GO Chelsea
I was lucky enough to win tickets to a Chelsea game a week or two ago, seats were in the executive suite which included pre game drinks and dinner, half time drinks and dessert and more food and wine at the end of the game. Not a bad way to see the game indeed, although I may have overindulged a little on the brownies, cookies and mince pies at the end!

I wasn't too impressed with the actual dinner, I ordered a curry which wasn't too tasty, but the desserts and wine were superb. There were some Chelsea players around for pre-game people watching and some interesting characters seated at our table who made the night entertaining.

It was my first football game in the UK and was quite an experience, I think it was a Premiership game? It was similar to the games that I went to in TO for the Toronto FC, but 100x more raucous, rowdy and fun. You can feel the passion of the fans here much more. Fans from opposing teams are seperated and made to use seperate gates; with lots of riot police, police on foot and police on horses you can feel the excitement and tension in the air, I never knew we had that many police in the city?! Quite an experience and a great game that went to penalty kicks. We even sat a few rows behind the glitzy and glam German footballer, Michael Ballack - he's quite the pretty boy.

Our wine was a 2004 Rioja from Spain called Dinastia Vivanco. The wine ages for 16 months in French and American oak barrels and then spends another 6 months in the cellar. I recommend trying it as it was fab, you can also visit the Vivanco family's website to find out more.

Dos and Don’ts

DO- spill your wine – it is a sign of good luck, as it means there are celebrations to come

DON'T - have 13 people to dinner – because of the association with the Last Supper, Judas (the traitor) was the 13th person. And these are my comments - place settings are usually for 6 or 12 & it is a lot of people to cook for!

(caption for the pic) The Last Supper, showing Jesus, at the center, saying to his disciples, "One of you shall betray me." One disciple is painted in darkness. His face is in the shadow of another, and he leans back, nervously holding a bag of silver. This disciple, Judas, is the third face to the left of Jesus.

What to do with leftover rice?

Create Nasi Goreng – which in Indonesian translates to ‘fried rice’. It is my favourite item on the Street Hawker menu at present. In Indonesia it can refer to a meal where the rice is served with other things like chicken, prawn or beef or it can be just the rice itself that is the meal, with pieces of meat or fish inside it. I ordered the beef version and my partner in crime ordered the pad Thai, this combined with a bottle of La Chasse Du Pape, from the Cotes du Rhone region made for a wonderful evening star gazing out across the city from the top of Primrose Hill.

I think the one from the Hawker is made with tamarind, cashews, shallots, spring onions, soy sauce, egg and extra chilli on the side. On Wiki it says you can eat Nasi goreng any time of day, which is great, as I have been known to have it for breakfast. If you have any left over rice, let it cool down or store it in the fridge, whack all these ingredients to it in a fry pan and there you have it a great, tasty and quick Thai style meal.

I prefer to get mine from the Hawker as you always bump into one of the neighbours there! And guess what, they serve all their meals with chop stix – ahh city living.

x

TLCA mother's love for her sons was a topic of conversation yesterday. It is a great thing to hear about or witness first hand. A & I spoke about it over lunch at Mercatto on Toronto Street (yum!), he mentioned how he really appreciates his mother and really can see how much she means to him more and more as an adult.

I see it with my sister and her two little boys, who are under the age of 5, who are completely smitten with their momma. Then there is teacher Tami has three little males in the house that she is completely enamored with, rightly so, as they are all wonderful little people. She made these cakes for two of their birthdays; she and her husband the Karate Kid were up until midnight crafting these yummy, lactose-free creations. The soccer ball was a difficult one to make and needed extra engineering at the last minute. Will try and post the recipe - you could never tell that there was no milk in any of these cakes.
Not sure if this is completely accurate but perhaps, like fine wine, men appreciated their mothers more with age?

Tuscan return

Back from Florence where the food, art and culture mix to give you an intoxicating experience. If they could remove half of the loud and annoying tourists, it would be even better.

Pics and tales of food adventures to follow, there was a lot of wine and olive oil consumed with various delicious dishes. Back into London Town today, a day later than expected as flights were cancelled due to a light dusting of snow at Gatwick airport – the Canadians can laugh at this as I recall landing in TO one year during a massive blizzard thinking the plane would skate down the runway into the 401.

Unfortunately the cancellation wasn’t all that bad; it meant a night at luxurious Hotel Lungarno with a room overlooking the Arno and another gourmet meal. Isn’t life tough?

99pI caved and had a 99p chicken sandwich from KFC before our Christmas panto. I was starving, Hackney didn't have a wide array of healthy places to eat from and I needed something before the 2hr show. I have to admit it tasted good too....all salty and deep fried. I think I have gained 5lbs in the past few weeks, there are lots of Christmas cookies everywhere, lots of big dinners and lots of eating out and add to that lots of wine (had another bottle of nouveau Beaujolais last night) ....so feeling a little bigger than usual. I even complained that one of my tops shrunk but I think it is just me getting a little bigger....

Yoga and running schedule needs to be adhered to after the holidays.

Apologies for the old pic (above) I lost my cord for downloading photos but will borrow one today to post some holiday food pics! Am off to a Christmas themed wedding today so there may be some Christmas themed food.

Stay tuned.Dick Whittington and his Cat at the Hackney Empire