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....

8 comments:

Jo said...

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.

Jeremy Edwards said...

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

Sekrit Shoppa said...

Edgware Road *is* exotic!

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

Janine Ashbless said...

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 ;-)

Jo said...

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...

Madeline Moore said...

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

Kat Black said...

Loving that two-bottle stare, Janine.

Janine Ashbless said...

Baklava overdose stare, Kat!