Motivation zero.....

The weekend has kind of left me with a lack of any get up and go today. I really didn't feel like getting out of bed this morning but that was partly to do with wanting to see Rory McIlroy claim the US Open gold title. What an amazing achievement for somebody so young and he handled the post tournament interviews like he'd been winning majors for years. I never thought that I'd see anybody as good as Tiger Woods again in my lifetime but this victory for Rory was the best golf I've ever seen, even eclipsing the great Woods' 13 shot victory of a few years ago.

One fellow player even commented that you couldn't have wished to play better golf on the Playstation let alone on a real course.





So back on blogging track (quite literally) and Fridays antics mainly involved comfort food, red wine and the afore mentioned Playstation. After a rather fast paced and speedy day at work I returned to my empty home (my girls were off camping in the new forest) via Waitrose to pick up some Chicken Kievs. These are my favourite home comfort food at the moment and they have been for a while. I actually ate around ten different supermarket Chicken Kievs in ten days once just so that I could compare them and find out which were the best. Waitrose won closely followed by Marks & Spencer. I'm talking the best quality own brand Kievs too and not the cheap kind that use reformed minced chicken.

Chicken Kievs generally come in packs of two and I just can't leave one Kiev on it's own so out of mercy (OK....greed) I have to eat both. I've also discovered the perfect accompaniment to these timeless family classics and that is chilli peas. I'd seriously recommend trying this combo. Adjust quantities to your taste but I just get some smoked streaky bacon and chop it up into small lardons and fry them in a little unsalted butter until they have a bit of colour, then add in some finely chopped red chilli before finally adding some frozen peas and cooking the through. Bit of cracked black pepper to taste and there you have the perfect match for chicken kievs. That is all you need, forget chips just chicken and peas.

This good feed I washed down with a rather yummy Rioja reserva which put me in firm mood to complete the next endurance race on Gran Turismo 5....a 1000km challenge around the Suzuka curcuit. I raced for a full 4 1/2 hours before having to put it on pause and heading to bed.

I woke on Saturday at around 7am then went straight back downstairs for a cup of tea and a further 2 hours of racing to complete the remainder of the 172 laps necessary to claim the 5 lap victory. In fairness I could have completed it about 45 minutes quicker had I chosen a faster car but I wanted to keep it fairly competitive so rather using my Pescarolo Le Mans series car I went for my GT2 Corvette.......Oh if only it were real life.























Saturday daytime was a food filled affair. I got myself over to Wargrave for their first ever taste festival. They'd arranged for a few demos to be done and first up was a master butcher from Jon Thorner's who are based in Shepton Mallet but have an outlet just down the road at the Sheeplands farm shop in Hare Hatch.

Their demo was to butcher a whole lamb and describing each cut and it's uses along the way. It's a rare glimpse at how this is done and the skill involved is incredible.

Following them was the Haweli Indian restaurant from Twyford. These guys are my locals so I was very much looking forward to seeing them on stage and they did a great job. I was very interested to know that they marinade their Lamb for over 24 hours before cooking and that they use only the leg meat from baby lambs which will explain why their meat dishes differ in texture so much from other restaurants. They did actually give me the marinade recipe but I've only gone and forgotten it! Looks like I'll be having curry at some point this week then......Oh well :-)

The restaurant does get very busy and I was eager to know just what goes on behind the scenes during these hectic weekend services. I was amazed when they said they have a minimum of 11 chefs cooking on 12 six burner ranges. Quite extraordinary when you consider the size of the place.

The last demo I stayed to see was from the irrepressible Paul Clerehugh (Crooked Billet, London Street Brasserie, Market Kitchen & BBC Berkshire). You can clearly see he loves doing these food festivals and most of all showing his passion and support for local and British produce. I knew what to expect as he'd bought with him all the props he'd used at the Eat Reading festival just a couple of weeks previously but he'd slightly adjusted the routine to fit the different audience leaving out the references to the "Porsche Cayenne driving hooray Henrys" which he'd used in the Reading show.

All in all it was a very nice little food festival, good first effort and I see no reason why it can't get bigger and better next year. The weather wasn't great but it was pretty much all contained under a huge marquee and it did brighten up throughout the day, so much so that instead of jumping on the train back to Twyford I decided to walk.

Saturday evening was always going to be a messy affair. Not only was I DJ'ing for one of the most recognisable brands in worldwide clubbing (Bora Bora) at my favourite place to DJ (Mango Garden) but it was also the first time in ages that I'd be catching up with a very good buddy who'd been off travelling the globe.

Everything went pretty much as expected which was bucketfuls of beer until well into the Sunday morning daylight followed by a slap up breakfast and a train home to bed.

Our normal brekky of choice is taken at the Ibis hotel on Friar Street but we were a bit too early for that so after a bit of a wait and some no doubt pointless banter it was over to McDonalds.

Now as gastronomic as I want to think I am I do concede that for all it's other failings Ronald and his team at McDonalds have really hit the nail on the head with their Sausage and Egg muffins. I can't say I'd honestly want one every morning but for times like these they are perfect. If the hash browns are piping hot too then hungover/still drunk satisfaction is guaranteed.

Sunday wasn't the complete write off I'd been expecting. I did manage to get myself up to the farm shop and back home to the sofa by about 1pm. After a couple of hours rest I made us a rather yummy and very vast roast dinner. I even attempted to make some Crème Caramel desserts.......would have been great too had I not turned the oven off !!! Still at least we'll have dessert tonight :-)

I'm thinking it might have to be Chicken Kievs and chilli peas again.

Toodlepip xxx

Ahh the amazing sights and sounds of being on Holiday.

Picture the scene.

You're walking along the seafront, somewhere abroad, perhaps southern Spain.

The sun is just setting over the clear blue sea.

Yachts are bobbling lightly as the gentle sea waves ripple their way up to the soft, fine, golden sands.

The promenade is lined with palaces of gastronomic delight. The subtle waft of varying, fresh Mediterranean cuisine filling the air.

The chink of glass upon glass as the multitudinous evening repasts are toasted with a nice Rioja or perhaps a chilled Sangria.

Lovers look into each others eyes maybe blushing slightly and lowering their eyes as a compliment is made.

Olive skinned children sit quietly and enjoy the flavours of the food unconcerned by the colour or texture of the morsels they load into their smiling mouths.

Soft music also fills the air, perhaps something local, maybe a guy playing a guitar while a girl dances an alluring and exotic Flamenco.

Can it get any better than this? Really !!!

Oh yes because you can experience the "GREAT British Seaside"............

You're walking along the seafront, somewhere in the UK, perhaps Great Yarmouth.

The sun is barely visible as in sinks it's way behind the dark, thundery clouds and into the cold, Greenish/Brown and uncompromising North Sea.

Oil Tankers meander their way across the horizon being battered by the harsh, frantic waves that pound upon the stoney, dog s**t covered, cigarette butt, fly-tipped sand.

The promenade is festooned with outlets offering various deep fried objects and the air is filled with wafts of hot boiling cooking oil, vinegar and the odd waft of fresh horse s**t direct from the back ends of the knackeryard nags that drag poorly maintained carriages up and down so that poorly maintained people don't have to walk to the next doughnut emporium.

The chink of tin upon concrete as the next can of cheap, super strength lager or cider topples out the overfilled bin.

Lovers, when not shouting at each other, can only look into one of each other eyes as the other two are pointing in completely opposite directions.

Pasty skinned children wail as they shovel in copious amounts of hydrogenated fat into their already far to obese bodies and of course when ordering they we're explicit in making sure that nothing green accompanied their feast.

Cheesey Euro pop is being banged out of the grotty looking, shellsuit populated amusement arcades where you actually only find amusement in the elaborate exteriors that try to convince the great unwashed that they have somehow been magically tele-ported to Las Vegas (Caesers Palace my arse)

So there you go, only one winner there for me.......UK all the way :-)

With that in mind here is my recipe of the day.

1. Get some stuff! usually Fish but basically anything will work from Sausages to Chicken to Shoes and perhaps Books !!!

2. Cover it in batter and deep fry it until it's really crisp around the edges and soggy in the middle (Sogginess may not apply to books, particularly hard backs). Keep warm under bright halogen lamps (TIP - it's best to use oil that been constantly used for about 2 weeks without being changed)

3. Chips - Nothing else will do....Naturally these must have been deep fried.

4. Pile deep fried item number two into a polystyrene container and top with deep fried item number one.

5. Cover liberally with salt which was sourced from at least 4,000 miles from the very seafront you are on and drown in cheap malt vinegar.

6. ..............ENJOY.

7. Die young.