Category Archives: eating out

Tis The Season…Party Feet

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With the big day fast approaching (only 17 sleeps to go peeps), attention has suddenly turned to collaborations of the festive kind. And this week has seen me celebrating with considerable commitment to the Christmas cause, the result being that I am ensconsed on the comfy couch at Gidday HQ today after last night’s work Christmas party. Amongst today’s priorities is resting my aching feet, having kicked off my dancing shoes *slash* drinking boots in the early hours of this morning before pouring myself into bed.

It was a fabulous night, starting with a drinks-style mingle (with a spot of champers, of course) and delicious dinner table conversation under the majestic Rubenesque ceiling of the Banqueting House in Westminster. Commissioned by King Charles I and installed by Inigo Jones, the ceiling comprises the only canvasses from the old Whitehall Palace to remain in situ. Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens painted them in his studio in Antwerp, shipped them across for installation in March 1636 and was paid the princely sum of £3,000 for his efforts.

Eyes up at dinner – what a spectacular view!

After dinner it was down to the Undercroft for a spot of drinking dancing. Designed as a drinking den (how appropriate!) for James I, the area went on to host lotteries after his death, which sounds kind of akin to some (alright, most) of the moves on show under the temporary disco lights last night. And a big shout out to DJ Jeff who kept the floor packed with swinging, singing partygoers – and at whose feet I lay the blame entirely for my scratchy throat and tender tootsies.

But this was not the only celebratory collaboration as earlier this week, we turned to team-building of a whole different kind. On Tuesday night we found ourselves in the south London suburb of Wandsworth for a night of culinary negotiation at Venturi’s Table. Split into three teams, we kneaded, chopped, stirred, dipped, chatted and laughed under the careful supervision of Anna Venturi’s team of patient chefs before sitting down to a fabulous three course meal – fresh pasta, chicken ballotine and a super-scrummy pannetone pudding. Oh and a few drinks. (There may also have been a bit of singing. Yes it’s true.) This is not the first time I’ve done something like this (see my post on Hot Chicks & Hens) and let me just say right here and now, it won’t be my last. It is such fantastic fun.

And last but by no means least, I managed to squeeze in a catch up with three colleagues from workdays past and over a bottle of wine (or two) and a cheap and cheerful meal at my local Italian, we shared the news, reflected on 2012 and speculated on what changes 2013 might bring.

It starts again this week so right now, I’m feeling rather grateful for today’s respite. But not for too long. After all, it is the season to be jolly…

…and my drinking boots still have plenty of tread.

Going global

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Here we are at the last bank holiday in the UK before Christmas and I am ensconced at Gidday HQ catching up on a whole lot of the must dos after a few days of fun to-dos (and not a small amount of alcohol). The washing machine is whirring in the background, the ironing pile is lurking within eye-shot – which I must address one way or the other (i.e. iron or put away in the cupboard) – the UKHot40 is playing on the telly and my water bottle is within reach.

So let’s start with Saturday: a day of short sunny bursts and bouts of torrential rain under a largely grey sky. And an evening of cocktails and mighty fine cuisine as four work friends painted the heart of London’s Soho multicultural – at a Peruvian restaurant. This is what happens when a Turk, a German, a Frenchwoman and an Aussie, all obsessed with food, get their heads together for a girl’s night out.

After a flurry of emails late on Saturday afternoon, a plan was hatched and a few hours later, four happy expat ladies were sitting at the bar in Ceviche, watching the intermittent drizzle against the window with cocktails in hand. Ceviche is new to the London restaurant scene, having only opened in February this year, and has had some terrific reviews (including one by yours truly over on Weekend Notes after our super Saturday soiree). I won’t repeat here what you’ll find elsewhere – suffice to say we left four very happy ladies. And it wasn’t just the cocktails.

Sunday morning dawned and after a kick-start of croissants, coffee and copious amounts of water – how is it that so much drinking can be so dehydrating – I was off again, this time to the Edinboro’ Castle in Camden for a farewell do.

You see, in just under two weeks time, A-used-to-be-down-the-hill will become Seattle-A. Yes, she and hubster are moving state-side to the land of the free, the home of the brave and city of highest rate of sunglasses purchases per capita in the US. They’ve bought a fabulous new pad, booked the movers and are starting their own round robin of goodbyes to old London town.

And yesterday, under the canopy of trees in the sun-dappled beer garden at the Edinboro’ Castle, was a gathering of their wonderful circle of friends. Almost ten hours of repartee and reminiscing, of howls of laughter and a little just-between-friends political incorrectness, of re-connecting and fond farewells, to wish them well in this next exciting chapter…and to book our respective berths at Palazzo Seattle.

So this weekend has been a poignant reminder of the power of my expat friendships, both old and new, and the importance of trusting my instincts in reaching out amongst the myriad of connections I make each day, week, month, year.

Saturday night heralded the start of a ‘four girls from four nations’ friendship.

And while my own personal farewell with A is still to come, Sunday was a celebration of a friendship that began just two weeks into my expat journey. That’s more than eight years of life in the UK together. Opening the pages of this next chapter in our friendship has me feeling a little sad, but excited about the possibilities that will follow for both of us.

You see we, my friends, are going global.

The Land Sans The Long Black…

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This morning I met up with an Aussie friend of mine for brunch. S travels a lot for work and since he has the next 2 weeks in London before his next round of jet-setting, we decided to grab the bull by the horns – so to speak – and catch up over some scrumptious vittels and good coffee at The Modern Pantry in Clerkenwell.

S and I used to work together and as such, he is a fellow afficionado of both the Melbourne coffee scene and that bastion of Italian yummy-ness, Lygon Street. Way back when we worked together, we were fortunate enough to share premises with the barista training school of a very well-known Italian coffee brand. As such, there was no schlepping around with freeze-dried instant or filter coffee for us. It was punchy espresso with gorgeous caramel-coloured crema, warm milky-smooth lattes and luscious foamy (not frothy people – there’s a world of difference) cappuccinos. Let me tell you, we knew our Robusta from our Arabica.

Then we came to London. And caffeine confusion reigned.

You see there are two types of coffee that are ubiquitous in the Land Down Under (and for that matter, in the Land of the Long White Cloud) but as rare as hen’s teeth in Ol’ Blighty. 

The first is the Flat White. It lies somewhere between a warm milky latte (a flat white has less milk and is served hot) and the foaming cappuccino (the flat white has less/no foam). It’s hard to find in London but with the likes of The Australian Times providing a handy list of good flat white-rs in London Town alongside a little Antipodean word-of-mouth, it’s possible. But most places here will translate the Flat White into a white coffee (a black coffee with cold milk), completely ignoring the craft of creating a steaming Long Black before adding a large dollop of warm milk.

Which brings me to my second point – the Long Black. In non-barista terms, it’s a shot of espresso poured into hot water to preserve the crema.

Simple right? Not nearly as complicated as the Flat White one would think.

But apparently so.

Just ask for a Long Black here and watch the bewilderment appear across the face of one’s waiter. Then try to explain it ie. a shot of espresso with hot water (and that’s not getting into the size of the cup it should come in). In most places, the response is ‘oh so you want a black coffee?’ No. Not if you are going to stick my cup under the coffee filter for 5 minutes.

Some will respond by correcting you calling it an Americano, grinning proudly at you as they successfully navigate the lingo of yet another of the half million or so Antipodean immigrants living in London. Well no actually – but at this stage, an espresso topped up with hot water is starting to sound like an acceptable (and considerably less stressful) compromise.

But all I really want is a proper Long Black. I want a lovely shot of espresso – that’s right, like you normally give one who orders an espresso – poured into the cup with hot water. Rich and smooth with a velvety crema. No bitterness, no acrid aftertaste. Understated yet still packing a caffeine punch.

Just like the one this morning.

Anna Hansen may have been ‘chef-fing’ all over the globe – and let me tell you the food was really, really good – but for the coffee alone , The Modern Pantry gets my vote.

Smooth, rich and velvety. Exactly the way I like it.

Nuremberg Post Script…

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So last we corresponded I’d been in Nuremberg and I revealed that there had been some wining, dining and generally sociable behaviour. I also mentioned we’d been to Peruvian restaurant, El Encanto to celebrate a busy and successful week.

The following is the result of what happens when combining two hysterical tired females with cocktails and arm them with a camera while they are impatiently waiting for their food….

My small contribution to Movember…
These napkin rings look like ears!
Look pigtails! (aka Heidi Hair, the closest I’m likely to get…)
Bringing out my inner devil…

Here endeth the lesson.


London…On The Cheap(side)…

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I had lunch with some great friends of mine today who moved to the UK permanently two and half years ago. We were chatting about how long it takes to feel ‘settled’ and they reminded me that, in their early expat days, I had said to them that it took me somewhere between 18 months to two years before I’d started to feel like I had actually ‘built’ a life for myself versus the feeling of being a long staying tourist.

Did I really say that?  I can’t really remember…

But what I do remember is my initial shock at how expensive things were and a big part of feeling ‘settled’ for me was finding ways to do things cheaply – most expats in the UK can reel off a whole variety of discount ‘opportunities’ – and I soon learned that if you look hard enough, there are lots of ways to do this.

For example, today’s lunch included a 50% discount off the food bill and was booked through toptable…and my travel to our fab foodie feast was courtesy of Oystercard (which almost halves the bus fare).  I have also booked a 70min massage for a few weeks time through Groupon at a whopping 66% off and I have had countless 2-for-1 meals with friends using vouchers from newspapers like the Metro, email newsletters (Giraffe, gbk and Pizza Express are particular faves) and voucher websites like vouchercloud and vouchers.co.uk.

So the key to London ‘on the cheap’ is this – Sign up for as many things as you can.  You may fill your inbox to overflowing but when it comes to getting the deals, it really is a numbers game.

And you can also rest assured in the knowledge that you’ll never go hungry – if all else fails, supermarket-brand baked beans are only 19p a can!

Ker-ching!

ps…for you Londoners that might be interested in some terrific Turkish fare, get yourself down to Cirrik in Richmond…via toptable of course!

Life is Sweet…One For The Girls…

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Following our nefarious shopping adventures of yesterday, we were off this morning for some serious pampering…here’s the short version of what happened…
There were massage chairs…one for each of us…
(Look at those very smiley faces…aaaahhhh!)
…and much scrubbing, rubbing and painting to produce very pretty paws.
 
It was then time for a tad more shopping followed by some sweet, sweet sustenance at Theobroma Chocolate Lounge…here’s the short version (again) of what happened…
Before, there were chocolate covered waffles and ice-cream…

Later, the chocolate covered waffles and ice-cream were gone…

…and then there were two extremely satisfied (if slightly nauseous) customers.

So definitely a day of sweet treats for the girls…

…and for any of you blokes who happened to read this post all the way through, I can only salute you for your patience / curiosity / ability to be in touch with your feminine side!

From the Sublime to the Ridiculous…

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A significant part of squiring said Mother and partner around town is weaving an interesting (and largely unplanned) trail of meals and snacks.  Last Sunday we were off to tackle tourist things again and after another excellent trip on the London Eye (my 4th), we were somewhat stymied in our plans to visit Westminster Abbey and St Pauls Cathedral (apparently they do services, being Sunday and all, and out of respect, rubber-neckers are not welcome…) and decided to console ourselves by lunching at the cafe in the Methodist Central Hall Westminster, just opposite Westminster Abbey (http://www.c-h-w.com/cafe/index.shtml).  So down to the ‘crypt’ we went…to be surprised and thoroughly delighted by nice comfy seats and delicious great value food (my pollock in courgette and mushroom was fantastic and the roast of the day looked excellent too)…with drinks it was all about £7-8 each…what a bargain!

Later in the afternoon, having made our way to that other great London tourist mecca, Harrods, we stopped for a coffee in the Ca’puccino cafe down in the gift shop.  It’s got these really awesome white Alice in Wonderland chairs and an extremely indulgent list of coffees…anyway, we decided to lash out on a Custard Cream coffee (him), a Pannacotta coffee (said Mother) and something that I couldn’t pronounce that had layered liquid dark chocolate, coffee and soya (to replace the milk).  They came in glasses not much bigger than something that you’d swig a large shot of tequila from (which, in deliciously rich hindsight, was about all we could manage anyway) and were so-o-o pretty to look at…the bill, on the other hand, came to about £16.

And like naughty children, we loved every sublime minute…

Happy Days…

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So Mum is here for a visit and since her (and her partner Alan’s) arrival last Wednesday, it has been a busy time with little chance of the daily blogs I’d planned to keep you all appraised of our Days Out (and In)…so here’s a little summary thus far…

Wednesday – Arrival Day
Much chatting and catching up over their best coffees since the start of their trip on May 9th (Go London…yeah!).  Checking them into the local hotel, marvelling at how big the room is compared to everything else they have stayed in and then off to The Boaters Inn on the riverbank in Kingston to eat fish and chips, drink wine and gaze dreamily at the Thames (which, on Wednesday, was dappled in soft Autumn sunshine).  My specialty Spag Bol for dinner…with more wine.

Thursday – Lewes-and-Brighton Day
Off to the county town of Lewes this morning to see all the places that Alan remembered from his childhood there…as with all nostalgic meanderings, he said everything seemed a lot smaller than he remembered.  We also walked around the castle, through the gardens at Southover Grange and visited Anne of Cleves cottage before walking back up Keere Street…very steep cobbled street that apparently the Prince Regent who became King George IV drove his carriage down on the strength of a dare…and they say his father was the mad one! 
Then it was on to Brighton and a visit to the Royal Pavilion, the pleasure palace of King George IV whilst he was Prince Regent (is there a recurring theme of reckless behaviour here?) This was my second visit and I had forgotten how truly spectacular and OTT this place was so def. worth visiting and taking the audio guide on your visit.  We then wandered along Brighton Pier before deciding that we were rather peckish so we found a fab Italian place in Brighton’s The Lanes and waddled out of there for the drive home at about 8.  Speaking of the drive home, we had a little trouble finding the turn off back to the main road and took a scenic drive along the coast for a while hoping to find another connecting road…Plan A having failed abysmally, we turned around, drove back to Newhaven and found the turn off…

Friday – Hop-On-Hop-Off-Bus Day
Friday was tourist day in the capital and I have to say that I enjoyed the top deck of the hop-on-hop-off bus very much…it was really quite relaxing to be absolved of the need to take any photos (because it wasn’t all new and overwhelming like last time) and to just enjoy the ride in the sunshine (yes, sunshine again!  Very blessed we were…)  After a couple of hours of winding our way through the busy streets, we ‘hopped off’ at The Tower of London with enough time for lunch at gbk (scrumptious burgers) before meeting the Yeoman Warder (more widely known as Beefeaters) for our guided tour.  He had a few grisly stories to share, a typically English (dry) sense of humour and a ‘way’ with the ladies…but did you know that they come highly qualified for the job?  They have to have served a minimum of 22 years in the Army, Air Force or Marines and have reached the position of Sergeant Major and they (all 35 of them) live in the Tower of London with their families until retirement at 65…needless to say they kind of inspire ‘good behaviour’!

We then ‘hopped on’ a river cruise back to Westminster Pier – more witty commentary and interesting facts – before ‘hopping off’ and wandering past the Houses of Parliament, up Whitehall (past Downing Street and Royal Horse Guards), into Trafalgar Square and then along Constitution Hill to Buckingham Palace… again I was struck by what an ‘ordinary’ looking building Buckingham Palace is, particularly when compared with Westminster Palace (aka Houses of Parliament) but if you are ever here in July-August, def. check BH out the inside – it’s amaaaaazing!…

…and then the only thing left to do (well that we had any energy left for) was to ‘hop on’ the bus home….and have Chinese takeaway for dinner…

Saturday – Day-Off Day
Saturday was my relaxing, houseworking, catching up day so J was despatched with said parent and partner to buy satnavs and posting boxes (look out chicky, there are a-comin’) before the visitors decamped to Hampton Court Palace nearby…in the drizzle…so I can’t really tell you what they got up to other than that there was jousting, a mock wedding and a lost umbrella.  Then it was pizza and Eurovision with J and the kids last night…makes you realise how small these flats really are when there are 6 people in them!

Sunday – Getting-Organised-For-All-The-Other-Days Day
Today the sun has finally broken through the clouds and we are all just puddling around here at the flat and the travellers are having a little breather before they set off on their big NW odyssey tomorrow morning…

So there you have it…a longer blog than usual but consider yourselves updated!

Date Night: Alice & El Peyote…

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Being free of any commitments this weekend (beyond chores that is…ugh!), J and I decided that it was time to have a Date Night and what could be a more traditional choice than a movie followed by dinner…

So we hit the cinema for a 3D journey down the rabbit hole with Alice to Wonderland.  All the elements from the original story I remember were there but Tim Burton did amazing things to twist the story and make it more ‘grown up’ and relevant.  It was a darker Wonderland for sure but the cast was brilliant and the 3D-ness really worked with this flick (unlike Avatar in 3D which left me distinctly under-whelmed).  It always was a slightly ‘trippy’ story anyway but it does seem that this particular trip is a match made in Tim Burton’s style-heaven…go see it on the big screen just for the experience!

And then it was off to a new (Mexi-terranean) restaurant in Kingston, El Peyote.  We found out it had only been open 6 weeks but let’s hope it’s open a whole lot longer than that because we had the best burritos…ever!  (And my prawn kebab starter – marinated in chilli and lime juice with a mango puree – was pretty scrumptious too.)  Fab food, quirky decor and great service – Long live El Peyote I say!

So that was date night…and now it’s Sunday and chores still await. So until next time…

Adios Amigos!

Let Me Eat Cake….

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With yesterday afternoon off, I was walking happily down Theobalds Road to start my tube journey home when I decided to return a missed call from my friend-who-became-a-Mum-on-Australia-Day-and-I-haven’t-seen-her-since, A.  As it turned out, she was heading in my general homeward direction with baby N so we arranged to meet up half way for a spot of cake and coffee.
Well, it turned out to be a rather LARGE spot…
A has this favourite place for cake & coffee in Fulham called Del Aziz which not only has the most astronomical selection of cakes, pastries, breads, slices, tarts and pies I have ever seen but the slices come in my-eyes-are-too-big-for-my-belly proportions. 

(In mulling over what should make our shortlist, despite it not making it to the Final Cut,  I chose this one to help whet your appetite…
…see what I mean?)
I did not have the presence of mind to take a photo of my particular gastronomic delight but suffice to say it took lingering for 2 hours over both it and some lovely catching-up-and-cooing-over-baby-N conversation to empty the plate…and I enjoyed every richly deliciously scrumptious forkful.

Jealous yet??

On the down side, I did have a bit of a sugar headache and felt slightly ill afterwards.

But only a little bit…