When the King of Mayfair is leaving town you know there’s something up.
I worry. I worry about London. How it has changed. How expensive it is. Streets that were once safe to meander alone, Berkeley Square, Mount St, Knightsbridge, my neighbourhood are now scary and not just at night. People are getting mugged, assaulted, during the day too, you might as well be in Magaluf, not the most wonderful city in the world.
How anyone cannot notice the difference, I don’t know. Even Richard Caring owner of long established spots like Scott’s on Mount st, I’ve snooped about it, Annabels, the famous night time retreat in Berkeley Square has got out for a staggering 1.4 billion. When I told my friend about it, she just said, he knows what’s coming. It was quite depressing.
He had already dumped the Ivy restaurant chain, sold to an Abu Dhabi firm a couple of years ago and somewhere we used to go to literally all the time we’ve already stopped frequenting so regularly. It’s just not the same, the staff are miserable, it’s dead, and when it’s not, the treatment we used to get from the maitre D’ who’d always find us a table just isn’t happening anymore. It’s just no longer special.
Which brings me onto this ice cream. We are eating at home more. Having friends over. Going to friends. It’s cheaper and safer. Which is a shame but I am sure many other people are doing the same whilst the economy is so bad.
Two puddings in a restaurant in London will set you back £20. Two ice creams in a gelato shop, double scoops, £15. My favourite coffee shop Marchesa on Mount St, an icecream in there is £8.00 to go so this gem from Waitrose, discovered when a friend told us she had something amazing for us to try, 500ml of Colombian Coffee magic for £4.60. It is an absolute bargain and blooming delicious.
Not only does it taste better than any other ice cream I’ve tried in a long time, for £2.30 each, we get to indulge in the largest triple scoop serving when you eat one pot between two.
If you are not greedy this pot will easily generously serve four people. It says on the pot it’s supposed to serve six but I think that would be too small a portion.
Food memories evoke strong feelings and when I eat this ice cream I am transported to pondering flavours in a traditional Italian gelato shop searching out the words caffe or mocha not to be confused with equally delicious Affogato meaning drowned, vanilla ice cream with a shot of expresso poured over it.
In a changing world for young people who love to go out to eat, a landscape that is becoming, too expensive, too dangerous or just not so much fun anymore, there’s always Colombian Coffee Ice Cream from Waitrose.
Just for reference there’s 153 calories in 1/6 of the pot. If you share between two like us you are looking at closer to 500 calories. And if you eat the whole pot to yourself you need to get yourself to he gym or out for a brisk walk.
Writing this and thinking about the ice cream, I am going to get a biscuit. We already finished the ice cream.