just eat it

it's been a while

after a shite old inset day at work introducing too many new soft approaches to children's conflict, i was wasting away. turns out fury isn't enough nourishment to survive. luckily, i'd organised dinner with a few of my favourites and it couldn't have come at a better time. we struggled to finalise anything (nothing new) but ended up deciding on jamie's italian this very wednesday and it turned out to be the perfect decision. i couldn't get home in time so ended up resorting to a dreaded "wetherspoons poo" before my meal. sorry mum/pride.

i had heard from a colleague that an ex-nursery girl now worked in this particular restaurant and, sure enough, she ended up being our waitress. petra, beautiful name beautiful lady, was so approachable and so i initiated the awkward "omg we worked at the same nursery" and she was very courteous pretending to remember me and asking all about the staff/kids. enough about that, i want to talk about the food now.

so you might want to know "what the fuck is that like?"

my plastic

when we first got there, the desk clerk asked if i had a gold card. a few months ago, i got an email from jamie "himself" saying thanks for being a regular customer and invited me to trial the gold card. i thought it was a monthly charge but when it turned out to be free i thought "fuck it yeah let's have a bash" and signed up. i get a few annoying emails every so often but nothing to write home about. i flashed my (literal) gold card and she whisked it away before sitting us down. 

cut to, her bringing us three little espresso cups full of cream of mushroom soup complete with mini chilli breads on the side. "free tasters from your gold card guys" !!!! thanks babe. 2/3 of us fucking hate mushrooms but it tasted okay considering it was entirely free. not sure if the olives that followed were free because of my gold card or nursery career but they weren't on the bill - or enjoyed by anyone either but it's the thought that counts. also, their berry blast mocktail is divine just fyi.

poorly balanced, easily ingested

we shared a slab of bread to start, complete with olive tapenade and balsamic/olive oil dip. it was flawless. i ordered the free range chicken primavera which is just a tarty name for chicken with green vegetables but it turned out to be so much more. the beans, peas, asparagus and cabbage were cooked to perfection whilst the chicken and pancetta weren't far off either. it was moist (sorry), delicious, light, "healthy" and really fucking good. the girls had a superfood salad and some kind of flat turkey schnitzel which turned out to be lovely and quite good respectively. i forced us to share a brownie after because it's a life changing dessert and it went down a storm with everyone.

for three starters, three mains, two puddings (hayley had some lemon sorbet, what a waste), cocktails and mocktails, it came to £25 each with tip. i would say that's hugely reasonable. sure, several of the items were free or discounted (seriously, if you can get a gold card, do it. he offered me free champagne for my birthday but i was too busy being heartbroken and bitter to think about posh people's piss) but i always think of jamie's as quite a nice place to eat. it's no nando's is it, let's be honest. the food was great, the service was impeccable, the atmosphere was ideal and the company was perfect.

thank you petra, you're wonderful xo

oh god i nearly forgot!!!?!?!one!!!! after we paid, petra came back over with some suspect packages. "there's a free gift with your gold card this month. enjoy these and send my love to everyone at nursery!" she gave us all an oven glove each. i kid you not. a real life bona fide cooking mit. it came in a zip lock bag and you know what? it's not half bad either. you rarely get things for free in this world so we took it and ran, quite literally. she told us not to tell anyone so i'm worried we've become drug mules and will end up on banged up abroad. time will tell. 

tonight really shook me out of my funk and i'm so thankful to my girls, petra, jamie himself and, of course, my lord and saviour, elena jane goulding. keep doing what you're doing girl.