The 11th of April each year marks the anniversary of our arrival in London. In 2013, we will celebrate our 2nd year and based on our original plans we should have already packed up and left by now. However the best plans are meant to change. We still have a lot of travel destinations left on our 'to do list' and also so much more of London and the UK to explore. So in the first quarter of 2013, we found ourselves with a few consecutive weekends without European travel and therefore we decided to re-acquaint ourselves with some more London activities.
National Portrait Gallery
Visiting a museum in London is a great way to spend a cold Spring day for free. The National Portrait Gallery provided us with a couple of cultural hours wandering around the paintings of British monarchs and famous figures like William Shakespeare.
Day out in the Gallery
Borough Market
Borough Market remains one of our favourite Saturday morning hang-outs. We love the roast-pork roll at Roast; which although has been re-vamped to a shorter but more buttery brioche bun is still so unbelievably good on a cold day.
Sushi Samba
And on the theme of food, we are inspired this year to try more London restaurants, perhaps after being inspired by episodes of UK Masterchef Professional. First on our list was the skyward (175m up) Sushi Samba, located at level 38 of Heron Tower in the City. This restaurant had a South-American / Japanese theme and the food, particularly a prawn tempura salad was well worth it. Unfortunately the day we visited was both soggy and foggy, that we could only just make out the Thames/Tower Bridge from our cosy spot next to the window - but the service and food brightened up our day.
At Level 38, Heron Tower
New view of the Gherkin
Interesting interior design
Enjoying a cocktail
Sashimi starter
The prawn dish that Olie raves about
Fried mackerel
Lamb cutlet
Pretty sushi rolls
Enjoying dessert
Deconstructed lemon meringue tart
Chocolate and popcorn
Nights out with Friends
During March we caught up with friends via a series of dinners at different London restaurants:
* Caravan Kings Cross with Allee, Rob and Uncle Collin; known to London locals as a great place for brunch as well as one of the few places for a decent coffee. The cocktail list and food was impressive - modern British with an extensive list of tapas style starters that we shared.
* Barcelona Tapas with Wai where we rekindled our love for jamon and fried squid
* Bibigo with Rob, Meei-Lin, Nara and Gav for a well priced Korean set menu.
Traditional Bulgogi
Interesting interpretation of Eton Mess pudding
Pollen Street Social
To celebrate our 2 years in London, we headed to the 6th ranked restaurant on the Good Food Guide London 2013 - Pollen Street Social. We were recommended to try the tasting menu of 8 courses that included a stint sitting at the dessert bar where we could observe the kitchen action and also the creation of chocolate 'rocks' using liquid nitrogen.
Number 8, Pollen Street
Sicilian olives and pork scratchings
Seafood tartare
English breakfast in an egg
Sea scallop with horseradish powder
Crab with nashi pear
Turbot with cockle chowder
Angus steak with marrow
Lamb with black truffle paste
Enjoying the lamb
With our mini ice-creams
View from the dessert bar
Making the rocks using liquid nitrogen
Dessert with the rocks
Celebrating 2 years in London
Kensington Palace
We combined our love of culture and food by visiting Kensington Palace to enjoy afternoon tea in the Orangery courtesy of a voucher that we had waited for some decent weather to use. Kensington Palace is quite small compared to the other royal residences and is not as grand. Likewise, the afternoon tea was quite simple and not as filling compared to other places we have tried like Fortnum and Mason, Marriott County Hall and the Ritz.
The dress and suit that Prince Albert and Queen Victoria
wore when they opened the Great Exhibition, 1851
Queen Victoria's family
The King's coronation gown
Outside the public entrance to the Palace
Inside the Orangery
Afternoon tea
Wicked, the musical
One Friday night we headed west to Victoria station to see the musical, Wicked - billed as the 'true story' behind the Wizard of Oz. The show was very entertaining and had its moments of comedy, special effects and great singing. However, we felt that our knowledge of the Wizard of Oz story assisted with our enjoyment of the show, as there are a lot of references.
Wicked, at the Apollo Theatre
The Emerald City
RnB Reunion Show, Wembley Arena
Topping off our London adventures, we had a night out at Wembley Arena in north London one Saturday night. We and 11,000 others took a trip back to the 90's for a 'reunion' concert with some of the biggest RnB bands of the time - Dru Hill, SWV, Blackstreet and Jodeci. The acts and the DJ's were really impressive, apart from Jodeci who were supposed to headline. Their performance was off-key, they appeared disorientated and we (along with a sizeable percentage of the crowd) left early after the boos started and it all seemed to go downhill. But to cherish the happier moments of the night, the following short video is from Dru Hill's performance of 'How Deep Is Your Love', best known as being from the soundtrack of Rush Hour - starring Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker.
Video - Part I
Video - Part II
**Connect With Us**
This post was written by: Culture Stamps
If you liked this post, please share it with others using the social media buttons below.
To connect with us and see snippets of our Culture Stamp travel adventures:
No comments:
Post a Comment