Bem Brazil

Continuing the South American theme, Aureja and I went to 'Bem Brazil' (as in 'esta bem'-'its OK') on a rare sunny afternoon in early June. As you can see it's been some time lingering in my mind as the last few weeks have been taken up with grading papers and exams (over a million words!). All of which leaves me with a kind of word phobia that I'm only now getting over ,for example, I can read a newspaper without the overwhelming desire to mark it. So, my patient readers, you can see the prospect of putting pen to paper has been a daunting one. Thankfully this does not extend to reading menus.

'Bem Brazil' is a 'rodizio' restaurant. This means it serves a never-ending succession of succulent grilled meats to which one can add greens, salads, potatoes and rice (it caters for the rare Brazilian vegetarian as well) It was delicious as it was exotic.

It proved to be a warm and tasteful afternoon in the company of the sultry Aureja, and I hope there are a few more before she inevitabley sails away on a summer breeze.

The Gaucho Grill

I have been saving the Argentinian 'Gaucho' for a special occasion for quite some time, almost since 'Aroundtheworldin80dinners' began. Well just such an occasion arose last week, it was Maxine's birthday. I have sometimes talked of my old pal Serendipity before and once again she paid me an unexpected visit a few weeks ago. At an opening of a photography show, I spotted Maxine, who I had seen at many of these do's before but had never had to courage to say 'hi'. Serendipity waved her magic wand of fate and before you could say 'Chablis', we were chatting away over a few glasses of chilled white wine. Of all the openings in all the world...

I invited Maxine to spend a small part of her celebrations with me over a splendid steak lunch at this well appointed South American eatery. We ate heartly and after several glasses of good wine, well and truely tangoed!

I sincerely hope Maxine had as good an evening as I did and never has Serendipity been so kind....I am reminded of the immortal words of Claude Rains "This could be the start of a beautiful friendship".

Little Samsi

Dear readers, it has come to my attention that things at 'Aroundtheworldin80dinners' Global Headquarters, Beijing have been a little slow of late (thank you, Jenny and Paul) Due to the infringement of other commitments (ie my real job) and the global economic downturn (ie my real job- unlike MPs, I can't claim it on expenses). Despite a heavy round of redundancies in Beijing, we at 'Aroundtheworldin80dinners' Inc. are fully committed to the glorious quest of our great leader and world culinary domination. To this end, I took my good friends, Aureja and Maria, aka the Cornerhouse gals, to the Little Samsi in Withington.

The Little Samsi is one of the only purveyers of Japans' most popular dish, namely, 'kare' or as we know it in the West, curry. It was brought to the land of the Rising Sun by British sailors from India in the 19th century. It tastes much like curry powders of old and my chicken and veg kare was nolstalgic and comforting.

We enjoyed a fine afternoon's lunching and if I bend the rules a little (like MPs, I made them up), a deserved red dot on the map. As the summer approaches, I do hope that we at 'Aroundtheworldin80dinners' Inc. will endeavour to be more speedy in our delivery of complete customer satisfaction.

Blog of the Week

After an X Factor style comptition frenzy, 'Aroundtheworldin80dinners' won the coveted 'Manchester Evening News/The Mancunian Way' Blog of the Week (22nd April-29th April). I want to thank all my staff at 'Aroundtheworldin80dinners' Inc, Global Headquarters, Beijing, for all their hard work in making this possible and I hope this is the first of many 'BLOSCARS' to come.

After a gala dinner at the Baths Chippie in Chorlton, the party carried on long into the night. Readers can catch up with further reports at blogs.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/themancunianway

The Midland Hotel, Morecombe

It was the weekend after Easter when I took myself off to Morecombe and the lovingly restored Midland Hotel. God knows, Easter is not my favourite holiday as it always seems like 4 sundays in a row and I tend to spend it marking. So I too was in need of some loving restoration. The hotel is magnificent as it shines like a jewel in the rather shabby crown of the Morecombe seafront. I arranged lunch with Iwona, an old and dear friend from nearby Lancaster.

Lunch was a long affair over the glorious view of Morecombe Bay. I surfed and turfed on Red Snapper and Oxtail on a bed of mustard mash while my companion went for the Rajish curry.

I don't get to see Iwona often so it was good to catch up. The solid foundation of our friendship remains intact but it is always enjoyable to restore it to its former glory over a good lunch and fine company. On our way to walk off our indulgenes on the banks of Silverdale, we passed through Carnforth. It reminded that Iwona is my 'Ceila Johnson' and that our encounters are all too brief.

Artists not to lunch with (part 1)

Rene Magritte

Around the World in 45 dinners