4/23 almost a great success
Daniel wants a proper English breakfast, and even though LSE does serve English breakfast (Toast, Tomato, Hash, Sausage, Bacon…), it was subpar. And that’s being generous.
So I had to find the BEST place. (Because, allow me to reiterate, the trip had to be puuuurrfect.)
And I did. :)
The Full English pop up cafe is within walking distance in SOHO(, but of course we took the bus.)
The food was great. It seemed to be the same as what they served at LSE (bacon, egg, sausage, tomato, etc), but man, everything tasted DIFFERENT. The cafe was thinly run, but it was not busy and we were not in a rush. Toward the end of the meal, our waitress the owner came over for a bit of chitchat, and I was talked into ordering her Sticky Toffee Pudding. (Well, I wanted the Sticky Toffee Pudding, but I was full already.) Poof, am I glad that I ordered it! It’s sweet and warm happiness but the sweetness doesn’t kill you. Ugh… I wanna go back now.
Next, the planned was to leisurely walked along south bank of the Thames as it was one of my favorite things to do when I was in London last time. However, because of the timing issue, it turned into a powerwalk, and we didn’t even get to properly enjoy my favorite market — Borough Market.
We watched the recently damed Angela Lansbury play a eccentric psychic in Noël Coward’s Blithe Spirit. I’ve always like Noël Coward’s quick-wittedness. However, I didn’t enjoy it as much as did a local production of Private Lives (not even Toby Stephens’s or Kim Cattrall’s production.) Nevertheless, now Angela Lansbury is on my list of Stars I’ve seen in Person. Plus, the rest of the cast member did a wonderful job. I think I’m just not that into this particular script.
After the show, we revisited Nando’s because it’s fast and relatively tasty. After filling out tummy to ready ourselves for alcohol, we headed to The London Gin Club (at the Star at Night.) This is one of the places that I most looked forward to for this trip. Gin Tasting!
At the London Gin Club, you can do gin tasting (usually in the form of Gin & Tonic with garnish carefully selected to pair with a specific gin), gin cocktails and other things. We focused on gin tastings as we want to try as many as possible.
We chose from the following 4 tasting menus:
Tasting number 1 (£23) is
1) HAMMER 40% lime : coriander led, crisp, dry easy drinking gin
2) HEATHER GIN 47.3% rhubarb: Complex , savoury with sweet over tones & light citrus notes
3) ZEPHYR 43% blueberry/lemon peel: Using elderflower & elderberry this is sweet, fruity & lightly floral
4) DA MHILE 42% plum: Earthy, almost minty with rose & clovesTasting Number 2 (£26) is
1) KRAHN 40% cape gooseberry : Smooth and balanced with subtle juniper and light citrus notes
2) DOROTHY PARKER 44% blueberry/orange : Using Hibiscus this is a tangy fruity gin with notes of warm spice
3) ORTHODOXY COLOMBIAN 43% rocket/lemon : zesty with light ginger & cinnamon hints, finshed with a subtle vanilla notes
4) SYLVIUS 45% garnish lemon/juniper: Aniseed through and through with hints of lemon, dill and caraway
Our BRAND NEW OVER PROOF tasting menu £26
JUNIPERO 49.3%
OLD RAJ 55%
BATHTUB NAVY STRENGTH 57%
BLACKWOOD 60%Flavor Spectrum:
Dry: Brokers/Lime
Floral: Bloom/Strawberry
Citrus: Tangueray 10/Grapefruit peel
Savoury: Adnam’s First Rate/Olive & Thyme
Sweet: Old Tom/Lemon Peel
Spice: Monkey 47/Plum
Aged: Citagelle Reserve/Orange Peel
Liqueur: Hayman’s Gin Liqueur
We opted for the flavor spectrum, duh.
Adnam’s First Rate gin blew me away with its rich flavor. I regret not bringing a bottle back. (You can only buy Adnam at selected Waitros or a Adnam store. I didn’t have time to make the trip.) Instead, I got a bottle of Bloom because it was my second favorite and the bottle is just too beautiful. Monkey 47 is very interesting too, and it reminds me of Leopold. Speaking of Leopold, they have a bottle of Leopold on the shelf at The London Gin Club, but it’s not on the menu. So I asked the knowledgeable gin server/pourers about it. Turned out, they just acquired the bottle not long ago and most of them haven’t got a chance to try it. Our server took a whiff, and said, “yeah… smells like American gin.” Do I sense a bit of British snobbishness in there? Lol.
The program of the night is The 39 Steps. I watched it 4 years ago with Hsin Ying and found it extremely funny in its execution. I watched Hitchcock’s movie afterwards and that made the memory of the play even funnier. So of course I needed to share this experience with Daniel.
And he loved it. ;)