Thursday 23 June 2016

BLOODY PARKINSONS: BRAIN BURGERS


MEATliquor and Fergus Henderson collaborate on a brain burger. 

We bite into brains for a very good cause.


Burger chain MEATliquor  has teamed up with  St John  owner Fergus Henderson to create a brain burger, which it is selling in order to raise money for research into Parkinson’s Disease. 

Fergus Henderson — who suffers from Parkinson's himself — is famed for his nose-to-tail cooking and dishes such as bone marrow on toast.

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It’s rather appropriate then, that he’s partnered with MEATliquor founders Scott Collins and Yianni Papoutsis to create an offal burger.



The burger is made from a slice of calf’s brain fried in panko breadcrumbs and served with Sauce Gribiche, homemade mayonnaise and shredded cabbage — all sandwiched in a potato and onion roll from  St. John Bakery. 

The burgers are a strictly limited edition, available throughout June only from Monday to Friday at the MEATliquor restaurants in both Marylebone and Islington as well as MEATmission in Hoxton.


Those wishing to bite into the brain will need to  book a ticket in advance. Each ticket costs £30 and includes a brain burger, fries and a kitchen apron designed by Henderson.


Tickets are available now.  All of the profits will go directly to Parkinson’s research. 

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As it happens word of my blog has got out and I was invited with my wife to taste the brain burger at MEATliquor in Welbeck Street (back of Debenhams, Oxford Street).

As it happens, just 2 weeks earlier, we’d tried out CHICKENliquor in Brixton and had enjoyed their wings and meaty chicken dishes in various sauces (Thai, Korean etc) and had a great meal experience in the atmospheric old market. Very messy eating, if you know what I mean, in a good sort of way.

So, focusing first on ambience, it wasn’t a surprise to sit down in MEATliquor in a darkened room – decor seems based on what might be a war torn vibe (ie you have to see it) – with great music (loud), great friendly service, a great big tray to share from or leave the debris of great finger food if you feel so inclined, and a very appealing cocktail list, alo
ng with craft beer and the rest. We drank a Grapefruit High Wire and a WHEATliquor weissbier in frozen glasses, so no danger of warm beer.


Conversation ranged around whether brain burger raises your IQ or not; would it spontaneously increase my brain cells in size or number; would I take on the brain donor calf’s personality or start mooing; would it improve my dopamine flow and suppress the shake in my right hand; how were they going to ‘hold’ the brain in the bun and so on.

The brain burger was among the best burgers I’ve tasted; just different, sweeter and softer than expected, breadcrumbed, so more like a pattie than a burger, in a great two flavoured and textured bun. A pity there isn’t more offal on menus generally if this experience is a guide.

So there are a few more days of June to give the Brain Burger a try! Or miss your chance!


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Note that these are my individual thoughts and brain burger should not be relied upon in the search for a cure for PD!

Wednesday 22 June 2016

BLOODYPARKINSONS: FLYING THE FLAG


This blog is less about Parkinson’s and more about the issue of flying a flag in our front garden. We, that is the whole Jackson household, are all in favour of remain, so we have a blue with yellow stars EU flag. £3.28 from Amazon – a bargain. So we look like a sophisticated Euro family and, after all, some of our best friends are Belgian!

Meanwhile we are obviously England supporters at the Euros and so fly a cross of St George which comes out regularly for the short period when hopes are high.

The two flags are essentially unconnected and fly together in close harmony, except....

If you stand in the garden for a few minutes people put the two flags together and ask us if this means that either my wife or I are an urbane much travelled Guardian reading liberal. While the other is looking for a Russian with whom to start a fight.

The big red St George flag might as well say National Front / English Defence Force lives here; though I must say my shaven head isn’t helping one iota.

FAIRY HOUSE DOOR


If you recall the earlier blog in which I reported fairies at the bottom of our garden. Well someone keeps unscrewing and stealing their doorknob. This included a polar bear shaped knob. Perhaps it’s Boris or maybe Michael Gove angered by one or both of our flags?

MEANWHILE AT THE PUB


Six of us go to the pub and there are 24 teams in the Euros. In the sweepstake I have drawn plucky Albania, plucky Iceland, plucky Northern Ireland and plucky Turkey. Hey Ho. I’m feeling very plucky...

BRAIN BURGER

Next week I’ll report on an adventure I’ll be having eating a brain burger for Parkinson’s! Looking forward to it!

Monday 13 June 2016

BLOODY PARKINSONS: TRYING RESTORATIVE YOGA

Some parts of this blog are true.

Other parts less so.

One thing that is true is that I’m desperate to defeat PD. And always willing to try something new....even something called restorative yoga.


My wife is a yoga junky: no yoga is too extreme for her, whether late, early, hot, tepid, cold, strenuous or easy. So it came as no surprise that a free trial offer for both of us to give a go to Restorative Yoga hooked her. I was immediately booked in as a slightly resistant triallist. Objections from me included:

· What’s it all about?

· What is it restoring ‘cos nothing’s broken (not that I’m aware of)?

· Wednesday is pub night with the old lags. Some may not last much longer by the look of them, including me. Am I worth restoring?

· How much does a session cost?

Answers: yoga in the dark with cushions, the old lags will get through at least one Wednesday, about £10.00.  That’s less than a round for four in Wetherspoon’s. And it’s easy and you’ll enjoy it. And it’s near the pub for afterwards.

And after all that worrying I really enjoyed being pampered by the yoga woman. One man (me) and five women, all equipment provided, whale mating style music (ommminggg?), semi blacked out so very relaxing, easy positions and propped up with cushions, eyes covered by eucalyptus bags, option to stay in a 10 minute position for 20 minutes if you find one you like. Found a position called the Goddess and it was so comfortable that I just ommed in and drifted into my own private zone. Went to pub and fell asleep.

Verdict? Will definitely try it again.

MEANTIME: AT THE PUB


We discussed, inter alia, Brexit (all six of us are ‘remainers’ though one is a waverer), immigration, Majorca, asparagus v. Rhubarb (asparagus won), builder’s dust, gas main repairs, law courts, play off finals, and beer quality. Note the use of the so-called Oxford comma before ‘and’. All agree that we are not hearing clear arguments from either side!

Tuesday 7 June 2016

BLOODY PARKINSON’S: TRIPEWRITING

In case anyone wonders how I produce the written wordsof the Bloodyy Parkinson’s blog, with a shake greater than that of a maracas playing cocktail barmanin a force five gale, I thought I’’d simply type the first coupleof lines of one ofmy favourite poems, Casabiianca by Feliciia Hemans (1826), parodied by Ken Dodd and mmanny others as below:

Theboy sstood on the burning deck

When all before had fled

And when his feet had burned away

He stood upon hhis head.


That iillustrates how PD affects me. Far from the 10 fiinger typist I once was, I’m now a two finger typist at best.

And incidentally, some of my blog is true.


OTHER THINGS?


Towards the football season’s end I watched the mighty Brentford beat (very easily) the once mightier Wanderers of Bolton. At the final whistle I rose from my seat to find myself seemingly staring down into an abyss. For a moment I was stuck, unable to go forward, back or sideways and that’s in a tiny stadium. And so I had to sit down again before being ‘helped’ down to the ground by the throng. PD gets at your balancing capabilities as well as everything else you can think of. When I bought a round (Brentford’s Griffin Park is the only league ground in the country with a pub at each corner) I had to circumnavigate a pillar very cautiously in case of that old foe, beer spillage.

In the cinema I recently saw someone I know and went to shake hands, stepped up one stair and collapsed backwards dragging him with me. So we let go and I fell sideways into an empty seat and survived with just a bruised rib.

For another related example of PD inconvenience, turning over in bed is a bit of a nightmare as it can’t be done in one move. Say I’m asleep flat out and face down and wake wanting to turn right over or just onto my side, then for whatever reason, I have to turn my legs and then in a separate move, my trunk. Or vice versa, shift my trunk then my legs. Makes you feel pathetic. Similar problems arise in getting up from a low chair or sofa, or even rising from a bed which necessitates a rolling and simultaneous bending action.

Enough moaning. At least I sleep OK!


MEANWHILE....AT THE PUB

Wetherspoon’s have announced that they are selling the most central pub in SW15, The Railway. Cheap beer, attracting old and young, friendly, convenient for the station, no piped music, value for money food, range of well kept cask ales, spacious. Modelled on a fictional perfect pub – the Moon Under Water - invented by George Orwell for his column in the Evening Standard.

Who am I to question the logic of closing what looks like a successful operation, but its disappearance will create an awful gap.