Pick me up

Well, in light of recent events, we needed a pick-us-up, so we hot-footed it to the Indian restaurant Mela on Shaftesbury Avenue, on the condition that politics was off the menu.

Had a yummy sweet potato chaat and stuffed puris with tamarind chutney, followed by pleasant-enough lamb korma, lamb rogan josh, and seafood stew.

I remember the food being better than this: tonight the main dishes were more salt and gravy than anything else, but the desserts redeemed the entire meal. The servings have gotten smaller, but they were delicious and not too sugary: pistachio kulfi, carrot halwa and a creamy kheer.

Afterwards, we tumbled down into Frevds. I've never been to the London branch of this bar and I was a little dubious because I remember the Frevds in Oxford as having tacky salsa nights and bad jazz. But this one in Covent Garden was smoky, poky and dark - just how I like my bars.

I'm now happily Becked-out and ready for my bed.

Politics-free zone:

+ I'm more a fan of his character than his music, so I loved learning today about Elton John's line in hotel pseudonyms: Lillian Lollipop (used in Japan where it comes out "Rirrian Rorripop" - sorry, it's not very PC, but this did give me the chuckles), Lord Choc Ice, Lord Elpus, Binky Poodleclip and Fanny Beaversnatchclit. Via Popbitch.

+ P2P comes to cellphones