Café Spice and Harrods Ham

17-Feb-09 - I've been doing some calculations and I reckon that a London taxi now costs about 75p a minute off-peak and about £1 a minute at busy times. You might find this useful when budgeting for journeys across town: I sometimes have to be on the other side of the city for subsequent appointments and have had ample opportunity to observe this. Look at Google maps, plot your start and finish positions, and read off the number of minutes, then get cash at the station before embarking. It works well.

I had ample opportunity to test this theory with two visits in town, one to interview Cyrus Todiwala at Café Spice Namasté and the other at Harrods Food Hall for the launch of its new specialised shop selling 5j jamón Jabugo. Both these events will be written up in the April, 2009 issue of YES CHEF! Magazine, so I won't go into too much detail at this time except to say that if you're looking for somebody who's had a really tough mountain to climb to get where he is, Cyrus Todiwala is your man. Today he presides over the Café Spice and Parsee restaurants as well as a cookery school for amateurs and professionals, and a burning zeal to teach people that 'Indian-Indian' cooking is not the same as 'British-Indian' cooking. More on this when the mag comes out.

I got a cab back to Knightsbridge and found myself with two hours to spare before the ham bash, and so retired to Tattersalls Tavern on Knightsbridge Green, which was a bit busy upstairs (it was about 18:15) but relatively quiet downstairs where I availed myself of a steak-and-ale pie with chips, peas and gravy and a couple of glasses of Argentinian Malbec, which went down splendidly with the Evening Standard (I keep looking for evidence of editorial interference by the new ex-KGB owner but there is, as yet, no sign). Eventually I sauntered over to door 11 of Harrods, which is on Hans Road, and to which I had been directed by a telephone call earlier in the day. Needless to say this was not correct, and I was redirected to door 5, which is diametrically opposite on the other side of the building, on Hans Crescent, which road is closed for, well, whatever it is they're doing: almost every road in London seems to have works traffic lights at the moment, but at least the Knightsbridge Underground sign provided a useful landmark.

Once inside, however, I was greeted warmly by the scarcely-pronounceable but very attractive Emily Thoubboron from LDR PR (which company had organised the bash), and delivered to the food hall, which was already throbbing. The ham company (Sanchez Romero Carvajal 5j) is in the celebrated village of Jabugo, where the very finest ham comes from, and has belonged to the Osborne family since 1983. This connection was good, as it meant that there were copious supplies of fabulously yeasty, well-chilled Fino Quinta (delivered by a venenciador) to go with the jamón. Also featured was Rioja Montecillo (another part of the Osborne empire - and many times have I lunched with the feisty María Martínez, the winemaker at the bodega) for those who preferred red. I also spotted trays of fizz and wondered if the family had ventured into the Cava business. I took a glass with great interest, but was disappointed to discover that it was, in reality, a rather dismal Champagne. No matter, however, as there was plenty of Fino and the ham simply melted in the mouth, as always. In the background there was flamenco, dancing, music and all sorts of things going on but the food hall was wall-to-wall people. I bumped into Félix Benito and his team from C&D wines, and the ever-lovely and ageless María-José Sevilla from ICEX, as well as many other members of the great and the good.

On the way out we were all presented with a goodie-bag of Osborne Sherry vinegar and a half bottle of Fino Quinta in the obligatory Harrods bag (a very desirable item, so I'm told) and my car was on time opposite the Underground sign. I resisted the temptation to swig the Fino on the way home (I am on a diet, after all), and when I looked for it the following morning Jill seemed to have hidden it. However, by that time I was back on the régime with no prospect of a let-up for at least a week. The trousers are feeling a bit looser, though.

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