Feed me Seymour.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I always get nervous when people say "You look well", as to me that translates as "You look fat". However, that might just be my paranoia at the amount of food I seem to be ploughing my way through at the moment. I don't know why, but I just cant seem to stop eating. According to my Aunt, who I met for lunch today, "I look well". Which I'm hoping is due to me being a bit more relaxed lately and less to do with my recent Quality Street / Cheese / general food addiction.

So, another day, another load of calories. My Aunt and I, whom I shall call Margaret for that is her name,  started our date at Patisserie Valerie's in Spitalfields. I used to think Pat Val's, as I like to call it, it's more friendly, was a one off place in Soho but it seems they are a chain. However, don't let that put you off. They predominantly do the most amazing cakes but also do nice lunches too ie things with chips. I think I've been to 5 or 6 different branches of these now around town and the food/cakes are always delicious and the service is always good too. Which makes a delightful change. The Wig and I usually go for a Mille Feuille at Pat Val's but today I did not eat a cake. I repeat, I did not eat a cake. It was liquids only. This is big news. I definitely could have eaten a cake but I was trying to show restraint. Also, It was only 11am and I had just had breakfast. The coffee however was perfecto and I will give it 8 beans out of a possible 10.

http://www.patisserie-valerie.co.uk/

By the time we had finished our drinks, it was time to move onto lunch and we found ourselves in Fire and Stone, also in Spitalfields. I've never been to a Fire and Stone before as I always feel like its being unfaithful to Pizza Express if I eat another type of pizza but all the other places we wanted to go to were full. It seemed to be the only restaurant in Spitalfields which had a spare table which could have been a bad omen but it was actually very nice. It was clean, had a high standard of toilet, the staff were really nice and the food was good too. The menu was mostly pizza's but really strange kinky ones. They were named after different places in the world and had things like cucumber ribbons (The Peking), crushed macadamia nuts (The Byron Bay) and raisins (The Marrakesh). I am a bit old fashioned and don't really think you should mess about with a pizza, and since I couldn't get a Vegetarian with Ham (my absolute numero uno pizza of choice) I played it safe with a Four Seasons . Margaret on the other hand totally went for it and ordered the Koh Samui (sweet potato, mange tout and sesame seeds)! I was extremely impressed. What a legend. Overall, despite the somewhat exotic menu , this is another place I would revisit and would score Fire and Stone 7 mozzarella balls out of a possible 10.

http://www.fireandstone.com/pizza/restaurant/index.asp

The day was not just about food though as I received something very interesting from Margaret today which I am extremely happy about. She brought along with her, a small pile of cards that belonged to my Grandparents relating to their Silver Wedding Anniversary (some time in the 50's), some Valentine cards, some amazing old Funeral Cards (sounds a bit grim but I love all this type of thing) and a beautiful birthday card that my Grandmother sent to my Grandfather in 1928 before they were married. This means a super amount to me to have these in my possession as they are an important part of our family history. One of the many reasons I started this blog was so that I could document in one place all the family history that I inherited from my Dad when he died. Looking into our family tree and documenting it all was a huge part of my Dads life towards his later years and I have all his research sitting in a box in my flat. I had always intended to put it in some sort of order and also put it online so that my relatives abroad could also look at it if they wanted, but as with so many things, it was impossible to find the time required to get stuck in. However, now I have some time I really do want to get on top of this and if this is the only thing (apart from feeding my fat face) that I do with my time off, I will be supremely pleased. Its a huge job since there is so much paperwork to work through but receiving these cards today have spurred me on to the challenge. It will be a fascinating project and will also be a very worthwhile distraction from the Mille Feuille's.