Cheffie and the crew go out for dinner!

Richard, Cheffie, Alice, Tia, Sam, Jacky

I work with a wonderful bunch of guys! They are mostly teenagers and they are credit to their much maligned generation.

We work hard in our kitchen, and the the front of house gang pull their pints without protest.Customers can be a funny bunch - just drop into this article this to get an idea of what we put up with!

 But they go about their work quietly and efficiently - a credit to their generation and profession!

So tonight we all went out to a restaurant. We had a great time! And afterwards we adjourned to Chateau Ceffie for a nightcap!

Tia, Jacky, Alice, Sam, and Richard - I salute you!

A restaurant in the suburbs of Prague

When I first started my blog, I wrote an extremely long article on a trip I made to Prague. I've pulled out a few paragraphs from the article which describes my first visit tio A Czech restaurant.

The building is very austere, and the windows are of patterned glass which stops me from seeing in.

Anyway, undaunted I venture inside and find myself in a noisy smoke filled bar filled with early evening drinkers and not a woman in sight. I spy the dining room and boldly go forth in search of sustenance. The room is cavernous with high ceilings, wood panelled walls and furniture from a long gone era. The windows that prevented me from seeing in now stop me from seeing out!
The first thing to strike me is that the eaters are all men. Groups of four, five and six. My curiosity is further aroused when I hear the strains of Franky Goes To Hollywood belting out YMCA! Imagine my relief when I spot a young boy / girl couple in a corner! I can only assume that in a lower working class district such as this, the men go out drinking and eating while the ladies stay at home.

A small woman waddles towards me wearing a black dress, with black hair and a black expression. She hands me a menu and I nervously utter the one word understood in any language - beer! In no time at all a flagon of frothing lager is placed before me and I set about trying to fathom out the food offering. I reckon on porc being pork, and steik being steak, but I'm not entirely sure. Noticing my confusion, and without uttering a word, the lady in black turns over the page of my menu, and reveals a menu entirely in English! I order a starter and a main. I'm famished. The first course arrives. Difficult to describe. Sort of toasted bread topped with mince, topped with melted cheese and topped off with boiled cabbage. By the time I've worked my way through it I'm stuffed! My empty glass is replaced with a full one without me even asking, and my second course arrives. A mountain of chopped pork topped with melted cheese, topped with boiled cabbage and......CHIPS!!! I eat what I can. Oh look - another beer has arrived!

I eventually manage to turn off the human beer tap. I pay my £6 bill, struggle to feet and totter off back to the the Hotel Yasmin.

The whole article is at http://keithsramblings.blogspot.com/2006/11/hoorah-for-praha.html

What did you do this evening?

We broke a record at the pub today! We sold a hundred main meals! Not 99, not 101, but exactly one hundred! Plus heaps of starters and plate loads of puds!

Hungry folk appeared from all over - many had to wait for tables, but seemed happy to do so.

Frankly I'm knackered! The orders just kept coming and coming! If you could see the modest kitchen I cook in, you would appreciate what a feat that was.

I wasn't on my own of course. I had Alice - you'll remember her from my 'horses on the beach' photoblog, and there was the owner of the Bulls Head, Lindy Loo. Plus the bar staff who don't know the meaning of hard work!

Tonight was our weekly Fish Night. People came from far and wide for fish and chips, swordfish, sole, crevettes,scampi, mussels, and of course, our local delicacy - Sussex smokey pie..

Many of the locals feel important enough to rewrite the menu! They order fish and chips without chips, fish and chips without fish, scampi salad with no salad, and everything possible to try and catch Cheffie out! And quite often they succeed! But not tonight!

But we got through, and thanks to a pint of frothing Harveys finest ale at the end of the session, I recovered sufficiently to journey home and commit this minor achievement to my blog thing!

Tartare sauce anyone?