It’s been ages since I’ve done one of these ‘my week in food’ posts but they’re fun to do occasionally, looking back on my week through the eyes of what I’ve been eating. They also give me a chance to mention somewhere I’ve already reviewed and still like a lot.

For someone who thinks about food so much, who plans a day by where I’ll go for coffee, what I’ll have for lunch and what I’ll cook for supper … well if it all sounds a little sad it seems to be a common feature amongst us foodies … yes, we’re ‘foodies’ because we love food!

So, here’s my week:

Saturday 

Last Saturday saw a trip to Islington in the evening to see The Writer at the Almeida Theatre, preceded by a brilliant pre-theatre meal at Bellanger. A great place to go for a taste of Paris. Click here for full review.

 

Sunday

Paul Bakery have recently introduced Power Pots to their breakfast range – oats soaked overnight in milk, with yoghurt and fruit. It’s becoming a ritual to go to my local Paul in Richmond on Sunday morning, an Observer in hand, and order one of their gorgeous power pots, a flat white and a pastry. What a brilliant way to relax into a Sunday.

 

Monday

Monday was a bank holiday. I had my lovely little grandson Freddie for much of the day and when I took him home to his mum and dad, son Jonathan said to stay for supper. He’d made some fabulous meatballs, cooked in tomato sauce and served with linguine. They were really, really good.

 

Tuesday

Tuesday is my book club day. Unusually, we meet every week. And no that doesn’t mean having to read a novel a week. First Tuesdays are short stories or novellas; 2nd Tuesdays are poetry; 3rd Tuesdays are novels; 4th Tuesdays are a ‘theme’, something like our recent ‘favourite travel writing’. Then, of course, four times a year, there are 5th Tuesdays. And then we go out for a meal together. Last Tuesday – a 5th Tuesday – we went to Tangawizi, my favourite local Indian restaurant. We had a fantastic meal; everyone loved it. And it was such a lovely, friendly place to sit for the evening and talk of things other than books and poetry – even though we are, of course, all avid readers!

 

Wednesday

Wednesday I was home alone for the evening and cooked. I had some courgettes in the fridge and decided to make a courgette risotto. It was – all modesty aside! – a very nice risotto.

 

Thursday

Thursday I braved the huge rainstorm to get to Guildford to meet a friend at The March Hare. A first visit and I was very impressed. I was conscious as I ordered that the Spring Risotto was much like the one I’d cooked the night before. But it was what I fancied and contained a lot more vegetables and was an altogether more exciting mix. It was brilliant; really good, as was the whole meal.

 

Friday

Friday saw me heading back to north London to meet with another friend – my good friend Annie. She’d bought some pasteis de nata for us to have with coffee when I arrived and they were so good – possibly the best I’ve had. A nice crispy pastry, fairly deep but not too sweet custard. Absolutely gorgeous.

Later in the afternoon, heading home via Covent Garden, I went to Gelatorino for the first time and discovered their ice cream was as wonderful as I’d heard. Definitely another gelateria to add to my ‘top gelaterie in London’. Click here for full review.

It was really a week of the new rather than the old; these posts are more often about revisiting old favourites – restaurants and recipes. But it’s nice to celebrate a week when I enjoyed two great new restaurants as well as a favourite and loved old, a fabulous new gelateria and my son cooking for me (which to be fair, he does quite often!).

I hope you had a great week of food too!