Hortal.com

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Saturday was the Brighton Pride parade. It was a gloriously sunny day so Katia and I decided to head down to Brighton and enjoy the celebrations.

Clearly we were not the only ones to have that idea. Trains were running on their own time, and once one finally arrived, we had to push and push and push some more to be able to squeeze into one the less crowded carriages. Would not be one of them for long - there were a few more stops to go, and everywhere people had decidedto join us on our trek to the seaside.

Once in Brighton we headed towards the main avenue and picked an almost-empty spot to watch the parade. Great spot for viewing and photo taking, and thanks to the neighbours’ many water pistols, also a very refreshing place under the almost-Spanish sun.

The parade didn’t take long to arrive to where we were, and soon we were clapping to the Police, the Fire Service, the Greens followed by Labour; football, volleyball and basket teams… It seems there is a gay association in every trade, department or party, and a gay sports team, club or group for every hobby. This is after all the UK and people like to belong to clubs and associations above nothing else. In this, like in most other aspects of life, gays are no different.

We took over 200 photos of the very colourful parade and the party that followed at Preston Park. Facebook would only allow me to upload 60, so here they are, the 60 best pictures of Brighton Pride 2007.

While in Brighton, between the parade and Preston Park we stopped for lunch at Havana in Duke Street. We knew nothing about it but it had a free table to sit outside and the food looked quite good on the other customers’ tables. The prices may be a little high but you forget about it as you are getting your first bite. We started with a warm Chicken Kidney salad presented on a thin slice of toasted bread and a bed of mixed leaves that was just spectacular; and another starter of Roma Tomato with Mozzarella Sorbet (yes, Mozzarella Sorbet) that had plenty of novelty points and was greatly refreshing, sitting as we were outside in the sun in the middle of the day.

We continued with a Fruit de mer Linguini which, while very good, were the weakest execution due to a slightly overpowering creamy sauce, and an excellent Steamed Cod on Black Pudding, juicy, tasty and managing to pull off the odd combination brilliantly.

We were very happy to have landed in Havanna by mere chance and so happy with the food that we decided to order dessert -something I most definitely never do. Katia got the prettiest construction made of Coconut, Cactus and Mango -the mango treated to appear as a fried egg’s yolk on top of the rest using one of Ferrán Adriá’s more spectacular tricks. I opted for Strawberries with a Yoghourt Foam and Sangría Sorbet (again, yes, Sangría Sorbet). the presentation was exquisite, the taste of the main piece superb and the Sangría Sorbet added a note of adventure that rounded the whole thing beautifully. We savoured the desserts in awe, made another comment about the lucky encounter with a great meal and parted with the place before we succumbed to temptation and started all over again.

If the place has got a fault is probably the wine. The wine list is short and pretentious. We had to settle for a french young white that should have been a lot better. While the food is undoubtedly inspired by Spain’s greatest contemporary chefs, Adriá especially, the wine list is missing the same influence. A good white Rueda and an Albariño would round up the wine list and match the food so much better… All in all, a highly recommended visit next time you’re in Brighton. We’ll surely go again.

Tags

brighton brighton pride food party pride parade restaurant

Posted on August 5th, 2007 by Roberto Hortal
Filed under: Weekend

Related posts

Brighton Pride 2007

Brighton Pride parade 2007

Diamond DA40

Happy 2007