Dont eat any food that you see lying at the side as its pretty old

Thursday saw me and James being diners on Market Kitchen...


...I cant really say too much about the food as we had to sign a confidentiality agreement - it said we cant give interviews before the transmission date but didnt specifically mention blogs! hmmmm who knows? Oh well I cant really be sued for much anyway...


As with typical English weather it was raining that morning, we stayed at a Holiday Inn the night before as we had to be at the studio at 8.20 that morning, so no time for breakfast.


So armed with our backpacks we walked from Camden Town to Kentish Town, it was all uphill too, but luckily James had remembered to bring an umbrella with him...


Anyhow we arrived at the studio soaked through at about 7.30 (there was a board outside saying about Market Kitchen but otherwise you wouldnt have known that they did filming there) we asked if this was the right place for MK and are told it was and to take a seat in the seating area (just a couple of round tables and some seats) and that we can help ourselves to tea and coffee.


We were the first people to arrive, and like us the others who arrived a bit later also asked if this was the right place too (didnt feel so thick after that ;o)). I half expected there to be a little cafe nearby for people to get something nice to eat and drink before going in, although we saw some people coming in with their Starbucks coffees so I guess there was one fairly nearby in the other direction.


At about 8am out came the hot croissants, then shortly after that we were asked for our names and had to sign the confidentiality thing which included a consent for being on the show, we were also given notes on the show which included recipes and transmission date etc, we were told to sit on the notes so they werent in show.


About 10 minutes later we were then led upstairs to the studio, there was a little cloakroom area to leave our coats and bags.


I was quite surprised that we were coming in part way through the show as the first segment had already been filmed with the previous diners (I will have to watch the diners when I next watch Market Kitchen to see when they "change"). we were there for three quarters of one show and half of another show.


The presenters were Matthew Fort and Tom Parker Bowles, Matthew was really friendly and interacted with us lowly diners but Tom couldnt be bothered and just went off everytime his little segment had ended...


...maybe he was having a bad day...


...or maybe Im just being too kind!


We had to do a lot of moving about between segments too, and shock of shocks we had to share our food too (some of it I didnt mind sharing as it wasnt overly nice but some I definitely didnt want to share even with James ;o)!).


As neither me or James are photogenic we werent asked what we thought of the food, and we had been practising what we were going to say too ;o).


There was a raffle at the end and James won a packet of seaweed instant noodles, so we were well chuffed.


The transmission dates are 6th March at 7pm for the show where were there for three quarters of the show and the 3rd March again at 7pm where were there for half the show.


On Wednesday James came to meet me for lunch on his way to the hotel...


We went to a S&M Cafe in Leadenhall Market, it was really busy in there and was glad that James got us a table before the 1 o'clock rush!


The service was really slow, plus they bought out the wrong order for me so took both of our meals back out cooked mine and then bought them both out and unfortunately James lunch was then cold...


...if you know James then you know he HATES cold food :o(


Anyhow the S&M cafe is a sausage & mash place that does different sausages that you can pick from with different mashes and different gravys. They have eight set combinations that you can chose - I went for their "Some like it Hot" which was one thai sausage one creole sausage and bubble & squeak mash with peppercorn and mustard gravy.


Im not really a person who tends to like gravy but it was nice, the mash wasnt what I thought it would be either...


...I was expecting mashed potato with cabbage & onions that had then been fried, but what I got was mashed potato with peas in (I dont think there was any cabbage or onions in it at all).


The lunch was passable but not great which is a shame really.


Those of you who are wondering how my culteral being is going, will like to know that I didnt have any posh soups last week, but I still had the after effects of them (shockwaves if you like)...


...I found myself listeniong to audio books of Charles Dickens Christmas Classics, I was as shocked as you are!


Me and James were then coming up with suggestions of tv programmes that would counteract the effects of the soups...

The best or worst depending on your view was Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway, I could feel the cultureness seeping out of my body trying to escape the inaneness...

...wow that was wordy!

I guessed when I weighed myself yesterday that I wouldnt have lost any weight, and was well chuffed that I only put on one pound.

I know with Shrove Tuesday being tomorrow Im not likely top lose any weight this week either (especially as I have bought a tub of ready made pancake batter mix - no Im not THAT lazy it just saves on washing up), oh and I bought a squeezy bottle of golden syrup too ;o).