Today I took Bernard out to his favourite restaurant, Da Remo, in Denham.
I had messed around all morning not doing anything special and Maggi had gone to town to meet her friend Liz. I suddenly realised the time and headed out in a rush. I arrived at Bernard’s place to find him already standing there in his coat and ready to go. Bernard usually invites me in and then prepares to go out so I realised that I had arrived later than he expected.
On the drive over to Denham we encountered a traffic jam around Maple Cross but despite this we arrived exactly on time at 1 pm. I let Bernard out and I parked the car. When I made it back to the restaurant he had already started to examine the menu. I don’t suppose the place has changed in the last thirty years with wood panels and mature waiters who probably joined the establishment when it first opened. They know him quite well. He is due to eat there again next Tuesday.
As I looked around I couldn’t see anyone under sixty. Nearly every table in the restaurant had diners which made the room very noisy. Bernard has a very quiet voice so I found it difficult to hear what he said and I ended up asking him to repeat himself fairly often. At the same time his hearing isn’t great so we had quite a stilted conversation.
I think Bernard likes the place because they know his name and he likes the familiarity of a place that he has visited many times. I’m sure he doesnt come here because of the food quality. I wouldn’t describe the cooking as terrible but it will never receive any awards. I ate Veal Milanese with the standard vegetables of the house which consisted of a few bits of broccoli and carrots. I left the sauté potatoes in the serving dish. Bernard had a starter of deep fried goats cheese which looked awful and followed that with spaghetti carbonara. Even he said that the solid pancetta presented difficulties for his teeth.
We finished with coffees and left after nearly two hours.
On the journey back to Bernard’s and then onward to home I faced even more traffic problems which meant that I didn’t arrive until way after 4 pm. Our next stop at No 38 planned for 7 pm required us to take food. Maggi and I had jointly made an aubergine curry and Maggi had mostly prepared a dhal dish on Thursday, so we didn’t need to rush. I’m not used to eating two meals in a day so at lunch I hadn’t drunk any alcohol and had only one course knowing that we were going out in the evening.
Sean and Sheila greeted us. He is always very generous with drink, but I didn’t have a whisky all evening and restrained myself with the quantity of wine I put done my throat. Maggi and I both enjoyed their company and their two boys are delightful. We had a few laughs and some serious anti Tory discussions, however by about 10 I could see Sean slow right down so I made the first move to go. It took awhile for us to leave because Maggi always drags departures out. I think for politeness sake.