Went
September 2017 was a momentous month in the D household; the twingos started at school. Yes, only a few weeks after their 4th birthday I waved them in to their (separate) Reception classes.

The one thing I hadn’t given any thought to prior to the very moment that I found myself standing on the school playground, waiting in the line on their first day, was that putting the twins in separate classes meant I couldn’t – as every other mum and dad were doing – walk both of my children to the door of the class on this momentous day, to give them both a kiss and say goodbye on their first ever day at school. I had to pick just one child to line up with. And Mr D lined up with the other. Once the kids were in their classes and I was safely out of sight, a few tears may have been shed….

Since our travel plans are now entirely dictated by school holidays, we considered booking a cheeky last minute getaway somewhere warm after the school term had begun, but before they were due to start. (Their primary school operates a delayed and staggered start for Reception which is after the main school had returned). However, having just spent nearly 3 weeks road-tripping around France and NE Spain in August we concluded perhaps it would be better to chill and prepare all of us for starting school.

Ate
September also involved an epic meal of food from modern day Jerusalem at The Palomar in Soho. We sat at the bar overlooking the kitchen and ordered dishes to share.

These spicy chillies nearly blew my head off but thank goodness for fabulous cocktails:

Felafel, made from chick peas and fish were so good I could’ve eaten an entire meal of these:

Beetroot carpaccio

Siska pork belly with Ras el Hanout, dried apricot and celeriac cream:

I developed a deep love for polenta after trying this Jerusalem style with mushrooms, Parmesan and truffle oil. So good!

Ironed chicken thighs with za’tar and sumac rub…

I absolutely loved my meal at The Palomar. The middle eastern flavours of the food are exciting and most of the dishes were either naturally gluten free or could be adapted to be.

I also tried out the poké bowls at Island Poké

At the very end of the month I finally went to Ceru, a Levantine restaurant I’ve wanted to try for some time and where the menu is almost entirely gluten free.

When was the last time you had whitebait? Clearly some time for Mr D who could not wait for me to take a photo befure diving in!….

Looking through these photos I realise pomegranate seeds have featured highly this month…

The food was as delicious as I’d hoped and the Macedonian wine was pretty good. If you’re in the South Kensington  area, this is a restaurant to add to your must-visit list.

Loved
This month I’ve mostly loved feeling part of the community I live in. I’ve lived in London for nearly 20 years. And for all but 1 year of that time (when I had a brief sojourn in east London). I’ve lived within a 1 mile radius of exactly where I live now in south west London. I didn’t grow up in or study at University in London and also because I lived overseas for 4 years, living in London has always felt quite transient to me. I guess I thought I’d eventually move out to the country (almost certainly back to where I grew up in Kent), sometime in the mythical future when I don’t enjoy living here any more and London doesn’t excite me….yet 20 years on and the day hasn’t come yet. I’m sure it will. I think, maybe. But in the mean time I’m loving being part of a community which means the school run or walk to the Tube involves bumping into all sorts of new and old friends from the various strata of life over the last few years.

I’ve also enjoyed giving this blog a bit of love. Mostly under the hood stuff like speeding up the page load time (which I now know was crazily slow) and changing hosting company. I’m happy that I’ve stuck to the goal of making these monthly updates each month but I’m going to try and post more on the gluten free finds I’ve discovered on my travels recently.

I didn’t have a great deal of time this month for catching up on blog posts but this one on Tokyo restaurants with gluten free options did catch my eye. Note, the author doesn’t discuss cross contamination issues in this post. So, as ever, make sure you do your own research if you plan to visit any of these recommendations.