Thursday 9 September 2010

Borscht and Tears

Lots more beetroot from the garden again this year and more beetroot soup. There is something rather exotic about soup that is such a deep rich red.

And it reminded me of somewhere exotic that I visited over thirty years ago. As a new graduate working in London, I went with a group of friends to a Russian restaurant in Kensington. We thought we were very grown up and sophisticated to be going out in Kensington to a Russian restaurant, especially having starters that were not the usual 1970s fair of prawn cocktail or melon! It was my first ever taste of borscht and I've been a fan ever since.

I was surprised to find that the restaurant "Borscht 'n' Tears" is still in Kensington... although I doubt they still have crockery that encourages petty theft. Perhaps I wasn't quite so sophisticated and grown up as I thought!

19 comments:

  1. With a cup like that they're just asking for it!

    That soup looks delicious - such a lovely colour too.

    xxx

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  2. How very sophisticated! Your borscht looks lovely! Lucy x

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  3. Gina Ferrari, I am shocked, nay horrified that you should be a cup thief. Outrageous!

    ;-)

    I've never had borscht, and my beetroot crop was utterly pathetic so I doubt I shall this year. Sigh.

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  4. I have never had borscht.... However, 'tis the time of year that I splatter beetroot up the kitchen curtains as I use the mini blender gadget to blend beetroot .......

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  5. A Thai restaurant called The Blue Elephant in Fulham, actually sells its crockery etc to prevent theft. i know someone who left the restaurant 9 months pregnant with a cushion!

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  6. That soup is a wonderful colour - no doubt the flavour matches. You are not alone - my grandfather worked for the railway and I remember a teaspoon at granny's engraved with GWR!

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  7. Oh you naughty girl,can I send you to the naughty chair?

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  8. It would be rude not to! (I have a glass from 'The Prospect of Whitby from when I was 17..and I've just worked out how many years ago it was that I got it and I'm not telling)

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  9. Like Jackie with the glass!

    I carted a half pint jug from a Pub in Hay-on-Wye in a backpack for six months before it made it's way back to Oz some 20 years ago - it is still in the glass cupboard - heavily protected from my children. You can see why cafe's charge so much with so many clepto's around :)

    Borsch looks great, but I'm still not sold on the cold soup idea - or is that a plebian concept - just the same it looks spectactular !

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  10. Oh Dear. Now you've put it on the internet and they'll come after you, you naughty little girl. You're too, too funny!

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  11. The soup looks lovely and I am sure it tasted as good. Well fancy that you kept the cup and saucer all these years.

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  12. Goodness, one might almost think you were from my neck of the woods.

    That is very pretty soup, but beetroots are not my favourite, so I shall just admire.

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  13. Perhaps the "Tears" were for all their missing crockery ;o)

    Great post x

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  14. What a brilliant teacup! Not sure it would fit in my purse though. Perhaps I should start carrying bigger handbags...

    K x

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  15. My husband used to play guitar at the Borsch and Tears back in those days. Perhaps you saw him there?

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    Replies
    1. I used to work at the Borscht in the late 60s. Wyatt is your husbands name? I remember some great musicians who played there Nick

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  16. What a stunning picture, I hope the soup tasted as good as it looks. I've never stolen anything, unless you count a ceramic ashtray, many, many years ago! ;-)

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  17. Gina - I still have friends. There could well be a knock on your door very early one morning when you least expect it ............
    More shocking though, is that anyone actually EATS beetroot. Eeuuccckkk !

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  18. Such a marvelously delicious looking soup! You are amazing!

    Have a very nice weekend.
    hugs from emily xo

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