inspiral lounge

on saturday night we went to the inspiral lounge for dinner. my first impressions were that it was smaller and less groovy than i'd anticipated. having read suki's raving reports of it, i'd expected somewhere much more, hmm, not sure, maybe slick? they said they'd had a really busy evening, so perhaps they didn't get round to turning the lights down, setting out the candles and creating an evening ambience. we'd reserved a table as so many of us were going, but they didn't have that ready and i was soooo disappointed, until who i presume is the manageress appeared and sorted it out. so we got the booth downstairs, with low lighting and some music, and she was lovely. the staff seemed a little frazzled at the influx of people, and i think there's just not enough space to fit in more staff, yet the traffic in there and the labour-intense juicing, definitely requires more staff.

also, i have to say that they really tried to fob me off with a smoothie instead of juice, as the smoothies were pre-made in jugs, while the juices had to be made to order. when someone else in our group went to the bar for drinks he came back with a smoothie even though he asked for a juice. i get that they're busy, but come on. don't give people smoothies in place of juice!

personally, i thought the music was too loud for somewhere that doesn't have a dancefloor. it was good music though, and had me shimmying in my seat whilst straining to hear people over the top of it. the food looked great and everyone who ate there really liked what they had. they mostly had cooked food, with just a smidgen of raw, so i said they were all wimps ;) but we bought a plate of chocolate balls (raw, superfood chocolate truffles - i wondered if suki xocolati had a hand in that?) and i persuaded YummyHubby to let me have a nibble of his - it was lovely!

i will go back, probably during the day, for raw lunch, but at night - a saturday night, at that - i found it a little overpowering. i was really looking forward to it and desperately hoping that everyone else would like it - after a half hour tube ride - that it did have a lot of expectations to fulfill! once i'm off my juicefeast i might also consider suki & joel's tuesday night cacao bliss events, as i just know the vibe will be totally different :D

facts and figures:

nearest tube: camden

website: www.inspiralled.net

AGM & kale salad

AGM

on saturday i spent the entire day at our AGM. i'm a founding member of a small start-up, and this past year we've had real clients so we have to have an AGM and sign papers and take minutes and stuff. but it's great to hang out with a bunch of cool people i hardly ever see (the rest of them are US-based) so even though there was a serious, business side of things, we also tried to fit in some QT, which included hanging out in borough market and going to the inspiral lounge for dinner and drinks with a client and various friends. i made a huge batch of greens&veg juice before i left in the morning, and made juice for everyone as a mid-afternoon snack and quaffed a good deal myself. i also had bits of juice other people had made for me throughout the day, and it rocked! i had a veg juice at borough market, which was really tasty, and at the inspiral lounge i had two juices - mostly veg but not sure what was in them, i just asked for juice, whatever they had. anyway, it's certainly been my most varied juice day ever!

kale salad rocks da house

on sunday i made lunch for everyone at the second part of our AGM, and besides some shop-bought tarts, i made a regular "wimp" salad of baby salad leaves, cucumber, tomato etc., and a kale salad. i have to confess, i did eat a forkful of the kale salad. just couldn't help it! everyone loved it, asked for the recipe, and polished it all off. what a success! YummyHubby says it's his expert kale massaging technique that really makes the salad, and that may well be true. he is getting good at it :)

if you have never made kale salad before, it's easy peasy. this is my take on karen knowler's salad (bragging rights: she taught me it in person!)

300g or so curly kale

handful small tomatoes

handful black olives

2 avocadoes

2-3 spring onions or half red onion

red/orange/yellow bell pepper

juice of 2 lemons

olive oil

coarse salt

wash the kale and trim off all tough ribs. shred finely (i do this with my hands, it's easier than with a knife) then put in serving bowl with a glug of olive oil and pinch of salt (if you're in the UK, use Maldon salt, it crumbles fabulously) and massage the kale. get your hands in there and gaze out of the window or meditate for 5 minutes until the kale is really supple and dark, shiny green. now add the lemon juice and stir. 

cut the avocadoes in half, score the flesh and then squeeze them out into the bowl. remove the stones and you're left with softened lumps of avocado. get your hands back in there and massage again until most of the kale is coated and there are only a few chunks of avocado left.

halve and pit the olives, chop the tomatoes, pepper and onion and throw in the bowl. stir well to distribute. serve. be showered with compliments :)

this salad lasts well. the lemon juice keeps the avocadoes from browning, so do make lots and it'll stand you in good stead for lunchboxes at work. fabulous.

image credit: kale salad by hnau. please respect the creative commons licence: attribution, non-commercial.