After being up until 2am worried about my daughter Amy giving birth, and finally having the news that a big ten and a half pounder baby Amber arrived in the world by caesarian at last, and then waking at 6, still thinking about them, I was in a pretty weird state for dinner at Culinaria! But, there was a great deal to celebrate, and we'd arranged this months ago, so I wasn't going to miss out on another great evening of dining! I haven't lost much weight recently though! July and August has just seen me go up and down and getting nowhere, but there has been a lot going on..... and I've been away.... and....
So with Scott and 3 friends from Gasworks, one of whom was celebrating early retirement with a great deal, and the other two just back from several weeks of wonderful holiday-making, we perused the menu and when the first bottle of wine came (Scott and I were sharing a taxi home this time!), we toasted each other.
John's fish soup looked fantastic and I wish I had ordered it. It was so very authentic French! But Scott and I had a wonderful seafood risotto that was bursting with white wine flavour. Joy's pidgeon breast and Paul's bruchetta looked very tasty too. For the main course, 3 of us had the special and very expensive whole roast grouse! None of us had ever had this before, and it was a bit fiddly with not much meat on the bones, cooked fairly rare with lovely vegetables. The other meals of lamb and salmon looked good but not spectacular.
The desert was also very good but not earth-shattering (am I getting a bit picky?). Highly seasonal damson, plum and frangipane tart with damson ice cream (mouth watering as I type)... sort of my favourite kind of thing! Scott had St Emilion au chocolat which was not too sweet and not too cloying... yum! I can't remember what the others had as I think I almost fell asleep!
We had a gentle evening of warm conversation and good wine. I was so tired that I think I was in a bit of a dream, but I enjoyed the evening very much and it was a great way to celebrate our birthdays and the birth of Amber too!
I believe Culinaria are closing after many years of good cuisine, and it will be missed as it was an affordable, seasonal, well-cooked, well-presented culinary evening. Just didn't knock my socks off!
