He's my guy!

I'm no Iron Chef but there may be hope for me yet!

I went to my new friend Lawrence's apartment in Paddington, he lives in beautiful old building.  I walked in to find he had all four burners cooking something, one for beef stock, one for chicken, two for things that I am still not sure of.  My first job was opening the wine:  Check, that I can handle!  As he was mixing all sorts of things I have never heard of, I was placed on appetizer duties.

He brought out these little things that looked like mini romaine heads but had a little bitter taste to them, when you pealed off each leaf it made a little boat.  I was in charge of mixing together the stuffing for these little boats.  He pulled out jars of olives, capers, black peppercorns, then handed me garlic.  After handling the cloves of garlic, everything was placed in a food processor.  Each ingredient he pulled out, he made me taste so I would understand better, it was great! 

I watched him wrap the Lamb breast in fresh herbs like rosemary as he explained his love for cooking for people.  We finished making the appetizers and he did a quick check on the lamb before we sat down to eat and drink Chianti.  Here are the appetizers:

We spent the next hour sharing our life stories. We debated the importance of sex in relationships, shared heartbreak stories, dating disasters, families, relationship theories, and where we hoped life would take us.  There was truly no topic off limits, it was the kind of discussion you could only have with a relative stranger, someone that doesn't know you well enough to judge you.  We paused conversation only for the explanation of cooking techniques.  As I grated 5 different types of cheese, he explained how different cheeses melt at different temperatures.  Most of it was over my head but I loved how passionate he got when talking about it. 

As the lamb cooked I watched as created the sauce for mac and cheese allowing me to taste it and give my opinion.  He finished the lamb and the Mac and Cheese, only to pull out a blow torch to melt and chrisp the top of the Mac and Cheese.  I must say I loved the idea of lighting food on fire.  It was the best meal I have had here to say the least....It was amazingly good! 

After stuffing our faces and polishing off the bottle of wine it was on to dessert and liquor.  Lawrence recently traveled to Crete and brought home some Rocky, a liquor strong enough to make professional drinkers choke a little.  I poured the shots and he prepared the homemade bread pudding topped with figs.  Although it takes very little to impress me in the kitchen, I was very impressed that he even made the bread from scratch!  It was delicious but he wasn't fully satisfied so he made me pause eating to whip up some custard to top off the bread pudding.  I must say it was worth waiting for.

 

As my new friend poured our 4th shot of Rocky into his fantastic frozen shot glasses (perfect birthday gift everyone..hint hint!) Lawrence said "you do realize we are going to be friends for life now right?'  With that another shot down and a good friend was made!  We immediately cleared the air and made it very known that he was going to be my guy in a completely nonsexual way.  The food and drink were only beat by the great conversation.  I left around 12 to come home to my wonderful pals on skype.  I proceeded to play drinking games with them over the computer.  A little strange being a random head on a table but it made me miss random nights drinking at 370 Fairway Terrace.

 As promised, I got a call today from the Barrister, he made dinner reservations for Tuesday night at 8.  When he asked about my weekend I could hear a smidge of jealousy in his voice when asking questions about my dinner last night and my new friend.  I guess a little jealousy never hurt anyone right?