London: Tea Time in Wonderland

Love fair!

- Gasp in amazement at the Wildlife photographs @ the Natural History Museum. This takes place every year and is a real marvel.

- Learn about forgery in art @ the V&A…

- Get to know the designer stars of the future…

- Into kinetic and robotic? The Kinetica art fair is for you….

- Don’t forget Valentine’s day is coming up! Find a vintage treasure @ this jumble and pearl sale or at this glassblown objects sale… Even more finds at this love fair!

- Or arrange to tour London in a mini-Cooper!

- Fancy a walk and some fresh air? Why not discover the Jewish quarters? Or an Indian food walk?

- Enjoy a day @ Kew Gardens -  as lovely in winter as in summer – and get some exotism in the conservatory presenting collections of colourful orchids and tropical flowers…

- Have teenagers dreaming of making movies? Take them to the BFI Future Film Festival!

- Have a look at the possible sculptures for the Spittafield Market and vote for your favourite…

- Try a restaurant with a difference – dinner and circus show!

You’ll find me wandering through the Russian festival, having a lovely Chelsea Chai @ Yumchaa and enjoying French electro music with Anne B’s concert (thanks to Le Petit Journal). How about you?

Oh, and if you have the time, go and check out this giant ice cube in front of the Tate next week. 3 days only!

I recently discussed the concept with colleagues. This was completely unknown to them, the idea felt kinf of obscure. They visualised a kind of crypt, dimmed lights, a gothic theme maybe?

This trend is fascinating. Forget formal restaurants. People like you and me, passionate about cooking decide to take it a step further. A restaurant is a big risk, a huge responsability and they’d rather have the fun of it while still having a financial security. Do it wheneever they feel like it, whenever they’re inspired. But also share the experience with the fans rather than being locked in the kitchen all the time, slaving over dishes. They’re breaking away from the cold business side of it, injecting fun back into it.

Curiosity already took me to the Hidden tearoom for the most wonderful afternoon tea. I still can taste the cheddar biscuits… I spent three hours chatting happily with strangers.

I’m taking Celine along with me this time to test the most famous London one: the Underground restaurant. MsMarmite Lover loves to juggle with ideas and recipes so check dates and themes on the website. Be quick! She’s full in not time.

Tonight’s based on the Realm of Senses. I must admit I always feel a bit shy before ringing the bell. An evening with strangers could be boringly long. I have always been proved wrong: the only fact that you’re there proves we all have a sense of curiousity, adventure, a love for London and good food and that is enough for hours of conversation on end. You’ll find a great mix of people. around our table, we chatted over travels, blogs, books, cinema, cookin, we laughed and compared and commented and shared.

What was on the menu? Ceviche to start with with seashore background noises. I am used to the Tahition way of using raw fish – in a sweet coconut milk sauce. This is surprisingly refreshing, vary fragrant with yuzu and ginger. As for the music? I’m afraid we were chatting way too much in our enthusiasms to notice it…

Follows a selection of Indian dishes – coconut dahlt, indian salad with cucumbers and pomegranate (could have eaten bowls of this), creamy curry with aubergines and a delicious but intriguing vegetable that kept us wondering for a while (a tinda, an exotic kind of squash), fragrant rice… We are to eat with our fingers as you would in India. laughs explode – we’re obviously not that gifted… It is true that you savour the food more, think about it more, notice the colours. With a fork, it’s easy to separate easily abit of rice with that sauce or that one. Eating with your fingers forces you to mix more ingredients together, some you would not have mixed usually. It’s a success. we’re hooked. And the greatness of it all? You can have seconds!

Guests now hold their breath – here comes the smell experience. A huge slice of durian, which smell is almost pleasant and lemony but which will be faithful to its reputation. We all happily try, plunginh our fork in the white flesh and are unanimous: vade retro satanas! Interesting though as we all wanted to try, never would have bought the fruit (huge and expensive – £30 for one!) but really were curious about it. another thing to tick on “to do before I die list”. Also comes a huge Stinking Bishop. very mature, actually running and escaping on our table. The smell is strong but any cheese lover woul fall for it. The taste is cremy, a bit nutty and… well, it didn’t last long on our table. Nice touche to have served it with almonds too!

The desert is welcomed enthusiastically. We are blindfolded for this dish. Not easy to find your ramequin, oops, that was the table, the neignour’s hand, ah, here it is! Always easy to find a taste when you’ve seen it written down before. Here you have to think. Rich chocolate for sure… A different layer on top – I’m a creme fraiche addict, and recognise it immediately, creme fraiche ice-cream, elegant and fresh on the heavier chocolate cream. But the base? Ah, a complete mystery. It’s caramel like, and crunchy, and popping? A clever mix of peacn nuts and popping candy… Not knowing how much is left you really make the pleasure last…

This is more than just dinner, it’s an evening, an entertainment, a fun taste adventure. All thanks to the amazing MsMarmiteLover who reminds me of th fairies in Disney’s version of Sleeping Beauty: cheeks pink with pleasure, sparkling with happiness and joie de vivre, almost flying from one table to another, interested in everything and everyone, happy to sit down and chat and share with you. She’s so contagious! Add to this that she has lived 7 years in France and speaks perfect froggie. I can only take pride in that.

An occasion to be renewed as often as possible!

MsMarmiteLover’s blog: http://marmitelover.blogspot.com/
This way for tickets!

Snow, icy rain, a ray of sunshine? Just get a hazelnut hot chocolate at the nearest Starbucks and off you go!

- Play the culture card with the latest Van Gogh exhibition…

- Knit yourself a scraf while enjoying a lovely cup of tea…

- dream of a long gone Covent Garden…

- try an afternoon tea – new style…

- Hunt for art deco @ the decorative antique fair…

- Take a garden fan to the potato fair!

- Get your 70ies outfit for the projection of Mamma Mia on a giant screen @ the O2…

- Toast the famous Scottish poet Burns…

- sprinkle with some alternative art…

You’ll find me @ the Underground restaurant Friday evening for curious experiences… What are your plans?

Tottenham Court Road is certainly my favourite Tube station. Busy for sure, but hey, it also shelter 1000 square meters of crazy and colourful mosaics. I never get tired of fixing the geometric shapes, discover a new object each time… Butterflies, masks (many references to the British Museum), saxophons, a heron, a cow, a chicken, a satellite…

This work of art by the Scottish artist Paolozzi (the pioneer of pop art in England) however proves very tricky: how to renovate and modernise the station without destroying them? It took years of work in the early 1980ies and will take as much to take the tiles down…

Had never heard of the guy? You probably already know another of is sculptures though – the giant holding a compass at the entry of the British Library. Why not hunt his other treasures with this Londonist list?

Climb the narrow wooden stairs to discover this previous annex of St Thomas Hospital. The first part presents medicinal plants used for treatments and the way they were prepared.

But what a strange place – this is the roof of the english baroque church!

At the time though it proved logical. The hospital was built around the church and the women ward almost touched this side of the building. Before 1822, the patients were operated in their own bed, surrounded but the medical student gathering to learn a new process. No phonic insulation – imagine how high the morale was! It was therefore practical to extend to the church and build a separate operating theatre.

Placed under the roof, it offered natural light. Surprisingly small and basic, this is the oldest in Europe.

Picture it. At the time, there were no anesthaetics. Alcool and opiate were used instead. Chloroform only appeared in 1947… Any surgery had to be pretty quick. No comfort -  single plank of wood. Wood saw on the floor to absorb blood. No heating in winter. Did you know that Keats practised as a surgeon here before dedicating himself to arts and poetry?

Short life though – St Thomas slowly moved towards Lambeth and closes the theatre in 1862. It stays completely forgotten and intact! until 1956… A visit in a long gone London. You will bless modern medicine after this.

St Thomas’ hospital is on the other side of the street. Walk under its arches and say hello to Keat’s statue there. Admirers like to leave a few flowers in his memory. A couple of streets away is the lovely Borough Market with its extraordinary stalls of cheese, pickles, pastries…

The old operating theatre
9a St. Thomas’s St.
London SE1 9RY

£5.80/adult
Tube: London Bridge

My friend Celine mentioned it on her blog -  have you seen the London ice polar bear on Trafalgar square?

Interesting ides of the WWF to symbolise the melting ice and the ecologicale consequences on the animals. We went there together, loved the poetic side of it but wondered, looking at it melting by the minute: what impact will it have when only the paws would be left?

But the artist had been clever, constructing it around the animal skeletton, appearing as the ice disappears. Last week, passers-by marvelled, carressed it, vaguely listened to explanations, took a picture and left smiling. Now it hits them. They gasp, are shocked and troubled by it, they stop in their tracks and ask.

A successful little project who has melted many a heart this week. Take the kids there, the bear will be there until December 21.

Fed up spending your evenings wrapping a mountain of presents in golden gift paper? Chill out!

- Mix your own soda on Thursday…

- Take your kids to the Scoop on Friday to sing Xmas…

- Or play Gay Bingo on Friday at Selfridge’s…

- Munch your way through the slow food market on Southbank or at the Real food market at Covent Garden, more gourmet.

- Have the kids create their own Xmas disguise…

- Or ride in a carriage at Kew Gardens…

- A little flight simulation, guys?

- Or would you prefer a pint and some table football?

- Have a look at the new Sherlock Holmes @ Mme Tussaud (and double the occasion with the Sherlock Holmes museum a few steps away)

- Listen to poetry and short stories in Hyde Park while eating mince pies…

- Grab a glass of mulled wine and listen to Xmas carols @ Covent Garden…

- Stop at St Pancras and see ice sculptures…

- Watch the Chinese Circus and dream…

- Add a little pop street art…

You’ll find me at the All of everything exhibition between two suitcases to be packed…

I usually walk up Fleet street at week-ends. Although I have always wondered about this amazing hive, the door below has always been shut by a heavy grid.

Weekdays, though, what a treasure! Doulton tiles, glossy, varnished, hand painted, floral theme, sculpted fishes everywhere, not a single space left not decorated from gorund to ceiling… Luxurious.

Nearby sits the tiny Twinings Museum. The Twining inheritants, having made their fortune in the tea industry, decide in 1825 to starrt their own bank on Fleet St. In 10 years, they’ll grow from a simple desk, juggling between trade and banking, to building their own at number 215 – just next door to the Lloyds building.  A first fusion takes place in 1892: the Lloyds Bank, Twinings Branch. This will later lead to a complete absorption and the whole company will move under Lloyds – Richard Twining III will even be one of its directors.

I can’t find much on the architecture of the place though. It originally opened in 1883 as a smart restaurant. A revolution at the time, it provided air-conditioning! Miraculous? In fact, two women pedalled in the basement on a tandem actioning a whole air system. Go and see, it is still there!

And you thought finance was boring?

Lloyds TSB
222 Strand,
Covent Garden
London, WC2R 1BB

Have a look at this pub a couple of streets away!

What a show! The National Gallery clearly is cutting away from its classical looks with moment the Hoerengracht, one of the last works by Ed and Nancy Kienholtz.

What is this all about? The artists recreated a few streets from Amsterdam’s red light district. Same yellow and red lights, same tiny rooms doubled as window shops, same women, waz like, empty look, almost disappearing clothes, compensated by heavy make-up. As if they were dolls in a plastic box. Buy me. Glass cubes cover the body parts for sale.

Vulgar? But also fascinating somehow. You just cannot help but looking. Voyeurism takes over. A curtain only half closed? You’ll find yourself spying. It’s all baout the dark irony of a few walls…

Interesting. And free. Do have a look before criticising the idea!

Hoerengracht
National Gallery
Trafalgar Square
London WC2N 5DN

Free
Until February 21, 2010

In parallel to the Earth exhibition, and just a few steps from it, Stuart Haygarth brings a new light on daily objects.

Not those collectables or cute ones you put on your shelves. The broken ones which you brush quicly to the nearest bin.

Recycling, and using an objets for anohter use – we all know that. But here, it is turned into an art, transformed into better objects than they ever were. You have no idea what gorgeous chandelier those spectacles glasses could become…

…or their branches! Actually, you have never considered glasses at all before. Their shape, any details suddenly becomes extraodinary.

Same goes for car viewing mirrros -  shattered, they suddenly star in a room. Spendid work on lighting.

By the way, I’m sure you’ll find a new interest in your grandma’s collections, the ones you previously labelled as absurd!

A small show, but so worth the stop. And free as well!

Found
Haunch of Venison
6 Burlington Gardens
London W1S 3ET

Free
Until January 30, 2010

Why not discuss it with friends over a scrumptious cake of the Sketch pop-up?