I ate everything at Acorn House

OK, not everything in the whole restaurant but I did sample every one of the meals, all of the salads and each of the desserts except the strawberry and cream. Every dish was spectacular. The arrabiata on the trout, the succulence of the pork belly and tenderness of the lamb and lots of fresh vegetables and leaves in the salads, the pasta dishes, especially the infamous prawn caramelline and the pasta with pancetta and cherry tomatoes - a lighter version of carbonara.

It was made all the better knowing how ecological the restaurant is, yet nothing is sacrificed for flavour of the dishes. In desserts the stand outs were black pepper chocolate cake with ginger ice cream was fabulous and the cherry eton mess a perfect melding of vanilla-flecked cream and part-crispy, part-chewy meringue and sharp fruit.

Jamie was on duty and sensing our enthusiasm (perhaps because we gushed to him so) he offered to show us the roof garden and waste room. The latter not normally somewhere you would want to see in such an establishment but relieving to see the order and lack of any odour!



Acorn House Roof Garden

Chocolate Beer

At university beer and chocolate were my two favourite things. Well, certainly the two most frequently consumed. So I always assumed Belgium would be the best place ever, home of beer and chocolate. I can't believe it took me 3 1/2 years of living full time in London to get there this February and I can't believe it took me until tonight to drink this beer I brought back with me:



Chocolate beer! It was good. Strange. The sweet smell of milky chocolate in what is a slightly hoppy fizzy drink, like alcoholic creamy soda! (Does this exist in the UK?) This picture was taken on our brand new table and chairs in our tiny garden. It's so nice to have somewhere to sit outside and it looks so much prettier outside the window now too. Even nicer that we finally have a warm evening! Bring on Summer.

the bath is my sanctuary

Lately (always?) I seem to be either at work, working on the business, visiting my family, or something else comes up that I can't seem to say no to. I love all those areas of my life. They all have frustrating and boring moments but I wish I had more time in every area because there is always more I would like to achieve or more time I'd like to spend with people or more people I'd like to spend time with. I'm not the greatest at saying no so I guess this doesn't help with the current overfill of my calendar. Granted, this is not a great trait in my job, but it is much easier to say at work and the repetition of saying no during work hours has made it much easier to say elsewhere. The trouble is I don't usually want to say no, there are so many things I want to say yes to.

So right now, my best escape is to light candles and lay in the bath. Today it's better than chocolate (although I have had chocolate too!).