Death to the creepy reindeer

Clearly driven by the lack of decent chocolate I've brought back for him from Amsterdam in recent weeks, Mr DB attacked the last of the Christmas reindeer. Say 'goodbye' to the creepy little bugger.

I did insist he start with the head. Less pain that way.

Crack and Wine Gums

18 days into Lent and the lack of wine, gin and chocolate is less traumatic than I expected. Still to help keep me occupied I've been taking a different tack with the presents for Mr DB from my travels. Rather than buying him edible gifts that I know he'll like, I dash round Food Village at Schipol Airport, in the manner of Supermarket Sweep, trying to locate the most amusingly labelled food.

So far, I have brought back:

Crax

A tasty biscuit snack from Turkey, with a hint of chilli, that appealed a) to my playground sense of humour and b) due to the drug word play.




Total Loss














Who needs wine, when you can have automotive wine gums? With a bizarre name?

I bought these to serve Mr DB a reminder that he was a total loss at bringing me back any giftage when he was working in Paris regularly a few years ago!

Unlike British wine gums these have some odd flavours, including pineapple and licorice. I suspect these will linger at the back of the cupboard...

No wine, no chocolate

I didn't manage my dry January this year. So I have vowed to forego wine and chocolate for Lent. My poor colleagues are going to discover that I am not a ray of sunshine and am, in fact, a petulant little madam fuelled by the lack of antioxidants and tannins in my diet.

So, my friends, I will have to drink vicariously through you and just spend my days watching Mr T in those Snickers adverts. Laughter is a good distraction.

Is it a custard? Is it a yoghurt?

Working in Amsterdam regularly now affords me the opportunity of enjoying Dutch food. Whilst hotel food is pretty limiting, I have rediscovered vla!

A sort of light custard, this is a perfect snack and it comes in chocolate flavour or 'dubbel vla': a mixture of chocolate and vanilla. Miss SJ and I used to have 'vla o'clock' when we worked at Chello and topped it with chocolate sprinkles.

The only drawback? Due to the restrictions on liquids, the vla has to be checked in with the baggage and the flight back to the UK has a tendency to screw up the marbling affect.

A trilogy of scallops

This week I have been in Warsaw for work and I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the food at the hotel I stayed at: The Westin Plaza.

I ate a 'trilogy' of scallops with a Sancerre.

All were delicious, except the one in the middle. You can have too much jam. (Well it wasn't called jam, but it was very marmalade-esque.)




You can also rank your hotel based on the free snackage in the rooms. Fruit and chocolate = yum. Though the prospect of giving up chocolate for Lent now has to become a reality after consuming all of this.

Cock of wine

I had a lovely lunch at Miss SMBW's on Sunday. All the more comedic by the addition of this decanter:

To begin with, pouring a red liquid from the throat of a chicken seems like blood-letting. But then you realise how much hiliarity can be induced by offering people more 'cock wine'. Oh yes, purile playground jokes still get the most laughs.


Mr RF and Mr BB both stuck with white all day, but the rest of us consumed a sizeable volume of the following:







I promise to pop back and tell you all about them in a couple weeks. I need to find my notes. After an aspirin.

Winter warmer with a Pinot Noir

Today has been sunny yet chilly and as I've been in snowy Amsterdam for the last few weeks, I've been craving comfort food. Tonight I cooked a Nigel Slater recipe: haricot beans and chicken bake. It's got rosemary, mushrooms, garlic, cream and parmesan to boot.

Wine choice: Pathway Pinot Noir 2008, 13%, Marlborough, New Zealand (£9.98, Morrisons).

It's raspberry red in colour and quite transparent, with cherries and a hint of American bacon on the nose and on the palate the cherries carry through with roasted hazelnuts.

Probably not quite interesting enough to drink on its own. But it is transformed with the food. The acidity and light tannins cut through the cream and really works with the dish.