Friday was Nick's graduation lunch. Yes ladies and gentlemen, I have the privilege of knowing a future chef-to-be. Nick's an awesome cook and he's currently enrolled in Le Cordeon Bleu - a famous culinary school in London. Friday marked the 1st of 3 graduation lunches.
The menu of the day.
Which is pretty cool. I mean, seriously, how many people get to graduate 3 times?! Haha! Well, chefs-to-be apparently do. They have graduation lunches for each course - beginner, intermediate and advance. So Nick's graduated from beginner.
Anyway, before you continue with your train of thought, thinking "Oh wow... Cal is such a lucky girl...", think again.
I was jinxed.
Bad karma.
Chewed on by Cyclops and randomly spitted out onto an innocent sheep (because I don't taste like sheep).
I had a picture perfect day in my mind as I got up at 7am in my tiny room in Bristol, thinking that I was going to look all gorgeous and dandy and have sufficient time to grab a good cuppa coffee and a long desired blueberry muffin from AMT Coffee at the train station when it all started to crumble the minute my cab was LATE.
By 10mins.
My train was scheduled to leave at 9am and I arranged for the cab to come at 815am. He arrived at 825am and informed me that there were road problems. 2 MAJOR road problems that has led to insane traffic jams at the city centre where the train station was.
Problem 1: Some asshole ran his car straight into a window display
Problem 2: Burst pipelines
To make matters worse, problems 1 and 2 were directly opposite each other around a one-way roundabout.
I had a gut feeling Murphy's Law was going to kick in anytime.
And so it did.
I missed my train by 1 minute and the next train scheduled to arrive was at 930am. I went and got my blueberry muffin which elevated my spirits only marginally and waited for the 930am train that was eventually...
20mins LATE.
Good gawd. Nick's luncheon's at 1230pm but prior to that I had to make my way to Woon's plce to drop my stuff off before going to the Landmark Hotel at Marylebone Street. Woon however, has a guest, Leigh from Chicago, and they had planned a day trip to Cambridge with a train that's scheduled to leave at 1215pm. I got off the train at London
Paddington's at 1145am. I was not going to make it in time even if there were not traffic congestions.
But as Murphy would have it, he gave me massive traffic JAMS. Right. So by the time I got to Woon's place, it was 1pm. My make up was all smudged and my hair was a complete disarray. I fixed myself as best as I could and jumped into the first available cab.
We made 50 yards' progress and came to a standing halt. HUGE TRAFFIC JAM AGAIN.
I was ready to kill Murphy and eradicate his stupid law.
Anyway, to cut the long story short, I eventually found my way there by foot and train, just in time for the starters.
The Music Room in the Landmark Hotel
My own table card! How cool!
The lunch was OKAY (hence the absence of any pictures... The lamb was pretty yummy though), but the dessert, aptly titled "Chocolate in 3 kinds" was divine.
Absolutely divine.
Lava cake....
Each was so rich in flavour and so smooth on the tongue that all my troubles seemed to have melted away as each morsel of chocolate did in my mouth. MmmmMmmm.
Then came coffee with a plate of stollen and minced pies.
The stollen tasted like a rubber duck. You know the ones that float in bath tubs? Yeah. Like THAT.
So that was Friday.
Things got better on Saturday when I decided to head to Borough Market to pick up some x'mas presents and grab a sinful plate of raclette for lunch.
This time, I took a shot of it. Here's the raclette store (just a mini refresher):
Here is the roasting cheese...
(this is a new picture)
And here is the raclette (prepare yourselves!).
Oh heaven on a plate.
I dare you to tell me that doesn't look like sin you;d just wanna put your hands on.
Anyway, I grabbed lunch started shopping around... As usual, Borough Market's full of delightfully interesting sights. Like these HUGE pans of stewing sweet onions and fresh mussels in Thai curry cooking randomly in the fish market...
This smelt wonderful but I'm not a fan of onions and am allergic to shellfish. So....
Saturday's market is really different from Friday. Firstly, it's 10 times more crowded with people, with twice as many shops as Friday. Like this shop wasn't around the last time I was there... But I'm guessing it's an expected sight since x'mas is just round the corner.
Such gorgeous works of art.
I ended up buying the following items to bring home to HK on the 26th:
Tea for family friends, jam for Noel and there is a bag of dried fruits too... For Noel; but that's sealed up for now.
On the same day at night, Woon had made reservations at Gold Mine (remember the duck place I was telling you about a few posts back?) so that he may introduce Leigh, his friend from Chicago, to the wonders of the London roast duck.
Don't you ever wonder why roast duck is such a BIG thing here when we can get it back in Asia so easily? *shrugs* I've no idea either. But I do know that the roast duck here does taste better. Now why is that?
Probably the same reason why the best Italian food is not found in Italy (or so I am told).
Anyway, this time around, I ordered the crispy duck 'coz the last time we were there, I saw a family order an entire crispy roast duck and since then, I've been dying to try some.
Got myself the quarter of a roast duck.
This comes with the thin doughy skin, a pot of sweet sauce, and strips of cucumber and spring onions.
I passed on the spring onions but this is what it looked like on my plate before I rolled it up and chomped the daylights of it (rather gleefully too if I might add).
The duck was sooo tender and, unlike the normal roast duck, this crispy duck was devoid of icky fat and the breast meat was a lil' on the dry side - just the way I like it. The other added bonus was that I was in perfect control of how salty the meat was. The original roast duck just swims in saltiness.
My vote goes to the crispy duck. But as this would make me the outlier, I'd suggest getting both and having your taste buds decide.
Last night however, after being cooped up indoors for the entire day, I headed out to meet Woon, Leigh and Christophe for dinner at GALVIN.
It was fantablous! I ordered the grilled red mullet and this would be the first time, I've ever tasted grilled fish that was still juicy, fresh and delightfully done. The fillet was bursting with freshness with roasted sweet onions and sundried tomatoes to complement the exquisiteness of the sharp, natural sweetness of the fish.
This would actually be the first time, I'm raving about the main course more than the desserts.... Which, by the way, were a masterpiece in their own right.
Since the blackcurrant souffle was the must-have dessert of the night (the change menus every now and then), everyone save for me, ordered the souffle on top of their own desserts:-
Woon: Glazed Lemon Tart (fantastic but a bit too sweet for my liking)
Christophe: Cheese platter (never tasted a better cheese platter in my life)
So the souffle...
You probably can't tell from the picture itself, but the souffle was the best I've tasted. The crust was firm and foamy but not styrofoam-like and the souffle beneath was just light and creamy. It was the perfect combination. It wasn't too sweet nor was it too rich. It was a delicate balance of sourness from the blackcurrant and sweetness.
Perfect.
I got myself the chocolate mousse with ice cream and since I was sharing the souffle with Woon, we decided it'd be a brilliant idea to scoop the fruity cream onto the chocolate mousse.
Please excuse me while I hyperventilate at the memory of how good it was.
Friends, it's time to come to London.
