As people seem interested in my lunchtime revelations...
I can say that was the best Dover Sole Meuniere I've ever had. In fact one of the best fish dishes of any kind that I have had recnetly.
I tried to master this apparently simple dish - sole meuniere - at home, and thought I'd done it, but this.... wow. Whole new level. On the bone, of course
Nonetheless, FIFTY EIGHT QUID?
Edit to add: I take it all back. I have just checked the price, a single Dover Sole - enough for 1 - now fetches nearly £30 from a fish market. So that might explain it
The King of fish, except the legendary sea bass, ofcourse.
I'd raise this above sea bass, and I had a superb wild sea bass recently. Also fantastic carp and trout in Montenegro
I think the gold metal "greatest fish to eat" is a final bout between Dover Sole and Turbot
BUT the winner must then go to a kind of global supercup match against Patagonian Toothfish (OMG!)
I hear and read about people whose opinions I value on food and drink waxing lyrical about fish dishes and wonder why I don't enjoy them. Shellfish, prawns etc I enjoy but not fish as such. Is it because when I was a child 'fish' always seemed to have bones in it, especially snoek? Or because I spent part of my late teens dissecting dogfish? Or both?
Did you never enjoy fish & chips back in the day ?
TBH, no. Not even out of newspaper. I've eaten them of course, but I don't really enjoy them. When we go out my wife often has them, but I just can't enjoy.
Fish and chips, like any food, can encompass a multitude of sins. Sometimes they can awful, and sometimes they can be heavenly, depending on the shop and time you get them.
The best I ever had was in Oz. Heavenly, with a slice of lemon, salt, and vinegar.
I'm happy to take your word for it. I'd LIKE to enjoy fish, seeing that others get so much pleasure over eating it, bit I don't.
WE HAVE CROSSOVER ON BETFAIR IN THE TORY LEADERSHIP ELECTION.
Badenoch slips to third place as Cleverly overtakes her.
If Cleverly makes final 2, I expect Badenoch's members votes to go to him.
Cleverly winning is the best outcome for the Conservatives (and the best for effective opposition to Labour). Even though there will be somebody better to lead them into the next election.
Conservative voters prefer the Conservative government; Labour voters prefer the Labour government; most others haven't made up their minds.
However... Reform voters hate Labour more than they hate the Conservatives and so push the dial slightly into the Conservative side. They have no intention of voting Conservative though.
Overall not great for Starmer but he can take comfort from presumably the same poll where Labour are ahead of the Conservatives by 4% and which would translate into a healthy majority if it stays the same in five years. Which of course it won't.
As people seem interested in my lunchtime revelations...
I can say that was the best Dover Sole Meuniere I've ever had. In fact one of the best fish dishes of any kind that I have had recnetly.
I tried to master this apparently simple dish - sole meuniere - at home, and thought I'd done it, but this.... wow. Whole new level. On the bone, of course
Nonetheless, FIFTY EIGHT QUID?
Edit to add: I take it all back. I have just checked the price, a single Dover Sole - enough for 1 - now fetches nearly £30 from a fish market. So that might explain it
The King of fish, except the legendary sea bass, ofcourse.
I'd raise this above sea bass, and I had a superb wild sea bass recently. Also fantastic carp and trout in Montenegro
I think the gold metal "greatest fish to eat" is a final bout between Dover Sole and Turbot
BUT the winner must then go to a kind of global supercup match against Patagonian Toothfish (OMG!)
I hear and read about people whose opinions I value on food and drink waxing lyrical about fish dishes and wonder why I don't enjoy them. Shellfish, prawns etc I enjoy but not fish as such. Is it because when I was a child 'fish' always seemed to have bones in it, especially snoek? Or because I spent part of my late teens dissecting dogfish? Or both?
Did you never enjoy fish & chips back in the day ?
TBH, no. Not even out of newspaper. I've eaten them of course, but I don't really enjoy them. When we go out my wife often has them, but I just can't enjoy.
Fish and chips, like any food, can encompass a multitude of sins. Sometimes they can awful, and sometimes they can be heavenly, depending on the shop and time you get them.
The best I ever had was in Oz. Heavenly, with a slice of lemon, salt, and vinegar.
Tasmania for me.
There's no getting round it - seafood in the antipodes is just brilliant. The pies in NZ are incredible too.
"A luxury cruise ship, which finally set sail on Monday after spending four months in Belfast for repairs, is expected to return to the city on Tuesday due to incomplete paperwork."
If that wasn't a JG Ballard novel, it should have been.
One of my favourite films is a 1974 film called "Juggernaut". It's about a broken-down old liner called "Brittannic" held ransom by a bomber. The analogy to 1970s England is as subtle as a brick. I think this 2024 saga also suffices.
As people seem interested in my lunchtime revelations...
I can say that was the best Dover Sole Meuniere I've ever had. In fact one of the best fish dishes of any kind that I have had recnetly.
I tried to master this apparently simple dish - sole meuniere - at home, and thought I'd done it, but this.... wow. Whole new level. On the bone, of course
Nonetheless, FIFTY EIGHT QUID?
Edit to add: I take it all back. I have just checked the price, a single Dover Sole - enough for 1 - now fetches nearly £30 from a fish market. So that might explain it
The King of fish, except the legendary sea bass, ofcourse.
I'd raise this above sea bass, and I had a superb wild sea bass recently. Also fantastic carp and trout in Montenegro
I think the gold metal "greatest fish to eat" is a final bout between Dover Sole and Turbot
BUT the winner must then go to a kind of global supercup match against Patagonian Toothfish (OMG!)
I hear and read about people whose opinions I value on food and drink waxing lyrical about fish dishes and wonder why I don't enjoy them. Shellfish, prawns etc I enjoy but not fish as such. Is it because when I was a child 'fish' always seemed to have bones in it, especially snoek? Or because I spent part of my late teens dissecting dogfish? Or both?
Did you never enjoy fish & chips back in the day ?
TBH, no. Not even out of newspaper. I've eaten them of course, but I don't really enjoy them. When we go out my wife often has them, but I just can't enjoy.
Fish and chips, like any food, can encompass a multitude of sins. Sometimes they can awful, and sometimes they can be heavenly, depending on the shop and time you get them.
The best I ever had was in Oz. Heavenly, with a slice of lemon, salt, and vinegar.
I'm happy to take your word for it. I'd LIKE to enjoy fish, seeing that others get so much pleasure over eating it, bit I don't.
I was allergic to fish until my mid 20s. Made me vomit and have terrible stomach cramps. I think in hindsight it was just white fish but I avoided anything from the sea until a drunken taste of a mussel in the Peruvian restaurant that used to exist outside London Bridge station. Since then it’s been a journey of discovery.
As people seem interested in my lunchtime revelations...
I can say that was the best Dover Sole Meuniere I've ever had. In fact one of the best fish dishes of any kind that I have had recnetly.
I tried to master this apparently simple dish - sole meuniere - at home, and thought I'd done it, but this.... wow. Whole new level. On the bone, of course
Nonetheless, FIFTY EIGHT QUID?
Edit to add: I take it all back. I have just checked the price, a single Dover Sole - enough for 1 - now fetches nearly £30 from a fish market. So that might explain it
The King of fish, except the legendary sea bass, ofcourse.
I'd raise this above sea bass, and I had a superb wild sea bass recently. Also fantastic carp and trout in Montenegro
I think the gold metal "greatest fish to eat" is a final bout between Dover Sole and Turbot
BUT the winner must then go to a kind of global supercup match against Patagonian Toothfish (OMG!)
I hear and read about people whose opinions I value on food and drink waxing lyrical about fish dishes and wonder why I don't enjoy them. Shellfish, prawns etc I enjoy but not fish as such. Is it because when I was a child 'fish' always seemed to have bones in it, especially snoek? Or because I spent part of my late teens dissecting dogfish? Or both?
Did you never enjoy fish & chips back in the day ?
TBH, no. Not even out of newspaper. I've eaten them of course, but I don't really enjoy them. When we go out my wife often has them, but I just can't enjoy.
Fish and chips, like any food, can encompass a multitude of sins. Sometimes they can awful, and sometimes they can be heavenly, depending on the shop and time you get them.
The best I ever had was in Oz. Heavenly, with a slice of lemon, salt, and vinegar.
Fish and chips would be nice. Feels like it's been ages.
In Whitby after a walk up,to the abbey and back. Awesome.
As people seem interested in my lunchtime revelations...
I can say that was the best Dover Sole Meuniere I've ever had. In fact one of the best fish dishes of any kind that I have had recnetly.
I tried to master this apparently simple dish - sole meuniere - at home, and thought I'd done it, but this.... wow. Whole new level. On the bone, of course
Nonetheless, FIFTY EIGHT QUID?
Edit to add: I take it all back. I have just checked the price, a single Dover Sole - enough for 1 - now fetches nearly £30 from a fish market. So that might explain it
The King of fish, except the legendary sea bass, ofcourse.
I'd raise this above sea bass, and I had a superb wild sea bass recently. Also fantastic carp and trout in Montenegro
I think the gold metal "greatest fish to eat" is a final bout between Dover Sole and Turbot
BUT the winner must then go to a kind of global supercup match against Patagonian Toothfish (OMG!)
I hear and read about people whose opinions I value on food and drink waxing lyrical about fish dishes and wonder why I don't enjoy them. Shellfish, prawns etc I enjoy but not fish as such. Is it because when I was a child 'fish' always seemed to have bones in it, especially snoek? Or because I spent part of my late teens dissecting dogfish? Or both?
Did you never enjoy fish & chips back in the day ?
TBH, no. Not even out of newspaper. I've eaten them of course, but I don't really enjoy them. When we go out my wife often has them, but I just can't enjoy.
Fish and chips, like any food, can encompass a multitude of sins. Sometimes they can awful, and sometimes they can be heavenly, depending on the shop and time you get them.
The best I ever had was in Oz. Heavenly, with a slice of lemon, salt, and vinegar.
Fish and chips would be nice. Feels like it's been ages.
In Whitby after a walk up,to the abbey and back. Awesome.
Hopefully it was less foggy than when we went in May!
As people seem interested in my lunchtime revelations...
I can say that was the best Dover Sole Meuniere I've ever had. In fact one of the best fish dishes of any kind that I have had recnetly.
I tried to master this apparently simple dish - sole meuniere - at home, and thought I'd done it, but this.... wow. Whole new level. On the bone, of course
Nonetheless, FIFTY EIGHT QUID?
Edit to add: I take it all back. I have just checked the price, a single Dover Sole - enough for 1 - now fetches nearly £30 from a fish market. So that might explain it
The King of fish, except the legendary sea bass, ofcourse.
I'd raise this above sea bass, and I had a superb wild sea bass recently. Also fantastic carp and trout in Montenegro
I think the gold metal "greatest fish to eat" is a final bout between Dover Sole and Turbot
BUT the winner must then go to a kind of global supercup match against Patagonian Toothfish (OMG!)
I hear and read about people whose opinions I value on food and drink waxing lyrical about fish dishes and wonder why I don't enjoy them. Shellfish, prawns etc I enjoy but not fish as such. Is it because when I was a child 'fish' always seemed to have bones in it, especially snoek? Or because I spent part of my late teens dissecting dogfish? Or both?
Did you never enjoy fish & chips back in the day ?
TBH, no. Not even out of newspaper. I've eaten them of course, but I don't really enjoy them. When we go out my wife often has them, but I just can't enjoy.
Fish and chips, like any food, can encompass a multitude of sins. Sometimes they can awful, and sometimes they can be heavenly, depending on the shop and time you get them.
The best I ever had was in Oz. Heavenly, with a slice of lemon, salt, and vinegar.
Fish and chips would be nice. Feels like it's been ages.
In Whitby after a walk up,to the abbey and back. Awesome.
Hopefully it was less foggy than when we went in May!
Usually it is fine when we go.
The once we went to see the red arrows fly past. We heard them and that was it. A bit of a pea souper. Yet the weather was clear at the park and ride a couple of miles out of,town.
As people seem interested in my lunchtime revelations...
I can say that was the best Dover Sole Meuniere I've ever had. In fact one of the best fish dishes of any kind that I have had recnetly.
I tried to master this apparently simple dish - sole meuniere - at home, and thought I'd done it, but this.... wow. Whole new level. On the bone, of course
Nonetheless, FIFTY EIGHT QUID?
Edit to add: I take it all back. I have just checked the price, a single Dover Sole - enough for 1 - now fetches nearly £30 from a fish market. So that might explain it
The King of fish, except the legendary sea bass, ofcourse.
I'd raise this above sea bass, and I had a superb wild sea bass recently. Also fantastic carp and trout in Montenegro
I think the gold metal "greatest fish to eat" is a final bout between Dover Sole and Turbot
BUT the winner must then go to a kind of global supercup match against Patagonian Toothfish (OMG!)
I hear and read about people whose opinions I value on food and drink waxing lyrical about fish dishes and wonder why I don't enjoy them. Shellfish, prawns etc I enjoy but not fish as such. Is it because when I was a child 'fish' always seemed to have bones in it, especially snoek? Or because I spent part of my late teens dissecting dogfish? Or both?
Did you never enjoy fish & chips back in the day ?
TBH, no. Not even out of newspaper. I've eaten them of course, but I don't really enjoy them. When we go out my wife often has them, but I just can't enjoy.
Fish and chips, like any food, can encompass a multitude of sins. Sometimes they can awful, and sometimes they can be heavenly, depending on the shop and time you get them.
The best I ever had was in Oz. Heavenly, with a slice of lemon, salt, and vinegar.
Tasmania for me.
There's no getting round it - seafood in the antipodes is just brilliant. The pies in NZ are incredible too.
This is true, The cleanliness of their seas is key
That said the UK boasts some of the best fish in the world, as well. From Cornwall to Cumbria to Northumberland to Scotland and Ulster, there is a reason the rest of Europe wants to fish in our seas
As people seem interested in my lunchtime revelations...
I can say that was the best Dover Sole Meuniere I've ever had. In fact one of the best fish dishes of any kind that I have had recnetly.
I tried to master this apparently simple dish - sole meuniere - at home, and thought I'd done it, but this.... wow. Whole new level. On the bone, of course
Nonetheless, FIFTY EIGHT QUID?
Edit to add: I take it all back. I have just checked the price, a single Dover Sole - enough for 1 - now fetches nearly £30 from a fish market. So that might explain it
The King of fish, except the legendary sea bass, ofcourse.
I'd raise this above sea bass, and I had a superb wild sea bass recently. Also fantastic carp and trout in Montenegro
I think the gold metal "greatest fish to eat" is a final bout between Dover Sole and Turbot
BUT the winner must then go to a kind of global supercup match against Patagonian Toothfish (OMG!)
I hear and read about people whose opinions I value on food and drink waxing lyrical about fish dishes and wonder why I don't enjoy them. Shellfish, prawns etc I enjoy but not fish as such. Is it because when I was a child 'fish' always seemed to have bones in it, especially snoek? Or because I spent part of my late teens dissecting dogfish? Or both?
Did you never enjoy fish & chips back in the day ?
TBH, no. Not even out of newspaper. I've eaten them of course, but I don't really enjoy them. When we go out my wife often has them, but I just can't enjoy.
Fish and chips, like any food, can encompass a multitude of sins. Sometimes they can awful, and sometimes they can be heavenly, depending on the shop and time you get them.
The best I ever had was in Oz. Heavenly, with a slice of lemon, salt, and vinegar.
Fish and chips would be nice. Feels like it's been ages.
In Whitby after a walk up,to the abbey and back. Awesome.
Hopefully it was less foggy than when we went in May!
There's some hideous land art there at the moment.
If it wasn't all washed away in yesterday's rain...
As people seem interested in my lunchtime revelations...
I can say that was the best Dover Sole Meuniere I've ever had. In fact one of the best fish dishes of any kind that I have had recnetly.
I tried to master this apparently simple dish - sole meuniere - at home, and thought I'd done it, but this.... wow. Whole new level. On the bone, of course
Nonetheless, FIFTY EIGHT QUID?
Edit to add: I take it all back. I have just checked the price, a single Dover Sole - enough for 1 - now fetches nearly £30 from a fish market. So that might explain it
The King of fish, except the legendary sea bass, ofcourse.
I'd raise this above sea bass, and I had a superb wild sea bass recently. Also fantastic carp and trout in Montenegro
I think the gold metal "greatest fish to eat" is a final bout between Dover Sole and Turbot
BUT the winner must then go to a kind of global supercup match against Patagonian Toothfish (OMG!)
I hear and read about people whose opinions I value on food and drink waxing lyrical about fish dishes and wonder why I don't enjoy them. Shellfish, prawns etc I enjoy but not fish as such. Is it because when I was a child 'fish' always seemed to have bones in it, especially snoek? Or because I spent part of my late teens dissecting dogfish? Or both?
Did you never enjoy fish & chips back in the day ?
TBH, no. Not even out of newspaper. I've eaten them of course, but I don't really enjoy them. When we go out my wife often has them, but I just can't enjoy.
Fish and chips, like any food, can encompass a multitude of sins. Sometimes they can awful, and sometimes they can be heavenly, depending on the shop and time you get them.
The best I ever had was in Oz. Heavenly, with a slice of lemon, salt, and vinegar.
Tasmania for me.
There's no getting round it - seafood in the antipodes is just brilliant. The pies in NZ are incredible too.
I think the immediate environment influences the tasting experience. Eg my favourite ever fish and chips was next to the sea in Cornwall. And my second favourite was in Greenwich, sat by the river looking at a boat.
Conservative voters prefer the Conservative government; Labour voters prefer the Labour government; most others haven't made up their minds.
However... Reform voters hate Labour more than they hate the Conservatives and so push the dial slightly into the Conservative side. They have no intention of voting Conservative though.
Overall not great for Starmer but he can take comfort from presumably the same poll where Labour are ahead of the Conservatives by 4% and which would translate into a healthy majority if it stays the same in five years. Which of course it won't.
As people seem interested in my lunchtime revelations...
I can say that was the best Dover Sole Meuniere I've ever had. In fact one of the best fish dishes of any kind that I have had recnetly.
I tried to master this apparently simple dish - sole meuniere - at home, and thought I'd done it, but this.... wow. Whole new level. On the bone, of course
Nonetheless, FIFTY EIGHT QUID?
Edit to add: I take it all back. I have just checked the price, a single Dover Sole - enough for 1 - now fetches nearly £30 from a fish market. So that might explain it
The King of fish, except the legendary sea bass, ofcourse.
I'd raise this above sea bass, and I had a superb wild sea bass recently. Also fantastic carp and trout in Montenegro
I think the gold metal "greatest fish to eat" is a final bout between Dover Sole and Turbot
BUT the winner must then go to a kind of global supercup match against Patagonian Toothfish (OMG!)
I hear and read about people whose opinions I value on food and drink waxing lyrical about fish dishes and wonder why I don't enjoy them. Shellfish, prawns etc I enjoy but not fish as such. Is it because when I was a child 'fish' always seemed to have bones in it, especially snoek? Or because I spent part of my late teens dissecting dogfish? Or both?
Did you never enjoy fish & chips back in the day ?
TBH, no. Not even out of newspaper. I've eaten them of course, but I don't really enjoy them. When we go out my wife often has them, but I just can't enjoy.
Fish and chips, like any food, can encompass a multitude of sins. Sometimes they can awful, and sometimes they can be heavenly, depending on the shop and time you get them.
The best I ever had was in Oz. Heavenly, with a slice of lemon, salt, and vinegar.
Tasmania for me.
There's no getting round it - seafood in the antipodes is just brilliant. The pies in NZ are incredible too.
This is true, The cleanliness of their seas is key
That said the UK boasts some of the best fish in the world, as well. From Cornwall to Cumbria to Northumberland to Scotland and Ulster, there is a reason the rest of Europe wants to fish in our seas
It's not the just the fish - the way they prepare it, sensible portions, crisp and light, great beer and wine alongside. Stiff breeze, next stop Antarctica.
You get good stuff in the UK but it's never quite like that.
As people seem interested in my lunchtime revelations...
I can say that was the best Dover Sole Meuniere I've ever had. In fact one of the best fish dishes of any kind that I have had recnetly.
I tried to master this apparently simple dish - sole meuniere - at home, and thought I'd done it, but this.... wow. Whole new level. On the bone, of course
Nonetheless, FIFTY EIGHT QUID?
Edit to add: I take it all back. I have just checked the price, a single Dover Sole - enough for 1 - now fetches nearly £30 from a fish market. So that might explain it
The King of fish, except the legendary sea bass, ofcourse.
I'd raise this above sea bass, and I had a superb wild sea bass recently. Also fantastic carp and trout in Montenegro
I think the gold metal "greatest fish to eat" is a final bout between Dover Sole and Turbot
BUT the winner must then go to a kind of global supercup match against Patagonian Toothfish (OMG!)
I hear and read about people whose opinions I value on food and drink waxing lyrical about fish dishes and wonder why I don't enjoy them. Shellfish, prawns etc I enjoy but not fish as such. Is it because when I was a child 'fish' always seemed to have bones in it, especially snoek? Or because I spent part of my late teens dissecting dogfish? Or both?
Did you never enjoy fish & chips back in the day ?
TBH, no. Not even out of newspaper. I've eaten them of course, but I don't really enjoy them. When we go out my wife often has them, but I just can't enjoy.
Fish and chips, like any food, can encompass a multitude of sins. Sometimes they can awful, and sometimes they can be heavenly, depending on the shop and time you get them.
The best I ever had was in Oz. Heavenly, with a slice of lemon, salt, and vinegar.
I'm happy to take your word for it. I'd LIKE to enjoy fish, seeing that others get so much pleasure over eating it, bit I don't.
That is my exact feeling about spaghetti. Also (substituting watching for eating) about costume drama.
As people seem interested in my lunchtime revelations...
I can say that was the best Dover Sole Meuniere I've ever had. In fact one of the best fish dishes of any kind that I have had recnetly.
I tried to master this apparently simple dish - sole meuniere - at home, and thought I'd done it, but this.... wow. Whole new level. On the bone, of course
Nonetheless, FIFTY EIGHT QUID?
Edit to add: I take it all back. I have just checked the price, a single Dover Sole - enough for 1 - now fetches nearly £30 from a fish market. So that might explain it
The King of fish, except the legendary sea bass, ofcourse.
I'd raise this above sea bass, and I had a superb wild sea bass recently. Also fantastic carp and trout in Montenegro
I think the gold metal "greatest fish to eat" is a final bout between Dover Sole and Turbot
BUT the winner must then go to a kind of global supercup match against Patagonian Toothfish (OMG!)
I hear and read about people whose opinions I value on food and drink waxing lyrical about fish dishes and wonder why I don't enjoy them. Shellfish, prawns etc I enjoy but not fish as such. Is it because when I was a child 'fish' always seemed to have bones in it, especially snoek? Or because I spent part of my late teens dissecting dogfish? Or both?
Did you never enjoy fish & chips back in the day ?
TBH, no. Not even out of newspaper. I've eaten them of course, but I don't really enjoy them. When we go out my wife often has them, but I just can't enjoy.
Fish and chips, like any food, can encompass a multitude of sins. Sometimes they can awful, and sometimes they can be heavenly, depending on the shop and time you get them.
The best I ever had was in Oz. Heavenly, with a slice of lemon, salt, and vinegar.
Tasmania for me.
There's no getting round it - seafood in the antipodes is just brilliant. The pies in NZ are incredible too.
I think the immediate environment influences the tasting experience. Eg my favourite ever fish and chips was next to the sea in Cornwall. And my second favourite was in Greenwich, sat by the river looking at a boat.
Fish and chips tastes better when you can smell salt water. Because taste and smell linked. Also because smell and memory linked. So while I've had many good fish and chipses in my life, the really memorable ones are the ones with the smell of the sea linked: on the harbour at Falmouth looking at blue skies and a thousand boats, or on the harbour at Stornoway looking at 'changeable' Hebridean skies and seals bobbing up in the water to examine us. The looking-at-a-boat is harder to explain, but I'll take your word for it.
As people seem interested in my lunchtime revelations...
I can say that was the best Dover Sole Meuniere I've ever had. In fact one of the best fish dishes of any kind that I have had recnetly.
I tried to master this apparently simple dish - sole meuniere - at home, and thought I'd done it, but this.... wow. Whole new level. On the bone, of course
Nonetheless, FIFTY EIGHT QUID?
Edit to add: I take it all back. I have just checked the price, a single Dover Sole - enough for 1 - now fetches nearly £30 from a fish market. So that might explain it
The King of fish, except the legendary sea bass, ofcourse.
I'd raise this above sea bass, and I had a superb wild sea bass recently. Also fantastic carp and trout in Montenegro
I think the gold metal "greatest fish to eat" is a final bout between Dover Sole and Turbot
BUT the winner must then go to a kind of global supercup match against Patagonian Toothfish (OMG!)
I hear and read about people whose opinions I value on food and drink waxing lyrical about fish dishes and wonder why I don't enjoy them. Shellfish, prawns etc I enjoy but not fish as such. Is it because when I was a child 'fish' always seemed to have bones in it, especially snoek? Or because I spent part of my late teens dissecting dogfish? Or both?
Did you never enjoy fish & chips back in the day ?
TBH, no. Not even out of newspaper. I've eaten them of course, but I don't really enjoy them. When we go out my wife often has them, but I just can't enjoy.
Fish and chips, like any food, can encompass a multitude of sins. Sometimes they can awful, and sometimes they can be heavenly, depending on the shop and time you get them.
The best I ever had was in Oz. Heavenly, with a slice of lemon, salt, and vinegar.
Tasmania for me.
There's no getting round it - seafood in the antipodes is just brilliant. The pies in NZ are incredible too.
This is true, The cleanliness of their seas is key
That said the UK boasts some of the best fish in the world, as well. From Cornwall to Cumbria to Northumberland to Scotland and Ulster, there is a reason the rest of Europe wants to fish in our seas
It's not the just the fish - the way they prepare it, sensible portions, crisp and light, great beer and wine alongside. Stiff breeze, next stop Antarctica.
You get good stuff in the UK but it's never quite like that.
Hmm. Dunno. About that
I've had superb fish and chips in the UK, probably better than anywhere in Oz
In fact fish and chips is more satisfying, as a supper, in the cool rainy climate of the UK. Say, in your darkened car, with your starving family, after a tough drive, and you're in Oban or Newquay or wherever, and someone goes out and gets four portions for everyone, and its great and fresh and salty and mmm and hot, and you eat it in the car with the rain drumming on the roof, and that is prefection
On Radcliffe-on-Soar's closure. Amazing news that we are moving away from coal, but I can't help feeling a little conflicted. I spent ten years living in Nottingham and RoS was one of my favourite landmarks. Cooling towers in the late afternoon sun, in a foreground of August crops, are an amazing sight. But my favourite memories of them are on still, cold, bright winter mornings, when they would create impossibly huge mountains of cloud in a clear sky. Glorious monsters.
As people seem interested in my lunchtime revelations...
I can say that was the best Dover Sole Meuniere I've ever had. In fact one of the best fish dishes of any kind that I have had recnetly.
I tried to master this apparently simple dish - sole meuniere - at home, and thought I'd done it, but this.... wow. Whole new level. On the bone, of course
Nonetheless, FIFTY EIGHT QUID?
Edit to add: I take it all back. I have just checked the price, a single Dover Sole - enough for 1 - now fetches nearly £30 from a fish market. So that might explain it
The King of fish, except the legendary sea bass, ofcourse.
I'd raise this above sea bass, and I had a superb wild sea bass recently. Also fantastic carp and trout in Montenegro
I think the gold metal "greatest fish to eat" is a final bout between Dover Sole and Turbot
BUT the winner must then go to a kind of global supercup match against Patagonian Toothfish (OMG!)
I hear and read about people whose opinions I value on food and drink waxing lyrical about fish dishes and wonder why I don't enjoy them. Shellfish, prawns etc I enjoy but not fish as such. Is it because when I was a child 'fish' always seemed to have bones in it, especially snoek? Or because I spent part of my late teens dissecting dogfish? Or both?
Did you never enjoy fish & chips back in the day ?
TBH, no. Not even out of newspaper. I've eaten them of course, but I don't really enjoy them. When we go out my wife often has them, but I just can't enjoy.
Fish and chips, like any food, can encompass a multitude of sins. Sometimes they can awful, and sometimes they can be heavenly, depending on the shop and time you get them.
The best I ever had was in Oz. Heavenly, with a slice of lemon, salt, and vinegar.
Tasmania for me.
There's no getting round it - seafood in the antipodes is just brilliant. The pies in NZ are incredible too.
I think the immediate environment influences the tasting experience. Eg my favourite ever fish and chips was next to the sea in Cornwall. And my second favourite was in Greenwich, sat by the river looking at a boat.
Fish and chips tastes better when you can smell salt water. Because taste and smell linked. Also because smell and memory linked. So while I've had many good fish and chipses in my life, the really memorable ones are the ones with the smell of the sea linked: on the harbour at Falmouth looking at blue skies and a thousand boats, or on the harbour at Stornoway looking at 'changeable' Hebridean skies and seals bobbing up in the water to examine us. The looking-at-a-boat is harder to explain, but I'll take your word for it.
WE HAVE CROSSOVER ON BETFAIR IN THE TORY LEADERSHIP ELECTION.
Badenoch slips to third place as Cleverly overtakes her.
If Cleverly makes final 2, I expect Badenoch's members votes to go to him.
Cleverly winning is the best outcome for the Conservatives (and the best for effective opposition to Labour). Even though there will be somebody better to lead them into the next election.
I think she could be kingmaker in that event. Her endorsement would be worth a lot.
As people seem interested in my lunchtime revelations...
I can say that was the best Dover Sole Meuniere I've ever had. In fact one of the best fish dishes of any kind that I have had recnetly.
I tried to master this apparently simple dish - sole meuniere - at home, and thought I'd done it, but this.... wow. Whole new level. On the bone, of course
Nonetheless, FIFTY EIGHT QUID?
Edit to add: I take it all back. I have just checked the price, a single Dover Sole - enough for 1 - now fetches nearly £30 from a fish market. So that might explain it
The King of fish, except the legendary sea bass, ofcourse.
I'd raise this above sea bass, and I had a superb wild sea bass recently. Also fantastic carp and trout in Montenegro
I think the gold metal "greatest fish to eat" is a final bout between Dover Sole and Turbot
BUT the winner must then go to a kind of global supercup match against Patagonian Toothfish (OMG!)
I hear and read about people whose opinions I value on food and drink waxing lyrical about fish dishes and wonder why I don't enjoy them. Shellfish, prawns etc I enjoy but not fish as such. Is it because when I was a child 'fish' always seemed to have bones in it, especially snoek? Or because I spent part of my late teens dissecting dogfish? Or both?
Did you never enjoy fish & chips back in the day ?
TBH, no. Not even out of newspaper. I've eaten them of course, but I don't really enjoy them. When we go out my wife often has them, but I just can't enjoy.
Fish and chips, like any food, can encompass a multitude of sins. Sometimes they can awful, and sometimes they can be heavenly, depending on the shop and time you get them.
The best I ever had was in Oz. Heavenly, with a slice of lemon, salt, and vinegar.
Tasmania for me.
There's no getting round it - seafood in the antipodes is just brilliant. The pies in NZ are incredible too.
This is true, The cleanliness of their seas is key
That said the UK boasts some of the best fish in the world, as well. From Cornwall to Cumbria to Northumberland to Scotland and Ulster, there is a reason the rest of Europe wants to fish in our seas
It's not the just the fish - the way they prepare it, sensible portions, crisp and light, great beer and wine alongside. Stiff breeze, next stop Antarctica.
You get good stuff in the UK but it's never quite like that.
Hmm. Dunno. About that
I've had superb fish and chips in the UK, probably better than anywhere in Oz
In fact fish and chips is more satisfying, as a supper, in the cool rainy climate of the UK. Say, in your darkened car, with your starving family, after a tough drive, and you're in Oban or Newquay or wherever, and someone goes out and gets four portions for everyone, and its great and fresh and salty and mmm and hot, and you eat it in the car with the rain drumming on the roof, and that is prefection
Comfort food par excellence. Especially when the chips have steamed a bit in their wrapping and are soft as a result.
Slightly different to the crispier version, best had with seasoning from the salt in the air, best of all.
"A luxury cruise ship, which finally set sail on Monday after spending four months in Belfast for repairs, is expected to return to the city on Tuesday due to incomplete paperwork."
If that wasn't a JG Ballard novel, it should have been.
One of my favourite films is a 1974 film called "Juggernaut". It's about a broken-down old liner called "Brittannic" held ransom by a bomber. The analogy to 1970s England is as subtle as a brick. I think this 2024 saga also suffices.
NOooooo. It has one of the worst plot flaws in any film ever.
Spoiler - Having been told which wire to cut (you know that old cliff hanger) he cuts the other one without telling the others who are waiting before cutting the wires on the other bomb(s). So if one kaboom, subsequent unnecessary kabooms.
Only beaten by Von Ryan's Express which has a plot flaw so awful I just can't watch it no matter how many times it is shown on the TV. Won't print the spoiler but if you watch it see if you can see the obvious solution to their predicament at the end of the film that they completely ignore even though they were going to do something almost identical before a 109 interfered.
As people seem interested in my lunchtime revelations...
I can say that was the best Dover Sole Meuniere I've ever had. In fact one of the best fish dishes of any kind that I have had recnetly.
I tried to master this apparently simple dish - sole meuniere - at home, and thought I'd done it, but this.... wow. Whole new level. On the bone, of course
Nonetheless, FIFTY EIGHT QUID?
Edit to add: I take it all back. I have just checked the price, a single Dover Sole - enough for 1 - now fetches nearly £30 from a fish market. So that might explain it
The King of fish, except the legendary sea bass, ofcourse.
I'd raise this above sea bass, and I had a superb wild sea bass recently. Also fantastic carp and trout in Montenegro
I think the gold metal "greatest fish to eat" is a final bout between Dover Sole and Turbot
BUT the winner must then go to a kind of global supercup match against Patagonian Toothfish (OMG!)
I hear and read about people whose opinions I value on food and drink waxing lyrical about fish dishes and wonder why I don't enjoy them. Shellfish, prawns etc I enjoy but not fish as such. Is it because when I was a child 'fish' always seemed to have bones in it, especially snoek? Or because I spent part of my late teens dissecting dogfish? Or both?
Did you never enjoy fish & chips back in the day ?
TBH, no. Not even out of newspaper. I've eaten them of course, but I don't really enjoy them. When we go out my wife often has them, but I just can't enjoy.
Fish and chips, like any food, can encompass a multitude of sins. Sometimes they can awful, and sometimes they can be heavenly, depending on the shop and time you get them.
The best I ever had was in Oz. Heavenly, with a slice of lemon, salt, and vinegar.
Tasmania for me.
There's no getting round it - seafood in the antipodes is just brilliant. The pies in NZ are incredible too.
I think the immediate environment influences the tasting experience. Eg my favourite ever fish and chips was next to the sea in Cornwall. And my second favourite was in Greenwich, sat by the river looking at a boat.
My best fish was freshly caught mackerel, fried in a pan on the fishing boat.
As people seem interested in my lunchtime revelations...
I can say that was the best Dover Sole Meuniere I've ever had. In fact one of the best fish dishes of any kind that I have had recnetly.
I tried to master this apparently simple dish - sole meuniere - at home, and thought I'd done it, but this.... wow. Whole new level. On the bone, of course
Nonetheless, FIFTY EIGHT QUID?
Edit to add: I take it all back. I have just checked the price, a single Dover Sole - enough for 1 - now fetches nearly £30 from a fish market. So that might explain it
The King of fish, except the legendary sea bass, ofcourse.
I'd raise this above sea bass, and I had a superb wild sea bass recently. Also fantastic carp and trout in Montenegro
I think the gold metal "greatest fish to eat" is a final bout between Dover Sole and Turbot
BUT the winner must then go to a kind of global supercup match against Patagonian Toothfish (OMG!)
Turbot yes, Dover sole yes, sea bass (if they really exist) yes.
Carp? No, just no.
Ah, but have you had carp wild and marinated and served cold with hot boiled potatoes in spinach and herbs, at a lakeshore restaurant in Virpazar, Montenegro, by the waters of Skadar?
I have (last month actually) and it was SUBLIME. It sounded awful, but it was mega-delish
As people seem interested in my lunchtime revelations...
I can say that was the best Dover Sole Meuniere I've ever had. In fact one of the best fish dishes of any kind that I have had recnetly.
I tried to master this apparently simple dish - sole meuniere - at home, and thought I'd done it, but this.... wow. Whole new level. On the bone, of course
Nonetheless, FIFTY EIGHT QUID?
Edit to add: I take it all back. I have just checked the price, a single Dover Sole - enough for 1 - now fetches nearly £30 from a fish market. So that might explain it
The King of fish, except the legendary sea bass, ofcourse.
I'd raise this above sea bass, and I had a superb wild sea bass recently. Also fantastic carp and trout in Montenegro
I think the gold metal "greatest fish to eat" is a final bout between Dover Sole and Turbot
BUT the winner must then go to a kind of global supercup match against Patagonian Toothfish (OMG!)
I hear and read about people whose opinions I value on food and drink waxing lyrical about fish dishes and wonder why I don't enjoy them. Shellfish, prawns etc I enjoy but not fish as such. Is it because when I was a child 'fish' always seemed to have bones in it, especially snoek? Or because I spent part of my late teens dissecting dogfish? Or both?
Did you never enjoy fish & chips back in the day ?
TBH, no. Not even out of newspaper. I've eaten them of course, but I don't really enjoy them. When we go out my wife often has them, but I just can't enjoy.
Fish and chips, like any food, can encompass a multitude of sins. Sometimes they can awful, and sometimes they can be heavenly, depending on the shop and time you get them.
The best I ever had was in Oz. Heavenly, with a slice of lemon, salt, and vinegar.
Tasmania for me.
There's no getting round it - seafood in the antipodes is just brilliant. The pies in NZ are incredible too.
I think the immediate environment influences the tasting experience. Eg my favourite ever fish and chips was next to the sea in Cornwall. And my second favourite was in Greenwich, sat by the river looking at a boat.
Fish and chips tastes better when you can smell salt water. Because taste and smell linked. Also because smell and memory linked. So while I've had many good fish and chipses in my life, the really memorable ones are the ones with the smell of the sea linked: on the harbour at Falmouth looking at blue skies and a thousand boats, or on the harbour at Stornoway looking at 'changeable' Hebridean skies and seals bobbing up in the water to examine us. The looking-at-a-boat is harder to explain, but I'll take your word for it.
Yep, makes sense. Ditto why the best fish & chips is so often out of newspaper. Because to eat outside and close to the sea usually requires a takeaway. As for the boat, I guess it's just if you sit by the river in Greenwich this is likely what you'll be looking at - a boat.
As people seem interested in my lunchtime revelations...
I can say that was the best Dover Sole Meuniere I've ever had. In fact one of the best fish dishes of any kind that I have had recnetly.
I tried to master this apparently simple dish - sole meuniere - at home, and thought I'd done it, but this.... wow. Whole new level. On the bone, of course
Nonetheless, FIFTY EIGHT QUID?
Edit to add: I take it all back. I have just checked the price, a single Dover Sole - enough for 1 - now fetches nearly £30 from a fish market. So that might explain it
The King of fish, except the legendary sea bass, ofcourse.
I'd raise this above sea bass, and I had a superb wild sea bass recently. Also fantastic carp and trout in Montenegro
I think the gold metal "greatest fish to eat" is a final bout between Dover Sole and Turbot
BUT the winner must then go to a kind of global supercup match against Patagonian Toothfish (OMG!)
I hear and read about people whose opinions I value on food and drink waxing lyrical about fish dishes and wonder why I don't enjoy them. Shellfish, prawns etc I enjoy but not fish as such. Is it because when I was a child 'fish' always seemed to have bones in it, especially snoek? Or because I spent part of my late teens dissecting dogfish? Or both?
Did you never enjoy fish & chips back in the day ?
TBH, no. Not even out of newspaper. I've eaten them of course, but I don't really enjoy them. When we go out my wife often has them, but I just can't enjoy.
Fish and chips, like any food, can encompass a multitude of sins. Sometimes they can awful, and sometimes they can be heavenly, depending on the shop and time you get them.
The best I ever had was in Oz. Heavenly, with a slice of lemon, salt, and vinegar.
Tasmania for me.
There's no getting round it - seafood in the antipodes is just brilliant. The pies in NZ are incredible too.
I think the immediate environment influences the tasting experience. Eg my favourite ever fish and chips was next to the sea in Cornwall. And my second favourite was in Greenwich, sat by the river looking at a boat.
Fish and chips tastes better when you can smell salt water. Because taste and smell linked. Also because smell and memory linked. So while I've had many good fish and chipses in my life, the really memorable ones are the ones with the smell of the sea linked: on the harbour at Falmouth looking at blue skies and a thousand boats, or on the harbour at Stornoway looking at 'changeable' Hebridean skies and seals bobbing up in the water to examine us. The looking-at-a-boat is harder to explain, but I'll take your word for it.
WE HAVE CROSSOVER ON BETFAIR IN THE TORY LEADERSHIP ELECTION.
Badenoch slips to third place as Cleverly overtakes her.
If Cleverly makes final 2, I expect Badenoch's members votes to go to him.
Cleverly winning is the best outcome for the Conservatives (and the best for effective opposition to Labour). Even though there will be somebody better to lead them into the next election.
Cleverly now 10/3 with Hills. Was 10/1 until recently.
As people seem interested in my lunchtime revelations...
I can say that was the best Dover Sole Meuniere I've ever had. In fact one of the best fish dishes of any kind that I have had recnetly.
I tried to master this apparently simple dish - sole meuniere - at home, and thought I'd done it, but this.... wow. Whole new level. On the bone, of course
Nonetheless, FIFTY EIGHT QUID?
Edit to add: I take it all back. I have just checked the price, a single Dover Sole - enough for 1 - now fetches nearly £30 from a fish market. So that might explain it
The King of fish, except the legendary sea bass, ofcourse.
I'd raise this above sea bass, and I had a superb wild sea bass recently. Also fantastic carp and trout in Montenegro
I think the gold metal "greatest fish to eat" is a final bout between Dover Sole and Turbot
BUT the winner must then go to a kind of global supercup match against Patagonian Toothfish (OMG!)
I hear and read about people whose opinions I value on food and drink waxing lyrical about fish dishes and wonder why I don't enjoy them. Shellfish, prawns etc I enjoy but not fish as such. Is it because when I was a child 'fish' always seemed to have bones in it, especially snoek? Or because I spent part of my late teens dissecting dogfish? Or both?
Did you never enjoy fish & chips back in the day ?
TBH, no. Not even out of newspaper. I've eaten them of course, but I don't really enjoy them. When we go out my wife often has them, but I just can't enjoy.
Fish and chips, like any food, can encompass a multitude of sins. Sometimes they can awful, and sometimes they can be heavenly, depending on the shop and time you get them.
The best I ever had was in Oz. Heavenly, with a slice of lemon, salt, and vinegar.
Tasmania for me.
There's no getting round it - seafood in the antipodes is just brilliant. The pies in NZ are incredible too.
I think the immediate environment influences the tasting experience. Eg my favourite ever fish and chips was next to the sea in Cornwall. And my second favourite was in Greenwich, sat by the river looking at a boat.
My best fish was freshly caught mackerel, fried in a pan on the fishing boat.
(No chips, but whatever.)
Well there you go - that's the ultimate of what I mean. Even if you could exactly replicate that dish in, say, a restaurant in Orpington it would not taste as good.
"A luxury cruise ship, which finally set sail on Monday after spending four months in Belfast for repairs, is expected to return to the city on Tuesday due to incomplete paperwork."
If that wasn't a JG Ballard novel, it should have been.
One of my favourite films is a 1974 film called "Juggernaut". It's about a broken-down old liner called "Brittannic" held ransom by a bomber. The analogy to 1970s England is as subtle as a brick. I think this 2024 saga also suffices.
NOooooo. It has one of the worst plot flaws in any film ever.
Spoiler - Having been told which wire to cut (you know that old cliff hanger) he cuts the other one without telling the others who are waiting before cutting the wires on the other bomb(s). So if one kaboom, subsequent unnecessary kabooms.
Only beaten by Von Ryan's Express which has a plot flaw so awful I just can't watch it...
On Radcliffe-on-Soar's closure. Amazing news that we are moving away from coal, but I can't help feeling a little conflicted. I spent ten years living in Nottingham and RoS was one of my favourite landmarks. Cooling towers in the late afternoon sun, in a foreground of August crops, are an amazing sight. But my favourite memories of them are on still, cold, bright winter mornings, when they would create impossibly huge mountains of cloud in a clear sky. Glorious monsters.
If it makes you feel any better about it, there is a complete Roman town underneath the station and the hope is that when it is redeveloped it will be possible to excavate in advance. Possibly the most important Roman town in the Midlands.
On Radcliffe-on-Soar's closure. Amazing news that we are moving away from coal, but I can't help feeling a little conflicted. I spent ten years living in Nottingham and RoS was one of my favourite landmarks. Cooling towers in the late afternoon sun, in a foreground of August crops, are an amazing sight. But my favourite memories of them are on still, cold, bright winter mornings, when they would create impossibly huge mountains of cloud in a clear sky. Glorious monsters.
Just out of interest does anyone know if there are plans to retain any of the cooling towers of any of the power stations in England? It would be nice to see just one retained somewhere as a reminder of what was once the backbone of our electricity supply.
Israel’s military announced the assassination of Muhammad Jaafar Qasir, Hezbollah’s head of weapon transfers from Iran and its regional proxies.
Hezbollah is leaking like a sieve.
Presumably, when five layers of management have been taken out, the only guy left standing is going to be the mole. Hope Israel have plans to evacuate him at some point, even if it looks like a kidnapping?
On Radcliffe-on-Soar's closure. Amazing news that we are moving away from coal, but I can't help feeling a little conflicted. I spent ten years living in Nottingham and RoS was one of my favourite landmarks. Cooling towers in the late afternoon sun, in a foreground of August crops, are an amazing sight. But my favourite memories of them are on still, cold, bright winter mornings, when they would create impossibly huge mountains of cloud in a clear sky. Glorious monsters.
If it makes you feel any better about it, there is a complete Roman town underneath the station and the hope is that when it is redeveloped it will be possible to excavate in advance. Possibly the most important Roman town in the Midlands.
As people seem interested in my lunchtime revelations...
I can say that was the best Dover Sole Meuniere I've ever had. In fact one of the best fish dishes of any kind that I have had recnetly.
I tried to master this apparently simple dish - sole meuniere - at home, and thought I'd done it, but this.... wow. Whole new level. On the bone, of course
Nonetheless, FIFTY EIGHT QUID?
Edit to add: I take it all back. I have just checked the price, a single Dover Sole - enough for 1 - now fetches nearly £30 from a fish market. So that might explain it
The King of fish, except the legendary sea bass, ofcourse.
I'd raise this above sea bass, and I had a superb wild sea bass recently. Also fantastic carp and trout in Montenegro
I think the gold metal "greatest fish to eat" is a final bout between Dover Sole and Turbot
BUT the winner must then go to a kind of global supercup match against Patagonian Toothfish (OMG!)
I hear and read about people whose opinions I value on food and drink waxing lyrical about fish dishes and wonder why I don't enjoy them. Shellfish, prawns etc I enjoy but not fish as such. Is it because when I was a child 'fish' always seemed to have bones in it, especially snoek? Or because I spent part of my late teens dissecting dogfish? Or both?
Did you never enjoy fish & chips back in the day ?
TBH, no. Not even out of newspaper. I've eaten them of course, but I don't really enjoy them. When we go out my wife often has them, but I just can't enjoy.
Fish and chips, like any food, can encompass a multitude of sins. Sometimes they can awful, and sometimes they can be heavenly, depending on the shop and time you get them.
The best I ever had was in Oz. Heavenly, with a slice of lemon, salt, and vinegar.
Tasmania for me.
There's no getting round it - seafood in the antipodes is just brilliant. The pies in NZ are incredible too.
I think the immediate environment influences the tasting experience. Eg my favourite ever fish and chips was next to the sea in Cornwall. And my second favourite was in Greenwich, sat by the river looking at a boat.
My best fish was freshly caught mackerel, fried in a pan on the fishing boat.
(No chips, but whatever.)
Well there you go - that's the ultimate of what I mean. Even if you could exactly replicate that dish in, say, a restaurant in Orpington it would not taste as good.
Fun fact. Airlines do their tasting of new menus on actual flights - not just to get the logistics of serving everything correct, but because of the atmosphere of being on the plane, with low air pressure and noise of the environment. If ever you see half of business class roped off and lots of people dressed like chefs walking around, that’s what they’re doing!
Conservative voters prefer the Conservative government; Labour voters prefer the Labour government; most others haven't made up their minds.
However... Reform voters hate Labour more than they hate the Conservatives and so push the dial slightly into the Conservative side. They have no intention of voting Conservative though.
Overall not great for Starmer but he can take comfort from presumably the same poll where Labour are ahead of the Conservatives by 4% and which would translate into a healthy majority if it stays the same in five years. Which of course it won't.
As people seem interested in my lunchtime revelations...
I can say that was the best Dover Sole Meuniere I've ever had. In fact one of the best fish dishes of any kind that I have had recnetly.
I tried to master this apparently simple dish - sole meuniere - at home, and thought I'd done it, but this.... wow. Whole new level. On the bone, of course
Nonetheless, FIFTY EIGHT QUID?
Edit to add: I take it all back. I have just checked the price, a single Dover Sole - enough for 1 - now fetches nearly £30 from a fish market. So that might explain it
The King of fish, except the legendary sea bass, ofcourse.
I'd raise this above sea bass, and I had a superb wild sea bass recently. Also fantastic carp and trout in Montenegro
I think the gold metal "greatest fish to eat" is a final bout between Dover Sole and Turbot
BUT the winner must then go to a kind of global supercup match against Patagonian Toothfish (OMG!)
I hear and read about people whose opinions I value on food and drink waxing lyrical about fish dishes and wonder why I don't enjoy them. Shellfish, prawns etc I enjoy but not fish as such. Is it because when I was a child 'fish' always seemed to have bones in it, especially snoek? Or because I spent part of my late teens dissecting dogfish? Or both?
Did you never enjoy fish & chips back in the day ?
TBH, no. Not even out of newspaper. I've eaten them of course, but I don't really enjoy them. When we go out my wife often has them, but I just can't enjoy.
Fish and chips, like any food, can encompass a multitude of sins. Sometimes they can awful, and sometimes they can be heavenly, depending on the shop and time you get them.
The best I ever had was in Oz. Heavenly, with a slice of lemon, salt, and vinegar.
I'm happy to take your word for it. I'd LIKE to enjoy fish, seeing that others get so much pleasure over eating it, bit I don't.
I was allergic to fish until my mid 20s. Made me vomit and have terrible stomach cramps. I think in hindsight it was just white fish but I avoided anything from the sea until a drunken taste of a mussel in the Peruvian restaurant that used to exist outside London Bridge station. Since then it’s been a journey of discovery.
On Radcliffe-on-Soar's closure. Amazing news that we are moving away from coal, but I can't help feeling a little conflicted. I spent ten years living in Nottingham and RoS was one of my favourite landmarks. Cooling towers in the late afternoon sun, in a foreground of August crops, are an amazing sight. But my favourite memories of them are on still, cold, bright winter mornings, when they would create impossibly huge mountains of cloud in a clear sky. Glorious monsters.
Just out of interest does anyone know if there are plans to retain any of the cooling towers of any of the power stations in England? It would be nice to see just one retained somewhere as a reminder of what was once the backbone of our electricity supply.
I assume Drax will remain for now. Might be the last one standing?
Of the major stations round here, Eggborough and Ferrybridge went recently, Thorpe Marsh a while back. West Burton is currently being demolished but may be replaced with Fusion Power (!).
It is much more difficult to navigate around parts of the Flatlands without the towers to guide you.
I'd post a picture of Thorpe Marsh surrounded by floodwater but I've used up my allocation for the day.
Just had a long boozy lunch at the Groucho with a “highly placed source”
Revelations:
1. Omg the food at the Grouch is now vastly improved. Divine Sole Meunière
2. However the prices have risen accordingly. £58??? For sole meunière??? Luckily my source was paying
3. There is indeed gossip on “him”
4. Also “him”
5. And, surprisingly, “her”
Good day
This site should be above carrying slurs by people dancing round the libel laws to peddle snide inuendo, seemingly to prove both how clever they are and how well connected.
@Leon is a fiction writer, and much of what he writes on here can be taken in the same manner.
I mean, if what he wrote on here in his various incarnations was actually factual, then he isn't a very nice bloke *at all*. Therefore I prefer to think of him as a fantasist.
When I was about 19, it took me an embarrassingly long time to realise that Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas was a tad exaggerated.
That's what YOU thought.
WAY more likely, that Dr. Hunter S. Thompson bowdlerized, rather than exaggerated!
On Radcliffe-on-Soar's closure. Amazing news that we are moving away from coal, but I can't help feeling a little conflicted. I spent ten years living in Nottingham and RoS was one of my favourite landmarks. Cooling towers in the late afternoon sun, in a foreground of August crops, are an amazing sight. But my favourite memories of them are on still, cold, bright winter mornings, when they would create impossibly huge mountains of cloud in a clear sky. Glorious monsters.
Just out of interest does anyone know if there are plans to retain any of the cooling towers of any of the power stations in England? It would be nice to see just one retained somewhere as a reminder of what was once the backbone of our electricity supply.
Keep Didcot, as that area isn’t heavy on VFR landmarks for passing pilots.
On Radcliffe-on-Soar's closure. Amazing news that we are moving away from coal, but I can't help feeling a little conflicted. I spent ten years living in Nottingham and RoS was one of my favourite landmarks. Cooling towers in the late afternoon sun, in a foreground of August crops, are an amazing sight. But my favourite memories of them are on still, cold, bright winter mornings, when they would create impossibly huge mountains of cloud in a clear sky. Glorious monsters.
Just out of interest does anyone know if there are plans to retain any of the cooling towers of any of the power stations in England? It would be nice to see just one retained somewhere as a reminder of what was once the backbone of our electricity supply.
I assume Drax will remain for now. Might be the last one standing?
Of the major stations round here, Eggborough and Ferrybridge went recently, Thorpe Marsh a while back. West Burton is currently being demolished but may be replaced with Fusion Power (!).
It is much more difficult to navigate around parts of the Flatlands without the towers to guide you.
I'd post a picture of Thorpe Marsh surrounded by floodwater but I've used up my allocation for the day.
As people seem interested in my lunchtime revelations...
I can say that was the best Dover Sole Meuniere I've ever had. In fact one of the best fish dishes of any kind that I have had recnetly.
I tried to master this apparently simple dish - sole meuniere - at home, and thought I'd done it, but this.... wow. Whole new level. On the bone, of course
Nonetheless, FIFTY EIGHT QUID?
Edit to add: I take it all back. I have just checked the price, a single Dover Sole - enough for 1 - now fetches nearly £30 from a fish market. So that might explain it
The King of fish, except the legendary sea bass, ofcourse.
I'd raise this above sea bass, and I had a superb wild sea bass recently. Also fantastic carp and trout in Montenegro
I think the gold metal "greatest fish to eat" is a final bout between Dover Sole and Turbot
BUT the winner must then go to a kind of global supercup match against Patagonian Toothfish (OMG!)
I hear and read about people whose opinions I value on food and drink waxing lyrical about fish dishes and wonder why I don't enjoy them. Shellfish, prawns etc I enjoy but not fish as such. Is it because when I was a child 'fish' always seemed to have bones in it, especially snoek? Or because I spent part of my late teens dissecting dogfish? Or both?
Did you never enjoy fish & chips back in the day ?
TBH, no. Not even out of newspaper. I've eaten them of course, but I don't really enjoy them. When we go out my wife often has them, but I just can't enjoy.
Fish and chips, like any food, can encompass a multitude of sins. Sometimes they can awful, and sometimes they can be heavenly, depending on the shop and time you get them.
The best I ever had was in Oz. Heavenly, with a slice of lemon, salt, and vinegar.
Tasmania for me.
There's no getting round it - seafood in the antipodes is just brilliant. The pies in NZ are incredible too.
I think the immediate environment influences the tasting experience. Eg my favourite ever fish and chips was next to the sea in Cornwall. And my second favourite was in Greenwich, sat by the river looking at a boat.
My best fish was freshly caught mackerel, fried in a pan on the fishing boat.
(No chips, but whatever.)
Well there you go - that's the ultimate of what I mean. Even if you could exactly replicate that dish in, say, a restaurant in Orpington it would not taste as good.
Fun fact. Airlines do their tasting of new menus on actual flights - not just to get the logistics of serving everything correct, but because of the atmosphere of being on the plane, with low air pressure and noise of the environment. If ever you see half of business class roped off and lots of people dressed like chefs walking around, that’s what they’re doing!
Apparently certain things in particularly have a very different taste e.g. tomato juice.
As people seem interested in my lunchtime revelations...
I can say that was the best Dover Sole Meuniere I've ever had. In fact one of the best fish dishes of any kind that I have had recnetly.
I tried to master this apparently simple dish - sole meuniere - at home, and thought I'd done it, but this.... wow. Whole new level. On the bone, of course
Nonetheless, FIFTY EIGHT QUID?
Edit to add: I take it all back. I have just checked the price, a single Dover Sole - enough for 1 - now fetches nearly £30 from a fish market. So that might explain it
The King of fish, except the legendary sea bass, ofcourse.
I'd raise this above sea bass, and I had a superb wild sea bass recently. Also fantastic carp and trout in Montenegro
I think the gold metal "greatest fish to eat" is a final bout between Dover Sole and Turbot
BUT the winner must then go to a kind of global supercup match against Patagonian Toothfish (OMG!)
I hear and read about people whose opinions I value on food and drink waxing lyrical about fish dishes and wonder why I don't enjoy them. Shellfish, prawns etc I enjoy but not fish as such. Is it because when I was a child 'fish' always seemed to have bones in it, especially snoek? Or because I spent part of my late teens dissecting dogfish? Or both?
Did you never enjoy fish & chips back in the day ?
TBH, no. Not even out of newspaper. I've eaten them of course, but I don't really enjoy them. When we go out my wife often has them, but I just can't enjoy.
Fish and chips, like any food, can encompass a multitude of sins. Sometimes they can awful, and sometimes they can be heavenly, depending on the shop and time you get them.
The best I ever had was in Oz. Heavenly, with a slice of lemon, salt, and vinegar.
Tasmania for me.
There's no getting round it - seafood in the antipodes is just brilliant. The pies in NZ are incredible too.
I think the immediate environment influences the tasting experience. Eg my favourite ever fish and chips was next to the sea in Cornwall. And my second favourite was in Greenwich, sat by the river looking at a boat.
My best fish was freshly caught mackerel, fried in a pan on the fishing boat.
(No chips, but whatever.)
Location is so important, and mood, and hunger, and expectations
One of my best meals ever was a Philps pasty eaten on a seawall in Hayle, after a day without food, working on a project with a friend (driving around Cornwall, meeting Cornish people). We kept postponing lunch until we were STARVING, and by the time we got there, a new batch had been made for the evening trade, but it was about 3pm in late Feb and we sat and ate them staring at the sea and the sun was out and it gave us that first hint of springtime warmth (spring can come early to Cornwall).
Heavenly
Ditto, oysters in Ushant a few weeks ago, right on the beach where they gathered them (also bright sunshine)
Borscht in a Russian themed cafe in Transnistria where it cost £2 and you stared at a Bakelite Stalin and expected the worst meal in history and yet it was so simple and so BLOODY good it was FUCK
A dinner in the Gritti Palace Venice overlooking the Grand Canal in the autumn mist where they said "we can do you pasta with the last truffle in Venice, it should be good" (the season was basically over). Mmmmm-mmm
Off topic: I've just binge watched all eight episodes of Corridors Of Power. It's about America's attempts to be (and equally escape being) World Policeman since winning the Cold War. Some truly harrowing footage but a great prog. I felt sadder and wiser for watching it.
The post office is once again trying to solve their Horizon problems by offering Postmasters a poor offer with a short deadline and no help on paying for legal advice
The cost getting advice on whether a postermaster should take the offer or not is £10,000 or so and the post office isn't offering to cover those costs...
As people seem interested in my lunchtime revelations...
I can say that was the best Dover Sole Meuniere I've ever had. In fact one of the best fish dishes of any kind that I have had recnetly.
I tried to master this apparently simple dish - sole meuniere - at home, and thought I'd done it, but this.... wow. Whole new level. On the bone, of course
Nonetheless, FIFTY EIGHT QUID?
Edit to add: I take it all back. I have just checked the price, a single Dover Sole - enough for 1 - now fetches nearly £30 from a fish market. So that might explain it
The King of fish, except the legendary sea bass, ofcourse.
I'd raise this above sea bass, and I had a superb wild sea bass recently. Also fantastic carp and trout in Montenegro
I think the gold metal "greatest fish to eat" is a final bout between Dover Sole and Turbot
BUT the winner must then go to a kind of global supercup match against Patagonian Toothfish (OMG!)
I hear and read about people whose opinions I value on food and drink waxing lyrical about fish dishes and wonder why I don't enjoy them. Shellfish, prawns etc I enjoy but not fish as such. Is it because when I was a child 'fish' always seemed to have bones in it, especially snoek? Or because I spent part of my late teens dissecting dogfish? Or both?
Did you never enjoy fish & chips back in the day ?
TBH, no. Not even out of newspaper. I've eaten them of course, but I don't really enjoy them. When we go out my wife often has them, but I just can't enjoy.
Fish and chips, like any food, can encompass a multitude of sins. Sometimes they can awful, and sometimes they can be heavenly, depending on the shop and time you get them.
The best I ever had was in Oz. Heavenly, with a slice of lemon, salt, and vinegar.
Tasmania for me.
There's no getting round it - seafood in the antipodes is just brilliant. The pies in NZ are incredible too.
I think the immediate environment influences the tasting experience. Eg my favourite ever fish and chips was next to the sea in Cornwall. And my second favourite was in Greenwich, sat by the river looking at a boat.
My best fish was freshly caught mackerel, fried in a pan on the fishing boat.
(No chips, but whatever.)
Well there you go - that's the ultimate of what I mean. Even if you could exactly replicate that dish in, say, a restaurant in Orpington it would not taste as good.
Fun fact. Airlines do their tasting of new menus on actual flights - not just to get the logistics of serving everything correct, but because of the atmosphere of being on the plane, with low air pressure and noise of the environment. If ever you see half of business class roped off and lots of people dressed like chefs walking around, that’s what they’re doing!
One of the slight problems astronauts have is that their sense of taste changes. There can be a food they love back on Earth, which is then processed into 'space food' which they still like - at least whilst still on Earth. Once in orbit, they hate it. Whilst others who disliked that food on Earth, now like it.
Flavour and taste are weird things, perhaps more mental than physiological.
As people seem interested in my lunchtime revelations...
I can say that was the best Dover Sole Meuniere I've ever had. In fact one of the best fish dishes of any kind that I have had recnetly.
I tried to master this apparently simple dish - sole meuniere - at home, and thought I'd done it, but this.... wow. Whole new level. On the bone, of course
Nonetheless, FIFTY EIGHT QUID?
Edit to add: I take it all back. I have just checked the price, a single Dover Sole - enough for 1 - now fetches nearly £30 from a fish market. So that might explain it
The King of fish, except the legendary sea bass, ofcourse.
I'd raise this above sea bass, and I had a superb wild sea bass recently. Also fantastic carp and trout in Montenegro
I think the gold metal "greatest fish to eat" is a final bout between Dover Sole and Turbot
BUT the winner must then go to a kind of global supercup match against Patagonian Toothfish (OMG!)
I hear and read about people whose opinions I value on food and drink waxing lyrical about fish dishes and wonder why I don't enjoy them. Shellfish, prawns etc I enjoy but not fish as such. Is it because when I was a child 'fish' always seemed to have bones in it, especially snoek? Or because I spent part of my late teens dissecting dogfish? Or both?
Did you never enjoy fish & chips back in the day ?
TBH, no. Not even out of newspaper. I've eaten them of course, but I don't really enjoy them. When we go out my wife often has them, but I just can't enjoy.
Fish and chips, like any food, can encompass a multitude of sins. Sometimes they can awful, and sometimes they can be heavenly, depending on the shop and time you get them.
The best I ever had was in Oz. Heavenly, with a slice of lemon, salt, and vinegar.
Tasmania for me.
There's no getting round it - seafood in the antipodes is just brilliant. The pies in NZ are incredible too.
I think the immediate environment influences the tasting experience. Eg my favourite ever fish and chips was next to the sea in Cornwall. And my second favourite was in Greenwich, sat by the river looking at a boat.
My best fish was freshly caught mackerel, fried in a pan on the fishing boat.
(No chips, but whatever.)
Location is so important, and mood, and hunger, and expectations
One of my best meals ever was a Philps pasty eaten on a seawall in Hayle, after a day without food, working on a project with a friend (driving around Cornwall, meeting Cornish people). We kept postponing lunch until we were STARVING, and by the time we got there, a new batch had been made for the evening trade, but it was about 3pm in late Feb and we sat and ate them staring at the sea and the sun was out and it gave us that first hint of springtime warmth (spring can come early to Cornwall).
Heavenly
Ditto, oysters in Ushant a few weeks ago, right on the beach where they gathered them (also bright sunshine)
Borscht in a Russian themed cafe in Transnistria where it cost £2 and you stared at a Bakelite Stalin and expected the worst meal in history and yet it was so simple and so BLOODY good it was FUCK
A dinner in the Gritti Palace Venice overlooking the Grand Canal in the autumn mist where they said "we can do you pasta with the last truffle in Venice, it should be good" (the season was basically over). Mmmmm-mmm
I haven't forgotten about your recommendation to have borscht in the capital of Moldova.
The post office is once again trying to solve their Horizon problems by offering Postmasters a poor offer with a short deadline and no help on paying for legal advice
The cost getting advice on whether a postermaster should take the offer or not is £10,000 or so and the post office isn't offering to cover those costs...
I was at the Tory conference today. Just a flying visit, did a panel on growth and then left. But it was an interesting anthropological experience.
The only major Tories I saw on my travels were Tugendhat, doing a panel, dear old Gavin Williams wandering around glued to his iphone, various minor shadow ministers and the ghost of Kemi Badenoch represented by the absolute landslide of branded campaign merch everywhere, which I absently-mindedly forgot to pick up as it would have been an interesting memento of the day.
But notwithstanding the horrendous weather the people seemed quite chipper. Must be the catharsis of being in opposition as the weight of power lifts from the shoulders. My colleague who's been at all 3 conferences said there's a lot of conviction in Birmingham that Labour is going to be a one-term government and the party will sail back into Downing street come 2029.
It's an interesting demographic. Much younger than I'd expected. There are plenty of old people of course, but there also are at Labour conferences. A distinct lack of people in the parenting years from 30 to 50, but a lot of young Tories (mainly men but a few women) in their 20s.
Last time the US got Israel to show restraint in the face of the Iran attack. You wonder if that might not be possible this time.
If we really do see retaliation from Israel and a wider ME war, all bets are off from the economic perspective back here. We could be seeing inflation jumping again and rates back up.
On Radcliffe-on-Soar's closure. Amazing news that we are moving away from coal, but I can't help feeling a little conflicted. I spent ten years living in Nottingham and RoS was one of my favourite landmarks. Cooling towers in the late afternoon sun, in a foreground of August crops, are an amazing sight. But my favourite memories of them are on still, cold, bright winter mornings, when they would create impossibly huge mountains of cloud in a clear sky. Glorious monsters.
Just out of interest does anyone know if there are plans to retain any of the cooling towers of any of the power stations in England? It would be nice to see just one retained somewhere as a reminder of what was once the backbone of our electricity supply.
I assume Drax will remain for now. Might be the last one standing?
Of the major stations round here, Eggborough and Ferrybridge went recently, Thorpe Marsh a while back. West Burton is currently being demolished but may be replaced with Fusion Power (!).
It is much more difficult to navigate around parts of the Flatlands without the towers to guide you.
I'd post a picture of Thorpe Marsh surrounded by floodwater but I've used up my allocation for the day.
Willington cooling towers are still standing.
I was about to comment on that. Willington closed in 1995/9 (A and B stations) and the cooling towers are still standing. But until recently there were plans for there to be a massive new CCGT (gas) plant on the site, which may have forestalled their demolition. And now the site is to be a big 400 kv interconnector from the north (1), but that will not require the towers.
Perhaps a parallel is coal mines: once common around the country, how many of the visible signs, headstocks, are still standing? IANAE, but the headstocks for Clipstone in Nottinghamshire were still up a few years ago.
At least one example of this sort of thing need to be preserved, simply because they are so visible. And in the case of cooling towers, it should be a cluster. But they're also fairly useless for other purposes, and concrete cancer is a problem.
Last time the US got Israel to show restraint in the face of the Iran attack. You wonder if that might not be possible this time.
If we really do see retaliation from Israel and a wider ME war, all bets are off from the economic perspective back here. We could be seeing inflation jumping again and rates back up.
The post office is once again trying to solve their Horizon problems by offering Postmasters a poor offer with a short deadline and no help on paying for legal advice
The cost getting advice on whether a postermaster should take the offer or not is £10,000 or so and the post office isn't offering to cover those costs...
Fine them £1m each week, rising a further 5% per week, whilst this is still ongoing.
Last time the US got Israel to show restraint in the face of the Iran attack. You wonder if that might not be possible this time.
If we really do see retaliation from Israel and a wider ME war, all bets are off from the economic perspective back here. We could be seeing inflation jumping again and rates back up.
Israel will absolutely retaliate
Slow moving Drones last time, these are Ballistic Missiles. Their air defenses are sophisticated but some will have got through.
The post office is once again trying to solve their Horizon problems by offering Postmasters a poor offer with a short deadline and no help on paying for legal advice
The cost getting advice on whether a postermaster should take the offer or not is £10,000 or so and the post office isn't offering to cover those costs...
Fine them £1m each week, rising a further 5% per week, whilst this is still ongoing.
Who’s up first in the Private Members’ Bills list?
Any SPM accused of fraud: £1m Any SPM charged with fraud: £2m Any SPM jailed for fraud: £5m
Meanwhile, the PO are happily spending £100m on their own lawyers to make the problem even worse for the SPMs. They’ve learned nothing.
Last time the US got Israel to show restraint in the face of the Iran attack. You wonder if that might not be possible this time.
If we really do see retaliation from Israel and a wider ME war, all bets are off from the economic perspective back here. We could be seeing inflation jumping again and rates back up.
Sky expecting huge response from Israel
I expect Tehran will be in the crosshairs
It was interesting that Israel struck the Houthis in Yemen a few days ago. Though it is in a different direction from Iran, they must have flown over at least Saudi Arabia to get there. In Iran's case, it's Iraq and/or Jordan/Syria.
Are air defences in the region that poor? Particularly considering distances and the need for refuelling.
As people seem interested in my lunchtime revelations...
I can say that was the best Dover Sole Meuniere I've ever had. In fact one of the best fish dishes of any kind that I have had recnetly.
I tried to master this apparently simple dish - sole meuniere - at home, and thought I'd done it, but this.... wow. Whole new level. On the bone, of course
Nonetheless, FIFTY EIGHT QUID?
Edit to add: I take it all back. I have just checked the price, a single Dover Sole - enough for 1 - now fetches nearly £30 from a fish market. So that might explain it
The King of fish, except the legendary sea bass, ofcourse.
I'd raise this above sea bass, and I had a superb wild sea bass recently. Also fantastic carp and trout in Montenegro
I think the gold metal "greatest fish to eat" is a final bout between Dover Sole and Turbot
BUT the winner must then go to a kind of global supercup match against Patagonian Toothfish (OMG!)
Turbot yes, Dover sole yes, sea bass (if they really exist) yes.
Carp? No, just no.
Ah, but have you had carp wild and marinated and served cold with hot boiled potatoes in spinach and herbs, at a lakeshore restaurant in Virpazar, Montenegro, by the waters of Skadar?
I have (last month actually) and it was SUBLIME. It sounded awful, but it was mega-delish
I totally agree with you. It does sound awful.
I actually had carp, too, at Lake Skadar. It wasn't cold, it wasn't awful, but it wasn't great. I only ordered it out of sheer curiosity and assumed it would be dire, so I was, I suppose, pleasantly surprised. Leon probably ate in a better place.
Fairly pathetic from Iran so far. I reckon the Iranians are terrified and this is gestural, and Hezbollah are on the run
The Israelis should take this to the end now. Finish Hezbollah and take down the Iranian regime, and nukes, in toto
No great lover of the Iranian regime here, but (a) war has a habit of being a unifier, at least at the start and (b) the end of the regime in Iran (if that is what transpires) potentially creates a vacuum that we have to hope is not filled with even more malign actors.
As people seem interested in my lunchtime revelations...
I can say that was the best Dover Sole Meuniere I've ever had. In fact one of the best fish dishes of any kind that I have had recnetly.
I tried to master this apparently simple dish - sole meuniere - at home, and thought I'd done it, but this.... wow. Whole new level. On the bone, of course
Nonetheless, FIFTY EIGHT QUID?
Edit to add: I take it all back. I have just checked the price, a single Dover Sole - enough for 1 - now fetches nearly £30 from a fish market. So that might explain it
The King of fish, except the legendary sea bass, ofcourse.
I'd raise this above sea bass, and I had a superb wild sea bass recently. Also fantastic carp and trout in Montenegro
I think the gold metal "greatest fish to eat" is a final bout between Dover Sole and Turbot
BUT the winner must then go to a kind of global supercup match against Patagonian Toothfish (OMG!)
I hear and read about people whose opinions I value on food and drink waxing lyrical about fish dishes and wonder why I don't enjoy them. Shellfish, prawns etc I enjoy but not fish as such. Is it because when I was a child 'fish' always seemed to have bones in it, especially snoek? Or because I spent part of my late teens dissecting dogfish? Or both?
Did you never enjoy fish & chips back in the day ?
TBH, no. Not even out of newspaper. I've eaten them of course, but I don't really enjoy them. When we go out my wife often has them, but I just can't enjoy.
Fish and chips, like any food, can encompass a multitude of sins. Sometimes they can awful, and sometimes they can be heavenly, depending on the shop and time you get them.
The best I ever had was in Oz. Heavenly, with a slice of lemon, salt, and vinegar.
Fish and chips would be nice. Feels like it's been ages.
In Whitby after a walk up,to the abbey and back. Awesome.
Whitby might be different but generally I find that fish and chips at seaside resorts are rubbish. The worst I ever had was on the north Norfolk coast. The chips were soggy, the landlady was monstrous, and they took only cash (a friend paid and I pinged her the money). I never returned, despite the place itself being rather beautiful.
As people seem interested in my lunchtime revelations...
I can say that was the best Dover Sole Meuniere I've ever had. In fact one of the best fish dishes of any kind that I have had recnetly.
I tried to master this apparently simple dish - sole meuniere - at home, and thought I'd done it, but this.... wow. Whole new level. On the bone, of course
Nonetheless, FIFTY EIGHT QUID?
Edit to add: I take it all back. I have just checked the price, a single Dover Sole - enough for 1 - now fetches nearly £30 from a fish market. So that might explain it
The King of fish, except the legendary sea bass, ofcourse.
I'd raise this above sea bass, and I had a superb wild sea bass recently. Also fantastic carp and trout in Montenegro
I think the gold metal "greatest fish to eat" is a final bout between Dover Sole and Turbot
BUT the winner must then go to a kind of global supercup match against Patagonian Toothfish (OMG!)
Turbot yes, Dover sole yes, sea bass (if they really exist) yes.
Carp? No, just no.
Ah, but have you had carp wild and marinated and served cold with hot boiled potatoes in spinach and herbs, at a lakeshore restaurant in Virpazar, Montenegro, by the waters of Skadar?
I have (last month actually) and it was SUBLIME. It sounded awful, but it was mega-delish
I totally agree with you. It does sound awful.
I actually had carp, too, at Lake Skadar. It wasn't cold, it wasn't awful, but it wasn't great. I only ordered it out of sheer curiosity and assumed it would be dire, so I was, I suppose, pleasantly surprised. Leon probably ate in a better place.
I got a recommendation from my hotelier, it wasn't one of the most obvious riverside places, it was superb (this one dish, the others might have been dire)
Also, surprisingly nice home made wine
I love Montenegro. The coast is quite a seductive place to live, given the benign Med climate, the great beauty, and the nice food, bars etc - and yet you've got amazing wilderness 10km away inland
Last time the US got Israel to show restraint in the face of the Iran attack. You wonder if that might not be possible this time.
If we really do see retaliation from Israel and a wider ME war, all bets are off from the economic perspective back here. We could be seeing inflation jumping again and rates back up.
Sky expecting huge response from Israel
I expect Tehran will be in the crosshairs
It was interesting that Israel struck the Houthis in Yemen a few days ago. Though it is in a different direction from Iran, they must have flown over at least Saudi Arabia to get there. In Iran's case, it's Iraq and/or Jordan/Syria.
Are air defences in the region that poor? Particularly considering distances and the need for refuelling.
The Saudis would happily watch on, knowing where the missiles were going. Yemeni coast is on the Red Sea, you could fire a missile in a straight line from over the sea 100km from Israel.
The videos out of Israel look like something in the Dune movies.
Eeeeek.
But just what Netanyahu wanted. He'll be happy as larry.
PS: Why are all the world's worst people getting what they want atm? I hope November 5th marks the end of this tendency.
Trump will be delighted . The Middle East going up in flames and a dockworkers strike on the east and Gulf coasts.
Well done for highlighting on here the dockworkers’ strike that most of the media didn’t see coming until it happened.
Thanks . The strike coupled with events in the Middle East will be a huge concern for the Harris campaign . As long as US troops aren’t harmed then the biggest problem will likely be the strikes as US voters tend to vote primarily on more national issues .
Comments
Cleverly winning is the best outcome for the Conservatives (and the best for effective opposition to Labour). Even though there will be somebody better to lead them into the next election.
Conservative voters prefer the Conservative government; Labour voters prefer the Labour government; most others haven't made up their minds.
However... Reform voters hate Labour more than they hate the Conservatives and so push the dial slightly into the Conservative side. They have no intention of voting Conservative though.
Overall not great for Starmer but he can take comfort from presumably the same poll where Labour are ahead of the Conservatives by 4% and which would translate into a healthy majority if it stays the same in five years. Which of course it won't.
https://bsky.app/profile/luketryl.bsky.social/post/3l5h4vwy2cx2j
There's no getting round it - seafood in the antipodes is just brilliant. The pies in NZ are incredible too.
Can’t beat salted anchovies in my opinion.
The once we went to see the red arrows fly past. We heard them and that was it. A bit of a pea souper. Yet the weather was clear at the park and ride a couple of miles out of,town.
That said the UK boasts some of the best fish in the world, as well. From Cornwall to Cumbria to Northumberland to Scotland and Ulster, there is a reason the rest of Europe wants to fish in our seas
If it wasn't all washed away in yesterday's rain...
Fact times importance equals news.
Big fact, and a bad for the government. But not (yet) an important one.
You get good stuff in the UK but it's never quite like that.
Brace-a-mundo!
Also because smell and memory linked. So while I've had many good fish and chipses in my life, the really memorable ones are the ones with the smell of the sea linked: on the harbour at Falmouth looking at blue skies and a thousand boats, or on the harbour at Stornoway looking at 'changeable' Hebridean skies and seals bobbing up in the water to examine us.
The looking-at-a-boat is harder to explain, but I'll take your word for it.
I've had superb fish and chips in the UK, probably better than anywhere in Oz
In fact fish and chips is more satisfying, as a supper, in the cool rainy climate of the UK. Say, in your darkened car, with your starving family, after a tough drive, and you're in Oban or Newquay or wherever, and someone goes out and gets four portions for everyone, and its great and fresh and salty and mmm and hot, and you eat it in the car with the rain drumming on the roof, and that is prefection
Slightly different to the crispier version, best had with seasoning from the salt in the air, best of all.
Spoiler - Having been told which wire to cut (you know that old cliff hanger) he cuts the other one without telling the others who are waiting before cutting the wires on the other bomb(s). So if one kaboom, subsequent unnecessary kabooms.
Only beaten by Von Ryan's Express which has a plot flaw so awful I just can't watch it no matter how many times it is shown on the TV. Won't print the spoiler but if you watch it see if you can see the obvious solution to their predicament at the end of the film that they completely ignore even though they were going to do something almost identical before a 109 interfered.
(No chips, but whatever.)
Israel’s military announced the assassination of Muhammad Jaafar Qasir, Hezbollah’s head of weapon transfers from Iran and its regional proxies.
Hezbollah is leaking like a sieve.
I pointed out that there will be a raft of policies in the, er, Budget in 29 days' time.
You then spaffed on about something else. As you often do.
Frightening escalation
Tel Aviv also under attack
Of the major stations round here, Eggborough and Ferrybridge went recently, Thorpe Marsh a while back. West Burton is currently being demolished but may be replaced with Fusion Power (!).
It is much more difficult to navigate around parts of the Flatlands without the towers to guide you.
I'd post a picture of Thorpe Marsh surrounded by floodwater but I've used up my allocation for the day.
WAY more likely, that Dr. Hunter S. Thompson bowdlerized, rather than exaggerated!
One of my best meals ever was a Philps pasty eaten on a seawall in Hayle, after a day without food, working on a project with a friend (driving around Cornwall, meeting Cornish people). We kept postponing lunch until we were STARVING, and by the time we got there, a new batch had been made for the evening trade, but it was about 3pm in late Feb and we sat and ate them staring at the sea and the sun was out and it gave us that first hint of springtime warmth (spring can come early to Cornwall).
Heavenly
Ditto, oysters in Ushant a few weeks ago, right on the beach where they gathered them (also bright sunshine)
Borscht in a Russian themed cafe in Transnistria where it cost £2 and you stared at a Bakelite Stalin and expected the worst meal in history and yet it was so simple and so BLOODY good it was FUCK
A dinner in the Gritti Palace Venice overlooking the Grand Canal in the autumn mist where they said "we can do you pasta with the last truffle in Venice, it should be good" (the season was basically over). Mmmmm-mmm
Eeeeek.
Threads-style typewriter text scrolls across the page.
https://taxpolicy.org.uk/2024/10/01/the-post-office-pushing-postmasters-to-accept-75000-compensation-without-legal-advice/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
The cost getting advice on whether a postermaster should take the offer or not is £10,000 or so and the post office isn't offering to cover those costs...
Flavour and taste are weird things, perhaps more mental than physiological.
But your copium is to spam " 172" to any criticism of Labour.
Perhaps you should reconsider that approach.
Kemi Badenoch says between 5-10% of civil servants “are very, very bad. You know, should be in prison bad.”
She lists leaking official secrets, undermining their ministers and agitating.
😬😬😬
https://x.com/JackElsom/status/1841158990824116663
Even when she doesn't become leader, she's still going to be a senior Conservative.
PS: Why are all the world's worst people getting what they want atm? I hope November 5th marks the end of this tendency.
The only major Tories I saw on my travels were Tugendhat, doing a panel, dear old Gavin Williams wandering around glued to his iphone, various minor shadow ministers and the ghost of Kemi Badenoch represented by the absolute landslide of branded campaign merch everywhere, which I absently-mindedly forgot to pick up as it would have been an interesting memento of the day.
But notwithstanding the horrendous weather the people seemed quite chipper. Must be the catharsis of being in opposition as the weight of power lifts from the shoulders. My colleague who's been at all 3 conferences said there's a lot of conviction in Birmingham that Labour is going to be a one-term government and the party will sail back into Downing street come 2029.
It's an interesting demographic. Much younger than I'd expected. There are plenty of old people of course, but there also are at Labour conferences. A distinct lack of people in the parenting years from 30 to 50, but a lot of young Tories (mainly men but a few women) in their 20s.
If we really do see retaliation from Israel and a wider ME war, all bets are off from the economic perspective back here. We could be seeing inflation jumping again and rates back up.
Perhaps a parallel is coal mines: once common around the country, how many of the visible signs, headstocks, are still standing? IANAE, but the headstocks for Clipstone in Nottinghamshire were still up a few years ago.
At least one example of this sort of thing need to be preserved, simply because they are so visible. And in the case of cooling towers, it should be a cluster. But they're also fairly useless for other purposes, and concrete cancer is a problem.
(1): https://www.nationalgrid.com/the-great-grid-upgrade/chesterfield-to-willington
I expect Tehran will be in the crosshairs
Slow moving Drones last time, these are Ballistic Missiles. Their air defenses are sophisticated but some will have got through.
Any SPM accused of fraud: £1m
Any SPM charged with fraud: £2m
Any SPM jailed for fraud: £5m
Meanwhile, the PO are happily spending £100m on their own lawyers to make the problem even worse for the SPMs. They’ve learned nothing.
The Israelis should take this to the end now. Finish Hezbollah and take down the Iranian regime, and nukes, in toto
Tommy Tugster has maybe gone up slightly in my estimation, but little else has changed.
Jenrick is the least compelling option and the other three pretty much balance each other out with their respective strengths and weaknesses.
All of which points to an inevitable Jenrick win, obviously...
Are air defences in the region that poor? Particularly considering distances and the need for refuelling.
The best fish and chips are served in gastropubs.
Also, surprisingly nice home made wine
I love Montenegro. The coast is quite a seductive place to live, given the benign Med climate, the great beauty, and the nice food, bars etc - and yet you've got amazing wilderness 10km away inland
FOAD.
TRUSS