A Tale of Too Many Castles

Yep, missed another week of blogging. But it was all for purposes of blog research. The in-laws came to town and we managed to visit six castles, travel all over London, eat really well, and take lots of pictures. Gimme a day or so to get organized and the blog will be back on track!

Pie From Scratch

We spent last weekend in London with our American guests, and dinner Friday night was a treat: St John. We had been there once before... and hope to go a few more times. It's quickly becoming one of my favorite restaurants. St John showed up in a previous blog, too.

The food on our previous visit was a notch better but I think that really comes down to food choices. This place is so diverse and ever-changing that you could go once a week and have a different experience every time you went. I could have gotten the bone marrow and parsley again, but I tried something different.

We started with some raw oysters... I mention that in hopes that I get another public service announcement posted into the comment section, like I did here. We followed that with a round of starters:

• Roast Bone Marrow & Parsley Salad (a favorite!) (Cristen)
  
• Snails and Oakleaf (fried snails and greens) (R and Pez)
  
• Octopus, Potato, and Green Sauce (Keptman)
  

For mains -- Pez and I split a pie:

• Pheasant & Trotter Pie, for two (Pez and me)
  
• Skate, Courgettes (zucchini), & Saffron (R)
  
• Roast Beef, Beetroot, & Horseradish (Cristen)
  
• Side to share: New Potatoes and Sprout Tops

Then for dessert, with dessert wines to match:

• Chocolate Cake and Creme Fraiche (Pez)
  
• Honey Roast Figs and Toasted Brioche (Cristen)
  
• Malt Custard & Shortbread (Keptman)
  
• Caramel Ice Cream (R)
  

So about that pie: Pheasant and trotter. Trotter here means the foot of a pig. As the trotter in the pie cooks, it releases fat and gelatin that give the pie its savoury richness. This was definitely the highlight of my meal. Here are some more pie shots.

Crust with fatty juices and marrow-bone-vent protruding...

The first lovin' spoonful...oh, that's nice.


Would it be cool if I licked the bowl? No?


Good pie.

If we ever get enough people (or maybe even if we don't) together in London, they do a whole roast suckling pig for groups of 8 or more. They had one waiting in the kitchen for some lucky group. Who's in for that?!?!

Cheers!

If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe.
Carl Sagan (1934-1996)

Learning London

We spent three nights in London this weekend (Monday was a bank holiday here). We stayed in the Docklands, a sorta out of the way area that I think is London's financial district. It is a small peninsula created by the Thames but has great access to the rest of the city with both a passenger rail line and subway stop within 5 minutes of our hotel. The subway in London is called, officially, the Underground, and un-officially, the Tube.

Our hotel had great pet perks: a dog bed, toy, and food and water dishes were waiting in the room for Boo. It took her about 30 seconds to become very acquainted with bed and toy.

Friday, we arrived just in time for our reservation at the Narrow, one of Gordon Ramsey's pubs. The food here was good but the service was very spotty. What'd we have? Note the food ratings in parenthesis.

Beer
Meantime Grand Cru Wheat

Starters
Chicken Liver and Bacon Salad, with Poached Duck Egg (2), Welsh Rabbit (3)

Mains
Fried Hake and Chips with Marrow-Fat Mushy Peas (2), Cock-a-leekie Pie and Mashed (3) aka chicken pot pie and mashed potatoes

Dessert
Sticky Toffee Pudding (3)

Saturday we had a lazy morning then walked around some of the sights, including the London Bridge, Tower of London, the Salvador Dali Museum, Parliament, Big Ben, and Westminster Abbey. We found a great market right at the London Bridge tube stop -- great artisanal cheeses, meats, field mushrooms, and more. We wrapped up the walking tour with a pint at a small pub near Westminster.

That evening, the food highlight of the trip was St. John restaurant. Decor was very simple with painted white cement walls, simple white wooden tables, and nothing at all fancy about it. The food was awesome. During the meal, they walked through with a whole roast suckling pig for a table in a back room -- very cool (feeds 16 people, 320 pounds including sides -- we need to make English friends!) . The guy at the table next to us ordered a special and it was served towards the end of our meal -- a roast pig's head. This restaurant is known for using all the pieces parts of all the little animals, especially the pig.

Our meal?

Starters
Roast Bone Marrow and Parsley Salad with Toast (1!), Fried Skate Cheeks with Aioli (2)

Mains
Roast Ox Tongue with Chips (1!)
Snails, Sausage, and Chickpea (2)

Dessert
Eccles Cake with Lancashire Cheese (2)
Moist Gingercake with Butterscotch Sauce (3)

At the end of the meal, I caught a glance of a patron just sitting down at a table. I nudged Rachel and lo and behold it was Ralph Fiennes. He is doing a show in London and apparently frequents St. John.

Sunday we just lazed around a bit, went to another recommend restuarant, The Gun. Good food and right on the river near our hotel. They had Abbot Ale on draft, so I was happy. Sunday night, after walking Boo around the Docklands for a couple hours, we took the tube into the city and had Indian food at Punjab, one of London's oldest. More good food!

Monday we did our best to get out early and make it to IKEA (there are 4 in London) to get 'stuff' to hold our clothes since the Lilacs isn't real big on closet space. We hit miserable traffic heading our of London and I for one am glad to be 'home'.

The Queen In Her Damn Undies

We're heading to London for the weekend! Real beds! Great restaurants! Tonight we are heading to one of Gordon Ramsey's places, "The Narrow". Looks good. Tomorrow night: St. John, a legendary restaurant and known as the place that other chefs go for "real" food. I've wanted to go there since my Chicago friend's gave me the book, "The Whole Beast". Should be awesome...