Tag: england

England 2014: Food Post – Dinner by Heston Blumenthal

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Welcome to the first of a few posts that will segue from my travel diaries, all devoted to food.

I spent a pretty penny on this trip on some special meals, and this post is the first: the Two Michelin-starred Dinner by Heston Blumenthal. Located inside the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park, Dinner opened in 2011 as The Fat Duck’s city sibling, with a historical slant. Its approach to food is that every dish has been made in the past – decades, sometimes centuries ago. Given my food history interests, plus the fact that I didn’t have to travel out to Bray (and spend over £200 per person) at The Fat Duck, Dinner was perfect for me!

Every menu is "sealed" by a Dinner logo, and inside each one is a different historical factoid you then get to keep. (iPhone 5)
Every menu is “sealed” by a Dinner logo, and inside each one is a different historical factoid you then get to keep. (iPhone 5)

Reservations at Dinner open 90 days ahead on a rolling basis, and as you can imagine, book up almost instantaneously, so I had my alarm set for exactly 3 months prior to July 31st, and as soon as it became available, I booked us in for that evening. Sure enough, when I checked back the next day to perhaps move the reservation a bit later, it was already booked out! So if you want to go to Dinner — schedule it, stat. Read More »

England 2014: Day 5 – Houses of Parliament & Winchester

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London. My beautiful, beautiful London. 

It was so surreal to drive through the London streets and recognize things from six years ago. When we woke up on Thursday, I couldn’t even believe we were there.

Shenanigans. (iPhone 5)
Shenanigans on the bridge. (iPhone 5)

Join me today on this post – briefer than my previous ones – for the first half of Thursday, July 31st, where we venture out of London to Winchester – the formal capital city of England. Read More »

England 2014: Day 4 – Hello, Oxford!

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On Wednesday morning, July 30th, we bid adieu to Bath, our home for the past 3 days and 3 nights. The next leg of our England adventure took us to Oxford. This day would prove to be an epic whirlwind, as we dropped in, spent the day, and zipped right back out again! Fortunately, it was yet another amazing day.

Myself and the sestra before Christ Church College. (Nikon S9700)
Myself and the sestra before Christ Church College. (Nikon S9700)

As you can probably imagine, there were several moments during this day that moved me to absolute tears; I was absolutely overwhelmed by the amount of history and creative energy that surrounded us here. J.R.R. Tolkien is one of my life heroes, and on July 30th, 2014, I was able to walk in his footsteps for a day. Read More »