Mr Turner

You may remember my blog in June this year about Turner's Shoes, the rather worn looking shop on the junction of Esdelle Street and Edward Street in Norwich. Following my blog, a lot of people told me stories about Mr Turner and the shop, which by all accounts has a lot of happy customers.

Yesterday I passed by and found the lights were on and somebody was home! I got to meet Mr Turner himself. I thanked him for giving me some photographic inspiration and I told him how much I'd found out about his shop from the people of Norwich. His hand has healed well from his June surgery and he is very much back in business. He said he is busier than ever and doesn't seem to have any plans to retire just yet. We shook hands, wished each other a Happy Christmas and said our goodbyes. I was so happy to follow up the story behind my last photos here... What a lovely, welcoming chap.

Olives Supper Club

On Thursday 3rd March I went to spend some time with the folks at Olives at one of their regular Supper Club nights. This time, it was to document the amazing atmosphere and experience, rather than to enjoy the fantastic food from a patron perspective.

Before Supper Club begins! A lovely space.

I became aware of the Supper Club around mid 2015, after the chatter about it reached me through friends that had been and experienced the many delights. Since then, I've visited many times and I have never left disappointed.

Open for business

It's a truly great evening, in a great venue, at a great price, with great service. What more could you want?

At the bottom of historic Elm Hill, Olives has a lovely laid back feel. Not too laid back of course, but enough to make you totally relax. It's rather like going home to an old friend and just feeling at one with your surroundings and host.

At the bottom of historic Elm Hill

Supper Clubs work something like this. Alys (head chef and all round champion) creates a set menu of mouth watering treats for both meat and vegetarian based diets, and the masses go and enjoy. A simple, yet very effective approach to dinner.

The photo wall - always of interest.

Each week has a different theme, in the last few months there has been a Persian feast, celebration of the Chinese New Year, a tour of Eastern Europe and Scandinavian Traditional Christmas menu.

I was there to document the Malaysian Supper Club. The menu was as follows:

To start
Spiced fishcake or tofu chilli and lime cake served in a banana leaf wrap, served with gado gado salad.

For main
Nasi lemak (coconut rice with egg, fried peanuts and sambal) served with acar pickled and served with either - beef rendang or devils curry

For pud
Banana pancakes with lemon coconut curd

Overlooked by Saint Anthony, the kitchen mascot and Patron Saint of Bacon and cooks in general, Alys gets to work preparing the orders that come in. It is always a pleasure to watch someone in their kitchen space, being creative and making something delicious. I particularly like that Alys is involved in all aspects of the evening - from welcoming guests, to serving them drinks, cooking their food and washing their plates. The whole customer experience during the evening is really important. This is how it should be, and quite different to some other places I have experienced, where the people running things don't seem to like getting involved at any level except to see the potential profits. This makes for yet another endearing feature of the Olives Supper Club, it is such a warm and friendly experience.

Saint Anthony, overlooking the kitchen.

Plenty of deliciously fragrant and amazing looking dishes pass out of the kitchen to the eager guests via the ever attentive Joe, and empty plate after empty plate is returned. Always a sure sign of a successful evening.

Many empty plates

The first time diners left making promises to return, and the regulars went away predictably satisfied.

You can find out more about upcoming Olives Supper Club events here. Don't miss out on one of the best evenings to be had in the City. The full set of photos can be found here.

The Rivergarden: The Full Service

Last weekend I returned to the kitchen at The Rivergarden in Thorpe St Andrew, Norwich. Having had a taste of the activities a week before, I was really looking forward to my evening of documenting a professional working kitchen.

Having never witnessed the happenings during a full service, can I say first of all what an amazing thing it was to watch and experience. It gave me such appreciation of the effort that goes into making good, tasty food for customers to enjoy. It will certainly make me think about how my food gets to the table in future too.

Chefs Jake Garwood and Charlie Wilson are the core of a great team during food service. They work seamlessly to create beautiful dishes, taking such care in their preparation and presentation. Watching them in detail for the first time, it is almost like they are telepathic. After working together for quite some time, they just *know* how the other does things, and it all comes together perfectly.

Each dish produced is a work of art. It was a total pleasure to watch. I also liked talking to Martyn, who kept things going by making sure all the things coming into the kitchen were cleaned again and ready to use.

I really, really enjoyed taking these photos, and I had a great time with Jake, Charlie and Martyn in the kitchen. In the restaurant the team worked tirelessly to ensure customers were satisfied with everything coming from the kitchen, and from the total lack of food scraps coming back on all the plates, the customers were indeed satisfied!

Paper Aeroplanes at Norwich Arts Centre

I haven't been to Norwich Arts Centre for ages, so what better reason than to see the wonderful Paper Aeroplanes, who are touring their new album JOY.

JOY is the third full length album recorded by Sarah Howells and Richard Llewellyn, and is a bit less folk, a bit more pop than the previous two. I am enjoying the new sound - and I like the new direction - it's always really interesting seeing the different journey that bands take with their music. I first began following this particular journey in 2006, and thoroughly recommend taking a listen if you haven't heard them yet.

Support came from Brooke Sharkey, who is well known in this part of the world. She is now very successfully doing her thing down in London. Again a great journey to be following, having first seen her busking the streets of Norwich some years ago.

Here are a few photos from the evening. The full set can be found here.

Embracing the geek of my photography blog, most of these photos were shot at between ISO 4000 and 6400. I love my camera for performing so amazingly in such challenging conditions.

Many thanks to Paper Aeroplanes and Norwich Arts Centre for having me along.

http://www.paperaeroplanesmusic.com
http://brookesharkey.co.uk