not done one this year, have i? perhaps i had hinted on a couple of entries these recent months on new mouth-watering nosh-ups i’ve encountered.

taste cafe, ecclesall road, sheffield S11

a new-ish eaterie on trendy ecclesall road which i’ve read about in a restaurant mag in a thai take-away (which i will talk about in a bit!) in nottingham. i’ve driven by the place day in day out on the way to work and never had given the place a second glance. had a spot of brekkie with some friends before the gig last week, and it was okay. it had the ambience, and an air of exclusivity (this is S11 anyway) to it but for people who don’t eat pork, the vegetarian option is pretty limited (unlike this place). still, the wild mushrooms and stilton on ciabatta i had was gorgeous – i guess, a posh take on the humble cheese toastie. seventudjoh and jimbo went for the english breakfast ciabatta sarnie which was unfortunately nothing to shout about and pinkfrog‘s mushroom potage looked alright (i really couldn’t recall what she thought of it!). the waitresses here are hot, by the way, but that’s by the by. hehe.

the dunkirk chippy, montpelier road, nottingham NG7

salt and vinegar, luv? bollocks to that. say hello to an actual thai take-away run by a chap called somwang and his wife. last night, we descended on robin hood’s old hang-out to get some gai yang (thai grilled chicken). pretty much looked like the ayam you get with chicken rice, but on a heavenly scale i kid you not. who in the right mind would do an 80-mile return trip for chicken, you think. well, if i had once bemoaned the fact of how some people drive up to penang from KL for nasi kandar, i can now sympathise with them and eat humble pie! last night’s tom yang goong was waaaay better then the previous visits. we also ordered beef (also halal, which is still pretty rare considering the burgeoning numbers of mushrooming halal oriental eateries here) – their neua pud gra pao (beef with basil, chilli and rebung) and neua pud nam man hoy (beef with veg in oyster sauce) were superb, albeit a tad same-ish. it is a chippy (they still sell the regular chippy fare), so you have to take out. they deliver for free, at the rate i order stuff. and when i do have it, the guys of 95 beeston road run the risk of converting their living room into a small cafe.

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after a hearty dose of gai yang, the lot of us caught V for vendetta at a nearby multiplex. i thought it was a great adaptation (pity moore dissociated himself from the film, then again after watching LXG who could blame him?). that aside, and also apart from the fact that this fine film has been reviewed ad nauseum in the blogosphere, i took a fancy to that egg and fried bread breakfast V concocted for evey.

apparently, it’s called egg in a basket and some critics of the film (british ones, obviously) found it amusing why a north american-styled dish appeared as commonplace breakfast cuisine in an (in fact, two) english kitchen. quite sedap, by the way, if you really want a quick one. less than 3 minutes to make!