Yes, excellent progress, but still room for improvement

[oursin]

Sing yay for the kedgeree sans tomatoes but plus mild curry sauce!

Now you've solved that one, could you perhaps turn your attention to the consistency of the rice, as verging on the al dente is not what I expect in my kedgeree.

(Am not only turning into Disgusted Tunbridge Wells but Disgusted Old India Hand 'my bobberjee in Ooty, now he knew how to make a decent kedgeree', Tunbridge Wells.)

***

Also on the gastronomy front:

All aboard for a Gastronomic road trip around London
To celebrate the third annual London Restaurant Festival (Monday 3rd – Monday 17th October inclusive), we invite you to take a truly gastronomic road trip on Wednesday 5th October.

Our ‘Gastro Gallop’ takes you on a tour of our acclaimed pubs and dining rooms from the City to Hatton Garden, Holborn and on to Sloane Square and the King's Road. Start the evening with cocktails and canapés at Chiswell Street Dining Rooms before enjoying courses at The Hat & Tun, The White Swan, The Botanist and The Cadogan Arms.

As well as starters and mains that include seared Isle of Man king scallops with crisp bacon and pea purèe or Yorkshire roe deer ‘Wellington’, there’s a tasting plate of desserts awaiting at The Botanist with delights such lemon meringue pie; Devonshire custard tart and fig pudding.

Finish your evening at the nearby Cadogan Arms with coffees, digestifes and an impromptu game of pool on one of the three American eight-ball pool tables. Our culinary safari includes five courses in five different venues plus fine wines and cocktails for just £60 per person inclusive of transport.

I dunno, I think it might be more entertaining if they did actually have to gallop (rather than, presumably, being shuttled in a minibus or stretch limo) between haunts of the gastronome scattered from EC to SW London. If only to work up an appetite for each course.

Since I got a promotional email for this event only yesterday, might I hazard that bookings are not rushing in?

It sounds rather ghastly, though I suppose it could work. I'm just rather pessimistically envisaging a group of people some of whom chuck their food down like they are waste-disposal units and others who slowly savour each mouthful, chewing it 100 times like Mr Gladstone.

Comments

[antisoppist]

In one of the Betsy-Tacy books they have a meal with each course at different people's houses but they are all about 17, all best friends and all live within walking distance of each other.

Is this event for just one group or are there several staggered ones trying not to bump into each other? It could be like The Happiest Days of Your Life with coordinators on roller skates.

[oursin]

Or it could resemble the Marx Brothers stateroom scene in A Night At The Opera.

[mme_hardy]

My parents used to belong to a monthly "Gourmet group" (it was the 1960s/1970s, there was nothing remotely comparable within driving list and much special-ordering of ingredients was required). The drill was that somebody made up the menu and distributed lists of ingredients and recipes. Everybody got assigned a course; they assembled at the host's home either carrying their courses or prepared to cook them, and thus a complete Swedish/Hawaiian/whatever meal was produced in one place without anybody having to go insane.

I remember my mother being very VERY VERY bitter about having to bake Danish from scratch, multiple butter folds and all, for one of the Scandinavian ones, when all the other courses were much simpler. In fact, I think that was the last one my parents participated in.

The other one I remember vividly was the Hawaiian one, whose centerpiece was roast pork prepared with Liquid Smoke.

[sollers]

One Christmas three of us, living in three little houses next door to each other and sharing the same back yard, had one part of Christmas dinner in each house.

[mme_hardy]

These never appealed to me. Part of what I love about dining out is a long uninterrupted conversation with my partner, a chance to relax and let somebody else handle all the details. Popping up out of my chair over and over -- which means checking that I still have my purse and everything in it -- is the last thing I want from dinner.

Similarly, I'm much much happier staying in one place for a week, in a nice apartment or at worst hotel, than "three days in Alsace, two in Vienna, and an overnight in Stockholm." (Extra day vanishes in travel). I just want time to absorb.

[lexin]

much happier staying in one place for a week

Yes, definitely. A flat or house in a city is my preference, then I don't even have to do too much travelling around and can stroll about at my leisure.

Once I've arrived somewhere, I'm not really a travelling person - I well remember one holiday where my friends and I stayed in a cottage, which was nice, but which was a long way from anywhere along a winding up-and-down road, and I couldn't really enjoy it because every time we left to go somewhere or came back along that road, I felt car sick from the winding-ness of it and all the switchbacks.

[kake]

I love how they're planning an "impromptu" game of pool.

[oursin]

And then there will be 'spontaneous' cheers for the organisers...

[shewhostaples]

When I were a student, some of the Symphony Orchestra once did a 'Pudding Crawl', which was really an exercise in sheer gluttony with token exercise (not that there's anything wrong with that...)