The Sneaky Magpie

Come through the door of Gastro in Clapham’s Venn Street and you’ll completely forget you are in London. This bistro is a real treasure having managed to hire only French staff, make the decor like a Parisian restaurant and serving perfect French dishes.

Every time I have been here I feel like I am on holiday. The wine is excellent and the food delicious. Baguettes and butter are served before you get your menu and the atmosphere is brilliant with French chatter and a noisy espresso machine in the background.

The menu is classic French fair: steak frites, moules, lobster and chips with haricot beans or a salad side dish and delicious crème brûlée for dessert.

I had mussels in white wine and french fries.

My other half had steak with pepper sauce and fries.

In the past I’ve had goat’s cheese salad and calves liver with mash – it was amazing.

The chef was very happy to pose. Who said the French are moody?

We didn’t really mind the rain on our way home.

Coming back home on a hot Friday evening I had only one thing on my mind – ice cream from my local Patisserie Macaron. I almost got off the tube one spot too early to go there but after further consideration I decided to pick up my hubby from home and walk there together. We got there 10 minutes to 7.00 and they were closing, imagine the disappointment! I even checked the website and it said it closes at 8.00 in summer. I would describe May as summer as winter was the only other option. I grumpily went home. Saturday was pretty fantastic too and I did get my ice cream fix, my absolutely favorite is mango sorbet, I usually team it up with raspberry sorbet but this time I opted for mango sorbet and coconut ice cream combo. It is unbelievably good however I would remove the chocolate flakes from the coconut. I don’t like chocolate flakes in ice cream. This is one of the reasons why I don’t like 99, the Flake! (sorry Anthea Turner) And the fact that the ice cream is pretty lame too.

Anyway, going back to the lovely patisserie, it is in Clapham, on The Pavement, and it is the best. It had patisserie of the year award a couple of years ago. They make macaroons, pastries, tarts, fine patisseries and chocolates and they also bake bread. Perfect spot for breakfast, lunch or tea, drinks are served in mismatched vintage china. The atmosphere is great. The same people own a French restaurant down the road in Venn Street which is pretty good too, it’s called Gastro Deli.

Pictures from Patisserie’s website because every time I am there I concentrate on the cakes not photography!

So, the veg box from Gregg’s arrived last week. I am really used to Abel&Cole with their cardboard boxes that collapse and you exchange them for new ones; Gregg’s boxes are made of polystyrene and you mail them back (return postage included). So it is a bit of a hassle to go with a rather large container to the post office. Luckily I ordered the box to come to my office and sneakily despatched the box via our runner. The advantage of the polystyrene container is that it does keep the veg fresh and cool from the point of being delivered till I pack my bags and go home.

The lovely veggies I received were: a bag of wondeful young salad leaves, a bag of fresh herbs (mint, chives, thyme and rosemary), two cabbages – well, something between a cabbage and spring greens, asparagus, rhubarb, cherry vine tomatoes, two bulbs of garlic, potatoes and carrots. I ordered the seasonal box for £15.50.

So far the asparagus got eaten on the first evening and it was glorious, the rhubarb got stewed with fresh ginger and now tops my porridge every morning, part of the cabbage made pretty good risotto (a dish I discovered in Naples and absolutely adored), all the herbs, salad leaves and tomatoes went into various salads. I am still to try the potatoes and carrots.

On the whole, the veg is excellent quality, this is coming from a person who used Abel&Cole for over a year and moved onto the local farmer’s market. I am struggling to decide whether to go with Abel&Cole again or stick to Gregg’s. I wrote off the local farmer’s market in Clapham as it turned into a pile of poo, it started pretty good with great choice of organic vegeables, cheeses, breads, fruit, meat etc. Over the last couple of years it reduced to one non organic and non tasty veg stall from Kent, overpriced too, apple stall which is very good, organic meat and eggs and cheese, poor quality bread, overpriced cakes and lots and lots of plants. The only nice bit is when the spring comes, there are some nice folks with broad beans, asparagus, berries and rhubarb. Decided, it’s time to give it up full stop.

I should probably order A&C box for this week to help me make my mind up. The good thing about them is that they sell fruit, dairy, poultry and meat, bread and pantry produce. Thinking while drinking a fresh mint tea from Gregg’s….