Ladies Who Lunch - Making Our Mothers Proud

My mum and her sister have been known to partake in the art of lunching, so my cousin Meika and I thought we'd take on board all our mothers had taught us and gave it a serious go. The location was The River Cafe, an iconic Italian restaurant on - you guessed it - the river!

Morning

Meika contemplating the deliciousness to come.

We worked up an appetite by walking from Meika's home area of Putney across to Hammersmith and then wined and dined for close to four hours, I am a lady of leisure don't you know! Starting with a peach prosecco Bellini I then made my way three courses starting with Carpaccio di branzino - finely sliced wild sea bass with marigold tomatoes, garden oregano, chilli and canonici extra virgin olive oil, followed by Spiedino ai ferri - chargrilled Cornish monkfish and scallops on a rosemary branch with chilli, mint and zucchini fritti and finished with Panacotta with grappa and raspberries. All absolutely delicious! I am significantly poorer for it but as a resident of Alice Springs where restaurants are little celebrated, I felt it was my holiday right to indulge.

Our mothers would be proud (and our fathers probably groaning or sighing, even though their credit cards have come out unscathed)!

Noon

I was happy, really happy.

Night

A lady who lunches needs nothing more than a cheese and charcuterie platter for supper. Note the pot of tiny gherkins for the next post.