The Evergreen Hawthorne

I was over at the Balmoral Road end of Belfast today, a part of town I enjoy visiting occasionally; and, since I've been getting "withdrawal symptoms" about Fulton's splendid Hawthorne self-service restaurant, there was no stopping me.

En route, I browsed at a few of the German car showrooms, viz. Mini, BMW and Mercedes-Benz. I do admire the little Mercedes SLK; in fact I sat in one and, while the seating position is fine for me, being a kind of sports-car, it is "low"; so it would be unfair to expect the Dowager to clamber in to such a model. I've only had the baby two-seater for eight months anyway. Car showrooms just fascinate me, though.

I lunched at Fulton's self-service restaurant, called the Hawthorne. The fodder was sumptuous, home-made-style and tip-top as usual. I devoured the chicken and mushroom tart, accompanied by a side salad and coleslaw. Their creamy mustard dressing is ethereal, by the way: always remember to pour it over the salad. My only disappointment was that I could not order a pudding, owing to the generous size thereof. Never mind.

There is a Marks and Spencer food store near by, so I dashed in and treated the household to the following:-

• Two packets of their most excellent fruit pastilles, made with real fruit juice (9%)
• Two sticky toffee puddings: all butter sponge with dates drenched in a Muscovado toffee sauce (42%)
• Strawberry & clotted cream cheesecake
• Half-fat West Country créme fraîche