Sundays should always be Sundays, and Sundays mean brunch. So my flatmate and I ventured to The Counter Cafe, a place making a name for itself despite being marooned out in the wastelands of Hackney Wick. Apparently the Victorians used to refer to the East End as 'The Abyss'. It is grey, drizzly, completely deserted... Empty streets, industrial estates and abandoned warehouses make up this hinterland. But brunch is delicious in the abyss. My flatmate plaited her hair around her head and wore a fork earring in one ear, a spoon in the other. We bought the Observer on the way. We were served by a troupe of lovelies: a lanky guy in a lumberjack shirt, braces and big boots, a strapping Australian chap in a sleeveless sports shirt (at odds to February chill), and a girl with two-tone braids and a tattoo up her neck. The best coffee I have had in many a month, and french toast piled with fried banana, toasted almonds and mixed berries, with a mini jug of maple syrup on the side. We may have followed this heart attack plateful with a brownie, split between us...
From moreish meals to moreish prose. I have started reading Angela Carter. People are forever telling me to read her, saying I will love her. This makes me wary. But I began 'The Magic Toyshop' on the bus the other day. I was wholeheartedly unsettled and completely in love. The first line is 'The summer she was fifteen, Melanie discovered she was made of flesh and blood'. This is a recent obsession of mine. She goes on to write of posing for Pre-Raphaelite paintings, and a great deal of bread pudding. I have strong feelings on these things. I adore bread pudding, but this was hard won. There was a time when it symbolised true horror. Melanie thinks similarly. Bread pudding and Pre-Raphaelites are definitely plots on my life map. I want to read 'The Bloody Chamber' next. Vampiric appetites, oh yes.
3 comments:
I suppose banana is one of your five a day.............
Re the bread pudding; would be interesting to know what is meant by it - is it like our recipe of more a bread and butter pudding (not the same) or something different. I feel I need to know.
I got Kate 'The Magic Toyshop' for her birthday! Jealous of the banana french toast. You know bacon goes really well with banana and maple syrup...
That's a bit formal, I meant 'F'
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