Trou Calling

While in New York a few years ago I was thrilled to get a chance to watch Tru Calling, a TV show starring Eliza Dushku who had become a firm favourite playing the edgy Faith in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. In Tru Calling, she played a character called Tru. I'm not making this up. Perhaps not surprisingly, it was terrible and I think I gave up on it after about 5 minutes.

Tru Calling immediately sprang to mind when at Beaune market a couple of years ago I discovered Trou du Cru, which is a mini Epoisses. For a short glorious period you could also find it in Waitrose although only at about five times the price of Beaune market.

G was in Paris last weekend and visited Pascal Beillevaire, a famous cheese shop, where he got these goodies - a Selles sur Cher, a Clacbitou, some Tomme de Chevre and lastly, a gorgeous ripe little Trou. The latter was the best example of its type I've ever had and as G has not yet set up his companion blog (Amateur du Fromage) I felt a photo was in order to commemorate the occasion.

Now that's what I call a cheeseboard!

The good news is that Pascal Beillevaire now has a London outpost, between Knightsbridge and South Kensington, so a pilgrimage will shortly be in order.

While researching this, I came across a blog of interest: Good Food Shops. I enjoyed their piece on the Covered Market in Oxford and it's good to know that many of the shops I used to visit during my student days are still going strong. It also brought the Gazzano's to my attention, an Italian deli on the Farringdon Road which I didn't know about but apparently sells a good range of Italian booze. I hope this doesn't just mean 20 different types of Limoncello. And it has added further ammunition to the case for paying a visit to Maltby Street market which I gather is the "new Borough Market". I gave up on the old Borough Market a few years ago so an equivalent which isn't full of tourists getting in the way - cue Kylie - and people using double-buggies as battering rams would be welcome.

Over the Jubilee weekend, while G was in Paris, I ventured to Middle England to visit my parents, the big stripy cat and the small deaf cat. When I got back on Monday I made some meringues which I took along to a friend's house on Tuesday where we ate Eton Mess while watching highlights of the Jubilee concert and making bitchy comments about how well various people had aged (or not). Here it is before we got stuffing our faces. Everything looks lovely on A's beautiful blue-green plates, especially the macaroons that C brought along, an inspired touch!

The taste of an English summer - meringues, white chocolate chunks, strawberries, macaroons, raspberries and whipped cream. Mmm!