Blueberry Patch

 

 

Ah, this is what people are after! 

 

 

 

Carluccio's

 

 

Took a quick tea break at Carluccio's in Cambridge's City Centre after our rehearsal and before our midday concert at Great St. Mary's. 

Tea & Croissant

 

 

Speaking of tea, this is how they serve it and almond croissants at The Fitzwilliam. So utterly civilized! :-)

Prep

After cooking in the copper kettles, the fudge is transferred to this marble table to cool before being cut into individual slices for sale.

Fudgery

There are one or two members of our choir who, for some reason, seem obsessed about fudge. So several of us marched down to a Cambridge "fudgery" where we were very kindly shown how the rich concoction is made, beginning with how the ingredients are heated in copper kettles.

Caffé Nero

Cambridge, England

Not plugging anything here. Just sayin' that Caffés Nero often seemed in just the right places at just the right times.

The Royal Oak

So the story behind I found myself eating at The Royal Oak in Ripon begins with the dinner I enjoyed the night before in Harrogate. There the waiter, learning that I was to sing the next day at Ripon Cathedral, heartily recommended that I grab lunch here. He was right. It was a great place to eat. Plus I was welcomed there by a very cordial and, I must say, quite accommodating canine maître d'. :-)

Meat Pies

 

 

Appleton's in Ripon. Reminded me of the "meat pies" I ate as a kid living in England not far from here.

Caesar Salad

It seems like an odd thing to record what you ate on a trip, I know, but I've learned through hard experience how important maintaining a decent diet can be on a choir tour. So it was that I chose this Caesar salad with chicken at the Winepress Restaurant in the Maids Head Hotel in Norwich after singing evensong at the cathedral and before getting a good night's sleep (no pub crawling!) before the next day's bus trip to Harrogate by way of a rehearsal stop in Stamford.

Francesco's

So, I've had to overcome a reluctance on my part to share my local favorites, mostly because I favor the little known and often slightly out-of-the-way places to eat, which are not likely to remain "little known" if I spotlight them. Anyway, Francesco's is one of my favorites.

Greeting me, as I entered last night, was this cool color-changing sign. More about this place tomorrow.

Gourds

I'm thinking of making a birdhouse out of a gourd for this upcoming cold season.

"Gourds continued to be used throughout history in almost every culture throughout the world. European contact in North America found extensive gourd use, including the use of bottle gourds as birdhouses to attract purple martins, which provided bug control for agriculture. Almost every culture had musical instruments made of gourds, including drums, stringed instruments common to Africa and wind instruments, including the nose flutes [GROSS!!!] of the Pacific." -- Wikipedia

The Bake Shop

 Finally stopped into The Bake Shop. Usually, when students are on campus, there is a long line of people waiting to get inside. This was one of those rare occasions when there was not, so I ordered a couple of sesame seed bagels to go. 

PHL

 

Had about an hour layover in Philadelphia before heading home to Virginia, my first visit to that city's international airport. No time, though, for one of its iconic cheesesteaks or even a hoagie. Another time, maybe. :-)

Farm Table

The nice thing about hiking the Saunders-Monticello Trail is the Rubenstein Visitor Center near the end where--among other things to do--you can relax and and enjoy a meal at the Monticello Farm Table before turning around and heading back to the trail head.

 

The cafe's menus are "seasonal, using local, organic and sustainable ingredients. Offerings include homemade soups, salads, and sandwiches made with Monticello-grown vegetables and locally sourced meats, cheeses, and bread. Coffee, tea, Monticello Root Beer, Virginia wine and beer, and other locally or regionally produced beverages are available, as well as fresh-baked cookies, brownies, and muffins." 

Tea

 

Tried a couple of different tea brands yesterday, Darvilles and Taylors. Both were excellent. I'm not much of one for discerning and describing the different flavors in teas. Suffice to say, they were as advertised.

Darvilles says its English Breakfast Tea is a traditional English favorite (the Brits like to write "fav-ou-rite" :-), full bodied and ideal as a breakfast beverage. Can't argue with that other than to say it's a nice tea for any time of the day. 

Taylors describes its Assam tea as "strong and malty." I don't have any problems with that either, although I've noticed lately that anything less than a "strong" tea just doesn't cut it for me. I don't like the bitter aftertaste I detect in some strong teas, but I definitely do like a tea that can still stand up to, say, a slice of pumpernickel and jam.

Corner Pocket

Tempranillo

 The first time I can remember drinking a glass of Tempranillo was while hiking in northern Spain. Ever since then, I've made a place for it at my table. According to Wikipedia, "the dominant flavors include cherry, dried fig, cedar, tobacco, and dill. Age impacts the flavors of Tempranillo significantly, with Roble and Crianza examples imparting juicy fruit flavors and heat." Frankly, I would be hard pressed to describe the flavor, but I have detected, I think, just a little of that "heat" that's described. Maybe. Just a little. :-)

Apricot & Lentil Soup

 

Apricot and Red Lentil Soup adapted from "Samarkand: Recipes & Stories from Central Asia & the Caucasus" by Caroline Eden and Eleanor Ford (Kyle Books, 2016). According to G. Daniela Galarza, in this morning's Washington Post, "Red lentils give this soup its porridge-like texture, while tomatoes and carrots enhance its orange hue. Onions, garlic, cumin and thyme ground it in savory flavors. And dried apricots, rather than turning the soup sweet, add brightness, like a glimmer of spring sunshine."

Kale

Perhaps the Duke basketball team could have used a little kale in their diet before last night's game against the Tennessee Vols, because they didn't seem to be playing at their usual high level. By contrast, I thought the Arkansas and Kansas players must have had too much, especially given the frenetic pace at which they played in the first half. What a game! And yet one more #1 seed bites the dust!

Leftovers

 

So, I'm almost always faced with this same dilemma whenever I fix beans and rice of what to do on the third day when there really isn't enough left for a full meal. In the past, I've tried extending the dish by adding onion, sweet pepper, and even corn. This time, however, I tried diced tomatoes with very pleasant results. 

Can't exactly say the same for the photo. Somehow I've got to figure out a way to provide better light over my stove. The two tiny halogen lamps in the hood above have the effect of spotlighting portions of what I'm photographing and leaving the rest in the dark. So I'm thinking the only solution is to set up some kind of additional studio-like lighting.