Vital Ingredient, Berwick Street

Oases are usually formed when an underground river reaches the surface through substrata of permeable rock. In early 90s Manchester a rock band called Oasis reached the surface. Standing at the spot where the cover photograph for their album "(What's the Story) Morning Glory?" was taken we can still see the picturesque Blue Posts public house, though in the distance we can now see the recently constructed Hedge Fund Towers. Turning round we see an oasis of straightforward vegetables amid the desert of off-the-wall fast food that is Soho, namely Vital Ingredient.

Select a base, mixed foliage, straight foliage, rice of any colour, exotic cereals etc. Then your salad operative will artistically combine any number of vegetables and tasty deli components, whilst making amusing conversation, to create the salad of your dreams.

The Ploughman always likes to be prepared so in the run up to the Festive Season we took the step of partaking of the Christmas salad. Our operative had been generous with the turkey but the resulting dryness was fully countered by the cranberry dressing. The boiled potatoes were cooked just right. We had initially thought roast potatoes would have worked well but that would rather have distracted from our pre-detox mission. Vegetables were too numerous to name.

Mood: a festive shade of cranberry
Experience: a fractal fern frond

The Mason's Arms, Maddox Street, Mayfair

Until 1686 the May Fair was held around the street now known as the Haymarket. Recently my valet pointed out that the fair had been moved to Bow following complaints from local residents. He further expounded that a number of amusing public houses had been built in that area now.

We strolled along there one Saturday evening with a number of jovial chums in search of the requisite bread/cheese/pickle combo. We were alarmed that the first two establishments that are feet took us to closed their doors at six of the clock. Cursing ourselves for not having taken the simple expedient of looking for a ploughman's lunch at lunchtime we eventually came upon The Masons' Arms.

There were a surprising number of mechanicals in the establishment but it was not possible to unequivocally determine that they worked with stone. Nonetheless, an appropriate handshake and a brown Bank of England voucher procued the above Ploughman's Platter and the corresponding tankard of foaming ale. Bread-to-butter was high but within tolerance. Foliage surprisingly dense for a mechanical audience; cheese selection limited. What most struck us though was the luminosity of the mustard. Having donned approriate protective clothing we took the relevant readings but determined that we had received no more radiation than one would have done on a business class flight to New York.

Mood: luminous mustard yellow

Experience: Masonic

Malaysian Pickles

The megadiverse countries are a group of 17 countries that between them contain the majority of species on the planet. One of these countries has been inhabited by humans for over forty thousand years and was known in ancient times as The Golden Peninsula. It is now known as Malaysia.

For all these reasons we were extremely delighted to receive the gift of pickles from a Malaysian friend. They were simultaneously both crunchy and succulent and the flavour had just the right amount of vinegary bite.

Mood: vibrant greens

Experience: a shooting star