Last night Mrs MSE and I headed out to use the 40% off Yo! Sushi deal from the restaurant vouchers list. When we got to the restaurant in the Whiteleys Centre in Bayswater, frustratingly it was closed for a private function.

As the voucher’s only valid on Tuesday and Wednesday nights, I asked if it was possible that they could stamp it for a different night, as we were missing out. The girl at the reception gave me a strange look and told me she would go and get the boss.

Thirty seconds later a lady walked round the corner and said, “Hi, my name’s My Ly I’m the marketing manager for Yo! Sushi. It’s great to see you here Martin – we’d love you to come in” (I hadn’t said my name).

By bizarre coincidence we’d stumbled upon the opening party for the refurbishment of that branch, and trial of its new experimental menu. She actually told me that they had thought about inviting me but (correctly) knew that I don’t go to such dos.

As we were there it seemed like a good idea, yet I was slightly concerned about the photographer. The last thing I want to do is be in the marketing brochure so anyone would think there was an implied recommendation. Yet she was happy to have the snapper leave us alone.

Once in I felt like a child in a sweetie shop: I love sushi – it’s my favourite food – so the ability to simply take whatever dish I wanted (and as many as I wanted!) was fantastic. Even though I’m lucky enough to be able to afford to get whatever I want when I am usually there, there’s a freedom when it’s totally free that’s just different.

Better still, Yo! sushi normally does the bill by counting up the number of different coloured plates you’ve had. Yet here they were clearing away the plates so there was no evidence, making it much more comfortable to over-scoff in luxury.

The only downside was that we had planned to play Scrabble over dinner, and as the place was full of cool designers and we were guests that felt a little rude. Still, the new food was good, and My introduced us to the history of the place, as well as chatting about what future vouchers would be coming up (watch this space).

It’ll be interesting to see if they introduce the salmon beetroot maki roll, which tastes a lot better than it sounds, as a regular.

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This is perhaps the most bizarre blog I’ve ever written. Yet I thought I should warn people about pine nuts. For the last five days I’ve been complaining about a strange after-taste when I eat anything; it’s almost but not quite metallic.

Having had a filling a couple of weeks ago I thought it might be that but nothing seemed wrong. Yet the taste persists and it’s been driving me up the wall.

So I decided to use Google to look up strange tastes and I found the following:

• Chinese pine nut taste problems.
• Wikipedia on pine nuts: Risks of eating pine nuts. The eating of pine nuts can cause serious taste disturbances, developing 1-3 days after consumption and lasting for days or weeks. A bitter, metallic taste is described. In general, a minority of pine nuts on the market present this problem. Though very unpleasant, there does not seem to be a real health concern.
• European Journal of Health. Taste disturbances after pine nut eating.

Now do note I wasn’t looking for pine nuts; you wouldn’t exactly think to would you? Yet the taste disturbance was EXACTLY what I’d described. And no surprise, for the last fortnight I’ve twice had a new salad from a ‘select your own salad ingredients’ place and i’ve asked for pine nuts in it, having never really eaten them before.

While it’s not a scientific diagnosis, and I’m not a medical person, the correlation is pretty strong. Strange taste in mouth – newly started eating pine nuts – Google full of pine nut taste distruptions.

Needless to say… they’re off my menu from now on.

PS. Seems there’s a trend happening here; the day after I wrote this the Mail published this story: Pine Mouth Puzzle

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We had a trip to Hell’s Kitchen for dinner at the end of last week. Our table was right by the pass, meaning we got to watch Marco & the celebs cooking up close. Interesting to do, as you end up not talking, just staring in at the frenetic activity: celebs, Marco and two chef helpers running up and down the kitchen to get things done in time.

The most fascinating thing is when the programme ends and service is over, almost everyone leaves, and the remaining celebs clean the kitchen for hours. Watching Linda Evans, once super-glam Crystal from Dynasty, scrubbing out an oven is a bizarre sight.

I wasn’t drinking and opted to have a diet coke rather than the wine. Interestingly they still gave it to me in a wine glass filled up to the right level, probably to make it look like everyone is feasting in there.

Mini-blogging while there…

As they said “treat it like a normal restaurant, feel free to wander around” I decided that included being allowed to do a mini-blog as I was there, posting in the forum from my phone when I could (see Hell’s Kitchen Twitter-esque blog).

It was fun to do, and see the reactions in the Forum, each time I posted. As for walking around, the only person we knew there was former Apprentice Raef, who’d appeared on It Pays To Watch in the past, so we said a quick hello to him. It turned out to be toff night as we found out later; unsurprisingly we didn’t appear in the Toff Montage!

The Food

The food itself was great, a much better menu than when I went about eighteen months ago (see A night at hell’s kitchen blog). For the starter I had Smoked Salmon, a beautiful piece that covered the plate, and a lemon in netting to squeeze on it. Yet I only gave it a 6/10 which is marked as “very good” rather than a higher grade (e.g. 9/10 – very impressive), because it doesn’t actually take that much work.

For the main course, I went for the seared tuna and frankly I was under-impressed, it was fine just rather bland, partly because it was covered in olives and other veg, and i dislike olives so simply brushed that off. There was also the fennel on the plate, which tastes of aniseed, an interesting taste, but not for me.

Dessert was some of Danielle Bux’s trifle, and my comment, which I discovered the next day was read out on the comment card, was “I hate trifle. I didn’t hate this. That in itself is impressive”. I was pleased about this as watching Danielle throughout the evening, she’d looked under stress, and even though we’ve never met her when we smiled she smiled back seeming, quite rightly, to like any support.

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Do vouchers work for restaurants? Well, I just tried somewhere new & loved it!

Having scanned down the restaurant vouchers list, the other day, to see what was available. My eyes popped onto a La Tasca 50% off deal; actually better than a 2for1 as it’s 50% off all food including starters and desserts.

Now I’m not the biggest fan of tapas, but decided to give it a try anyway. We went to the one in Chiswick. Interestingly, there was also a Tapas for £10 deal on the table. It’s an all you can eat offer, but on a limited range of plates, so I did a quick calculation, comparing my voucher to the all you can eat for value.

Using the voucher meant more range, and lots of dishes; in the end we had nine main plates and a dessert each, plus drinks for £21 for two. Now frankly this is big greedy pig territory – a serious amount of food – though of course I manfully did my bit and finished it off. Yet it did make La Tasca not that much more expensive than Le Tesco (ok, well maybe quite a bit more but still pretty reasonable for a night out in a restaurant).

The food was great. I was especially impressed by the Mushroom croquettes, though the orange sorbet and chocolate and orange cheesecake at the end were big competition too.

So for me, a personal thumbs up for a seriously good value meal; and for La Tasca – it’s acquired a new future new customer.

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Hoorah. I’ve just hit my target of losing a stone, not a Money Diet but a real one. It all started when I saw myself on the beach in a friend’s wedding video, and my belly didn’t resemble my own self image.

So I immediately said to the MSF “I’m on a diet”. She asked “when?” and I replied, “now.” When we got home I weighed myself… gulp… 13 stone 8; I’d always been 12 and a half stone. The last time something similar happened I was 27… I think there are certain ages where you start putting on weight without any life change… I think 36 was the latest watershed.

I wanted to note down what I’d done somewhere, so I can remember in case I need to do it again, so where better than my blog?

My Diet Plan.

This was less a methodology, more a “I’m going to cut down and eat healthily” mission. I’ve always exercised, so I stepped up gym visits a little and started spending longer there. Yet most of it came down to using a bit of discipline, to try and turn around my admittedly dire dietary habits.

• No drinks with calories. I’d never realised the calories in most drinks, especially fruit juice. So I switched to water and the odd diet Coke (caffeine free). Luckily I’m not a big drinker, so cutting out alcohol wasn’t a problem. Hardest was cutting back on coffee: I switched to a touch of skimmed milk at home and a “skinny decaf cappuccino” if out at work meetings, rather than my customary “latte” – after all, there’s less milk in a cappuccino.
• No crisps. Without doubt the most painful bit of all was cutting out my salt and vinegar crisp habit (see past New crisp flavour hits the spot blog). Chocolate went too.
• Fruit snacks to beat hunger pains. A bag of clementines/satsumas was permanently on standby in the office (10-30 calories each).
• Breakfast change. Breakfast has morphed into a bowl of special K, or a generic equivalent. While not a big change some days, it has been a huge one for filming/GMTV days (usually 2-3 a week). Previously, in between my two GMTV slots on a Tue morning, I used to nip to the canteen and grab a baguette with two fried eggs and some mushrooms.
• Counting calories. This has been the most fun bit. As is probably evident by now, I’m a numbers nerd, and it informs everything I do. So I’ve started to learn and count calories quite consistently. On a typical diet day I was having between 1,250 and 1,750. Now I’m lightening up and am on about 2,250 which is still slightly under the suggested 2,500.
• Don’t eat even when still hungry. After eating I always feel hungry, and in the old days I would simply keep eating and stuff myself. Now I always try and wait an hour after eating my meal to see if I’m still genuinely hungry or the food just hasn’t registered yet.
• Smaller portions. Same food. Smaller portions.
• Not not eating late. This was my big failure; while I know you shouldn’t eat before going to bed, my work style doesn’t fit that. I usually finish work at 9pm or 10pm, so dinner is often pushed out.

Forgive me sounding like a diet ad cliché, but I feel so much better since losing the weight and eating more healthily. I’ve got more energy and stamina and a bit more of a spring to my step. I work hideous hours and this is helping me survive through them more.

The next challenge is to end the diet. I don’t need to lose any more weight, but I’m sticking to it out of a slight fear of suddenly putting all the weight back on. Then again, with the winter holidays coming up, maybe I need to keep hold of the reins a little longer.

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