The Last Great Safari Supper

The last? Surely not? Well, yes. Sort of.

We've now done the complete round robin with everyone having done every course, so the format is due for an update in the next round of marching purposefully to each others' houses for a slap up feed and glug of whatever's on offer.


The current line of thinking is that we'll now have themed safaris with a specific national cuisine being the order of the evening.

But that's for the future; last night was in the old format and the usual suspects traipsed into Millbrooker Towers almost on time for the first course and pre-munching drinkies. We're only a week away from our next sojourn to France and nine months away from our last, so the cellar is somewhat empty. Guests had the choice of Pineau aperitif or Pineau aperitif. Luckily everyone chose to have the Pineau aperitif.

Starter was duly plopped onto plates and we perched around our hastily erected plastic patio table to try some pretty decent (if I say so myself) anchovy mousse with baby spinach and cherry tomato salad, accompanied by home baked poppy seed rolls and washed down with some chilled Frascati.

Soon it was time to do the safari bit, and we de-camped to tackle the north face of Knillcross to the eyrie that Liability and Richie "Comb-Over" call home for some intercourse drinks.

Liability had surpassed herself with a beautifully presented whole poached salmon, served up with fresh leaf salad and scrumptiously sweet little new poataoes. I'm led to believe that there had been a little difficulty in the poaching department as Richie "Comb-Over" had got his hands on a fish kettle for the purpose that was 20 centimetres too long to fit into the oven. The resultant balancing act with the kettle precariously perched across two gas burners on the hob made Liability's life in the kitchen a bit more interesting than usual.

Here's The Sump doing what The Sump does best whilst dining in style in the as yet unfinished extension at The Eyrie.

Time marched onwards; so did the intrepid safariers. The pudding was to be served at Sump Towers and we were soon making lots of lip smacking noises over a deliciously light fruit salad accompanied, rather appropriately, by a deliciously light and fruity riesling.

Sump Towers was also the venue for the traditional Safari Supper toast to Auntie Jean. Here's the moment of slurping in honour of Millbrook's favourite first-cousin-once-removed.

Last, but by no means least, was a short trek to Dong's pad for cheese and biccies and more liquid refreshment. Dong no longer resides alone and we were joined for this last part of the safari ritual by The Hoover (below) who enjoyed a few shovel loads of cheese at his dad's expense.

Dong and Shazzerooneypoos had an early start to make on Sunday morning for their long planned week's trip to the Cote d'Azur, so the party broke up not much after midnight. Dong still had some packing to do, I believe.

As always, thanks to everyone who worked so hard in the confines of their grand residences; Mrs The Millbrooker and I had a great evening - hope everyone else did too. Happy holidays to Dong and The Louche Lewis.

There's a complete captioned set of photos on the complete photosets link on the right of this site for anyone who wants a look.