January Blues

So I haven’t written many restaurant experience reviews recently. The truth is we just haven’t eaten out so far that much in 2019; certainly not in places I haven’t written about before (and very little more to add…). A combination of spending the first few weekends exclusively in launderettes and Piglet having been ill twice so far already this year. Our only eating out experiences of any note have been winter picnics – both of which I’ve already written up.

Piglet seems to have had a tough start to 2019. He’s had two separate weekends where he’s had rough nights and a fever. Last weekend in particular was tough watching what feels like my little baby lying in bed shivering and shuddering with his hands tucked in between his thighs while trying to cool him down from a temperature over over 38oC. To make matters worse he had a bit of conjunctivitis and (having fiercely refused to have them cut) managed to scratch his eye with his fingernail. All in all he’s been feeling a bit sorry for himself. Luckily he seems to be feeling a bit more like himself today and his eye is looking a bit better although I think we need to keep an eye on it (no pun intended).

If I’m honest, while Piglet was feeling poorly last weekend I wasn’t around to look after him. I had a rare jaunt down to Bristol to see some old work colleagues from my old days at Mulberry and see my sister and her new house. It was a bit of a flying trip with Piglet’s poorliness on Saturday meaning I left later than planned (I had to do an emergency run for Calpol) and a sense of guilt at leaving my wife to look after him meaning I hurried back on Sunday.

It was an enjoyable trip listening to Liverpool FC edge past Crystal Palace on the radio on the way down, reminiscing and talking all things babies/children with old colleagues and friends and having a much overdue catch up with my sister and her husband (chewing the cud about the moral points of eugenics over breakfast anyone?). I didn’t take good enough notes or photos to write up full reviews of anywhere I ate but there are a couple of points to note for anyone who ever ends up on the North Street part of Bedminster in Bristol.

Prior to eating, we stumbled onto the Lantern Festival. A surprisingly joyous parade of light, elaborate paper constructions and lots of music. I like to think that if the big tech firms are really tracking my activity to understand my advertising potential that they will have thought that I drove halfway across the country to witness it! We had dinner on the Saturday night at a place called the Malago. One of the few restaurants in the area I’d eaten at from my time living near there about 11 years ago. Apparently a husband-and-wife venture taken on a couple of years ago and with a very good reputation for Sunday Roasts. They offered a fancy looking A la Carte menu, classics like fish and chips and burgers and then a range of vegan tapas. In fact, my friend who had booked it said that they generally start from a vegan base on most meals, although I suspect the baked Camembert isn’t one such dish.

I had beer battered fish and chips and they were great at making sure that I could eat every part of the meal. They even made me a special portion of mushy peas because the standard stuff had cream in it. Very caring and attentive service; I was very impressed (I had said I was very happy to have the normal peas that they’d first suggested as a substitution). However, the real reason to mention this place is that they had a vegan pudding! Puddings are virtually a no-go once you need to remove milk from the options. Even Thai restaurants that very rarely use much milk in their main courses usually suddenly roll out the milk products for their puddings. It was sold to me as a vegan millionaires shortbread although the name on the menu of date and coconut pudding was probably a more fair reflection. It came with a thick chunky chocolate (dark) top on a layer of date-based caramel across a soft coconut base. Served with a dollop of raspberry sorbet, it was absolutely delicious!

The other meal of note was breakfast the next day at The Lounge, just a bit further down North Street from where I’d had dinner the night before. I’ve been here several times before and eaten in other versions of the (small) chain that exist around the country. I used to particularly like the Cosy Club in Bath. The Lounge was even more familiar to my sister who used to work there as a waitress for a few years.

My sister is Coeliac and so combined with me needing to avoid milk (although not soya as not with Piglet or my wife) we were fairly fussy breakfast choosers. We tried one place first that very helpfully labelled their menu with ‘dairy free’ or ‘gluten free’. But, given that, there were actually few options that were suitable and even fewer that appealed so we wandered on. The Lounge had a specific vegan menu and gluten free menu so we knew there were going to be options for both of us. They were also happy to check additional items for milk so I chose an avocado on toast option from the vegan menu and added bacon and hash browns. Result: a very delicious breakfast that hit the spot after a late (all-be-it low key) night.

The excellent breakfast only made me feel more guilty as I got back in the car to drive home along the M4, knowing that my wife had had yet another tough night with Piglet and was evidently struggling to maintain the calm and patient persona she so keenly wanted to portray to a toddler that was screaming at any action not taken in the very specific way in which his infant mind had imagined it. I’d missed lunchtime and Piglet had apparently decided after reading and the cuddling in the dark that he wasn’t interested in nap time that day and proceeded to get up and carry on with prior activities.

Our final activity of the weekend was to cut Piglet’s nails. I say ‘cut’, it should probably be ‘attempt to cut’. This has always been a problem area but we have usually been able to cut them while he is asleep if we can’t persuade him to do it while conscious. However, recently, he’s refused to sleep through the process and as a result his fingernails (in particular) had become unacceptably long. As mentioned, he’d even managed to scratch his eye as a result. Therefore the closing scene of this Sunday night was going to be an impasse of two calm, pragmatic parents and one head-strong toddler.

After what felt like hours of pleading, weak negotiating, short bursts of brute force coupled with remorseful comforting and mild self loathing, Piglet fell asleep with 3.5 finger nails successfully cut and me and the wife looking like the ‘before’ picture for a 1950’s advert for hiring a maid. Ironically, so exhausted were all three of us that once he’d fallen asleep – we were easily able to finish the job. Fingers and toes and all. Hence the battle has been just passed a week down the line with a small dose of trauma (for all) added to raise the stakes for the next time. We’ll get there, right? This can’t still be going on where there 15, can it?

So here’s to last week of January and may it show the promise of 2019 that we’ve yet to taste so far this year. I’m pretty hopeful that Piglet is finally the other side of his burst of illnesses and with the prospect of starting to do some exercise (and having pretty much eaten my way, valiantly – I must add, through most of the Christmas chocolate); it feels like we might be starting a new page. In fact, while I write this – it might be -1oC outside but there’s a thin layer of white snow on everything. Maybe that’s the point – things can look grey and miserable but you can change everything by just painting over it.