Well well well… who knew Da Michele had an outlet in London? Most of London I suppose. Once I caught wind that there was a place in London, Baker Street no less, where I could sample genuine Neapolitan pizza, I could not but make the long and arduous journey to London. I had to sample Da Michele, I had to know how accurate their pizza was. Let me tell you, dear readers, I was not disappointed.
Poetry could and ostensibly has, been written about Neapolitan pizza. This one was a fine example. Observe the freshly made dough, genuine tomato sauce, healthy helping of fior di latte mozzarella and enormous basil leaves. The combination makes for something really genuine and hopelessly divine.
Above is the half and half. If you look closely at this photograph, you should be able to see individual tomato seeds. This is impressive. Often, less astute pizzaiolos will use some rubbish low quality sauce for the base. To me, this should be made a criminal offence. Da Michele have succeeded in making a genuine Neapolitan dough and excel in each ingredient used for the topping. Everything here is at the height of quality and exceedingly tasteful, as well as tasty.
St Nick, in his astral wisdom (pun intended), went for the Neapolitana. This included capers and, it pains me to say, anchovies. It stands to reason that this slimy salt sliver should be on pizza. Pizza was originally made for sailors in Naples using gone off bread and whatever toppings they had around. Originating in the port of Naples, it should make sense that they put anchovies on this marvellous dish.
Overall, I was most impressed by Da Michele. Sitting back having finished my pizza, I took my napkin from under my chin, wiped my mouth and sighed a sigh of pure joy. This is what it is like to feel Italian. I was thrown back to my time in Rome where this sigh would be a daily experience. They do things better on the continent I think. Here in England, we specialise in hullabaloo. Huxley writes that people waste a lot of time despite knowing better, this is not the case at table in Naples. Every bite is designed especially for the consumer and brings to him a burst of joy incomparable to standard or even extraordinary English pizza. Da Michele is one of two establishments in this country where I have been genuinely satisfied with my pizza. The other being, of course, Alicia’s.
Every man with a little leisure and enough money for railway tickets, every man, indeed, who knows how to read, has it in his power to magnify himself, to multiply the ways in which he exists. to make his life full, significant and interesting. And yet, for some inexplicable reason, most of us prefer to spend our leisure and our surplus energies in elaborately, brainlessly and expensively murdering time.
Aldous Huxley, Jesting Pilate
Stop murdering time and head over to Da Michele. You won’t regret the awakening you shall receive.
For the few of you who didn’t hear me shouting about my new job, I got a new job! I find myself in the environs of central Birmingham on a daily basis now. Occasionally, I fall prey to hunger and must sate this urge by dining in fine cost effective establishments. Not since dining at En Diagonal in Barcelona have I tasted such authentic Spanish food. And for lunch too!
The first of the dishes sampled was the Croquetas de Boletus (Wild Mushroom and Bechamel Croquetas). I also sampled the same with meat (Croquetas de Jamón Iberico, Ham and Béchamel Croquetas). I’ll always remember first alighting in Madrid and going to a local cafe for lunch. I had a Jamon Iberico sandwich and was so very impressed with its flavour. Here, too, the Jamon was beautifully cured and sliced finely so as not to choke me. I was terribly grateful for this.
We followed suit, as I did in En Diagonal, with chorizo slow cooked in cider. The Chorizo a la Sidra positively blew me away with its tenderness and unforgettable flavour. Perhaps the dish was a bit too oily overall but I found it remarkably yummy. The Pimientos de Padrón, however, did not impress. I do not know why I continue to order bland food knowing it will only suffuse me with white rage.
The chicken wings (Alitas de Pollo Crispy Chicken Wings, Sweet and Spicy Diabla Sauce) were quite delicious also.
If my ex still reads this blog, she would recoil in horror at the Patatas Bravas (Rustic Fried Potatoes with Spicy Tomato Sauce and Alioli). I’m not sure how I feel about sauce which clearly emanated from a plastic cylinder but the potatoes themselves were quite satisfactory.
In all, I would recommend this place for an economical and delightful lunch. The flavours are authentic even if the cooking of the economical option is not done with the greatest care. But this is the same across all restaurants. Put yourself in the chef’s rubber shoes.
Some weeks ago, I took it upon myself to go to Marlborough. For reasons beyond the scope of my understanding, that meant stopping off in Worcester for tea. But I was happy to do so. There is nothing like eating delicious food in an alien place. Saying this, I have been to Worcester several times before while I was a travelling salesman. The city did leave a positive impression and it is a shame I have not since returned.
Until now…
My first course was homemade farmhouse chicken paté. This came, as it invariably does these days, with a caramelised onion relish. Behind my disdain at the lack of originality, I was pleased to see a staple dish well done and not too heavy. The bread was mercifully thin which let me enjoy its toppings and left room for the next course.
Now, the tarragon chicken was absolutely delightful. Made with local new potatoes and fresh herbs, this packed a punch. The dish was cooked very well, not too dry as is often the case. Tarragon is a perennial plant of the daisy family, with narrow aromatic leaves. Its flavour can be characterised as bittersweet, and similar to anise. The sauce itself was delicious, not too stodgy or too filling, which was a relief because I had another side dish to get through.
This side dish is hinted at behind the main dish in the above picture. Loaded chips if ever I saw them. Thick strips of delightful bacon, freshly melted cheddar and delightful crispy chips. This was one step above the Wetherspoons loaded chips, and one price point above them also. Mind you, one cannot go lower in price point than this drinking warehouse behemoth.
Overall, I was impressed by the delightful setting, reasonable prices and excellent waitressing in this old Worcester pub. If ever I find myself in town again, I will go again. Next time, I shall bring more friends!
My favourite artists include Grace Jones and Todd Rundgren, this much is evident to anyone who has dared ask me the question. But, of late, I have become enamoured of Nina Simone. Many know her only for ‘Feeling Good’ or ‘My Baby Just Cares for Me’ but her repertoire and indeed the impact she has had on the music industry as a whole is staggering.
What Happened, Miss Simone? takes its namesake from a poem written to her by Maya Angelou. In essence, it is a 2015 biographical film which opened the Sundance Film Festival of the same year.
The film was nominated for six Primetime Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special and Outstanding Directing for a Nonfiction Program, winning the former. Wikipedia
The film covers Nina’s life and career and gives unrivalled insight into how she became the icon and star that she is today. This, friends, is not an easy film to watch. It covers unpleasant topics such as domestic abuse and, of course, racism. The fact is that Nina was 25 at the release of her debut album in 1957 and schools in America were only de-segregated in 1954. This means her childhood in North Carolina was peppered with discrimination. One particularly poignant moment in the film for me was when Nina described one of her early recitals, aged 8, when her parents were asked to sit in the back on account of their skin colour. Nina fought back saying she would not play unless they were in their allocated seats in the front row. This is a powerful and potent image which set the scene for how Nina’s life would unfurl.
What I didn’t know was that Nina Simone was a civil rights activist as well as a wonderfully talented recording artist. She regularly involved herself with the civil rights movement in the 1960s and sang songs like Mississippi Goddamn and Young Gifted and Black to protest injustices and bring to light the beauty of people of colour, something which had not been done at the time. This was detrimental to her career, as the film explores, but she found fame once again in her later years after a brief absence from the industry.
In short, my admiration for Nina Simone has deepened by watching this film. Director Liz Garbus has really achieved something, showing us who Nina was and why, while placing her in the context of the times which moulded her. This film is phenomenal and I am not surprised it has been nominated for so many awards. Please watch it and learn something of the woman behind the music. Nina’s soul is so often bared through song without us realising what went into making her the icon she is.
Music has the onerous and often overwhelming power to move us. Call it a primordial instinctive response or learned appreciation, we all have the potential to truly appreciate music for what it is: a great gift. I am moved to tears more often than I’d like to admit by the awesome beauty of music and how fortunate we, in the developed world, are to be able to enjoy it so effortlessly. To that end, I will attempt to describe this momentous work, Little Girl Blue, and hope that you, too, shall be awed by the never ending talents of Ms Nina Simone.
Simone was a classically trained concert pianist (Julliard) but because of the overt discrimination at the time, her career was stymied. She began playing jazz in Atlantic City and New York clubs and recorded this album at age twenty five. AnalogPlanet
From start to finish, Nina’s musical prowess is evident. Gus Wildi, the founder of the Bethlehem/ Analogue Production label on which this album is released, gave Nina complete creative control to make Little Girl Blue as she wanted. The arrangement is undeniably fine, from the syncopations in Plain Gold Ring to the improvisation in Good Bait, Nina shows herself to be an authority on Jazz piano. On a side note, her cover of Tadd Dameron’s Good Bait is nothing short of a miracle. The transformation from the original, combined with the astonishing prowess with which Nina grips you from the first note make for a truly superb piece.
She’s backed by Jimmy Bond on bass and Al Heath on drums and that’s all that’s needed as she idiosyncratically covers familiar territory like “Mood Indigo”, “Don’t Smoke In Bed”, “Love Me Or Leave Me” and “Porgy”. AnalogPlanet
Nina’s rendition of Porgy also stunned me. Few know but many should be able to guess, that Gerwshin is my favourite composer. To see an artist of Nina’s calibre take on Porgy and do it so well is mesmerising. Her gripping, almost haunting vocal range and sensitivity to the vision of the overall piece in her piano playing combine to make this version almost etherial.
Overall, this is an album of sensational scope, beginning with Duke Ellington’s Mood Indigo, which speaks of depression, going straight into Don’t Smoke In Bed, a ballad about leaving one’s lover. Thence to He Needs Me to Love Me or Leave Me, which take us on Nina’s journey of shunning indecision in love. From My Baby Just Cares For Me to the astonishing Porgy as the final track, we see a theme of more poignant stability. In all, this album feels like a quasi warning to those who mess with Nina and, above all, a tale about one’s potential journey through love. I hope you’ll be moved as much as St Nick and I were.
When I think of Birmingham, I often consider the many times I’ve been screwed over my small bald men, hit by cars and generally been poisoned. I do not, however, think of science museums. I doubt any other Brummie often associates the city with science, or indeed me with the city. In any case, the Think Tank came as a great surprise to me. Let’s delve into it some more, shall we?
Your journey of thought will begin on the second floor, bizarrely. Here is contained the Our World exhibition. There’s a splendid wildlife collection with interesting facts about each frightening stuffed animal. There was also an exhibition called Medicine Matters. His personal highlight was the Brain demonstration part of the exhibition. It showcased the areas of the brains responsible for different emotions when you turned a knob, which is prescient to be sure.
Going up one floor, we enjoyed the Planetarium and watched a short film celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Moon Landings this year. The Planetarium theatre was vast and the chairs all leaned backwards which gives viewers the best chance of catching the full show. The Future Exhibition outside the Planetarium was quite interesting too. They have a range of robots which swear at you on demand.
The scale model of Birmingham, on the third floor was also a sight to behold. I likened it to the one at Legoland on the other side of town. This one is much more expansive in tis coverage, but notably lacking in its detail by comparison.
Other notable exhibitions in this museum include the We Made It, on the first floor. This is a floor wide exhibition celebrating human craftiness. Of course, my favourite part of it was the fountain pen section. Of course, those of you with a keen interest in fountain pens and their history should head over to the Pen Museum in the Jewellery Quarter.
The ground floor is filled with some of the most impressive exhibits, including the world’s largest working steam engine. My personal highlights were the train in the featured image, the lighthouse to the left of the above picture and the Spitfire suspended from the ceiling.
In all, this was a wonderful day out for my friends and I and I hope you’ll be able to enjoy it in equal measure.
