A little more SOUL…

We’re into the sixth week here, and have just three more shows before heading home, starting tonight in Valladolid, Spain; then Friday in Cascais, Portugal (just outside of Lisbon); finally wrapping it up in Albufeira, Portugal. It’s been a hell of a journey and we’re all looking forward to that flight home.

I’ve been uploading a few more large galleries on the near-reasonable internet connection here in Valladolid, so again here’s a sample shot from each show, and just click the image to open the full gallery. And as always, the up-to-date galleries are on seal.com

A young girl peers up at Seal in awe in Bournemouth, England

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On the European SOUL tour with Seal

It’s the fourth week of six on the road with Seal, and I haven’t posted a single blog entry here. Terrible, I know. I’ve had enough of a challenge getting the photos up to seal.com, but found a groove a couple of weeks or so ago and am now getting the photos from any given show online within 24 hours. Which doesn’t sound like much until you realize that immediately after each show, we get on the bus and drive to the next city, usually sleeping on the bus (kind of a half sleep as the bus rocks along), get into a new city at maybe 5, 6, 11am, then often go back to bed for a few more hours. If there’s another show that night, I’ll scramble to get the photos out before soundcheck ‘cause usually once that starts, I can’t get back onto the computer to finish an edit.

Anyway I’ve started uploading the same photos to my own gallery. You can always see the freshest at seal.com/tour/tour-gallery but as I can I’ll upload them to my own gallery on josephlinaschke.com (where you can see them larger than on seal.com).

I’ve uploaded the first five shows; Birmingham, Edinburgh, London, Oxford, and Manchester. We completed show 16 in Lucerne, Switzerland last night, and have just arrived in Carcassonne, France where we have two days off before the show here Tuesday night. 

Here’s a favorite from each of those five shows; click each one to open the complete gallery. 

Seal in Birmingham, England

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Nottingham and the oldest inn in England

No trip to Nottingham would be complete without a visit to ye old “Trip to Jerusalem Inn”, est. 1189AD. That’s right folks, 820 years old. The ale was fantastic, pulled from a traditional hand-pump, cool but not iced, smooth not bubbly, rich and creamy and fabulous. Of course on the way to the pub, we had to stop at the statue of Robin Hood (it is Nottingham, after all) and, well, the photos speak for themselves! More photos after the jump…

Hari-Om, Cynthia and myself in Nottingham

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Acorn House

(catching up on posts so this is slightly out of sync and is from Saturday night in London)…

This restaurant came highly recommended (by the same friend who pointed me to flat white, so who am I to argue!), so for my last dinner in London, which was to be with friends who live there, I requested that we dine at Acorn House. It's walking distance from the King's Cross/St. Pancras train station, which happens to be the London base for the Eurostar to Paris.

Acorn House

Acorn House is unique in that the chef makes exceptional efforts to be 'green' about everything that comes in and out of his restaurant. I picked up his cookbook, and the forward is written by Jamie Oliver who goes as far as to call him the "original green chef". A big part of this is purchasing local, sustainable ingredients, and only buying what's in season. The menu is actually updated twice a day to accommodate!

My appetizer was a fantastic goat cheese on toast with a pistachio pesto (!) and a very sticky, very black, balsamic drizzle. It was absolutely divine, and so unfortunately I had to eat the whole thing. Hate it when that happens.

Goats cheese, toasted sour dough, wild garlic & pistachio pesto

Next up was a pan fried sea trout, which was good but honestly a little fishy. I didn't find the dish to be remarkable, although the presentation was very nice. My friend had the pork belly with feijoada which he really enjoyed, so perhaps I'd try that next time.

Pan fried sea trout, zucchini, lemon & ‘Cassini’ olive oil

Of course this was accompanied by a fine bottle of wine. Like the rest of the menu, they go to great lengths to find quality organic wines, but even here there was the 'next level' of organic; biodynamic [wiki link]. It's a holistic approach to growing the grapes, and since everything else about the evening was so green (yes I took the train to get there!), I decided that we had to try one of these special wines. I must say the wine was superb. I won't try to review the wine here as this meal was now several days ago and I didn't take any notes, but again it was absolutely delicious; enough so that I photographed the label so I could track it down later.

Domaine Granges de Mirabel Viognier, Coteaux de L'Ardeche, France

Overall a good meal and an enjoyable, learning experience. I'll likely go again, preferably in a different season just to see how the menu has changed.

Acorn House 69 Swinton Street London WC1X 9NT

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rating: 4 feet

verdict: I love the 'green-ness' of the place. It's a great idea who's time has come, and the quality of (most of) the food shows it. I'll be back in a different season, and I did buy the cookbook so look forward to trying a few things at home.

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UPDATED: Wagamama in Heathrow Terminal 5!

I loved this funny little noodle place in London. Not so little anymore!

wagamama's menu

UPDATE: Unfortunately I'm less than impressed. Growth, it would appear, has not been good. The noodles were overcooked and mushy, the same for the veggies, and horribly disappointingly, the carrot juice with ginger -- one of my all-time favorites -- appeared to be watered down.

Wagamama London Heathrow Airport Terminal 5 wagamama.com

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rating: 2 feet

verdict: The only reason it's getting a "2 feet" rating is that it used to be good. Perhaps it still is and I got unlucky. Otherwise, it's just a 1. Sad, sad, sad.

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