I spent the morning doing housework, writing the shopping list and being busy. As soon as Sophie arrived home and had changed and freshened up, we left for Market Harborough. I'd booked a table at Pizza Express for 2pm and we walked to the restaurant under dreary skies.
Pizza Express wasn't as busy as I'd imagined it would be in the middle of a half-term holiday, and we took our seats in the window. I had a voucher towards the bill so we ordered three starters to share, a glass of wine each and a pizza between us, with a side of polenta fries.
The food was good but, for me, the pizzas at Casa Nostra are better! The doppio dough balls were lovely with the dips, and we ordered chicken goujons and halloumi fries before the pizza arrived. I wasn't so sure about the polenta chips; they didn't really taste of much!
We both found room for desserts (we weren't going to be eating again today) of tiramisu and a honeycomb cream slice and paid the bill. The voucher came in very handy! We had loads of time so we waddled over to Waterstones where Sophie bought two books, and then we did a quick tour of the charity shops. Having a large meal with wine wasn't conducive to wandering about so I suggested we pop home for an hour and leave to go to Leicester at about 5.30pm.
It was a good idea and we relaxed for a while at home with Keith and the cats. I felt much more refreshed when we set out again at 5.30pm, and we took the A6 to Leicester rather than drive through Market Harborough again.
I hadn't managed to book parking in the on-site car park but there were plenty of spaces in the large area near Victoria Park. We could see people already queuing to get into De Montfort Hall and we joined the end. Both of us weren't really sure what to expect of the evening but we hoped there'd be some cooking!
As we went in there was a merchandise stall and we were both surprised to see condoms for sale, for £5... not really what we were expecting! There were also aprons and tea towels emblazoned with a butcher's shop called Well Hung... hmmm!
We went to the bar and ordered drinks before going into the auditorium. The stage setting looked great and there was a big screen advertising all of the merchandise for sale, including those condoms!
The show started and we saw James in bed, getting up and heading into the shower where we had close-ups of him soaping himself and then dressing! This sent the women in the crowd wild and was very funny, if a little tongue-in-cheek! There was also an interesting video of the famous onion sellers from Roscoff who would travel over to the UK and sell their onions to the British public. They were known as "Onion Johnnies". James Martin then appeared on the stage on an authentic Onion Johnnie bicycle!
I can honestly say that the show was one of the best I've ever seen and we thoroughly enjoyed the evening. The first half was devoted to James's trips around the world, starting off with France, moving to the USA, then Spain and finally the UK. He cooked dishes from each of the shows, starting off with the classic French (Roscoff) onion soup and steak, a huge hot dog from the USA, tapas from Spain and fish and chips from the UK. For the last clip, he showed photos of when he was a little boy on holiday in Whitby, saying the town serves the best fish and chips in the country (I would agree). He asked for a volunteer to go up on the stage and chose a woman who didn't know what she was letting herself in for!
After trying to get her to make mayonnaise, he sent her off the stage and she came back wearing a bright yellow mackintosh and goggles! He then gave her the fish and chips to eat while blowing a fan at her and spraying her with water, i.e. the typical weather you'd get in Whitby! It was hilarious!
On the stage at all times, was a cameraman so we could see James putting the finishing touches to the meals. It was then placed on a table at the front of the stage so nothing was actually eaten. A woman called Sam was constantly clearing away dirty dishes and bringing him anything he needed, before setting out the next lot of ingredients. She never stopped, and we wondered whether she accompanied him on his gastronomic tours?
The second half of the show was food from different decades and he covered the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. This brought back lots of memories from the audience, most of whom were in their 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s! He prepared a "Bendy" burger from the fast-food burger chain, Wimpy and then the piece de resistance, a "Candle Salad" that really ought to have been in a blue movie:
This was a real dish, invented back in the 1920s! It consisted of a bed of lettuce with an upright banana inserted into a pineapple ring and topped with cream and a cherry. Poor Sam had terrible trouble keeping the banana upright and the cherry disappeared somewhere, never to be seen again!
The whole show was hilarious, with James ranting on about air-fryers (he hates them), people eating Yakult and wearing sandals with socks and other diatribes that he would never get away with on his Saturday Morning show! Some of the food he prepared was like a heart attack on a plate, including one dish liberally covered in pork scratchings. If you were easily offended or had signed up to the "Woke" brigade, it definitely wasn't for you!
The show ended with two songs and James playing guitar with another man, which was fantastic. We had to stand up, turn on the torches on our phones and sing and dance along with him.
It was well past 10pm and he had worked non-stop to make the show entertaining and funny. It was, in his words, "Absolutely Amazing!"
We had trouble exiting the car park, which was a nuisance, but we arrived home at about 11.15pm and it was straight to bed after trying to convey how good the show was to Keith!
No comments:
Post a Comment