The day after Tim's party - 20th February

I had friends staying with me this weekend, because Tim was having a party, and had invited several of my friends, too.

So, on the Sunday, there were quite a few of us hanging around, eating homemade bread which I had actually managed to put in the breadmaker in the early hours of the morning, on returning from the party. Or, in one case, staying in bed to listen to the Archers, and miss out on the homemade bread!

Anyway, we set off for lunch, and went picked up Tim as well, to there were several of us this time. Me, Tim, Becka, Dan, Jon and Colin, to be precise. Ian and Ley had to go home to Lewes.

We tried to go to the Old Nuns Head, in Nunhead, but it was too busy, and couldn't fit us in, even though we phoned ahead to try and get a table. That was a shame, as I would have liked to find out what Jon and Colin thought of it.

Anyway, after some dithering, we went to the Clock House pub near Peckham Rye - http://www.clockhousepub.com/. It was not my first visit there on a Sunday, so I knew it didn't do a Sunday roast for vegetarians, but it was cold, and people were getting agitated, and we couldn't agree where to go!

It's a reasonable, real ale, pub, but it doesn't do a vegetarian Sunday roast, as I remembered, so I had to have a vegetable pie, mash and veg. The pie was edible but a bit tasteless, as was the mash and veg. It was also a bit expensive at 10:50 a go. Apparently, the meat roasts were okay, and I was glad that my guests were content. But I really don't think I should bother going there on a Sunday lunchtime!

Children in pubs

There have been times in recent years that a visit to a pub on a Sunday lunchtime/afternoon has been like a visit to a nursery! Most of the time, it doesn't bother me at all, although it can get too much if the children are left to run around, screaming, intruding on other punters, and generally misbehaving. I am perhaps a bit old-fashioned, but I think even young children should be taught how to behave when in an adult space such as a pub!

Anyway, I thought about all of this when Tim, his lodger, Ana, and I went to the Park Inn in Norwood today for our lunch. I didn't know until just now that it had a website, but here it is - http://www.theparkse27.co.uk/. Unknown to us, most of the pub had been booked for a christening party, so it was pretty busy with small children and their parents.

I had the vegetarian Sunday roast, which was a vegetable burger, roast potatoes, yorkshire pudding, cabbage, chantenay carrots and green beans. It was good, although the carrots and beans could have done with another minute or two cooking.

However, it felt odd that there were quite so many small children, dressed up parents, and balloons in the pub. It turned out that I knew one of the sets of parents, so I had a cuddle with their beautiful baby daughter, which was nice.

Haven't posted for a while

I know that no-one reads my blog, apart from me, but that is fine. I am going to persevere, because it never really was for anyone else :)

Today, my friend Tim suggested we went to the Cambria (http://www.thecambrialondon.com/) again, who were running an afternoon cabaret/burlesque event at the same time as serving Sunday lunch, so, to be a bit different, we went there. We sat in the upstairs room, and I ordered the nut roast. When it came, it was shockingly bad. The actual nut roast appeared to have been left sitting on a hotplate, or to have been overcooked, and I simply couldn't cut it, or chew it, when I did manage to get some of it in my mouth. With it, there came a square of something flat and floppy, which I think was supposed to be a yorkshire pudding, but it had not risen at all! On the same plate, were some cold roast carrots and parsnips, indifferent roasties, and vinegary red cabbage. Oh, and some gravy. That was it. No fresh, green vegetables at all.

I didn't eat it, and we were not charged for it.

It was good to have table service, although it was erratic at best, with several people asking us for our orders one minute, and then no-one for ages, and them clearly forgetting our requests completely three times!

The show was unexpectedly great fun! Hosted by Mzzz Kimberley, the show is described on their website as being in a "polysexual and glamourous enviroment" (their typo) and, despite never having seen the word "polysexual" before, I think it is possibly an accurate word to use :)

Today I made my own

I had no-one to lunch with today, so I decided to make myself a roast dinner. It wasn't perfect, because I didn't have any frozen yorkshire puddings, and it wasn't worth making up batter just for one person. Also, I had frozen nut cutlets, instead of home made roast.

However, I was pretty impressed that I was able to make a roast dinner of any description, when I hadn't been shopping for over a week, other than to my corner shop!

I had nut cutlets, rosemary roasted potatoes, glazed carrots, mashed swede, peas, with onion and red wine gravy.

It was yummy, but I miss the social side of it, particularly when I have been snowed in for days!

Looks like no-one is reading my blogs

Sunday 21st November

My friend Tim stayed at my house on Saturday, which meant that we were able to go south in search of Sunday lunch, so we headed off into Surrey, to a pub in South Godstone called the Fox and Hounds. http://www.beerintheevening.com/pubs/s/31/31452/Fox_And_Hounds/South_Godstone

I have been to this pub before, the first time over a year ago, when Tim and I were having a drive around the country, and Tim found this pub in the Which Guide to Country Pubs. Took ages to find it on that occasion, though, because the guide was old, and the postcode was wrong, so we drove round in circles for a while before realising that we were lost, and phoning them up for directions! I was really impressed by the pub, which was very busy on that occasion, I remember, and did a nut roast, which is not that common in country pubs!

So, on this occasion, I decided to check it out again, and I still had the Which guide, because Tim had decided to chuck it out, and I salvaged it, and wrote the right post code in it.

We sat in the pub itself, not the restaurant, and it was lovely, with a real fire. It was busy, particularly in the restaurant, despite us getting there quite late. Apparently, the real ale was good, but I can't actually remember what it was, since I wasn't drinking it. I had a couple of J2Os.

Anyway, the food. It was fantastic. The nut roast came on a plate with a yorkshire, several roast potatoes, roast parsnips and gravy. In a separate bowl, we had green beans, mangetout, turnips, carrots, mashed swede and carrot, red cabbage and ratatouille. I think that must be a record for accompanying vegetables! It is unusual to have turnip as a side dish, too, so that was nice.

The whole thing was yummy, although Tim didn't eat any of his side vegetables, for some reason. That was good for me, though, because I got to eat his swede (I love swede) and beans. I couldn't manage all of his vegetables though.

Definitely worth a re-visit.

Second blog entry

I wonder whether this will become a habit.

Sunday 14th November

I had no plans for lunch today, but I got a text from my (80 year old) father (he has only recently discovered SMS, so it is all still a bit new to him!), telling me that he was on the train back from Paris to London, and could I recommend somewhere to go for lunch. I did a bit of googling, and made some suggestions, and then I invited myself out for lunch with them.

I had, of course, forgotten that there was no direct service from East Croydon to St Pancras, which would have been perfect, but I still got there reasonably well via London Bridge and the Northern Line (one of very few Underground lines which were running!), and we met in the Betjeman Arms in St Pancras station - http://www.geronimo-inns.co.uk/thebetjemanarms/. I have been there before, but not in the dining rooms at the back. I had told my father that the pub was upstairs in the station, near the statue but, on the way there myself, I realised that you can't see the statue from the escalators, so I told him to head for the clock instead. Unfortunately, he didn't get that text until he was already at the statue, and it turns out, you can't see the clock at all from there! So, that didn't help! :)

It's not bad for a station pub, although the service was bewilderingly bad for the whole time we were there. I ordered the butter bean hummus to share as a starter, because I speculated that it would take some time for the mains to arrive, but it never came. There was no nut roast on offer, and the vegetarian special had cheese in it, so I had the pumpkin and pearl barley risotto. It was as tasteless as it sounds, and with that strange sweetness which often comes with pumpkin, and which I dislike. My father was happy with his roast beef and all the trimmings, though. For pudding I had the lemon posset and, seriously, I can do much better than that myself. It was far too set, and I wonder if it had something added to it to make it so.

I probably will visit this pub again, because it is a convenient place to meet, but not for Sunday lunch.

Toes in the water

I have been thinking about starting a blog for some time, solely to catalogue my outings on Sundays. As a vegetarian who doesn't eat cheese, I often find it difficult to manage a decent meal when I am out.

If I had started this blog when I first thought of it, I would be able to go back and check out the names of pubs and restaurants I have already visited over the last few years.

So, I am going to start by doing some catching up!

Sunday 31st October

I had been in Cambridge that weekend, for my good friend Jon's 60th. Had a very relaxing weekend and, on the Sunday, packed my case and went, with my friends Jon and Colin and several others of their friends, to the Salisbury Arms, Tenison Road, Cambridge. http://www.thesalisburyarms.com/ This is a pub I used to go to when I first moved to Cambridge in the late 70s. I remember it being the first Camra pub in the UK, and being very much a pub full of sandal and beard wearing intense real ale folks. It has been through several incarnations since then, but has remained a real ale pub, with some traditional touches.

They do a home made nut roast (I am told that it is a recipe from Cranks), which is served with roast potatoes, yorkshires, lots of vegetables, and gravy. I have been there many times before when visiting Cambridge - it is the regular haunt of my friends Jon and Colin, and it is good! - and I don't always manage to finish the whole plateful. On this occasion, I did. It costs about £7.45, I think, which is pretty good value. They always seem to run out, because they don't like waste, so they only cook as much as they think they will need.

I had arranged to meet another friend, Simon, who I met playing backgammon some years ago, when I lived in Cambridge. I don't see him very often, so it was good to catch up with him. We hung around for a while, with people coming and going, and then the pub's dog came out - a big, black, furry and friendly thing called Max - which is a strong hint that it is now time to leave. Unlike lots of other pubs, the Salisbury still closes on Sunday afternoon.

Sunday 7th November

I went out with my friend Tim, and we went to the Bear in Camberwell, where the only vegetarian option was veggie haggis, and they had run out by the time we got there, which was about 1:45. So we moved on.

Instead, we went to the Cambria in Camberwell - http://www.thecambrialondon.com/ - which is a pub we had been to before, but which I had forgotten about (hence my previous comment about wishing I had started a blog before). It is one of those pubs which has a mixture of unmatched furniture, but somehow makes it look like it fits in. It was busy the day we were there. They serve a nut roast, which was a little bit odd on this occasion, because, when it came, it was curry flavour, and it didn't really have the expected consistency of a nut roast, either. It was more like a heap of curried vegetables, beans and nuts. So that was a bit of a disappointment, and I didn't really enjoy it much. I will go there again, though, because I liked the ambience of the pub. I can't remember how much it was, but I am sure I would have remembered if it had been expensive!

Afterwards, we decided to check out the Tiger pub in Camberwell - http://thetigerpub.com/ - which I had not visited since it started doing food. I had the poached pear pudding and a cup of tea, and it was really nice. The pub was very busy, and there was a football match on the telly in one part, but we managed to get a table, and the football wasn't too intrusive other than on the one occasion when someone scored!