Pot Luck
It's funny this straddling of worlds. The whole journalist / blogger debate rages on and on and probably always will do - with the odd break before AA Gill or a chef kicks it all off again with a soundbite bit of goading.
The thing is neither side has superiority: there are great journalists and awful bloggers and vice versa. For me, the rise of the good blogs is keeping me on my toes, professionally speaking, and has helped me forge some fine friendships along the way. It also gives me an outlet for the bits that I can't always squeeze in anywhere else. I still get a buzz from seeing my name in"proper" print but I also get a buzz when someone posts a comment here, for something that I've written for fun. And when a complete stranger e mails you and offers you free crab, well, that's just the icing on the cake. Well, the free crab on a bit of brown bread to be more accurate, but you get the point.
The "stranger" in question was Tony Grant of The Fish Society who'd come across this blog somehow and decided - possibly based on a mutual love of smoke-filled single malts - that he had to send me some potted crab. The delivery came at the date and time requested which alone makes me happy to endorse The Fish Society. If I had a pound for every time I've waited around for a delivery that never happened or walked into the hall after hours of waiting to discover a card telling me "we tried to deliver" - really? how? by ninja? - I'd have seventeen quid. And that's just 2011. The gits.
So, there was already quite a lot of love heading The Fish Society's way. The fact that they also make all the right sustainable and organic noises upped that, while the buttery, mace-laced joys of the potted crab was yet more icing / seafood on the, ahem, flour-based product of your preference. And (he adds smugly) there's an endorsement from Rose Prince on their site too.
Having enjoyed a delicious gazpacho topped with shreds of prawn at Beef in Birmingham last week (full post to follow), the idea of fish and gazpacho was fresh in the mind. The beef-heavy joys of that restaurant had prompted a conversation about other beefy restaurants, and that made me think of the time I'd visited Gaucho with a vegetarian. The answer to the question you're thinking of is "yes, and surprisingly well", including a lovely rich tomato soup finished with butter.
So, gazpacho and fish, soup finished with butter... you're probably ahead of me on this one. A little of the potted crab stirred into some homemade gazpacho, and a spoonful, atop some diced avocado, for a more traditional serving of this classic summer dish. Healthy? Possibly not. Rich and lovely? Oh yes.
Tony has very kindly offered readers of this blog a 10% discount on orders over £40. Just visit the website and type the code LAMBSHANK at the relevant point.
The thing is neither side has superiority: there are great journalists and awful bloggers and vice versa. For me, the rise of the good blogs is keeping me on my toes, professionally speaking, and has helped me forge some fine friendships along the way. It also gives me an outlet for the bits that I can't always squeeze in anywhere else. I still get a buzz from seeing my name in"proper" print but I also get a buzz when someone posts a comment here, for something that I've written for fun. And when a complete stranger e mails you and offers you free crab, well, that's just the icing on the cake. Well, the free crab on a bit of brown bread to be more accurate, but you get the point.
The "stranger" in question was Tony Grant of The Fish Society who'd come across this blog somehow and decided - possibly based on a mutual love of smoke-filled single malts - that he had to send me some potted crab. The delivery came at the date and time requested which alone makes me happy to endorse The Fish Society. If I had a pound for every time I've waited around for a delivery that never happened or walked into the hall after hours of waiting to discover a card telling me "we tried to deliver" - really? how? by ninja? - I'd have seventeen quid. And that's just 2011. The gits.
So, there was already quite a lot of love heading The Fish Society's way. The fact that they also make all the right sustainable and organic noises upped that, while the buttery, mace-laced joys of the potted crab was yet more icing / seafood on the, ahem, flour-based product of your preference. And (he adds smugly) there's an endorsement from Rose Prince on their site too.
Having enjoyed a delicious gazpacho topped with shreds of prawn at Beef in Birmingham last week (full post to follow), the idea of fish and gazpacho was fresh in the mind. The beef-heavy joys of that restaurant had prompted a conversation about other beefy restaurants, and that made me think of the time I'd visited Gaucho with a vegetarian. The answer to the question you're thinking of is "yes, and surprisingly well", including a lovely rich tomato soup finished with butter.
So, gazpacho and fish, soup finished with butter... you're probably ahead of me on this one. A little of the potted crab stirred into some homemade gazpacho, and a spoonful, atop some diced avocado, for a more traditional serving of this classic summer dish. Healthy? Possibly not. Rich and lovely? Oh yes.
Tony has very kindly offered readers of this blog a 10% discount on orders over £40. Just visit the website and type the code LAMBSHANK at the relevant point.
Comments
would love to avail myself of fish orders but think i may be too far.but very kind of the chap..re bloggers v journos...i think bloggers have it...newspapers are a fish wrapper of the past mate.. everyone can blog now...