Officially the end of summer

It's no use pretending anymore; the cold has descended upon London, everyone has been ill recently, and the clocks go back next weekend. The San Sebastian crew tried for one last stab at summer though last Saturday, and I tried to make as summery a menu as I could.

End of summer menu (served 2 slightly overworked consultants and 4 other friends)

• Mozzarella with olive gremolata
• Quail eggs wrapped in parma ham
• Tomato and red onion salad
• Razor clams, chorizo and broad bean 'pintxos'
• Stuffed squid with chorizo and rice
• Chocolate and raspberry pavlova

And most importantly, we were able to use the lovely cider glasses I had bought in San Sebastian. At all the little pintxos places, be it sangria or wine or cider, it would be served in a large, very fragile looking glass. We looked all over to try and buy them, and I was jumping up and down a little when I finally found some in a little artisan food shop. They were definitely the guest of honour, everything tastes just that bit more summery when served in them:

Caris also taught us to make the most dangerous drink, with the Konyagi spirit that she imported back from Tanzania (the bottle you can spy in the photo above). It tastes like there is absolutely no alcohol in it, despite the Konyagi being 35%.

Konyagi cocktail (serves 1)

1 shot konyagi
1 shot water
Juice of half a lemon
Honey to taste

1. Mix ingredients in an attractive San Sebastian cider glass
2. Try not to drink all at once

We'd also initially planned to go and have Sunday breakfast at E Pellici, the only listed cafe in the whole of the UK, only for me to forget that it's not open on Sundays. D'oh! Such a shame, as I love their breakfasts there and haven't been for ages, particularly their make-up-your-own option, where I normally combine carved ham, black pudding, bubble and a fried egg. As a result, we ended up heading to Brick Lane.

I was actually most excited about sharing the wonders of Brick Lane beigels (not bagels) from Brick Lane Beigel Bake with Caris and Fil, but I fear they may have been far too Americianised! They both protested that you can't get your beigels toasted, and that there is only one beigel - no blueberry, no cinnamon and raisin, no chocolate chip, no no no! - and I think we will have to agree to disagree on this one.

Brick Lane has become super-trendified recently. I hadn't been down there for a good few months now, and the slightly run-down market has now been replaced by upmarket food stalls; there was even one that only sold arancini. I'm still somewhat undecided on whether I like this development. It will do wonders for my house price, and I like the fact that I now have so many more eateries to try on Sunday mornings, but I like living in a grubby part of town! Sooner or later, it will no longer be frightening for my friends to come and visit, and that simply will not do.

We did try one of these super trendy places, Story Deli, an achingly cool and self-conscious place in the Old Truman Brewery. Half of the restaurant appears to be some kind of art gallery, and the chairs are actually little storage cupboards (the waitress came and got some coffee lids from one of our chairs). Nevertheless, I did come to love the place. I loved their big communal tables, and their very stripped down, deconstructed decor. Best of all, their pizzas are very very good. We tried the one with parma ham and artichoke:

Disturbingly, it was served to us by a 10 year old girl, but it was super tasty. Summer on a pizza, the base was really really thin and crispy, the whole thing was so light. Caris and I are also going to Naples in a couple of weekends' time, where we will eat even more pizza! Mwahahahaha....