On Saturday evening we ate at the Opera House. This isn't something we'd done before and was something I has originally suggested partly because it was Liv's birthday and would therefore be nice to do something different, and partly because it meant we could start our meal later. This is because you spread the meal through the intervals; you have the starter and main course before the 1st act, the dessert in the 1st interval, and coffee in the 2nd interval. The food was very nice and reasonably priced for the quality, and it made the interval much more pleasant; being sat at table eating is much more preferable than having to stand in a crowded bar.
On Sunday, Liv and I ate and stayed at the
Waterside Inn in Bray (the Bray in Berkshire, not the one in Ireland where Liv grew up). This is a swanky 3 Michelin star restaurant owned by the Roux brothers just down the road from The Fat Duck (it is a very strange thing that there are just three 3 star restaurants in the whole of the UK, and two are in the same village). I won't drone on about precisely what we ate, but by Christ we ate a lot. They serve classical French cuisine, and the quality of ingredients was flawless, the execution of the dishes flawless, and the service was flawless and friendly. You may well be wondering whether it was worth the money. Well, I didn't begrudge one penny of what we spent, but at the same time you can't get away from the fact that you can get an almost as nice a meal for a lot less money.
The next day, after breakfast at The Waterside Inn, we went for a drink and lunch in Heston Blumenthal's pub -
The Hind's Head. This is a traditional English pub and they serve traditional English pub food in stark contrast to what they serve over the road in the Fat Duck. The food cost about the same as you'd pay in any decent gastro-pub and was really nice. The mussels were the best I've had, and the portions were very generous.
In the evening, we met up with Liv's cousin and a mate of hers from Oxford and went for a Thai meal in place just off Oxford Street. Sadly, I was feeling the effects of over-indulgence, so could barely eat a thing. We had a laugh though and I wish I had more room for their delicious calamari.
On Liv's birthday itself, we had lunch at
Textures, just off Oxford Street. This place has only been opened a few months, and is clearly gunning for at least one Michelin star. I think if you go for dinner it is quite pricey, but at lunch time it's a bargain given the quality of what they serve up (dishes are £8.50 each). The chef is Icelandic, they serve new nordic cuisine (apparantly) and as you might guess from the title they try where appropriate to play with the different textures of food (though that theme isn't rammed down your throat I don't think). If you are in London and want a great meal, with good service, give this place a go.
Jesus, what a dull crappy post. Sorry, if I wasn't so tired I'd try and make it more interesting, but I just can't be arsed.
Thursday, March 06, 2008 8:57 PM
2008 has so far been shit, no two ways about it. That said, the weekend of Liv's 30th birthday was a much needed oasis of decadence. I'll split this post into two parts - pt.1 the cultural side and pt.2 the food side.
Liv spent Saturday in The Sanctuary Spa at Covent Garden while I went to watch a couple of films. First up was
Sweeney Todd. I'm not a massive fan of musicals by any stretch, but then again I don't have the deep disdain for them that others do either. In fact, one of my favourites films is West Side Story. Whether you like Sweeney Todd is dependant on the following factors:
- Can you stand 90 minutes of Stephen Sondheim songs? I can.
- Do you like Tim Burton films: I do.
- Do you like Jonny Depp: Usually I do.
- Can you stand copious amounts of throats being slit and the ensuing blood? Sure.
So I enjoyed it as a piece of escapism which suited the dark mood that has followed me around these last couple of months. I also enjoyed seeing it in a near deserted theatre with a digital projector and an awesome sound system (the Odeon West End). Shame about the leg room, for my £15 ticket I'd have expected a little more.
The next film was
Eastern Promises. This came out many months ago (and has just been released on DVD) but I never got around to seeing it at the time. Funnily enough, the film is set in London and opens with somebody's throat being slit so it actually sat alongside Sweeney Todd quite nicely in some ways. The characters weren't as prone to bursting out into song when slitting throats though, instead choosing to remove the body's teeth and finger tips before dumping it in the Thames. The film contained a lot of very dark humour, and at the same time dealt with some really tough themes in a very full on manner (girl trafficking, murder, the Russian Mafia to name a few). In the hands of a lesser film maker, this would have been descended into pornography, but it was directed by David Cronenberg and so was intelligent, gripping and thought provoking.
Myself and Liv followed our seperate indulgences with an evening at the ballet. Believe it or not, this contained throat slitting too, but only in an isolated incident. I'm not one for ballet normally. Whilst I respect the extrordinary abilities of the dancers I find it very difficult to get away from the fact that basically they are prancing around the stage. In tights. I'm sorry, I wish I understood it, I just don't. Modern dance I like though, so fortunatley this was a tripple bill containing two pieces which were more dance than prance.
First up was
Chroma, with music by Joby Talbot out of The Divine Comedy. He also composed the music in The League of Gentlemen, and the style of that music was very much present here. I don't know what the fuck it was all about but it was amazing.
The second act was
Different Drummer, a ballet based on the play Woyzek (which incidentally is the play that one of my favourite operas is based on - Wozzek). This piece represented everything that mistifies me about ballet. It's a very dark story about isolation and delusion and contains the afforementioned throat slitting, and the story is told through the medium of gayly prancing about the stage. Thankfully it was only 30 minutes long, any longer and I'd have slit my own throat.
Finally, what we'd actually come to see:
The Rite of Spring. I love the music and have long wanted to see it performed on stage, and I enjoyed it vey much. If you ever go to see it yourself, be sure to sit in the higher (and cheaper) seats as you get a much better view of the patterns being danced.
[Continues tomorrow...]
Monday, March 03, 2008 9:56 PM
If you saw a post that simply said "Test Post" that was just me testing that my migration of this web site to a new home was all in order. For the last 3.5 years, this website has been hosted on a server in my loft, but after one of my drives failed last week (it was mirrored so I didn't lose any data) I decided to go ahead and do something I've been meaning to do for a while, host this website with a proper hosting company. I went with GoDaddy, as that's what Chris Riley and Tony use, and I couldn't be arsed doing any research into who's best. I've also moved my mail off that server so it's now handled by Google (using "Google Apps for Domains").
That is all.
Sunday, March 02, 2008 11:38 PM
