I swear that the older you get, the harder you become to buy birthday presents for.
Or at least that's the case with me. Apparently I'm very difficult to buy presents for (something which M would definitely corroborate). Laura said she was struggling a lot and so she asked herself what my favourite thing in the whole world was and the answer came to her immediately. That answer of course was FOOD!
I was so touched when she presented me with this card a few months ago, I mean what a great present, but what with busy working lives, and a wedding to plan (hers not mine!), we only just got around to going for lunch today.
Laura lives in Crouch End which is simply bursting at the seams with quirky cafes, bars and restaurants. She chose the wonderful Bistro Aix to treat me to lunch at.
Bistro Aix serves a lunch/early bird menu where three courses are £22. I was blown away by the amount of choice and quality of the food served. Most early bird/offer menus are pretty lack lustre but Bistro Aix was anything but.
We both started proceedings with parma ham, melon and mint. Wonderfully simply but delicious. These sorts of simple dishes really are some of my favourite to eat. Just three ingredients can make for the best starter ever but only if they're all of tip top quality. Luckily they were and it was the perfect start to the meal.
We chose identically again for the main - beef short rib with red pepper marmalade and mashed potato. The beef was falling off the bone (my favourite way to eat it) and was accompanied by a deliciously rich red wine jus.
I'm a sucker for meringue, so for me, dessert had to be the most enormous Pavlova served with a summer fruit coulis and whole passion fruit. Like I said before, they certainly don't scrimp on either size or ingredient expense.
It was the perfect way to spend a long lunch, gossiping and catching up on wedding chat and new job news. Thank you so much, Laura. xxx
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