#11: Reccs - Highgate Cemetery's famous residents

Plus, the best meal I've eaten all year + royal facts you prob knew already

Book: The Book of Beginnings – Sally Page

This is the happiest book I’ve read all year. It’s about a woman who escapes her ordinary life to run an ordinary stationary shop, but she meets life-changing people. It’s heartwarming and charming without being twee or saccharine, and in very ‘eldest daughter’ energy, I sent it to my parents to read on their upcoming trip – so hopefully they’ll enjoy it enough to justify lugging it to New Zealand.

What I also particularly enjoyed about this book is that it cleverly weaves in lots of history about Highgate’s famous cemetery. I only knew Marx was buried there (I was going to go there to see his grave last year, but you have to pay a fiver to see it. Not very communist). There are loads of notable people buried there, including fascinating people I’ve never heard of (including Isachar Zacharie, who had an unbelievable story).

TV: The Crown (Netflix)

I tried to watch The Crown when it first came out, but found it a bit dry so I gave up after episode 2. However, I came back to it after only 8 seasons after realising that maybe three million people were maybe onto something.

I suspect that this recommendation will do little to sway anyone who hasn’t watched it; but I just want to say that it’s a delight.

As someone with a fairly remedial on history, I learned a lot (I know not it’s not completely accurate for *dramatic purposes*); but I now know:

• It was a big deal that Elizabeth’s coronation was televised, and it was Philip’s idea. I just assumed if TV existed of course it would be, but I guess The Firm wanted mystique and secrecy

• Winston Churchill was PM twice (no other comments, I just didn’t know)

• The Queen hired a private tutor so she can converse better with all of the hobnobs. Of course she wouldn’t have been taught normal school stuff, she would have been taught princess / potential queen things

Anyway, if you have no desire to watch it because of lack of interest or like for the Royal Family, but like little bits of digestible history and human interest, I recommend giving it a go.

One of the best meals I’ve had in a restaurant this year

This week I went to Erst in Ancoats, Manchester with my former restaurant buddy, Karoline. I’d heard Jay Rayner loved it, so I thought it was a pretty safe bet. The menu didn’t look that ‘wow’, but EVERYTHING was wow. I could have gone back the next day and eaten the entire menu.

Nibbles: olives three times the size of normal ones, really salty and substantial (I ate most of them with gulps of Grüner Veltliner out of their cute, perfectly shaped and branded glasses), a simple oyster that was accompanied with what appeared to just be lemon but was of course, perfection.

Moving onto starter territory, beetroot with green chilli and ajo blanco (a kind of white gazpacho), which was all the right combinations of sweet, tangy and creamy. A grilled flatbread (which was anything but flat – it was so puffy and light) with beef fat and chilli was dreamy. We were unconvinced by ‘Pasta e Ceci’, on the menu, a chickpea pasta – the waitress strongly recommended we order it, so we did. It was the best thing we ate – handmade pasta, little crispy bits of something (breadcrumb?), the most deep, flavourful broth.

The last savoury, a beef onglet tartare, on sourdough with an oozy egg yolk – do I need to say any more?

Dessert: all of the other panna cottas I’ve eaten paled into insignificance in the presence of this wobbly, dense, creamy structure, which was paired with jammy, syrupy prunes, and a glass of jammy, syrupy PX sherry.

I am open to invitations to return (and if you have the opportunity, GO). It was about £60 each for a half bottle of wine each, 7 plates and a glass each of dessert wine.