I've had the most ridiculous week. Laid up in bed for a large part of it, with a box of tissues, lozenges, syrups and paracetamol, nursing a very stubborn flu that isn't appearing to improve at all. Then last night things took a turn for the worse, and I went racing to the hospital for a late night doc visit, and came back with antibiotics and not much of a voice (that beautiful husky voice turns into a croak, and then pretty much vanishes, it turns out) The penicillin has helped though, so though I can't talk (and apparently I could be croaking for upto 6 weeks!! What?!), I can bake! So I thought I'd do something about my fresh-bread craving. There was an open bottle of pesto in the fridge that needed to be used too. Perfect.
What happens when you send a foodie to New York? Tummy space is never enough and she doesn't really want to ever leave. And a turnip cake gets photographed from every angle. I'm just back from a glorious holiday in NYC. When I wasn't making my way back and forth across the famous grid, gaping at skyscrapers and the masses of concrete and glass, or marvelling at the joys of a 24-hr tube [um Metro, I beg your pardon ;)], or bear-hugging old friends and family, or raising my glass of gin & tonic (you can take the girl out of England, but you can't take England out of the girl?) to many more such wonderful breaks, I was sampling grub from around the world, darting from one recommended joint to another across Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens, getting happier and higher as I went along.
So you know how I mentioned in an earlier post about The Brockley Mess that Lewisham has proven quite interesting where food is concerned? There's another place we discovered close to work that serves some great Turkish pizza. Meze Mengal on Lewisham Way. In fact, probably the best pide I've eaten so far!
I haven't had too much Korean food, I'll be honest, except for once in Birmingham at Topokki, and that set the benchmark quite high. Oh and another time at this dodgy underground place somewhere in South Kensington in London. And that made me ill. So I wasn't sure which way my meal with my ex-boss would go. Also, it didn't help that she'd taken us to the dodgy one last time around! I googled Tohbang feeling quite uncertain, but the menu looked very promising, so that made me feel better.
When I first accepted an offer to work in Lewisham, I wasn't at all sure about it. But having been here close to 6 months now, I can say at least this for it - there are quite a few interesting lunch options not very far away! My colleague persuaded me to join her at The Brockley Mess one afternoon, and every week we managed to rope in more people from the team, and very soon this became quite a favourite.