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..

Jan 26. No entry in Oxford and the life of sheets

The week flew by. Nothing too memorable as we focused on keeping our daily routines and making up for unbridled gluttony over the weekend. Now most of the cherry trees are in bloom and we got some daffodils at the market. Almost forgot. Kingston university was having another round of graduations throughout the week. Happy grads with parents were everywhere. On Thursday we went to Nastya downstairs. Had a good time, kids too.

On Saturday we went to Oxford. We last visited it in September with my parents. Compared to Cambridge it seems stuffier and closed in. There are some pretty streets but most of the interesting things are behind the walls of colleges. Most are closed for access, others require fee for a walk around the quads. We followed behind a student and snuck onto the New College campus. The short walk around the cloister and the wall surrounding the campus was nice, but it still felt we are missing on some other, more important secret. Other places were the same: Radcliffe Camera "For Registered Readers Only," Bodlean Library: "Little Kids Not Allowed." The last one is just bewildering.

What we really loved was the visit to Ashmolean museum. Its collection is second only to the British museum. We started at our favorite Egypt/Greece section.. and then covered some European bronzes, Coates Bestiary and other things. The museum is smaller and better designed for children with lots of interesting interactive exhibits, but artifacts are none less impressive for it.

We also found a two pound book store and spent some quality time in it. Seriously every book just 2 pounds. And there were new adult and children's books. We need to find more of these locally!

When we returned home we had dinner at the Vietnamese Kostik found earlier in the fall. Dan called him to check on what we should get. Globalization is great!

I thought that kids were ripe for watching the Mummy and occasion had called for it. But it is a pretty scary movie and kids decided that they've had enough half way into it. Good choice. We finished it off at night and it does have some scary moments.

On Sunday we went Ice-skating to Guildford Leisure Center. Alas we missed ice-skating right in our backyard - there was a rink in front of Hampton Court Palace since November, and they just took it down a few weeks ago. Based on the quantity of ice skating rinks around Olympic champions in this sport are probably hard to come by in this country.

I don't know why more of such centers are not built, just like our local one that only has a pool, this one was teeming with people. Fortunately most people were there to go to the pool. However once we got on the ice more and more people had shown up until it became a slow-moving mass consisting predominantly of toddlers and their parents. Georgia was very happy though. She was asking to go ice-skating for a long time. Isabella was not very comfortable but she did good considering it was her first time on ice. At one point she got so comfortable that I let her go on her own, she promptly fell, got hold of my hand and on we went.

Back home we did our weekly shopping and then kids caught up on their homeworks.. and we relaxed for the rest of the afternoon. We are going to get a lot of visitors in the spring. Hurray!!

Isabella had a few nightly accidents recently; I got her a set of bed pads to make clean up easer. As WebMD and a few other sources has suggested we explained that this stuff happens, not a big deal, and if it happens again, just call us and we will replace the pad... So what does she do right after we say good night and leave... yep. parent alarm does work :)

Jan 19th. A Peek @ the Peak Region

From yesterday's wall walk 

As we drove back to Kingston we had made a detour at the Peak Region, an area of beautiful natural sights. We were hoping to break up a long ride home and get an idea of one of the most popular and busy areas of the country. Once we got on the local roads we saw miles of moss-covered ancient looking stone fences covering equally lush green fields, with mountains and valleys, just like the guide described. There were many cyclers on the road. Granted it was a great weather, but if this is what this place looks like during the low season it is definitely a no-go late in spring - it will be swamped.


We've stopped at Carleton, a picturesque stone village beneath the ruins of Perival castle. It is famous for its extensive network of caves. We grabbed an early lunch and headed out to the first cave, the Peak Cavern a.k.a the Devil's Arse. Read up on the history of the cave, it is interesting. Our guide, Max, told fascinating stories about the cave as well... For several hundreds of years ropers lived there, making ropes for the nearly lead mines. They lived in awful conditions.. one of their tiny stone huts inside the cave was reproduced there.. The bathroom was right there on the spot, everywhere.. The smell of the cave could be felt inside the village, some distance away. We initially thought that it was the reason the cave was named this way. However there was another explanation.

Several times a year the cave floods. When that happens water mixed with air with some ungodly discharges from the deep underground generates sounds and corresponding smells that explain the original name. They did change the name for the sake of impressing princess Victoria who came to visit.

There was first a rope making demonstration at the beginning of the tour. Dan was awarded the final product for his assistance in the process. He and Georgia were very proud. Then we went on to see the cave. It is the largest natural cave in the UK that is accessible by a simple walk. The cave is located right below the Castle. There are estimated 15 more miles of underground cave networks that are still undiscovered in the levels below.

During our tour several groups of cavers had emerged at the far end of the cave. The guide explained that there are several caving outfits in town and they can take people down to the lower levels that require technical gear. It was clear that he is a caver too and really loves it.

His main story line was about the rich folks who came over for the tour of the cave (remember the bit about the bathroom in the beginning?) in their finery. Ropers happily took them around along the slippery walkways in nearly complete darkness and dragged the faint-hearted ladies in a coffin-life contraption through the claustrophobic narrow muddy tunnel in the back section. Roper's kids delivered the final touch by coming out from the overhead tunnel toward the end and making special sounds (or maybe not just sounds). Dante who attended one such tour said that "children just added to the horror of it." I guess in the absence of the horror movies, people have to make do with that they had to bring a little adrenaline into their lives.

Next we had a pleasant walk to the next cave, Speedwell. Speedwell cave used to be a lead mine. Now they have an interesting attraction - you go down 100+ stairs, get in a boat and it takes you for a ride along one of the mine shafts. This one is much nicer than what poor ladies had to endure in the last cave but still not for claustrophobic. At the end, there is a large cave as well but it is not as impressive as the first Devil's Arse.

There is extensive network of other caves there as well - with lots of pictures of cavers, but none are easily accessible. In contrast to the first older guide, this one, with his braces, was chock full of simple, mostly crude, jokes. At first it was kind of annoying, but toward the end, our amazement grew with the sheer quantity of them. As such he was an attraction in itself.

We decided to leave the other caves for the future trips here and walked back to the castle and village along the muddy wet grass of the mountain. We wandered around the village and stopped at the Rose cottage to try the local desserts - the famous Bakewell tart. Very nice.

Getting out of the Peak region took some time and ultimately our ride back was not made shorter by the detour. We still loved it here and will be coming back.

Kids were bored sick on the way back, they quarreled constantly, even iPad did not help. At least it seems that variety of the reasons for arguing has expanded quite a bit. Made us proud somewhat that they can express themselves so well. Isabella discovered that she can gets parents really excited by claiming she is going to be sick. Now that we are back home... we should do it again :)

Jan 18th. Relaxing in York

Today was a great day. We spent most of it leisurely yet systematically wandering through the streets of York, enjoying the sites, and paying homage to the fine eating establishments this town has to offer.

We started the day by walking all around town in search of breakfast. At 8am on Saturday there were three choices: Nero coffee, Costa coffee, and Betty's Café accidentally found by Dan. Wow! Turns out it is one of the most popular coffee shops in town with the great décor and food to match. Kids had pancakes... lightly salted & stacked between the layers of fresh cream and warm raspberry syrup with raspberries and pickled pears. After we left the line stretched all the way outside.

Then we did a pleasant walk along the river to the racecourse. There was a coin and stamp show going on. Everyone was very friendly. Kids enjoyed looking at stamps with the queen's image on it. There is an interesting story about her having to pose for hours in order for first official state image to be created for the first time. Painters had asked her to switch the royal crowns, moved them higher or lower on her forehead until she finally looked "royal enough" for that final image to be created. We saw interesting collections of British war medals, and ancient arms.

There was a booth by a Dave Greenhaugh who is one of UK only experts on the medieval coinage production. He struck a few coins for the girls. He told Dan a story of the local metal-detector club who found one of his coins and declared the ancient find of the month seemingly unaware of the year struck in the back of it.

We walked back to town the long way - on top of the city wall. Kids started getting hungry again. We decided to forage on our supplies. Georgia got a banana and I peeled a clementine for Isabella. She held on to it for a while, maybe enjoying the feel of it in her hand. Then she accidentally dropped it and we all watched it roll, ever so slowly to the edge of the wall and beyond. She cried so bitterly as if was the last one on earth. We consoled her and tried to offer alternatives. It's the precious moments like that stay with you for a really long time.

We went to Yak and Yeti near the Cathedral for lunch. Lovely Nepalese place. The waitress was hesitant about giving Georgia her Anapurna chicken because it is spicy, but Georgia went at it like it was a bowl of rice. It is interesting how different Isabella is in her eating habits. Rice was all she was willing to experiment with.

Next we finally able to get into one of largest UK cathedrals, and even get up on the tower, a feat hitherto unachievable. I must say though that both attractions are overrated. It is true that cathedral is very large. And it the second example of the church with organ up in the middle. But other than that, it is not that memorable.

Georgia and I went upstairs to see the views. Dan stayed with Isabella because only kids aged 8 and up are allowed on account of "stairs being too high and kids changing their mind." Well those stairs were no different than countless others our kids had climbed previously. What they should do is to ask adults to be dead sure that they want to do it prior to selling them tickets. They gather groups of people every 45 minutes and then everyone enters sequentially, in a long line. One half of the group decided to stay back after a few rounds and so had to reverse on a narrow staircase. The other had to take a breathing break every 10 steps or so. In that context 45 minutes totally made sense.



We contemplated going to the second main attraction in town: the multi-media Viking experience next but after the cathedral proved to be so anti-climactic decided to go to St. Mary's abbey ruins instead. That was very enjoyable. Kids climbed possible every column base for a picture.

There were some picturesque geese in the river. They looked like a proper household variety with white bellies and light gray backs and wings. Kids threw a few cookie pieces their way and we kept on walking. All of a sudden, geese, one by one, started coming up the little staircase that led from the water. They waddled to us and quaked expectantly. Both kids and adults were excited and frightened. We gave them the rest of the cookies and hoped that they would latch on to another group of tourists passing by. But they just waited for a bit and waddled back to the staircase.


We continued our walk covering even the smallest of streets until setting down one last time at the Royal Oak. Equally recommended :) At this point kids were walking for nearly 10 hours. They turned on the iPad and tuned out all the outside stimuli. Dan and I relaxed sipping the Old Peculiar.

Heading back South tomorrow. 

Jan 17th. Mozart's magic and other things

Another busy week with occasional vomit. On Sunday Dan and I were planning to drive to Brussels to work from our BE office a couple of days. The day started out nice. We went to Starbucks for breakfast stopping over at different coffee shops along the way to pick up other tidbits to suit everyone's taste. We were talking about the Lion King show that we saw last night. Later in the morning we had planned to visit a nearby farm with a petting zoo. However, when we got home, Isabella dived head first onto the floor when trying to get out of her jacket. We all learned that chin bleeds as much as forehead.

When she quieted down, Isabella fell asleep on Dan's shoulder. Georgia and I went for a walk along the river. It was a beautiful day - lots of cyclers and kids around. Dan and Isabella woke up towards lunch and we all went to Yo Sushi that recently opened up in the mall. Very very overpriced but we miss sushi so much. When we come back to US, I am going to make a massive order of sashimi from Catalina Ops, hopefully it will not result in another Irene.

Arrived to Brussels and walked around town in the evening. They still have the Christmas tree up in the main old town square. Together with lovely buildings in the center it looked beautiful. Dan took me to a restaurant he found last time, I think it is called something like "Fin De Clecl." It is a off center. Beautiful tall-ceilinged room with a rambling mix of tables and weird modern art paintings around the walls. Only local clientele. We had awesome chocolate mousse and crème brulle with grog.

Incidentally, this time around we've stayed at Best Western in the Grote Market area. Something must have died there and hotel tried to cover their tracks with some sweet smelling substance. Yak! And the Internet does not work. Ibis and Accord next door were much better.

In the morning we connected with Danielle and headed out to the office. I may have written about it before.. the office is shaped like number "8," with long lineup of motivational posters along the way. I am assuming they are there to help orient you on where you are on the number eight. The motivations are all in French. For all I know they could be de-motivations. It is funny how all the instructional signs in the bathroom and break room are in English, while most of the team speaks French/Dutch. "Don't forget to remove the signs of activity in the toilet bowl."

Tanya called us in the morning to say that Georgia was sick at night but felt better in the morning and so went to school. Then I got a call from school midday saying that she is feeling sick and needs to be picked up. They told me that she told them about being sick @ night and so gave me a screaming about sending a sick kid to school. At that point I did not know if we have to jump in the car and drive home ASAP. Then Tanya called and Georgia explained she was not feeling great and arranged to be picked up in advance. It is nice that she is taking charge of things like that but it would be more comforting to be in the loop, in advance :)

After all that excitement, I started feeling nauseous too. By the time we went to the wondrous In't Spinnekopke on 1 Place Jardin Aux Fleurs recommended by a co-worker, the mere sight of those rich sauces filled me with despicable disgust. That being said, the place is amazing. Highly highly recommended. Lovely typical Belgian décor. Waiter hovered around us like a mother hen. The food looked and (must have tasted) awesome. Those tender pieces of kidneys beckoned from the glistening pools of butter cream with islets of bacon. Poor Dan, he ate both our appetizers and main dishes, and drank his beer and my wine as the waiter kept peering from around the corner to ensure that the food and drink were getting its due. In the end I recovered enough to pick slightly at the desert. Now, a few days later, how I wish I ate all that food!!

Back home, on Tuesday night, excitement had continued, but in a good way. Tanya, Georgia and I went to Rose Theatre for the "Magical Mozart Evening by the Candlelight." The music was magical all right. The stage was decorated with flickering electric candles and performers were dressed in period clothing and wore wigs. They did a mix of instrumental and aria pieces. One of the singers was particularly good. She did the challenging aria of the Queen of the Night flawlessly. So memorable. Georgia really liked it. My only criticism is that when there are 4+ musicians playing they really need a conductor. Otherwise it becomes an exercise in trying to all play at the same time, which, by definition, is a little lacking.

Then, at night it was Isabella's turn. Poor thing, she had it worse than Georgia a few days ago and it continued well into the next day. What do we have now? Wednesday? Nothing eventful. Thursday, our downstairs neighbor, Anastasia and her little daughter Emily, came over for dinner. It was very nice to have them over. We have a few things in common, like the boiler and kid manufacturing processes.

Then, Dan's mom called to say that she broke her arm when walking our dog. And the roller coaster with my sister. Everyone, please be well!!

A few more things. We were driving, and Dan noticed a guy drop his box of cigarettes on the ground. Dan stopped, rolled down the window and shouted to the guy that he dropped his cigarettes. The guy shouted back "Nah, it was empty, I threw it." Seriously?? I know it does happen everywhere but this was slightly unsettling.

Construction crews are back breaking the cement "quick fixes" before Christmas. Nice to see!

Read an interesting article in one of the local papers. It described disproportionately higher abortion rates of girl fetuses vs. boy fetuses in ethnic neighborhoods. And correspondingly higher births of boys vs. girls. It appeared that in those neighborhoods families chose to abort following discovering baby's gender during the ultrasound. The article discussed various approaches to address this. One of the suggestions was to not tell gender to mother even if it is known. Great!! Then again, US is not much better on the same topic. Everyone loves to get into business of women making decisions about their bodies.

Tonight we are going to York for a weekend. Will write more when we are back.