THEGAYUK

Day: 8 February 2017

  • RESTAURANT REVIEW | Inamo

    RESTAURANT REVIEW | Inamo

    ★★★★ | Inamo

    A beautiful branch of the small restaurant chain Inamo has opened up in a huge beaux arts building right across from Mornington Crescent tube station – and it’s delicious, classy and wonderful.

    Inamo, which also has branches in Soho and Covent Garden, and which means being a slave to, is just that, being a slave to it’s food as it’s simply elegant and divine.

    On the Sunday of Chinese New Year (the year of the Rooster), a friend and I paid a visit to the Camden branch for dinner. The two story restaurant, neatly tucked away in the massive British Heart Foundation headquarters, was practically empty. We didn’t really care – we were there for the food. And oh the glorious food! But to get to the food you have to order via a computer tablet on the table (with photos of the food – which really helps!), and a little push button device for each diner which enables one to change the color of the table via the lighting system above the table. (You can also change to a ‘tablecloth’ of many different types – bamboo, chinese lanterns, lilies of the field, moving patters or to my favorite a ripple effect). Ping Pong is also an option in case you and your dinner date get tired of looking at your phones.

    The starters we had were the Iberico Baby Pork Ribs delicious ribs. The large five were glazed in plum sugar and shredded bell pepper on top – and at £8.75 worth every bite. The Char Sui buns (£8.95) were three very large BBQ pork buns – served with a tangy Thai sweet chilli sauce – very good but also very filling! My dining companion ordered Black Cod for her main course. At £24.95 it’s a bit pricy, but it’s garnished with cabbage and onions and bits of apple – she felt that it tasted very plain and looked too plain. I, on the other hand, was very happy with the Sliced Pork Chop with Yakiniku Sauce (corn syrup, apple juice, garlic salt soy sauce and vinegar), served with rice and Thai Mango Salad. I think this was the best course on the menu – tasty, different, and at £15.95 – good value for it’s money. We really wanted to get a good handle, and taste, of the menu so we had a few more dishes coming our way. The highly recommended Crispy Vegetable Tempura (£9.95) was deliciously-breaded vegetables (courgettes, asparagus, and mushrooms), absolutely yummy with a tempura dipping sauce. Also recommended is the Chicken Poké – a light and lively large bowl of chicken, served over a bed of lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes and edamame beans and was good but lacked something – perhaps it needs a kick of salad dressing instead of the olive oil it’s served with.

    It was very hard to initially chose what to eat, and we tried as many dishes as we could, but there were lots more that I wanted to order. The Wagyu Burgers & Fries (£15.95), Duck with Pancakes (£18.45) plus various tapas (Asian, Sushi and Sashimi) including Tuna, California Rolls, Beef, Crispy seafood, chicken gyoza, etc. etc. etc. – there’s just so much!

    I have to mention the drinks because Inamo knows how to do drinks! Wines are categorized in different categories – so there’s pretty much everything for anyone. Sparkling wines add a kick, and their cocktail list is wonderful. My friend had the non-alcoholic Guava Cooler – she found it very refreshing! I had the thirst-quencher Tropical Storm – passion fruit, lime and guava juice with a hint of cinnamon. I loved it, and both were a great deal at £5.95 each.

    And the coup de grace was dessert! The Passion Fruit and Mango Dessert was divine! Mango mousse, passion fruit, apricot jelly and a layer of chocolate cake on a crunch base (£7.95) put me over the top! My friend had the Baked Alasparkla – creamy Baked Alaska served with Asian Strawberry and lemongrass soup and served with cherries! She loved it!

    Inamo is a classy restaurant with very delicious food. All plates are beautifully presented in a beautiful setting with a very nice and attentive staff. There’s really nothing bad to say about this place – it’s in a non-foody location which will make it a destination restaurant because it deservedly is a good find!

    Telephone: 020 7484 0500
    Website:http://www.inamorestaurants.london
    Email: reservations@inamo-restaurant.com

    Address: 265 Hampstead Road, Camden NW1 7QX

    Opening hours:
    Mon-Thur 12:00 – 23:30
    Fri-Sat 12:00 – 00:00
    Sun 12:00 – 22:30
    Closed from 3PM – 5 PM from Mon – Fri

    Photos by Samphire Communications

  • Daniel Mays to star in brand new gay drama for BBC 2

    Daniel Mays (Line Of Duty, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Public Enemies) stars in BBC Two’s powerful factual drama as Peter Wildeblood, a thoughtful and private gay journalist whose lover Eddie McNally (played by newcomer to television, Richard Gadd), under pressure from the authorities, turned Queen’s evidence against him in one of the most explosive court cases of the 1950s – the infamous Montagu Trial.

    More than ten years before the decriminalisation of homosexual acts in 1967, Peter Wildeblood, and his friends Lord Montagu (Mark Edel-Hunt) and Michael Pitt-Rivers, were found guilty of homosexual offences and jailed.

    With his career in tatters and his private life painfully exposed, Wildeblood began his sentence a broken man, but he emerged from Wormwood Scrubs a year later determined to do all he could to change the way these draconian laws against homosexuality impacted on the lives of men like him.

    Daniel says: “I’m incredibly proud to be part of a drama that tells such an important real-life story. Peter Wildeblood is a fascinating, complex, yet flawed character from a time when being a gay man in Britain was incredibly difficult – I can’t wait to bring his tale to life for the BBC Two audience.”

    Patrick Holland, Channel Editor, BBC Two, said,

    “50 years ago, it was a crime to be a gay man in the UK. Against The Law is a stunning piece that melds drama and documentary testimony to tell the story of one man, and his wider generation, as they struggled to make society accept their sexuality as non-criminal. It is brilliant to have a film that brings the authorship of Brian Fillis, the vision of director Fergus O’Brien, and the outstanding talent of Daniel Mays and cast to this important subject”

    The drama also features Mark Gatiss (Taboo, Sherlock) as Wildeblood’s prison psychiatrist, Doctor Landers and Charlie Creed-Miles (Ripper Street, Peaky Blinders) as Superintendent Jones.

    Woven through this powerful drama is real-life testimony from a chorus of men who lived through those dark days, when homosexuals were routinely imprisoned or forced to undergo chemical aversion therapy in an attempt to cure them of their “condition”. There is also testimony from a retired police officer whose job it was to enforce these laws, and a former psychiatric nurse who administered the so-called cures. All of these accounts serve to amplify the themes of the drama and help to immerse us in the reality of a dark chapter in our recent past, a past still within the reach of living memory.

    Written by Brian Fillis, Against the Law is directed by Fergus O’Brien, produced by Scott James Bassett and executive produced by Aysha Rafaele, Creative Director of The Documentary Unit, BBC Studios.

    Made by BBC Studios, Against the Law will broadcast on BBC Two later in the year.

  • Best and worst places to pop the question to your man this Valentine’s

    A new survey of nearly 3,000 Brits said the location to pop the question was more important than the ring itself and that your words of love spoken during the proposal would make or break the deal for a third of them.

    CREDIT: © focuspocusltd Depositphotos

    The survey compiled by AttractionTix.co.uk revealed the following best and worst places to propose this Valentine’s, unless you’re part of the 40% who said Valentine’s was a bad day to propose, but overall February was a good month to say ‘Will you marry me?’

    CREDIT: ©-daboost-Depositphotos

     

    THE TOP FIVE LOCATIONS TO PROPOSE

    A sentimental location

    A famous landmark

    A theme park

    A beach

    A sporting event

     

    CREDIT: ©-everett225-Depositphotos

     

    TOP FIVE WORST LOCATIONS TO PROPOSE

    At a surprise engagement party

    At home

    At work

    At a family event

    At a restaurant

     

    So there you have it. If the mood does take you to propose to a loved one (hopefully!) this Valentine’s, then try to avoid holding a surprise party in the local chippy with the family and friends, but instead get yourself some tickets for Alton Towers, then at least if he says no you can leave him on the Oblivion rollercoaster so he can also get that heart sinking feeling.

  • INTERVIEW | Jennifer Saunders

    INTERVIEW | Jennifer Saunders

    Ab Fab started life as a sketch on the French & Saunders show on the BBC back in 1990 and changed campy comedy forever. A year later the pilot aired and was a huge critical success. After ve series and several specials, Jennifer Saunders’ slams on to our screens with the legendary Joanna Lumley for the brand new Absolutely Fabulous film.

    TGUK: Is it true that Dawn French made a bet with you that you wouldn’t finish the script for the movie on time?
    JS: Oh, that was about the writing of it. We were live on radio and she said, ‘What are you doing next year?’ I said, ‘I’m going to write the Ab Fab film.’ She said, ‘Really?’ I said, ‘I’m going to write it.’ She said, ‘Alright, if you haven’t written it by the time we do the next New Year’s Day radio show, you have to pay me £10,000.’

    TGUK: Did you do it?
    JS: I did just about do it (laughs). I did hand her about 90 pages, though most of it just said, ‘Blah blah blah.’ But there was a sort of kernel of something.

    TGUK: But did that help you finish it? Are you a deadline junkie when it comes to writing?
    JS: Yeah, completely

    TGUK: But you can’t improvise like that with a film. So did it feel different writing a plot for a movie version?
    JS: I didn’t think I’d be able to write a 90-minute plot. A plot is the hardest thing, and a plot is the thing that makes it very different to a TV show, because a TV show is very much half and hour of pantomime, where you chuck in as many gags as you can. You don’t really need a beginning, you don’t really need an end; you just need the credits to roll at some point.

    TGUK: Obvious question but in what way is it different?
    JS: The thing that is totally different is the fact that you are required to make people care, because they’ve got to sit there for 90 minutes. That was the hardest thing – to make people care and give them something to look forward to all the time, looking forward to the next act or whatever happens, and some kind of story. It’s the thing that changes it from the TV show the most, too, because there’s a lot more downtime, and there’s a lot more exposition. It doesn’t feel the same as a TV show, and I think that’s the biggest difference people will notice about it, is the fact that you can’t keep that level of energy up for 90 minutes – it’s got to have moments where you discuss the plot. It’s a completely different thing, really, and also we’re at a completely different time of our lives, so it has to be about where they are now. And they’re not at the kind of height of their game; they’re actually on the decline, a little bit, but we hope it’s not going to be a sad one.

    TGUK: But it’s still essentially Eddie that we know and love just that she has fallen on hard times?
    JS: Yes. Edina is becoming more and more desperate and that’s sort of exhibited in the fact that the house is now enormous beyond belief. She’s drained every ex-husband of every penny they’ve ever earned and she’s still doing it, we don’t know how – some deal. But her PR business has really gone downhill – she’s got, as ever, Lulu, Emma Bunton and Queen Noor (laughs), and they’re not working that much. So this comes as a sort of massive blow to her that she needs money that she can’t take Patsy to The Wolseley. She doesn’t know what’s happening, she has to send all her Net-a-Porter back. And so she tries to get a book deal and she tries lots of different things, and obviously tries to get Kate Moss, because that would be her moneybag for the rest of her life, but it all ends sort of miserably. She thinks she’s become everything she’s tried her whole life not to become; now she’s fat and old. All she’s never wanted to do is to become fat and old and now she suddenly looks at herself and goes, ‘Here I am, fat and old.’ But it ends on a positive. It doesn’t end on a downer. It can’t ever, because they’ve always got to get away with it, and they’ve always got to have a new scheme.

    TGUK: What sends them off to France?
    JS: There’s an incident at a party where she pushed Kate Moss off a balcony, and she’s accused of killing Kate Moss – that little detail (laughs) – and so the paparazzi have appeared. That’s something she’s wanted all her life, to be famous. And now they’re here, all she wants is to be anonymous, and to not have them there, photographing her and hounding her like an animal. They’ve always had this dream, Patsy and Eddie; whenever they were in trouble, they’d go, ‘One day we’ll join the jet set. One day we’ll live the Martini advert. That’ll be us. We’ll have guys that drive planes and boats and wear pastel coloured cashmere jumpers around their shoulders and crocodile shoes.’ I think going to the south of France is really about retreating into that dream of luxury, which, unfortunately, sort of doesn’t exist. I mean, it does, but it’s all a bit tacky now. There isn’t a sort of beautiful lovely jet set, there isn’t a sort of Ava Gardner- esque thing about anything anymore. Everything is heavy disco euro-trash music and obscene money, and so everything they’re looking for doesn’t quite exist. They sort of retreat into the past a little bit.

    TGUK: You first wrote Ab Fab back in the early 1990s but they’re very resilient characters. In your industry, you must meet them all time?
    JS: All the time! They’re still going on. I keep thinking, ‘Surely there’s other ways of doing PR,’ but it’s still the same. Honestly, it’s quite extraordinary. The other day I got a really unusual massive invitation to some party and I thought, ‘I thought those days were gone.’ I thought everything was done by the Internet now. But still this ridiculous thing came, like a Rubik’s cube, an invite to some fashion show, and you just go, ‘I can’t believe it’s still happening.’ I suppose as long as there’s products, there’s going to be PR.

    TGUK: Would you go on a night out with Edina and Patsy?
    JS: I think they’d be horrible. They’re so into each other, in a way, and into their own little world. I don’t know how much actual fun they’d be. I’d be them going out for a night – that would be much more fun. To be Edina and Patsy going out for a night would just be fantastic.

    TGUK: You’ve never done that?
    JS: No, no, no, never. But I think to actually be with them on a night out would be ghastly! It would be ghastly, because someone at some point would have to go, ‘Now, stop, come on, that’s not a good idea.’ You’d be the person having to say, ‘Just get in a cab and go home.’ ‘No, we’re going to party on! We’re going somewhere else. We’re going to have a great time. She loves me.’ They think the world loves them when they’re drunk, and I think generally people see them coming and go, ‘Oh Christ.’ But that’s as it should be (laughs).

    This interview was taken from Issue 21

    Ab Fab the movie is available to buy on DVD now.