Taste of London 2012 Discount Codes

Sorry I've been terrible for updating this blog lately - but of course I won't let you down with the important stuff, namely discounts! :)

Taste of London / British Airways have their usual discounts - 2 for 1 on standard tickets or £40 for the VIP tickets which include a recipe book. After adding booking/transaction fees the ticket price is just over £43 each.

http://www.britishairways.com/travel/taste-of-london-2012/public/en_gb?DM1_Mkt=UK&DM1_Channel=AFF&DM1_Campaign=AO&DM1_Site=AffiliateWindow&utm_source=AffiliateWindow&utm_medium=Affiliate&utm_campaign=AffiliateWindow&awc=2601_1332853609_45dc3f2ef27a6c9ed2a7c4c0b8494377

Enjoy my lovelies!


Happy eating,

Kitsune

Tastecard for £29.95

Tastecards are selling for £29.95 until Christmas Day:

Use the promo code 'HOLLY' at checkout!

http://taste-update.com/5JD-LWZX-F02E0DQU90/cr.aspx



Happy eating,

Kitsune

Early Bird Offer for Taste of London 2011

I've just received an email from Taste of London.

This year it is being held between 16th - 19th June in Regents Park.

There are often many various discount codes and promotions for the event, and this is the first of the year I've come across: 2 standard tickets for £32 (£20 off) or individual VIP tickets for £45 (£20 off per ticket). The offer is valid until Friday 11th March.

Already drooling in anticipation!


Happy eating,


Kitsune

Inamo

As the monsoon rains washed away many a fun seeking Londoner from the streets one weekend, a group of geeks celebrated the first official D.A. meeting of the London HQ with special guests from Ireland.

Of course, a regular restaurant would not do for such an auspicious occasion and so the group descended on Inamo's in Soho. As we sat, confusion reigned on the brightly lit faces of anyone who had not read up on the restaurant beforehand, as well as fascination. "Where are our menus? What is all this.....stuff projected on the tables? Oooh, what does this button do?!"

The interactive table top @ Inamo

(Many thanks to bluejester for letting me nick his pic)

Weirdly anti-social in a social way, some began a highly competitive game of battleships, while another was spying on the chefs toiling away in the kitchen, and others were experimenting with the projected décor. Food was largely forgotten until our stomachs grumbled their protest and so we began going through the food and drink menus. Cleverly designed to target a hungry and impressionable mob such as ourselves, large projections of delicious food appeared whenever our indecisive fingers lingered on any item in particular.

Finally choosing the unagi nigiri (eel sushi), soft shell crab maki rolls and black cod marinated in miso, I ordered via the tabletop and watched the action in the kitchen in anticipation.

When it arrived I took a little time out to convince the more 'strange food weary' of us to try a little eel, before stuffing my face. The eel was yummy enough to convince them that the strangeness was worth the taste (or maybe they were being polite!), and the soft shell crab was satisfyingly just crunchy enough. The black cod was so tender it fell apart once poked with chopsticks, and delicious.

Coconut Pana Cotta @ Inamo

Remembering the crème brûlée I had there previously, I couldn't leave without having dessert (stuffed as I was) so again I consulted the table and ordered a coconut pana cotta which finished the meal nicely.

Waddling home was made all the more interesting with the massive rivers of water flowing through the streets of Soho, but little more than a squeal of complaint was heard, as we had had good food, good company, and much dossing.


Happy eating,


Kitsune

TasteCard offer - £40 off

I mentioned the TasteCard in a previous post - it gives 50% off / 2 for 1 deals in a load of restaurants around London. Now, they have gone nationwide and to celebrate this, they are offering the card at £29.95 rather than their usual price of £69.95.

The promo code is 'TASTECARD' and this offer runs until the end of July 2010.

Enjoy my lovelies!

Happy Eating,


Kitsune

Taste of London 2010

Hmm, did I say that the food & wine sellers at Taste of London were not so generous these days? Looks like I'll have to eat my words (if I can fit another thing in!) after I thoroughly abused their abundant generosity this year! I pretty much had to waddle home.....


Well, this year I was much better for taking pictures before greedily stuffing my face - enjoy!:

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Good Natured - The lovely lady with red wellies totally spoiled us........and all for free, no crowns needed! Guess they live up to their name!
Pictured:
Cherry tomato with pesto
Cherry tomato with basil
Strawberries with clotted cream
Scones with raspberry jam, clotted cream and strawberries

One of my favourite stands - I would definitely buy ingredients from here, everything was very fresh & amazing!

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Gauchos - grilling & prep...

Gauchos - Bife de chorizo - Argentine Black Angus sirloin, humitas and chimichurri. The steak was as succulent as I always expect from Gauchos, and the humitas which I'd never tried before was lovely - some type of creamed sweetcorn wrapped in corn husk.

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The hungry mob!

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Whole Foods were offering lovely nibbles

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Gin Mare - the guy demonstrating was giving shots with an odd addition - the first tub on the left had olive paste, which he put into the solution in the second tub - after a few seconds it formed a skin and then he put it in the water in the third tub to let it set........

Gin Mare - the odd shot. The gin had quite a kick!! The olive paste had an odd texture - the ball burst in your mouth but you could feel the firm skin it had formed in the solution. Pity I'm not a gin person!

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Trinity - chef preparing asparagus and tiny quail eggs on the grill. To the side you can see pheasants eggs, quail eggs and some of the other dishes on offer.....compared to the suckling pig dish they offered, the pigs trotters weren't nearly so high in demand even though they were the 'icon dish', so the guy pictured was pretty much shouting about pigs trotters all day! I was one of few who ordered:

Trinity - Pigs trotters on toasted pain polaine, fried quail eggs, sauce gribiche and crackling. My first time trying pigs trotters. They sound odd but to be honest as an Irish person I should have had them before! One of my favourite dishes of the day. The crackling made very satisfying crunching sounds!

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Sake no Hana - Quail with sansho pepper. The quail was cooked differently to how I'd ever had it before, and it was very good - the skin was crispy, the meat tender and even the bed of spring onions was devoured hungrily.

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Beas Bloomsbury - cupcakes & meringues! I didn't try anything at the time, but it was a very tempting stand. Apparently they do afternoon tea there - must try it sometime.

Beas Bloomsbury

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Macsween - Haggis! Very yummy, especially with that dollop of chutney on top

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Fino - Cochifrito suckling pig. The meat pretty much fell off the bone, it was so tender.

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Asia de Cuba - Jumbo sea scallop with sweet & sour plantains and habanero corn crema. I always seem to get scallops at Taste of London. This did not disappoint! Juicy.

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Chapel Downs - actually from a wine stand [I visited the vineyard last year! ], but they looked too good to resist!

Oysters with lemon and a red wine, vinegar and shallot drizzle. The drizzle was amazing!

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I must say that food-wise, I didn't have one thing here that I didn't thoroughly enjoy. The drinks were another matter altogether - but since they were all samples, I really can't complain.

Till next year!

Happy eating,

Kitsune


*****Update:
I've received an email about a Taste of London promo where some of the restaurants exhibiting have Taste of London offers, starting from £15: http://www.toptable.com/en-gb/feature/?id=2309

Also, those pigs trotters I had at the Trinity stand were apparently voted 'Best in Taste' for the show! The conchifrito suckling pig I had from Fino came second.

Taste of London - get your tickets soon!

Around this time of year every year, my stomach is rumbling constantly - regardless of how much food I have in it - all in anticipation of one event where I pretty much stuff my face for an entire day with a variety of different food: Taste of London.

I first read about it in Tatler in 2005. They basically described it as 30 of London's best restaurants in Somerset House for a day and they gave a code you could use to upgrade your ticket to VIP so you could also get a glass of champagne on arrival. They had me at hello!

Upon arrival we were given our champagne and crowns - no, not the royal kind, but the 'event currency' kind! How it works is this - with each of the tickets we purchased we were given a book of 40 crowns which we could use to get food from each of the stalls that the restaurants set up. Each of the restaurants charged a different amount of crowns for their meals, depending on ingredients and portion sizes, but each was around 4-8 crowns.

It's all a bit of a blur now but I can recall eating food from pretty much every continent and meat of all kinds. No-one worried about the food 'complimenting' each other. Very generous wine sellers were handing out samples of their wares and everyone was lapping it up. All in all it was a fantastic, hedonistic day in such beautiful surroundings.

Since then, I have only missed one year - it did take wild horses for that to happen.

Of course, over the years small things have changed. Due to the popularity of the event more space was required and the venue was changed to Regent's Park. The number of restaurants has increased to around 40. The wine sellers are not quite so generous with their wares. The average dish is now around 9 crowns. Small changes, some good, some bad.

However, the important stuff is still the same - lots of good food, a huge variety, so many people with the same enthusiasm for food, and lots of free nibbles. What more could we ask for?

Words can only convey so much, so here are a few pics from last year / the year before:

A chef from Nipa Thai, Lancaster Hotel prepares a soft-shell crab salad for the hungry mob


Haggis!


Some of the delights on offer:
Roast Aberdeen angus beef fillet with tarragon mousse,
and rhubarb & custard ice-cream crumble


Fruit Carvings


A variety of English sausages

Come rain or shine, we will still stuff our faces!

Don't forget to get your tickets soon - this year the dates are 17th - 20th June. For anyone reading this who is not in London - do not despair! Other places where they run this event include: Auckland, Amsterdam, Birmingham, Cape Town, Dubai, Dublin, Edinburgh, Jo'burg, Melbourne and Sydney.

*rumble*


Happy eating,

Kitsune

Mad Hatter's Afternoon Tea Party

Originally I read about the Mad Hatter themed Afternoon Tea at the Sanderson Hotel in March - it was timed to coincide with the release of the Alice In Wonderland 3D movie.

Of course it sounded like a lot of fun and since I haven't actually had 'afternoon tea' having lived in the UK for around 8 years now, I rang up straightaway to book. Unfortunately, pretty much everyone else in London reads the same magazine (Stylist - its handed out for free around London on Tuesdays and is pretty good for a freebie) and I was shocked that afternoon tea on the weekends was booked out until May! Sanderson had only planned to run the themed afternoon tea until the end of March but due to demand it is now 'ongoing' and will most likely run throughout summer.

So having waited for almost 2 months for afternoon tea, there were great expectations! We decided to go themed - not quite wearing hats, but we all made the effort to wear fascinators.

In the hotel lobby the group gathered on a lip shaped sofa and pondered whether the hanging egg chair was for decoration or use. Past the bar filled with chairs with eyes which stared as we walked past, we arrived in the courtyard garden and were seated beside the flowers and fountain.

The Courtyard Gardens in the Sanderson

The pursuasive waitress brought us our bubbly to celebrate nothing in particular. A few of us were particularly ravenous so when they brought out our 3-tiered servers filled with themed baked goodies we were ready to pounce but the waitress paused to explain the recommended order to eat the food - it was pretty much eat from the bottom up.



Following the order, we started with the scones. They were crumbly and delicious with a helping of clotted cream and runny dripping strawberry jam. The rainbow sandwiches had a nice mix of fillings - from salmon and cream cheese in green spinach bread to saffron yellow ham and mustard.

The cakes were every sweet-tooth's dream - cupcakes with a surprise tangy jam layer and crackling candy topping, a hazelnut and passion fruit tart with a pocket-watch clockface chocolate topper, and a Queen of Hearts tea cake with a tart foamy filling that melts in the mouth.

To finish, we had not one but two desserts! Quickly scoffed was the peppermint ice cream covered in chocolate on a stick which melted immediately, and a two sided 'hot & cold' pineapple lollipop. [Note - as some particular members of the group *ahem* found, the blue salt holding the sticks in the teacup are NOT part of the food!]

All in all, as well as being a colourful food adventure this was certainly an exploration of what we Chinese call the 'mouth-feel' of food. Not just the texture of the food - the temperature changes, the crackling, the crumbling, the melting - it was a fairly eccentric meal altogether.

We left the courtyard gardens hyped up on all the sugar and decided to test the strength of the hanging egg chair - it didn't come crashing to the ground as we feared!



Happy eating,

Kitsune

Dans le Noir

Dans le Noir is an experience I will never forget and in all probability never repeat, but I would certainly recommend it.

A friend had read about this restaurant and was curious so we decided on it as our once-a-month 'dining club' venue. This is a circle of a few of my good and perpetually hungry (like me!) friends of mine who take turns to organise restaurant trips to interesting new places we've discovered or have not yet tried. Having such an unusual concept, Dans le Noir was not to be missed.

The translation for 'Dans le Noir' is 'In the Black' - and that is the whole concept - dining in pitch black.

On arrival the four of us had to store our belongings including phones and light up watches into lockers. This is to prevent any light entering the dining area at all, and to prevent people forgetting/losing bags et cetera. We were given a choice of 4 different meals - a surprise meal, a seafood meal, a vegetarian meal and a meaty meal. We were not told what was included in any of the meals. All of us having the same mindset when it comes to food, we all went for the surprise meal.

Led by our blind waiter we walked hands on shoulders in a train through curtains, curtains and more curtains before arriving in what felt like a massive dining area. Obviously we could see nothing but our other senses were certainly heightened. What would normally have been perceived as a huddled conversation sounded like a lively and public debate. My sense of spacial relations was completely distorted - while I felt like I was in a massive room, at the same time whenever we came near any other diners I felt like I was about to fall over them. We had previously imagined that we would be able to see something - at least a persons silhouette or even our own hand in front of our faces - but we were proved wrong. Your eyes do not adjust to absolute darkness.

Arriving at our table, there was a moment of panic. I was told to stand and wait for my friends at the other side of the table to be shown to their chairs but I was antsy - out of my dept, and for reasons unknown I decided to turn around. Such a small movement. I was still in the same place; just rotated around a little. However, I had absolutely no visual measure of how much I had turned and therefore I now had no idea where the table was! Thankfully our friendly waiter finished showing my friends their seats and I was rescued, with no-one any the wiser.

Ordeal over, we went about finding our way around the table. We had to feel for our plates, our cutlery, our glasses. We spoke and figured out where each of us was. Easy. Then the waiter brought over a basket of bread. Then a jug of water. Not quite so easy after that! We had to be careful not to hit each other in the face when passing around the bread basket. And trying to pour water from a jug into a glass, both of which you cannot see, was something special. We had a bit of a giggle and some soggy bread.

Then the proper food came. The food tasted good but what was amazing was the texture! It would seem that not being able to see your food not only heightens the taste but as you try to figure out what you are eating the texture becomes all the more important. Using cutlery to try and pick up things you cannot see is an 'interesting experience'. From what I could tell, more than one piece of food went flying around the black abyss. Most stabs of the fork yielded nothing but an unsatisfying clink on the plate. I learnt a whole new way of holding the fork - I had to extend my finger to the tip of the fork so that I could feel the food I was attempting to spear. Even this method was discarded by the end of the main meal as I just poked around the plate to see if there was anything left! (Thankfully no-one could see )

All the food was pretty good and as we heard each other's guesses we'd have another chomp of our food to try and taste what they were tasting. We tasted a few different kinds of meat which we all guessed differently, as well as some kind of filled pasta. The dessert was a zesty brulee and some chocolates. The conversation never left the food as we endlessly discussed our shared experience.

By the time we were finished and left the room I felt as disoriented as when I entered the blackened room. The light burst into view, and we were greeted by a waitress who gave us the bill and finally explained what we were actually eating. Of course, we cannot be blamed for not guessing the meats - we had eaten guinea fowl, crocodile and deer! Our broad guesses for the other parts of the meal were generally correct.

I could write forever and not be able to describe everything about the experience so I end this story with a recommendation to try the restaurant for yourself, and some friendly advice - ALWAYS OBEY THE WAITER!!!

The reality of Dans le Noir

Happy eating,

Kitsune