Sunday 29 August 2010

I'm Back and a Sunday Roast at The Albion (Again)

After 10 weeks of travelling through 5 countries, spending countless hours couped up in a Toyota Innova on a daily basis. Inspecting around 200 hotels, doing more sight seeing than a Japanese tour group, and eating at more hotel restaurants than a Michelin Guide. My mad trip has finally come to an end. Phew. I'm kind of amazed I lasted the full distance. There were moments in Burma that suggested I wasn't going to make it. But somehow I rallied on and pushed on through to the bitter end.





My final day on this exotic trip consisted of eating steamed idili's inside the brand spanking new Terminal 3 at Delhi airport. A great south Indian breakfast dish, which came with all the trimmings. A coriander, coconut and a chilli chutneys, plus a lovely sambhar that struck all the notes for a goodbye meal to India at 6am. 




I resisted the temptation to eat bad burgers or subway sandwiches at Muscat airport, knowing full well the delicious food that was going to be put in front of me on Oman Air. I can not remember what I had, but it sure soaked up the 2 double rum and cokes I had beforehand. 
As I probably won't be eating any form of Indian food for at least a few days till I start work on Wednesday. I was in the need of something completely different from the last 10 weeks. Hey as it was Sunday, so why not do a roast. Now, where was the best roast we had eaten in the last year. 
For some reason, Islington was mighty quiet on this Sunday lunchtime. Maybe the media types had escaped town on this Bank Holiday weekend. Thankfully they had, as a reservation at the Albion was easy to come by. Phew.
Today was not the best day for eating outside, especially as it was not steaming hot, with humidity hitting 90%, so everyone was chowing inside. Another phew, as I was not sure I would have lasted the entire meal outside in the cold.
It was a no brainer as to what I was having. Rare Roast Beef with all the trimmings. Lina had the Belly of Pork. Now something has happened since my last visit earlier this year. The portion sizes have increased somewhat. Excellent news. I mean they were not small in the first place, but now they are more in keeping with my size of belly.




The roast beef was bloody juicy and rare, although slightly to thickly cut for my liking, but it ate very very well. The pork, of what I was allowed to eat was soft and tender. The trimmings were as I would expect form the winner of the Observer Best Sunday Roast Award 2009 were plentiful and great. It's been a long time since I'd eaten parsnip and I cherished every moment of it. 
All this was washed down with a lovely pint or two of Black Sheep bitter. Again something I had missed over the last 70 days. I am going to make up for this lack of bitter that is for sure. 
I really must visit the Albion more for Sunday lunch, as it ticks all the boxes on what I expect from a great lazy Sunday afternoon meal.

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