Oysters and steak

Oysters to start with. I ordered 6, and when they arrived there were 12. I pointed this out to the waitress, who explained to me (slowly and clearly, in such a way that clearly demonstrated how foolish she thought my mistake) that there were 6 on the plate. She then pointed to them in pairs, and explained that I'd been given 6 oysters, which had been split in two for me. I'd have been disgruntled, but I got12 oysters for the price of 6, so wasn't going to complain too much.

Nice fillet steak with a pepper sauce, green beans and dauphinoise potatoes to follow.

All had in a great outdoor restaurant in Vieux Boucau, just north of Biarritz 

The perfect ice cream

Blackcurrent and mango

As fresh tasting and juicy as it looks 

Holiday food - part two

Carpaccio of beef. The beef was great, but the sauce, breadsticks, redcurrents, lemons, tomato and parmesan all needed to be scraped to one side to get at it!

A great four-cheese pizza to follow. Huge, but so thin it could be eaten quickly - very tasty

Holiday food - part one

Just back from a week in the south west of France, so expect more pictures to be added over the next few days

To start off with, Langoustines. Served cold as a starter, with a nice mayonnaise. They were great - firm flesh, with good flavour 

Lunch out

Meatballs and chips at Ikea 

Sunday lunch

Roast butterflied leg of lamb 

Saturday dinner

Beef fillet

Plating up

Fillet steak in a port sauce with dauphinoise potatoes, roasted shallots and a green salad

Friday evening

Preparing a Vietnamese steak salad

Searing seasoned steaks

Steak, watercress, coriander, mint, carrot, cucumber, chilli, tomato, fish sauce, sweet chilli sauce, oil 

Pre-theatre sushi

Feng Sushi on Stoney Street for a salmon box 

Lazy tea

Hot dogs with sweet chilli sauce 

Sunday lunch - the rest

Butterflied leg of lamb, marinating in olive oil, lemon peel and rosemary

Lamb with new potatoes, lamb's lettuce and tomato salad

Gemma's baked cheesecake with raspberries 

Sunday lunch - starter

Mushrooms frying

For a mushroom and Jarlsberg tart with thyme 

Saturday evening

Filled pasta, rocket, parmesan, olive oil 

Dinner

Nigella's lemon linguine: linguine, lemon juice, lemon zest, egg yolk, cream, parsley 

Belgos with friends

Green beans and beer

Chateaubriand, mushrooms, watercress, bearnaise, pepper sauce, frites

Steak

Very tasty food, and nice to meet up with people 

Dinner with friends

Avocado toasts - two days in a row!

Chicken, olive and preserved lemon casserole

With Heston's buttery couscous

Peaches for the second day in the row 

Dinner for Monday night

Bloody Mary with avocado toasts

Gnocchi with a tomato sauce

Roasted peaches with sugar and butter

With double cream