Food

Brighton – Coffee

~ Cheryl ~ 5 Comments

I had a request on the blog last night for coffee houses in Brighton, particularly places where people could go and arrange kaffeklatsches that they don’t have to charge for. Quite how that is saving people money I don’t know, because the attendees will need to buy their own coffee, and that won’t be far off £5, but I guess it makes a point.

Anyway, Brighton with crawling with coffee houses. If you are an American and can’t do without Starbucks then they have them. UK people might suggest that you try Costa Coffee or Caffè Nero instead. I won’t get into religious wars over coffee chains (unless Gloria Jeans in involved, in which case we are talking real religion, but they are not in the UK, thank goodness).

There are also many independent coffee houses, and the occasional local chain. Small Batch, for example, is an interesting little company. And of course hotels, bars, pubs and so on will serve coffee.

The trouble is that this is often English coffee. Did you think that there can’t be anything worse than American coffee? Oh my sweet goddess, you have not died and gone to hell unless you have experienced English coffee.

Anyway, this all led to a lengthy discussion on Twitter involving Lavie Tidhar who, coming from a Mediterranean country, is serious about his coffee. I have been to Zagreb. I have some inkling of what he means. There is a list of the better coffee shops in Brighton here. The one I am going to recommend is this one. That’s partly because the owners are from Melbourne, partly because of the name — Mr. Wolfe — which means we have to take Gary there, and partly because Lavie took a look at their website and was just about polite about them. There’s a recommendation.

Brighton Restaurants – The Wrap Post #WFC

~ Cheryl ~ 4 Comments

Over the past few weeks I have done quite a few posts about places to eat in Brighton. I thought it would be useful to do a link post that collects them all in one place for easy RTing. Here you go.

Important: Brighton restaurants get very busy over the weekend. If you want to eat at the place of your choice, book in advance.

WFC members may also be interested in a number of reports I wrote for the online tourism site, IGoUGo, a few years back. Well, over a decade ago… sadly many of the restaurants mentioned are long gone (I particularly mourn Mamma Cheri’s and Coriander) and the West Pier has burned down, but a lot of the history remains:

Brighton Restaurants – Afternoon Tea

~ Cheryl

I have had a request from Twitter for suggestions of places to take Afternoon Tea in Brighton. I guess that is what one is supposed to do, especially if one is an American tourist. Please bear in mind that I have not had the opportunity to test any of these places, but I have done a bit of online research and these places look worth trying.

First up the Metropole is quite proud of its afternoon tea. If you are in a hurry this might be the best bet, because a lot of the good places are in Kemptown, the city’s gay quarter, which is a little way away. Having afternoon tea is, of course, a very gay thing to do.

The closest option, just along the sea front towards the pier, is The Mock Turtle. It is apparently the oldest tea shop in Brighton, and one of their specialties is huge donuts.

The place that gets the best reviews is Metrodeco, which affects a 1930s Paris atmosphere. They even have vintage clothes that you can rent for your visit. And they serve tea cocktails. They are at the far end of St. James’s Street so those of you allergic to walking might want to get a cab.

The other option that I have to list, even though it makes me cringe, is The Tea Cosy. You should be able to tell from the website what sort of place it is. The Times generously describes it as “Dazzlingly kitch”. If you are the sort of American who still has Charles & Diana wedding pictures on your wall, this is the place for you.

Brighton Restaurants – Money No Object

~ Cheryl

Eating out in the UK is quite expensive. If you are planning to have a three-course meal with a drink you should probably set aside at least £30. However, there are places in Brighton that cost significantly more than that, and are well beyond my pocket. For those of you who can afford something really special, here are a couple of suggestions.

Graze is a very elegant restaurant in the middle of Hove’s Regency district. You can eat there for a reasonable price at lunch time, but what they are famous for is their seven-course grazing menu. Essentially this is a sampler of their menu. You get relatively small portions for each course, but there are lots of interesting dishes. That will set you back £50, and if you can afford that much you should probably splash out £85 to have specially selected wines with each course. There is a vegetarian option that is slightly cheaper, but not much.

Those of you who are into MEAT should check out The Coal Shed, where the specialize in grilled meat and fish, cooked in a specially built charcoal oven. The steak comes from Scotland, the fish is fresh out of the sea. They do Chateaubriand.

Brighton Restaurants – The Marlborough

~ Cheryl

Well, more of a pub than a restaurant, and as much of a queer club and theater as a pub. When we have an Outer Alliance meet-up with the local community (which I am sure we will), it will be in the Marlborough, because that is where such things happen in Brighton.

Of course it is a pub, so you’ll be wanting to know about the beer. They have the usual stuff, but also stock beers from a couple of local breweries: WJ King and Dark Star. Katherine McMahon and I did a tasting of the more girly offerings from these folks. Our verdict is that the Sunburst is deliciously smooth and summery, but the Brighton Blonde has much more of the traditional bitterness that people often want from their beer.

As I mentioned above, the Marlborough is a club. They put on lots of events. In particular, on Thursday October 31st, they will be staging a Halloween event. There will be costumes, there will be DJs, and there will be the Voodoo Love Orchestra. Really, what more does World Fantasy need? So do bring your costumes, and let’s horrify the fuddy-duddies on the World Fantasy Board.

Voodoo Love Orchestra – Thriller from Jack Chute on Vimeo.

Brighton Restaurants – Dig in the Ribs

~ Cheryl

I found this place because one of their chefs is also a student at the university and attended the conference where I was speaking. If you conclude that this makes it a queer-friendly restaurant then you would be dead right. Then again, pretty much every restaurant in Brighton has to be queer-friendly, or they’d soon be out of business.

Perhaps more importantly for WFC attendees, this is another opportunity to have American home cooking. Dig in the Ribs styles itself at TexMex in its decor and advertising, and it does serve premium tequilas, which I doubt you’ll find in many other Brighton venues. But it is the ribs that are really important here, and that of course means BBQ.

Thanks to Vanessa kindly phoning ahead and asking her colleague to give me a sample of their fare, I got a platter for starters. The chili poppers and nachos were fine, though I could have taken a spicier salsa. The wings were delicious, and I was glad that I had ordered that half-and-half main course so I’d get more of them. I should note that these were BBQ wings, not hot wings.

I’m not a huge expert on BBQ, and I know that some of my American friends are very serious about it, so I’m not going to attempt to pass judgement on the ribs. All I can say is that there was plenty of meat, and I thought the sauce was delicious.

For dessert I had something called a banchanga, which is a banana and toffee wrapped in a pancake and fried. It comes with ice cream. Some of the other desserts looked yummy too.

Given that these folks are so friendly, I’m planning to have dinner there rather than Smokey’s, but the latter might be a good bet for Sunday brunch if you are not having the banquet (which Kevin and I are not).

Brighton Restaurants – Giggling Squid

~ Cheryl

My original plan was to try the Little Fish Market on Tuesday night, but there was no answer when I called to book and they didn’t phone me back so I decided to try something else. I look for Thai restaurants online and found Giggling Squid. How could I not go?

They are actually a chain, but all of their branches are in Sussex. Maybe they want to be near the sea. Anyway, I went to the branch in Hove, which was nearer my hotel, but for World Fantasy people will probably go to the Brighton branch.

For starters I had the salt & pepper squid, because the menu enthuses about how good it is, and because I love that sort of dish. The only disappointment was that there was not more of it. I could have happily had that as a main course.

Instead I tried the Pad Cha, which is a mixed seafood stir fry. I ordered it in part because I wanted to check the “hot” on the menu actually meant hot on the plate. I’m pleased to report that it did. Also, seafood, it is what cats like.

For dessert I had the black sesame ice cream. I don’t think it is a flavor I’ll be seeking out in future, but it was certainly very edible.

As always with Thai restaurants, the food was beautifully presented.

Busy Day

~ Cheryl

Well, that was fun. I spent most of today at the Queer in Brighton conference. My paper seemed to go down well, and I met lots of lovely people. I’ll blog more about it tomorrow when I have a bit of time.

I’ve also been busy testing restaurants in advance of World Fantasy. If you haven’t been following me on Twitter you need to check out Giggling Squid and Dig in the Ribs. Again there will be more bloggage in due course.

New From Galley Beggar: The Time Machine

~ Cheryl

OK, this novella isn’t actually about a time machine. Well, not a real one anyway. I quote from the blurb:

It tells of Ashok’s attempts to cook food like mum used to make. If he succeeds, his time machine will have worked and he’ll be transported back to a time when the family home was alive with the sounds of cricket, the smell of food and the presence of his mother. The story is a tender, funny ode to home-cooked Gujarati cooking (‘not tandoori or balti, are you rogan joshing me?’), peppered with family recipes and outdated wisdom from over-bearing aunties. It may well make you want to cry. It will definitely make you hungry.

It has Gujarati home cooking recipes. It is only £1. And of that 25p goes to the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation. Just buy it, OK?

Å pancirfest

~ Cheryl

Yesterday evening we drove about 70km to the nearby city of Varaždin to visit Å pancirfest. The name means “walking festival”, which basically means that it is spread all over town. Let me explain.

The city of Varaždin was almost completely destroyed by fire in 1776. When they rebuilt, the people of Varaždin elected to go for wide streets and large squares (I’d say “plazas”, but that would indicate a preference for the Austrian term, “plaz”, rather than the local word, “trg”, which might not go down well.) Mostly Å pancirfest is like a Christmas Market, and many of the stalls use the same little wooden cabins, but it is spread out all over town with lots of different themed areas. Also there are concerts (Skunk Anansie are headlining), stand-up comedy, outdoor movies, street performers and so on. One of the few remaining mediaeval streets gets turned into an actual artists’ alley.

Mostly we just wandered around looking at stuff, though Mihaela plans to take Iggy back there later in the week because there are some amazing kids’ activity stalls. What amazed me most about the whole thing is that we didn’t arrive until after 8:00pm and the place was still hopping. Those stalls that were closed were ones that were taking the whole of Monday off after a busy weekend.

The majority of the stalls were of a craft nature: jewelry, herbal remedies, fine foods, local spirits and so on. I did, however, detect a familiar scent in the air, and sure enough it was a Lush stall.

Our local guide, Žarko, guided us to a food tent near the castle. Croatians are very fond of their meat. When you order a hamburger here it comes six inches across, and the only standard additions appear to be onion and the delicious local relish, Ajvar, both of which are served on the side. For preference I would have Ćevapi rather than a simple burger, but they weren’t on offer. We did have some splendid cakes, though.

Varaždin is famous for its baroque architecture, and the interior of the castle is apparently very splendid. Žarko tells me that the beds inside are very short because of a local myth that if you slept lying down you might die, so people slept sitting up.

All too soon it was time to head back to Zagreb. We left well after 10:00pm and the festival was still busy.

Rijeka

~ Cheryl ~ 4 Comments

As I mentioned this morning, the day began with a spectacular and prolonged thunder storm that put paid to Liburnicon’s plans for a pirate cruise around the islands. I’m sorry to have missed the trip, and in particular the colony of Griffon Vultures on the island of Cres, but there were plenty of other things to see. I ended up spending a lot of the day in the large city of Rijeka which is just along the coast from Opatija.

Under its Italian name of Fiume, the city was, with Trieste, one of the major ports of the Austro-Hungarian empire. It has an excellent deep-water port which now serves container ships. And, of course, there is a local fan group. We met up with them in a pub. This one.

Prior to WWI, the US maintained a consulate in Rijeka, and one of the diplomats who held the job was one Fiorello La Guardia, better known to the world as a Mayor of New York. Rijeka is very proud of this connection. The pub is in the building where he lived, and is named after him.

Given the connection with New York, the pub serves a lot of cocktails. Currently they are promoting a Tyrolean specialty which is similar to a Mojito but is made with elderflower cordial. Traditionally it is only made around this time of year when the elderflowers are available, which is why it is getting promoted.

The name of this cocktail is Hugo.

So yes, I attended a meeting of a Croatian SF group, a few days before Worldcon, and the outside of the venue was festooned with posters proclaiming, “It’s Hugo Time!”.

A Tour of the Smoke, Islay Style

~ Cheryl ~ 6 Comments

Last night I attended a whisky tasting run by my new pals at Independent Spirit Bath. It wasn’t just any whisky either, we were concentrating on Islay malts, and given that I am very partial to strongly peaty flavors this was ideal for me.

First up was a whisky I had never heard of: Kilchoman. My excuse is that it is very new. They opened in 2005, so their product is barely old enough to come to market. It is very much a craft project — a small distillery doing as much as they can themselves: the whisky equivalent of a microbrewery. Our host for the evening, Chris Scullion, who has been in the whisky business for many years, described the taste as “stale ashtrays”, and by Goddess he’s right. Islays can be like that. Heck, I often describe Lagavulin as tasting of creosote. But Kilchoman doesn’t taste awful (I only once kissed someone who smoked — won’t ever do it again). Somehow it manages a fascinating flavor. If it is this good now, it is probably going to be spectacular when it has aged longer.

Offering two was actually a blend, but Smokey Joe is a blend made solely from Islay malts. It was launched in 2009 to the accompaniment of an expensive marketing campaign. One of my fellow tasters (by the way, I was the only girl there) described it as tasting of bacon, but it was sweeter than that, unless you’ve been smoking the bacon in honey or something. Chris said it had a burnt caramel taste, which I think described it better. It was pleasant enough, and being a blend will be cheaper than the single malts, but I don’t think it is anything to write home about.

Next up was Port Charlotte Peat Project, a malt produced by the Bruichladdich distillery. I found it very smooth and creamy. Definitely worth checking out. Mark Charan Newton, who knows far more about whisky than I do, recently spent his honeymoon on Islay, and today he posted this report of his visit to Bruichladdich.

Caol Ila is a whisky that many of you will have experience of, though not in its raw state. It is a major component of Johnny Walker. One of the reasons it has that honor is that the distillery produces a large volume of reliably consistent whisky, year-after-year. Also Caol Ila plays well with other flavors. Chris talked about using it in cocktails. I wasn’t hugely impressed with it, but I’d be interested to try some of the higher-priced variants on offer, and also Port Askaig, an independently bottled whisky from an “unidentified” distillery which just happens to take its name from the town in which the Caol Ila distillery is located.

Finally we were offered something rather different, a peated Speyside. Many of you will be familiar with Tomintoul, a multi-award-winning small Speyside distillery. Well, every so often a whisky distillery needs to shut down and clean out the stills. Before they do that, Tomintoul does a short run making a peated whisky. Given that the whole system is going to get blasted clean before the next batch of Tomintoul is made, it doesn’t matter that they add the additional flavor briefly. The result is Old Ballantruan, which they also choose to bottle at 50% abv.

BOOM!

Oh my goodness that was impressive. Obviously if lots of smoke and lots of alcohol are not your thing then this won’t tickle your taste buds. But I figure that if you have read this far you are probably an Islay malt fan too, in which case, try this. Honestly, Speyside can do peat, and it is amazing.

My thanks to Chris for a lovely evening. I suspect I may do other tastings at that venue. There is talk of a rum one in the near future. And maybe tequila. 🙂

More on Brighton Restaurants

~ Cheryl

Pete Sutton of the Bristol Festival of Literature has sent me some suggestions for Brighton restaurants that he got from a friend who lives there.

Terre à Terre: best veggie/vegan restaurant in Sussex. A bit pricy, but so good — even meateaters won’t be disappointed!

Sabai: a great (and a bit romantic) Thai place by the Pavilion.

Chilli Pickle: a fab Indian place by library (if you go, go for the thali. It’ll knock your socks off.)

The Blue Man: a tasty North African place near the station.

Binari: Korean place on Preston St. that doesn’t look like much, but does incredible food at a very good price.

Vinos Y Tapas: also on Preston St., does excellent tapas.

Foodilic: on North St does a very tasty vegetarian buffet.

Rockola: a Rock N Roll greasy spoon cafe with a jukebox.

Moshimo: a good/fancy Japanese place by the town hall, with a conveyor belt. If you are still there on Monday, check out their Moshimo madness offer for cheap sushi!

Murasaki: a cheap and tasty Bento cafe/takeaway.

Now I’m hungry. I think I might try Sabai on the next trip.

Brighton – The Photos

~ Cheryl

I have uploaded the photos I took on my trip to Brighton last weekend. The include a bunch of scenic shots of the sea front, various restaurants, and the meals I ate at Smokey’s and Indian Summer. There are not many pictures of Trans Pride because trans people are generally very nervous about being photographed and there were quite enough people with cameras going round pestering the attendees as it was.

Those of you going to World Fantasy should note the pirate-themed crazy golf course that is on the sea front in front of the Metropole. If the weather is good I think we have to play that.

[shashin type=”album” id=”60″ size=”medium”]

Bath Shopping – Way Too Tempting

~ Cheryl ~ 2 Comments

On the way home from Bristol I stopped off in Bath to meeting up with a couple of friends (hello Daniel and Zoe) and introduce them to Mr. B’s. I also had a book to pick up; Mermaid in Chelsea Creek by Michelle Tea, which I am very much looking forward to. I always end up buying books when I’m in Bath.

I tend to buy food as well. I popped into the sausage shop to grab something for dinner, and was wandering back to the station when I noticed a new shop: Independent Spirit. Oh dear Goddess am I doomed. A specialist shop selling top quality boutique alcohol is somewhere I can end up spending lots of money. I very nearly bought a bottle of the famous Kraken rum, but I came away with a couple of beers instead, including this one, which is going straight into a chili.

WFC Restaurant Review – Indian Summer

~ Cheryl

A heavy rain storm hit Brighton mid-afternoon, and as I had to be on a 5:00pm train I bailed on Pride as soon as it stopped. I’d not actually had any lunch, and as I had time I popped into Indian Summer.

East Street, not far from the Pavilion, is best known for designer clothes and high end beauty products. Lush is probably the most affordable shop in the street. There are, however, restaurants. These include Terre à Terre, which I am told is the best vegetarian restaurant in town; Maison du Vin, a bistro and wine bar; and Indian Summer. In fact they are all next door to each other.

There was a set two-course lunch menu so I opted for that. I started with Paneer Shashlik — skewers loaded with paneer (Indian cheese), pineapple, beetroot and tomatoes. That was delicious. The main course was Laal Maas, a Rajasthani lamb curry served with pulao rice, and in my case a roti on the side. It wasn’t as firey as the menu makes out, but it was beautifully cooked and the roti was wonderful. There was mango lassi too, obviously. I hadn’t been planning to have dessert, and all of the ones on offer were Western. However, the lady at the table next to me had something which looked amazing, so I asked for one too. It turned out to be espresso cheesecake, served in chocolate cups with amaretto crumbs on the side rather than a crumb base. Goddess it was good. I am so going back to that place.

A couple of logistical comments. Many British shops and restaurants don’t take Amex because the charges are higher (and, you know, it is American and therefore EVIL). Both places I ate in Brighton were happy to take my card, and the waiter in Indian Summer explained to me that Amex has a big office in the city, so everyone has to take their cards. Also he reinforced the message I got from last night: if you want a table at a good restaurant in Brighton, especially for a large group and especially at a weekend, book in advance.

I’ll have a photo stream, including all of the dishes I ate this weekend, up later in the week.

WFC Restaurant Review – Smokey’s

~ Cheryl

The most important thing that I have learned today abut eating out in Brighton is that you have to book in advance. Admittedly it is the height of the summer, and things are very busy. Also the Australian cricket team is in town, so there are lots of hungry, and thirsty, Australian fans to cater for. Even so, if you want to eat at a really good restaurant in Brighton at the weekend then you need to book in advance. You can’t just go out of an evening and expect to get a table anywhere popular.

The chap I spoke to at The Little Fish Market said that they are fully booked in advance most weekends. This was a great shame, because the place looked lovely and the menu was interesting.

On the other hand, it meant I had to go in search of somewhere else to eat. Fortunately I had somewhere in mind: Smokey’s. I knew that they were down on the sea front, but I hadn’t quite twigged that they are almost next door to the Metropole. And they are, as the name suggests, an American barbecue restaurant.

There are some downsides. Indoors was fully booked. As it was a nice evening, I was able to sit at one of the outside tables, but the outside furniture is not very comfortable at my size, and would be even worse for the gravitationally challenged. Make sure you get a table inside.

Also the beer selection is poor. I ended up with a bottle of Blue Moon, which is actually quite nice, but is an “American craft beer” brewed by Coors in Canada. They could do so much better.

As for the food, the buffalo wings I had to start were spectacular. When they said spicy, they meant spicy, and the barbecue sauce was great too. The pulled pork main course was OK. It was a very big mound of meat, and it was very tender, but the sauce was nowhere near as tasty as for the wings. I guess it isn’t supposed to be spicy, but even so I’m sure there must be places in Kansas, or even Chicago, that do barbecue better.

What I will say is that this place does barbecue very competently, which is a very unusual thing over this side of the Atlantic. Better still, they do breakfast. If you find yourself fed up of the traditional British heap of oily stuff fried in more oil, and are hankering after some huevos rancheros, blueberry pancakes, or even just that weird stuff that claims to be bacon but has no meat on it, this is the place for you. And, being almost right next to the hotel, it is very convenient.

With all that pulled pork in my stomach, I decided to take a very long walk along the seafront. It was a lovely evening, if a trifle chilly. The mad British had decided that, with temperatures dipping below 20C, it was cold enough to go swimming. I declined to join them.

Brighton can be incredibly beautiful at this time of year: sweeping vistas of elegant Georgian sea front terraces. Sadly come the end of October it will probably become afflicted with gale force winds off the Channel and driving rain, but if we do get a few calm days I can see Kevin and I having breakfast at Smokey’s and then walking it off along the promenade.

World Fantasy Scouting

~ Cheryl ~ 1 Comment

Next weekend I’ll be in Brighton for Trans Pride, and while I’m there I should make good use of the opportunity and scout out restaurants in advance of World Fantasy. Here are a few places of interest.

My favorite Brighton restaurant (well, Hove actually) is Coriander. However, I’ve been trying to phone them to make a booking and got no answer. I’ve now seen that Yelp has the restaurant marked as closed. No wildebeest burger, then. I am distraught.

Assuming that’s confirmed when I get there, top of my list to try out is The Little Fish Market, which sounds very interesting. Also, fish. Have I told you that I have cat genes?

American visitors may, of course, be much more interested in MEAT. For them, the best option would appear to be The Coal Shed. It is also a little more pricey.

If you prefer a taste of Olde Englande, I can recommend English’s. I’ve only eaten there once, but while I was having my lunch Judi Dench walked in, which suggests that they can attract people who can choose to eat anywhere.

Finally, because traditional British food means curry these days, I’m going to check out Indian Summer. They’ve won a bunch of awards recently and come highly recommended. That hopefully means that they don’t serve the cookie-cutter dishes common in most curry houses. If I’m really lucky they’ll compare well with the places I ate in Delhi.

Last Banquet Preview

~ Cheryl

The Last Banquet - Jonathan Grimwood

Last night I headed into Bath for a reading at Mr. B’s Emporium of Reading Delights. The guest writer was a chap called Jonathan Grimwood, whom you lot probably know better as Jon Courtenay Grimwood, IMHO one of the most under-rated science fiction authors around. The reason that Jon is masquerading under a new identity almost as cunningly disguised as Iain M. Banks is that he has a mainstream novel out. It is called The Last Banquet, and it is getting rave reviews.

The book tells the life story of Jean-Marie d’Aumout, and impoverished orphan nobleman in pre-revolutionary France. Jean-Marie turns out to have a sense of taste comparable to Mozart’s ear for music, and with the Enlightenment encouraging scientific exploration he sets out to discover all that there is to be known about taste. His quest is made somewhat easier when he is put in charge of the Royal Menagerie.

Oh dear me yes. This is a cookery-themed novel with recipes for such things as flamingo tongue and wolf’s heart pickle. It being Jon, it will be beautifully written, and I suspect that in places it will be very funny. I hope it does really well for Jon.

Finncon Day 1 – Hugos, Beer & Burgers

~ Cheryl ~ 2 Comments

Friday began with more academic papers, which I will write about eventually, but not when I have so few braincells as I have right now. That was mainly a result of the rest of the day. I had to leave around noon to get to the main convention site. I was a bit miffed about this because it meant that I missed the papers on android women and M. John Harrison’s Light, but I was needed on the panel about this year’s Hugo Award nominees.

Actually we talked almost exclusively about the novels and short stories. There was a surprising amount of agreement. The panel (Tommy Persson, Marianna Leikomaa & Jukka Halme) agreed with me that the novel list was very poor, and that the short stories were all very good in their own ways but appealed to very different audiences. We also touched briefly on Novelette to note that “The Girl Thing Who Went Out For Sushi” is brilliant and you should all read it.

After that I inhaled some food and went to see Peter Watts being interviewed. Peter ingratiated himself with the locals immediately by saying that he wanted to stay here having sauna for the rest of his life. He’s Canadian; I’m sure he’ll be able to handle the Finnish winter.

Around 16:00 I finally managed to get into my hotel room. The Holiday Inn here is a very nice, modern hotel with pretty much everything you expect from such things, and free wifi. It is about 5 minutes walk from the con site. Note that his is not the site, or the Holiday Inn, that are the proposed Worldcon venue, but if the other Holiday Inn is as nice as this one you’ll all be very pleased when you get here.

Back at the convention, Aliette was interviewed by Tom Crosshill, and I met the contingent of Russian fans who have come over to make friends here. I have since purchased a membership in the St. Petersburg Eurocon (2015), and I see that Joe Abercrombie is a Guest of Honor. They also have some chap called Jukka Halme, who is getting to be a GoH at half the cons I go to these days. This is what you call targeted marketing: our Russian friends are appealing to British and Finnish fans, which I think is a pretty smart move.

For the evening Tero had promised to take me in search of the fabled Stallhagen Blueberry Ale. This is a seasonal concoction made by the craft brewery from Ã…land (see my Ã…con 5 report when I visited their facilities). The beer will only be available for a few months this summer, so if we wanted to try it we had to do so now. An expedition was assembled, and the beer successfully found. It was quite nice, and did indeed have a blueberry tang to it. For UK beer fans, Martin Easterbrook was with us, and might be persuaded to give a verdict. However, the pub where we found it didn’t have very good food so we moved on.

Tero got us a table at Stones Gastopub. People, if (when) you come to Helsinki for Worldcon, you have to eat here. They were quite busy and it took a long time for our food to arrive, but when it did it was amazing. I’ve been to a few high-end burger joints in my time, but this one is the best so far. Everyone else in the party seemed happy too. Tero finally got to try their moose sausage, and Johan gave his seal of approval to their vegetarian option. The beer was good too. Our waiter (who had the Arrows of Chaos symbol tattooed on each elbow) recommended that I try Aventinus. I’d not had a dark wheat beer before. Now I want to do so regularly.

Back at the hotel, I got waylaid by Irma who had a bottle of Balvenie Doublewood. This was probably not a good idea, but I had some anyway because it is one of my favorite whiskies. But that’s why you didn’t get this blog last night.