Eat Your Carrots

Flatbread

We went to Flatbread today. Basically Flatbread is a cafe in Newcastle that is themed around, you guessed it, flatbread! The dishes that you order come in bowls with no knife or fork (just a serving spoon) and the idea is that you just eat them with your fingers and/or the bread.

 

The dishes themselves come from around the world but are all dishes that are suited to the theme of being eaten with flatbread. Familiar favourites such as Hummus are there, along with other dips (both hot and cold) and curry-style dishes too - they even do soups though I'm not sure how you eat those! Dishes are in sections of £3, £5 and £7 and you can pick as many from each section as you want. Those in the £3 section are all cold dips.

We had

• Hummus
• A dip made of smoked aubergine, garlic and tomato
• Another dip made of chopped red cabbage, beetroot and blue cheese
• A curry of chestnut, pumpkin and sweet potato

We washed it all down with a freshly pressed juice of Apple, Celery, Cucumber, Orange Juice & Spirulina (yes, blue/green algae, though I'm not certain it's the same stuff that makes lakes unsafe to swim in!). It's the green glass at the back of the picture above and whilst unusual it was not as disgusting as it may sound, thanks mainly to the other ingredients!

 

Desert (below) was a tasty treat. Forget cheeseboard, here they do chocolate board! A bit of a misnomer since it comes in a bowl and not on a board, but I forgive them. Hight quality hand-made chocolate comes in shards, along with some white chocolate coated fruit slices and a bowl of creme fraiche and fruit puree to dip it in. It was totally delicious to me, a chocoholic, and totally delicious but very sickly to wife, who doesn't quite have my chocability. Oh, we also had spiced banana and rum cake too, so perhaps that helps explain the feeling of sickness!

Desert was washed down by a lovely cup of coffee, served in a cup with no handles that you have to lift to your mouth (using the very clever insulated section) with two hands. It all feels very "nomadic".

Service was brisk, efficient and friendly and wait times were minimal. Because of the menu and the dining style it's the kind of place where you can just decide to add another dish as you are eating, if you feel up to it, until such point as you have eaten your fill. Four dishes, two breads and two deserts between us was more than enough for us.

They also do lunch time specials which looked good value at £5 for a wrap and a soup, and a "Bedou Feast" which is a £7, a £5 and a £3 dish, along with a bread, for £15. This really just saves you the price of the bread (£1.75).

Flatbread is on High Bridge in Newcastle upon Tyne, which is the first right turning off Northumberland Street (the main shopping street) as you walk past the fire station towards the Tyne Bridge. You can't miss it.

Flatbread 10/10, a superb dining experience.

No Happy Ending

We went to see Atonement the other day. This film was partly set in our local seaside town, Redcar, which was posing as 1940's Dunkirk because it looks more like 1940's Dunkirk now than Dunkirk does! We went to see Redcar during the filming last year and it was good to finally see the finished article. Some (perhaps local) critics have said that the Redcar/Dunkirk scene is the highlight of the whole movie, though that's perhaps a bit unfair.

The movie wasn't as I expected. Firstly it had a habit of showing events twice, once from someone's viewpoint and then again from someone else's, or at other times showing and event and then showing the events leading up to that event. Confusing if you don't pay attention. My attention wavered at one point and I failed to see what Robbie wrote in his letter to Cecelia, a pretty key point in the events that followed!

Secondly it's not really a war film, which I kind of thought that it was. The Dunkirk scene is a very small (but significant, as it transpires) part of the film and it's mostly a 1930's-set romantic drama.

The final thing that wasn't as I expected is that there was no happy ending. OK, why should movies always have a happy ending, but this one really kicks you in the teeth. The people behind me were sobbing out loud (well OK, quietly, but still out loud, if you know what I mean).

I'd have to say that I enjoyed the film. Not what I expected and a bit of a girly film, but enjoyable all the same. And Redcar really did us proud.

Atonement 7/10

The Hitcher, Old And New

The Hitcher seems to be quite the film for eye candy, if you're a female who's into gruff blokes with craggy features. Wife is, so imagine her delight to find that Sean Bean is in the remake of the movie that originally starred Rutger Hauer. How good can it get.

Having watched the remake at the weekend we decided to also watch the original tonight so we could compare and contrast. I have to say that the remake is pretty true to the original, though keen fans of the original complain that the "finger in the chips" scene is missing from the remake. A minor omission, I assure you.

For my money the remake had a lot more "jump out your seat" moments than the original did, though I suppose these days gore is more acceptable than it was back then. It's hard to believe that it's 21 years since Rutger graced the role, and it shows. He was well in his prime then, whereby comparatively speaking Bean is past his sell by. Needless to say wife preferred the original, though she claims it has nothing to do with the star's blonde hair, blue eyes and wicked smile.

A few minor plot changes along the way don't make one film better or worse than the other (e.g. in the remake the female interest is the hero's girly; in the original he was alone but some diner waitress helps him out of a scrape and then tags along - it's all small stuff). What does make (for me) the remake better is purely the shock value of the events. The same events occurred, but were more tamely portrayed in the original. For that reason alone I'd suggest watching the remake first if you're going to do as I did, the effect will be better. Perhaps the biggest of all of the shocks though was how un-bad (as opposed to good) Sean Bean was. We really dreaded that he'd have to do a posh English accent for some reason, and were thankful it was only a crap American one that he had to try. Why on earth can't people just cast him as Yorkshire?

IMDB voters gave the original 7/10, the remake only 5.4. I'd go along with the 7 for the original, but I voted the remake 9, it was so much better for me.

As a side note, the hero in the original is played by C. Thomas Howell who's only other movie (that we've seen) was also one of our favourites - Soul Man. Made in the same year, it bombed, but it's one of the funniest films we've seen.

Hitcher 1986 7/10
Hitcher 2007 9/10

Cyprus Was Great

What a fantastic two weeks we had in Cyprus, and what a lovely country it is. There's so much history there, some of the best archaeological sites I've ever seen. We managed to get to quite a few, having hired a car for 10 days, and it would be hard to pick just one favourite from them.

The mosaics at Paphos would be hard to beat, but so too would the subterranean Tombs Of The Kings, the early Roman examples of plumbing at Amathous, the amphitheater at Kurion and the breathtaking Sanctuary Of Apollo Hylates.

Then there's the churches and monasteries, particularly those up in the mountains. 10 of the Troodos churches are UNESCO heritage sites, and justifiably so. Most look like nothing more than a barn from outside but inside they are a wonderment of ancient frescoes and painted icons - we got to see two of them. And if frescoes and murals are your thing, and you're not put off by religious opulence, then you'll find Kykkos monastery stunning. It really did take our breath away, the phrase "jaw dropping" was invented for this place.

Natural beauties included Aphrodite's Rock (main picture), the Akamas peninsula and the countryside in general. Visiting in spring was a real boon as everywhere was a carpet of flowers (this is a field from near Amathous). I don't know all the flower varieties, but there were convolvolous and statice of various shades, poppies and gypsophila. I imagine it all looks a lot more barren by summer.

The mountains were a little disappointing, being not very scenic. Not at all like the Alps, nor even The Lake District, Wales or Scotland. They're just a bit "soft" looking, not giving at all any impression of height, the only clue to that being the chill in the air (8 up there opposed to 26 at the coast). The treasures that the mountains held though (churches, monasteries, old villages) more than made up for that, and the gentleness of the mountains made driving in them a lot easier than I'd expected.

Did I mention food yet? Food plays a big part in our holidays and the food we had on Cyprus was superb. I'd say that at least 10 of the meals we had there would rate in our list of best-ever meals, with one place in particular standing out - The 7 St. Georges in Geriskipou village. Here the only meal they serve is mezze and the dishes keep on coming until you tell them to stop. We totalled 26 dishes on our first visit and 24 on the second. Our first taste of Lebanese food too, at a place in Nicosia, proved to be quite sensational. Again we went for a mezze-style approach only this time the dishes were not mezze sized and we ended up totally stuffed!

We took one trip into the northern part of Cyprus, that part of it occupied by the Turks since 1974. We went to Famagusta, an old venitian walled city that was formerly Cyprus' main tourist resort. I'd seen a few pictures and read a few descriptions of the place and I was hoping it would be worth the long treck.

It was worth it and then some! The city is packed with huge churches in various states of repair. Some almost perfect, some totally ruined, but all immensley picturesque, especially as the rest of the city is low-rise and the ruins tower above them giving a real sense of scale. My only regreat was that the long trip gave us so little time there. Next time we'll hope to go for longer.

Before the holiday I'd wondered if I'd like Cyprus. On returning I'm wondering just how soon I can go back there.

Sugababes @ Newcastle Arena

We went to see The Sugababes tonight in Newcastle. Quite a bit more poppy than the bands I normally go and see, but I've liked them since way back when Overload first came to my attention and this was our umpteenth attempt at going to see them. One previous attempt was expensively foiled when we got the date wrong and just plain forgot to turn up and others of their tour dates have always clashed with our holidays. So here, eventually, we got to see them at last.

We had fantastic seats, probably the best we've ever had. 5 rows back and dead centre, it gave a perfect view and there were no annoyingly tall people in front of us.

They put on a good show, doing all of their big hits (at least I can't think of one that wasn't there) and performing them all very well. The stage was simple yet colourful, a series of TV display boards adding a colourful and interesting backdrop to their performances. It has to be said that Keisha and Heidi both have superb and powerful voices, which are not often highlighted by the types of songs that they sing. When they do "let rip" though it kind of puts Amelle, the newcomer to the band, in the shade a bit. She's not bad, but she's not in the same league really.

The show culminated with a load of smoke and glitter being blatsed out into the crowd and naturally, being only 5 rows back, we got covered in the stuff and took much of it home with us in our clothing and hair!

Support for the eveining came from Laura Critchley (left) and Dragonette (below right). Laura Critchley was a Liverpudlian (sounding) singer who sang some poppy ballads that were quite catchy and well performed. The overall sound from just her and her two backing musicians was pretty impressive (everything was at just the right level, unlike the second support and even the Sugababes which were a bit over-amped) and her voice was excellent. Seeing people like this makes you realise that becoming "big" in the pop world must involve a great deal of luck as there are very many excellent musicians out there who, while being technically as good as others who do make it, simply don't make it themselves for one reason or another.

Dragonette were a bit more my usual scene, a raw, edgy sound that wan't too poppy. The singer, Martina Sorbara, is certainly no shrinking violet and makes a good front-person. Her ususual looks and moves and her superb voice make her fascinating to watch. They're from Toronto but seem to be basing themselves in London at the moment in an attempt to make it over here -- apparently PopJustice (and here) named them "the band to watch out for in 2007". Well I'll keep watching out for them but I suspect, like Laura Critchley, they just won't get the necessary breaks.

The Bingley Arms - Britain's Oldest Pub

We went to "Britain's Oldest Pub" on Saturday. I'm sure it's one of those things that's hotly disputed, but it's listed in The Guinness Book Of Records and there's other evidence too that indicates that this, The Bingley Arms at Bardsey, near Leeds, is indeed the oldest pub. It's proven usage dates back to 905 and as well as its age it's filled with items of apparent historical note that make a visit here worthwhile. And that's before we even get to the food and the beer!
The Inglenook fireplace makes a cozy place to sit these days but in the past it was used to hide Catholic priests, there being not one but two priest holes hidden up the chimney (just about visible by virtue of judicious lighting). There's also (apparently) a hidden passageway between the pub and the nearby church by which means the priests could make their way to refuge in the pub.
The bar of the pub contains a stove from Kirkstall forge as well as a dutch oven (shown here) that dates from the 1700's, apparently the only one in all of Yorkshire.

We ate at the pub, a light lunch of Brie & Cranberry sandwiches, huge, chunky, real chips and garlic bread. It was all very tasty (the chips were out of this world), with decent portions and at a decent price. The hand pulled Tetley's beer was spot on too.
The village is small and pleasantly attractive without having too much else to see beyond the pub and the aforementioned church. This church though is a bit of a stunner as churches go, being of an unusual style that looks very attractive.
The style comes from the fact that there's an original pre-conquest recangular church (with tower) hidden inside the later addition of sloped extensions. It's obvious from a look at the stonework, and its worth noting that the extensions aren't keyed into the original in any noticeable way. Probably wouldn't pass bulding regs these days!

The Bingley Arms is at

37 Church Lane
Bardsey,
Leeds, LS17 9DR

Tel: 01937 572 462

Bardsey village is just off the A58 Leeds-Wetherby road.

300

We just finished watching 300. It's a bit of an oddball movie, not quite what I expected of it. The use of animations, slow/fast-motion fight scenes, an annoying voiceover and inappropriate incidental music were the bulk of my criticisms, along with the fact that most of the cast sounded Scottish rather than Greek. I suppose the fact it was based on a graphic novel (and why not just on history itself?) explains all of the artiness.

For the first ten minutes, almost all a mix of live action and animation, accompanied  by said annoying voiceover, I really thought I wasn't going to enjoy it. It got better later, particularly when the blood, guts and general gore started to flow, even despite the Matrix/Crouching Tiger style fight scenes.

You have to say too, while watching the film, what a lot of grotesquely ugly geezers there were around in classical times! Of course none of the heroes were ugly, the uglies were reserved for enemies, cannon fodder (metaphorically, there were no cannons of course) and traitors. The heroes were all paragons of Greek classical manhood, and I'd be interested to know just how many plastic six-packs were in use. If it was all natural then those actors got way too much gym time!

For anyone who knows their history or who's seen the 1962 film "The 300 Spartans", you'll know how it ends. For those others of you the Four Word Film Review has this to say: "Three Hundred All Die".

300 7/10

Bob Trollop's

While we were out in Newcastle we went to Bob Trollop's for dinner. Bob Trollop's is a 100% vegetarian pub and it's refreshing to go in somewhere, especially a pub, and be able to choose absolutely anything from the menu. It also means it takes rather longer to decide, not being stuck with Hobson's choice as at some other places.
Eventually we decided on an unusual starter, a grilled pea puree & cheese baguette (basically mushy peas & grated cheese on a toasted baguette). One between two was quite ample, and unusual and perhaps offputting as it may sound it was actually lovely. For mains I had pea & mint risotto and wife went for veggie chili burrito. Both were lovely, the risotto falling not far short of anything I've had in a fancy restaurant for a lot more money. The huge wedges that passed for "chips in jackets" that came with the burrito are also worthy of special mention, lovely.
The beer selection is not so good, their being only one ale and that being off while I was there. Also, while the totally veggie menu may be refreshing, the lack of a no-smoking policy isn't. I'm not keen on smoke at the best of times, and especially not when I'm eating. Luckily for us we were alone in the back room for the most part, so not bothered by anyone's smoke.
The pub itself is full of character, being in one of Newcastle's oldest streets and next to the historic Bessie Surtees' House. It's full of old beans and wooded nooks and crannies.
Whether you're veggie or not, I'd recommend a trip to Bob Trollops if you're in Newcastle.

The Bells, The Bells!

We went to see Howling Bells tonight. Baby Niece was both a surprise and a letdown when she said that she didn't want to go and see them - turning down a concert, unheard of! This meant that I had to take wife, who had neither heard, nor indeed heard of Howling Bells. It at least meant that we could make a night of it and enjoy a nice meal out in Newcastle (see elsewhere).

The concert was at The Academy once again, in the small and intimate Academy 2 venue, probably my favourite concert venue. All gigs here seem better simply because you're right on top of the band. You can see close-up just how much they're putting into the music and (usually) just how much fun they're having doing so.

Support act for the night was Doncaster's Wallbirds (pictured). I'm not sure how to describe their style - rockabilly maybe, or a bit Johnny Cash  meets Dylan. Whatever, it actually got people dancing (proper dancing, not just leaping about), the first time that I've seen that at this venue. The band were all disgustingly young, obviously having a great time, and made a good sound. I don't know if they'll have much recording success, their sound maybe a bit "niche", but they're certainly a good live act.

The Howling Bells themselves were everything that I expected and more. Three loud guitars, a drummer and a uniquely vocaled female singer, they have a sound that is all their own. Each number they played I thought "this is my favourite track" until it turned out that they were (almost) all my favourites. A great album and an even better live set, once again the effort, energy, passion and feeling that they put into their work was plain to see. The audience lapped it up.

Some bands, once I've seen them I fell that it's "satisfied a need", so to speak. I'd go to see The 'Bells tomorrow if they were on again.

I Predict A Riot

I went to see The Kaiser Chiefs at Newcastle Academy last night with Baby Niece and her brother, my nephew, who will be now known as Minstrel Boy. It was his second concert in as many weeks, bringing his total up to three - The Killers, The Kaiser Chiefs and Steps! (It's OK, you're no one if you haven't seen Steps, an essential part of anyone's musical education).

The evening started at Burger King where I was charged £19 for three burgers and three drinks. I know it's expensive at Burger King, but it had me scanning the menu again to see if it could really be that expensive. Turns out I'd been charged for 14 burgers - I must have looked like I came from North Tyneside.

We got good seats at the Academy (it's done on a first-come-first-serve basis) right behind the rail at the front of the upper section. As usual we were informed time and again that this is a "no crowd-surfing venue", not something you'd really contemplate anyway from the upper tier.

The 'Chiefs were supported by The Pigeon Detectives and The Long Blondes, both excellent bands in their own right making this one of the best tour line-ups I'd seen. The Pigeon Detectives were energetic and enthusiastic and sounded really good. The Long Blondes don't put quite so much action into their performances - the two girl guitarists at either side of the stage could have been replaced by mannequins and no one would have noticed. Admittedly the bassist did actually play, despite not moving, but the other girl (Emma) made no discernible contribution to the music beyond the screechy vocal addition to "Giddy Stratosphere". Needless to say she's the lead guitarist's girlfriend. Singer Kate is possessed of both a great voice and a great figure and she used both to good effect. The sound quality was the best of the night, sounding every bit as good as on CD.

By contrast The 'Chiefs' sound was distorted and overly loud - sometimes less really is more. The lack of sound clarity was more than compensated for by the energy, enthusiasm and sheer "fun" that they put into the performance. It makes you wonder how Ricky ever got a reputation for being a bit porky, he expends more energy in that hour and a half than I do in a week.

Their set was a mix of the old album and the new, and I'd not heard any of the new album before last night. I have to say that every new song sounded really excellent, typical Kaiser Chiefs' fare without being samey. Seems like I'll be buying their new album.

Ricky didn't heed the earlier warning about no crowd-surfing and launched himself headlong into the crowd at one stage - apparently a regular occurrence at KC concerts. He really is putting his life on the line there, or his eyesight, or his bank balance if he injures a crowd member. Still, it's all good fun I'm sure, and I'm just sounding like a "grown up".

Baby Niece and Minstrel Boy got fleeced for more than £16 each for two tiny T-Shirts, but that's no more or no less than any other band charges, and not everyone likes the £5 T's that Asda sell and I buy!

All in all a good evening out.