AGOL Takes UK: Chocolate & Champagne

My personal and major objective today was a chocolate run. There was no way in heck I was going to land tomorrow without buying some Cadbury and Galaxy chocolates. My ride home from the Trampa airport depended on it!

Waitrose was to be my source for trafficking chocolate to the US. Around a dozen chocolate ingots weighing 400 grams each and packages of other Cadbury and Galaxy varieties plus three oddball packages of McVitie's Digestive Biscuits came to £45 pounds or $90 worth. The AGOL doesn't play around with her chocolate. Friends and family were being gifted with chocolate.

Yes, there is a picture of the treasure, but you will have to go to Yummy's site to see it on the grocery checkout conveyor. Poor thing. He had never seen so much chocolate purchased at one time. Has he ever had an American Halloween? Didn't think so. Even I must admit it was bordering on obscene, but I didn't care. I just had to get it on the plane.

We dropped the chocolate treasures home before going out again to The Lanes to visit Riddle and Finns for lunch. Not risking any choco meltdown. Too much was riding on their safety. Ha!

Yummy had heard good reviews about Riddle and Finns and we had put it on our mental list of places to try a week before. Here was our chance to sample it since dinner at The Saint was still hours away. Seafood here we come.

The entrance was quite nice and the inside simple with white subway tiles on the walls. The dark wood tables were set quite high. Lunch was almost over so we were the only ones inside. Our order was taken right away and the waiter extremely pleasant and personable. He served us slices of bread with little ramekins of smoked mackerel pate, garlic mayonnaise, horseradish, and onion in vinegar with a side scallop shell filled with butter. What a great way to start.

We had ordered the specials scribbled in chalk on the outside sign. Our starters were the same: crab and feta salad. For the main course, Yummy had Haddock and Chips and I tried Poached Brill with Fennel. Downed with wine, everything was delicious!

Walked around a bit before heading home for an energy nap. Tonight required alertness for all the fun to be had...

Anna, Anton and everyone's friend, Brian came to pick us up. Brian was specially invited into town earlier in the week and we were lucky to have him on a Friday. I found out he was flying to Raleigh, North Carolina the next day about 15 minutes after my plane's flight to Trampa.

We visited two pubs before heading for The Saint where our reservations were secured by Yummy. This Party of Five was definitely starting to get really fun. Did I hear sirens? Just kidding.

I won't enumerate the menu, but suffice it to say everything was great. We all had starters, main course and sinful dessert. A bottle of champagne was popped open for our celebration, liquid gold was poured into our glasses garnished with raspberries. It was indeed heavenly. My time here started with champagne and Yummy felt it fitting to end with some more. What a sweetie! Wine came, too.

Smiley friends: Anna & Brian


Yummy & Anton: Best friends doing their impression of The Clash: Fashion Calling.


Getting happy: Anna, Brian and party crasher, Sean.


Sprinkles & Yummy having had too much sun and now getting striped with wine.


Drinking heaven garnished with a raspberry.


There was a surprise -- a party crasher named Sean. His partner had gone off to get drunk pre-celebrating his 40th birthday. We invited him over and gladly he was fun. Another surprise was Anton remembering him from his school days. Sean didn't remember him, but they had mutual friends he recognized. It was a small world. The evening was wearing and we invited Sean along to our next and my last boozer on this trip.

We took cab rides to The Eddy to complete our beer sandwich. This pub and others will have to deal with the smoking ban taking effect July 1, but for tonight it was smokin' in more ways than one. Loud, but recognizable music played when we came in. Beer-thirty was enjoyed by this (now) Party of Six!

Midnight crept in. It was time to walk home for most of us. Hugs all around. These were good people to meet and a blast to hang with...Too much to drink to think seriously about organizing my things. Of course, I can start packing in the morning before I leave. (Gulp!)

AGOL Takes UK: Chocolate & Champagne

AGOL Takes UK: Foodgasm

Today's goal seemed for us to work an appetite by wandering around Brighton for the English feast Anton was preparing for us this evening. This dear man had set himself a goal to prepare a proper English meal for me to experience weeks before I came over.

We had a light lunch in Kemptown at this restaurant called The Saint where the atmosphere was warm yet simple chic and the food was a feast for the eyes and the tummy. Here Yummy had the Fried Squid as seen below on top of a green salad with basil oil and a cream sauce and I had the Beetroot Risotto topped with Parmesan cheese. Holy Moly!

His was followed by a Fin of Skate (fish) with mashed potatoes and veg which was delicious and I had Smoked Salmon on top of a green salad and small potatoes (akin to the fingerling variety). We chose seafood for lunch so it wouldn't compete with Anton's roast beef. We decided to go for it and split their Apple Tart Tartin served with vanilla ice cream. Very nice.





Brighton is full of small to medium shops. I am used to the "big box" store mentality in the US. Flitting in and out of these shops was a joy. There is no big commitment to spend some quality time in the stores to see everything even though some of them have multiple levels.

One of the shops I tortured Yummy with was the UK version of Pier 1 called Pier. The packaging and item selections were too similar not to mention I found my Ginger Peach incense and candles on the shelves. Yummy has been probably dreading my forays into these shops with good reason.

Today he learned and didn't know he needed tablerunners, but no none made it home. He did buy stone tea light holders from Habitat at Churchill Mall as well as a chic white ceramic canister style uplight from a lighting store. Poor honey, he's that much closer to creating a candlescape (a manly one of course).

We visited my first official British grocery store, Waitrose as opposed to the Marks and Spencer location just a stone's throw from Yummy's home. He calls M&S his larder because it is so accessible for light shopping. The produce seemed more vibrant at Waitrose and the variety was incredible. Several items I've never heard of or seen. I totally dig that. The aisles were wider than American grocery stores. I didn't get the sense of urgency for marketing in a US grocery store where every inch is precious real estate for product placement. It was a very pleasant experience...

And now for the pièce de résistance -

Yummy's best friend, Anton, is a foodie extraordinaire. We have almost the same amount of cooking tools which I can respect and his seven-burner stove made me green with envy. It was obvious when Yummy and I arrived that he was hustling. He was like a bee buzzing around the kitchen and delicious smells were wafting everywhere. This man was cooking everything from scratch and it was fun to watch. Yummy teased me that the whole thing was like porn for me. He may have the slightest point. I didn't care because I was too busy enjoying my version of adult entertainment and getting turned on.

Yummy took mischievious delight in informing Anton of where we had our lunch. Oh, great. I get to follow that! was Anton's response. More digs were dispensed by Yummy to our host while he began to perspire from working diligently in his kitchen. I thought he was going to wait until after dinner to let him know. Devilish thing.

Anton's Main Menu
Roast Beef (from a special butcher)
Yorkshire Pudding and Beef Gravy
Roasted Potatoes Finished in Goose Fat
Peas and Organic Carrots
...followed by
Wine with Cheeses and Water Crackers
Roquefort (Yummy's favorite cheese), Tellagio ("what Brie wished it was"), Goat Cheese, and White Cheddar
...and for dessert
Steamed Spongecake with Treacle topped with sinfully rich English Custard

I took as many pictures as I could without getting too embarrassed. For me it was an event I wanted to capture. The following are my food porn pics for your enjoyment. Anton's lovely wife Anna came home from her pilates session and helped finish cooking and plating everything.

Master Chef Anton at the helm.


I used horseradish cream on my roast beef and tasted heaven. This is the best roast beef I have ever had in my life. It melted in your mouth it was so tender!


Anna is so pretty and a lot of fun.


Goose fat on the potatoes rocked and the beef gravy on the Yorkshire pudding was delish!


Veggies were still steaming in this picture.


Let me say a little goes a long way with this spongecake. The portion that Anna is seen slicing here was more than enough. It was so sweet I could almost feel my teeth crack from the Lyle's Golden Syrup used. The grated lemon zest cooked in cut a bit of the sweet taste and the English custard did, too. This was food for the gods.


All four of us were as full as ticks. More wine was still being passed around even after the coffee was served...Anton has an impressive record collection which he let us sample on his pimped out stereo system. Old school turntable. It brought me back. Music played while we ate, but now we were really listening to punk beginnings and some old London sounds as well as 80s tunes. I loved it. Yummy and Anton took turns giving some background history on the music.

It was a very impressive evening at Anton and Anna's and I was very appreciative of the effort and generosity in making the meal happen. Tonight's meal was definitely one for the AGOL annals of food. Great food with great people. It doesn't get better than that!

AGOL Takes UK: Foodgasm