Off Menu with Ed Gamble and James Acaster - Ep 43: Anthony Head

Episode Date: January 29, 2020

After a brief renovation, the restaurant’s now open for series 3, and our first guest is national treasure and star of Netflix’s ‘The Stranger’ Anthony Head! And what a holy meal it is.Recorded and edited by Ben Williams for Plosive Productions.Artwork by Paul Gilbey (photography and design) and Amy Browne (illustrations).All episodes of ‘The Stranger’ are on Netflix from January 30th. Watch here.Follow Anthony Head on Twitter @AnthonySHead.Follow Off Menu on Twitter and Instagram: @offmenuofficial.And go to our website www.offmenupodcast.co.uk for a list of restaurants recommended on the show.Watch Ed and James's YouTube series 'Just Puddings'. Watch here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello, listeners of the Off Menu podcast. It is Ed Gamble here from the Off Menu podcast. I have a very exciting announcement. I have written my first ever book. I am absolutely over the moon to announce this. I'm very, very proud of it. Of course, what else could I write a book about? But food. My book is all about food. My life in food. How greedy I am. What a greedy little boy I was. What a greedy adult I am. I think it's very funny. I'm very proud of it. The book is called Glutton, the multi-course life of a very greedy boy. And it's coming out this October, but it is available to pre-order now, wherever you pre-order books from. And if you like my signature, I've done some signed copies,

which are exclusively available from Waterstones. But go and pre-order your copy of Glutton, the multi-course life of a very greedy boy now. Please? Does anyone here at the table have any allergies? Oh, yes. I'm allergic to bad podcasts. Don't worry. That won't be a problem. Welcome to the Off Menu podcast. The best yet. Best intro yet. Do you think so? Yes. It was a proper play. Yes. Different characters. I learned stuff about each one of them. What did you learn about them? One of them has an allergy. You can't listen to bad podcasts. Yes. And the other one is very good at being organized and making sure everyone's got what they need. He was the waiter, so obviously I didn't spend

long enough writing that character. I don't know much about waiters, but... So, this is the Off Menu podcast with me, Ed Gamble. And the other voice you're hearing now is James A. Caster. Guilty as charged. I just want to get that exactly right, because James has just told me that on a previous episode, he made reference to the Wasabi prawns at Taotaoju, changing their sauce and not being as good again. Yeah. Stand by it. And then he went back to Taotaoju and a man who worked there, a waiter, came and held up his phone and it had our podcast on it with the episode referencing that. Yeah. And then claimed that I'd said that the sauce was bad and James just went along with it. Yeah. He said, Gamble said the sauce is bad. I was like, oh,

yeah, so it sounds like something he would say. So, I just want to make it very clear that I have not made claims about the Taotaoju sauce. And this is me, Ed Gamble, remember the voice. You kept on calling you Gamble, though. It's so great. Yeah. You're saying Gamble doesn't like our sauce. James, the dream restaurant has reopened. We are back for series three. The treble. The treble, the big number three, the tricky third series. The third course. We will be again welcoming guests here into the dream restaurant and what a first guest we have, James. We will be asking this first guest. Their favorite ever. Start a main course dessert, side dish and drink. And our special guest today is Anthony Head. Anthony Head. Anthony Head,

a national treasure, a wonderful actor, a British institution. Of course, many of you, if you're my age, will know him as Giles from Buffy. Yeah. It's so weird that that was his character name. That all the way through, they would say, is Giles from Buffy? Yeah. It was very odd. Where's Giles from Buffy? Even Buffy would say that. Yeah. She said, where's Giles from Buffy? But she wasn't Buffy from Buffy. Yeah. They're like, what are you talking about? So, he was Giles from Buffy, but he, of course, has a varied and wonderful CV and we'll be today talking to him about his dream menu, of course, but he is here because he is promoting The Stranger, which is a new Netflix show. Stranger Things. But no, not Stranger Things. The Stranger based on a novel by Harlan Coban.

I've seen the first episode. It's very gripping. It's very exciting. It's out on January 30th on Netflix. Go and watch it. Trapped in the upside down. No, that's not what it is, James, but it's on Netflix. So, if you do end up on Netflix for some, just type in Stranger, but not Stranger Things. We don't want that confusion to happen. But of course, if Anthony Heard says, the secret ingredients that we have pre-established, he will be removed from the restaurant. It is an ingredient that we do not like. And the ingredient this week is pumpkin seeds, roast pumpkin seeds. Bit of controversy around this. Originally, I was not for it. I was like, I like pumpkin seeds. Yes. What are you doing that for? But then you did say to me,

sometimes they have the stringy bits attached. Well, I thought that is gross. Here's what I think about pumpkin seeds. Sometimes they do have the stringy bits attached. Also, I have, on multiple occasions, tried pumpkin seeds as a snack when they do them in America, but you very fond of them in service stations. Roasted salted pumpkin seeds. And they're just chewy and they're in a weird case. And you need to spit all bits out that you can't eat. Absolute faff. There's a lot of seeds I'd have before it. Yeah. Sunflower seeds I'd have before it. Yeah. Pumpkin seeds. That's the ones we're talking about. I think you have different seeds.

So, if Anthony Heads says roast pumpkin seeds, he will unfortunately be removed from the restaurant. No ifs, no buts, Anthony. Get out of here. No ifs, no buts, no pumpkin seeds. Here is the off-menu-menu of Anthony Heads. Welcome, Anthony, to the Dream Restaurant. Thank you very much. Wow. Well, Anthony Heads to the Dream Restaurant. Oh, there's confetti falling from the ceiling. Oh, yes. So much confetti this time. I don't usually do much confetti, but I ordered a bunch of confetti for the last episode. I didn't arrive in time. Oh, so I got it. You're still all of it today. Oh, thank you. You've got two weeks worth of confetti. Oh, sorry. It's coming in my eyes. Yeah. Apologies. Oh, and in my mouth. Yeah, yeah. Straight in the mouth. Everything in

this restaurant goes in your mouth. Yeah, that's true. How does the confetti taste? Yeah, it's a bit papery. Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's just normal confetti. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I could get some Willy Wonka confetti, actually. That would be better, wouldn't it? Well, if it's chocolate, yeah. If it's all tasted like whatever your favorite meal is, that's what Willy Wonka would do. Each little strand of confetti would taste like a different meal. Oh, that would be confusing. Yeah. Just eat one little fleck at a time. Unfortunately, the confetti here is paper, and like you say, paper thin, much like the conceit of this podcast. What? Welcome to the Dream Restaurant.

I've gone back in the lamp with that. With that sort of attitude. James is a genie. He's here to get you your dream meal from wherever you want. From wherever I want. Wherever you want in your life. All the different times you're like, you know, maybe it's from your childhood, reminds you of being a little baba. Or maybe like, you know, I mean, did you like food much as a kid? I did. My mum was a really good cook. Oh, yeah? Shout out? Shout out her name? Yeah, shout out her name or even, yeah, what's her name? Helen. Helen. She was, she was an actress, actually. Helen Shingler. Ah, bless her.

But she was a good cook. But I did go off, I went off spinach because they used to do like cream, cream, cream spinach. Yeah. I think it might make, it wouldn't at school. I don't know. And my dad was of the generation where you'd sort of bring yesterday's meal out and make the child eat it until it. Oh. Yeah. Didn't last long. If you were naughty. Yeah, because it was, I was just, I was a pun, as a punishment. Not as a punishment. Well, just sort of, no, you've got to eat it. Yeah. And all, because they were the war generation. So, you know, ultimately, you didn't waste food. My, my dad's exactly the same. Really? 50s, 50s boys. So they're still on

sort of weirdly on rationing post-war. Post-war rationing. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, you got to eat everything on the plate. But that's also not a problem for me. But I've never liked cream spinach, ever. It's interesting that you went, you remember going off spinach as a child. Were you on spinach previously? I think, well, maybe it was the first time I ate it and was immediately didn't like it. I did go off tomato juice, for I used to have, that was my drink when I was a child. I don't know why, I have no idea why. That was unusual. But when I went out, it's like, oh, I'll have a, I'll have a tomato juice, please. And then I'd had so much. That was like, no, actually, I don't think I wanted it anymore. Thanks, no. It's like having a soup.

Yeah. It's a very healthy drink. A little cold soup that you had as a child. I mean, I, I, did you get into that? Was anyone else in your family into it? It's just you. Yeah, me. I think it was just me. Yeah. It's you. Yeah. It was when my, my grandfather used to take, take us out to sort of, to clubs and things. Not, not nightclubs. Not nightclubs. It's a very weird story where your granddad takes you to a nightclub and you have a tomato juice. One tomato juice, please, Barney. You can have yesterday's tomato juice. You didn't finish that when you were there. So you would have to be taken to clubs? Yeah. Yes. This is, it's sort of quite vague because like after school clubs and stuff. No, no, because he was, he was, he was a,

a surveyor, chartered surveyor, and he was sort of like very central London. He sort of, he, he belonged to a couple of sort of central London kind of Lardy Dark clubs. And so, yeah, I just remember going out, not that often, but I do remember going out with him a couple of times. And the second or third time, it was just like, no, I don't want tomato juice anymore. Thanks. No. I imagine you as a child in one of those clubs in a full suit drinking a tomato juice out of a cocktail glass. Yeah. With a little. Welcome to that. I probably was dressed up. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I love it. Just a little kid in a suit. I don't think I had a suit. No, it was probably in called. Little sailor suit?

Cord. Not a sailor suit, maybe. I think it was corduroy. Corduroy, no. But also it has to be said, because my mum used to make a lot of clothes. So quite a lot of stuff that I did have. I did have a corduroy jacket that she made. She actually made my school blazer when I, when I was fourth or fifth form. I don't know what that is now. But yeah. And I used to think it was because we were sort of really affluent, but it actually turned out we didn't have much money. So she was she was like, you know, making do with being economic as it were. Your mum sounds like a one woman industry. Yeah. She really was extraordinary. It's amazing. Acting. And then your granddad is into, is it all these posh little members only clubs and you're going in there, you're homemade

clothes. I love it. Yeah. And not, not having tomatoes. Now, so I got to see this morning, the first episode of Stranger, which is a new Netflix series that you are in. I don't think it's a spoiler wanting to say you're not really in the first episode. That's not a spoiler. No. Yes. I'm not in the book actually. Harlan Coban's book. No, because when they adapted the book, Dan Markalist adapted it. And they basically, they've given what is a very, very, very basic central wow story. And they've sort of, because they've got to create eight episodes. Yes. So I'm, I am Adam Price is played by Richard. I'm his father. Okay. He's, he's the central figure. And I'm just a nasty piece of work that's basically ruined his

life and is now up against him. So you're a bit of a baddie. Yes. Do you like playing a baddie? I do actually. I must admit, for a long time for most of my career, I don't always play baddies. But when I do, I always like to bring some reality, some, because I always said, you know, not everybody gets out of bed wanting to be bad. They have a reason and you can defend that reason. And then sort of the thing that sort of come more and more into, into public awareness is narcissism, which there is no reason really. You just not necessarily a nice piece of work. It's just everything. It's about me. Yeah. And so yeah, the last couple of characters that I played are definitely narcissists. Do you think you, do you have to like

the character to play the character? Do you have to find a reason to like them? Or can you just play straight up evil? I think no, I think, I think if you play too much, we're just good to be bad. That was good though, that noise you did. Yeah. Although, yes, I did play an evil character in a radio show called Bleak Expectations. And I developed a laugh for that. Which was, yeah. I love that. I want you to do that every time a course is brought to you at the restaurant. What? You're making me nervous. They might amuse me even if I don't like them. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So you can be interested in them without necessarily liking them. That's cool. I get out of bed wanting to be bad. Do you? Yeah. Do you? Do you achieve your aims?

No, but I get out of bed. I'm like, I want to be bad. What's the first thing you do to make yourself a bad boy for the day? Oh, immediately, what I do is I go and I use someone else's toothbrush and they'll never know. But I just brush my teeth with someone. Actually, I did that. You live alone though, right? Yeah, yeah. I forgot, I've got to walk a few blocks until I find an open front door, let myself in, brush the old pegs, go back home. You shouldn't be taking your old pegs in as well. Yeah, I've got to clean all that. I've told you to buy some new pegs. I'm washing up and I like to clean my pegs with toothpaste.

So you're a well-travelled man. You've been around the world. Yeah. Do you, is food part of your life? Would you say you enjoy it? I do definitely enjoy it. Yes, I've been all over the place. And what's quite interesting is that we over, during my life, England has gone from English cooking to pretty much everybody's cooking. It's adapted very well, I think, to absorb pallets from around the world. But yeah, no, it used to be very, you know... Shibb's boy and meeting two vegans and all that. And that was it. And it was like, we can actually do... And cream spinach, of course.

And cream. You can't forget the cream spinach. I want to delve more into the character you're just playing. Because I like the character. I like the character's name. The character who said Shepard's Pie? Yes. And the character called Shepard's Pie? No, but I'll see if I can invent him. I like the character. What would the character's name be? Whoa, Shepard. Shepard. Shepi? Shepi. Shepi. Shepi... Shepid's Pie.

Shepi... Shepi's Pie. And what's Shepi's Pie's job? Oh, uh... Is it a Shepid? Maybe he's a knight... Maybe it's a Shepid, yeah. Maybe, yeah. And he doesn't eat Shepid's Pie, he's called Shepi's Pie. That's pretty good. I like the character, yeah. Have you still got the phone number for Netflix? So I think the three of us can quickly launch a new show. Very good. Definitely knock something together.

And I'll be his neighbour who always wakes up wanting to be bad. Yeah, and one of his two brothers. He's got a toothbrush every time. I do that. It's assuming that he's got a toothbrush. Yeah, Shepi might not have a toothbrush. Probably just wake up and put mashed potato. What is it? Immediately. Well, we always start with your choice of water.

If you're like still a sparkling water with your meal. With meal, I like sparkling water. Okay. Yes. And has that always been the case? I have no clue. I... Yes, I think so. Do you not remember the first time you ever had sparkling water? No. It was the day when you went to the club with your grandad. No more tomato juice, please.

Well, it's not when you go out. It's just having a glass of flat water. Just feels like being at home. Yeah. Mind you, when I was filming in South Africa, I think I probably had still water quite a lot, because you'd be thirsty. It's quite hot there. It is, famously. And does sparkling water not quench your thirst? You can't drink too much of it at a time, because obviously it's the gas issue.

It's gas issue. Yes, yes. Is that Shopee back again? Yes, he's come back. Well, that might be his cousin. What were you filming in South Africa? A sci-fi show called Dominion, which actually was a very interesting conceit. It was about angels taking back the earth, because God actually is not interested anymore.

And it was like it was a post-apocalyptic show. It was odd and interesting. So angels are taking back the earth. Yes. And you're there drinking a still water. That's what you're counting on. Well, not on set necessarily, yes. Not on character.

I have difficulties between real life and the film. I mean, he's pretending to be a genie right now, but you know you're pretending, right? Not pretending. You've come in wearing your blue genie suit today. Yes, Anthony says it's real. If you were being attacked by angels, what do you think would be the best way of beating them up?

Oh, very interesting. I don't think my character particularly, I won't go into it in too much depth, but my character, again, was a baddie, was an American politician who, because we were in a town called Vega, which was basically had been Las Vegas. And we'd sort of got huge walls around it

and we'd sort of fended off the angels, but they did sort of find their way in occasionally. But it was... Can angels not just jump through walls? They've got wings. Yeah, they have, yeah, yeah. But we've got Akak guns and, you know, all that technology. Can you kill an angel?

Or are you dead? I don't think they're dead people. No, they're zombies, aren't they? No, they're not. Zombies and angels are two different things. Yeah, they are, yeah. Although, we did have our sort of equivalent to zombies. This was a while back, so me being able to...

You weren't expecting to hear that yesterday, were you? Would you like, okay, here's an option then, still a spark of water, but twist, it's holy water, and you can melt an angel with it. Well, now you're back in Buffyland. Yeah, we're going to be even first back there. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

What is... What is Buffy? I'm just pulling your leg. I'm just pulling your leg, I know what Buffy is. Oh, yeah, would you think Giles would drink some holy water? No, no, no, no. He wouldn't want to waste it on himself. He'd have... Because...

But what if you're like, there must have been a night where Giles just gets hammered on his own, and it's like, oh, you're going to miss some of the holy water. Oh, you're going to... I think he'd probably go to the brandy, rather than the holy water,

because the holy... You'd want to save your holy water against the vampires, wouldn't you? Yeah. But he wouldn't... Giles is sensible, he knows what he's doing. Surely Giles has been very curious forever

about what the holy water tastes like, and when they get smashed enough, and what it just tastes a little bit of it. Well, it probably just tastes like... Yeah, I don't think... I don't think there's a different taste to it. It tastes different? They don't add, like,

holy squash to it or something. It's not like cordial. Or if it's been sitting in one place, maybe it's a bit... Yeah, it's probably a bit eggy. Maybe a bit eggy, I think, of holy water. Well, it's a bit eggy, I don't know what to do, because you haven't tasted it.

I mean, you'd be very tempted to be like, does it taste different? Yeah. Or maybe just have a wash in it, can't you? That's not wasting it. You still have it drip off, you're back into the thing. Isn't that called baptism?

And I don't... Baptise yourself, actually. Why, incident? I don't think you can baptise yourself, though. By drinking it, no. Like, you can't tickle yourself. Can't you? Can't tickle yourself, can't you?

No, it's not. Can't tickle yourself, can't baptise yourself. That's true. Anthony's just trying to tickle himself for the lesson where Anthony's now trying to tickle himself. He's trying to tickle himself, he's seeing if it works or not. I reckon Giles would have definitely

had a little sip of her short. Well, it's probably his elated scene. Yeah, something like that. Pop nubs open! Pop nubs open! Anthony hit! Pop nubs open! He just made me jump, yeah.

Pop nubs open! Anthony hit! Anthony whipped a steak out there. Yeah, absolutely. Just shat a steak out. No, you just shat, actually. You just made me jump, but there you are. But what I liked was you were laughing about it

as you were jumping. Yeah, you did like it. You were chuckling and jumping at the same time, and I enjoyed that very much. Benito, were you on that? Did that just peak, or did you manage to? He knows it, he knows it, it's coming home. Although, to be honest, it took me by surprise a bit today.

Good, yeah. Did you shit yourself? Yeah, oh, yeah. I can't fit in there. Absolutely shit. I absolutely shit myself all that hard. Yeah, and it's not got that reaction for a while. No, really.

Yeah, it was really satisfying, actually. You really timed it perfectly, I thought. Yeah, it was good. It did that very well. Came out of the blue, yeah. Well, literally, because you're wearing blue. Yeah, wearing blue, full genie today. Very good.

It's really worked out quite well. But Pop nubs or bread is the question, of course. Well, it kind of depends what meeting. Well, if I'm meeting Indian, definitely Pop nubs. Yeah. In a restaurant that's sort of serving French or Italian, I love seeded bread. And there's one restaurant that we go to that has really

different, lots of different breads, and they bring little rolls. A little selection of different rolls. Yeah, lovely. And do they do that thing, which I hate in restaurants, where they make you pick, they bring them around the bread basket, and they say, which one would you like? I want all of them.

Sure. Well, except you don't want to eat them all, because then you've got no room for nothing else. Yeah, but if they brought all of them, then I could have a little taste of each one. Well, yeah, but then you'll deny everybody else. Well, that's true. I'm very selfish.

Well, mind you, if you're on your own, I suppose, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that's all. Have a little pick of each one. I'm always pretty good at just choosing one. I don't love bread as much as Ed does. So I'm quite good at just being like. Mind you, are you creating a lot of waste in the world?

That's what I was just thinking when, as I was saying, I'm the problem here, I'm creating bread waste. Unless the kitchen staff don't mind the fact that you picked a roll and will eat the rest of it. Or make it into breadcrumbs and put it on top of something. Yeah, or bread pudding. Bread pudding, yeah. Lovely bread pudding.

Not a great fan, but there you go. You don't like it? Not particularly. No, to be fair, the foods that you said you don't like so far kind of falls into that category, doesn't it? Genius cooked it, it would be light and frothy, and it would be great if you wouldn't ask both. So there you go, yeah.

Someone genie us? So what's on offer? What's the name of the place where you go that offers all the different breads? Bakery. Oh. Imagine if you thought you were the only person to go to a bakery. We go to this place.

I found the place. So many different whole array of breads. And there's a lovely man with a soft hat. That's a bread as far as I can see. It seemed to be a bit lacking in butter, don't it? Just the bread. Yeah, no, it's a lot, because we live just outside of Bath. There are lots of very good restaurants in Bath,

but this is a place called the Wheat Chief. And yeah, very good, very good cooking. Because your surname reminds you of bread, do you go in and say Anthony Head would like some bread? That's what I said I'd like some bread. Not often, but I will, from here on in. I think it'd be nice to say that. Ed does it, because his first name is obviously wants a bread.

Ed does say Ed want bread. Yeah, Ed want bread. Simple, simple mind. Yeah. Eddie bread-y. Eddie bread-y. Eddie bread-y, yeah. Eddie says that over and over again.

Ready, Eddie bread-y. Yeah, ready. Eddie ready for bread. Yeah, is that it? Eddie ready for bread-y. I've been kicked out of a lot of restaurants. Eddie ready for bread-y. So what's on offer?

Which is the role that you go to first, which is your dream role? I'm dairy sensitive, but I love cheese. And I think it's, I'm just trying to think, there's one with parmesan in it. It's lovely. But don't ask me. Don't ask me.

I'll just go, oh, that one. Thanks. You just get the grab. I love olive bread. I'm very much here to ask you. I love olive bread. Yes, I love olive bread. Here we go.

Because you could call me dairy sensitive as well. Really? It makes me very upset and angry when people say they want cheese, especially as a dessert. I like cheese enough, actually, but like, whenever. We've had people in the past who've picked a cheeseboard

as a dessert. And it sends James mad. Yes. That's how I'm dairy sensitive. I adore goat cheese. I love goat cheese. Okay. Yeah.

Lovely. So I went, well, would you like some goat cheese on your olive bread? No. That would be a complete waste of both flavours. Would it? Well, it would be more of a waste of the olive bread than of the cheese,

because the cheese would probably absorb more of the flavour. But if you offered it to me, I wouldn't say no. One of it's your dream. It's your dream. It's not what it's a dream. So if you would like the olive bread for your bread,

we can give you the olive bread. Give me my olive bread. With butter or a little oil, a little dish of oil. Oh, oil, actually, with olive bread would be good. Holy oil? There's a question. Did Charles just bless all of his condiments?

Or the liquids in his house? Did he bless all of them? My name is Ian. I don't think it was in his sort of parameter to bless it. He wasn't a priest. Oh, James has never seen Buffy. We should get that out. Oh, that's because we played it.

I know nothing about Buffy. My girlfriend tried to get me to wear her. Now, I want to say Sunnydale? Yes, you can say that. She said, where have my junk? Because she's a massive Buffy fan. She said, wear it, wear it.

And I was like, but I'll be caught out really quickly. Because, you know, I don't know enough about Buffy. And I knew I'd get caught out. And now I've been exposed anyway. Because I said, does Charles bless all his condiments? Yeah, I see. My fiance is a huge Buffy fan as well.

Ed's got a fiance. And he went up in me. My girlfriend likes Buffy. Yes, my fiance likes it as well. And she's got a Sunnydale. She doesn't. I don't think she has a Sunnydale jumper, no. No.

No. He disappointed in her. Yeah. No. Doesn't sound like manager material, does she? Would you marry someone who hadn't bothered to buy a Sunnydale jumper, Jars? Called you Jars then?

Oh, I love it. So you're having oil. Unholy oil to dip the olive bread into. What's holy oil? It's something he made up. People will bless it. Like holy water. Holy water just gets blessed by a priest, right?

I'm just saying, I've got a priest in the kitchen for this episode. Right. And they can bless any of this food you want. Especially the liquids. And if you want that oil blessed, I can do it. Do you? Otherwise, I can't.

What this restaurant isn't protected against is vampires, mate. And then they come in here. And if you don't have some holy oil in the kitchen. Well, if you have got garlic in the kitchen, then that's a problem. It's absolutely got you there. That's the point. We have got anything you want.

You should have garlic in it. So do you want us to? Hopefully, they're not going to be invading. No, I don't think they will be. This is during the day. We'll just say the meal's during the day. And then it's fine. They can't come anyway.

But close during the day. No. It's a dream restaurant. You can't close it during the day. I want to add some jeopardy to this meal. I want to have it that there might be vampires coming in. Now, of course, we come to your starter. The starter.

Yeah. Do you enjoy a starter? Yeah. Yeah. You can do some honorable mentions, if you like. And you can do any character you please. I feel sad for them. But I do like Iskago.

If they're good. Especially in France. I do. But I sort of feel sad for the snails. You feel sad of the snails? Or is that the snail? No, it is me talking to the snail. Oh, you're talking to the snail.

That's not a snail impression. No, no. I've been talking to it before, Hans. What are you saying to it there? I'm sorry. But the snail, does the snail understand English? If it's a French snail? Probably not.

Yeah. Yeah. It's probably shrugging at me, but I can't actually read it. Another question. Can a snail shrug? Good question. Well, if you see it's... Great question.

I guess you say shell move, I want to know. But I did... Recently I had a lunch and I fell in love. It was just... It was tuna cabaccio. It was just stunning. Gorgeous. Where was this?

It was actually the Ivy in Bath. Oh. And is that your choice for your dream starter? I think, actually, yes. Even though I'm very... Again, I'm very... Because I don't eat meat. I do eat fish.

But the fact that tuna... I mean, it's got a chance out there, you know, because it's not farmed. So I do love tuna. A good tuna. The meatiest fish as well. The closest you can get to meat without having meat. Well, I guess.

But it's not that... That's not the reason. I love the flavour. I like sushi and tuna is my favourite sushi. So the carpaccio is raw tuna? It's raw tuna which has been marinated in citrus. So that it basically... It partially cooks the meat.

But it's gorgeous. It's really thin. Very, very thin. Would you like holly tuna? Oh, God. I think we knew that question was coming. Well, I've got... Why did I get a priest in for that?

Why did I get a priest in? Tell me that. It has to be said, if it was holly tuna, it would... If it's got holes in it, I would say it's probably rank. Yeah, we don't want to twist tuna. It's a thinly sliced tuna,

but blessed by the priest, I've got it. Does it change the flavour when the priest blesses things? Because I think we just need to say, at the top of the middle now... Judge of that. I think you'll have to be the judge of that. The priest could bless everything or the priest could just go home.

That's what you're going to tell me if it's left or not. Yeah, give the priest the day off. No, it's just a tiny day off. I've never had him in before. Got a mince mostly for you. And it depends what kind of a priest he is, really, because, you know, I'm not going to say don't to anyone. If that's what they need to do.

It's fine for him to come in. I mean, he will, you know... That's very gracious of you that at your dream meal, you are letting a priest bless all your food just because he's here. That's what he needs to do. I'm not going to stop him. Tell him he can bless everything

as long as it doesn't change the flavour. Okay, well... And don't put... Hopefully it won't change the flavour. Too much salt, I think. No, not too much salt. No, he's no... Just because you...

He's nowhere near the salt. That cloaks... Well, you never know. That cloaks the... Unlike a bit of salt. Yeah, you need a bit of salt to bring out flavour. You don't want to over... You can go too far. Don't put it on your tuner.

A ring of salt, that'll keep... Does that keep vampires away? Yeah, what's the ring of salt keep away? Circle of salt. Circle of salt keeps... Ants. Ants, yeah. Ah, that's the point.

You don't want any ants coming in. Don't want them. What else goes on in the carpaccio then? Citrus, is there anything else? I think a little black pepper. Ah, lovely. That's a nice, light way to start the meal as well. You're not too full going into it.

You could just have a little olive bread and then a tuner carpaccio. You're ready to go. Yeah. And because it was quite recent when you had that tuner carpaccio, can you remember what you remarked when you ate it? Well, apart from...

Oh. Which I forgot. There it is. You forgot the evil laugh. Evil laugh. Everyone in the eye got scared. It was... Ooh.

Oh. Ooh. Ooh. Oh, yeah. Basically. That's like the opposite of the noise you made to the snails. Yeah. That's opposite.

Yeah, yeah. And then this is like completely the opposite. I make a lot of noises when I eat something I like. I really... It was like, oh, oh, yeah. Oh, goodness. And when I'm with my fiancé, I've got a fiancé, James.

She hates it. Not gonna last. What? She hates the noise you're making? She's like, don't just... Why can't you just enjoy it without making stupid noises? Because you're sharing it.

I mean, that's what I thought I was sharing. It's basically saying to the other person, oh, this is... Yeah. The next move is have some of this. Yeah. Oh, no. That's never the next move with me.

No. You clearly do. I make the noises until I've finished it completely. You clearly have never met Ed ready for Freddie Gamble. But then that's like... That's like saying, this is really yummy. Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Yeah. You can't... It is. It's... This is really yummy. You should have ordered it. Well, then... You'll know your mistake.

Then don't make this. Then don't make the noise. Don't make the noise. Okay. That's good to know that's where the line is. I didn't know that's how I'd gone wrong. But it's good to know that. It does do a lot of that.

This is so good. Not for you, though. Yeah. Oh, that is what I do. Oh, God. There it goes. That's why... That's why you're going to get a divorce

before you even get married. Bad luck. Ed's going to become the first person to get divorced before he gets married. Yeah. Impressive if you can do it. That's why I've got a priest here. Yeah, yeah.

He's it. Blessing all the food. Let's do a quick divorce. Go on. Your main course. Your main course. Very exciting, the main course. I mean, when you go and have a meal,

are you mostly excited about the main, the starter, the dessert? Well, I don't know. We went to Antwerp, the other night, in Tadworth for a friend's birthday. Yeah. Where's Tadworth? Sorry.

It's near Kingswood. And it was, I think, Turkish influence. Mm-hmm. And the, we just had all starters, because they were amazing. Prawns, calamari, all the potatoes were just amazing. And we didn't even go into the main course, because Turkish food is so good for the starter.

It was like the mezzo was just fantastic. Oh, I love it. So there was lots of, but you were sharing everything. And of course, yes. And because obviously, you know, it was all coming at once. There wasn't too much.

None of that, not enough room for that. Kind of that every time. I'll be out of breath. That's because you're sharing, Rev. You've got to be, you know, have your wits about you. You're fair to share. Yeah, because things were going very quickly. It has to be said, you had to get in there.

Yeah. Yeah. I'd say Turkish food is rapidly ascending my league table of very good food nations. Okay, that's something we haven't done before. Favorite cuisines. Top three, like well cuisines. If you had to just,

all you could have for the rest of your life. It's three different well cuisines. Not in any order. Not in any order, but maybe after we've heard the three, we'll try and get you to commit to one as your number one. I guess I would say sushi, Mexican and... Sushi. Yeah.

Japanese. Japanese. Yeah. And Thai. Just making sure you didn't pick sushi was a country. I was throwing top four because Indian, I love Indian too. That's tricky, isn't it? But Japanese, Mexican, Thai.

That's a solid line up. That is good. I think Japanese and Mexican might be in mine as well. Japanese is in mine. I think Japanese is our Venn diagram crossover. The three of us. Yeah. Are the three of us really going to Japan

and leave Venni over home? I think it seems like it. Venn diagram for Albany time. Since I was in school. Venn diagrams. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Our Venn diagram overlap. Very good. Yeah. Oh, we can go to Japan and we'll do a travel show. Yeah, the three of us going around. That'd be good. Do diagrams. Yeah.

Bring a priest. Yeah. The three of us and a priest. Going around. Blessing all the food. Blessing all the food and eating it up. That's fair enough. If you're asking, James, I think Turkish, Japanese.

So difficult the last one, isn't it? Maybe Spanish ate a lot of tapas. Right. Okay. Yeah, I did a show in Spain and grew very fond of tapas. Where are you at in Spain? Extremadura. It was basically that area.

That sounds like the name of the show. Extrema-dura. Extrema-dura. Close. What were you being attacked by in this show? Basically, it was an extension of Romeo and Juliet. It was what the... So they were zombies.

Shakespeare zombie. It was after they died. How the families then carry on. I was Lord Capulet. So you were just organizing funerals. Was it all just a matter of organizing the funeral? No, it was fighting off the other family. They would be so annoying.

So you were fighting the Montagues. The Montagues, yeah. Well done, James. That was good, wasn't it? Yeah. I looked at Ed there and then it came to me. Because Ed looked like a posh old Montague, isn't it? So I looked at him and I thought, oh, the Montague boy is coming along.

If you had to choose, then you'd got to fight a vampire or an angel or a Montague. Or a Montague. Yeah. Which one would you want to punch in the face? That's all you can do is punch him in the face. That's all you're allowed to do. Probably the Montagues because they wouldn't bite you or flutter you away. Whatever angels do.

Yeah, pray for you. Yeah. No, they didn't do that. No, no, no. So we know you're top three cuisines, but is your main course going to be from any of those? What is your dream main course, please? Seabass.

Seabass. Seabass, I'll tell you what, you're a veggie, but you are absolutely draining the ocean, mate. Yeah, no, absolutely. I'm sorry. I do love vegetarian food. I do, I do. But what if we told you?

We are, we're talking about favourites, which don't happen that often. Yeah, absolutely. What if, would it make you feel better if you find out that the sea bass that you're eating died because it crashed head on into the tuna that you had for your starter? Too bad once time. Depends if they were yanked out of the ocean at the same time

because if they were then floating because it was dead. No, no, no. Then they were straight, then they were straight out. So they're fresh, but they died in an accident. Yeah. Okay. They collided with that. Yeah, passed into one another.

But I do feel bad. I do feel bad. Oh, it's awful that it happened. Don't get me wrong, but it's, it's, it's a better environmental situation than. Yeah. Than. And at least they both, they both out there in the ocean,

you know, and they sort of, they have a life. Yeah. And it just sort of gets curtailed. And they were swimming towards each other because they were in love and they were going to have a kiss. So they died very happy. Because their offspring were going to be tuna's. Yeah, yeah, tuna's.

Tuna's. Yeah. But they're head by each other and then they both did a fart and then the, and then someone bottled the bubble water and that's what you had for your, your, your sparkling water at the start. I thought it was a bit fishy. Yeah.

It's special. But, and don't worry. We wanted to make your whole meal from the same, one incident. And the priest gave them a lovely funeral before we cooked them for you as well. Yes. The priest said, that's why the priest said. But he's always so stuck around for some blessings.

How would you like your sea bass cooked? Pan fried. Pan fried. Yeah. Simply pan fried. Simply pan fried with. With the skin on, please. Is this something you do at home?

Yes. And how have you mastered the crispy skin? Because I think I always, I always mess it up. So good. Sea bass you can't. It's very, very difficult. I mean, you can, you basically, you're supposed to do cut across, you know, do a, whatever it is, what you call that.

Scoring. Scoring. And then the skin doesn't, because otherwise it bends the fish up. But basically, I don't bother. Just sticks to the pan a bit. Yeah. But still tasty. A good one though.

When they get at skin, good. Ah, it's amazing. Oh, it's amazing. It's really, that's why I love it. That would be my choice in a restaurant. Yeah. Just because they just get it spot on. Soft, flaky.

Get quite meaty, but like big flakes. And do you want this one made for you by a particular chef? Or is this your own homemade one? I think most places I've been, I have very good. They do a very good one at the witchy. They also do a very good one at the ivy. It could be our first menu that all comes in the same place. Yeah, that's fun.

We could stay in the ivy if you want. Yeah, I, actually, because the side. Oh. Side dish from the ivy. Let's take away into the side. Here we go. Well, because it's the first time I've ever. Because I only had it recently.

Was chips with truffle oil on them. Just. Very close to his, I'll let you into the secret, Anthony. Every episode we have a ingredient which is like, which me and Ed don't like, which if this person says it, they get chucked out of the restaurant. And this week, we were so close to making it truffle oil. Because I've recently had it with truffle stuff.

It can be overdone. I used to love it. It can be well overdone. If you use too much, it's just in. But that is so, honestly, it's so close. And we didn't pick truffle oil in the end. Good Lord. Because Benito said, he'll pick truffle oil.

So I think I still like truffle oil. But I think once people cottoned on that, you could use it in stuff. It is slightly overused, overdone. And the bottom line is it has to be very subtle. Otherwise, it just cloaks every flavor in the juice. Which is why it's quite extraordinary that on chips, it was just, I mean, they were chunky fries.

They weren't, it wasn't sort of. They were proper chip chips. But it was just, I don't know, it was just absolutely extraordinary. When it works, it works. It's a heady sort of mushroomy smell. I had a great. I had some gnocchi with it on. I, now you could have done gnocchi.

Because actually, I wouldn't have said gnocchi. Never got it. Why would you eat potato pasta? Sorry. I quite like it. But this particular one, the first mouthful. So I didn't know. Also, here's a big criticism.

They didn't put that there was truffle oil in them. Well, that's a bit silly. On the menu. Yeah. Which is such an overpowering flavor. You want to give people a heads up. Yeah. Yeah, because that's why you would pick a thing.

Might also be allergic to mushrooms. Absolutely. First mouthful I had, it was actually quite a pleasant surprise. I was like, oh, delicious. I'm in heaven. Every mouthful after that was, I was like, I'm done with this. I'm done with this forever now.

No more truffle stuff. It really pushed me over the edge. So I was like. I still like a truffle cheese. A cheese with some truffle in it. Had a very nice truffle pecorino the other night. Yeah. Are you putting any parmesan on the fries as well?

That's a big thing. Truffle parmesan fries. Well, I think there might be a bit of parmesan in there. I'm not sure. Okay. Because it's just, I mean, I'm not sure. But I wouldn't, I wouldn't, I wouldn't do it myself.

I wouldn't insane. I feel bungsome parmesan in there. Yeah. Sure. Yeah. I can't imagine you asking someone to bung anything on anything though. I don't imagine you're storming into the ivy in their bath and going bungsome on that one.

Bung it on. Bung me a bit of bread. Bung it on. So it comes to your drink. I tell you what, I'm worried it's going to be. Before we even started recording, you told us that you put honey in your coffee like a goddamn maniac.

I have never heard of anyone putting honey in coffee. Really? Yeah. Honey and tea, I've heard. Honey and tea. Well, no, it's actually really, really nice. Is it? Yeah.

Try it. What kind of honey do you put in your, just any? Doesn't matter. Yeah. Whatever, knocking around. And how do you have your coffee as well? Basically, I have a flat white with oat milk. Flat white with oat milk.

Yeah. Bung some honey in there. Bung some honey in there. Not too much, but it's just lovely. Doesn't it taste of honey? Not if you don't put too much. It just has a real warmth to it. It's lovely.

See, because Ed's learned a lot from doing this podcast, and one thing he has learned is that honey tastes like honey, haven't you, Ed? I'm a bit of a gourmand now. Yeah, yeah. I like these things, yeah. Very snooty, these things. Noted flavors.

Test them on anything. Ed, what does chocolate taste like? Chocolate. Oh, there you go. I must admit, my favorite cocktail is margarita. On the rocks, no salt. Why people put salt on the edge on the rim? I don't understand.

I'm so with you, and now I've diverged. I love salt on the rim. I like the salt on the rim. No, no, no, no. If you're doing it in the shot, absolutely. But why would you have... You're wiping some nutella around the outside? Yeah, why don't you put it down there?

I'm not putting anything around the rim. It's on the rocks, it's straight. It's got citrus flavor. Why would you want to screw with that? Because it's a wonderful, citrusy, sweet... So just to take the edge off that, a little bit of salt. Love it. Little flavor dance.

And then wine. I mean, I love white, I love a good chablis. I love reds. Any number of reds, they're beautiful. Do you know your stuff with wine? I'm not sort of like, oh, let me look at the wine menu. But I was raised, my family... Mum used to do a lot of filming in France,

because she was Madame May Gray back in the 60s. And so we used to go every year, we used to go camping in France. Know what I know about your mum so far? I thought you were about to say she made her own wine. Yeah, yeah, she owned a winery. She made wine. She was too busy cooking and making clothes. So yeah, they started me quite, I think, when I was about...

10 or 11 maybe. What the French do, which is they give you wine with water as a child. That is amazing, that blows my mind. But when it doesn't, it means that you're not... You don't sort of, when you get to sort of being an adult, you don't knock back the... You're just very used to drinking alcohol in a very sort of discreet and gentle way.

It just kind of cheens you. I'm not saying that everybody should do it, do it, but it definitely, you know, I'm not abusive with alcohol. I don't like getting drunk. And that's because you sort of... It was normalized very early on. Yeah, if only when you were a child, someone had put some water in your honey.

And then you would have beat them all over the shop. I'm not all over the shop with me, honey. You might be. I am out of control as it comes to honey. Regular, that winery, the poo over here. Yeah. That's why I've got no trousers on. I am gonna have to look. I told you, I woke up this morning wanting to be bad.

It's true, he hasn't got any trousers on. Get that person's toothbrush out of there. You've got margaritas on one hand, you've got wine on the other. Which one are you going with? And then we need to pick a wine if it's wine. Winer eaters? Well, I guess it's up since I'm...

I mean, I actually don't mind drinking red wine or wine with fish. It doesn't... Everybody says you have to drink one or the other, but I'll go with a really nice shabby or... Yeah, no, go with shabby. Shabby, yeah, lovely. From the Ivy?

Anywhere, mate. Oh, everything else is from the Ivy so far. I'm just saying as we're giving you the choice. What it all for the Ivy, for consistency. James is really into the idea of you picking everything from the Ivy, I think. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We never had that before.

We've ever had someone do like a whole menu from one place. It's quite exciting, too. That might happen for the first time. But then again, well, you know, we've made it to the dessert course now, and you might have a specific dessert in mind, which is not from the Ivy. I don't want to.

They did actually have it. But it's just... I mean, I will have it anyway, and some are better than others, but creme caramel. Oh! Creme caramel. I think it's our first creme caramel on the podcast.

It is the first creme caramel. You're joking. Yeah, no one's chosen creme caramel yet. Good grief. That's true. Now, are they stupid? Ah! I'm going to really upset you here, aren't you?

You don't like it? I don't like creme caramel. Uh-oh. I find the consistency very odd. You know you're allowed to call it stupid now? You're absolutely allowed to do that. You should be happy. You said people who don't like creme caramel are stupid.

I don't like creme caramel. I'm not into... Because you get the creme caramel when it's all soft. I love it when it's been torched, so it's got a crust. Bruleed on the top. Bruleed, yes. Creme brulee.

So you're into the so... Creme brulee rather than creme caramel. I'm more on board with the brulee. Yes. I think suddenly a lot of people listening to this podcast who were on the fence with creme caramel have now come firmly over onto your team when you said it was brulee.

Because the creme brulee is... I don't trust people who don't like it. I'm into it. I'm brulee. I agree with that. Okay, okay. I think my problem with creme caramel is the consistency and it's wobbly and I don't...

It's jelly you can't see through and I don't trust it. Sure. It's jelly you can't see through. Yeah. Yeah. What is it hiding? I'm thinking creme brulee. Lovely.

You're thinking... I'm into a creme brulee. I love cracking through the top. Yeah. It feels like you're on a... Like an ice rink. Yeah. And you go through...

You're not sinking. Or yeah. Or you're thinking... And then you're liking danger. It's just... You mean... Yeah, but you eat your way out of the disaster. Love it.

And I'm assuming you want the priest to get involved to make it a holey brulee? Is he a Spanish priest? Creme brulee. Holey brulee. It's a creme holey. I love it. Maybe are.

I was really not into the priest thing when it started, but I'm glad it came full circle. Always does, just like God. The trinity. It's a circle, isn't it? Okay, Anthony. I'm going to meet your order back to you now and tell me how you feel about it.

You like sparkling water. You would like olive bread or some olive oil, holy. You would like to start us some tuna... tuna cup accio from the IV in Bath. Your main course, you would like the pan fried sea bass, skin on from the IV in Bath. Your side dish would be chips of truffle oil from the IV in Bath. Good grief.

Your drink is white wine shabby, which they do have at the IV in Bath. We can get you in there. And dessert, which you also said is at the IV in Bath, is a creme brulee. All of this has been blessed by a priest. How do you feel about it? I feel fine.

You feel great. And I feel hungry. Yeah, that happens. You'll have to now, unfortunately, go directly to the IV in Bath. Yeah, I mean, that's the only place. Yeah, sure. You can go get something. That's the only place that's going to, like,

satisfy you now, really, though, is the IV in Bath. Great menu. I love you, love you, menu. Thank you so much for coming on. Thank you for having me. Any final thoughts about food for the listeners? Eat. And I must admit, I...

Yeah, no, I'm not going to get into whether you should eat me or not. But if you do, you do, if you don't, you don't. But I must admit, I am steering away from it gradually. Yes. Not completely, but, you know, I do like my fish, but I am also... I do love vegetarian. I think it's a positive message in this day and age.

So do I. Steer away from it. There it is, the off-menu menu of Anthony Head. What a fun episode. Wow. Mosey on down to the IV now. Yeah, the IV got a big shout out there. Yeah, yeah, a big shout out for the IV.

I mean, to be fair, he initially gave the shout out to the IV and you really led him down that path. You took his hand and you led him all the way down the IV path. Making food alone and I was just like, come on, let's make it a full house. I really enjoyed that episode. I was very excited to meet Anthony because I really enjoy Buffy. Yes.

And I was really glad to call you out for never having watched it. Yeah, deserved it. I deserved it. I deserved it. He did not say the secret ingredient, James. He nearly said one that we were going to do. Very tense. I mean, I'm very glad that we didn't pick truffle oil now

because he was so nice. I would have felt really bad chucking Anthony out of the restaurant for saying truffle oil, but he didn't say roasted pumpkin seeds. No, he didn't. Thank you. You can stay in. Thank you, Anthony.

You did stay in. Yes, you can stay in. That's fine. Good instance from Bonito that we shouldn't say truffle oil. And a quick re-plug for Harlan Cobans, the stranger on Netflix. January 30th, all eight episodes drop. I've seen the first one.

It was gripping. I can't wait to see the rest. Speaking of plugging, we've had some food, haven't we, Ed? We have. We've had a veritable cornucopia of food. The good people at Greys sent us a lot of snacks. Yeah, loads and loads of snacks. Really nice snacks.

My favorite, James, is the one that's like chocolate, dried cherries and pecans. Yes. Well, you made a stone if that's not your favorite because it is absolutely delicious. I like that one, the cherry pie one. Thank you for sending those. Brewdog advent calendar?

Brewdog advent calendar. Yes, they sent us one of their advent calendars, which is, yes, 25 different beers. Unfortunately, Bonito's divided up into three. Fine. So I have my third spoiler warning. Because it wasn't a full advent calendar, I neatly opened all the doors.

Oh, yeah? There's one in there that is 14% proof. Oh, dear. It's a 14% proof beer. Oh, I bet you're looking forward to that one. Can't wait to have that. Thank you. Also, we got sent some nine bars.

They're the seed bars. They're very good. I've had them before. Oh, yeah? Some of them have got carib on top of them. Carib? And I love carib. Do you?

Yes. I know you like carib. I really like it. It sounds like the sort of thing that would be on a secret ingredient list, but no, I like carib. It's going to be in the future. Yeah? Yeah, you can make your argument for it,

but we're definitely going to have to use carib at some point. Okay, but thank you for those seed bars, guys. Hey, what are we up to? I don't know. Not on nothing, really. No, I'm not really up to anything. Taking a break. My book is still out.

Perfect sound, whatever. That's still out. It's still out, is it? Yeah, that's not been taken off the shelves yet. Okay, good to hear. So I'm happy to promote that. So apart from that, you can go on my website, at gamball.co.uk, or go onto my Twitter.

But, you know, I'm kicking around, but I'm having a bit of a rest. Yeah, yeah. More of these, I suppose. At off-menu official. That's our Twitter. Yeah, and the same on Instagram. Offmenupodcast.co.uk.

Go on the website. Go on that. That's got an awful list of all the restaurants that are mentioned on the episodes as well. That's pretty good. But it really goes out of its way to make sure they're all on there. So, you know, go on there, have a little read.

But otherwise, just keep on listening, keep on trucking, keep on eating. Thank you very much to Father Tim. Thank you, Father Tim, for coming in. You came and blessed all the food today. Yes. It's very nice of him. Lovely job.

Thank you. And also got me a divorce and I did a funeral for the fish. But otherwise, we will see you again next week here in the off-menu restaurants. Don't go hungry. Hello, it's me, Amy Glendale. You might remember me

from the best ever episode of Offmenu where I spoke to my mum and asked her about seaweed on mashed potato our relationship's never been the same since. And I am joined by... Me, Ian Smith. I would probably go bread. I'm not going to spoil it in case...

Get him on, James and Ed. But we're here sneaking in to your podcast experience to tell you about a new podcast that we're doing. It's called Northern News. It's about all the new stories that we've missed out from the North because, look, we're two Northerners, sure. But we've been living in London for a long time.

The new stories are funny. Quite a lot of them crimes. It's all kicking off. And that's a new podcast called Northern News we'd love you to listen to. Maybe we'll get my mum on. Get Glendale's mum on every episode. That's Northern News.

When's it out, Ian? It's already out now, Amy! Is it? Yeah, get listening. There's probably a backlog. You've left it so late.