A soothing and sensual lunch

Sadly I've got no work this week and but I've decided to maintain my morale by cooking (and indeed eating) some aspirational chow instead of eating bowls of mushroom flavour noodles naked on my own, in front of a laptop I'm going to whip up some fresh seasonal treats that should hopefully please both the mouth and the pocket.

I picked up a big ole celeriac (a variety of celery grown for it's fleshy, swollen base cf. Larousse Gastronomique) for 23p from the undignified scrum that is the discount aisle in Big Tescos.

I've banged the whole fleshy, swollen base through the coarse grater on my Magimix food processor, and stirred in some mayonaisse, mustard, lemon juice, capers and chopped gherkins to make a celeriac remoulade.

Nigel Slater likes to serve his with a some "paper thin slices of bayonne ham" for a "soothing, sensual lunch". Sadly I couldn't find any bayonne ham I substituted for a popular pork, liver and turkey sausage which came ready sliced, saving both time and money.

I would highly recommend "playing tattoos" with the sausage before serving. This helps bring the meat up to room temperature releasing more flavour whilst providing your skin with a little extra moisturisation and a pleasant aroma of industrial meat fat.

I think I like this one best. "Sailor style", I call it.

So that's what I had for lunch.

Sang's Special at Sang Sang, Aigburth, Liverpool

This is Aigburth Road, Liverpool, where I grew up. Specifically this is Sang Sang, a chip shop, commonly referred to as Sang Sang's. Sang Sang is the home of the Sang's special. The Sang's special is the most expensive item on the menu at Sang Sang. It costs £4.80. The prices in Sang Sang have not changed since 1996, when a potato shortage led to an increase in the price of chips.

The Sang's Special is served in two containers: the one larger one contains the Special and the smaller one contains either rice, chips or half rice half chips. The majority of chip shops in Liverpool serve chinese food; all meals in these chip shops may be served on a bed of rice, chips or half rice half chips. In this photo the smaller container contains only rice.

The Sang's Special consists of layers of chicken, beef and char-sui sitting atop a mixture of prawns, green pepper, beansprouts, water chestnuts and mushrooms. It is then finished with a fried egg and the takeaway tray is filled up with gravy. I believe that Sang Sang use Bisto brand gravy granules.

To eat the Sang's Special tip the rice/chips onto a large plate then open and invert the larger container onto the rice/chips. This allows any gravy that has pooled at the bottom of the tray to percolate back through the special and into the starch mound. Unfortunately this means that the fried egg is buried beneath the rest of the special; carefull jiggling can allow you reposition the egg on top of the special but this is far from easy.

The Sang Special represents excellent value for £4.80 as the generous portion is sure to sate even the largest appetite and the wide variety of ingredients means you could certainly say that it offers "something for everyone". I would highly recommend the Sang's Special to anyone who likes good Chinese food looking for a great meal to eat at home in Aigburth.

It has only just occurred to me that "the egg problem" could be solved thus: i) remove lid from both tray ii) transfer egg to larger lid using smaller lid for manouvering iii) invert starch tray iv) invert special tray v) replace egg using tray lids, as before. I wish I'd thought of this earlier.

Las Duelistas, Liverpool

Lark Lane was once described to me as "the Soho of Liverpool" by someone who had clearly been to neither Soho nor Lark Lane. The latest venture to open in Aigburth's most glamorous thoroughfare is a new bar from the owners of local favorite the Que Pasa Cantina that bills itself as L17's first authentic pulqueria.

It certainly looks the part thanks to the vibrant Aztec inspired graffiti adorning the walls inside and out "thrown up" by local artists with spray cans.

The clientele is a typical south Liverpool mix of bohemian students and thirsty older gentlemen sharing tables and banter over the sound of a jukebox pumping out classics from artists as diverse as The Beatles, Bob Marley and The Police.

For the uninitiated pulque is a popular Mexican drink made by the spontaneous fermentation of cactus milk in large wooden barrels. At Las Duelistas they've negotiated a deal to milk the cacti grown in the nearby Sefton Park Palm House and mature the sap in a tinacal that has been errected in the back yard of Keith's Wine Bar. Once it reaches about 6% ABV it's ready to be served, via traditional plastic bucket and jug, to the drinking public.

To start I chose a glass of "plain", a very reasonable 50p. And the taste? Aloe vera, fizzy sour yoghurt, wet wood and disprin. Textbook. Most pleasingly of all they've nailed that classic pulque texture: equal parts wallpaper paste and shower gel; so good it'll leave a snail trail from glass to lip with every sip and clog your mustache for days.

From there we branched out into the wide selection of flavoured pulques: Kate opted for pineapple ("thick, sour, fizzy pineapple juice") while I braved oatmeal and nutmeg ("thick, sour, fizzy porridge with nutmeg grated over the top").

And to finish we ordered the special of the day - celery. Served with a wedge of lime and a salt rim it was sumptuous: a bit like I would imagine an Activia with pineapple, celery and cactus would taste after it had been left for a few weeks in a wet wooden barrel.

Unfortunately Kate and had to leave a couple of hours before the 9pm last orders in order to make our reservations at the new branch of "Very Young Kids" on Aigburth Road but we'll certainly be back as soon as we can. Overall I would give this exciting new addition to "the Lane" a hot and spicy 8/10. Arriba!

Las Dualistas, 76 Lark Lane, Liverpool. 9am - 9pm every day.

Gear

Good to see that someone in the 18" replacements department has been ransacking my blog for ideas.

But even better to see Apple Corp maintaining their famously high production values through their sock division.

"Extra Ringo, please"

"I wouldn't be seen dead in them. They're dead grotty".

Sunday Club in Liverpool

"Hand grenade": when you drink the (extinguished, overproof) Wray & Nephew rum the Jagermeister falls in the red bull. £4 of classy.


A chimpanzee in a three stripe @ Studio 2, Parr St "a place for creatives, not for the natives".

I think I've grasped the point they're making.