They’re latest venture titled, “The Complete History of Food” transformed the former Royal Agricultural Society building into a journey taking you back to medieval times stepping through a multi-course and multi-sensory trip. Entrance was timed, giving everyone a fairly intimate experience moving from floor to floor, room to room and enjoying the fun atmosphere. Below is the map decorated on the wall, describing the floor and the rooms contents.

At only ￡25 a ticket (subsidised mind you by a well known Cognac maker) I think it was pretty great value given plenty of spirit to walk out tipsy, some great food and an entertaining experience. We stepped inside a dark room, manned by a young gentlemen determined to diagnose our mood and there to prescribe something that fell within four different categories (a different sticker later denoting a different cocktail and finger food starter).

After a quick lighting of the various people in the room (including the very jovial picture of Bompas and Parr below), we moved to the next room (ladies taking off heels) only to find ourselves carefully balancing so not to fall into the man made moat contained in one the rooms. Stepping from plank to plank, we find ourselves transported to the interior of a ship hull moored in a pool of water (mind the eels apparently) where we are given a supplement to ease our moods – I was a phlegmatic last week thus needing a Choleric solution to help balance me out, thus starting with Cabbage, white wine, caper artichoke paired with a Courvoisier Exclusif Rose Water drink courtesy of Saf.

Next up, we ascended in an elevator that fit no more than four people, we emerge on the rooftop terrace to enjoy a deconstructed champagne, bubbles and fizz enjoyed separately courtesy of Lounge Bohemia.

We drank this accompanied by a wicked savoury foie gras equivalent of a ferrero rocher made by Alexis Gauthier of Michelin starred Gauthier Soho. What a wise move to get people to descend through the house as they pick up more food, and a lighter head.

Next up was the scratch and sniff meal, complete with a fully functioning seventies TV set whose glow radiated out towards the sofas. We inhaled aromas of minty peas, golden potatoes, pumpkin and roasted chicken as our fingernails did their magic. A strange, yet very appropriate activity.

This brought us to the bouncy castle, made up as the interior of someone’s stomach before walking through the corridor of
mushrooms (I assure you, of which, we had not ingested any of the hallucinogenic kind) before joining some other people in the middle of an iguanodon to enjoy one of the best confit duck dishes I’ve had for some time. I’m definitely going to have to check the makers of this, Bistrotheque.

Puy lentils, beetroot and a black champagne sauce combined with a really strong alcoholic punch, I was glad for this heavier dish to help combat some of the alcohol. Below is a picture of the really strong punch.

The great thing about this part is that we didn’t seem rushed to eat our meal, so we sat their conversing with a nice New Zealand couple who’d come along for the evening as well.

Golden arrows directed us towards the dessert room where a Gingerbread version of London’s very own gherkin greeted us as did a spinning monument of jelly.

The jelly served aboard an impressive spinning tower of what looked like sugar art, but ended up as decorated porcelain. Still impressive looking.

Though the jelly was a predictable and welcome finishing touch, it still did plenty to put a close to the evening. The spinning beauties being served included iris jelly, candied orange some berries and very tasty whale vomit (Ambergris Posset). A surprise feast for everyone.

Tickets for their events are limited and done so for good reason with every experience and taste to be savoured, unlikely to be reproduced. I appreciated and really enjoyed the experience walking through the Complete History of Food.

The story is effectively the retelling of a ghost story that involves two main actors, one of them trying to tell their story and experience of the Woman in Black. As I write this, my skin gets goosebumps thinking about some of the situations you, as an audience member, finds yourself. Fortunately I won’t give too much away to the story line other than you want to brace yourself for some of the eerie moments, particularly when all the women in the audience start screaming their heads off.

In other interesting, related news, I read that Daniel Radcliffe will star in the movie make of this movie. I hope it’s as good as the stage play. On top of that, it looks like the writer of Kick-Ass, Jane Goldman is penned to script the movie. This will be good.

On the evening, they had food scientist, Chris Clarke, author of The Science of Ice Cream talk about what makes ice cream so popular as well as the way it’s changed over the years. He gave a very scientific analysis, with some great visualisations around what makes ice cream, well, ice cream and how to go about making it (it’s not just the ingredients but it’s the process that matters).

To contrast the scientific approach, the Dana Centre also invited Christian Oddono of Oddono’s who, being Italian, took the more artisanal approach to describing his passion for Italian ice creams, gelati. It was great to have the differences compared and really liked Oddono’s tagline for, “Life is too short to eat bad ice cream.” Oh so true.

Even with a fairly average meal (pizza slice & salad), an enjoyable part of the evening was the interactive, tasting part, where they brought six different flavoured ice creams to try. Oh so wise for them to put the more experimental flavours up front. This one, pictured below, for instance was a salmon-flavoured ice cream. Despite the strange, savoury flavour, this was definitely the least offensive of the savoury flavoured ice creams, and if you imagine something like a salmon mousse, just slightly more solid and chilled, this as pretty much that. Definitely a good introduction to what could be (not really what should be) done with ice cream flavours.

The next venture took us to a mustard seed ice cream. This reminds me of some wasabi flavoured ice cream I’ve had before, although much more subtle in flavour but more noticeable in texture with the mustard seeds peppered throughout. This one seemed to attract quite a number of fans in the audience.

The worst of the bunch, was the next, very, very experimental flavoured ice cream – banana, garlic and parmesan. Of the six, this is the only one that I had to put down and not finish, even being the very small serve. I think the combination, without the ice cream, is strange enough. I’ve had banana and cheese, and garlic and cheese, but not quite all three at the same time. As an ice cream, it was made even more weird because none of the flavours seemed to dominate but not really taste well as a trio either.

The next, one of my favourites of the evening was the chilli and chocolate ice cream. Chilli and chocolate are well known partners, and as an ice cream, made even more interesting. The first lick brings the rich chocolate flavours, combined with a refreshing cold sensation, only to be quickly followed by the warm, tickling chilli sensation. Something I’ll definitely try one day.

The next one, honey and lavender was definitely a rich and fragrant ice cream although the honey was almost sickly overwhelming. I still really enjoyed this once, for the flowery flavours and the sweetness easily tolerable in its mini-cone flavour.

The final ice cream of the evening was a green tea ice cream dotted with chocolate pieces. Unlike many of the green tea ice creams I’ve had in the past, this one didn’t seem to be as gritty as many of the ones I’ve had previously. The flavour is definitely not as strong as many of the previous ice creams of the evening but you could taste, and see the richness of the green tea leaves.

I look forward to a few more evenings at the Dana Centre. I certainly had a lot of fun and ideas for ice cream. My next inspiration will be to try some sort of Pimms flavoured ice cream before the summer is out.

Jack Johnson hasn’t toured for a while, and that was quite evident with the number of false starts and laid back laughs interrupting, his otherwise really fun set. Of course, this laid back attitude is what you’d expect from someone who puts out tunes best suited for lazy afternoons and the sun setting by the beach. I was thinking how cool it would have been if the O2 could actually open their roof up. Given that the weather has been wonderful, this would have been almost the perfect way you could enjoy some of Jack’s riffs.

I guess the main reason he’s touring is to promote his new album, To The Sea, though playing a mix of lots of his old stuff as well. A great way to spend a Wednesday evening in London.

Although it ran most of the day, I didn’t get a day off work for it, so we turned up to see Ben Harper and the headliners, Pearl Jam. They played for a very long time starting early due to the constraints of playing in Hyde Park, finishing up around 10pm. We managed to get fairly close to the stage – probably about a third of the way from the front where we pick up some decent sounds. Even from this distance, we relied on the big screens to work out what was going on. Given that it was summery and Pearl Jam did put on some decent tunes, it was hard not to enjoy yourself.

Here’s Stac, Gerrod and Wes all enjoying the tunes. What a fantastic evening and time. It was great seeing Stac and Wes as well since I hadn’t seen them for ages and, it being hard to see them when they live all the way up in Aberdeen.

The court grounds were heaving, although perfectly civil. I’m glad we didn’t really have to queue very long to get in, and with allocated tickets for Court 2, didn’t have to line up for a seat for any of the outdoor courts as well.

On our court, the biggest player match was probably Sharipova who literally towered over her opponent and easily won out her match. It was amazing to see the speed of her serves live. Most men seemed to hit at last 120mph-130mph, which Sharipova came close to, averaging 110mph. Compared to many of the other women players who did less than 100mph, she was definitely a force to be reckoned with. Here’s a picture of her victory over her opponent:

The other big news of the day was the visiting of the Queen. Unfortunately we didn’t get to share Court 1 with her, but managed to see her walking around the grounds (accompanied and blocked off my plenty of security guards). I’m glad that I brought my new zoom as I was nowhere near her for the photo below:

Even if you don’t get a ticket to any of the court games, it’s definitely worth going and indulging in the whole atmosphere. It’s fun and with so many people enjoying themselves, you’ll find it hard not to do so yourself.

One of their current exhibitions is the Henry Moore exhibit, an English sculptor and artist. Although this was one of their paid for exhibits, we managed to score some free tickets. The exhibit takes you through all of Moore’s work, including many of his drawings and massive sculptures.

I liked a lot of his work, although I did find the repeated theme of disfigured, or stretched body shapes, particularly focused around the mother and son theme slightly disturbing given the number of times it appeared.

I think I’d need to be a fan to have paid for the tickets, but it’s a great display and well laid out exhibit.

It was last Thursday I went to go see them perform at Islington’s Relentless Garage was a great place for them as well, with a forgettable support act and a pretty happy crowd buzzing around them. What impressed me so much about them was the fact that they put on an amazing sound considering there was just the two of them. They had a laugh, obviously enjoyed performing and the music simply flowed from their. They played all the tracks from their first released album and a number of songs from a number of their earlier EPs.

As you can see, all of the magazines seem to be doing really well and prospering and they made for some really good reads in the countless cafes dotting Brisbane.

I had little expectations about this movie, other than what someone told me over a birthday bash at the start of the Easter break – be warned… it’s violent! Indeed. However, it’s almost violent in a black comedy sort of way. The story is simple, following the life of a high school kid who dares to dress up as a super hero without the lack of special powers. His act triggers a set of consequences that makes for a very laughable story. I’m amazed at hearing (post-movie) that this film was made with British money as well, apparently turned down by Hollywood – it certainly felt a lot more like an American movie than anything else. What an amazing production.

This movie won’t win any acting awards, but it’s a fun movie that has lots of laughs, enough squeamish parts and plenty of action. Great for the bank holiday weekend.