ASK

Last week we thought we would chance an outing to Epsom, to the branch of ASK which is in what used to be the National Westminster Bank, what used to be the Old Bank public house, a place we used to use from time to time on a Friday evening before progressing to one of Epsom's eateries. Possibly the late lamented Caspar's of Upper High Street which served surprisingly good food. They also tolerated cigars, a consideration at that time.

The thinking was that the the eating area was large and open with a high ceiling and that it would be quiet late lunchtime during the week. So not too risky. And so it proved to be - so good for us, not so good for them.

An overcast day, and the morning was devoted to making a new shelf under the stairs for the storage of the Christmas wine which had arrived from Guildford. Bottles stored on their side, a new departure for us. And just one of them had a screw top. And, for the first time for a very long time, one of them was a bottle of Champagne, to be precise a bottle of Jean-Paul Deville's 'Carte d'Or'. See reference 2 for the rest of it.

Passed the Blenheim on the way. Not obviously shut and we would have tried inside had it been open. Rattled the locked door before finding a notice explaining that they would next be open for some kind of a Christmas Eve festivity. Perhaps they had found that weekday lunchtimes we not working out and had given up on them for the time being.

Found an aluminium washer in a roadside gutter. The first for a while. Now added to the store.

Passed an open 'Dia yNoche' lounge bar on the way into Epsom Square, formerly Ebbisham Square, followed by a shut 'Be At One'. The former being a place I have used once or twice, the latter several times. We have even eaten there once or twice. Snap above taken with my back to 'Be At One', looking towards what is to be our new cinema, behind the umbrella. The ground floor of which used to be a place called Ponti's which we rather liked. Started as Italian, then went through a Spanish phase, then shut. Out last visit might be recorded at reference 3. Library off snap to the left. And we will see how the cinema gets on. Like many small towns, Epsom used to have several cinemas, then down to none, then back up to one with a rather cramped multi-screen in Upper High Street, usually very quiet when we visit, usually during the day - and now heading back up to two. Perhaps all the students at the University of Creation will keep it going.

But ASK was open and welcoming, to the extent that they could be with just a handful of customers.

Started with hot oily bread with rosemary. Good. Red mince with flat pasta. Good, and a good portion. While BH was entirely happy with her vegetarian ravioli; a mainly white and green confection. The right sort of tiramisu for dessert, right in the sense that it was not soggy, which I do not care for.

Wine started off a bit sharp and thin, but the palette soon adjusted and the rest of it went down well enough. According to Bing 'a vibrant, crisp, wine showing intense flavours of passion fruit and herbaceous notes over a creamy texture' - for which we paid about double what we might have paid online. Which seemed fair enough. Rounded out with a spot of Jameson's.

We were invited to buy a cracker in aid of some good cause or other - I think a children's hospital - and we were amused to learn that the chocolate inside involved hazel nuts, peanuts and other tree nuts. This last phrase being new to me, presumably a category which excludes peanuts, otherwise ground nuts, which grow underground, more like potatoes than proper nuts. Wikipedia explains that peanuts belong to the pea and bean family, so not near relatives of proper nut trees at all. Also that China is the world's biggest producer, with slightly over a third of the total.

Fortified by all the food and drink, I thought I would do my impression of our fat leader leading his negotiating team at the Brexit talks. Would he buy some more second hand water cannon on this occasion?

Short discussion with our Spanish waitress about the various merits and demerits of the split shift system - with her getting an hour off in the afternoon. We agreed that it made more sense if one lived within easy walking distance from one's place of work. 

Waitress gone, we decided that without freezers and microwaves, restaurants of this sort would not be able to function at all. Would we be back with the stew of the day, the sort of thing that I remember from the bar rooms of Upton Sinclair's Chicago? Served to drinkers free, as I recall.

Going home, we felt sure that the sidewalk under the railway at Waterloo Road had been widened, from around a yard or so to more than well over two, although looking at this picture now, not that recently. Maybe in the last five or ten years. Perhaps we don't walk this way that often.

Forgot to put my mask on when buying a Guardian to liven up the evening. The lady serving me did not seem to mind at all, telling me not to bother when I started fumbling for it. 

Curiously, later on that day I felt the need for something substantial, although BH was content with toast and a few peanuts from the Sainsbury shell, that is to say just dried rather than cooked. So I knocked up a bit of sauce with a spot of left over mash, some onions, a rasher, a little oil and (unusually for me) some tomato purée. Served with no less than four and a half ounces of macaroni. All of which did very well, presumably making up for a shortage of padding in the lunchtime offering, despite thinking it substantial enough at the time.

PS 1: one of the two St. Clairs, a  near contemporary of our Lord, brought one of the nails from the crucifixion of St. Peter to Nantes in western France, where he built a church to house it. Also commemorated by a two subway stations in Toronto.

PS 2: the Yellowtail served by the Blenheim, which I liked better than this St. Clair, has now moved up in the world. Advertised on ITV3 along with other accessories and necessaries for the older viewer.

Reference 1: psmv4: Last orders. The last Yellowtail?

Reference 2: psmv4: Wine buffs. The crib sheet for the Christmas order. Plus further remarks about peanuts.

Reference 3: psmv4: Epsom at play.