Gourmandise

It started with the scallops Mrs Oons bought from the fish van, down from Scrabster. Especially generous as she doesn't like them and had smoked Gigha halibut instead. But scallops, lightly seared in lemon juice, with a glass of birthday Sancerre ... again again!

And now the potatoes. Yes. Well. Several months ago we had some we hadn't got round to eating. They started sprouting, so we chitted them (a technical term Mrs Oons understands, put them at the bottom of a sack we already had. and covered them with compost we already had. As the leaves grew, we topped up the compost as advised by all the best gardening magazines, kept them watered and fed them periodically with potash.

Today we thought, it must be time for harvest. This, this, was the entire crop. Oh well, they tasted great with melted butter, alongside some fresh asparagus. And the compost has been returned to the compost heap it came from.

And tonight, fish soup, some Roquefort, some sourdough and locally grown strawberries à la John Arlott. The latter, regular readers may recall, involves
serving strawberries with copious black pepper, coarsely ground, and a good claret. Beats cream any day.

Nothing has ever matched the fish soup I had in a bistro in Hendaye, in 1983. But we'll manage it one day.