Aug 23rd 2010
When there’s a baby in the house, opportunities for a night out become few and far between. Those that do arise are grabbed with both hands and anticipated with much excitement. So I was delighted to have the chance to head out to The Rope & Anchor in Dunham recently to dine with a couple of good friends whilst H babysat. A chance to have conversations that didn’t revolve around babies, weaning and sleep patterns!
As you can imagine, to then be disappointed is doubly depressing. [...]
Jun 26th 2010
There are those who love ice cream. And there are those who LOVE ice cream. I belong to the latter camp. The current hot weather is a licence to ‘stop and buy one’ whilst on a walk – it’s a good job the walks are counteracting the calories…
Today we visited some friends in Leeds, and went to their kids’ primary school summer fair. During which we stumbled across what may have been the nicest ice cream I’ve had so far this summer.
A company called Indie Ices had a little pitch at which they were selling special World Cup flavoured kulfis, ice creams and sorbets. They’ve created new flavours for some of the countries playing. (Although not all countries – when asked what flavours they’d created for today’s match contestants South Korea and Ghana, they admitted to leaving these off the list. Not sure what flavours you’d do for them though!).
Aside from the obvious Cookies & Cream for the USA, and Chocolate Kulfi for Switzerland, there were other more intriguing creations. These included Wine Sorbet (Chile, I think), Fig & Date Kulfi (can’t remember the country) and Irish Cream Kulfi (for France, according to their blog “to rectify the injustice FIFA did not correct” – good lads!).
I picked one of the two England flavours on offer – Rose & Berry Kulfi. I believe my first words on tasting were “Wow” followed by “That’s incredible” – or words to that effect mumbled through mouthfuls of creamy loveliness. The ingredients were milk, double cream, sugar (diet followers can stop reading now), fresh whole raspberries and redcurrants, and rose water. Every mouthful had a delicate, slightly sweet hint of rose petals, and every now and then a sharp hit from the berries. Absolutely spot on.
It’s a good job they were only selling small tubs. I could have eaten so much more. Indie Ices – come over to Manchester, please!
Apr 29th 2010
When you become a new mummy the little treats you plan for yourself, as a reward for the constant rounds of nappy changing, feeding, ga-ga-ga-ing and so on, become very important. They can become one way of keeping you sane. One of my new NCT pals and I have become partial to visiting our local Cafe Rouge for their ‘delicious cake of the day and coffee for £3.50′. We have started to go fortnightly after our Rhythm Time class (don’t laugh, it’s lots of fun), and occasionally on other days too.
Today I visited with a different NCT pal, on a day I don’t usually go. Filled with excitement at the thought of a new ‘cake of the day’ I was disappointed to discover it was carrot cake. Disappointed because every single other time I’ve tried this offer, it’s always carrot cake. Whatever day it is. Don’t get me wrong. I like carrot cake. This is a particularly nice carrot cake. But doesn’t ‘cake of the day’ imply that each day there’s a different cake? It’s a sad state of affairs when one is disappointed by cake. And trust me, in mummy world, it’s the little things like this that can make or break your day.
Apr 24th 2010
Whilst looking for something completely different (bubble mixture to blow bubbles at gastrobaby, can’t find them anywhere!) I discovered that Woolworths sells its pick and mix online! How COOL is that!! (I’m so easily pleased!!) http://www.woolworthsparty.co.uk/Pick_N_Mix/
Apr 11th 2010
It seems we’re starting to emerge from the fog that is a new baby. Today we hit 13 weeks and all is well. As long as you don’t mind functioning on much less sleep than normal. For the rest of your life. :-)
In order to celebrate not only the fact we are still functioning as human beings (just), but also our second wedding anniversary (yikes! how did that come round?), H and I left gastrobaby in the capable hands of his mother, whilst we ventured out to – gasp – a restaurant – gasp again – together!!
Having dismissed the opportunity to try out Damson in Heaton Moor, our soon-to-be-new-stomping-ground, because its veggie options were hugely uninspired, we went for the left-field option of trying That Cafe in Levenshulme as its sample menu online looked much more interesting. I ate here many, many, many years ago and was impressed at the time. My reasoning is that if a restaurant is still going tens of years later, it must be doing something right. [...]
