Dinner at Bloom

by Bryce

For dinner today my family went to Bloom, a small, appetizing restaurant. I was one hundred percent sure that Laurel and Daddy didn't know what they where in for. We got seated by a tall, friendly waiter, who brought us to a booth seat, or so I called it. I looked at their menu and in an instant my eye could not move from these three words. Soon the waiter came and I ordered what was so easy on the eyes for me. Fish and chips. Why did I order that? You see, there was not that much Fish on it, so perfect for a near vegetarian like me.

 

Kid's fish and chips from Bloom

 Also, the fries looked treacherous. My fish and chips quickly arrived, yet I still had to ask for tartar sauce. My tongue had just touched the french fry and then all I tasted was pure flavor. The tartar sauce arrived as I picked up a crispy cod and dipped it into the tartar sauce. A fiesta of flavor slid down my mouth and into my tummy. I picked up another greedily and started the party all over again. After a delicious meal came my apple pie with ice cream and Laurel's homemade chocolate cake. I took a huge bite of pie and gasped. It was amazing! I quickly snapped back to my senses and fended Dad off with my fork. I stole a huge bite off Dad's fork as a kick of exotic flavor hit my tongue again. After watching a bunch of artists on TV like Paul McCartney, Kylie Monougue, and even Will.I.Am, and also hearing songs like: "Can't Get You out of my Head", "Diamonds are Forever", "Superstition", and "Live and Let Die" (which is still my favorite), we finally left a tip and headed home.

Sapori Sardi

After traveling around for nine weeks, I've come up with a great method for finding good food in our area. I go to Trip Advisor for our city, move the map to our neighborhood, and click on nearby restaurants until I find something interesting, and then read the reviews.

I used my technique for the Putney Bridge area where we were staying, and amazingly I found the #7 rated restaurant in all of London, just three blocks from our house.  Out of 17 reviews on Trip Advisor, all 17 gave this place five stars. They had tables open, so it was a done deal.

Sapori Sardi is a small Italian restaurant. When we arrived, there were just two other tables occupied.  Our meal was spectacular, living up to the rave reviews from others.  Laurel ordered Risotto with Italian Sausage and Saffron, which was terrific. I had Spaghetti ala Bottariga, which uses dried fish eggs to give an anchovy like taste, but more subtle. However, the star of the evening was Tagliolini with Speck, Proscuitto and Truffle Oil which Sue ordered. It looked like a crown with a proscuitto rim, and it was probably the best tasting pasta dish I've ever eaten.

 

Tagliolini with Speck, Proscuitto and Truffle Oil

 

Risotto with Italian Sausage and Saffron

 

Spaghetti ala Bottariga 

Desserts were notable as well.  The most interesting was a frothy pudding-like dessert made from Marsala wine.  (Laurel ate most of it, and I think she was slightly drunk afterwards - or maybe is was the sugar.)  We also got  a pastry with an orange filling that was quite unusual - and delicious.

 

Unusual - and delicious - desserts.

London is such an international city, and since it has no great culinary history of its own, I didn't mind getting non-regional food.  (Normally, I prefer to get things you can only experience from the local chefs).  And being so grandiose, and so close to Italy, it's not surprising that we would find an absolute gem of an Italian restaurant. 

Cruel Brits

Today was a big outing for our first full day in London.  And it was a great history lesson for the kids, in ways you just can't get by reading a book.

First stop was the Tower of London. It was used initially as a fortress, then later as a prison, but we focused mainly on the prison part. We rented audio guides, and got to hear all the great stories about all the people held here, including Anne Boleyn (Henry VIII's second, and most famous wife), Sir Walter Raleigh and more.  The religion of the King usually dictated who would be imprisoned, and the Catholics were threatened by the Protestants, and vice-versa.  However, Kings changed all the time, so today's prisoner could become tomorrow's powerful leader, and the guards had to treat their political prisoners well and respectfully. Other less well connected prisoners weren't so lucky.

The "bloody tower", as the prison part was known, also had graffiti-like carvings in the wall from many prisoners. Usually, they said something nice about God so that they would have a smoother path to heaven after their impending execution.  Beheadings were a common method, but the more cruel rulers would burn people alive, even taking care to use less-smoky wood so the prisoners wouldn't pass out beforehand.  Drawing and quartering was also a popular method.  It seems like the point was to make your enemies fear you, and word of a painful, horrible death to traitors would keep everyone in line. These were not nice people.

 

One of the guards at the Tower.

 

The Tower of London

 

One of the famous ravens of the Tower.

 

Sir Walter Raleigh's Study (while imprisoned)

The other main attraction at the Tower of London is the Crown Jewels.  On this trip, we've seen the treasuries of various churches, but nothing compared to what we saw here.  The crown had the biggest diamond I have ever seen - so big is has a special name.  Some of the other regalia was equally impressive.  But my favorite thing was the three foot long, solid gold punch bowl (with matching ladle) used for Royal ceremonies.  The punch bowl was massive, holding up to 144 bottles of wine. Almost everything on display dated from the 1600s.

 

The crown. Note the huge diamond below the ruby.

 

The Royal Punchbowl. Cheers!

As bad as it was to be a royal prisoner, it was worse to be a commoner.  Our next visit was to the Clink Prison Museum, which is on the site of London's most famous jail.  The guests here were thieves, murders, and even debtors.  There was no budget for prisoners, so you had to pay for your incarceration, or depend upon the kindness of others in order to survive.  Some of the more fortunate ones would be given a ball and chain, and were allowed to beg on the streets provided they returned at night.  Others could beg through the prison bars.  The townspeople were actually very generous to the prisoners, since the Church encouraged it, and because they could easily find themselves in the same predicament.  Children of inmates had to live with their parents, but were free to come and go as they pleased, and would often steal or beg to pay the jailer's rent demands.

 

Bryce and Laurel in the Clink

After the first part of the day the kids were especially well behaved.  Were they feeling luckier about their lives? Or was it because our next stop was Hanleys (no apostrophe on purpose), the famous London toy store?  We tubed over to the famous Regent Street,  and the kids enjoyed five stories of all kinds of toys.  Laurel restrained herself, but for Bryce the car collection was very good, and he added some novelties to his collection.  I would up seeing a demo for an AstroJax, and bought one.  The scene was pretty crazy, with demos happening on every floor, and the occasional ill-behaved kid destroying a carefully planned out toy display.  But it was a fun place to visit nonetheless.

 

Bryce posing in front of one of the car displays. I had Corgi cars as a kid too.

 

Bryce demoing a cool remote control stunt car at Hanleys.

For dinner, we randomly picked the Little Bengal Indian restaurant in Fulham, right by our house.  London is known for their Indian food, and this place didn't disappoint.  I ordered a chicken dish with 21 different spices, which was terrific. Our other choices were good too.

Maybe the Brits aren't so bad after all...

Arriving in London

To cap off our trip, we decided to spend a few days exploring London.  We left Paris this morning, and hopped aboard the Eurostar high speed train. After a Parisian style bread and cheese picnic in our seats, we traveled through the "chunnel", and shortly thereafter we arrived in London. The entire journey was 2 1/2 hours. Awesome!

 

Arriving at London's train station.

What we didn't realize is that this is the weekend of the Queen's Jubilee, celebrating 60 years of reign. It's almost as big as the Olympics. So consequently some of the "normal" touristy activities we were planning are either sold out or canceled.  We'll have to see, but hopefully we can join in the celebration and maybe get a glimpse of the Queen herself!

Our flat is in the Fulham area of South London. This area is really cute, and very livable.  We are across from Bishop's Park, and there's a really nice bustling area just a small walk over the Thames via Putney Bridge. There are a ton of shops, pubs, and other establishments, all cozied up next to rows of small, clean looking cottage style houses. We also appreciate that everything is in English, for a change.

For lunch, we found an upscale pub called The Rocket, and snagged a outside table overlooking the river.  The kids had never had British food before, and I encouraged them to try the traditional dishes.  Bryce got Fish and Chips, and coveted his fried cod so much that nobody else got a bite.  Sue and Laurel got Bangers and Mash (sausages and mashed potatoes), and shared some with me.  The peas in particular were quite tasty, and mixed with the mashed potatoes gave us a nice home cooking feeling.

 

The Rocket 

 

Laurel discovers bangers and Mash

 

Bryce enjoying his Fish and Chips

Local's Day

Nina and family have no school on Wednesdays, and they invited us to enjoy a part of their typical off day.  We met their nanny Emily at a metro stop near Parc Monceau, and enjoyed mixing it up with the other Parisians.  The amazing thing about this day was the sheer number of people in the park mid-week.  And not just school kids, but lots of adults too. I've never seen a park so crowded in my life.  It's amazing the French ever get anything done.

 

Borrowed scooters. Scooters are popular in Paris.

 

Playing Tug of War.

 

Good tree climbing was to be had.

Ina had a dance lesson later that afternoon, so we all returned to their apartment, left Bryce to play with Nevin while Voya was working, and the rest of us took the journey over to Ina's dance studio via taxi. Visitors are not allowed to watch, so we went to a low key cake shop (I can't remember the name), and enjoyed an awesome carrot cake, some sort of gooey chocolate decadence, and a heavenly pistachio and cherry torte.

 

Sue nicely showcases the simple interior.

 

Pistachio torte with cherries.  Heavenly.

Laurel waiting patiently to start eating her chocolate tart.

After our snack, we went to check out Paris' version of Whole Foods supermarket: Bonne Marché.  This place had it all, and more.  Not only was everything impeccably arranged, but they had an amazing cheese section, a very complete international foods area, some fantastic looking pre-prepared foods, and even a counter dedicated to Fois Gras. We bought some cheese and bread to consume in the near future.

Nina and Ina have different opinions of transport in Paris. Ina likes the metro, and Nina prefers the bus.  Even though the bus is slower, it's little cleaner, and you get to enjoy the sights of the city as you go from one place to another.  We snagged a bus back to the family's apartment, and as Nina said, it was really enjoyable. Besides, I was still a little peeved at my metro citation, and didn't really want anything to do with it for a while.

We had a glass of wine with our friends, and then bid them adieu until San Francisco.  We were grateful we had their guidance and to be able to experience a little bit of what it's like to live in Paris.

Les Coquottes de Christian Constant

We have a limited time in Paris, and also a limited capacity for food.  I wanted to experience some real authentic French cuisine, and the kids were hungry, but Sue felt she had enough Parisian food for one day from lunch so I took both kids to dinner myself.  We settled on a neighborhood restaurant called Les Coquottes de Christian Constant.

First, some background.  A coquotte is a special cast iron pot, known for heating evenly and helping food retain its flavor.  Christian Constant is a Michelin starred chef (with three restaurants all next to each other).  We had walked past his Coquottes restaurant several times already, and it didn't seem pretentious or overly priced, especially compared to his top-of-the-line restaurant next door. I had seen kids eating here as well, so it seemed like a winner to me.

Bryce enjoying the ambiance in Les Coquottes de Christian Constant

Bryce has been the tricky one to feed in Spain, but here in France it seems we can always get him something with bread and cheese, or something with vegetables (since he is a mostly-vegetarian).  He ordered a minestrone soup, and a coquotte with "young vegetables".  Laurel had an awesome mushroom bisque-like soup.  And I ordered bass with clams, cooked in coquotte.  (Actually, I think I may have initially ordered a "coquette", but after a funny look from the waiter I quickly corrected myself.)

The kids all enjoyed their meals, as did I.  Laurel even sampled some of Bryce's vegetable dish.  Bryce's minestrone soup actually had shrimp in it.  The coquotte cooking style definitely worked for us.

 

Bass en Coquotte with clams

 

"Young Vegetable" Coquotte

 

Insane mushroom soup with smoked duck

Desserts were awesome too. (How can you go to Paris and not order dessert?) I ordered the namesake "Chocolate tart of Christian Constant" which was superb - it had a velvety texture, and was rich without being overbearing. The whipped cream on the side was a nice touch. Bryce got an amazing chocolate mousse (which we voted best dessert).  And Laurel scored with a waffle with caramel and salt. 

 

The "Tarte de Christian Constant"

Earlier in our trip, dessert time would almost become a free-for-all when we attempted to share, but now it seems our family has become more civilized.  Before dessert arrived, we agreed on the following mechanism: take one bite, and then pass the dessert to your right.  Both kids were on their best manners with this system, and everyone got to enjoy all three desserts.

In the restaurant, I noticed Christian Constant walking around (recognized by the photo on his book displayed in the restaurant).  I chatted him up a bit in my still rusty French, and got him to pose for a photo with Laurel and Bryce.  I'm sure he notice their impeccable table manners as well. It's their first celebrity chef photo!

 

Laurel, Christian Constant, and Bryce

Update: Both Bryce and I forgot our hats, which you can see on the wall behind us. I hope they are still there for us!

A Parisian Kind of Day

There are many reasons why religion is popular in Europe, but even hard core atheists can appreciate the fact that Christianity begets a plethora of holidays.  This Monday was a new one for me: "Second Easter."  It's also known as the Pentecost, and it occurs six weeks after Easter. Both France and Spain celebrate it, so the weekend gets extended one extra day.

Since we figured the museums and other attractions would be extra-crowded, and since Sue hates crowds, we decide to make this a "what's it like to live in Paris" kind of day. We took a long walk to the Tuilerie gardens from our house, in search of playgrounds and trampolines.  When I was here last, I remembered a long in-ground trampoline here, but now it appears there is just a smaller structure, mainly for younger kids. Nevertheless, the Tuileries had a great playground, and Bryce and Laurel got to mix it up with a few French kids with a game on some platforms with springs underneath.  The object was to jump from platform to platform, knocking the other kids off.  We really haven't been able to interact with too many other kids on this trip, so it was nice to see our kids still had their peer group social skills intact - even with a language barrier.

 

Bryce (hiding Laurel) on a spring platform

Once the kids got too hot, we wandered farther down the Tuileries until we found a pond with several handmade wooden sailboats in it.  The kids begged us to let them rent their own.  Since this was low tech and non-electronic, we didn't think it would be very interesting to them, but we agreed anyway.  To our surprise, they played with these sail boats for almost an hour.  The vendor assigned each of them a sailboat, and gave each a stick.  They would position the boat, and then push it with the stick so that it would sail to the other end of the pond, propelled by the wind.  Getting your boat to go through the fountain in the middle was worth extra bragging points.  It seemed like this game had been here for hundreds of years, and about ten other kids were doing it as well.

By the time we were done, it was close to 3 PM, so we went in search of a light lunch that everyone would eat. We settled on a cafe, and ordered the "mixed cheese board".  Not expecting much, we were pleasantly delighted by what we received: a selection of some of the tastiest cheeses ever, with some Spain-like ham to boot.  In particular, the Camenbert and one of the Brie variants were outrageously good.  The Camenbert was just blue-cheesy enough to have a bite, but super smooth and not overpowering.  The Brie was just right creamy but not heavy.  All of us enjoyed sharing this feast of cheese, not wanting it to end.

Later that night, after visiting our friends, we sought out the lit-up Eiffel Tower. It is magnificent during the day, but at night it's even more awe inspiring.  And once an hour it gets a sparkling light treatment for five minutes or so, making the visual even more special.  We were fortunate enough to catch the sparkle show. Photographs don't really do it justice, but here goes anyway:

Paco Meralgo

On our final night in Barcelona - and Spain - I wanted to make sure we left the country in style with yet another awesome meal.  Of course, this needed to be balanced by the family's needs too.  I was lucky enough to choose a place called Paco Meralgo for our final feast.

And what a feast it was.  Everything we ordered was spectacular, and it turned out to be our best meal yet in Spain.  Here's a sampling of what we had:

 

Baby squid with beans - best dish ever.

 

Octopus stew - hearty and oh so tasty

 

Steak Filet fried in oil with garlic (and a little bit of chili). Just perfect.

 

Pimientos al Padron. The kids love them, and call them "surprise peppers".  There are a few different types of peppers, and one or two in the dish are super spicy. You can never tell which.

 

The ultimate ham and cheese sandwich. (Iberian ham and brie.)

Aside: On our walk home, Laurel found her namesake store in Barcelona:

Barcelona: Boqueria and Batllo

After doing a city bus tour the previous day to get the lay of the land in Barcelona, we decide to go deeper.  Bryce loves architecture, Laurel loves to ride the metro, I love to eat, and Sue enjoys taking photos, so today's itinerary had something for everyone.

After our normal late start at noon, we metroed to Placa Catalunya, and found La Boqueria - Barcelona's famous market.  When searching for places to eat online, two market restaurants surfaced, and I sought out Pinotxo. In amongst the fruit vendors, veggie stalls, meat stands and such are a few eateries.  Pinotxo occupies a corner booth at the entrance to the market, and Señor Pinxoto himself greets you and helps you decide what to get.  He starts by asking "carne o pescado?" (meat or seafood), and you drill down from there.  Bryce wound up with a macaroni dish, Laurel got cheesy croquettes, but Sue and I had the masterpieces: Sue got an excellent Beef Bourginoine-like stew, and I thoroughly enjoyed a baby squid and bean dish which was one of the best tasting things I have had in Spain.  When, Bryce and Sue went in search of a baño, Laurel and I asked about dessert, and Señor Pinxoto recommended a flan de queso (cheese flan) dessert.  If you can:  imagine a combination of flan and cheesecake, and the best attributes of both. The flan was sandwiched between two flaky pastry halves, and when combined into a single bite it's pure heaven.  (The flan by itself was pretty awesome too.)  Laurel and I finished before Sue and Bryce returned, and decide to destroy the evidence from the rest of the family.

 

Overview of La Boqueria Market

 

Eggs anyone?

Yummm. Chocolates...

Sue and the kids picking out chocolates.

  

Pinxoto Bar

 

My amazing bean and baby squid meal from Pinotxo

 

Fruit juice display... lovely.

Next on our plan was a visit to Casa Batllo, a house designed by Gaudi - the world famous architect of Barcelona. You can tour the inside of Casa Batllo, which made this an attractive stop since Bryce is especially interested in interior design.  The house did not disappoint, as the whole design was unlike any building I have ever seen.  The audio guide explained how Gaudi used structures found in nature as inspiration for his designs.  The house has very few straight lines, instead using curvy shapes reminiscent of vertebrae, bones, leaves and water patterns for both aesthetic and functional reasons.  Both kids enjoyed the tour, and afterwards were inspired to try to recreate some of the designs they saw using Minecraft, a virtual building game on the iPad.

 

The Attic. Note the rib-cage shape of the beams.

 

Ceramic work on top.

 

The lightwell. The tiles start dark at the top and get lighter as they go
down, so the entire inside appears uniform.