2010 Festival of British Roots

All in all, things went pretty well. On Friday the weather wasn’t very cooperative (and neither were the guys who had been asked to set up Councillor Dent Coad’s stall in Golborne Road). Nevertheless, the folks from Fenmarc distributed free spuds to all our costers, and free samples of baked potatoes and carrot coriander soup to passersby. Ruth, Zeenat, Peter, and a couple of helpers from Sustain whipped up a few batches of winter root veg stew, every last bit of which was gobbled up by local shopkeepers, traders, and members of the public. As alluded to, the least successful part of the day (though hardly a flop by any means) was the Councillor's parsnip soup stall, which wound up being two folding tables borrowed from a nearby furniture shop. As there was no frame from which to suspend a tarp, the Councillor, her soup, and a pile of bumf were pelted with rain, sleet, hail, and snow during the course of her two-hour appearance. Fortunately, a vat of piping hot and extremely delicious homemade parsnip soup helped us ward off our chills. 

The weather was greatly improved on Saturday, with sun and reasonably mild temperatures lasting into the early afternoon. Once again, about 40 quarts of winter root veg stew were prepared and given away - this time by Ruth, Peter, and myself. The three of us also served as Aaron Craze’s sous chefs, prepping ingredients for his dishes. I also doubled as a runner, picking up ingredients from market stallholders and neighborhood shops (and supplies from home - like the stick blender we plugged in at Adam’s veg stall next door—to puree Aaron’s jerusalem artichoke soup).

Over the two days, we were visited by a journalist from the fruit & veg trade press, a couple of Councillors (including the cabinet member for my business group), a chef interested in helping out with future events, a television producer from Market Kitchen (who just stumbled upon us), and possibly by someone from the BBC’s food magazines (though if she came, she didn’t identify herself). The mood was generally positive among traders and the public, and everyone who took part seemed to feel that the event was a resounding success. Next time I’d love to get better advance publicity, some news coverage on the day/s, and at least one school group.

Local sources included:

The Spice Shop donated herbs, seasonings and chillies used in the winter root veg stew and Aaron's purple sprouting broccoli, jerusalem artichoke soup, and roasted parsnips.

Ceramica Blue lent us aprons.

Oddbins gave us a good discount on dry white wine that Aaron used for cooking his soup.

Mr. Christian’s, where I bought creme fraiche, truffle oil, and vegetable stock cubes.

Portobello Wholefoods, where I bought butter and almond flakes.

Market stalls, where I bought garlic, extra virgin olive oil and vegetarian feta cheese.

I was given lemons and fresh thyme by market stallholders.

I bought chickpeas at Garcia.

I bought tomato puree and chopped tomatoes at the original Cash & Carry in Golborne Road.

I bought chickpeas, chopped tomatoes, olive oil, and lowfat natural yogurt from Tesco.

Back to my roots

Zoiks! Tonight (after refreshing my food hygiene qualifications earlier this week) I’m helping my local ward Councillor prepare around 20 liters of parsnip soup (that’s a lot), and tomorrow the whole dog & pony show will either happen... or it won’t: two 3x3 meter marquees (that I have to set up - anybody know how?), a whole bunch of kitchen equipment (that gets delivered tomorrow morning - I have no idea whether it’s going to be what we actually need), a giant to-do list, and a whole posse of people to manage... Yup, that’s right: it’s the first-ever Festival of British Roots in Portobello and Golborne Road markets! And why make it simple by repeating everything on Saturday? Nooooooo, we’ll be hosting a semi-celebrity chef who will hopefully be doing cooking demos (still waiting to hear what he intends to prepare so that I can make sure ingredients are ready) and book signings. Did the book shop order enough stock? Is anyone going to come? Tune in next week to find out!

Winter wonderland

This Saturday, we decided to make the most of current winter conditions (a rarity in London for the past hundred years or so despite last year’s blizzard) and headed to Hampstead Heath for a chilly romp. This seemed a safer bet than relying on a train to take us further afield when apparently the entire archipelago is buried in snow (quite possibly the wrong kind). On account of my iPhone camera being so cruddy I took only one photo, but you can see plenty more here. The plan was for Matthew, Kath, Steven, Jackie (in town on business) and I to meet at Hampstead tube at 11.30, wander around a bit, and then duck into the Wells tavern for a late lunch. We started at Kurt Geiger because Jackie’s stylish Prada boots just weren’t going to cut it off piste. Once Miss Fashion-Plate was appropriately kitted out, we all made our way to Parliament Hill which, being exposed, was rather cold. Then we hoofed it up to Kenwood House for a cup of tea before meandering down to the pub and back up to the Holly Bush to bolster our resolve for the journey home.

It has happened: I’ve crossed the line

I now officially speak Englican. Or Americish. This past weekend Steven & I went to Salisbury, accompanied by Kath. We took the train down from Waterloo station, dropped our bags at the Red Lion hotel, and proceeded to walk out of town toward Stonehenge. We walked. And walked. And walked and walked and walked. Then we had some lunch, followed by even more walking. And then we walked some more. We finally arrived at a lovely spot from which we could see the stones in the distance (just beyond a busy motorway) and decided to save a couple of kilometers by heading straight into the nearest town, where we downed a well-deserved pint and hailed a taxi back to Salisbury. We shall return some time to see the henge up close, or maybe just pay a visit to another site where one can actually touch some prehistoric rocks.

But I digress. At dinner, which was Indian and probably up there with the top ten meals of all time, we were discussing food (as one does). I was describing something Steven & I had eaten in Palermo when we were there a few weeks ago. First of all, I said “aubergine” when I meant “courgette”. Do you see where this is going? Let me remind you: I was there with Steven and Kath, who despite both having recently earned British citizenship, are, in fact, American. To me, speaking British English when not absolutely necessary represents the line, and speaking it in the exclusive company of fellow Americans is crossing it.

Yes, yes, I said I’d never do it, and now I have. So there you go.

Thinking of spring

Originally uploaded by sf2london.

Don’t get me wrong - it’s definitely still winter. But we’re thinking of spring. Snowdrops and irises are blooming on our little terrace and in several window boxes. The first daffodils are poking through the ivy, and there's even a precocious crocus defiantly claiming its moment in the sun. The days are noticeably longer (for example it's 5pm as I write this, and the sky is illuminated). People are beginning to emerge into the clear light, and this past Saturday the Portobello Road market had a kind of downturn-be-damned brightness. A bit chilly, though I expect it’ll warm up soon enough.

London’s still a puzzle

Originally uploaded by sf2london.

A couple of months ago, Steven and I walked along the Grand Union and Regents Canal from our house to Islington. The canal passes right through this site, known as King’s Cross Central, which is the largest single regeneration site to be developed in London in about 150 years. For some reason, I imagined that the canal skirted the northern edge of the site. As we were walking along, my mind’s map put most of the site to the south, between the canal and King’s Cross Station. In fact the largest part of the site lies to the north of the canal (left 2/3 of the white section of this model). Funny how mental geography doesn't always match the true lay of the land...

Of course there is, darling!

Originally uploaded by sf2london.

On our way home from a delightful Sunday lunch in Maida Vale, Steven and I passed this bit of landfill-bound Christmas ephemera (here they would call it tat) this afternoon... The hands really got to me. This particular box was sitting atop the wall of someone's front garden on Elgin Avenue. There were a few other cardboard boxes strewn about, and while I felt curiosity regarding their contents, I was also a little scared to look inside...

Blizzard of '09

Originally uploaded by sf2london.

For those of you not keeping up with my Flickr photostream (or the news), IT'S STILL SNOWING!!!

You know who you are!

Originally uploaded by sf2london.

This post has a target audience of exactly two people...

Frosty

Originally uploaded by sf2london.

Things have warmed up a bit, though it looks like it might rain today...

Darkness

Originally uploaded by sf2london.

This was the color of the sky yesterday at 4:12pm.
And so the darkest day of 2008 has passed.

King Cakes

Originally uploaded by sf2london.

About a week ago I went into Lisboa Patisserie and asked when they were going to start making king cakes (these colorful cakes that are only made at Christmastime). The guy behind the counter looked puzzled, so I said, “you know, those colorful cakes that you only make at Christmastime,” and he said, “oh, you mean Bolo Rei?” I replied in the affirmative and he informed me of the 2008 Bolo Rei production schedule. Then as I was on my way out he shouted, “OH! King cake! Bolo Rei! I get it! I never heard that before...”

Merry Christmas!

Originally uploaded by geatchy.

I got dinged for not blogging today... So that will be my New Year’s resolution for 2009, and why not get an early start?
I’ve actually got quite a bit to blog about, and not all of it will necessarily be here. I set up a separate blog for writing about urban stuff ages ago, and even wrote a couple of entries for it (which I never actually posted). And on top of (or perhaps overlapping) that, I’ve been working on something which might wind up being called either “Love Golborne” or “Discover Golborne.”
I will keep you posted!

New River Path

I’m doing a bit of research on some topics for my soon-to-be-unveiled professional blog, provisionally called spatialist. One thing I’ve been interested in for a while is the comparative design of council estate maps across London, and I wanted to broaden my sample size. Another potential subject (or series) would be a catalog of London’s “unsung” public realm. Not Southbank, the Royal Parks, Trafalgar Square, Broadgate Arena, and the like, but rather the uncelebrated publicly accessible spaces in their almost limitless variety of scales, typologies, and conditions. I combined these two areas of interest on a walk yesterday from Green Lanes Overground to Liverpool Street Station, including a stretch of the New River Path.

Figuring stuff out...

That slideshow thing on the right seems to show my 20 most recent pictures from Flickr, in reverse order. It could be a neat feature to use on my new “professional” blog, but I think I’ll have to set up another Flickr account so I can control the images that appear there... But that would mean 20 different pictures for every entry, a potential hurdle I don’t really need.

Culture alert: Anybody in or visiting London before August 25th should go see the Psycho Buildings exhibit at the Hayward Gallery! It’s great!

Look, Ma, no hands!

Wow! Check out the little Flickr slideshow thingie over there in the right-hand column. Now I don’t even have to choose photos and think of things to write about them. Instead, I guess I can just write. Maybe that will be easier. Also new in the right-hand column is a list of Blogs. It’s not like the list of Blogs I had before, which was just a plain old list of links, but now contains the titles of recent posts. Neat-o!

So now I guess I can just blab about stuff that’s going on over here. Like we went to Jane’s for Sunday roast last week. Um... It’s really hot in London right now (poor Olive is slinking around the house looking for breezes to flop in)... Last night we went to see The Dark Knight, which was beautiful and fun and Heath Ledger’s performance was fantastic. We’re not going to Lisbon this week/end. And stuff like that.

We’ll see how this goes. I’m also in the process of setting up another Blog. It will either be called “spatialist” or “social designer” and it’s going to be for writing about urban-type stuff. So stay tuned. I might even get the first installment, about London’s council estate maps, written today!

Stay tuned...

My clicky knee

Originally uploaded by noisycorner.

For those of you who don’t know, I’ve had a clicky knee for a few years now. Lately, however, the clicking has gotten worse and the associated pain has become almost unbearable. A couple of weeks ago I went for a MRI scan of my left knee and the results are now in: I’ve got a bucket-handle tear of my medial meniscus. Yippie! Now I’ve got to go talk to an orthopedic surgeon about arthroscopy. Woo-hoo! General anesthesia! Hooray! But at least it’s something hypothetically treatable. So... Stay tuned.

Oh, and BTW, look at me blogging with somebody else’s picture!

And the Budweiser takeover? News? Really? Come ON!!! How many local companies has Coca Cola gobbled up all over the world? Has that ever made global headlines?

Ahhhh, London...

Originally uploaded by sf2london.

... where there's someone ready to sell you any good or service you can imagine!

48 kilos of love

Originally uploaded by geatchy.

In this shopping cart are two dozen 2-kilo bags of ice. That’s about 105 lbs. We did think of asking the caterer to bring ice, and they initially said they would. But at the last minute there was an emergency “no ice” call (possibly part of the truckers’ fuel price protest aftermath), so we drove to the supermarket in Sant Pere de Ribes and cleaned ‘em out. The result was that our celebration had 48 kilos more DIY love...

aniversari4020

Originally uploaded by sf2london.

Lately I’ve been focused on organizing the party we threw outside Barcelona on June 21st. So... if I haven’t been keeping up with the blog and stuff, well... I’ve been kinda busy.

But now our weekend of celebration is over. Our guests seem to have had a pretty good time. Steven and I certainly did!

Creating the context took a lot of effort: several reconnaissance trips, many phone calls and emails, excel spreadsheets, the website, the book, catering, logistics, sneaking 15 wigs past Steven, hunting down adequately dim lighting (at BHV in Paris), foraging for wildflowers at the last possible moment (thanks to Neil Stock), decorations (which Steven stayed up til 3am one night to paint), etc.

In the end, the event itself was actually the result of several collaborations (ranging in duration from a few hours to a lifetime). Our most obvious collaborators were our guests, who endured any small technical glitches with grace and elegance, and who played their roles admirably well (I’m sure it took a great deal of self-control for some not to flee when the wigs came out). Perhaps slightly less obvious were Silvia Roig from Parés Baltà winery, and of course Neil and Iain who put up with months of antics concluding in our three-day takeover of their amazing Masia Sumidors. Finally, we owe thanks to friends and family who weren’t with us in Spain, yet who inspired us and influenced the sensibilities that guided many of our choices.
I am now in the process of getting everyone’s party pictures onto a flickr group. It’s private, so if you want to take a look just let me know. We will also be making some changes to the website, and I’m going to look into putting the book online somehow (once it’s finished, that is). If you haven’t already submitted something for inclusion and would like to do so, please contact me ASAP!

And now, back to real life (more or less)...

;-)