Day 155 & 156 - A decent Sunday lunch yesterday and Did the road works start today?......

I have decided that on days where I do not have that much to report, I will blog every other day. I wouldnt want to bore you all now, would I?! It has been suggested to me in the past, but I have always been reluctant to do so, as my viewing figures always drop on the day after I don't blog. Its a bit of a toss up for me deciding which way to go, but I think better to give interesting material every other day, than wishy washy boring stuff every day. So here goes with the last 2 days worth....

We had a decent Sunday lunch this week. The temperatures have dropped by 5-10 C, and its no coincidence that numbers are getting back to normal. I was also delighted by the fact that we sold out of the bacon and brie salad starter, as I was sure they would all plump for the safer bet of mushroom soup! All in all, a good day. Sadly though, it seems as if my little 12 year old helper Jamie is not interested any more. He hasnt been now for about 5 weeks, so I think he's lost his desire to be a chef. Probably seen what its done to me!

We've just had another couple of very nice reviews on TripAdvisor today, that's 3 in a week! http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g187526-d1896877-r139188398-Lauras_at_Westbeach-Calpe_Costa_Blanca_Alicante_Province_Valencian_Country.html

We had gone from NO.2 to NO.5 just from the 2 dodgy reviews I spoke about a couple of days ago, so hopefully these will push us back up. It always seems to take a week or so to update itself, so we shall see...

On to today... I walked tentatively around the corner towards work this morning, as I wasnt too sure what to expect from the road works due to start today. For those of you not familiar with my blog, the local council have deemed in their infinite wisdom that the pavement directly outside our restaurant was going to be completely dug up for modernisation purposes. A positive thing I hear you all saying. Yes, very positive, if they hadnt decided to do it in our busiest month of the year! Where would we put our chairs and tables..., where would the customers sit..., would we have to open the restaurant upstairs to accomodate those who couldn't sit outside. The questions I was asking myself were endless. I needn't have worried. Here's the scene outside work this morning...

 

That's all they managed on day 1! A few plastic barriers. No work started yet. Fortunately for us, as we had a pretty busy day today, which we certainly wouldn't have had if the pavement had been dug up.

 

It was nice to see a few old faces return today from England. (A lot of our regulars go back to England for June, July and August as its too hot for them here during those months). We also had 2 couples pop in who had visited last year and looked in to see if we were still surviving! Ironically, they had come when the road works had started last year too!

 

 

We had some fish left over from work that needed using, so I brought it home with me this afternoon and set about making the filling for a fish pie. I sweated off some carrot, celery and leek, added some rosemary and smoked bacon and gently cooked for about 20 minutes. I then added some double cream, mustard and nutmeg and brought it all to a simmer. Added the chunks of cod, a couple of handfulls of spinach, some seasoning, and viola! It looked a bit like vomit, but it tastes really good! See what you think...

 

 

I'm guessing that no one will try it, but I'll keep you posted!

 

Right, that's it, it's 2am and I'm off to bed! Take care all and I will be back soon

Jimbo