Earlier this year I joined H in london for a few days as part of a week and a half birthday trip to Europe. In addition to seeing a few friends who live there and visiting some interesting cycling, printing/stationary, and sherlock-holmes-themed stores, we enjoyed a lot of good food and drink. I posted a few photos of a St John birthday dinner and exploring local beer separately, but here are the other major highlights of the food: ...
I got taken out (lucky me) to a special birthday dinner earlier this year in London at St John (at the more cheerfully informal St John Bread and Wine space– a bustling open room without tablecloths and various daily pork, greens, and cheese plates coming out whenever they’re ready). I have a huge food crush on them now: A plate of simply-named " lamb, bread, green sauce" was one of my favorite dishes in London– the sauce was a mix of a powerful dose of tarragon, mint?, other soft green herbs, maybe capers? And the " courgettes, lentils, yogurt, zucchini" (center of the image above) was another dish we both remember months later (also with tarragon). Lower left above was fried pig skin strips with a tarragon(!) aioli, and there was another crumbled pork and fennel dish I wrote down but can’t remember. All washed down with the intense, earthy St John Claret. ...
In London earlier this summer I sampled about a dozen beers over two days (having people to share tastes with helps), at locations ranging from a unpretentious 19th century English Pub with many 3.5-4% session beers on Cask (at The Wenlock Arms-- I highly recommend it)… …to a new craft beer oriented bar ( Brewdog) carrying the likes of Mikkeller and other unusual beers, in the controversial-in-London Shoreditch… …to a range of tiny top-notch modern microbreweries located under support arches in an industrial part of South London, formerly business-oriented but now open to visitors on weekends and dubbed " The Beer Mile"… ...