Chocoralie, Author at London: Tea Time in Wonderland

Learning about Washoku, Japanese cuisine

by Chocoralie July 20, 2017 in Uncategorized 0 comments

Washoku. Wa–shoku, Wa the word for Japanese, but also harmony. Shoku for the pleasure of eating. The art of traditional Japanese cuisine, so fascinating UNESCO has added it to its Intangible Cultural Heritage list. To learn more, I stopped by Tokimeite yesterday: one of the very few restaurants in London serving authentic Japanese dishes and specialising in kaiseki, its more refined presentation, often offered as a multi-course dinner. Not just a meal but a feast for all senses… At the very heart of washoku is a respect for nature but also a real appreciation for the quality of ingredienta. As the French, the Japanese take pride in their terroir, recognising the extraordinary taste of, say, a vegetable and meat produced in specific part of the country. Or simply preferring to wait for the right season to enjoy them, have the full strength of flavour. This way of thinking is more associated with upmarket restaurants all over the world these days – in Japan, this simply is at the very heart of home cooking. High quality ingredients prepared at the best time of the year guarantee exceptional dishes, no matter which house you stop by… Although washoku encapsulates Japanese […]

In London this weekend: July 21-22-23

by Chocoralie July 19, 2017 in Uncategorized 0 comments

No plans yet? Here are some more cool things to do this weekend in London. If you have tips we haven’t covered, don’t hesitate to leave us a comment below… Taking a Eurostar soon? 23 ideas to have fun around St Pancras this way. ♥ That’s London, baby ♥ 1. Celebrate all things Indonesian by Tower Bridge this weekend: dance, food, music, culture, fashion. Bonus: a beach created from 50 tonnes of white sand to make you feel on holiday! 2. Try the psychedelic maze at the Now Gallery – lots of games, optical illusions and challenges along the way. 3. Going through Camden? Wave at Nelson Mandela – there is a fantastic mural in his honour. 4. Start your Saturday with a yoga session on the Southbank Centre rooftop. 5. Have fun at the Alexandra Palace’s summer festival this Saturday: Austin Powers screening, silent disco, family rave, circus, 3 music stages… ♥ Art and culture ♥ 1. Bye-Bye Dippy, hello Hope. Meet the whale replacing the so loved diplodicus skeleton at the Natural History Museum. 2. Enjoy country music at Canary Wharf’s free Nashville meets London festival this weekend. 3. Who said classical musical had […]

Hello, Paris

by Chocoralie July 15, 2017 in Uncategorized 0 comments

A quick escape to Paris to see the Anselm Kiefer exhibition at the Rodin Museum. The pleasure of wandering by the Canal Saint Martin, watching the narrowboats go by, the gentle waves on the water turning reflections into impressionist paintings. Loving the vibrant touch of colours added by street art, here and there, or the messages sprayed on the walls, the pavement even, stopping passers-by in their tracks. Smiling at the Eiffel Tower, walking through a few urban oasis – the Villemin park with its grapevine, the Mandarin oriental luxurious garden wrapped around a contemporary sculpture. Indulging in one of Toraya‘s edible poem, sweetly called Peony on Pine Needles, matcha and azuki, Japanese pâtisserie to its very best… and later a canelé surprise at Casse Noisette, the chocolate shell revealing a chocolate cream filling with a heart of passionfruit. Falling in love with the Galerie Vivienne all over again, dancing on its exquisite mosaic floor, clinking a glass of Reuilly 2004 against one of Bandol 2013 at Legrand Fille et Fils, my favourite wine bar in the capital. Watching gentlemen still in their suite, a glass of rosé in hand, play pétanque in the Palais Royal courtyard. Choosing […]

In London this weekend: July 14-15-16

by Chocoralie July 12, 2017 in Uncategorized 0 comments

No plans yet? Here are some more cool things to do this weekend in London. If you have tips we haven’t covered, don’t hesitate to leave us a comment below… Taking a Eurostar soon? 23 ideas to have fun around St Pancras this way. ♥ That’s London, baby ♥ 1. The London Transport Museum’s Friday Late evening explores the secrets, scandals and history of London’s Theatreland. Add to this mini opera performances, masquerade mask or fan workshop, and a carnival make sup by Urban Decay. 2. Discover Burlington Arcade’s little secrets. 3. Not be missed, the Chap Olympiad this Saturday: a day-long party, with fun-loving eccentric gentlemen and ladies in Victorian themed costumes, complete with games, live music and Bourne & Hollingsworth’s trademark cocktails. 4. Try your hand at tennis… VR style at Broadgate this weekend. 5. Love street art? Don’t miss the demo at the Whitecross Street Party this Saturday. ♥ Art and culture ♥ 1. Enjoy free opera on a big screen this Friday in quite a few places around London – Trafalgar Square and London Riviera, for example. 2. Pretend you are an astronaut at the Science Museum. 3. What happens to […]

Play it cool with POLO mints

by Chocoralie July 07, 2017 in Uncategorized 0 comments

Want a mint? is always a good ice breaker when thrown in a crowd of strangers and looking for a chat to kill the time. Especially if these are POLO ones – the shape is so iconic, it inevitably brings back memories of childhood… You could call it a classic: it was after all, created in 1948! It was a little revolution at the time: up to then mints had been a mere breath freshener and definitely not a treat, bitter, medicated taste included. POLO mints however, were sweet, pleasant and soon became a must have. To me, it’s the ideal family road trip candy. Tasty. A fresh taste lingering on the tastebuds. As addictive and satisfying as popcorn. And well, playful, it does call for some tongue gymnastics, kids love that… Which one is your favourite? Original? Spearmint? I go for the free extra strong ones. Full taste, less than 4 calories. Guilt free and kind to the teeth. Yes, you read that right: the Oral Health Foundation gave them their full approval, which led to the next idea. The traditional POLO tube counts 23 mints, neatly wrapped in aluminium foil backed and the vibrant […]

In London this weekend: July 07-08-09

by Chocoralie July 06, 2017 in Uncategorized 0 comments

No plans yet? Here are some more cool things to do this weekend in London. If you have tips we haven’t covered, don’t hesitate to leave us a comment below… Taking a Eurostar soon? 23 ideas to have fun around St Pancras this way. ♥ That’s London, baby ♥ 1. Party by the Thames, near London bridge this Friday. Club de Fromage is celebrating their 10th birthday at London Riviera so expect confetti, sing-alongs, dance-offs, and of course the best in pop, power ballads, disco, indie and more. 2. Or try Camden’s Blues Kitchen this Friday: the resident band will play its tribute to David Bowie. 3. Love adventure? Try Zip World – a 225-metre zip wire descent in central London. Will you dare jumping from the 35 m high tower? 4. To conclude its 2107 edition, the Greenwich + Docklands Festival invites you to join enormous colour-wheels rolling through the streets of Woolwich this Saturday evening. 5. Some restaurants, disappointed in the basic/disappointing pictures of their dishes on social media, decided to stop customers from take photos of their meals. Dirty Bones (Soho) prefers to lend you a kit with LED light, a portable charger, […]

Colours of Havana

by Chocoralie July 03, 2017 in Uncategorized 0 comments

There are so many things to take back from Cuba. Only a few matter – forget the rum, the cigars, the trinkets from the souvenir shops for a minute and just walk, walk endlessly through the streets, all day. Soak it all in, get a renewed appreciation of colours. The buildings falling apart, fixed a little here and there with whatever is available, a constant patchwork of colours and styles. The faded paints, bleached by the sun, washed away by the rain a sudden burst of colour bringing everything to life. Sometimes it’s just as little as a window, a mural on the wall, a basket of mangoes. Havana constantly reinvents itself. These beautiful American vintage cars? Spare parts are rare. You might very well have a beautiful, original shell but a modern engine underneath. Or a completely different dashboard from the brand indicated inside. It’s not so much about recycling, more about being clever with what you have. Cans being crushed flat with a stick on the pavement? They will be put together to make a kind of insulation layer in furniture, fences, walls. Mattresses being pulled apart, springs cut away from it? These will be used […]

Mount Gay Black Barrel – an initiation to rum

by Chocoralie June 29, 2017 in Uncategorized 0 comments

My first memories of rum are linked to my mother’s kitchen, when we lived in Africa – she would make banane flambées. Later, we moved to Tahiti and I can still taste the pineapple slices kept in this sweet elixir with a vanilla pod… Rum, in my world, is associated with food. Travelling in Havana recently, I discovered the pleasure of sipping rum, nursing the glass in my hand as if it were a whisky, playing dominos with locals and smoking a cigar. This triggered a new interest – I am now on a rum quest. First on my list? Mount Gay, produced in Barbados since 1703, which makes is the oldest existing brand of rum in the world. Not only that – the factory remained in its original location and still used the same raw material and same water source for 314 years. In the eighteenth century, rum and sugar cane were in high demand. Yet the waters around the island are not as calm as you might imagine: a bottle of Barbedian rum would become proof of a sailor’s successful voyage to the Caribbean and of his nautical skills… Talk about a signature! Let’s go, in […]

In London this weekend: June 30 July 01-02

by Chocoralie June 29, 2017 in Uncategorized 0 comments

No plans yet? Here are some more cool things to do this weekend in London. If you have tips we haven’t covered, don’t hesitate to leave us a comment below… Taking a Eurostar soon? 23 ideas to have fun around St Pancras this way. ♥ That’s London, baby ♥ 1. House of Vans will be screening Whitney for free this Friday. 2. The Greenwich+Docklands International Festival is still one. There will be amazing choreographies this Saturday – fluid, hypnotising, sensual, funny, dynamic, innovative… Quite a program to choose from. Expect giant puppets, lit with LED-lit, walking through the town in the evening. 3. London goes rainbow colours this weekend so go and join the Pride – parade, parties, music, exhibitions, movies… Take your pick. 4. Celebrate Eid on Trafalgar Square this Sunday: contemporary and traditional acts from across the world, food celebrating Moroccan to Malaysian cuisine, calligraphy, craft, family activities… 5. Always wanted to learn how to dance tango? Try the free lesson this Sunday at the Old Spitalfields Market then join the dance floor! ♥ Art and culture ♥ 1. Join the Night Art on Saturday – think of it as an art crawl, […]

Belleville – Montmartre’s little sister

by Chocoralie June 27, 2017 in Uncategorized 0 comments

Belleville, Montmartre’s little sister. Same charm, same village atmosphere, less tourists. You will have to explore though, leave the big avenues behind. Belleville gems are hidden its passages, cités, villas… Marriage vows written on the walls of the Passage des Soupirs, fragrant roses against old fashioned wooden shutters in the Cité de l’Hermitage, houses almost disappearing under garlands of greenery, palm trees, mosaics and African masks in the Villa de l’Hermitage, a shelter for snails and sweet little quotes in the Cité Leroy community garden, wisteria cascading down in the rue Mouzaïa… It’s easy to forget that this is, in fact, a hill. That the neighbourhood in the past has built a clever hydraulic system to collect the water rain flowing down and redirect it to the heart of the capital. The street names still echo the memory: rue de la Mare (pond), rue des Cascades, rue des Rigoles (small stream)… And of course, from the top of the Parc de Belleville, there is this wonderful view of Paris, Eiffel Tower included. It is, of course, still a quartier populaire, a people’s place, in the best way possible. A slower, happier kind of life, a neighbourhood which inherited […]

Learning about Washoku, Japanese cuisine

In London this weekend: July 21-22-23

Hello, Paris

In London this weekend: July 14-15-16

Play it cool with POLO mints

In London this weekend: July 07-08-09

Colours of Havana

Mount Gay Black Barrel – an initiation to rum

In London this weekend: June 30 July 01-02

Belleville – Montmartre’s little sister

Get TeaTime in your inbox:

Instagram