Shopping & Amazing Food

Posted by Chelsie on Aug 14, 2012 | 6 comments

Today we had a great day…not a lot on the agenda except shopping, eating, and enjoying ourselves. We started the day at Tom Tom where we enjoyed coffee and poached eggs on toast. Then we walked about a mile over to Harrod’s for some jewelry shopping. Unfortunately, I didn’t find anything I liked, but that was fine because next we headed over to Liberty of London, another high-end department store and I found the most beautiful scarf that Andrew was nice enough to buy for me. After that we headed to lunch at Mother Mash where we had some amazing bangers (sausages) and mash (potatoes). What a treat!

After that we headed to St. James’s park to see the Horse Guards Parade where the Olympic beach volleyball tournaments took place. While they had most of that side of the park blocked off, we were able to enjoy some local wildlife (squirrels and pigeons) and beautiful flowers there. When it started to rain, we took shelter under a tree and just relaxed for a while listening to the rain and watching people run through the park. It was a good rest since we had done miles of walking while we were shopping earlier.

More than a month ago, as soon as I knew the dates of our trip, I immediately booked reservations at a restaurant called Dinner by Heston Blumenthal here in London. It is rated the 9th best restaurant in the world and I couldn’t resist such a tempting treat. Tonight was the night of our reservation. After we had finished shopping, we came back to the hotel and got ready to go. After a quick taxi ride we arrived at the Mandarin Oriental hotel where the restaurant is. It was a beautiful, warm, and inviting space and the service was top notch. As good as the service was though it was the food that was the real show stopper. The inspiration for all the menu items at Dinner come from historic British cooking with a modern twist and it delivered in all respects. Everything was amazing. I started with Meat Fruit which turned out to be and a yummy chicken liver mousse encased in a tangerine-flavored gel that was made to look like an actual tangerine. Just beautiful! Andrew had a delicious saffron rice dish with calf tail called “Rice and Flesh.” For our main courses I had the Cod with Mussels and Cider Sauce and Andrew had Powdered Duck Breast with fennel. We also ordered some delicious carrots with caraway as a side dish and I can say without a doubt that those were the best carrots I have ever eaten. We finished up the meal with an indescribable yeasted cake with a spit-roasted pineapple that took 30 minutes to make. Again, it’s hard to describe, but think of the best doughnut you have ever eaten and then imagine something that tastes 100 times better. We also ordered the post dessert ice cream where they came by with a cart and made us tableside ice cream using liquid nitrogen. They also let us pick from some unusual, but tasty toppings. Andrew had the chocolate hazelnuts and I had sugar-coated fennel seeds and homemade apple “pop rocks.” Overall I would describe the food as exquisite. This was probably the closest I’ll ever get to feel what it’s like to be a judge on Top Chef. It definitely earns a spot in the top 5 meals we have ever eaten.

Although it was late when we got out of the restaurant, we just couldn’t resist one last nighttime stroll along the Thames taking in the sights of the London Eye, Westminster Abbey, and Big Ben all lit up at night. As my previous boss Lael would say, “we just had to lay eyes on them” one more time. Tomorrow we leave bright and early for Amsterdam to continue the adventure.

Cheers,

Chelsie & Andrew