There has been talk of Chinese New Year and so when I came home this evening there was a white plastic bag full of what was needed for a good stir fry.

The woks were retrieved from the basement and given a wipe down.

I have a total of three woks and I must have had two of them for at least twenty five perhaps thirty years. They are probably some of the best preserved bits of kitchen equipment I have working better now than the day I got them. They are both black and thick with use.

The contents of the white plastic bag had come from The International Store, including the chicken – three obscene breasts which looked as if they might have come from an ostrich as opposed to a chicken.

Two of them were chopped up and mixed with some egg and corn-flour.

I then chopped up finely red peppers and carrots, ginger, garlic and spring onions.

Before starting on the cooking proper I deep fried the prawn crackers and tofu.

Both woks then went on to full burn and we started on the cooking.

The chicken went into one and a mixture of red peppers and carrots into the other.

As they cooked some of the red pepper and carrot was shifted and stirred into the chicken, the tofu was then added to the red pepper and carrot in the first wok and  the garlic, ginger and spring onion was stirred into both.

There was a large jar of black bean sauce to hand. Dark soy sauce was stirred in followed by dollops of the black bean sauce.

Both woks were then lubricated with some water whilst I spent a couple of minutes cooking the noodles.

As the food went on to the table I was told there were not enough noodles to keep everyone happy.

The complainant was right. Mostly you cook noodles (rice or pasta) and they grow as they cook so the scant handful thrown into boiling water turns into too much to eat. These noodles shrank as they cooked. We had a go cooking some and still there weren’t enough. They were very good though!

And then all of a sudden there is more light in the mornings and evenings and you could fool yourself into thinking that winter is behind us and we are into the first few footsteps of spring.

Out in the garden this afternoon I decided to try ruin what is already a knackered back and dig over those parts of the veg patch where garlic isn’t growing. All of the soil was covered with small shoots of green growth which had to be picked out with my fingers before I could start with the fork.

There was a fecundity about. I was still pulling away the dead brown of lasts years growth and all around another season was pushing its way up about to start.

Then this evening I stumbled on the best gravy ever.

It was the Farmer’s Market yesterday and as normal I bought myself a chicken to roast on Sunday.

All was done as I have done countless times before except that I stirred into the gravy a couple of spoonfuls of quince paste. Almost without me realising what I had done it took the food on to something else. There was no sweetness about it, just a full blooded taste of something good.

We went on a pub crawl last night and ended up in Roja Pinchos for the third weekend running. Next time we will have to try and make it to one of their Sunday lunches when they will give you a glass of Cava and as many pinchos as you can eat all for £15.00.

The only disappointment was the lack of black pudding croquettes – but we did have the mushrooms with quails eggs. A small round of toast covered in cooked mushrooms and topped with a perfectly fried miniature quail’s egg. I had a few of those along with pieces of steak with a cauliflower puree and the balls of cheese rolled in pistachio nuts.

Before the pinchos we had a pint in The Lion Tavern on Moorfields and then two pints in the very fine Ship & Mitre.

After the pinchos we crossed Berry Street and headed for The Grapes. We lost count of the pints in there but there was good music and dancing with strangers until we staggered out into the night and into a taxi and then back home to bed far too late.

It is probably a good thing there no photos of the dancing.