March 1, 2013
My husband and I just returned from London, he planned a special trip to celebrate our ten-year wedding anniversary. Growing up, I visited England on summer vacations and my husband had traveled there for business, but we had never been to London together.
A booming food city with little language barrier*, exploding with incredible bars, shopping, architecture and culture (do you notice the order of priorities?), we could not think of a better place to commemorate our years together.
*However, it truly is one of the most international cities I’ve experienced. It was crazy at dinner to be surrounded by the chattering of languages from all over the world.
We were greeted at our hotel with a proper tea service.
I snapped this shot from the Tower of London.
Window display at Bloomsbury's Flowers on Great Queen Street
Dear friends who live part time in London tipped us off to some great restaurant recommendations and we were thrilled the suggested venues. Each met our usual vacation dining criteria: most were casual in comfort, upscale in quality ingredients, had excellent international wine lists and menus that depart from our usual Santa Barbara fare.
My lunch salad at Harvey Nichols, complete with ham hock, quail eggs and blood oranges.
So many restaurants with great international wine lists
Aside from eating and drinking our way through the city we went on two amazing tours, the Winston Churchill War Room (perfect for this Mr. Churchill fan and WWII junkie) and a special viewing of the Crown Jewels (which seemed an appropriate anniversary experience).
As always, I’m excited to get back to my kitchen and garden, working to recreate some of my favorite London discoveries and share them with you.
Sitting at Mr. Churchill's War Room desk— incredible!
