Feb 2. Keeping all the senses busy @ art galleries, museums, Cotwolds, and over a half a dozen restaurants

I am doing 2 posts to cover the experiences last week. This one is covering the tasting side of things and the one that was posted after this one actually talks about what we did and saw.

OK so here it goes. If you like food porn (and pictures), read on. Otherwise, skip to the next post. There are no pictures of food or us eating here. Had to draw the line somewhere. Most of the pictures are taken in Cotwolds,with the exception of the one with the dragon - that one was done in Chinatown in London. Here we go...

Kids are missing home and wanted to taste their NJ grandmother's curd cheese pancakes. So I went it trying to reproduce the exact flavor. Every morning I tried a different combination of farmer cheese, sugar, eggs and flour. They ate all of it every time but it never hit the mark. So finally, on Friday night Dan's mom shared the magical formula: 250g of farmer cheese + 1 egg + 2 tablespoons of sugar + 2 tablespoons of flour & vanilla. Then you have to drop a tablespoon of the mixture onto a plate with flour and then shape it into disk and fry on a warm frying pan. That's it. Perfection achieved. We still have to go back home in a couple of weeks :)

On Tuesday one of my colleagues introduced me to the British gold: Marmite. It a dark brown salty spread is made from the processed yeast. They say you either love it or hate it. I say it comes in handy when you don't have enough salt on your egg salad sandwich. Interesting taste that lingers in your mouth. My other colleague suggested to try it in the combination with peanut butter or cheese.  Will do.
On Wednesday we went to Rooster Piri Piri that opened up near the train station. They still have to train the staff to hand out utensils with food. And they can't do a real American chicken wings but the owner was really sweet - he came over and tried to get Isabella to try various things. He said he was a picky eater too but his mom always tried to make special things to get him to eat. He ultimately brought ice-cream for both girls.

We did not miss our favorite weekly haunts at the market Asian restaurant & GTK burger down the street. Those are always good. The staff know us and it feels very welcoming.

Had some coffee and deserts at Kahve Dunyiasi in London during our meeting with Leo. The layout of sweets is incredible: dozens of kinds of chocolates and cakes.. they even serve coffee with the chocolate spoon. But for some reason, (maybe your expectations go way up because of all the splendor) the taste was kind of average. Meh. It does not feel like it was worth the addition to the bottom line..

The real treat was over the weekend. On Saturday we were in London again. We were making our way toward Covent garden. And saw a large crowd trying to squeeze into a coffee shop called Monmouth coffee. We took our place in the line as well. When our turn came we asked what is the best thing they offer. The lady behind the counter said "coffee." It did not feel believable considering the splendor of baked goods that surrounded here. So we agreed to coffee but got a selection of pastries to go with it. And yes, both she and I were all right.

But there was still a matter of lunch.. So on we went and found Dishoom. It is an institution. The best modern Indian we ever tried. Seriously, not to be missed. We all surprised ourselves with how much we can consume. I smile when I think back to those special moments :)

Finally on Sunday, during our visit to Cotwolds, we paid homage to the popular local tea room called Huffkins. The famous scones did not taste all that different but the large homemade larde cakes (yep, they are actually called that) were incredible. We got one, with a few other things, went around the block and came back to get two more. After that we went all out and tried the local cheese called Kingham Gold. It was described as a local variety of cheddar but it was more of a mix between Pecorino and un-ripened brie. Even in that format it was perfect.

Deep dieting is due.. Let's move on to the other senses..