Great cinema, or best cinema?

Hola, amigos! Or, as I should really say, Hola, amics! Danny and I have just returned from two and a half days in Barcelona, and a quick look at my photos suggests that we spend the entire time eating, walking, and looking at buildings designed by Gaudi, which I would say is pretty accurate. We were very happy to have 3 beautiful sunny days in Spain, even if the country does have the second highest pork consumption per capita (behind....Denmark). More on Barcelona later, I just wanted to do a belated description of the most awesome movie cinema I've ever been to. But first, our random photo of the day:


Some say it can't be done, but Danny and I have proven again and again to doubting friends that you can make a good vegetarian french onion soup! There's no real secret, just substitute veggie broth for the beef broth; the soup is really made delicious by the caramelized onions and the melted gruyere on toast. Almost hidden behind this oversized bowl of soup is a bowl of actual salad - our first green salad in a month, it seems! By some miracle, one of the organic grocers at the farmers market was still selling lettuce and purslane, so we were lucky enough to get fresh greens in January. Delightful! Also equalized the fattyness of the melted cheese, right?

But on to the Electric Cinema, where last week we saw everyone's favorite Harry Potter/Pride and Prejudice/Australian actor mashup: The King's Speech. We loved the movie - great acting, great dialogue, jokes about England, and a chance to see Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennett happily reunited on screen (if just for a few seconds). The film was aided by the fact that we were sitting in large, leather chairs, sipping wine and munching on pita and hummus.

The Electric Cinema in Notting Hill (yes, that Notting Hill) just has one screen, with about one hundred seats, all soft leather armchairs. In the back there is a bar where you can get beer, wine, and delicacies such as a cheese plate or pita and hummus that are never to be found at your average movie theater. If you book early enough, for an extra fee you can reserve one of the two-seater sofas at the back of the theater - good for scary movies that provoke cuddling. And kindly, the first three rows are a little cheaper than the better seats, so by sitting in the front row we probably got the cheapest movie tickets in London, but because we were sitting in armchairs having to gaze upwards was no problem at all. It felt like a very civilized way to spend a Monday night.