It's a small world and it smells funny

[simont]

On Saturday I went to the Depot (formerly the Vaults), in a small group gathered by cartesiandaemon who had recently tipped me off that it had a gluten-free submenu. This was an excellent experience, not least because it was the first meal I've eaten in a restaurant since 20061; usually the sheer hassle of finding coeliac-friendly eateries puts me off. And the Depot is also an excellent place to have your first restaurant meal in two years, because its unusual menu structure (lots of starter-size dishes, you order a lot of them and have a bit of each) meant I didn't have to dither over which of the many appetising things on the menu to select. ‘I'll have nearly all of them, please!’

Anyway. It turned out that one of the group who I didn't already know is also coeliac, and not only that but is on the committee of the local branch of the Coeliac Society. Apparently this is entirely coincidental: her other half (also present) was at university in Jack's year. Small world.

During a discussion over what wine to order, I excused myself from making detailed wine-buying decisions on the grounds that my absent sense of smell rather rules out a career as a wine expert. The abovementioned other half promptly startled me further by asking

Tim	‘Did I just hear you say you've got no sense of smell?’
simont	‘Yes, that's right.’
Tim	‘Are you therefore Simon Tatham?’
simont	<blinks several times> ‘Yes!’

thus proving that the world is even smaller, or possibly merely that I am still the Internet's most famous anosmic. (He'd encountered my FAQ on Reddit.)

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1. well, unless you count having lunch in Tatties once last year, on a technicality. I don't.

Comments

[hmmm-tea.livejournal.com]

How do you have lunch on a technicality?

[zotz]

Maybe he believes that anyone with no sense of smell is Simon Tatham. Have you ever noticed there being any more of you?

I noticed there being another of me a couple of years ago. It was a very disconcerting experience.

[woodpijn.livejournal.com]

Do you know scribb1e, pw201's wife? She is also coeliac. In fact I thought you might have meant her, until you mentioned that her partner was called Tim.

I think the Rainbow Cafe (vegetarian restaurant opposite King's) have a lot of gluten-free stuff, BICBW.

[gerald_duck]

Hmm. Looking at the Local Secrets page, which seems to be the Depot's most authoritative web presence, I notice something very curious about their menus.

Yes, they have a coeliac menu, and a lactose-intolerance one, even a student menu. What they don't have is a menu that says which dishes are vegetarian!


You realise you're in danger of being more famous for being the Internet's most famous anosmic than for being anosmic?