Moan, moan, moan----get it off your chest or have a chat

[Paddy Tobin]

Best pancake ever - under the Eiffel Tower, banana, whipped cream and chocolate sauce.

Paddy

[Maggi Young]

 
Did you know that Toblerone has 100 birthday .....they have a big celebration in Bern / Swizzera !
Have you not a invitation 

This is a complete surprise to me, Hans! And Toblerone is one of Ian's favourites!

[Hans J]

  Maggi 

Maybe should Ian go to Bern and give them a lecture .....

[Maggi Young]

Maybe should Ian go to Bern and give them a lecture .....

That is an excellent idea... he can tell them how he trains with Toblerone to make him strong for growing Bulbs.....

[Anthony Darby]

I make mine the Canadian way, with crispy smoked bacon, blueberries in the pancakes and topped with melted butter and maple syrup - yummy!

Yuk. Pancakes, to my mind, should be either sweet or savory, not both: so either smokey bacon OR blueberries, butter and maple syrup.

[Maggi Young]

So, Anthony, are you not a fan of duck with orange, or even better, plum sauce or raspberry sauce... this last is the speciality of Alan Newton... it is a truly scrummy combination, I can promise you! Food of the Gods  and no mistake
And what about pork and apples, lamb and redcurrant jelly, ham and peaches ?.... oh, gawd, must go now... seem to have come over very hungry all of a sudden... byee!

[tonyg]

I have to say that I don't often rant!  However after getting lost in Tottenham (North central London) last night (I was trying to get to Harringay to pick my wife up after a course) I need to vent my spleen.

It was raining, dark and very, very busy.  None of the streets had names (if I could have seen them in the dark!)  My normally placid approach to life was seriously disturbed by the whole experience.  It would have been bad if I had not got lost but the hopeless feeling as I confronted each left or right decision drove me almost to despair.  Needless to say whenever I did manage to find somewhere to pull over and consult the road atlas I was usually going in completely the wrong direction.  I did eventually extricate myself but Jacinta had been standing in the rain for 90 minutes by the time I arrived.  NEVER AGAIN!!!  Why on earth does anyone choose to live in these concrete and neon jungles? 
...............Rhetorical question - please don't answer

Now back in the wide open spaces of East Anglia I feel much better

[Anthony Darby]

So, Anthony, are you not a fan of duck with orange, or even better, plum sauce or raspberry sauce... this last is the speciality of Alan Newton... it is a truly scrummy combination, I can promise you! Food of the Gods  and no mistake
And what about pork and apples, lamb and redcurrant jelly, ham and peaches ?.... oh, gawd, must go now... seem to have come over very hungry all of a sudden... byee!

Wot's duck got to do with pancakes Maggi?

[Maggi Young]

Oh dear, Tony,
 I'd suggest a SAT NAV thing, but you might end up driving up a railway line or into a river, as one keeps reading in the papers..
I expect that once Jacinta was home, dry and warm again, SHE felt a lot better, too  

[Maggi Young]

Wot's duck got to do with pancakes Maggi?

Quite a lot when we're talking crispy duck from our favourite Chinese takeaway... DELICIOUS and served with plum sauce 
I was, however, widening the discussion to the subject of savoury dishes with sweet accompaniments... you know, curry and sweet chutney, for instance...... ''s'truth, is that thunder I hear? Nah, my tummy is rumbling 

[Maggi Young]

Following Carlo's excellent lesson in optimism in the weather thread earlier... I am pulling myself together and getting over my late evening feelings of hungry desperation by remembering that I do, in fact , have a plumb duck breast fillet sitting in the fridge, waiting to become a scrummy meal.... I must keep my strength up in the absence of the BD, you know  Downside is I have no raspberries in the freezer to make Alan's sauce... Drat and double drat

[Lesley Cox]

Hold the duck Maggi. We'll give the BD some fresh raspberries to take home (along with a Toblerone of course, if that's a favourite of his).

Aussies and NZers eat many different fruits with many other things - meats, cheese etc. I remember Tony Hall, when he was here, being horrified at sandwiches with smoked chicken, brie and cranberry sauce, a great favourite combo of mine. and he couldn't bring himself to eat chicken with pineapple.

Ian phoned me yesterday at lunchtime. Lovely to hear him with that delightful Scottish accent. The weather is holding for his mountain trip, for now at least, but rain is forecast for the south later in the day.I'd rather have it here. I'm frightened to go from home for a long weekend. There will be plant deaths for sure.

[Maggi Young]

Glad to hear he's made contact with you Lesley, he'll see you on Wednesday, won't he, before you all go north for the conference?
Ian has been lucky that this timing of such a long trip away coincides with a weather period which should mean that little needs doing in the bulb houses... of course, since I am here, it 's all taken care off but, unless the weather stays really warm and bright for a longer period, then all I really have to do is admire the flowers and watch for aphids!  And encourage the Tropaeolum azureum shoots to twine up their driftwood support instead of roaming off in all directions, looking for flowers to strangle
There are Trop. tricolorum shoots escaping through the tiniest gaps in the glass, into the cold outside... amazing how they cope with the frost! We try to keep the Trop. azureum far enough away from any escape routes, which is most likely why it then does impressions of the Boston Strangler!

[Maggi Young]

By the way, Lesley, no point in giving the BD raspberries to take anywhere... he'll have 'em scoffed in minutes... he can put away a pound of rasps in the time it takes me to say, "those look good" 
Give him rasps and toblerone and he'll probably elope with you!

Are you aware out there of the fine custom ( I believe from Yorkshire) of enjoying cheese with  rich fruit cake? Very tasty... I favour Wensleydale or Cheshire cheese  myself for this delicacy 

[Martin Baxendale]

Across the pond I think they have their bacon with the pancakes, as in alongside them on the plate, rather than in them. And the pancakes are more like Scots pancakes or drop pancakes.

Mmmmm. Duck. The best duck around here is cooked by a frenchwoman at a restaurant across the valley from us, slow-cooked in the oven with French prunes until the meat's falling off the bones. She does a cracking boeuf en daube too. And her French fish soup is to die for.

Sorry Maggi. We're not doing you any favours here, are we?!