Chillin' in London

We spent the long weekend with friends in London. It was cold: no snow, but the temps barely got above freezing and the wind was brisk. I'll post more about specific dining spots, but here are some highlights from the trip:

• Thursday: Fat Tire bike tour, Thanksgiving dinner @Chipotle, Agatha Christie's Mousetrap on its 58th anniversary show
• Friday: London Eye, Harry Potter matinée at the iMax, food @Borough Market, choral evensong service @St Paul's Cathedral, Tate Modern
• Saturday: Shopping @Harrods, afternoon tea @Browns, National Galleries, fish & chips
• Sunday: Spitalfields Market, Platform 9¾

Of course, we shared plenty o' beverage with friends. More to come on the food...

Kim cruising with the "L"

Kim had a shaky driving practice session yesterday around a mostly traffic-free neighborhood: jerky clutch work, peel-outs, a stall-out, some "curb checks". We may have lost another 2mm of tread on the tires ;-) It's a lot to learn both how to drive on the left and a manual at the same time.

So, it was a big leap of faith on her part to drive home through town...and she did GREAT!! Kim was much smoother with the clutch work, had no stalls and handled right-of-way through roundabouts without a hitch.

Special thanks to Tony for giving us the "L" (aka, Learner) magnets for the car.

My favo(u)rite Indian dish...

...so far is Goan from Shezan. It has a creamy orange sauce, not over sweet (which is usually the case with cream-based sauces) and it had a nice spice. Kim liked the Bhuna, but preferred the Goan. The Nan here is the best we've found yet...in town. And the side of pan-fried chopped eggplant (aubergine) in a spiced red sauce was very good.

We got new wheelz!!

We picked up our right-hand drive VW Golf tonight. Don't congratulate us yet...it might be a lemon.

We averted an inauspicious start to car ownership when we found a fill-up station just in time. Honestly, who sells a car with the tank sitting in the red? I'll tell you who: the Car Shop. Some other unfavorable parts of the Car Shop experience:

1. No owner's manual
2. No floor mats
3. Low tread on 2/4 tires (or, rather, tyres...)

While it follows the CarMax model, CarMax it is not... We mostly went this route out of convenience and variety. It wasn't all bad. The two salesmen we had were very helpful: picked us up from and dropped us off at the train station, recommended local pubs and offered travel advice to the Isle of Wight.

Banoffee Pie

This is quickly becoming a UK replacement for crème brûlée...if we see it on the menu (usually at a pub), we'll give it a go. The basics are a cracker/biscuit crust, layer of sliced bananas, topped with a toffee custard. Mmm, good!! I prefer ones prepared with a crunchy graham cracker crust to contrast the soft creamy banana & toffee layers.

Gianni's Lunch Special

We had lunch at a local Italian place called Gianni's. The week-long lunch special is choose any main pasta dish plus salad or garlic bread for £5.95 -- not too bad. I opted for the meaty lasagna & Kim had her staple of pasta carbonara. I usually judge the quality of an Italian place by its lasagna...and this didn't disappoint. It was light on meat and ricotta, but came swimming in a sweet, creamy tomato sauce -- very nice!! While Kim liked her carbonara, it was just too much flavor (perhaps too salty?).

The service was excellent and very friendly. As far as we could tell, all the staff were Italian...they conversed with a few customers entirely in Italian. We will likely go here again to check out the dinner scene and branch out to try some of their specials.