Rosslyn Delicatessen chocolate brownie

I can't believe it's over a week since I last regaled you with the contents of my stomach, and I can't pretend my silence has been caused by a surfeit of partying in the style of 'Lindsay Lohan hits London' or Keith Richards, er... at any time in his endless life. No, I'm sorry to say I simply haven't been eating very much. Last Monday morning I was struck down by some sort of gastric flu virus and, as I was projectile vomiting like some sort of animated Southpark character and laid up in bed with achy limbs and joints, I managed to live for 3 whole days having only eaten a couple of spoonfuls of yoghurt and a slice of toast. Very unlike me. My Dad read my blog and reckoned that Sunday's cuisine of pâté and prawns might have been a recipe for food poisoning, but I'm not convinced.

But, more importantly, I'm now back on my food. And what better way to reconnect my newly returned all-consuming passion for eating and my love for writing about it, than to describe the almost perfect brownie I had the pleasure to share with my boyfriend yesterday afternoon.

I bought it on a beautiful autumn afternoon in Hampstead village, having spent a wonderful couple of hours shushing through the fallen leaves and admiring the beauty that is an English autumn on Hampstead Heath. The only disappointment - that most of North London had realised that Hampstead Heath was the ideal place to go on a Sunday afternoon. Anyway, pressing our cold noses against the window of The Rosslyn Delicatessen I spied a pile of chocolate brownies neatly wrapped in clingfilm. They were a shocking £2 each, but you got a lotta brownie for your money. We bought two, split the first and now I'm nibbling the second and wondering whether I have, already, found the perfect brownie.

It's a bit crumbly on the outside yet dense and moist in the middle, but not gooey like the Kastner and Ovens' offering. The flavour is very chocolatey and rich and not too sweet at all. There is a strange, but rather nice, layer of sugar on the base which is a bit like that clearish icing you sometimes get on iced buns. If that's where the sugar's ended up it's fine by me. It has a smooth texture and no nuts and feels indulgent when you bite in and it melts in your mouth to nothing quite fast, like sherbert drops. Half a brownie was easily enough so you're not going to feel hard-done-by. But, although yesterday having walked for a couple of hours the brownie tasted like nectar, I think I'm still going to give it just 4.5/5. Although it's flavour is better balanced than Kastner and Ovens - its nearest contender - I miss that moist squidgy texture that persuades you it's straight out of the oven and definitely home-made. This is just a little too smooth. But it is very very good.