pumpkinstrokemarrow

Hitherto, the best smoked haddock I knew in London was that to be obtained from the Eastern stall in Tachbrook Street in Pimlico. Or perhaps it is Upper Tachbrook Street - now retired I don't get to visit quite so often. In any event, the smoked haddock was superior to that from the man from Hastings. A whiter fish with a better flavour. However, the Eastern stall has now been knocked off its top spot by a fish shop in Crouch End. Large, posh sort of place, suitable to what has become a rather posh sort of area. Wet fish on the right, other stuff on the left. This last including a choice between very large white fillets of smoked haddock and Finians. Went for the large white fillet and it did very well, saving a peice of tail to make a fish cake with in the morning. This last made by part cooking the fish, skin side down, in butter. Flaking the fish into some left over mashed potato, patting it into a patty and then returning to the pan, with the lid on, for around 15 minutes or 10 minutes on the first side and 5 on the second. Fish cake did very well too.

Followed later in the day by a couple of sirloin steaks on the bone which also did very well. Preceeded by left over lentil soup (the streaky smoked from Cheam having looked good on Saturday) and accompanied by white rice and cabbage - this last being one of the January Kings from the allotment. Had to remove the outer leaves which were both battered and infested, leaving us with the rather bland interior. But could do worse. One also wondered what happened to the various bits which would be left over when sirloins were taken off the bone. A bit wasteful but presumably ended up in sausages.

In between, to Kew, where we almost got off to a bad start. The parking machine in the car park by the river wanted five one pound coins with no plastic option - rather a lot of pound coins to be carrying around - although one rather smug customer explained to us than one should really travel prepared in this inflationary age. Luckily, just as I was winding myself up to a private strop about parking charges in an already expensive attraction (up to £12.50 from the token penny it charged in my youth and the £7.50 less than five years ago), when we discovered that car parking tickets could be bought along with one's entry ticket. So the pain was reduced to that of having to walk back to the car to display it.

Kew itself was more or less its usual self, not being too badly infested with shops and educational material. Plenty of excellent trees and spring flowers. Discovered that some palm trees have their flower buds at the base of their large leaves on the outside and that some have them, again at the base, but contrariwise on the inside, giving the plant a rather differant appearance when they start to grow. Presumably a handy wheeze for the taxonomist. Came across just one smoker in the course of the day, and that was a pipe at that. So clearly the intersection of the 20% class of people that smoke and the 5% class of people that go to Kew is very small. Or, option two, they have banned smoking at Kew. Not quite an enclosed space but it might have been reclassified an educational establishment. Any excuse seems to be good enough in this banning age. Also slightly annoyed to have aeroplanes coming across to land at a very steady rate through most of our visit (on a Sunday). When we last tried to observe same from the top of Epsom Downs (from where one can see the landing runway on a clear day) one recent Saturday afternoon, we could not see a thing. Option one, there was more haze than we thought and the aeroplanes were there but hidden. Option two, airline staff take a break on Saturday afternoons. Maybe all the customers are taking quality time with their families on that day, rather than positioning themselves for the next week's turn at the treadmill.