25 Comments
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Paola Bassanese's avatar

Waiting for my 50 quid.

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Vanilla Black's avatar

Patience. You’ve been busy.

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Paola Bassanese's avatar

Patience is a virtue I don't seem to have. 🤣

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Vanilla Black's avatar

Haha, me neither.

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Matt Inwood's avatar

I enjoy contemplating how likely/unlikely an event that certain groups of words have ever previously appeared together in the history of the English language. I'm willing to bet that 'Hard Italian cheese, cauliflower sponge and trading standards' are making their group debut here. Lovely story, as ever.

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Vanilla Black's avatar

Thank you Matt. The majority of these words are plucked from a drum like bingo numbers.

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Matt Inwood's avatar

The Wizard throws back the curtain at last!

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Vanilla Black's avatar

Hehe!

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Mark Thomas's avatar

That cauliflower cheese sponge sounds totally unhinged… but also kind of brilliant?!

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Vanilla Black's avatar

Thanks Mark, exactly how it needed to be.

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Felicity Jones's avatar

Parmesan flash back. I have always been ‘that’ vegetarian who cares about rennet. It nearly stalled our courting days as my now husband (omnivore) at firstrefused to believe there was some kind of vegetarian version of Parmesan he had to buy for his romantic risotto. Fortunately resolved after a mutual friend intervened with a packet of ‘Italian Hard Cheese’.

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Vanilla Black's avatar

Ah you see. Always learning.

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Felicity Jones's avatar

My favourite northern people heading to London is the west coast train which doesn’t stop after Warrington. It’s always full of delights. The last one I was on had a northern party of women going to that London for a day. They were discussing Borough Market and concluded they were not going Al the way to London for an expensive cabbage so they would focus on the cocktails.

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Vanilla Black's avatar

Haha. That’s funny. Although I’m not sure if you’d find a cabbage at Borough Market these days.

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Andy Lynes's avatar

I made a Parmesan tuile when I went on Masterchef. I'd learned how to make them when I staged at Jean Christophe Novelli's restaurant in Park Lane. He called them 'Parmesan Cracknel' so I followed suit which confused dear old Loyd Grossman who I remember was openly derisive of the name. I obviously cocked up the recipe because they weren't crispy enough and he said it was like eating Parmesan bubblegum. I won anyway.

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Vanilla Black's avatar

Alls well that ends well. Actually, I like the idea of Parmesan bubblegum. I wonder what CN is up to now?!

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Andy Lynes's avatar

He's got quite an odd portfolio: a restaurant in Belfast, a cook school in his house and he's a judge on Masterchef Australia! How the hell that happened I've no idea!

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Vanilla Black's avatar

Oh, well that makes sense.

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Feasts and Fables's avatar

Ah, love it … straight back to deli cheese counter memories … vegetarian folk who insisted on ‘no meat’ but also “it doesn’t matter with the cheese” in spite of our explanations about the rennet! Hilarious. Wine too! Made me chuckle.

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Vanilla Black's avatar

Ohhh yes. A favourite was, dairy free, which changed when it came to desserts.

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Mark Diacono's avatar

ah yes...

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Feasts and Fables's avatar

We had the requests for ‘skinny cappuccino’ … always met with a firm “no” from this ageing barista! After I explained that we needed the full cream for a decent froth - and it was, after all, just an ounce or two of froth - it was ‘alright then’.

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Vanilla Black's avatar

Haha. People have no idea.

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Feasts and Fables's avatar

Great triggers for conversations and curiosity though! Customers know best, pah!

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Vanilla Black's avatar

Exactly.

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