My long-time dining partner, Spanish belle and all-round most stylish blogging friend is, of course, Andrea, author of All Pretty Things. Although she blogs about anything from bed covers to wedding dresses to flowers, to me her greatest area of expertise is fashion. Given that I have a hard enough time making it to the Noordemarkt of a Saturday morning (and this when I can honestly say I’m passionate about parmesan), it’s little wonder that I have trouble dragging myself to the Kalverstraat. Shopping hasn’t been my forte since I was 14 and had yet to discover the pub, so when it comes to clothes, I need Andrea’s eye for style and efficiency in the changing room.
And so, it seems, do two of my friends. So we decided to host a sort of ‘skills exchange’. I would cook dinner and teach the girls a little about how to pair food with wine, if Andrea would appraise our wardrobes and teach us how to pair skinny jeans with accessories.
We started with summer skirts and flat pumps, and with a spinach, pea, pistachio and goat’s cheese salad with Pouilly Fume. Light, summery, floral combinations with a touch of sophistication. Next, I baked trout with artichokes, mint and lemon breadcrumbs which we drank with a dry Spanish rose, while our Spanish style guru suggested fresh, up-to-date cuts with a zesty, feminine, creative flair. Over the cheeseboard (which is all about textures, daaarling), we discussed our deepest image insecurities, comforted by a rich, musky Chilean merlot…