A quick, simple but very satisfying soup, this.

Surprisingly there are very few recipes for mushroom and stilton soups available online, and most of the ones there are seem… wrong. This one borrowed a few basic ideas from Phil Vickery’s recipe, but dispenses with the “wild mushroom” crap.

I’ve no idea why food writers and celebrity chefs the world over will only touch a mushroom if it’s some fancy-schmancy “wild” variety. Bog standard closed-cap mushrooms aren’t highly exciting, it’s true, but they have a wonderful subtly complex flavour and, to my mind, actually work better in a soup like this where the stronger flavours of mushrooms like shitake can end up fighting with each other, and with the other principal ingredients.

California happened to me at the perfect time in my life.

Like many of the best, most defining moments it was a complete accident of circumstance – the right place at the right time. I was lucky, and I’m thankful that I stumbled across an opportunity that I needed.

London will always have a very special place in my heart. It’s where I turned from a confused teenager into an adult. It’s where I first loved and first had my heart broken. It’s where I went truly, deeply mad; and where I healed and put my demons to rest and became whole again. It’s where I learned the true meaning of friendship, and hatred, and forgiveness. It moulded my habits (bad and good) and my attitudes (bad and good).

After an unexpected delay in London (note to self: never, ever lose your passport, especially after you’ve spent the whole evening repeatedly saying that it would be a stupid thing to do), I’m finally back in the Bay, or “home” as I’ve taken to involuntarily calling it recently.

Hurrah!

London provided ample opportunities to power through the Meat List of the previous post, and although oysters are out of season and I didn’t get around to Peking Duck or manage to get to Nando’s, I’m now into my first day of experimental vegetarianism.

All the leftover meaty cupboard staples have been disposed of via my stomach, so from hereon in I won’t be buying any meat… unless an unbearable desire for steak forces me to concede that, no, I really can’t be without the odd choice bit of animal in my diet. We’ll see how that goes.

In other news, I looked at a lovely apartment which was just vacated by 2 fellow Yahoos today. It’s slightly larger than my current place, in the absolute perfect location (Buena Vista – N Judah to downtown, Haight 10-15 mins away…), has a really nice outside deck area and is, in short, exactly what I want. It’s expensive (60% more than I currently pay), but that’s what you get for wanting to be in the city.

I’m going to sleep on it overnight, but assuming that my subconscious doesn’t throw up any weird nightmares it looks like I’ll be tackling the Rental Application Hurdles from tomorrow onwards.

Wish me luck…