I have been flat out entertaining and getting the house ready for the impending heat pump installation, hence the delay in this one.

Cheese…and cake?

Part of entertaining is necessarily cooking (traditionally speaking, of course) and since I was making my oft requested Korean fried chicken, I wanted to do something a little different for dessert. I had a friend recommend a recipe from Yotam Ottolenghi’s “Simple” (a somewhat ironic title given the complexity of some of his recipes!) but on this occasion it was genuinely manageable. A yoghurt and white chocolate cheesecake topped with thyme-infused honey. I was a little skeptical of the herbal element although it was an excuse to use some fresh thyme from the garden. The base was made from crushed Hobnobs with a tablespoon of fresh thyme leaves in the mix, bound with melted butter. It was a hit, and got even better after a couple of days.

New be-gin-innings?

We made it out for a few Exeter and Plymouth based adventures this weekend, including lunch at the Conservatory on North Street in Exeter, and dinner in Knead Pizza in Plymouth. The Conservatory serves modern British cuisine in an unpretentious setting, and is home to an original Tudor wall. The lunch menu is excellent value at £12 for two courses and £15 for three. We’ve eaten there twice now and both times have been great, and it is well worth a look if you’re in the area. Collecting guests from Exeter airport followed by lunch at the Conservatory is becoming something of a tradition for us.

Knead Pizza is the latest restaurant to be housed within Prysten House in Plymouth, a building dating back to circa 1498, and previous home to the Greedy Goose and Platos. Delicious pizza in an awesome historic setting. It’s reasonably priced, too.

The highlight, as you may have gathered from the subheading, was a trip to the Plymouth Gin Distillery in the heart of the Barbican. I’m no Plymouth gin neophyte, having been on different tasting tours twice, and this time we went for the Gin Connoisseur’s Tour. This time the tasting took place within a secret bar (and tasting room) deep within the building, surrounded by bottles of every possible variety of Plymouth gin through the ages. The previous tasting experiences took place within the Refectory Bar at the top of the building, but I found the smaller room offered a more personal experience for our smaller group. Seven gin (and gin-adjacent) samples plus a gin-based cocktail is no small feat, so make sure you’re not driving for this one. Unless you don’t like gin, although I’ve heard this tour can even convert the non-believer.