Wednesday, 2 February 2011

On the Edgware Road


This was me at the weekend, having a go at re-living our various Middle Eastern holidays, right in the middle of London.

  • First we ate an enormous dinner at a Lebanese restaurant, finishing with complimentary fruit and baklava.
  • We tracked down a sweet shop selling salap ice cream - made with orchid root and rumoured to be an aphrodisiac, it is weirdly stretchy and elastic! In Arabic it's known as bouza bi haleeb and here's a picture of it being made. I won't be eating it again, sadly, as it turns out the orchids are endangered by too much ice-cream fanaticism. We bought a plate of baklava too.
  • We then stopped at a cafe to smoke a shisha waterpipe (apple flavour). Because of UK smoking laws you have to sit at pavement tables outside. Unfortunately it is 0 degrees Centigrade right now in London at midnight, hence my ski-jacket and purple muppet gloves, which slightly ruin the illusion. Gallons of mint tea (with complimentary baklava) helped warm us too.
Oh, were we full.

Mr Ashbless took a picture of our dinner wine-bottle. According to the label "in mouth it has power and length," which by the second bottle struck me as hilariously funny, I'm afraid....

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8 comments:

  1. Jo2 February 2011 at 10:09

    How fabulously exotic for the Edgeware Road! I did wonder about your snow gear inside the restaurant.

    I love the wine description, that's fantastic.

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  2. Jeremy Edwards2 February 2011 at 13:04

    Never mind verisimilitude: Muppet gloves can only enhance any illusion.

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  3. Sekrit Shoppa2 February 2011 at 22:03

    Edgware Road *is* exotic!

    You look wonderfully mellow there. I need me one of those pipes, I think.

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  4. Janine Ashbless3 February 2011 at 08:44

    I'm tempted to buy a shisha, Justine, but I fear it would become too much of a habit. Better to save it for an occasional treat.

    I might add that from where I sat looking out into the street, the eyecandy was also excellent ;-)

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  5. Jo3 February 2011 at 09:40

    I'm envisioning a whole new genre of erotica/wine review cross over.

    A robust and thrusting little number with a warm and silky mouthfeel...

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  6. Madeline Moore3 February 2011 at 17:49

    I'm with Jo. In mouth it becomes longer and thicker, with a bountiful flavour that leaves a creamy aftertaste. Best served with meat.

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  7. Kat Black3 February 2011 at 18:44

    Loving that two-bottle stare, Janine.

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  8. Janine Ashbless4 February 2011 at 10:34

    Baklava overdose stare, Kat!

    ReplyDelete