I was going to show lili my old stomping grounds, so we took
the bus to Paddington, which the driver turned off at Marble
Arch, so instead we walked through Hyde Park, Knightsbridge,
and South Kensington, ending up somehow at Bibendum. I gave
her a little song and dance about how it's my friend
Nicholas's favorite restaurant, la la la (Nicholas's other
favorite London restaurants are or were a peculiar lot, in
order of goodness Vama, Brasserie St. Quentin, and Daquise),
and started walking off, whereupon she grabbed my arm and
stopped me, saying, you really want to eat here, don't you,
so I allowed that I did but hadn't planned on spending that
kind of money for lunch. It didn't take much convincing to
get me up those stairs and into the store. The girl really
does know me.

Despite my relative disarrayed appearance, we were welcomed
nicely and given a fine window table: I feel that I could
not have been responsible for this consideration.

Bread was terrific, and butter was better (though cold) and
went well with the Zefir Viognier that I'd ordered because
I was hot and bothered from all the walking.

I started with grilled pigeon breast on polenta with a wine
demi-glace: requested blue rare, it came blue rare and
very delicious. Kidneys in cream and pepper, also ordered
rare, were tasty, though for some reason the cores of a
couple of them hadn't been properly cut out. These came
with a garnish of carrot strings tossed in grainy mustard
and French beans on the side.

lili had a spectacular perfectly done filet, also with
French beans.

A perfectly respectable but somewhat forgettable Medoc went
with - though being youngish and purplish, it had lost much
of its fruit and turned into a stemmy superior bourgeois
nonentity.

More walking, but with a destination - the V&A, where we
saw the Raphael cartoons and went through much of the
permanent exhibition, until we were kicked out at closing.

Bus to Victoria, then a stop at a nearby pub (noisy, and
we stayed just for the one drink), the train, and home,
where G and B had prepared a nice roasted chicken. We had
a few laughs at the expense of lili and white food, though
I enjoyed the white food as much as anyone.