Monica Visits England!
Monica visited over the past weekend, and we had an incredible time in Canterbury and London. I think this is maybe my fifth or sixth time in London, but it it gets better every time I go. In Canterbury Monica and I visited the cathedral, got lion flavored hot chocolate and a Belgian truffle milkshake, visited the farmers market, and had a fantastic 6 course dinner with a bunch of friends. This was all after Monica arrived early, however, because of a travel plan mix-up. As far as that 6 course dinner goes, here’s what we had: Jonathan’s Perfect Spanish Omelet, Sagan’s Falafel Sandwich with Roast Vegetable Couscous, Liz’s Goat Cheese Quiche, Monica and my Broccoli Raab and Nicoise Olive Multigrain Pizza, Liz’s Delicious Cookies (“melting moments,” sounds awesome, tastes even better), and my own Simple Apple Tart.
The following day Monica and I caught the bus to London. By the time we had checked into a hotel in London it was already getting late. We walked through Hyde Park at sunset on the evening of our Anniversary, the 14th. This is our 2 year anniversary. Hyde Park is a happening place, particularly on Valentines day…or maybe it just seemed that way because we were there.
The previous night Monica and I had exchanged gifts. Two notable gifts apply to the description of the trip and cannot be left out as a result, those were: a suit for me (yup, you read it right!), and a dinner at Mildred’s vegetarian restaurant in Soho. The suit is a process that we started right after our walk through Hyde Park. We went to a Topman’s landmark store and used their selection of suits to find the closest fit to me, so as to tailor away the imperfections later. Unfortunately, in one of my various trips back to consult with Monica between my dressing room and the door, someone took my room and subsequently my guidebook was lost (and/or stolen). Bummer. This made it slightly harder to get to Mildred’s but some very concise and good directions from Theo lead us right to Mildred’s.
I have nothing but good things to say about Mildred’s. The line was long, and I think Monica and I were cranky and hungry, but it didn’t take nearly as long as I thought to get a table on valentines day at the restaurant; which notably, doesn’t take reservations at any time. We started off the meal by splitting a bottle of the house wine, the name of which I don’t know, because it was in Italian. Then we ordered an aperitif: Chargrilled artichoke crostini with lemon aioli . A simple but incredibly delicious way to whet our appetites. For dinner I had the “sundried tomato, tarragon and kidney bean sausages served with celeriac mash, braised red cabbage and rosemary red wine gravy”, while Monica ordered the “burger of the day (which was a grain burger) with fruit relish and basil mayo served with leaf salad and fries,” we also ordered Corn Bread and split everything down the middle. It was a really good meal, then we went home and cracked open some Champagne we bought from the Canterbury Farmer’s Market that the stall owner described with: “some fantastic local fizz, that.”
The following day we woke up for the free English Breakfast at the hotel. It was fairly bad, to be quite honest, but technically free. It could have used some veggie sausages, I certainly could have made a better version, but I digress. After catching a cooking show on British morning television where they were literally teaching people to cook fish and chips (talk about stereotypical, and with a “wee dollop” [about a stick] of butter—eat your heart out Paula Deen), we left to start the day. We started the day late by walking through the Big Ben/Parliament area, across the Westminster Bridge, to the London Eye. The London eye is pretty dang amazing. It’s not wonder they decided to keep it, it really is the best view of London. I had never been on it before and really enjoyed it. Took lots of cool pictures from the unusual angles provided by the Ferris wheel style pods (However, they’re on Monica’s camera, as are all the pictures from the trip—so I they won’t be up on Flickr right now).
Walking along the Thames is always a popular attraction, but tucked away behind the main walk Monica and I found a special Valentines Day Weekend Slow Food marketplace. Talk about good timing/serendipity! We sampled all kinds of awesome food, including much to my delight a Naga (9/10 on the hot scale) salsa. Awesome. We settled on buying some Baklava, and another Baklava type pastry, from one of the stalls. Needless to say it was pretty sweet (pun intended). Afterwords we continued our planned path towards the Tate Modern.
My second visit to the TModern was far better than the first. This is because of two exhibits that I didn’t get to see the first time. Firstly, the HUGE room that was empty before was now filled with several great new themed installations. The new “Unilever series” pieces were put together by Dominique Gonzalez-Foerester and titled “TH.2058.” It included a video installation, a Calder piece, a huge weird looking spider with egg sack, and a bunch of mattress-less beds with post-apocalyptic books attached, among other things. The other exhibit that made the second trip particularly special featured the structuralists Rodchenko and Popova. They explored their own theoretical limits within painting, and moved onto more popular art forms like graphic design and architecture. My favorite piece was the cover done for a book by Trotsky titled “Questions of Everyday Life.” It was a pretty brilliant exhibition.
Right outside the Tate is a beautifully designed pedestrian bridge across the Thames to St. Pauls Cathedral. It was just past sunset, and the sky was still a little blue, as we walked towards it. After a quick walk (very quick) around St. Paul’s and it’s fenced garden, we hit up the Underground to head to Brick Lane (aldgate east station). This experience at Brick Lane was even better than the last! I had heard that you could haggle, and I tried to haggle pretty hard. This man gave me three deals, and I took the third one just by saying “I don’t know, I haven’t even looked at the other restaurants down the street. I’ll tell you what, I’ll go down there, and if there isn’t a better deal, I’ll come back.” We got two rounds of drinks, two appetizers, rice, naan, and two main courses for ten pounds. I’ve heard that it’s possible to get a free bottle of wine, but I was weak and gave in at the two rounds deal. Anyway, we got Onion Bhaji, Vegetable Samosa, Vegetable Balti, and a Tomato Jhool, which were all incredibly delicious and filling for the cheap price. We were pretty knackered (another British term) by the end of the meal, and bought some digestives (which are much more expensive in France) for dessert, and called it a night.
Notes. Monica was sick when she arrived, now I am sick. Uncool, but, go figure. And I’ll be seeing her again on Friday because she’s going to visit relatives in Dublin and staying a quick day in London. Alright! On Saturday, I’ll be going to Oxford with Matt, which will also be awesome. On Sunday, I need to finish a paper I am about to start. I also start capturing footage and editing over the next week or two. Needless to say, this term has been significantly busier.
