Food

Prancer and I went to Ottolenghi, Ledbury Road today.

Having chopped, sliced, ground, squeezed, grated, mixed, sautéed, baked, grilled and chilled my way through nearly all of the veggie recipes in their books over the past few months, I felt as if I was on a pilgrimage to my kind of food heaven. Hell, even James was looking forward to it.

Alas, nothing though could prepare us for the disappointment we experienced. How quickly and completely were our expectatations shattered.

The front of shop, where mounds of beautiful food is laid out (not that we could can actually see it past the crowd of gormless Notting Hill trendies there today), is so flippin' small and poorly designed you have to shout, elbow and point somewhat blindly to get your order taken.

The staff are snooty and impatient to the point of rudeness. I even got a sigh when I asked for a top-up of one of my salads. We felt so rushed we literally gave up adding to our orders.

After managing to make my way to a till (without even a fleeting look at all the other sweet and savoury goodies avaliable) I was quite frankly shocked by how much two average sized takeaway boxes and a slice of cheesecake came to - 35 quid! That's roughly £15 for a glorified salad for Christ's sake!

Having paid and grabbed some wooden cutlery (which incidentally snapped in my mouth while I was eating) we retreated to the nearest park to eat. In fairness, the food was mostly delicious - a variety of vegetables tossed and cooked with distinctive blends of spices, yoghurt, lime and herbs. James' only complaint was about his solitary bit of chicken, which was totally over cooked.

So that's my rant over. Although I will continue to use the books, I'm sure as hell not going back to the shop any time soon.