Second Chance

Borough Market....Take 2

It was a beautiful sunny day in London. Kia, Cecilia, and I planned for a market day. This time, I had the time to look through all of the stands and get an idea of what there was to taste, see and smell. I bought some spelt risotto. I had never heard of spelt until then...it was pretty good. One of the highlights was the buffalo mozzarella....fantastically fresh!! We learned that if you go to the vegetable stands on the outer ring of the market you can typically get a better deal.




Neil's Dairy has some amazing cheese and Kia and I got ourselves a tasting. The trick is to tell the cheese guy that you don't like some thing and he's so passionate about cheese that he will give you tons of samples of different types of that cheese to try to persuade you to like it!








There's also a really awesome coffee shop called Monmouth Coffee Co. People queue up in their market stand and at their store front to get bags of coffee and their wonderful filtered coffee. Good stuff.








And as if we had actually been market regulars or locals to London, we ran into our friends at the market!!

Borough, I love you...but in the financial times we're in, I think I'll save you for a special treat. I'd rather go to Chapel Market in Angel where can get:
Chapel Market 5 avocados -1 pound
Borough Market 2 avocados for 1 pound
Chapel Market Cut of prime rib -10 pounds
Borough Market Cut of prime rib - 20 pounds
Chapel Market Whole salmon - 7 pounds
Borough Market Whole salmon - I don't know cause they measure it by kg

The Hat

So the story goes...

After many repeat nights in Shoreditch a man walks into a bar with a hat. A hat that we wanted immediately! So long story short.... we asked Paris Pascal for the hat and he graced us with the magical hat.

And yes it is magical, because it plays Happy Birthday when you press it. And the saga of the hat and the GEP group will continue on. In the last couple of months we've had so many birthdays we can't even count. The rule is take the love, and pass it round!

Sorry for the disruption in service - Please mind the gap!

Coming Home

Yay for our new flat! We live in Angel, right in the center of Angel!!! BEAUTIFUL! Gorgeous neighborhood. A couple of door down there's a piano teacher that gives lessons on Saturdays. Above us are two older women that have done an amazing job landscaping our back garden. A couple things about the new house:

Pros:

Newly refurbished

Heated floors

Awesome lighting

Tons of built in cabinet space

Large 10 person dining table

Wine fridge!!!

Cons/maybe Pros really:

You have to factor in 10 minutes to get into the house because there are 5 locks you have to open.

My bedroom doesn't officially have a closet

You have to go down stairs to get home

In order to keep our street quiet, they've put size restrictions on all streets towards ours. Needless to say. IKEA truck was not too happy!

All in all, I love my London flat!

(That's my new flat mate...Cecilia)

Starry Eyed Surprise

For those of you who have wondered....what's Simon been up to? Well he's managed to visit twice so far for almost 3 weeks at a time...as promised! So there's 2 parts to Simon's last visit, this is Part 1. But before Simon's last visit, it was our 3 year anniversary. I received a beautiful bouquet of flowers!

When Simon arrived for my birthday, he planned an amazing dinner at Claridges, one of Gordon Ramsey's restaurants (http://www.gordonramsay.com/claridges/)! We both decided to go with the three course meal but at the end it really felt like a six course meal. Let's say the chef is gracious in between the courses, letting us snack. I had a pate to start and then for our main course, Simon and I both had the "Crispy Suffolk pork belly, roasted langoustines, crushed white beans, fennel purée, lemon and sage jus."

After dessert, I got a special treat from the kitchen...a mini birthday cupcake! What a great surprise!

And then Simon decided to reveal his next surprise. I knew I needed my passport and had to wake up at 4 in the morning. After a gazillion guesses, I finally figured it out....(continued in Part 2).

All Along the Watch Tower

One last hurah before the GEP crew had to move from our amazing digs near Tower of London. Since most of us were still in the area, I decided to throw a shindig to celebrate!

Lots of great friends...and friends of friends, diverse backgrounds, and a variety of beverages. It all came together with the international sport of Flip Cup! There was strong representation from Finland and Canada!

Mad props to Vanessa - the hero of the party. She came with gourmet snacks in hand to feed the hungry! What a night! When the beer ran out....where else did we go but Shoreditch....

Hit the Road Jack

Today I move into my corporate housing at Tower Hill, Byward St, Flat 9. How else to celebrate but to christen the place with some friends and food. It was going to be a big day. Simon and I decided to take the easy way out and call a cab with our 4 suitcases plus. We arrived and OMG! Thanks Uncle Ernie!

I have an amazing bedroom and living room window view of Tower of London (literally at my doorstep) and the Tower Bridge! Once I had decided that I had sufficiently found everything I could possibly ask for, it was time to head off to Borough Market.

Now Huong had told me about this place before I left for London. If anyone knows me, they know I'm a market girl. Perhaps it was the regular Sunday trips to the local Farmer's Market in VA Beach that got me addicted to it all. Borough market was what I expected and more....overwhelmingly more! Note to self, when in a rush to cook dinner for a get together - do not try to do this at Borough Market - especially your first trip to Borough market. I felt like I was on that Dinner Impossible show on the Food Network. I couldn't find anything I needed!! Perhaps it was too late in the day, perhaps it was my internal monetary conversion aversion (holy crap! you mean a cut of prime rib costs $42 dollars!!).

After not being able to find what I wanted, and rushing through what I'm sure what would have been a really pleasant lazy Saturday morning activity, I ran off to the closest Sainsbury Local grocery that I could find. What I found was NOTHING! So then I shamelessly asked the fruit guy at Sainsbury where the nearest Tesco was, and I ran to Tesco Metro. What I found as my beef option was "Traditional English Beef Cut."I'm sorry but what the heck is that?? If I had only had my camera out! So I went with it. Can you feel my frustration??

A couple of crazy moments later, Tony, Bintal, and Chris showed up - yay! After dinner the plan was to go to a roof top bar with a nice view. [Like how I skipped the part about eating dinner?]

We ended up at Vertigo 42 at the top of International Financial Centre Tower 42 on Old Broad St. At Vertigo, Chris was nice enough to buy the group a round of champagne (yes, we did). Well, it was all they had to serve - no spirits. But heck - it was an amazing view.

Then we all piled into a cab and headed into Shoreditch to the Light bar. After deciding with a random girl that we would turn it into a dance party, and 2 pint glasses later (now placed on my shelf), I have a place to call home.
......Well at least for the next 30 days when Uncle Ernie says - Hit the Road!