Today, Michael and I caught a 6:45am flight out of Heathrow for Dublin, Ireland, requiring a 4am wake-up call and the inevitable half-blind mad scramble to make it down to the cab in time. We ended up making it with enough time to spare for a sit down breakfast. The breakfast was good enough (for airport food) but what made it an experience worth sharing was our server, Tatiana. Whenever she appeared at a table, she immediately made her customers smile and laugh, a tough feat even at 5:30 in the evening but a seemingly impossible one at 5:30 in the morning. She joked around with us, gave Michael a hard time for his indecisiveness and eventual food choice, and refused to take my plate until I had eaten the last bite. It was a great way to end our London trip.
Anybody who knows Michael and I also knows that our lives revolve primarily around food. I think eating is life's greatest simple pleasure, and trying good/new food was a high priority for me on this trip. So far, we have been pretty successful. We have snacked like crazy all day (mini hazlenut-raisin baguettes, artisan chocolates, fresh fruit, Chinese custard buns, and tons of espresso macchiatos and cappuccinos to name a few things) in an attempt to save room for dinner, our one true meal of the day. While for the most part the food has been good or better, the table service has been all across the board. To go along with Tatiana, we had what might be the worst service I have ever had at a Thai restaurant near Regent's Park, and that seemed to be the norm for London restaurants--you never knew what kind of service you were going to get. With expensive prices to start with, a 20% VAT (value added tax), and a 10-12.5% "service charge", it can be aggravating.
Still, we have had some pretty amazing food. Some of my favorites have been fresh-off-the-boat raw oysters, braised pork back with a garlic salsa verde, a bottle-conditioned English IPA that may be one of the top 5 IPAs I have had (note: I worked at Beer Run and my favorite style is IPA, so I have tried a bunch), and a house-baked pear tart. Michael has enjoyed snacking our way through local markets (we are doing another large one tomorrow in Dublin's Temple Bar district). His favorite finds have been a 100% dark chocolate bar (incredibly bitter, but surprisingly enjoyable) and Yokan, a Japanese sweet-bean dessert.
We still managed to do plenty of touristy things in London. On Wednesday, we went to Tower of London, Tower Bridge, Borough Market, and then saw the night performance of All's Well That Ends Well at the Globe Theater. We payed 5 pounds to get groundling standing tickets, which are actually better than any of the 30+ pound seating options in the rest of the theater. We were literally leaning on the stage, so that was pretty cool. I had never read/seen the play before, and was impressed. Not my favorite, but it definitely had its funny, witty moments. On Thursday, we started at St. Paul's Cathedral, which was too expensive to justify buying 2 tickets, but it was beautiful from the outside. We also saw British Parliament and Big Ben, then spent 2 hours in London Aquarium, which was a lot of fun. I got my fingernails cleaned by Cleaner Shrimp (think Jacques from Finding Nemo) and Michael made friends with some anemones. We also saw a shark eat another fish, some sting rays, and these weird iridescent jellyfish. It was the first attraction we spent a decent amount of money on, but it was well worth it.
"My friends were poor but honest"
--Shakespeare, All's Well That Ends Well
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