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Paris in the sunshine
It’s been a beautiful day in France. Started off well in London but the clouds had gathered by the time my enormous bags and I got to Waterloo (thank you again Andrew) to board the Eurostar. An uneventful and comfortable journey, with a helpful taxi driver at the Paris end; we confessed our mutual inabilities in one another’s languages and faltered through a little small talk (mostly about the beauty of the Italian language) while he followed his GPS directions to (l’Hotel St-Louis Bastille (thanks Sue: great tip – very nice hotel!).
The weather was so gorgeous I hopped on the Metro and went for an afternoon wander: caught Notre Dame streaming with the last of today’s sunlight,
the Seine looking lovely – the trees still leafy,
the plant and flower stalls selling beautiful things,
and the Galeries Lafayette lit up like a temple carpet.
A nice plate of salad in their 6th floor cafeteria and home I hurtled on the Metro – even travelling at rush hour it felt positively commodious after London and the crush of the tube. Resting my feet and self in preparation for my one day of sightseeing tomorrrow. -
Fish for supper
Where it all began, at the Fish Works on Regent’s Park Road in Primrose Hill.
A lovely table in a lovely flat.
Starting in style: marinated anchovies from Sainsbury’s, plus artichoke salad and Lebanese Coleslaw from the Green Valley.
Red mullet hits the table and we fall over in delight. A little thyme and wine and olive oil in the preparations. Lovely with steamed new season brussels sprouts ‘n carrots, and baby roast potatoes with rosemary. Thanks Leah!
Quick before it’s all gone… cheese from Neal’s Yard cheese shop in Covent Garden. The stilton in particular caused some happy moans… -
A day in the country
Evidently we defied death and ivy for the sake of a pleasant perambulation through Kent on a dry and breezy Friday afternoon.
Set off from (truly and appropriately) Sole Street station and walked a wide circle to reach a pretty flint church at Luddesdown (home of Luddesdown Organic Farms, we surmised from some posted literature along the path). Some restoration work was in progress on one of the churchyard’s walls:
And flint was everywhere in the fields, crusted in chalk, so it almost seemed we were stepping over bones.
And then, we spied a pub. It was the Golden Lion – unfortunately for my conscience a Greene King pub – and its entertainment poster (promising “themed food night’s” and referring us to “local paper’s and in house flyers”) certainly begged for help from Lynne Truss. But all that aside, I highly commend its amazing and enormous Bubble ‘n Squeak, smothered in excellent cheese and perfectly seasoned. Oh, and cheap (just under £3)! This dish takes many forms, but here it was made from mashed potatoes, cabbage, carrots, onions and – perhaps, because it is usual – a little bacon or ham.
Just up and around the bend on Henley Street, The Cock Inn, but we were making for the train and couldn’t stop again.
After all that walking, a stroll through Rochester where the cathedral seems to rise between the walls of the castle where Dickens wanted to be buried. Sadly for him, Queen Victoria felt his remains would be better placed in Westminster Abbey and there he remains, in Poets’ Corner.
Back to London and a final sprint round the Power and Taboo exhibition at the British Museum. Too limp to go further we collapsed in gratitude before some excellent Thai food at the Thai Garden Cafe on Museum Street.
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In her latest collection, Rhona McAdam navigates the dark places of human movement through the earth and the exquisite intricacies lingering in backyard gardens and farmlands populated by insects and pollinators, all the while returning to the body, to the tune of staccato beats and the newly discovered symmetries within the human heart.
“…A beautiful, filling collection, Larder is a set of poems to read at the change of the seasons, to appreciate alongside a good meal, and to remind yourself of the beauty in everything, even the things you may not appreciate before opening McAdam’s collection….”
Rhona McAdam is a writer, poet, editor, and Registered Holistic Nutritionist with a Master’s in Food Culture from Italy and a deep-rooted passion for ecology and urban agriculture. Her work spans corporate and technical writing to poetry and creative nonfiction, often exploring the vital links between what we eat and how we live. Based in Victoria, BC, and available via Zoom, Rhona is always open to new writing commissions, readings, or workshops on nutrition and the culinary arts.
