London and apartments

Shopping in central london

Yesterday morning, we went out looking at a few apartments for Sonia, just small ones that are big enough for her and a sofa bed for the few people that are coming to stay with her next year :). The first we looked at were all quite nice, and we decided that out of the three at this location, a small one-bed was the best. Then we went and the agent showed us another one... This wasn't so nice and hadn't been looked after very well, don't think she will go for that one :). Today we are looking at another one, and so maybe she will have made her decision soon :). After apartment looking-at, we caught the train into London, where we remained until 11 last night :). We walked down Oxford street, new bond street, popped into some shops to keep warm, tried a chain called wasabi for lunch, (I liked it but Andrew didn't because his food wasn't very flavoursome) and wandered around some more streets. Throughout the day, we also went into a few department stores, they are so huge! We went to Selfridges, Fortnum and Mason, and Harrods. They are all so posh and fancy, like nothing I have ever seen! So expensive too :). Even the ceilings are covered in beautifully carved patterns!
After our window shopping, we stopped in at a Turkish cafe where we sipped coffee and ate chocolate and macarons :), very yummy.
Okay, so now for the best part of the day-well in my opinion anyway... Dinner at 'Dinner by Heston Blumenthal' :).

Savoury Porridge

At 7:15 we arrived, early for our booking at 7:30 so they led us into the lounge/bar area to wait (they turn tables over several times each night). At 7:40, 10 minutes late! :) we were ushered into the restaurant and presented with the menu. Given the fact that I had looked at the menu online several hundred times, I should have known what I wanted, but there were so many dishes that appealed overall that I had a hard time choosing-particularly the main course. Anyway, for the starter I chose the savoury porridge, Sonia, the meat fruit and Andrew ordered the buttered crab loaf (the very dish I was tossing up between). While we waited, the breads arrived-restaurants ALWAYS give you bread, to keep you going maybe? I don't know, but there was both brown and white sourdough, and it was very yummy, nice and chewy crust and soft interior as most bread is (if it's any good :) ).
Anyway, our starters arrived and they were delicious! So the porridge. Well, it was green-had lots of parsley in it, and garlic butter. On top was shredded fennel, smoked beetroot and 3 little frogs legs that had been crumbed and fried. It was really yummy, though the frogs legs didn't taste like much as there wasn't actually much meat (probably because they were frogs, and frogs are quite small :) ) it was all really good though, the textural difference provided by the crumbs and the firm but cooked beetroot, it was really delicious in my books.

Spiced Pigeon with ale and artichokes

Sonia's meat fruit came out, one of Hestons most famous dishes. Chicken liver and foie gras parfait in the shape of a mandarin, with a mandarin gel around it-the gel even had little dimples in it to make it look more realistic. Really cool! We all agreed that it was surprisingly sweet, but I think she enjoyed it :). Andrews crab loaf came out and was, again, really tasty. The crab was light and delicate, and the brioche loaf looked great as well, I would have been happy had I chosen that dish as well. All round, a delicious start to a delectable meal.
Main courses. I found this a much harder decision to make, there were 3 or 4 that I really liked the look of, but in the end I decided on spiced pigeon with ale and artichokes. I was slightly worried that I wouldn't like the taste of the ale sauce, but it didn't taste alcoholic at all and I really enjoyed it. The pigeon had been cooked perfectly, evenly pink right the way through-I think it must have been cooked sous vide. The artichokes were delicious too, I had never tried them before but I would have them again happily. This was all beautifully put together on top of some lovely and sweet onion... Delicious!

Andrews steak, chips and ketchup

Sonia ordered the slow cooked pork belly, which came with spelt, ham hock and Robert sauce-a type of brown sauce. She enjoyed the dish, but wasn't a fan of the spelt-she didn't like the texture, but I tried some and liked it, so I think it is personal preference. I thought it was normal texture, a bit like a risotto, but the rest of her plate was clean by the end so she must have liked the other stuff :).
Andrew, as I had guessed, went for fillet of Aberdeen Angus which came with mushroom ketchup and Hestons famous triple cooked chips. The mushroom ketchup was extraordinary, it had the sweet/vinegary tastes of tomato ketchup, but was made out of mushroom and tasted like mushroom (thank goodness :) ), we all really liked it. The triple cooked chips were definitely the best chips I have had, not just saying this. You know how chips go gross and chewy when they get cold, these didn't. It was near the end of our mains when Sonia and I tried them, and so they had been sitting out for a while and were only lukewarm, but they still retained the perfect crunch and fluffy inside-we all decided they were rather yummy :).

Taffety tart

Andrew posing with his dessert

Next was dessert. This was the course I was both looking forward to and dreading, the course that I always love, but struggle to decide on what to get, and I knew that Andrew and Sonia would laugh at me sitting there with my head in my hands in complete indecision :). In the end, Sonia had a platter of British cheese, Andrew had the chocolate bar that had a passionfruit jam interior and was served with a really yummy ginger ice cream-the ginger was there, but subtle. And I decided on the taffety tart. This was a layered dessert with thin pastry in between the layers. An apple gel at the bottom on top of shortbread biscuit, next a rose infused fromage frais and on the top, fennel seeds and bits of apple and rose. On the side was an apple and rose gel, with candied rose petals and a silky smooth vanilla ice cream. I have to say that this was one of the best desserts I have had in a long time, delicious and full of flavour, it wasn't too rich at all, something I was a little worried about because of the layer of fromage frais. It was just what I felt like having, not too heavy, but still delicious.

Earl grey infused ganache

To follow dessert, we had coffee, and with this we were given a delicious earl grey tea infused chocolate ganache with caraway seed biscuit. I really liked it, the ganache was perfectly smooth and set to just the right consistency, not too hard and not too runny.

Nitrogen trolley

To round the evening off, we ordered the nitrogen trolley, where they bring along a hand cranked mixer, pour in an ice cream base, and then mix in liquid nitrogen to instantly freeze the ice cream. Because the ice cream is frozen so quickly, the ice crystals are very very small, providing the perfectly smooth ice cream. They then offer four toppings for your ice cream, sugar coated fennel seeds, hazelnut and chocolate crumb, freeze dried raspberries and apple popping candy.
Both Andrew and I had the freeze dried raspberry, while Sonia had the popping candy. It was fabulous! The smoothest ice cream ever! And the cone was paper thin, made of brik pastry, into which they spooned a mandarin jelly/jam which was again, delicious and fresh. Overall, the evening was awesome!

Ice cream topped with
freeze dried raspberry 

And in typical Andrew style, we got through 3 bottles of sparkling water-he drinks so much water!!! The other night he drank almost 2 litres of carbonated water back at the house, I just think it's hilarious :).
Anyway, thank you Andrew and Sonia for taking me out, it was amazing!