I'm the worst vegan

OMGYOUGUYS. You want to see some meat porn? (#phrasing) Last Thursday took Wolf and I and the Welshman and His Lady O' the Cheekbones to Smokestak to try London's hottest new bbq joint and YOUGUYS. IT DID NOT DISAPPOINT. Apparently the head chef, some genius named David Carter, hails from Roka and studied in the States and all that experience brought us delicious, splooshy meatopia. LOOK. Just LOOK at these pork ribs:

I'll give you a minute to go change your pants.

Done? Excellent. Shouldn'ta bothered, we're going to do it again. Below, on the left: smoked girolles on beef dripping toast, crispy ox cheek, and cured pig jowl. On the right, pigtails. I was initially skeptical when Wolf ordered them but I was WRONG. WRONG, I TELL YOU. You know what they taste like? PORK CANDY. You just pick it up daintily between two fingers and nibble the meat round that bone like it's a miniature corn on the cob and then ORDER TEN MORE CUZ YOU'RE NOT SHARING. There is a reason this place is described as 'an opera about barbecue', and those reasons are below:

Pretty sure they fried the pig jowl toast. Pretty sure there's crack in the ox cheek bites. Pretty sure I blacked out at this point. 

Now let's talk about BBQ sides for a second. BBQ sides are not generally a thing that interest me. I mean, there's MEAT on the table. Put that vegetable away! And I especially don't care for potato products (as my family can well attest). They're just so . . . STARCHY. Get behind me, tuber! But the table went for the jacket potato with sour cream and I sighed mightily in resignation while pretending to be happy for them, and then THIS HAPPENED:

Pictured: Belle-of-the-Ball Brisket wondering how it got overshadowed. And it was TERRIFIC brisket. TERRIFIC. But the dish that made everyone coo and groan and lean back? THAT POTATO, DEVIL OF THE NIGHT. 

Also there was a sticky toffee pudding with burnt caramel, which for the sake of my younger readers, I won't talk about here. 

Then we took our gargantuan, satiated selves over to the Village Underground to see The Hackney Colliery Band and jump around to some big brass. And by 'jump' I mean 'heavy swaying, gentle wiggle'. Movement was not our strong suit. 

It was a great night. 

I'm off today for Lady Saturday Fun Day! I'm meeting the girls at Liberty to see the costumes and then we're going to have tea-tails at a posh bookshop. Then tonight Wolf and I have a leaving do for two lovely Irish friends who are heading back to Galway-town, much to the loss of London. (Sidebar: I wish mega boat travel was still a thing, because one day I'd like to stand on a dock waving a hanky at someone and weeping.) 

I hope your day is full of sweet, and I'll see you tomorrow!

Big hugs and lots of love,

Essss