Party Season

It's December and that means Party Season.  On a dull December day it's a chance to put your glad rags on and have some fun with friends and family.  It may be the office party, a night out with loved ones, cocktails with the girls or high tea with your nan.  Either way it is usually an opportunity to binge out on a sea of food and drink.

Party food can mean champagne and canapés or a cuppa and a buffet.  The former can be a nightmare for the vegetarian as the waiters gliding around the room quite often aren't aware of the contents of the food they are presenting. Chorizo on bruschetta can easily be mistaken for an innocent cherry tomato topping, particularly at a party lit only by candlelight and fairy lights!  Equally, even if there are staff standing behind the mountains of food laid out on the trestle table, they often don't know the difference between tsatziki and taramasalata!

Peter Kay does a well known sketch about buffet food and he's not wrong -vol-au-vents, chicken legs, cheesecake repeated across the table with a few garlic breads thrown in for good measure!

At one party I was eating bread and cheese (yeah really) when I noticed something on the eyebrow of a friend.  I said "oh dear you've got a crumb on your forehead" as I reached up to flick it off.  "It's not a crumb ... it's a wart!" he replied.  Sadly the ground did not open up and swallow me; but I did have to eat some humble pie with my bread and cheese!