What exactly is going on with English, for want of a better word,
cuisine? First of all I find this:
At first I thought it was a parody, or at least a joke, and maybe it is
but I don’t think so, though I really can’t tell anymore. And are they potato chips?crisps? I'm confused because it says "made using" potatoes rather than "made from." In any case, is a winter berry a thing? Or does it just mean berries that appear in
the winter? Holly? Mistletoe?
And then I happened (I had my reasons) to be looking at the menu of
Rules, London’s oldest restaurant: 1798, though obviously there are older
pubs. Me and my mate Neil went to Rules
once and we ordered the grouse and the waiter looked at us dubiously as though he
didn’t think we were grouse-worthy – though I think we proved that we were.
And anyway, I did know there was a royal connection - Edward VII used to eat upstairs with his mistress Lillie Langtree in what’s
now the cocktail bar – but I was still surprised to find there on the drinks
menu - bottom right hand corner - a cocktail called the Kate Middleton's “Royal 29.”
Looks like this apparently:
And as you see from the description, it contains Sipsmith and Pinky Vodka. And this was all new to me. The questions came thick and fast. Pinky Vodka – is that a thing? Yep turns out it is:
And Sipsmith? Yep that’s a thing
too - a kind of gin, apparently made from swans:
But even I know I’m not swan-worthy.
Sipsmith gin is pretty bloody nice, actually. We ate in Rules once, wasn't given the best of tables, but the meal more than made up for the bloody awful Arthur Miller play we'd seen beforehand. At the Old Vic, directed by my hero Robert Altman, just before he died. He wasn't there, having gone to collect his overdue honorary Oscar, but Kevin Spacey, to his credit, was around, shaking hands in the interval. To give you an idea of how bad it was, when we asked what time it ended (so we could get to Rules), the box office gleefully told us. 'Don't worry, they've just cut another 20 minutes.' It closed shortly afterwards, but glad that Rules is still going, in case I can ever afford to eat there again....
ReplyDeleteYes, indeed my meal at Rules was very good - though probably not quite good enough to make up for a bloody awful play by Arthur Miller.
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