Supawan, 38 Caledonian Road, London N1 9DT (020 7278 2888). Small plates £9-£11.50, mains £15.50-£24.50, desserts £5.50-£9.50, wines from £26.50
My late father, Des, had many talents. Early on he was an actor, part of Anthony Quayle’s original company at Stratford, the precursor to the RSC. He also worked on the very first TV series of Hancock’s Half Hour. He was a gifted artist who was exhibited in all the good places and he was blessed with the sharpest of commercial brains. He was a natty dresser. But boy, was he a lousy cook. Ingredients would beg to be taken to a place of safety when he approached. Vegetables would audibly start praying. I don’t think it was a lack of ability. He simply wasn’t interested. If he was left to feed us kids, his default dish – I use the term loosely – was worsht and eggs: a bouncy, dry, draught excluder of an omelette alongside slices of a blunt, salty kosher beef salami, dyed a worrying shade of red, which stained everything it touched pink including, I imagine, the lower intestine. It was the taste of parental abandonment, at least where dinner time was concerned.
