Eggholic - egg-citing and eclectic, Indian style restaurant opened May 2025 (in NW London)

Egg-holic Restaurant in Hatch End, Pinner, London, England. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

 I entered Egg-holic in May 2025 (Thursday 8th), their first full evening open to the public. It's a friendly family affair. The Patel family. Two Hatch End Patels are running the franchise, father and son. I met mother, and she pointed out that her daughter had popped in. 

Angela Lansbury,  left, Mrs Patel, right. Egg holic restaurant menu board behind. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

Plus the two US-based Patels (unrelated) who started the business over in America. They were staying around for the first two weeks to supervise the cooking and add their experience and expertise. 

Since everything is cooked on site, the American founders have needed to train the new UK staff how to cook all the dishes to ensure everything in the UK is consistent with the standard, style and menu in the USA. However, it's possible that the long menu might have one or two seasonal or permanent additions later in the year to offer regular customers a new experience. (Patel junior had already spent time in the USA.)

I shall come back to the Patels in London, England, India, the USA and worldwide. But first let's look at the menu.

The menu on the back wall. The mural in Indian languages on the right. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

The illustrated menu is over the counter at the back, like in McDonald's, Costa and other places you are probably familiar with.  But there's also a fold over paper menu if you want to sit and read the menu. 

You carry a number, signifying your order, to your table. You can pay first, with a credit card. In that way it's like the Wetherspoons pub across the road.

The Indian and Western Food

You can find egg dishes, chicken dishes, and cheese dishes. 

Among the sandwiches for children I spotted cheese (minced) and chocolate (spread) sandwiches. With white bread (brown bread should be available later).

It came with crisps.  Check whether chips on the menu means crisps called chips in the USA.

You can try samosas. Potato.  Indian breads.  

There's also a Thali, at £13.99.

DRINKS

Drinks include assorted lassis. I had a pink rose flavour falooda, with a wide straw for sucking up the thin noodles.

DESSERTS

Desserts include Kulfi, Gulab Jamun with ice-cream, or Brownie with ice-cream.

DECOR

The Indian Style Decor

A screen shows Bollywood films with lots of dramatic dancing. 

A large version of their logo is on one recessed wall.

On the right of the serving area at the back is a mural in assorted Indian scripts. They are hindi, gujurati, Punjabi and Telugu, popular well-known sayings from various blockbuster films.

All the family and the USA visitors were friendly and chatty and happy to chat about their business, your business, and the world. They told me that the Patels originated in an Indian state north of the seaside port of Bombay, now called Mumbai. Being business savvy they spread all over the world so now you will meet people called Patel in the USA, UK, India, everywhere there are money and friends to be made. As the old saying goes, if you want to run a successful restaurant or shop you must wear a big smile.

Opening times.

They are open 5 to 10 pm, so for tea time or evening dinner, not breakfast nor lunch.

Phone (0203) 7933 0179. 

381 Uxbridge Road, Pinner HA5 4JN.

I visited when they opened in Hatch End, Pinner, London on Thursday May 8th 2025.

Useful websites

https://leverageedu.com/explore/infotainment/translation-of-hindi-bollywood-dialogue/ 

Please share links to your favourite blog posts such as this one.

I am an author - like you

 

Everybody has a book in them! That's a popular saying. It is true. Your book is your life story. You select the bits you want to tell.

 If you are under 18 or your life has not been dramatic, you can write up the life story of your parents, or your grandparents. Do it now, whilst they are still alive and can remember their own parents and grandparents.

Useful Websites

https://www.swanwickwritersschool.org.uk/

Scott of the Antarctic, Oates and Amundsen - see statues and memorials and quotations

 

SCOTT of the Antarctic film poster

Robert Falcon Scott

Statue in New Zealand

Plaque under statue

Scott plaque, Christchurch, New Zealand. Photo by DR G WILD in Wikipedia.

The plaque reads:

ROBERT FALCON SCOTT

CAPTAIN ROYAL NAVY

WHO DIED RETURNING FROM THE SOUTH POLE 1912

WITH A E WILSON  H R BOWERS L E COATES E EVANS

I DO NOT REGRET THIS JOURNEY WHICH SHOWS 

THAT ENGLISHMEN CAN ENDURE HARDSHIPS 

HELP ONE ANOTHER AND MEET DEATH WITH

AS GREAT FORITUDE AS EVER IN THE PAST

SCOTT'S DIARY

Oates

Plaque in London, England

Plaque in Leeds, England

The plaque reads:

LAWRENCE EDWARD GRACE OATES

OF MEANWOODSIDE IN THIS PARISH

Amundesen

A succinct account of his life is in Find A Grave.

 A monument to Amundsen is at Ny-Alesund, Svalbard, Norway.

Useful Websites 

Shackleton

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Shackleton

Amundsen

Raold Amundsen at Find A Grave

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/20956/_

Scott

About the Author

Singapore by night outside the National Gallery art museum - near City Hall MRT

Beautiful view.

Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Travel Tips

https://www.nationalgallery.sg/visit

$20 for adults from overseas. Concessions. PR (Permanent Residents with NRIC identity card and citizens free.

https://www.lta.gov.sg/content/ltaweb/en/public-transport/mrt-and-lrt-trains/art-and-architecture/art-in-transit/gallery/dtl.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_MRT_(Singapore)

visitsingapore.com

Singapore Airlines: singaporeair.com

Author

Travel writer and photographer, Angela Lansbury 

See my posts about Singapore and beautiful places around the world, 

Please bookmark and share your favourite posts.

What Impressed Me at a Singapore School?

Problem
We have a meeting at a school. I imagine it will be run down and depressing. Hard to find and reach?

Answer
Not at all. A bus stops outside. We are out in the rain between the gatweay and the front entrance. However, the covered path from the front entrance to the school building at the back has open sides but a roof as protection against sun and rain. Along the side of the open-sided corridor created, is a wavy line with historic photos and cpations explaining the history of Singapore and the school and all the inspiring pioneers and people and pupils.

Upstairs in the corridor is a panel of grammatical tips for good English, tongue twisters, common errors by Singaporeans, sentence structure.

Photo by Angela Lansbury.

In the audiotrium, the seats have swivelling trays so you can rest your notepad and pencil. The stage, of course, has a screen for audio-visuals. Up the side aisles, on the walls, are posters with inpsiring messages and sayings, quotations, from famous people.

Outside, turning in the opposite direction another wall has the history of common objects.

The school was in the East of Singapore near Bedok MRT (railway station).

What an inspiration. Not just artwork, but fascinating facts.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

More Americanisms: baby Daddy, badass, bible

Problem
The list of Americanisms is so long I get tired reading it. Interestingly, get tired and get tired of mean different things.

Answer
Start a second list of Americanisms. Here it is.

Americanism - British English (alphabetical)
baby Daddy - short for baby's Daddy, child's father
badass/career criminal - a baddie, tough, a toughie, intimidating, a villain with a bad attitude, a nasty piece of work, looking for a fight, up to no good, somebody you wouldn't want to meet on a dark night, a suspicious character, somebody you wouldn't trust further than you could throw him, one of the usual suspects
fix breakfast - make breakfast

British English - Americanism

baddie - badass

biological father - baby Daddy

make breakfast - fix breakfast

Biblical English
I like the King James bible because the quotations from it are popular and recognisable even if the English is old-fashioned.
Whither thou goest I will go ...

However, you can read a modern version:
NIVUK stands for New International Version UK.


An American Catholic version:
http://www.usccb.org/bible/

British English - Americanism

Many people find that variations on their home's version of English grates. ."They hate us because they ain't us."

However, the very fact that I am writing this post shows you that I am fascinated by different words in different languages.

My last translation from English to Americanism:
I have finished - I am done!
translate english to american english

Tips
I have written my favourite Americanisms, which I can use in speeches, in a notebook.
wiki americanisms\
 (Dictionaries of Americanisms include Bartletts's.

Useful Websites

https://www.bible.com/versions/113-nivuk-new-international-version-anglicized

Catholic

http://www.usccb.org/bible/

Author
Angela Lansbury, author, lived in Rockville, Maryland, USA, and North West London, England. English teacher and learner and teacher of languages.
Please share posts.

Boston, USA, poems in the rain, and poems on the train

Into every life a little rain poem must fall. First we had rude rhyming graffiti in toilets. Some were humorous. I bought a book of them. I remember one: "My mother made me a gay." Riposte: "If I gave her some knitting wool, would she make me one?"

Then in London we had Poems on the Underground. You can read them while you are sitting, if you look across and up. Or buy the book from the London Transport Museum or on line.

Picture from Wikipedia.

In Singapore quotations appear on posters which you read as you walk along the corridors from one line to the next at interchanges. The most familiar one is: A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Lao Tsu.

Poems appear to attract your eye to messages suggesting that you move along the train, in Singapore and London.

In London we have have poems reminding us what to do. The same goes for Toronto in Canada.

Boston Poems on Pavement
When I say pavement, writing in England, pavement refers to what Americans call Sidewalk. To Americans pavement is what we call tarmac, in the road itself.

Now in 2016 in Boston, USA, poems are appear on pavements when it rains.  What a great idea to brighten rainy days.

How do they do it. Using stencils and water-repellent spray. So you cut out the letters of the poetry on a large card or sheet of metal. Spray over the stencil.

Umbrella Poems
Another idea I like is poems on umbrellas. I've seen quotations about into every life a little rain must fall. You can order customised umbrellas through websites.

I love Ralph's umbrella poem about a smile being an umbrella and even a broken umbrella protects you from the rain.

POEMS AND RHYMES
The first poem or rhyme I ever heard about rain was:

The rain in Spain 

Fall mainly on the plain. 

I think that was from an elocution class.

Upon us all
A little rain must fall.

Everybody wants happiness
Nobody wants rain
But you can't have a rainbow
Without a little rain.

Here's one I have just composed:

Sun and Rain, Snow and Rainbow
by Angela Lansbury

Without the rain the ground would harden
The rain does my work and waters my garden
It's not as good as the warming sun
Not as bad as snow - though some think skiing's fun

Even if it rains for hours and hours
Afterwards we have trees full of fancy flowers
Water for the vase, washing dishes in the sink
For washing pretty clothes, when thirsty you can drink

You'll need a lot of rain
Because when drought comes again
You can't deny it,
Governments buy it

Running to the station you can shelter from the rain
Use the handle to grab bars above on the train
Or lean on it like a walking stick
In the park use the point to shove aside a brick

If you don't think it'll rain
A small, compact one will do
Or a can't lose, bold, big one
For cuddling up for two

They've dammed the rivers, walk round the reservoir
Water is needed wherever you are
So make the best of the rainy weather
With a happy quotation on a bright red umbrella.

Angela Lansbury
2016 May 22 copyright

QUOTATIONS
Into every life a little rain must fall.
You can't have a rainbow without rain.

WEBSITES SIDEWALK POETRY
http://boston.cbslocal.com/2016/05/19/boston-hidden-sidewalk-poetry/
http://www.citylab.com/navigator/2016/05/boston-raining-poetry-sidewalk-street-art-invisible-graffiti/483512/
WEBSITES POEMS ON TRAINS
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poems_on_the_Underground
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/sep/30/transport-for-london-poetry-etiquette-commuters

WEBSITES POEMS ABOUT UMBRELLAS
http://hellopoetry.com/words/1017/umbrella/poems/
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/my-umbrella/
For primary school teachers or parents:
http://thisreadingmama.com/free-rainy-day-pre-kk-pack-updated-expanded/

QUOTATIONS WEBSITES FOR PERSONALISING UMBRELLAS
http://www.bestsayingsquotes.com/quote/all-of-those-moments-will-be-lost-like-tears-in-the-rain-1858.html

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.

Quotations on Wine at West Street Vineyard in Coggeshall

Age is just a number. It's totally irrelevant unless, of course, you happen to be a bottle of wine, said Joan Collins.

West Street vineyard in Coggeshall has a restaurant decorated with quotations about wine - even in the elegant ladies toilet.

When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading, said Henry Youngman.

Photos by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

English Wine Barn, West Street

Coggeshall, Essex CO6 INS

tel: 01376 563303

www.weststreetvineyard.co.uk

on Facebook and Twitter @weststreetwine

See previous post about lovely buildings to look at in Coggeshall.

Angela Lansbury BA Hons, Author, speaker, photojournalist, travel writer. More by and about Angela Lansbury author on Facebook, lulu.com, LinkedIn, YouTube.

Great Quotations About Travel

It is better to travel in hope than arrive.
R L Stevenson

Anything which can go wrong will do so.
Murphy's Law

I have travelled more places than I remember and remember more places than I have travelled.
Benjamin Disraeli.

I always travel with my diary. It is important to have something exciting to read on the train.
Oscar Wilde

If this is tea bring me coffee; if this is coffee bring me tea.
Abraham Lincoln

Angela Lansbury is the author of Quick Quotations

The Castle pub lunch at Harrow-on-the-hill

The sign outside shows you that the castle is a chess piece, that sort of castle, not the crenellated castle I had imagined from the name. Inside you won't find any sign of chess.

However, one room has clocks. As far as I could tell the clocks were purely decorative, all telling different times - and stopped.

The pub is on a corner of the slope near the summit of Harrow on the hill, just a few beet below the landmark triangle by the former King's head pub. At the other end of the street above is the famous Harrow School which Churchill attended. The pub has a famous quotation from Churchill on the wall of the back room.

The quotation is correctly attributed.
Lady Astor: "Winston, if I were you're wife I'd put poison in your coffee."
Winston Churchill: "Nancy, if I were your husband I'd drink it."

Interesting menu features unusual items such as two dishes with Halloumi, Greek cheese, as well as more familiar food such as fish and chips. We waited an hour for our hot food.  I think the staff should have sent olives or nuts or suggested we order a cold starter to share whilst waiting. Despite all those clocks, or perhaps because the clocks were stopped, the place did not have a strong sense of time.

I did not like the black on my bap. I think food cooked until it turns black causes cancer (which is what the cancer websites say). But another diner thought the bap was fine. He happily finished off what I left.

After our complaints about the wait, they did offer money back on the food (not the drinks we'd had whilst waiting). This mollified our large group, from three local clubs, for writers and readers, who are happy to go back and try the food and service again.

As the author of two books of quotations, I think fondly of any pub which has quotations on the walls.

My two books of quotations are:
Quick Quotations For Successful Speeches.
Who Said What When?

Can You Quote Carlyle? Have you seen his house?

Thomas Carlyle (4 Dec 1795-5 Feb 1881) Scottish.

Quotations

A man without a goal is like a ship without a rudder.

Music is well said to be the speech of the angels.

Talk that does not end in any kind of action is better suppressed.

Visit his house in London, a National Trust property.

Angela Lansbury

Author of Quick Quotations. (Lulu.com)

Heroes Of Harrow - Trollope

Byron went to Harrow School.

Winston Churchill went to Harrow School.
You can take a tour of Harrow school.

Anthony Trollope
Anthony Trollope wrote Orley Farm.
His life story is in Wikipedia. He worked for the post office and introduced the red post box, the pillar box.
Quotations from Trollope are in Wikiquote
More quotations in brainyquote.com

Angela Lansbury, author of Quick Quotations. See Lulu.com

Quotations About Travel, Is it better to travel in hope than arrive?

TRAVEL QUOTE

Some quotations from my forthcoming book on Daily quotations (based on people born on this day.

Robert Louis Stevenson

• It is better to travel hopefully than arrive. 

Disraeli

• Benjamin Disraeli, PM: Never complain; never explain. Like all travellers, I have seen more than I remembered, and remember more than I have seen.  (A quotation from my forthcoming book of quotations. For my existing book on quotations, see Lulu.com))

Tolkein

• Sept 2 1973 Death of Tolkein (born Jan 3 1892). Author of The Hobbit ; Lord of the Rings.Quotes: Little by little, one travels far.

Here are some quotations from my book Quick Quotations for writers and speakers:

Travel, Tourism

• A journey begins with a single step. (Chinese Proverb attributed to Confucius and Lao Tzu.)
• Being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned. (Samuel Johnson.)
• Better to travel hopefully than to arrive. (Robert L Stevenson)
• Enjoy the journey. (Babs Hoffman.)
• I dislike feeling at home when I am abroad. (George Bernard Shaw.)
• I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read on the train. (Oscar Wilde,)
• I told a girl, 'I travel to find out how other people do things differently'. She retorted, 'I travel to find out how much people do the same, what they have in common'. (Angela Lansbury.)
• If you look like your passport picture, you're too ill to travel. (Will Kommen.)
• It is better to travel in hope than to arrive. (Robert Louis Stevenson.)
• No, I don't want you to come with me on the trek up Everest. Half way there the heel on your shoes will break. Even if you enjoy it, nobody else will. (Trevor Sharot., Consultant Statistician, to his wife.) 
• Omnibus - (Song by  Flanders & Swan.)
• Stop worrying about the potholes in the road and  
• Take only photographs. Leave only footprints.
• The great advantage of a hotel is that it is a refuge from home life. (George Bernard Shaw.)
• The Runaway Train - (Song.)
• The two best moments of a journey are when you set off and when you get back.
• To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries. (Goethe.)
• Travel broadens the mind.
  Travelling is like gambling; it is always connected with winning and losing. (Goethe.)
  Travelling makes you appreciate your home.
• When I watch TV travel programmes I am never jealous of the presenters and I never wish that I was there, because I know that if I were there I would have blisters on my heels, mosquito bites on my arms, my luggage would be missing, my boat trip would be cancelled because of storms, and the bargain souvenir I had bought from a stall would be at half price in the local supermarket. (Angela Lansbury, travel writer.)
• Worth seeing? Yes. But not worth going to see. (Samuel Johnson.)
• Bicycle - you'd look sweet upon the seat of a bicycle made for two
• Car - You can have any colour you like so long as it’s black. (Ford.)
• Golf - a good walk spoiled. (Mark Twain, November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910.)
• Hiking - My knapsack on my back (Song.)
• Route/choice: I took the road less travelled and that has made all the difference. (Poem by Walter de la Mare, a metaphor about the advantages of acting independently.)

DESTINATION QUOTES

USA

All my exes live in Texas - that why I hang my hat in Tennessee.
Galveston, oh Galveston. (Galveston is S Texas.)
If you're going to San Francisco. (song)
New York, New York. (song)
Route 66. (song)

Chicago


UK
Blue skies over the white cliffs of Dover. (song)
He who is tired of London is tired of life. (Samuel Johnson.)
It's a long way to Piccadilly. (Song.)
Maybe it's because I'm a Londoner. (song)


.............
Songs and jokes the tourist boards don't promote
WC Fields (gravestone humour)
I'd rather be in Philadelphia.
(That was written before Philadelphia became the top tourist destination it is now, with the history museum where I saw a wonderful exhibition about Benjamin Franklin and the Jewish Museum where I saw a wonderful exhibition on a writer. 

Singapore's Sporting And Intellectual Attractions - jogging and strolling, or speeches? Your choice!

If you are sporty you can enjoy running through the jungle on a paper chase with the Hash house harriers, if you are intellectual you can sit and listen to speeches at the dozens of branches of Toastmasters International, and if, like my friend Andrew, you are a good all-rounder, you can do both. The Hashers (a worldwide organisation) meet in Singapore every night of the week, different groups, men only, women only, families, people running with their dogs!
    Most of them make a very reasonable charge for the buffet meal which ends the evening. they were started by the army so expect the evening to end with beer drinking, rowdy songs and insulting nicknames - like 'Dirty D.... or Dim D.... . If you prefer polite and censored speeches with formal address, 'Mr President and honoured guests', go to Toastmasters.
    (Or you can hire a cycle and ride along the beachside on the East Coast. If you can't arrive on time and miss a meeting, your alternative is to go solo along the beachside jogging trails.)
    The current drought (March 2014) is good for some clubs and tourists. It's good weather for the runners or joggers on the hash because rain does not ruin their outing.
   But when you feel it's too hot to go out, it's good to sit indoors listening to speeches in an air conditioned building. Those Toastmasters groups which meet in the public Community Centres in every government -run housing complex will have either water fountains or crates of bottled iced water, or both.
   Some clubs offer local food made by members' families or brought in from a nearby take away. Sometimes food is free, sometimes there is a small charge (ask if price is important to you). The big meetings in hotels may make a charge for a buffet dinner which is before the meeting plus more snacks in the interval. Arrive early to get your share of food you've paid for and have time to network and make friends with the committee.
    Many of the meetings of the Toastmasters International (as the name suggests, most countries of the world) are free for at least one meeting to guests (VIP speakers, tourists and visitors from overseas), and supporters (family, friends and work colleagues of speakers and members).
 For more information on toastmasters groups worldwide google toastmasters international find a club.
    If you are going to a Toastmasters meeting, or if you are not but just want to sit at home and armchair enjoy, look at my blogs on speeches, my videos on YouTube, or the Facebook pages of my London clubs Harrovians and HOD, or the Facebook and LinkedIn pages of clubs showing speeches which have won competitions. If you are competing in the twice yearly autumn and spring competitions held worldwide, you will find workshops and competitions in larger venues, usually with a price for the audience which covers entry to the venue and any food included in the morning, afternoon, evening or whole day or weekend event.
    If you are looking for a quotation for a speech, get QUICK QUOTATIONS For Authors and Speakers by Angela Lansbury, which I published on lulu.com Or ask me to bring it to a Toastmasters Meeting. I have two editions, the latest at £10 (o.n.o. if you are out of work, have done me lots of favours, or I am carrying an older edition or a dog-eared edition). If you are going to a meeting and went to see or buy a copy, remind me to take one or two or three or more -  I went to a Toastmasters meeting yesterday and the demand for copies outstripped my supply.

Quick Quotations For Successful Speeches    Angela Lansbury (first edition 80 pages)
QUICK QUOTATIONS for authors and speakers Angela Lansbury (second edition 105 pages).

Wonderful Wines For Weddings, Romance & Surprise Novelties: Icewine For Valentine's Day, Wedding Wines, Cork Showing Klee; label with Dirdl

1 Squashed Wine Bottles Displaying Business Cards
The Austrian wine show at the Institute of Directors in Pall Mall, London showed Austria's latest wines and wine related gifts. Business address cards were displayed on a flattened bottle. You can buy these bottles and use them to serve cheese and biscuits with wine.

For a special occasion such as a wedding, anniversary, Valentine's Day, birthday, or birth of a baby, you can have your wine or champagne bottle flattened afterwards as a souvenir. I found flat-bottles.co.uk . Their charge in Feb 2014 from the website was £12+£9 postage for a bottle without label. (You remove your label and save it and stick it back afterwards.)  With labels £18 plus postage. They also do champagne and beer bottles. Other sellers offer bottles as olive trays or spoon rests, with a wine quote (old wine like old friends  better with age) and personalised. The bottle in my picture was at the Austrian wine trade show in London and was made for Weingut Hellmer by an Austrian company. I thought it was flattened by www.mth.com.at but I haven't yet found the website. The bottle itself is from Weingut Hellmer, www.winzer-hellmer.at office email office@winzer-helmmer.at tel:+43 (0)2738/3149

2 Ice Wine In Icicle Thin Bottles
I loved the ultra sweet ice wines which have to be picked at night when the weather is icy, sold in a bottle slim as an icicle. I first found this delicious wine in New Zealand, then in Canada, and did not realise it was closer to home in Europe, from Austria. My favourite eisweins were by Lang; and by Zantho whose bottle labels feature the winery's local lizard.

 Lizard Logos On Bottles Of Sweet wine - how sweet!

For the lizard logo on bottles of ice wine www.zantho.com

3 Dirndl Dress On Labels
Wandering through the show was a girl wearing a wonderful iridescent skirt. The same outfit, a folk fashion of Eastern Austria, is worn by the girl pictured on bottles of wine. The Dirndl dress has a laced corset-style bodice, a full circular skirt, and often a white puff sleeve blouse, skirt lengths varying from knee length to ankle length. You can buy these dresses in various colours for girls of all ages from babies to brides up to grannies, and co-ordinating lederhosen for boys and granddads too.

This wine with its wonderful label is brand new, so they are looking for importers to the UK. If you want to buy a dirndl dress, google dirndl or Salzburger dirndl. The pretty dirndl dress featured in the film Sound of Music so many little girls would love to have one. I met Bianca, above, the daughter-in-law of the people who run the winery.

More details of the wines from www.schmelzweine.at

info@schmelzweine

t:+43 (2715) 2435. 

4 Klee Paintings on Corks & Labels
Another novelty is a portrait from a Klee painting on a cork. Klee was an Austrian painter. The whole painting is shown on a wine label.

For the klee labels and corks check out wwww.szigeti.at

5 New Baby Bottles With Hearts and Keys For Valentine's Day and Weddings
The same company makes miniature bottles, the smallest bottles in the world, holding just a glassful of wine, 125 cl, with trinkets around the bottle neck as gifts. You can have little hearts or keys. Or anything you want to order. The bottles come in conventional colours or silver.

More Details From:

For the bubbly bomb baby bottles, with Bubbly Bomb Vienna designs, Bubbly Bomb Christmas Designs, Bubbly Bomb Wedding Designs - www.szigeti.at

You can buy the bubble bottles from Selfridges, Conran, the British Library or from the producers' website. They specialise in sparkling wines. The bottles with the hearts and keys cost about £8.99, while the ones with silver bottles and pink ribbon are about £12.99.

www.austrianwine.com

For anybody in the trade some more details:

Szigeti, Am Anger 31, 7122 Gols

T: +43 (2173) 2167 F: +43 173) 2514

E:sektkellerei@szigeti.at

W:www.szigeti.at

Contact: Hans-Peter Hofmann

Importer Grays & Feather Ltd.

Haider & Malloth make little lightweight glassy coloured printed papers to go under glasses (in German Glasuntersetzer) Vol.1.

They also double as circular business cards for their marketing staff:

Christopher Malloth MSc, marketing und Sales, Haider & Malloth OG, Am Schrandlsee 2, 7142 Illmitz, Austria.

www.weingut-haider-malloth.at

tel:+43 1 512 29 90-0

More details from:

Facebook: www.austrianwine.com/facebook

Twitter: www.twitter.com/austrianwine

Austrian Wine Marketing Board

www.austrianwine.com

Visit their Webshop shop.oesterreichwein.at

info@austrianwine.com

Next year I hope to go back to their trade show and taste the other sweet wines I missed by wineries: Fritsch; Haider & Malloth Weinkellerei OG; Etz; and Weubrueder

WINE QUOTATIONS

Finally a few quotations on wine:

A glass of wine and thou.

Drink, drink, drink. (Drinking song.)

In vino veritas.

In victory you deserve it; in defeat you need it. (Napoleon on Champagne.) 

Wine, women and song.

Angela Lansbury is the author of Quick Quotations which you can buy on line from lulu.com

Which Wines Should I Serve At My Home Dinner Party?

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Champagne Quotations -
'In victory you deserve it, in defeat you need it.' Napoleon. (I used to worry about quoting quotations accurately. Then I found that famous people who found a witty line went down well would repeat it many times, differently each time. Misquotations are usually more succinct and sound better than the original.
Many famous quotations are translated from the original French in different English words.
I am a happy drinker and a happy wine writer.
Best quotations on drinks and Champagne? I dream of champagne. And making witty remarks about champagne. After a glass of champagne I have sweet dreams and think I have made witty remarks. I have to write down witty remarks, otherwise next day I just have a forgotten dream and big smile. See my book at the end. Now onto a beginner's guide to which wine to serve at your dinner party.

Wine Expert's Advice On Which Wine To Serve
Travelling Trevor is fast becoming a wine expert as a result of the wine tasting lunches, dinners, and evenings, at Berry Brothers near Piccadilly, where he is often sat (I mean that correctly in the passive sense - seated by others) beside the vineyard owner. The vineyard owner often challenges you to guess the grape ('hm - not too sweet, a little dry, only been in the vat xx years, slightly acidic' - so the year? ('wine going brown - may be older').  Trevor often identifies the grape and country and gets the year right or almost right within a year.

Trevor also visits to the Wine Society tastings, consults the wine guidebooks, reads the history of the vineyards, google maps show which bank of the river has the slope getting sun or rain. After years of tours around wine areas of Champagne, Germany, USA, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, now this year he visited Burgundy vineyards and stayed overnight taking photos for them and was rewarded by tastings of unusual wines. (He's an award-winning photographer - in the shortlist for a National Geographic stills competition and and outright winner for a video Boris in London competitions). We have also bought the 'bargain' (reduced price but still a luxury - but including wines you could never normally afford) at Petrus restaurant in London - Petrus being the name of a wine.

When we manage to gather friends from all corners of the globe in Singapore, or the family all meet up in London, we try to have two wines of the same type, but usually a cheap wine and an expensive wine, to compare. We all do a blind tasting and make notes on which wine we prefer, and guess which is the expensive one and which is the cheap one. Then Trevor reveals the labels and prices.

Alas, I'm only just learning to like the tanniny reds and acidic whites. I'm still willing to drink Portuguese Mateus Rose, though German Liebraumilch and Italian Asti Spumante (town of Asti, spumante meaning sparkling) are starting to taste like lemonade and make me wonder whether I am heading for diabetes with too much wine and sugar. So I try to limit myself to one glass with a meal, maximum two.

However, on special occasions I still look for a glass of French Champagne or Italian Prosecco or Californian sparkling rose, a zinfandel, plus a teeny tumbler of an after dinner Muscat. My eyes light up at really sweet wines, German Auslese, Spatlese (spat - late, like me, late but sweet) or a New World Icewine from the USA or even New Zealand.

But when Trevor is emailed by another younger member of the family for advice on which wine to serve at home-cooked dinner party, Trevor says with more authority:

Dinner Party Pairings

Re your dinner, any red wine goes fine with any red meat.  The matches we’ve been trying (mustard with Burgundy, pepper steak with Syrah etc) seem to me no more than interesting experiments.  My preference would be to match lighter meat (lamb) with lighter, fruitier wine (Beaujolais, Burgundy, Rioja or Chateau Musar).  Hold the Bordeaux, Syrah and Italian for steak.

No need for wine with desert (it would have to be a sweet wine though – sweet white if fruit-based, sweet red with chocolate).

Cheese is fussier.  Soft white cheeses, including goat, go very well with well-chilled Sauvignon Blanc.  For waxy yellow cheese like Dutch or Emmental I have yet to find a wine that works.  Hard, crumbly, yellow cheeses like cheddar, manchego and pecorino need a red wine and mature examples can soften any amount of tannin.  Blue cheese like Stilton is famously paired with port (salt vs sweet) but I think it’s too much richness altogether, would just enjoy the cheese.

Love These Links:

Berry Brothers and Rudd Shop, 3 St James's Street, London

Berrys Bros & Rudd
3 St James's Street
London SW1A 1EG
Tel:+44 (0)800 280 2440

Email: bbr@bbr.com

Frequent seated lunches and dinners can be very pricey but you still need to book early because they sell out fast.

Bin end shop Basingstoke (frequent tasting mornings with tutoring sessions for a small price about £5-10)

Berry Bros. & Rudd Hamilton Close Houndmills Basingstoke Hampshire RG21 6YB

www.bbr.com

thewinesociety.com (Wine tastings for members - you can join - it's a public co-op, and they sell wines, bargain bin ends, and glasses, books on wine and wine theme tea towels.) 

Angela's Wine Glass Etiquette and After Dinner Quotations:
Watch Angela Lansbury on restaurant etiquette on you tube

Buy books by Angela Lansbury on speeches and Quick Quotations For Successful Speeches, for after dinner speeches on lulu.com

'When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading.' (Henry Youngman, 1906-1998.)
'If this is tea, bring me coffee, if this is coffee, bring me tea.' Abraham Lincoln.

Send offers of free dinners and news of wine tastings (press, public or personal).

Invitations to free dinners and wine tastings are accepted with blushes or gratifying (to you) and embarrassing (to me) eagerness! 
My email is annalondon8@gmail.com (I am not Anna but Angela. tried to get 'Angela London and a number but several others already had the same idea. However, I managed to snap up the Chinese 'lucky number' 8.)

Quotations from losers and winners about travel and life

QUOTATIONS For travel and life

A correspondent travelling in my direction sent me a quotation which he asked me to identify, a rhyme about roaming. It included the words 'never found a home'.

You don't have to find a home. You can make a home.

You only have to put the words into Google to instantly locate the source, a song written by Johnny Cash.

It is a pity that life's losers write lyrics about losing, even when they become famous. Like one of my favourite singer-songwriters, Amy Winehouse. Her most famous song, won't go to Rehab, no, no, no, struck me as having a negative message when I first saw her singing it. I loved her voice, though not her message. Her message was doing her no good. Then she died.

I prefer to remember and run my life by quotations from Benjamin Franklin:
'Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.'

Benjamin contributed more to society than sayings. He was a politician. He gave a good message and lived a useful life which gave benefits to generations, including me and you. He invented the lighting conductor and bifocals. I use bifocals to read and write.

Angela Lansbury, author of Quick Quotations For Authors and Speakers. I have several more posts about Benjamin Franklin, quotations and statues. Please share links to your favourite posts.