Having spent a week in Normandy back in July I thought I’d had my annual quota of flan. Most days involved two slices. Not a sustainable habit.
Was in Comptoir Gourmand for lunch today—as pretty much every day—and for the first time I remember they had a freshly prepared flan sitting there just asking to be eaten.
Verdict: Lecker.
I really hope they don’t start producing these daily…
Bricklayers Arms, Fitzrovia
William Klein 1958
There’s been some excitement round these parts—well, in our flat at least—for the last few weeks when we noticed we were getting a fish & chip shop just up the road. Back from holidays and it’s finally opened. It’s called “Oliver’s”. They have a holding page currently but there will presumably be something better in place soon. The shop is next door to the Steeles pub on the lower section of Haverstock Hill.
This being NW3 it’s got more than a whiff of gastropub about it but we weren’t going to let that put us off. We managed to hold out until the weekend as we’ve just come back from a punishing week of butter, cheese, bread, flan & cider in Normandy and needed a few days of clean living.
The plaice (boom boom!) was busy and they had a lot of staff working. All a bit chaotic but everyone was friendly and customers were aware that this is new so were patiently queueing. We went for one haddock, fishcakes, large chips, and two mushy peas. Came to around £13 I think. Not cheap but not too bad.
You can eat in—they’re even licenced—and there are tables out the front. We opted to eat at home. We’re anti-social like that.
Here are the goodies:
The chips were great, the fish was all very fresh and the peas were much better than is normal from the chippy (though not a touch on Victoria Market in Nottingham but I’ve never found anywhere that comes close). Even the batter was well made. I’m really surprised about all of this as I’ve now been in London for a good many years and there are great swathes of it without a chip shop in sight and when you find one they are generally pretty poor. The only possible negative is that the emphasis is squarely on fish. No pies, faggots or saveloys here. They do, however, do deep fried mars bar.
I would definitely recommend Oliver’s if you’re in the area. I really hope they do well. And that I discover some willpower pretty sharpish.
I’ve got better cameras but there is something about the Yashica Electro 35.
I got my first, the GS, for £1.99 from the camera shop that used to be near the bottom of Parkway in Camden. The shop was closing up and I was there to buy chemicals as the owner was clearing stock. I saw the GS in a box of odds and ends. It was completely coated in biscuit crumbs and looking very sorry for itself. The bloke told me he’d not tested it but I was welcome to it for a couple of quid. With a clean up it turned out great.
Great, that is, once I’d tracked down a battery for it. They originally used some radioactive molten lead type affair which was state of the art at the time and sadly no longer exists. Luckily you can use a PX28A or a stack of LR4s to good effect. You need an adapter which I once had but can no longer find. I’ve been happily using a cardboard tube - think oversized roach - and then filling in the empty space with tin foil. I’m sure performance is affected slightly but apparently the circuitry is able to adapt to anywhere between 4.5-6v.
On our way to Belsize Park Budgens today to get some supplies we popped into the charity shop there. Never before seen a camera of any kind there. But this time I saw a slightly battered leather case in the display cabinet and asked to have a look. The price tag read £8 and I was expecting to open it to find a Zenit SLR or the like. On opening what I found was the pictured GTN. This thing is in pretty much immaculate condition; it even has the press-on lens cap. Money immediately handed over.
I’ve just given it a quick clean, loaded some Neopan and wedged in the battery/cardboard/foil contraption. I’m pretty sure there will be light leaks as most of the foam is gone but there is no way I am not using this camera this weekend with the family.
I can’t stop grinning at my good fortune.
Ronnie Moipolai from Kopong, Botswana. More here
Image of a groove on a vinyl record taking with an electron microscope at 1000x magnification. More here
