7 good things | April
Of flowers, exhibitions, a back-pocket recipe and a new writers' platform
Where I capture 7 good things to remember this month.
1 Spring transformed into summer this week and FLOWERS HAVE EXPLODED everywhere. Judas trees and drooping wisteria, delicately scented Choisya (Mexican orange), south facing roses and early peonies. London is a garden.
2 Last month for my birthday I cooked a small feast for a few friends. An enormous half turbot roasted over paper thin potatoes, buttered leeks and broiled tomatoes (in a rare deviation from my usual seasonal inflexibility), which I dressed with this simple LEMON AND CAPER SAUCE. It has since embellished practically every fish I’ve made. A back-pocket recipe.
3 Ideal for eating in the park on a blanket on a warm Sunday evening after (Max’s) swimming, fish & chips from a new shop recently opened on Stoke Newington Church Street. COD & BREW is very good.
4 An eloquent retrospective exhibition of American artist NOAH DAVIES, on at the Barbican until 11 May. I urge you to go if you can!
5 OPERA IN PARADISE or ‘the gods’ as it is referred to in English. The sides in the upper balconies with plunging views of the orchestra is my favourite place to be, and I have finally found an opera-going buddy in Louise.
6 Practically every (British) food writer whose work I follow and read regularly are collaborating on a new platform that launched in April — SCRIBEHOUND FOOD. I was excited and signed up immediately, but admit I was also lightly dubious, in the ‘too good to be true’ category. I’ve not read every article, but from all those that I have read I must say it delivers — in the first month — very much what it promised. Eclectic, funny, unfiltered, fascinating insights into every (many) imaginable angles relating to food, near and far. It’s really good.
7 And finally, is there a better place than BRITTANY IN SPRING when the sun is shining?
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That back-pocket, lemon and caper sauce sounds just right, Valerie. Bright, zingy and simple - letting the fish do the talking but also great for smashed potatoes, roasted veg...
Thanks for the Scribehound approval, too. I don't have time for it at the minute but it's on my wishlist.
It's clear that April was a rocky month for all of the right reasons!