2 Aussies, 2 Scots and an Englishman...

.... walk into a dining room and... Celebrate Chinese New Year.

Mel pulled out a stormer on the starters (tea eggs, bang bang chicken, spare ribs and mangetout) and mains (Mother Chen's bean curd, Chairman Mao's red braised pork, and baked whole Sea Bass x 2). That was actually cut down as one starter and two mains were dropped late on. Yet she's always worried we won't have enough food...

For my part there were the Hot Starry Gimlet welcome cocktails (flavoured with Star Anise and Chilli - oh and Jason and I snuck in a cheeky Sazerac); and a wee trio of desserts (Nian gao sticky cake, a traditional Chinese thing which is an offering to the kitchen god so that his tongue sticks to the roof of his mouth and he can't criticise the food; rhubarb and custard macaroons that went down well in a nostalgia-driven combo; and my first attempts at being a chocolatier, with 5 Spice ganache filled wee nibbles of chocolatey goodness).

Good night all in all. Great to see all three of Gillian and Jason and Marti as it's been a while and we managed to talk about the big I word with less discord than whether writers or actors are more worthy of the 'genius' epithet (I'm with the writers).

And if you think Scotland is good at this New Yer thing, the Chinese celebrate for two weeks. Think on.