The mother of all potatoes

Ok, so it took days to blog Madrid and I didn’t think I’d be up for another post this week but hey, turns out anything is possible.

Friday was a day a few of us had all been waiting for…a date with Mother Mash. I first heard about mother mash from laineygossip.com, and promptly forgot about it until one of my friends at work had discovered one behind the Gherkin. Here’s the theory…you pick your mash (and I’m not talking just regular mashed or smashed potatoes, I’m talking flavoured ones), you pick your main (a variety of sausages or pies) and then you pick your gravy. The combination choices are mind numbing. I went for the Colcannon potatoes, pork and apple sausages, and the onion gravy. Dear lord…it was divine.

Afterward Bim shared one of her secret places (of which I’m posting on my blog – ha ha) for some of the most impressive desserts I’ve ever seen. The place is called Konditor and Cook, and I’ve never seen a lemon meringue pie look (or taste) so good….dare I say…the meringue was better than my mom’s…and that’s saying something. The top of the meringue was baked perfectly, slightly golden, but inside…so silky smooth! There was no need for the lemon or the pie crust. Holy Dinah!


So, full to the brim, it was easy to skip dinner that night…seriously…you can feed the world with good potatoes and a killer meringue.

Saturday was a cold but lovely fall day and I ended up at Aleksandra’s for an Italian brunch. I also met her friend Elisa from the Lake Como district in Italy and she was quite lovely. As she lived by Alexandra Palace (our destination for the evening), she drove us as close as she could but while getting there, took the scenic route as I’m so new to north London. It was gorgeous.


We cut through Hampstead (great little village-esque area of north London) then cut through Hampstead Heath (our largest park in the city). We came out on the other end and drove down The Bishops Avenue, where the most expensive houses in London are (and where Madge used to live…Gwynnie still lives in the area). If you use that link, zoom in as close as you can and check out the sattelite view. We saw the most expensive house in London…£100,000,000. Owned by a Saudi prince (I think it is Saudi)…I was too flabbergasted looking at the place to bother with the details! It was stunning. All the houses on that street were. Even the Barbie-esque mansions.

We also cut through East Finchley – another area I want to explore as it was quite lovely too. Hmmm, new neighbourhoods for gio maybe?

We finally got to Alexsandra Palace and as we waited for Roy to join us, we hopped on the carousel and had a good time…funny how those things can pick you up. We finally met up with Roy, sat down and had some German beer (some good, some not so good) and saw the Guy Fawkes fireworks for the night. Yes, I’m aware that we saw them on Nov 7 instead of Nov 5 (of which there were tons going off in my neighbourhood that night anyway). It was a good night and a lot of fun. Luckily we left just as the rain came down, and got wet for about 5 minutes on our way to the tube station.


And the rain, bless, has given me an excuse to be homeward bound today! I need one of those days.