Day 27 – London, L’s birthday
Today was L’s birthday. Regardless of how old she claims to be, in London she is a baby (I would say spring chicken but we’ve seen that on a few menus lately). The hotel building is many times her age; our local underground station is three times her age; and London had grey hair before she was born.
We spent the morning wandering around the Camden Markets, an interesting sprawl of little markets that combined make up on big marketplace. Interesting, fascinating stalls, shiny things, clothes, souvenirs, fabulously smelling foods from around the globe, the ultra modern and the trendy retro, bizarre and grotesque items, and heavy metal t-shirts, among other items. A big bustle of commerce. We took our time wandering through the stalls, checking out assorted oddities. One of the shops in the market specialised in a post modern blend of cyber-rave culture, loud thumping beats, day-glo colours, tacky symbols, clothes that looked like a 15 year-old wanted to wear rave/emo/goth/punk/? — all at once. Some fusions of fashion work, some don’t work so well. So says the dinosaur who isn’t up with the attention span of today’s youth. Then again, I never was too good for locking on to trends when I was 15, either.
Lunch was some Mexican food from one of the stalls, eaten while sitting on a stool made from the seat and back half of an old scooter, overlooking the canal. Checked out the prices on Docs on the way back, and with the current exchange rate they aren’t too shabby. Might look at picking up a pair or two online once I get back and the credit card begins to recover.
Wandered along the Thames on the detour home. I’d intended to show L the Globe for her birthday, but got a bit lost trying to follow the river and ended up on the wrong side of Millenium Bridge. L hates heights, especially when they involve open metal structures — if she can see through them, she’d rather not be on them. The Millenium Bridge is one of these, and I’ll admit it’s not my favourite structure to be crossing, especially with a cold cross wind and full of tourists unable to walk in a straight and logical fashion. We made it across, buoyed mostly by the sight of the Globe getting nearer (it certainly wouldn’t have been the view of the Tate Modern, which is ugliness incarnate).
Damn Globe was shut for renovations for the weekend. Bastards.
While we were in the area, the Borough market seemed like a place to go (on the way spotting a big sign for the Whisky shop at the Vinopolis, promising untold treats, we’ll get back to thiks). The Borough market is cool, lots of individual stall holders selling all manner of produce, from raw, unpasteurised milk (lovely and creamy), England’s best pork pies (yummy), to game meats (looked great, wish we had a kitchen in our room), mulled cider (smelt fabulous), to all sorts of things. It would have been better to have gone here for lunch, as they had many many fabulous food stalls, but that’s hindsight for you.
Dinner was my big pressie for L: dinner at Jason Atherton’s Michelin-starred Pollen Street Social. Mr Atherton is the dedicated kind of chef who goes to El Bulli and works there for free, for the experience. At the same time, with Pollen Street Social he’s looking to create an informal restaurant experience for relaxed dining (so my jeans were not out of place). Arriving a tad early, we were invited to have a drink at the bar, and to me it was a gin and tonic kind of night. I admire a place that serves Tanqueray as its base gin.
At our table we were greeted by friendly staff and shown one of those menus where I’d be happy to have one of everything. Sadly, even the best tasting menu skips something, and in this case the a la carte seemed the best option. After an amuse bouche of pork scratchings with cod roe garlic dip and something else almost as yummy, for entree I had the fawn tartare with capers and a broken egg sauce. Fabulous, a little gamey, fresh, and really quite delicate. Paired this (on the sommelier’s suggestion) with the house white, a crisp and slightly fruity Semillion blend.
Mains was the ox cheek, fabulous, full of flavour, tender and beautifully cooked, accompanied by a horseradish mash. Fantastically good. Dessert was the rice pudding with plum swirl icecream and other plum treats. Fabuulous again, deliciously creamy, lots of wonderful fruit and vanilla flavour.
Dessert was followed by the amazing chocolate box, some wonderful treats it does hold.
A fabulous, fantastical food night out.