A bird’ s eye view of food and drink in the city
The winter skies may be as grey as a gull, but life is looking up for your food loving scavenger as she roots around the bins of some of the latest openings in town.
Just a stone’ s throw for her own roof top in West Hill, Patio is a new wine bar on the corner of Upper Gloucester Road and Surrey Street from Luke Williams of Vine Street Tap fame and Nathan Moseby of The Joker and The Geese. A carousel of excellent guest chefs each month are playing with delicious pickings sourced from the best local producers, growers, farmers and food hubs( Shrub, for example) with wines from local Titch Hill. Its opening menu of Jersey oyster, lemon and dulce mignonette, mussel escabeche, toast and lardo, liver parfait, heart skewer, cornichon and rosemary, finished with Brillat Savarin honey toast meant little leftovers to rifle through, but says much about how this cool little wine bar is setting out its intentions.
When news of the opening of Mare, the new Brazilian-Italian culinary adventure from Rafael Cagali in Church Road, Hove reached your gull, she hit a thermal and sped straight down to the back of its kitchen to tuck into the discarded native lobster claw tartlet with ginger and caviar, the leftover salt baked beetroot, mackerel and chervil, the bits
don’ t really want to go home for Christmas”, grimaces Pete,“ But I think I should”. Pete is sitting hunched on my therapy couch looking snarky.“ Why should you?” I ask. Out comes a lot of good reasons: his mother never appreciates it, his family argues the whole time, he hates the journey.
“ Well, what if you don’ t go? What if you find a way of visiting before or after for a short while, and you have Christmas on your own terms?” Pete’ s eyes virtually pop out of his head.“ What? You’ re kidding me.”“ Why not? You’ re 33, a grown up. Isn’ t it time to live life your way?”
It turns out Pete has no idea how to say no to his guilt-tripping parent. In fact, Pete finds himself coerced into doing all sorts of things that he really wished he didn’ t have to all the time.“ Isn’ t it time you called the shots in your own life?” We discover that Pete – like of carabineros prawns and peppers with Moqueco sauce, and morcels of choux bun with fig leaf ice cream and fresh figs. The bill is enough to make a bird caw, but Cagali’ s rep as chef / owner of two Michelin starred Da Terra, and career which has taken him through The Fat Duck to Simon Rogan’ s Fera, is a welcome elevation to Hove’ s growing food scene.
Flat Iron, London’ s latest mass market foodie gift to Brighton opened last month to queues around the block as news flew of free beef being passed along to waiting open mouths like baby gulls in a cliff-top nest. But in a week of new openings in Ship Street, your gull let the crowds eat steak and tottered to Taro, a less assuming new Japanese to peck at its bento boxes, freshly made sashimi and warming bowls of ramen.
Staying with the taste of Asia, she hopped to Namo, the new grown-up Thai nurtured at The Eagle, and now standing proudly on its own. Already featured in BBC Good Food’ s 20 Best Places to Eat and Drink in Brighton, your gull predicts that this one will fly.
But as with every bird, what comes up
Growing old( er)... disgracefully by Corinne Sweet
many of us – is caught in the bind of saying‘ yes’ to things at work, with his friends, with his partner when he’ d really rather not.
But why? First, he wants to be liked. Secondly, won’ t he be‘ selfish’ if he does what he wants instead? Thirdly, he’ s an inveterate people-pleaser. Feels guilty if he gets what he wants, but resentful if he doesn’ t.
I get Pete up on his feet. He stands, feet wide, hands on hips, gladiator-style.“ Say NO, and really mean it”. Pete starts off with a quiet,‘ No’. But with encouragement is soon bellowing a heartfelt“ NO!!!”.“ How does that feel?”, I ask innocently. Pete is beaming.“ Bloody great!”
A tip for avoiding an automatic‘ Yes’ is to take time to think. If you feel pressed into replying to a request or offer, you really can say“ I’ ll get back to you” or“ I’ ll have a think and let you know”. All too often people make
must also come down. And it’ s with a heavy feathered heart that the news reached your Gull about the closing of The Set, her favourite restaurant for so many years when it held court in the Artist’ Residence Hotel in Regency Square. Its current home at Café Rust is where the Gull family will be for Christmas dinner, picking at the fried chicken with gravy & trimmings which include Aligot, merguez stuffing, creamed mustard cabbage & butter roasted maple roots, a glorious finale from Dan Kenny, one of Brighton’ s chef legends. Great Uncle Gulliver still regales the teen gulls with his tales of the rich bin pickings at the back of Dan’ s house in Ho Chi Minh city where he lived for two years before moving to Brighton to work at the Gingerman.
assumptions about others. We get stuck in habits and patterns in our relationships, at work, in families – but there is always scope to change.
Try giving up all the‘ oughts’,‘ shoulds’ and‘ musts’ and giving yourself time to think about what you really want in any situation. If you want to practice, too, I’ m running a‘ taster’ workshop on How to say No: Defining and Holding Your Boundaries in West Hill Hall on Sunday 9th November, 10am-1pm.
l Also read my books How To Say NO: Kick the Disease to Please on Amazon. co. uk l Two Minutes to Sleep( Quercus)