Every Sunday night I go up to "The Hammer and Pincers" to participate in their weekly quiz. I join with my regular quizmates - Mick and Mike and Danny. Whenever we are up there there's another regular team - also all men and in the same age bracket as us. There are usually six to eight of them They are our main competitors.
Back in October, the leader of their team kindly asked if we would like to join them in December for a meal. We all said yes but then each of my three mates dropped out. Danny moved thirty miles away to Buxton, Mike developed a serious muscle condition called myasthenia gravis and Mick simply didn't like the idea of going to a Turkish restaurant where of course they serve "foreign food".
And so it came to pass that I was our sole representative at the "Mavi Rüya" Turkish restaurant on Abbeydale Road. We had beers in "The Broadfield" before heading to the venue which opened earlier this year.
I ordered barbecued lamb shish which included sides - Turkish salad, rice and toasted flatbread. It was very good but pricier than similar Turkish restaurants I have visited in North London in recent years.
After the meal, we went back to "The Broadfield" for more pints of beer before calling a pair of taxis to bring us back to our neighborhoods a couple of miles away.
Potentially this could have all been rather uncomfortable for me but the other fellows were very nice. There was no oneupmanship or snide remarks. It was just a bunch of gentlemen getting on pleasantly together and feeling easy in each other's company. I didn't suffer any kind of grilling (like a kebab skewer!) and came home happy that I had not dropped out.
I am so glad you did this! What an interesting thing to happen.
ReplyDeleteand I love Turkish food
It is hard to beat a good Turkish meal - wholesome, simple and tasty.
DeleteYour friend Mick missed out on what sounded like a really nice night out.
ReplyDeleteHe would have enjoyed it but he wouldn't have enjoyed paying out. He lives on a shoestring budget because of his financial circumstances.
DeleteYour in an all round sensible group of men. Being overly competitive is not much fun. Now the meal sounds and looks great.
ReplyDeleteThe Lamb Plate in "Addy's Middle Eastern Cuisine", Red Deer sounds similar. Maybe you could treat The Micro Manager
DeleteIt's too bad Mick couldn't leave his comfort zone. I'm glad you had a nice evening out with some gentlemen.
ReplyDeleteMick would have enjoyed it but he doesn't have much money and he just had to pay to get his back door fixed.
DeleteFair enough.
DeleteIt says a lot about the other team that they came up with the idea. We have been having our main competitors at the pub quiz for many years but although we always congratulate the other team when they win, and the other way round, we never really stop to talk to them, or they to us.
ReplyDeleteI like Turkish food, too, but would have left out the rice - too filling, it would have stopped me from eating the rest of the meal, and too bland as long as it does not come with spicy sauce or as part of a lovely creamy risotto.
As far as I know, Mavi means blue; not sure about Rüya.
Literally - "Blue Dream" I believe. This could have an unintended connotation.
DeleteUsually meetings you are perhaps a bit apprehensive about turn out well, as did this one. One of R's sister in the north of your country doesn't eat 'foreign food' although she will cook pasta or a curry for her husband. Last time we were there, she was not eating anything green. Btw, she had a heart attack in her forties. Alf Garnett lives on with his 'I'm not eating that foreign muck'.
ReplyDeleteI love foreign muck. Variety is the spice of life.
DeleteI'm glad you had a wonderful time and that plate of colourful food looks so delicious.
ReplyDeleteOn your birthday you should treat yourself to a nice Turkish meal. There must be somewhere good in Adelaide.
DeleteI expect you were all very well behaved, unlike the very noisy group of eight gentlemen of advanced years who were celebrating Christmas at our local restaurant here recently. I had to switch off my hearing aids.
ReplyDeleteOur manners and behaviour were exemplary - befitting of true gentlemen.
DeleteYou are never too old to make new friends
ReplyDeleteAfter retirement we tend not to though.
DeleteI have made some of the best friends since retirement. Five new ones through choir alone - and one of them seems like I've known her forever. A few more from volunteering at foodbank too
DeleteThat's great ADDY!
DeleteI used to live in another town that had a fabulous Turkish restaurant that we used to eat at from time to time and it served very tasty shish-ka-bobs. I had forgotten all about it until now. Makes me ponder how lucky I was in a small town to have such a thing. Where I live now is still small by most standards but is still nearly three times the size of my previous town and we don't have any Turkish restaurants here. I may need to find out if that place is still there and do a road trip.
ReplyDeleteTurkish cuisine has been honed over centuries. Simple, tasty and wholesome food. You might have to drive up to Fairfield to visit The Istanbul Grill.
DeleteGood to know that competitiveness and "one-upness" stayed at the quiz table.
ReplyDeleteI don't like social gatherings where comparison and point scoring fill the sub-text.
DeleteMy kind of restaurant and food.
ReplyDeleteI think you would have wolfed that meal down Dave.
DeleteGood food and good company
ReplyDeleteThat sums up the evening.
DeleteWhat a great-looking meal! Glad you went- it's good to get out and do different things with different people. Or so I hear.
ReplyDeleteIt was good. I joked with my teammates that that the other team were going to make a big offer for my transfer. I know a lot of stuff.
DeleteGood for you that you didn't drop out of the event after your teammates bowed out. I'm a believer in pushing oneself socially on occasion. Life can get too closed in if we only mingle with our 'familiars'. (I'm giving myself a lecture now. I could do with a little mingling with 'unfamiliars'.)
ReplyDeleteLet's hope that the unfamiliars. you mix with are not lumberjacks fresh out of the forest
DeleteLooks yummy! They are trying to recruit you to their quiz team, YP! What team will you play with now that your buddies aren't playing?
ReplyDeleteI may become a double agent.
DeleteShoosh !
ReplyDeleteWhoosh!.... SPLAT!... OUCH!
DeleteGouteux ! Delectable ! Exquis ! Divin !
DeleteI mean the Lamb Sish & Toasted Flatbread.
Thank God!I I thought you meant me!
DeleteKudos to you for seeing it through even without your friends. A lot of people would have thrown in the towel, I think! And now you know all those guys a little bit better, which makes for more collegiality at the pub.
ReplyDeleteYou got it exactly young man!
DeleteGood for you! And that food looks fantastic! I don't understand people who don't want to try "foreign food". I get so tired of eating the same old things day in, day out. The chance to try something new is a treat!
ReplyDeleteShirley's parents never had a curry and never ate pasta or pizza. They were traditional country folk. At least my parents were rather adventurous and would try anything.
DeleteMick needs to get out more.
ReplyDelete