Yeah Oui!

Wanted to give a big shout out to my Claridges crew. U guys (and I don't need to say who) are an amazing crew. I love you all dearly. Keep your heads up because you are ALL talented. xxx

Gordon Ramsay at Claridges
Brook Street
London W1K 4HR
Tel: 020 7499 0099
Reservations Recommended

* Update* Sadly in the summer of 2013, Gordon Ramsay at Claridges had it's last service.  The lease on the restaurant was up and GR holdings decided not to renew the lease. Rest In Peace GR at Claridges! 

My FAVORITE restaurant

Can you blame a girl for wanting simple, traditional, really well cooked food? St. JOHN has never disappointed me. Small tapas style plates, beautifully executed dishes. The food is not fussy- it's just TASTY. We frequent the Spitafields location for its more casual atmosphere. The menu is split up into times- when the food will be ready. Main entrees usually are ready around 1, small plates around noon. Pay special attention to the chalkboard where specials are written. Once they are gone, THEY ARE GONE!
My favorite dish was the Black Pudding with prunes and bacon. The residual sauce was sopped up with St. John's fresh baked bread. The prunes, bacon and perfectly seasoned blood cake was so rich, so full of flavor- I realized how depressed I was to have to go back to Switzerland that day.
The Beet Salad with Goat Curd and Sorrel- classic flavors, light refreshing and of course seasoned well.

English tomatoes, Lovage and shallots. The marinated tomaotes with the shallots and freshness of the lovage made for an irresistible first plate. The tomatoes sweetness were enhanced by the lovage and marinated shallots. So simple yet so good. This is what food is SUPPOSE to be.
Deep had been talking about this one for ages! Foie Gras and Duck Liver toast, cornichons and sea salt. Rich, creamy.. who doesn't like Foie Gras?? Calories?? BRING IT ON. I ate ALL OF IT.

Dessert commenced with a Brown Bread Ice Cream. A creamy creme anglais base, slightly nutty with chunks of Brown bread spread throughout. I thought it would be interesting- the hardness of the crusty bread and the creamyness of the ice cream. I couldn't stop myself.. This was incredible!
Rice pudding with strawberry jam and a hunka butter. The Strawberry jam lent sweetness, the rice pudding creamy.

And of course, half a dozen freshly baked, just came out of the oven, crusty on the outside, moist on the inside St John's Madelines. No meal is every complete at St. JOHN without them.

St. JOHN has never disappointed me. From the bread to the small plates and of course the desserts ( here is a secret, their desserts are better then the main courses so SAVE ROOM FOR IT!!)

If you only have time for one meal in London, this is hand down, the one to go to.

St. JOHN Bread & Wine Spitafields
Reservations HIGHLY recommended
94-95 Commercial Street
London E16LZ
Tel: 0272510848

Ladies Who Lunch

I was fortunate enough to be able to go back to my old kitchen to have lunch. Starting with some bubbly in the Fumoir room, the atmosphere was relaxing (ok maybe a bit pretentious.. it is Gordon Ramsay @ Claridges after all darling!) leisurely lunch.

After being greeted by some more Ayala, Brut Majeur, NV, Britt and I settled on our menu.
Then the non stop food ensued for the next 4 hours. First up were canapes with truffled cream cheese and taramasalata. After that came special canapes- truffled asparagus balls, quail eggs on mini potato pancakes and courgette rolls. The caramelized onion bread and olive bread after that and then finally the amuse! Pumpkin soup with sour cream foam and BACON!
I opted for the hot smoked Cornish mackerel, baby gem,white grape and caper dressing. The smoked mackerel was just smoked (not overcooked like I've seen done soooo many times last year...)
Britt went for the salad of marinated Enligsh tomatoes, goat's cheese cream, fennel beignets, Noir de Bigorre Ham. She said that it was absolutely delicious (why yes, the food is SEASONED well for a change.. unlike what we get back in Bulle... )

We were then treated to Roasted Scottish Scallops, Panch Phoran Shallots with a sweetcorn veloute (Courtesy of Tucker's hot starter section.. you did good Tuckers)

For the main, both of us had the Sauteed fillets of Rye Bay Plaice, Razor Clams, pickled baby carrots, coriander veloute ( not shown, picture was blurry.. hey I was on my 4th glass of creamy champagne.. can you blame a girl???) Rouge picked out beautiful pieces of Plaice for us- the texture light and flakey, delicate and gorgeous with the coriander veloute.

We then got to take a little breather with a kitchen tour.

Upon returning, we were greated with New Season English Strawberry Bavarois, olive oil and black pepper ice cream- light, not too heavy and LOVED the black pepper ice cream.
Britt opted for the English plum tart, mirabelle and lemon ice cream
While chocolate loving me, went for the Bitter Chocolate Parfait, pink grapefruit sorbet. The best part was the crumb on the bottom of the parfait. The tartness of the grapefruit went beautifully with the bitterness of the chocolate.

We finished off with tiramsu and brandy truffles petite fours

and, another kitchen tour ( and of course I finally got to see Pete!)

It was a wonderful afternoon, beautifully executed food. Thank you so much!!

Gordon Ramsay @ Claridges

Reservations Mandatory

Best Deal in London: 3 course set lunch

40 Brook Street
London W1K 4HR
Tel: 02074990099
reservations@gordonramsay.com

space invaders wardor street

Space Invaders Soho

Southbank Invader

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Leak Street Space Invader

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Sunday Fry Up

Ok so today may not be a Sunday, but a few days ago, I had a proper English fry up breakfast or
"Full Breakfast".
Lakh and I went to Blackheath in Lambeth borough. A quaint town full of upper middle class young families and yuppies, Hand Made can be found on the high street.

A quaint little shop with fresh pastries, sausage rolls, artisan breads, cheese and cakes, Hand Made has the feel of a clean, hip, rustic cafe. The staff is friendly, the food comes out quickly, the premises are pretty clean. The big idea is that everything that is served here is very fresh.

Handmade offers other select items like smoked salmon on toast or bacon and egg sandwiches.. But it was sunday! so we ordered the fry up (similar to the one pictured above). Fry ups were first thought to be made popular in the 1920s and 1930s when and American was trying to make bacon more popular to boost his sales.
A fry up usually contains the following: Sunny side up egg, buttered toast, gamon or bacon, sausage links, roasted tomatoes, country style potatoes, mushrooms and sometimes baked beans.
Handmade is fun, relaxing atmosphere and a great place to grab a tasty Sunday fry up.

British Advertising Adjectives

Ok, I'll give you guys a break from Space Invaders today.
The British have a funny way of describing things. In a way, they are too descriptive. Here are just a few examples from our refrigerator.
*disclaimer. I was told that ASDA is owned by Walmart. Seeing that Tescos, Waitrose and the Mark & Spencer were all shut, I didn't really have a choice. I won't do it again. I promise.
as opposed to "fake" mayonnaise... and the bottle is soft plastic, obviously a squeeze bottle. How else would you get the mayo out???

Juicy bits???? what about country style or with pulp... Juicy bits just sounds bit wrong...
Very large.. what ever happened to just the XL sign on the left hand side of the box? I also like the fact that they highlight the fact that the eggs are from "British Farms" and the chickens are " Free to roam in the fresh air during the day".

Brick Lane Space Invader #3

This one is across from the restaurant the root master- which is in an old school double decker bus.

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Brick Lane Space Invader

You can see that something has been ripped down between the statue and space invaders. It was another piece by the artist who does close ups of people's faces like the one in yesterday's post. The statues all use to have heads and legs as well....

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Brick lane

Also known as "Banglatown", brick lane is located in the Borough of Tower of Hamlets. The initial market first started in the 17th century as a place to buy produce. The Sunday Market also comes from this time. Nowadays, The Sunday Market is comprised of anyone- mostly students trying to sell off their belongings for some money. There are some pockets like the one off of this street (picture below- notice the writing in Bengali) which house independent artists selling their work.

Bricklane is also prolofic grounds for graffiti artists. This picture houses 2 different artists- the statue graffiti artists and this other artists who does close up of people's faces.

There are also numerous multicultural food stalls, and this great pizza place that has no plates and serves pizzas (with rocket or arugula) on big wooden squares. Everyone sits around huge rustic wooden tables on cardboard boxes.

Bricklane is also home to 93 East a bar that was the birthplace for the popularity of Tabla music and The Vibe Bar. It is also home to the Old Truman Brewery which has now been converted into a gallery and one can find very avant garde art there.

It's also home to a few space invaders!


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Shoreditch High Street and Curtain Road Space Invader

This one was huge! very prominent.
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Shoreditch

Shoreditch is in the Borough of Hackney located just east of the central london. Shoreditch is bordered by Old Street and Brick Lane. A previously very poor area of London, it is now one of the most expensive and hippest places to live. Bricklane had and still has a very high Bangledshi population.Evidently, its the curry mecca of London. Its also where you can be guaranteed to eat some curry that will keep you running to the pot in pain for the next few days. I found it interesting that the street names were written in more than one language.

Shoreditch became a haven for the creative- artists due to the cheap rent that it provided. Yuppies followed the artists and now shoreditch is one of the most fashionable places to live. On Friday and Saturday nights, you can find the streets stuffed with drunken british people dressed in really odd clothing which will find its way to america and be quite fashionable in about 3 years.
Shoreditch is also a prolific ground for graffitti artists. Besides the regular offenders, here are some more pieces that I enjoyed.



To better understand the last piece of art and the statement it is trying to make, Here is what the artist is taking a piss out of. The Oyster card is a travel card that enables you to travel on all transport systems within London. Its magentized so you simply need to touch it on a sensor to register it.


It took me 1 hour to go down two streets! Shoreditch will easily need 5-6 more visits!!

Mecca...Bansky, Space Invaders and Mask Graffiti with Eine and Toaster Graffiti within 10 steps!

This was On Rivington Street near Shoreditch High Street
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