Sunday, June 17, 2007

In which I show myself to be an utter piggy wiggy

To celebrate the boy's birthday, we went out for a nice dinner last night. I'd actually tried to book a table at his favourite restaurant, The Great India, but apparently they won't take bookings for twosomes for Saturday nights. It must be all the large groups of Give-me-yer-hottest-curry folk who, having drunk the pubs dry, need to fill their stomachs with something challenging.

So we went to The Recovery Room, which used to be the hardly-missed Malo, and before that the very-much-missed John Street Grill.

When I eat out, dessert is pretty much compulsory, so I told the boy I intended to skip the starters and just order a mains and a dessert. But the boy insisted that we both get starters, because he had his eye on the scallops with the black pudding pancakes.

So, against my better judgement, I ordered the selection of warm breads - 6 thick slabs! - with olive oil and a nutty dip.

(FYI, the boy's main was an excitingly-described lamb rump with roast potatoes. Both it and the scallops caused him to roll his eyes back in ecstasy. I had the intriguing chocolate pasta with grilled haloumi bits, a very "meaty" vegetarian dish which I couldn't finish 'cos it was too rich.)

And after all that, I still wanted dessert. This wasn't anything to do with physical hunger, oh no. It was the call of the creme brulee accompanied by almond biscotti and raspberry sorbet.

Yummy as it was though, I was too full to do it justice. I really didn't want our romantic dinner to be marred by digestive failure (again).

The boy playfully admonished me for not cleaning my plate.

"I knew I should've just ordered main and dessert", I retorted. "It's your fault for making me order a starter".

"Yeah but you only ate half of it" he replied.

"It was a starter for two!". (Okay, maybe you had to be there.)

All in all, it was a lovely evening out, despite the icy winds and the unexpected rain (possibly because I'd had the foresight to wear my hooded sheepskin coat - the boy however, got a little wet and cold around the ears). The boy can be difficult to please when it comes to eateries, so it was nice when he announced it as being "pricey but really good". My own opinion would be "Good, but pricey".

7 comments:

LK said...

A girl after my own heart. Even if I am too full, Creme Brulee can never be ignored when spied on a menu. I never finish it either but at least the first half is savoured lovingly.

Anonymous said...

I've had that creme brulee from Recovery Room, it was pretty yum as I recall.

And I wasn't paying, so I didn't look at the prices :)

Kazzer said...

I'm very envious that you can eat at all! Shame about the Great India - I love that restaurant.

Unknown said...

A friend of a friend misheard The Great India as The Grazing Deer, so that's what we always call it now.

Rainypete said...

I have to order dessert when I'm out with the wife too. Apparently there aren't any calories in dessert taken off of someone else's plate so she makes me order something she'll like and then demolishes it from across the table.

Angela said...

Sounds yummy! Glad you had a good time. Every now and then it is good to stuff yourself

Violet said...

leo: oh, but then I feel bad about the half left on the plate, because I hate to waste food!

cathi: Once or twice I've had my dessert first, because I was too hungry to wait for the main I should've done that this time, perhaps.

kazzer: yes, the boy tells me it's a very English Indian restaurant. The chef's from Leeds or something.

the editter: sounds more like a name for a pub...

rainypete: I'd do that too, but if the boy orders dessert he doesn't let me go near it.

angela: yeah it was very nice. But like I said earlier, I should've had dessert first:-)