I went to Oxford this evening, having had a staggeringly good day at work, in high spirits. This was also because I was having dinner with my favourite nephew Geoffrey.
Geoff is one of those sickening creeps who is not only a hell of a nice fella but is also rather smart ! He has a myriad of degrees from Cambridge and Oxford, ….and is the person who on the occasion I asked him once which of those 2 seats of learning he actually got his doctorate from… shuffled his feet, looked sheepishly at the floor and mumbled….”both“ I could do little but laugh…slightly hysterically!
We were going to go to Jamies, but couldn’t be bothered to drive into town, and so we went to Marios in the Cowley Road instead. Not quite the same, but rather nice, extremely bohemian and very Italiano
I had that classic Italian starter…eh, prawn cocktail… which was nice, though the sauce was bottled and not home made. Lazy. I thought my avocado had a slug in it…Dr G told me it wasn’t a slug but a bruise….I wasn’t about to argue….not with Dr-Dr G ! He had Garlic bread…well, garlic is good for the brain…isn’t it?
My main was spaghetti Putannesca…very loosely translates as something like smack my bitch up spaghetti – which is a rather excruciating mixture of anchovies, capers, tomatoes. I now realise I got it totally confused with Arrabiata sauce, but at the time was taken a little aback that it wasnt ‘hot’ as I asked…but instead was very, very salty. It also underlined my eccentric dislike of Spaghetti…pasta/sauce ratio too low, and all slopped around on the bottom of the plate….take a look at Geoff’s plate with Penne….lovely!
Anyway it was fine, served with a green salad, despite being served with cucumber (uuurgh!)
Pud was a Cassata ice cream which was very good, served with an Espresso.
To drink I had a Nastro Azzuro beer…my favourite.
Tomorrow when I wake up (if I do!!) we will have a new government. So what ?
Previous dinner posts from Peter
- Another culinary highlight ... but of a different kind. - May 17th, 2013
- A saturday evening in .... - April 20th, 2013
- Fish pie followed by Peter's Tiramisu ! - March 19th, 2013
- Borough Market, London - March 2nd, 2013
- “There were Angels dining at the Ritz .... and the motor was parked in Berkeley Square” - January 26th, 2013
How is it possible to have been served bottled sauce in a restaurant?
Something in this story is off, not sure if it’s the slug , the bottle sause, the puttana, the salt, the odd dislike of long pasta….oh, I know- it’s the rant- should have had the veal.. ( and I don’t care how vegetarian your friends are)
Gomi – welcome to England!
Also I wouldn’t serve an avocado like that to my toddler – let alone a paying customer in a restaurant!!
Well, at least the company was good.
…yes…strange…..so near, yet so far!