London

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

We slept in a little later than we had expected, but when we finally got moving we decided to head towards the West End and Soho. We did some exploring in the area, some on purpose, some because we got turned around with all the winding streets. We meandered around until noon, and went to Dehesa – a Tapas Bar. We ordered: Grilled Chorizo with Smoked Aubergine and Paprika Oil; Confit Old Spot Pork Belly with Rosemary Scented Cannellini Beans; Chargrilled Lamb Cutlet with fennel, aubergine, piquilla pepper salsa and romesco; Ibérico Pressa a la Plancha with Beetroot Purée, Garlic, Tomato, Cucumber and PX Jus; Patatas Fritas with Romesco Sauce and Alioli.and Prawns sautéed with garlic, parsley, chili and fino sherry. The food was really good. Lots of fun and we got to sit outside here, which was nice. We ordered a few wines by the glass to pair up with our food and try a bunch of different flavors.

After getting a slight buzz on we figured we’d head to see what was happening at Westminster Abbey. On our way over there we meandered around Whitehall and stumbled upon Churchill’s War Rooms so we went through the tour since it was on our list. While the tour was fairly interesting, it was a little long and became a little repetitive after a while. And since there was a practical heat wave in London, it was a little warm inside. After the tour, we finally headed over to Westminster, but by now it was getting on in the afternoon and the line was long. So we decided to hop the tube over to the Old Vic to pick up our tickets for that evening’s performance of Hedda Gabler. To get to The Old Vic, you take the Jubilee line to Waterloo, then it’s a short walk to The Cut – Old Vic is on the corner of Waterloo and The Cut. After we picked up our tickets, we decided to walk up the street a little bit to find Anchor & Hope Pub for our dinner that evening. We then jumped on the tube at Southwark headed back to the hotel to change and get ready for the evening performance.

After freshening up, we headed back out to The Anchor & Hope for dinner. We got there right at 5pm, when they started dinner service. I have to save that the service here was impeccable! We were seated at a window seat in a near empty room that filled up in mere minutes. We ordered Cock-a-leekie soup for an shared appetizer. Cock-a-leekie is a Scottish soup of chicken, and leeks in a broth with ham, various veg and a date. It was good, although at first taste we didn’t think it was all that special, but as we ate more, we started tasting all the elements in the soup which kept adding more and more levels of flavor. For our meal, there was a special of 7 hour lamp neck for 2. It was served with coco beans, mint and fresh tomatoes. The meat was extremely tender and tasty – no gaminess whatsoever. For dessert, we decided to share a “Blackcurrant Queen of Pudding” – a beautiful and tasty dessert. According to Wikipedia, Queen of Puddings is a traditional British dessert, consisting of a baked, breadcrumb-thickened mixture, spread with jam and topped with meringue. After this wonderful meal it was easy to see why this pub received a Bib Gourmand. Definitely a place I wouldn’t hesitate to return to next time in London.

Fully sated, we walked the two blocks down to the Old Vic for the play. We were able to get great seats for the play, 2^nd row on the end. We could have gotten more centered seats, but wanted the end of the row. The play was really incredibly good. Sheridan Smith was superb, as was the male lead, Adrian Scarborough. The play was funny and thought provoking and had some twists and turns.

After the play, we went back to the hotel and spent a fortune on 6 drinks at the hotel Pops bar. Each drink was 15 pounds each! But they were tasty (just not very strong). The bartender was from Valencia and the gentlemen sitting next to us turned out to be from Naperville. He works for BP, so he actually commutes to Houston every week, with some travel to London - turns out that he’s going to Buenos Aires in November, so maybe we’ll see him again. Although, I doubt we’ll recognize him. After spending our 401k balance on those drinks, it was almost 1am and time to call it a night!

Thursday, September 6, 2012

Today we got going a little earlier and headed over to do the Westminster Abbey tour. We didn’t take the audio guide, so we may have missed some of the information, but we didn’t want to be tied to the guide. We did the tour a little quickly, but after a while, once you’ve seen one old dead person’s crypt you’ve seen them all. The age of some of the crypts and statues and even just the building itself were amazing, when you consider that you don’t have anything near that old in America. After finishing the tour, we were starving, grabbed a few quick bags of crisps and water, to hold us over to lunch (breakfast of champions!). We decided to take the Thames River Cruise up to the Tower of London area, have lunch at Café Spice Namaste, then tour the Tower. Thanks to the absolutely glorious weather, the river cruise was quite relaxing and nice to see the sites without walking and getting lost. Along the way, we saw The London Eye, the Somerset House, the Cleopatra Obelisk (the oldest item in London), Oxo Building, St. Paul Cathedral, Shakespear’s Globe Theatre, the Shard (the tallest building in Europe), the Gherkin, London Bridge, HMS Belfast, Traitor Gate, Tower Bridge, Tower of London and those are just the sights whose names we can remember…

The cruise drops you off right at the Tower of London, but Café Namaste is about 3 blocks away, if you know the way. As usual, we took a few wrong turns, but in the end we made it to our desired destination. While there it turns out that they were running a Goan Food Special. We decided to order 2 appetizers and a main to share. For appetizers we orderd: Butterflied sardines pan fried in Masala (Masala fry tarlay): Sardines slit over the top and boned, marinated in Goan red masala, pan fried & served on a bed of grilled red onions with garlic and Hot & spicy diced pork belly in puff pastry (Empadinhas) Very finely diced belly of British Lop pig, cooked with shallots in a hot red masala flavoured with coriander seeds and cumin, filled in puff pastry, baked & served with Goan curry sauce. For our main we ordered: Sorpotel with Rice: SARAPATEL as the Portuguese call it is an off-shoot of the famous Portuguese Feijoada but without the black kidney beans. This is one of Goa’s all time classics and is much sought after. Generally an entire pigling is used, however we use the liver, kidney, cheeks, ears and shoulder, cooked very slowly over eight to ten hours until a lush rich gravy is achieved redolent with the flavours of Goan palm vinegar and slow cooked shallots. Served with steamed rice. Everything was very tasty and flavorful and with a pretty good kick in the kisser with the spices. We also ordered an Indian Rose. Not the best Rose we ever had, but once the spicy food came, it was better. As we were eating, one of the servers stopped by to ask how we were enjoying our meal. Turns out he is from Goa and was excited that we were trying his hometown food. Turns out what we ordered is a special occasion meal back in Goa, saved for weddings, New Years, etc. Shortly thereafter, the owner also stopped by to see how we were enjoying our meal. It’s nice when the chef takes the time to greet the guests. We opted not to partake in dessert and then headed over to the Tower of London.

The Tower of London is kind of an anomaly to me. It’s this really old complex surrounded by lots of new buildings, making it look out of place or in a time warp. We did the tour relatively quickly, but we walked throughout the complex and saw lots of old stuff. I do have to say I thought it was really neat to see the “graffiti” carved into the stone walls from the prisoners. It’s hard to believe that the buildings date back to the 11^th century. We also did the obligatory crown jewels tour. Lots of big gems and other gaudy stuff in a row; some of the gems are so large, they don’t even look real. But it’s something we can say we’ve done.

Once we finished the tour, we headed back, opting to jump back on the river cruise since it was such a nice day, then headed back to the hotel to freshen up before dinner. On our way back into the hotel, I was almost run over by a baby carriage being pushed by Penelope Cruz. In tow were of course Javier Bardem and the one and only Bono! I’m sure it was just as exciting for them. We didn’t say anything to them, left them alone to enjoy the day with their

For dinner we decided to try to find Great Queen Street Pub, which oddly enough is on Great Queen street. The closest tube station is Covent Garden, so we took the Piccadilly line there. As we exited the tube, there was a large backup of people. As we rounded the corner, we saw the people were waiting in line for the lift. However, Sue noticed some stairs and said, why don’t we just take these… Famous last words! What Sue failed to notice was the sign stating 193 steps! Apparently it was not at the proper eye level for her. Mark saw it and while he mentioned it, we were already committed, so we went up and up and up. It was a spiral staircase, so you really couldn’t see how close you were to the top. It was a LOT of steps, but we did it! Later we read that Leicester Square and Covent Gardens are actually not that far apart (0.2 miles), so I think next time, I’ll just get off and Leicester Square – or else, wait for the lift!.

After actually walking past the pub the first time around, we finally realized we overshot it and walked back. We didn’t have a reservation, but were give then option of a table for 1 hour or the bar for as long as we wanted to stay. We opted for the bar. They had a special that evening of Steak for 2.OMG was it delicious! Since we weren’t in a hurry and we weren’t driving we decided to have fun and wound up drinking 3 bottles of rose and enjoying ourselves with the chips and steak. They also had really good bread at this bar. And it was a good choice for us to pick the bar seats as we were there over 1 hour. My only complaint was their “shot glass” size glasses for the rose. We did soldier through however. After completely stuffing ourselves and drinking our fill, we headed back to the hotel for bed.

Friday, September 7, 2012

This morning we decided to take a nice stroll through Hyde Park, as it was a beautiful day The park was a bit bigger than expected, but it was a lovely stroll. We walked through and over to Kensington/Nottinghill area to Hereford Road Pub. Very glad we did. Lovely little pub in the middle of a residential area. We decided to a British Tapas type lunch. Mark thought it would be a great idea to order the fried calves brain with tartar sauce. Sue was scared, but figured if I’m going to try something “odd”, deep fried is the best possible scenario. So, basically, brains have no real flavor, it was kind of like eating deep fried tofu, soft, mushy and no real flavor. We also ordered their grilled Quail, sweetbreads, smoked makeral salad and finished with an “Eton Mess” for dessert. All those items were very tasty. Nice place, could be romantic.

After lunch, we walked to the Central line at Bayswater then headed to Embankment where we transferred to the Northern Line to Leicester Square to pick up our tickets to Sweeney Todd. Turns out they upgraded our seats. We moved from row L to row E, but still on the end in the center.

Headed back to the hotel to freshen up before dinner and the play. For dinner we went to Opera Tavern for a tapas dinner. We didn’t realize it until we were there that it was a sister restaurant to Dehesa as many items on the menu were similar. The food was just as good, and the wine good as well.

From there we walked to the Adelphi Theatre for the show. Our seats were nicely centered, but was actually set back and above the stage. The play when viewed only on its own was good, but is still no match for Les Miserables. The female lead – Imelda Staunton was fantastic, really stole the show. Michael Ball just didn’t seem as good as he was in Les Miserables, his voice just didn’t seem as powerful. But we still enjoyed the show.

After the show, we headed back to the hotel, as we had to leave to go back home. L

Saturday, September 8, 2012

Decided to eat breakfast today – first time on vacation. We went over to Pret a Manger for some sandwiches. Then back to the hotel to pack before heading to the airport. The tube was crowded, but we managed to stuff on their and find seats after a few stops. Going through security was easy, we got to use the fastrack lanes because we’re premier members. Since we had plenty of time, we headed first to the gate before shopping for a t-shirt at the airport. What we didn’t know is that the gate (#32) is like a 10 minute walk. And once you get there there’s nothing there but bathrooms, vending machines and seats. So we headed back to the center where the shops were, found a couple of tshirts and of course, a bar.

Then headed to our gate for boarding. The flight itself was pretty uneventful. We did get food, which quite honestly, wasn’t too bad. We landed a few minutes early, but had a long wait through immigration. Thankfully we got off the flight early, because another flight came in about the same time, but we were ahead of most of them. It still took about 30 minutes, but at least our luggage was there for us when we finally got through.

Great time on the vacation and truly amazing weather. If the weather was like that year round, I’d love going to both Dublin and London more often.