What a random day

First I utterly overslept, getting up around noon, had breakfast and didn't do much then decided to go shopping after all (quite a bit at Tesco's), got home and then realised I could phone robinbloke and ask him if he minded my company if I came over and cooked duck breasts for the both us. He mentioned that he was going to twentypence's birthday meal, getting a lift with hardcore_genki. I had completely forgotten about it as we were supposed to do the Charity Poker tournament instead. Some panicking, unsuccessful phonecalls and LJ commenting later, I went over to hardcore_genki's to get a lift as well.
We first stopped over at the Bar Hill SuperTesco to pick up cards and presents for twentypence, then picked up robinbloke and drove to Farcet where we were frantically greeted by a very hyper Pippin and an equally hyper Lizzie. Al, rirekon and Simon turned after a while as well. After some chatting and faffing about we set off in three cars to P'boro where we found the iciest car park ever and then slid/skated/skittered to Imperial Bento, a huge Chinese restaurant where Alan joined our party. We had one of the huge round tables with a spinning disc in the centre upstairs. The food was superb, various starters served on two enormous platters, the second course was wonderful crispy duck with pancakes and a very good sauce and the main course was another huge selection of various dishes including a superb Char Sui pork and a not too hot but nicely flavoured Thai Green Chicken Curry. Considering the size of the place the amount of people they were serving, the food was very good indeed. It was really good fun seeing people I don't see too often anymore and everybody else had fun, too.

Now I need to finish the BnGH photo album before I go to bed so I'm awake for the Tai Chi intensive tomorrow morning.

Cooking fail

Well, not quite but it wasn't up to my usual standards, just a sign that I'm not quite on form. The red wine reduction reduced down to nothing twice because I didn't pay attention turn it off in time. It was still tasty but looked a bit rubbish.
After slicing the first breast and realising it was just a little too much done, I should have sliced the othe, thicker breast (which turned out to be on the spot) for photo.
The celeriac puree was a little too celeriacy for my taste (I have no idea how the chef at Alimentum managed not to make the soup I had last time have that strong taste). I seasoned it quite heavily with hot pimenton (hence the colour), salt and pepper but it was still a bit strong for me and therefore overpowering the duck. The dressing for the young leaf (spinach, watercress, rocket) salad was good, though. That tesco finest Balsamico and that Greek EVOO are gorgeous.
Here's a photo regardless:

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Kurt Weill - For ginasketch

Kurt Weill on wikipedia

The Threepenny Opera
Probably his most well known work and his famous collaboration with Bert Brecht.

( YouTube vids under the cut )