Violet Cakes

Violet Cakes

I’ve taken great delight in showing other bloggers parts of the East End lately. First up was a trip to Broadway Market with Emm in London. We had such a great time that I couldn’t wait to take someone else there.

So I timed it with my first visit to Violet Cakes in Dalston, followed by a walk through London Fields into the market then along the Canal with Manasi from In her Thirties.

Violet was great – it’s a tiny bakery five-ten minutes walk from Dalston Junction in the heart of a residential area close to London Fields. To be honest, I don’t have a huge amount to say about the place as it was freezing when we went (is it me or did winter seem to go on and on this year?) so we didn’t linger for too long. However, we did share a lovely cinnamon bun, violet cupcake and two salted oreo cookies. As we were both recovering from colds we went for fresh blood orange juice rather than my normal tea. However, the selection of teas was good and I’d like to come back and visit this bakery sometime during the week with my little one, sit outside on their terrace out the back with a book and just enjoy some cake and quiet for a while.

The goods~

Sound good? I think so.

We then went to Broadway Market and I’m pretty certain Manasi loved it as much as Emm did.

Violet can be found at 47 Wilton Way. Nearest tube is the East London Line’s Dalston Junction. All up we paid £13. 

Try me!

Afternoon tea at Corinthia London

Whitehall Place’s Corinthia Hotel

Readers, as you know, I’m the London-based contributor for the High Tea Society. I honestly think this is the best privilege I’ve had from starting this blog (obviously with the exception of the amazing people I’ve met through it) and it was only confirmed yet again when I got to review the Corinthia Hotel’s afternoon tea back in January. This post is a slightly amended version of my review that appeared first on the High Tea Society’s website (which contains a much more detailed account of the afternoon). 

One of London’s newest hotels it has taken the finest elements of traditional afternoon tea and put a modern twist on it. I cannot speak highly enough of the Corinthia London.

The view from our table – beautiful!

The entire experience was an absolute delight on the senses and we were treated with such care and attention without being overwhelmed. The hotel, set in the heart of London, a skip hop and a jump from Westminster, Whitehall, the London Eye, Trafalgar Square, the West End and the National Galleries, is beautiful and it is quite clear the amount of thought that has gone into every detail – this is very much reflected in their afternoon tea experience. 

Illuminated by a spectacular “Full Moon” Baccarat chandelier designed by Chafik Gasmi, the Lobby Lounge is beautiful and overlooks a maple-lined courtyard which you could sit in during London’s warmer months. It is modern and fresh and, on the day we visited, was filled with the most exquisite orchids.

The afternoon tea began with a plate of finger sandwiches served on artisanal bread and a choice of tea from a very good selection supplied by Tea Palace. We chose the Japanese Gyokuro Asahi and Chinese Oriental Berry along with a glass of Laurent Perrier NV champagne. These were followed by a selection of perfectly sized warm scones and a selection of English fancies.

Tea & sandwiches

The quality of the food was excellent. The sandwiches include a selection of Loch Var smoked salmon, cornfed chicken with ale mustard, egg mayonnaise with watercress, roast sirloin beef and cucumber with goats cheese. The scones were small and perfectly formed, making way for a beautiful selection of cakes, which for us were stunning.

These creations tasted incredible and looked perfect.

Cake stand

For us the highlights of the afternoon tea were the roast sirloin of beef and creamed horseradish finger sandwiches, for which we actually requested more. The scones were perfect. The range of desserts and slices to select from is wide but if we had to choose a favourite, they would be the rhubarb cheesecake and the chocolate mousse log, though the mandarine almendine certainly made us gasp with joy.

The food was of high quality and easily competes among the finest of London’s more traditional afternoon tea establishments.  

Scones

The cakes included a selection of English fancies which included the following (amongst others):

Mandarine Almendine

Rhubarb cheesecake

Rum Baba

Chocolate log

Blueberry Éclair

Mille Feux – Lavender

Chocolate Tower with Passion Fruit Jelly and Chocolate Fudge

Pear Shot Glass

‘English fancies’

More English fancies

Overall, we felt this to be a very unique experience in the heart of London; the Corinthia can easily compete with the best of London’s afternoon tea establishments. No points of detail have been spared in making the atmosphere feel really special, the food was lovely and the service was great. Very highly recommended. 

We were guests of the Corinthia London. Afternoon tea at the Corinthia ranges in price from £21 for cream tea up to £39 for afternoon tea, to £49 and £58 per person should you have champagne and what type of champagne you choose. 

Bea’s afternoon tea

Tea and coffee at Bea’s

I know, I know, I’m kind of becoming a stalker of poor Bea (if it helps, several other blogging friends have admitted the same!), but I really do think her cakes are some of the best around.

Friend C has recently gone abroad for six months. By the time she comes back I’ll be wrapped up in the world of babytalk and probably won’t be much of a contributor to my ladies’ fabulous lifestyles anymore, so we decided before she left to go for a joint birthday afternoon tea, just her and I, as we shared the same birthday weekend in January.

We’ve actually done Bea’s for our annual afternoon tea before – we just think it’s wonderful. This time was not a disappointment. I don’t know how they’ve done it, taking Bea’s of Bloomsbury from one great little cafe on Theobold’s Road to several branches spread across London and still managed to keep the quality of the food and service up.

Here’s some pics of what we had on that cold January afternoon:

Tea menu

Quite the wonderful spread

Delicious sandwiches as always

Scones and amazing cupcakes (even if you go in for just one cake, you have to try their red velvet~)

Sweet treats – a meringue, blondie, brownie and divine marshmallows

Fab decor

As I said earlier, the quality of Bea’s has not changed over the years. I love that they’ve expanded beyond cake and do some really fun events at their Maltby Street arch (movie nights, crawfish boils, a Saturday diner~). C agreed with me and when she returns to the UK, and hopefully that means London, we will be back for yet another birthday afternoon tea.

C – have the most incredible trip! I am jealous beyond words, especially as it means you get nine months of summer…

We went to Bea’s of Bloomsbury St Paul’s branch. Afternoon Tea cost £19 each and we were very full and happy from the experience, as always. 

No.1 New Change still decked out with Christmas decorations when we went in January. So fabulous.

Aux Merveilleux ~ de Fred ~

Little balls of sweet perfection

Readers, today’s post was originally meant to be about my recent jaunt to Paris, but that’s going to have to wait until next week. I have something to tell you… a little discovery that I couldn’t be more excited about.

When R and I went to Paris we stumbled across this tiny patisserie that sold the most exquisite little balls of sweet perfection either of us had ever tasted. When describing it to R’s mum the next day we both despaired as we wouldn’t have had a clue where on earth to point her towards on her own upcoming day trip to the city of love. We did however delight in reliving that bitter-sweet memory from the day before and tried as hard as possible to describe them.

Basically, they were a ball of meringue, with more meringue (but the soft stuff), praline and one of an assortment of flavours inside (caramel, cherry, chocolate, white chocolate, coffee), then coated in chocolate or praline shavings on the outside. They were really light & fragile and just melted into our mouths. My description doesn’t do these things justice; they were sweet but not tooth-achingly and the flavours were just divine, not overpowering in the slightest. The shop was also really charming with simple elegant décor and very friendly service.

Paris’ Aux Merveilleux – just divine. R & I thought we’d died and gone to heaven. Apparently the Parisians feel this way too.

I went home after lunch with R’s mum determined to find the location of this place based on a photo I’d taken of the outside (clever Lady Cake~) only to find their website and discover that they’d opened in South Kensington that very day!!!

And so it was on Friday I made the trip there and fell in love all over again.

Aux Merveilleux ~ de Fred ~ South Kensington’s newest stylish treats

London, let me introduce you to Aux Merveilleux ~ de Fred ~. They can be found at 88 Old Brompton Road, South Kensington. Come out of the station and turn away from the museums, walk straight down Old Brompton Road, keeping on the right hand side and walk past Hummingbird Bakery but don’t walk past Byron Burgers – if you’ve got that far walk slightly back and you will have found Aux Merveilleux.

You just have to go. End of story!

Prices range depending on the size (mini, medium and big cake sized) but I had two of their mini treats with a takeaway cup of loose leaf Dilmah jasmine tea for £4.80. I’ve paid much more for macarons before (I’m looking at you Laduree and your devious way of getting one addicted) and these satisfied me just as much. They have a small range of meringue based cakes and brioche. It is run by a group of very friendly young French people who will gladly talk you through their products. It’s more of a takeaway place but they do have two small tables so you can stand and enjoy should you not feel the patience to put them in a box and head up to Kensington Gardens to stop and watch the world/overfed squirrels go by while you consume these balls of perfection.

I’ll see you in line. Get there now before the rest of London storms in on this place.

Oh god.

This post was a public service announcement. Who said I don’t look after you? 

Stir-up Sunday

Ok, I know I’m a day early here to my normal Monday posts but I wanted to make sure I wasn’t behind the times here… There will still be a post on my London jaunts tomorrow.

Guess which one is the most matured? Most of us got it wrong.

Today is Stir-up Sunday, which according to Wikipedia (as after seven years of living here I’m still trying to work out the Brits), is the day before Advent which is basically the Christmas season for most Western churches (do correct me if I’m wrong!). So all of the Christmas stuff you’ve seen in the shops which may have sent you into a panic as what on earth to get the in-laws again, yeah, that’s basically to lure you in, the official Christmas season really starts tomorrow.

Stir-up Sunday is used in the culinary world as the day to put together your Christmas puddings to let them stand for several weeks and soak up all the goodness. If you’re super organised, you’ll actually be preparing next year’s pud as they can actually sit there fermenting for up to 18 months. The term comes from the 16th century when on the Sunday before Advent, British women would inadvertently be reminded at church that it was only several weeks now until Christmas so you’d better get home and start getting the pudding ready, ensuring that every member of the family makes a wish and stirs the pudding from east to west.

I was quite surprised when I received an email from Asda inviting me to participate in Stir-up Sunday as my experiences of baking in our East End Abode haven’t been brilliant to say the least (only Mr Man recalls my pistachio macaron disaster thank heavens) but as an expat still trying to get their head around quirky British traditions I was too intrigued not to accept. So on Tuesday I popped along to the fabulous Leiths School of Food and Wine in West London to see a demonstration of making the perfect Christmas pudding then had the chance to make my own, to bring home and steam today, then made mince pies from scratch.

Puds and their stars

Asda has partnered with Leiths to create their Extra Special Christmas menu which includes a range of foods for those of us who aren’t brilliant in the kitchen or just don’t have the time to go all out in preparing Christmas related food. I got to try some of the Extra Special menu on Tuesday and really enjoyed it. Being a bit of a sucker for Christmas mince pies I was grateful for the opportunity but will definitely be looking forward to the New Year Detox – like most of us, all good intentions for having a healthy Christmas seem to go out the window for me about a week before 1 December and I descend into a downward spiral filled with Christmas mince pies, shortbread, Quality Street, Lindt chocolate balls, roast potatoes, stuffing, the lot…

Here’s what we did… 

We made and wrapped Christmas puddings, from scratch, with the help of Leiths chef Nick Timothy who is the man in charge of putting together Asda’s Extra Special Christmas range. This took ages but it’s actually not that hard (except for the tying it up bit which you do need a second pair of hands).

Stirring it all in.

We then went on to make Christmas mince pies, even making the shortcrust pastry ourselves. That part took ages and my hand hurt. In future I will just buy the pastry but still fill the mince pies as apparently there’s not that much difference between good shop bought and handmade pastry – it’s just butter, salt, eggs, sugar, water and flour after all.

Tools

Then it was on to chocolate dipped Christmas tree biscuits. Thankfully the biscuits came ready made (and are quite moreish) and all we had to do was heat up the chocolate, dip the biscuits then decorate with almonds. They look great.

We dipped Christmas tree biscuits in their Extra Special chocolate which has a hint of pineapple in it – delicious.

The results of the mince pies – before and after:

The final event – my Christmas mince pies which ended up tasting quite good. Feedback from colleagues the next day was that they were great. Yay!

And then we got to fill ourselves with some of the other food from the Extra Special range and I was quite impressed, particularly with the Nocerella green olives and prawn dumplings.

My Christmas pudding is now steaming for the next 10-12 hours and after that I think I’m supposed to just leave it to sit until Christmas day when it gets re-steamed for 2 hours, blob on some vanilla icecream (or custard if that’s your thing) and hopefully appreciate the goodness that has gone into it. I will turn up with a back-up pudding just in case I’ve managed to screw this one up – here’s Plan B.

So now I can turn up to the in-laws this year with not only a bottle or two of NZ Marlborough Sauvingon Blanc but a real Christmas pudding, made with some help from the lovely Chef Nick, but ultimately the very first pudding to ever appear from our East End Abode and my adult life to be honest. And for that Asda, I am very grateful.

And now the Christmas panic begins and I go into a wild rampage down Oxford Street (with their awful Marmite lights, seriously, talk about a way to alienate half the population!) every few nights until I find Mr Man the perfect present. Have you started your Christmas shopping yet? Have you ever attempted to make Christmas pudding???

I was a guest of Asda and Leith’s School of Food and Wine on Tuesday night but was not obligated in any way to write this post or say positive things about it. All views are my own basically (especially the part about Marmite which you either love or hate). Thank you very much for having me Asda. 

Asda’s Christmas range – I was pleasantly surprised. It’s really good!

More Greenwich afternoon tea: The Junk Shop

Greenwich’s fabulous Junk Shop

Canadian Jen‘s stomping ground is the Royal Borough of Greenwich – thanks to this, she found my blog (and the excellent Royal Teas) and I found hers. Turns out we have loads in common, including being firm lovers of all things food and travel related, makers of little things (in times of extreme boredom I make jewellery), finding fantastic cheap eats and always being on the look out for a good cream tea find. I’d like to think I’ve found a kindred spirit in the form of another babe on a budget.

On one of her recent Royal stomps she discovered The Junk Shop, opposite Greenwich train station (not to be confused with Cutty Sark for Maritime Greenwich, 5 minutes walk down the road). It’s this cavernous little place filled with all sorts of old things and you could probably find anything that might remind you of your grandparents’ boxes stashed high in cupboards. What struck her about this particular visit was that they now have a cafe out the back which serves cream tea and homemade cakes for a very reasonable price – she was determined to make another visit with me in tow.

Hidden tea room

So that weekend when everything in London turned cold, we made that visit.

The wonderful African room

You could easily spend hours in this place. We spent our first 30 minutes or so checking out the top floor of the junk shop and the African room out the back before our bellies took over, then sat down on their patio (there’s plenty of room inside too, we just fancied sitting by the passionfruit vine outside) for giant pots of tea and two nicely warmed scones with Bonne Maman jams and clotted cream. It was lovely, though in hindsight, after battling a cold the entire following week, we probably should have sat inside amongst the mismatched furniture, people-watching others checking out the goods in amazement.

I love nothing better than a giant pot of tea served in old tea cups – on a warmer day we could have sat there for hours (next time, inside).

We then discovered this amazing downstairs area which just seemed to keep going and going. If I were ever to own a shop, I think I would want it to be like this – filled to the brim with surprises in each hidden corner.

You could find something for everyone in this place.

And then it was time to go. All up the bill came to a whopping £3 each and we got a really cute and quirky afternoon out of it. If I were in the area again and was in the mood for a nice slice of cake and a big pot of tea, then I’d definitely be back. Thanks Jen!

The Junk Shop can be found at 9 Greenwich South Street, London SE10 8NW. Well worth a visit if you’re in the area. 

Like I said, something for everyone!

Afternoon tea at The Goring Hotel

The Goring Hotel

Some of you may be aware that I’ve recently become a contributor to the High Tea Society, an Australian community of tea lovers who are spreading their wings abroad. Luckily for me I’ve somehow managed to become their London representative and couldn’t be more proud. I have been writing for so many years and it was a real privilege to join this wonderful community of bloggers. They also have outposts in San Francisco and Canada along with many Australian cities – this is one fabulous group of ladies and I can’t wait to meet them one day.

Anyhow, back to the task at hand. My first Ambassadorial assignment was to the incredible Goring Hotel. This is an abridged version of my original post on the High Tea Society’s website.

Rules for tea

High Tea Review: The Goring Hotel

One of London’s oldest family run hotels and with a tradition of a Royal following (it was a favourite of the Queen Mother but probably most memorable in modern times for hosting the Duchess of Cambridge the night before last year’s Royal wedding), it offers an absolutely exquisite afternoon tea.

Awarded the British Tea Guild Council Award of Excellence each year from 2008-2012, afternoon tea at the Goring Hotel is served in the Terrace which overlooks the beautiful Goring Gardens. When we visited on a crisp autumn day, children were playing croquet on the lawn whilst people of all ages and backgrounds took afternoon tea. You would not have known the place was busy as the incredible staff managed to keep the atmosphere to something very personal and relaxing.

Lovely China, lovely Darjeeling tea

Recently refurbished by designer Tim Gosling, the Goring feels opulent yet tranquil. The bar that you walk through to access the terrace is dark and comfortable, with the terrace bright and airy, making the perfect contrast between the interior of the hotel and its garden. It was designed to feel cosy and intimate and succeeds in doing so.

People from a variety of backgrounds were there. A small wedding party were seated at one end of the room, in the middle a group of ladies in their late twenties and in another corner an elderly couple with their family having a celebration. All had made an effort to dress up and it felt very classy but not stuffy.

We had two choices, the Traditional Afternoon Tea or the Bollinger Tea of which we chose the former.

Goring Hotel afternoon tea selection – everything on this stand was delicious.

The afternoon tea starts with an amouse bouche served in a small glass. This particular one was made of lobster, crab, chicken and egg, essentially turned into a mousse. The flavours were stunning and quite unexpected – we could detect every ingredient. This was followed by our tea, the Goring’s own. We chose silver needle and premier Darjeeling, both delicate and easily sipped on for the entire afternoon.

Then you are presented with a cake stand containing a selection of finger sandwiches, scones, cakes and desserts all served on the Goring’s own China: bright yellow, the plates with a silhouette of founder, Otto Richard Goring in the middle.

The sandwiches were again, excellent. Four fillings were included – smoked salmon, guinea fowl and mushroom, prawn and crayfish, along with egg mayonnaise. The scones, two plain and two fruit were served with Devonshire clotted cream and a selection of Tiptree Essex jams; the scones being warm, very fresh and fluffy, just the way they should be.

The cakes and desserts were something else. We were presented with a chocolate cream chocolate éclair, lemon shortcake with strawberry mousse, roulade which had similar flavours to Victoria sponge, a macaron, tartlet of summer fruits and the wonderful Eton mess. Again, the cakes were faultless; both of us found us wanting more Eton mess which was full of surprises and beautiful flavours.

Cakes

To top it off, at the very end of our afternoon which had turned into early evening as we were so happy and relaxed, we were served with the piece de resistance, an exquisite trifle with high quality vanilla cream, sherry and strawberries. It was, in the words of my guest, mind blowing, and the perfect way to finish what was a truly memorable afternoon in a truly remarkable venue.

A special note must be made here of the staff – their service went above and beyond, combined with the sheer quality of the food and venue, they made it an absolutely wonderful afternoon, one to hopefully be repeated many times in the future. I now completely understand why it’s a Royal favourite.

I was very lucky to represent the High Tea Society and was a guest of the Goring Hotel. If anyone from the Goring is reading this, thank you so much for such a wonderful experience. I can’t wait to revisit the place many many times in the future. 

The Goring Hotel can be found at Beeston Place, near Victoria Station and Buckingham Palace

Pistachio Rose’s High Chai Banquet

Pistachio Rose’s rather elegant High Chai

Every now and then something quite special comes along in the London food world. Last week I was invited to preview an Indian inspired High Chai by Pistachio Rose, the first of which is taking place next Thursday*, and came away delighted – the cakes were like nothing else I’ve had in London.

I first started to “get” Indian flavours when I travelled there for seven weeks in 2006. In my first week I got severely ill and was out of action for an entire week, taking at least another month to completely recover. I’d like to think it was my friend’s family in Jammu who took me under their wing, basically force feeding me their amazing sweets that eventually got rid of whatever bug had taken residence.

In the sweets were the most stunning flavours, probably way too much naughtiness but with a warming comfort about them. Since then I’ve had a real fondness for what many people used to bakery food might find a bit odd (the texture is quite different and they are very sweet). Even living within a stones throw from Brick Lane, I’ve not been able to find Indian treats as good as those weeks on the sub-continent – I think it was the fresh spices that infuse everything about Indian food that made them as stunning as they were. But I’ve found something that sort of replicates how good they made me feel – and that’s those Indian flavours set in classic French patisserie-like creations coming from Rekha Mehr’s Pistachio Rose kitchen.

Rose water and cardamom infused Madelines – in the words of Ross from Friends, they were lighter than air…

From what I understand, Rehka, the talent behind Pistachio Rose, has only been in operation for seven months, yet already her products are stocked in the world-famous London institution Fortnum and Mason. Having grown up in England but with the flavours of India, and an intense love of good cake (we’d make great friends) she strove to fuse her love of all this together and what has resulted is a fantastic range which I suspect we are going to see much more of. I don’t there is anything else on the market like it.

We’re talking the type of chocolate tarts you’d find in the best patisseries but with a subtle Indian twist, soft naan bread with chocolate and pistachios, the most delicate but stunning Madelines infused with either rose water and cardamom or chai, Darjeeling tea and spices, along with shortbread hearts infused with fennel.

White chocolate tart infused with fennel and anise (my favourite)~

Her High Chai is coming up next week at the School of Wok in Covent Garden and I highly recommend you get a spot at this as I think future High Chai events will fill up quickly. You can read more here, but this is what’s in store:

You’ll be greeted with a glass of bubbles on arrival

For food you’ll be presented with a trio of canapes to start with, including Gujarati red dal, red-skinned peanuts, rice and okra.

Then it’s on to the cakes I mentioned above, but in many variations (I highly recommend the white chocolate tart, phenomenal), plus a “Bollywood blondie” followed by Indianised churros to end with.

All will be served with teas to compliment each course, finishing with spiced Chai. I understand that the teas are provided by Lalani & Co, whose Assam I tried on Monday night, served in a tea glass, leaving me in tea heaven.

Lalani & Co’s single estate Assam – so fresh.

There are so many exciting things happening in London’s food world at the moment that I just want to pinch myself then find a genie with the funds to attend everything – but this particular event really caught my eye.

So go forth readers, you don’t want to miss this. I’ve already been in to Fortnums to buy a tart for Mr Man – but I may have eaten it on the way home…

High Chai will be taking place on Thursday 25 October at the School of Wok, it costs £22.50 and can be booked on Edible Experiences or Lime and Tonic (for a special offer of £19).

*Lime and Tonic also have a “create your own” High Chai Banquet where you choose the date and invite up to 24 people. For more information see their website (full of fantastic experiences around London, frequently containing cocktails, tea and sweet things~). Great for a  classy hen party or just really nice get together. 

I first heard about Pistachio Rose from my friends over at Lime & Tonic London. 

Found in Fortnum & Mason’s excellent tea and cake section the next day… I couldn’t resist.

Spitalfields’ Fournier Street Townhouse

A little stop on lovely Fournier Street

The East End can get a bit chaotic at times. Even though I’ve never got tired of it, sometimes it’s nice to pop in somewhere quiet and not overrun with people. Mr Man read on Love Rich Cash Poor (a fab little blog based in Stoke Newington) about Spitalfields’ Townhouse and we vowed that the next time we wanted to escape the madness, we’d pop in for some antique ogling and a pot of tea.

With an inviting sign like that, we couldn’t resist going in.

And that’s exactly what we did.

Great to see copies of the magnificent Spitalfields Life for sale

At the Spitalfield’s market end of Fournier Street, Townhouse is run by an antiques dealer named Fiona who has been living in the area (originally based in Columbia Road) for a long time and moved into the premises in the early naughties. The building has so much history, beginning with the early eighteenth century when weavers lived in there. I’ll leave you to check out the rest of the tenants on the Townhouse website but you get my drift, a lot has happened in this piece of history over the years.

A brilliant kitchen – don’t you wish you had one like this?

We popped into the kitchen and ordered two pieces of tiffin, made to a traditional recipe along with a pot of tea then sat in what was once the surgery, a bright room out the back of the building which also acts as an art gallery.

Tea and tiffin – we asked where the teapot was from and she said it was her Mother-in-Law’s. So lovely, such personal attention to detail.

The old surgery where Mr Man & I had tea and tiffin. We could have spent hours there.

I can see myself returning many times over the years to just sit and read a book with a piece of cake and a pot of tea, or should I come into some money, browse and buy some of her beautiful wares for sale. It’s just lovely – so calm and peaceful.

If you’re coming from out of town and looking for somewhere unique to stay, Fiona also lets out the apartment at the top of the building. The prices seem quite reasonable and you would certainly be staying in a piece of history.

Townhouse can be found at 5 Fournier Street, just across the road from Christ’s Church and Spitalfields Market. 

A bloggers’ day out in London

My chance to show off the best of London~

When I first started this blog, way back two years ago (I think we’ve hit that anniversary, thank you readers!), one of my first blogging buddies was Sally, the gorgeous brains behind Bristol based You Make Me Swoon and Full as an Egg. It took us a good 18 months of chatter before we finally admitted that we needed to meet in person. She booked a train to London and I spent two months planning where on earth to take her.

Being one of the most indecisive people around, I changed the plans at least seven times and the Friday before finally managed to tie up exactly what we were going to do.

We had 12 hours of fun fun fun. We walked a lot, we gossiped a lot and oh boy, we ate a lot.

It started with the trip from Paddington to London Bridge where I took her to my new sort of secret London spot, Maltby Street Market, specifically to have brunch at Bea’s Diner. We both ended up saving our appetites for what was to come later and just stuck with bagels: Sally’s with salmon, mine with the best bacon I have found in London – maple bacon, done really well all sticky, sweet, peppery and savoury. Amazeballs.

Bea’s bagel with maple bacon, mmm, maple bacon…

A stroll through the market on the way out led us to these:

Duffin anyone?

Thank god we were full otherwise they would have been too tempting.

London was showing off to Sally with a spectacular day, possibly the last day of Summer?

Tower Bridge showing off in the sunshine

Then we got to London Bridge and decided that rather than brave Borough Market then climb the Monument, that we’d head to Knightsbridge instead.

We got out at Sloane Square and walked through Chelsea. Such a beautiful area.

A completely different world to where my East End abode is…

Then we hit Harrods. We had an hour before we were due at Mari Vanna for afternoon tea but were desperate for something to drink, so we had a coconut milkshake, iced tea and two macarons at Laduree.

Iced jasmine tea and macarons at Laduree

The highlight of the afternoon was this incredible afternoon tea at Mari Vanna, a new Russian restaurant which has taken London by storm. I’m saving my review of it for another post as it was just stunning, really stunning.

Mari Vanna – keep an eye out soon for my review of this incredible restaurant.

Then we walked a lot more, through Hyde Park, the streets of St James, Trafalgar Square and to Covent Garden where the Chanel Pop-up was waiting for us. Sally stocked up, then we went on to Laduree (again!) where she picked up some macarons for the hubby back in Bristol.

Girly day made complete with a visit to the Chanel Pop-up

As it was London Fashion Week we stopped at Somerset House before our final stop of the day, Bob Bob Ricard where cocktails and french fries were consumed at the bar and which has some of the best service in London.

The always delightful Bob Bob Ricard

Super cocktails

We gossiped away, swapped blogging tips, talked about all of our favourite bloggers and some of the not-so-favourite ones, talked clothes, men, make-up, food then laughed until I actually cried… It was basically my perfect girly day out.

Stupidly I didn’t manage to get a picture of Sally, but you should go and read her delightful blog here. In November she gets to show me the best of Bristol. I cannot wait.

Such a perfect day.