the second bite at Difford's #9, we went for the margarita.

Margarita

Scarlett apologised for the lack of margarita glasses and asked if I minded drinking from a martini glass. Do you know the answer to this very polite question? I bet you can guess if you've read more than one of my posts! Of course not, said I. I'm dedicated to being a very obliging guest. It's not even a sacrifice really, it just comes naturally to me. Margaritas, dangerous things, delicious, but dangerous. I only got the one (good thing too), because next it was...

Misty

Oh no, it wasn't. That's Misty again. I know, fluffy, it's very tiring being so beautiful, isn't it? Actually, I don't know. If she were a human, she'd be a supermodel keeping us all in a style to which we are sadly unaccustomed. Oh yes, the final cocktail was a Vesper. Utterly delicious. So, we were well set up to stroll across the common to Franklin's in Dulwich.

Great Vesper

The à la carte was tempting, however, the set menu had sufficient on it to satisfy our requirements which were...

Scarlett's starter

Rabbit liver with frisée and (looks like salsify but isn't) radish. Tasted very delicious as did my and Rhett's...

Sprats on toast

I found them a bit dry, but they were juicy, well-cooked, and totally edible. It was simply that they needed something to give them a lift and lubrication. Not lemon juice. I'm thinking of tartare sauce as someone who shouldn't and it's not that, but something creamy to oil the wheels. Just as an aside, there's no-one who reads this blog who's going to try and bone a sprat, is there? Besides, they are oily fish, crammed full of healthy omega-3, and as with the slightly larger sardines they'd have grown into if we hadn't eaten them, the bones are not only edible but good for you.

I'm going to make a confession now. You know how one sometimes wishes one had ordered what others' have instead? Or is it just me? On this occasion, I wish I'd done the rabbit livers and what Rhett was having. Not that Scarlett's and my ox heart with chorizo, chicory and capers (not non-pareil one though, or at least my non-pareil capers are much smaller than these ones) wasn't delicious. It was.

Ox heart with chicory, chorizo and capers

Look.

See what I mean about the capers though?

And we had it with the usual, absolutely perfect, crisp on the outside, fluffy on the inside..

Franklin's perfect chips

And for extra vitamins...

Buttered cabbage

But just take a gander at Rhett's...

Main course

That's a ham hock hash with a fried duck egg. Perhaps it is just me. And we do share, you know, so I do get to taste things. It's just a very luscious dish. Here, I'll show you what I mean.

Luscious ham hock hash with fried duck egg

It's something one could conceivably cuddle up to (in the autumn perhaps, but I'd do it any time) gastronomically rather than literally speaking. The puddings were more than up to scratch. I have a theory about Franklin's which is that they do tarts very well. Hence my choice of...

Butterscotch tart with cream

Scarlett's a baker and she told me that my pastry was as perfect as it's possible to get tart-wise. The butterscotch was yummy, the edge of the pastry perfectly crisp and melt in the mouth. I could have eaten all the cream (and I'm not usually a big fan of cream - except ice cream of course), but I didn't.

Rhett chose the fool.

Scarlett focuses on Rhett's gooseberry fool

And Scarlett went for the lemon cake.

Cake with vanilla cream

We'd toyed with the idea of and ordered a cheeseboard to share (and to round things off). Unfortunately, the cheese was not up to standard. It consisted of three cheeses, including a Montgomery (I think, although it might have been Keen's) Cheddar. Now, we know our cheeses. Rhett and I, in particular, are cheesehounds. The ageing process generally produces what might be termed an age line, a dark, discoloured area, which can run through the cheese. Really good cheese shops like La Fromagerie and Neal's Yard Dairy who truly understand not only about sourcing quality produce, but also storage and, in the case of cheese, the affinage or maturation process (bringing a cheese on to its peak condition) excise this bit of cheese. In fact when I was buying Christmas cheese for Scarlett, Rhett and myself at Neal's Yard Dairy in Borough Market before Christmas, this was very carefully done - and it's worth saying that all parts of the cheese which were not up to the mark or were simply the ends of the cheeses concerned were chucked. What neither they, nor restaurants who understand good cheese, do is serve a stale, old bit of cheese, hidden under some flatbread. Nor when we sent it back do the chef have a conversation with his sous about how we don't understand cheese and come back with pentagonally-cut long oblong of the same. By this stage, quite honestly, I'd gone off the whole idea anyway, because it wasn't fun any more. A shame. I'm sure I will be delighted to go back to Franklin's, but I won't be ordering the cheese again.

What it couldn't do is dampen the wonderful experience of spending my birthday with very dear, kind and loving friends. I know I seem to spend a lot of time saying this on my posts but really - lucky, lucky me. So, here's to you, with many thanks just for being you.