Absnasm

I ate in this restaurant yesterday with two friends, including one other veggie and a vegan, and was astonished at the variety, inventiveness, and deliciousness of the food and presentation. Decorated in a Mexican style, this informal and friendly place offers a wide variety of tapas-style dishes, all served in cute biodegradable bamboo boats – apparently, these are greener than using hot water and detergent to wash plates.

We shared a number of dishes between the three of us, all at £3.95 each:

• thai thai – delicate yet spicy coconut cream with red pepper,
  baby potatoes, lime leaves, lemon grass & wild rice
• sweet potato mousse – a creamy orange pâté of yams with onion & vegan cream cheese
• falafels – chick peas & fresh parsley with garlic & onion,
  shaped into balls and deep fried
• hummus – chick peas milled with garlic lemon & dark tahini
• baked red cabbage laced with cinnamon, apple & raisins
• onion bhaji – deep fried bundles of Asian heaven
• corn fritters – deep fried sweetcorn patties with sugared chillies and a dash of tamari
• gluten-free ‘bread’ assortment – an array of chips, muffi ns & hoppers

There was plenty for all, with some left over. Everything was delicious, apart from the gluten-free bread which was, as I’d been warned, horrendous. It was reminiscent of a brick made of wholemeal rubber. Still, my pals ate it, even if I couldn’t stomach it. It’s really handy to know somewhere in each town where I can be confident of getting a decent veggie feed, and as York is where I regularly meet up with my vegan friend, it’s great to have that lunch dilemma sorted. I’ll definitely be back.

She no longer resides there.

She doesn’t live there any more. Not much point me visiting.

Have you seeeeeen it! It’s so cool! They have themed caravans, all made up of second-hand vans full of kitsch fripperies sourced at boot sales and from eBay! It’s in the middle of nowhere, in a wood! To get to the nearest pub you borrow a lantern and walk through the trees! There’s no electricity, but the price per night includes “bedding, gas, candles and fire wood”. Fire wood! For the fire pit that’s next to the campsite function room… which is a circus tent made by a man who actually did run away to join the circus! And the circus tent doubles as a cafe and dressing-up room! They do tea parties!

I have never written so many exclamation marks in such a short space of time, ever!

I saw this in the Guardian today, and I’m just desperate to go. I think it would be almost impossible to do without a car, but the second I get my first car, I’m straight off for a weekend here to chill out in the countryside.

..all birthdays and celebrations were marked with a ritualised visit to the Sole Mio. Every member of our family had their favourite dish, the food was always amazing, and we were always greeted like old friends, the super-friendly waiters carting my rapidly growing little brother off to see the pizzas being made. New Year’s Eves were spent here with a giant 20-strong party of us and our neighbours, all lined up on a long table along the length of the restaurant. Seeing the lemon and orange sorbets served in the skin’s original fruit prompted our next-door neighbour Edie, aged five, to remark the she wasn’t getting the blackcurrant sorbet because “it must be tiny!” I lusted constantly after the knickerbocker glories, which were usually vetoed by my parents as “too big and too silly”, and I made do with a little aluminium dish of chocolate ice cream, watching other kids’ knickerbocker glories cross the floor laden with cream and fruit and, if you were lucky and it was your birthday, sparklers.

The mere smell of the place – oregano, garlic, and baking pizza dough – has been ingrained in my memory for years, and could set me salivating if I even thought about it. Yesterday afternoon, fate tipped my boy and I out into Huddersfield, with hours to kill before the train home. As we wandered past Sainsbury’s, wondering where we should go to celebrate one year since our first offline meeting, that scent drifted into my nostrils, and I insisted on a blast from the past. It smelled exactly the same, and though it had been done up, and the chairs reupholstered, it retained the old Sole Mio feeling and I went a bit wibbly and nostalgic. Sadly, my old fave, tagliatelle alla paesana, contains ham, and I don’t do meat no more, but it was still on the almost-unchanged menu, and my ravioli was delicious, as were Headapollo’s meatballs, fnarr fnarr. We had great coffee, half a litre of wine, and a dessert each, and the bill came to a very reasonable £35. And I got to have my knickerbocker glory! In your face, Mum and Dad!

I had an uninspiring and bog-standard Greek salad with some past-its-best lettuce and one rather unusual ingredient – a soggy paper label bearing a barcode and the words “size 6”, possibly from the chef’s trainers. The waitress said she’d get him to make me a new one, but, ummmm…. no. Just knock it off the tab, thanks. Good job I was already full.

There are over a hundred flavours of milkshake. I mean, seriously, check the website. Over a hundred. That’s more than one can feasibly test in a month, unless you have the lactose tolerance of an actual calf. Although they do actually do vegan shakes too, for those soya lovers amongst us, and everything on the menu is marked if it can be made vegan, is not veggie, or contains gluten.

I recommend the Battenburg cake milkshake – delicious. Next up I’m probably going to try dark chocolate HobNob. Or maybe jammy doughnut.

As she starts her immense cross-country trip very soon, she won’t be in Apex much longer.

We popped in here before a gig last night, and oh my god that was one of the best curries I have ever had. The pre-theatre menu is really good value at 7.95 for a starter, main course and carb of some description (rice/naan/chapatti). I had a vegetable dosa, and a vegetable rogan josh, we split rice and a peshwari naan between us, and it was soooo good. When you go for a veggie main course they offer you a choice of Indian veg or English style, which I thought was a nice touch. There are pretty plush surroundings, and a hushed atmosphere with muted music, but it’s but not so quiet that you feel uncomfortable. And there’s a big window at the back where you can see into the kitchen, and the chefs smile at you!

..with planes. It’s really not much fun.