Award winning Volare Bakery

Wining and Dining in Solitary Confinement

These are strange times.  All our favourite dining out places are closed – and our least favourite places too.  It calls for us to be a bit creative in our own bubble to create something interesting to eat.  It is amazing the variations we can come up with when need be.  We can still remember or fantasise about what we have eaten in the past, and what we’ll be able to eat in the future when this monster has left our country, hopefully never to return.

The biggest decisions I make in my solitary confinement are what to eat for dinner and what bottle to open.

A little bit of ingenuity goes a long way to vary the meals. A sprinkle of fennel on the salmon, a slosh of pomegranate molasses and another slosh of olive oil and all thrown into the oven with whatever vegetables I could find turned out really well.

I had thought a good red might go well with it, but with a bottle of Main Divide Chardonnay already open, that’s what I had. It worked well. Being on my own means a bottle needs to last. I don’t always have the luxury of being able to match a wine to the food, but who cares. Whatever is there I’m going to enjoy.

I know what I’m having for dinner tomorrow night.  Lasagne that my son cooked for me. He put it on my outside table while I waved and talked to him through the glass doors. Thank you Simon.  I have a Spanish red, a 1917 Piqueras Black Label, Syrah Monastrel that I’ll enjoy with it.  I’ve run out of Italian reds – oh dear.

My meager garden produced 6 beans for dinner.  There are three spinach plants showing promise and now someone bought me a dozen more – so if they survive – and I do too – I’ll end up like Pop-eye.

And while I’m eating and drinking in my own little bubble I can think of what I can order next time I get to Gothenburg, Hayes Common, Palate, Bahn Mi or one of our other good eateries in Hamilton.  It’s good to have something to look forward to.  The good times will come again.

Ps.  Since I wrote this a few days ago a lifeline has been thrown to us.  Online wine sales are open for business again.  And now I’m also able to order special breads from our excellent local bakery Volare.  I can’t wait to savour their hot cross buns and they’ll be delivered right to my door.Yum.