Alabama - or something like that

So, to decipher some of the nonsense I wrote last time, I went to the Cellar Restaurant in Anstruther last night. It's one of my favourite restaurants on the planet. The menu doesn't change that much and it's not the home of cutting edge culinary experimentation, but it is possibly the most beautifully cooked seafood you can ever put in your mouth. Simple, elegant, and just perfect. I ate scallops, halibut, bisque and... oh, yeah - petit fours. Petit fours? you say. Well yeah, but the kind of petit fours that taste like an entire box of chocolates in one chocolate. It's that concentrated. Except without the being sick part you get from having an entire box of chocolate. That's where the genius kicks in. So while we were eating, Peter Jukes - head chef, proprieter, owner, legend and current chairman of the master chefs of Great Britain, sits with us and not only chills and chats for the entire night, but every time we wine geeks order a bottle, he buys one as well, of equal or greater merit. We drank 2 bottles of champagne before we got to our table that we didn't pay for and the best, in retrospect, wine of the evening was one that he dragged out to compare to our main course wine. And his stories of the culinary planet would make Ramsay blush and Bourdain giggle like a schoolgirl. So cheers Peter, for making my first night back up totally brilliant.

And on a totally unrelated note - it's almost 20 past eight and pitch bloody black outside. Sorry, that's an exageration - it's got that weird blue glow you get like, an hour before dawn. Y'know? How could I possibly forget how dark it gets here? Well... I dunno, but coming back around the shortest day of the year is like reminding oneself with a railroad spike. Possibly the same railroad spike that is jammed in my brain and reminding me of all the wine I drank last night. Ugh. Waitaminute... it's not too "ugh-esque". Oh... yeah... it is. Only 11 champagnes to taste today. Bring it on and read about it here.

And if you hit that link before like, 8 pm GMT, there's nothing there yet. So relax.