(by Kate Morton, on my Kindle); several generations of women pepper this book with the story of their lives. It all revolves around a young girl who arrives on a pier in Australia in 1912 with no papers, no family. Nothing except a small white suitcase with little concrete information about her past. She’s four years old and keeps silent about what little she knows. Her story starts there, but then it jumps forward to 2005 when her granddaughter inherits a house in Cornwall (England), purchased by the grandmother and kept secret until after her death. There’s some secrecy going on with all the women. Then the story jumps back to 1975 when the grandmother is a middle-aged woman and you hear part of her story. Much of the book revolves around a walled garden at this house in Cornwall, and how it relates to the “big house” where the grandmother lived some of her early years. It’s quite a complex web of a family saga. I liked it, although each new chapter jumped to a different time, and it’s not until the last 10 pages or so that everything resolves. Good read.
(by Karen Harper, on my Kindle); this one is about a young girl from an impoverished family who is taken to Court and eventually becomes a playmate/governess to Elizabeth I (the story is based on fact, but is a novel). The two girls grow up together. It tells the story of Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn (Elizabeth I’s mother) and others of the court at that time, the intrigues, the murders, the beheadings, and the perseverance of all of the potential kings and queens. Fascinating story, particularly since we visited Castle Howard where where a small part of Henry VIII’s story transpires.
(by Julie Orringer, on my Kindle) too; a riveting story about a young Hungarian Jew who goes to Paris to study architecture, just before the start of WW II. He manages to scrape together enough money to eat, but barely, falls in love with an older woman, yet his work comes to the attention of some of the school’s teachers. He’s one of only a handful of Jews at the school. Then the Nazis begin invading. And the story goes into plenty of detail about the hardships, the imprisonments and eventual deaths of many of his friends and family. I could hardly put it down, though. Heart-wrenching, however.
– by Alison Weir (paperback from Costco). I was expecting this book to be along the same genre as Philippa Gregory’s novels – honing in on a particular English royal woman – telling her story in novel form. This is not one of those types. It’s non-fiction, and tells the factual story of Katherine Swynford, who eventually became the Duchess of Lancaster. But her journey from young bride to Hugh Swynford (this takes place in the 1300′s) to the Duchess is bursting with intrigue as she was John of Gaunt’s mistress for some time (eventually he married her when she was 46 (certainly an advanced age for that century), which caused all kinds of royal scandal). In that period of history no one related to royalty married for love. It was all about family, bearing many children to inherit land and wealth, to fight for the king, to maintain title and fortune. The Duchess’ children eventually became the House of Tudor (King Henry VII). Katherine Swynford was both reviled (because of her immoral behavior) and loved (by nearly everyone who knew her). Alison Weir is obviously a stickler for research – the footnotes comprise over 40 pages of fine print. She paints a different picture of this woman than was done by Anya Seton in her world-famous novel 
, first published in 1954. I was infatuated with that novel – it was one of my all-time favorites. But it’s a romance, and apparently many of the supposed facts – well, aren’t. Life in those times were not romantic. This Alison Weir book is not exactly easy reading; it’s almost like reading a textbook. But it’s fascinating and I’m enjoying it very much.
– by Jack Finney (paperback); read for one of my book clubs. Written in the 1940′s it was a runaway hit back then. An early look at time travel. It’s about a U.S. government experiment in the 1960′s (this is fiction, remember), sending a selected few men back to the 1880′s in New York City. They were told to observe. Not to change anything. To be unnoticeable. Yet one of the young men, just couldn’t quite do that (of course, otherwise there wouldn’t be a story!). It’s his adventure you read. The writer is a master at description. The reader feels transported to that time. Our book club really enjoyed it. Generally I’m not into that kind of book at all, but I found the book fascinating. There is a sequel as well, called From Time to Time.
— autobiography by Laura Bush (hardback from Costco). What a delightful read. It’s not about politics. It’s about Laura’s journey from her young years growing up in Midland, Texas to loving parents, to college grad to school teacher, librarian, to meeting George, whom she barely knew even though they grew up in the same small town, then marrying him. She didn’t come naturally to being a public speaker, but did it, to help her husband. I enjoyed reading about her early years more than the years at the White House. Much of that part was about all the social events required of the President and First Lady. Still interesting, though. I enjoyed the book very much.
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When I began planning the trip to Britain, I spent countless hours researching online – not just places to stay, sites to see, but also restaurants. Some locations didn’t have much. More and more I seem to rely on Trip Advisor. That compendium of updated information provided only by users. About places ‘round the world. Its amazing, really, when you think about it, that one can do so much travel planning online now.
Many hotels we visited had Trip Advisor decals in their windows (a good sign). Or they had photocopied write-ups from Trip Advisor. And many of the hotel sites I visited had a mention of Trip Advisor within. I must go online and submit new additions to the sites where we really enjoyed our stay. There was only one hotel (in the Lake District) that I probably won’t write up somehow. And there was really nothing wrong with it – the owners were nice. But our room was damp. Towels didn’t dry overnight, and the little bit of hand washing I did took 2 full days to dry. Not problems the owners can do much about, I don’t suppose. So, it’s better to just not mention that one.
Anyway, back to restaurants . . . I did make dinner reservations in several places we visited. The tourist season was busy, and I thought it might be difficult to get reservations, particularly if we selected a popular place. Such was the case with our last night in Britain. We turned in our rental car at Heathrow, got checked into our Marriott hotel there, and then we took the tube into London. We’ve sight-seen in London countless times and had decided not to stay there on this trip.
So when researching what we’d do our last night, I went online (of course) and checked-out London restaurants. We’ve been to many of the better restaurants (although not the River Cafe) in London. We didn’t take dressy clothes on this trip. Dave absolutely refused to take a sport coat, so I didn’t want to embarrass us or others by going to a fine dining establishment in inappropriate clothes. I read about Fifteen London, Jamie Oliver’s restaurant in downtown London. Where he (and the professionals on staff) train (for free but paid for by Oliver’s foundation set up for this purpose) about 20 underprivileged young people (adults, though) how to be chefs. Not just cooks, but real chefs. They train for 11 months, when they graduate and go on to get their own jobs, hopefully. They’d just graduated the class of 2010 a few weeks ago – August is the only month of the year when the meals are created and cooked by the pros/teachers.
Whether I didn’t notice, or I made the decision to go there anyway, I don’t know, but I didn’t remember how expensive it would be. Fifteen has two restaurants – a more casual trattoria and a downstairs dining room. The latter, a set menu for 60 pounds per person is where I’d made the reservation. The kind of meal you should remember for a lifetime. I hope I do! I took photos with my small point and shoot camera, so I apologize for them not being as clear or precise (or focused) as usual.
We arrived a bit early. Too early to eat, yet not enough time to go do something else. We didn’t know how long it would take to get ourselves into London from the airport, so we allowed ample time.
So, once we got there we sat in the small bar area where people kept streaming in – some in quite dressy clothes – others in very casual clothes. We sat watching the chefs (the professionals were wearing little tight bandana head coverings (black); other kitchen staff were sans head coverings. Multiple languages were punctuating the air. Sous chefs kept going out the door (behind the glasses in photo) and disappearing down below somewhere (the dungeons) to retrieve big huge deep trays of food things (we spotted olives for sure). The walk-in storage refrigerator must be somewhere in the basement.
My drink was a cocktail type – with prosecco, Aperol, soda and an orange slice. Altogether perfect for relaxing on a warm afternoon. Dave had a glass of red wine.
This course may not have been my favorite of the night, but it was certainly right “up there.” Some delicious house made salami with to-die-for focaccia bread with red onion. The bread was just filled with the onion – it was warm, tender, and SO flavorful. The olives were home cured, we’re sure. I didn’t have any of them, but Dave said the large green ones were the best. We also had a small bowl of Spanish olive oil to dip the bread into.
Then they brought us a little amuse-bouche of fresh scallop with pomegranate (and juice) with a tiny drizzle of olive oil and the juice of Japanese limes (top photo left). All in a small Chinese ceramic soup spoon. Altogether amazing flavors.
I didn’t take notes about the wines we had – all unusual and chosen by the wine steward to go with each course. He and Dave had an animated conversation about each and every wine and why the wine was particularly appropriate for the different foods.
Next, I had burratta (second photo down). With a little bit of dark greens, a delish sauce too. You can barely see the cheese on the bottom of the plate. It was, by far, the best burratta I’ve ever had. It had great flavor and oozed just like it’s supposed to. I think they drizzled some balsamic on the plate too, or maybe it was a basil swath – I can’t remember. The greens were dressed and they also perfectly matched to go with the cheese.
Then I ordered a risotto course (third photo down). This was a tasting menu, so portions were small. Otherwise we’ve have never been able to waddle up the steps and out of there.
The risotto was full of red cherry tomatoes, fresh mozzarella cheese and basil. It was absolutely to die for. Best risotto of that type I’ve ever had. I may try to re-create it here at home. It was that good. And risotto is not hard to make, but I’m not sure exactly what made this one taste so significantly better than others. Probably just the ripest of tomatoes (sweet, ripe) and whole milk mozzie. Anyway, it was superb.
Trying not to make a spectacle of myself taking photos, I didn’t use flash, so I apologize if you have a hard time seeing them. I tried to lighten them up as best I could. This last is the duck breast I ordered. It was served on a bed of very soft polenta, then drizzled with some kind of fig jam or sauce, and buried underneath the duck was a fresh fig. This dish was so good, I couldn’t believe it. And yet, nothing about it was that unusual – the duck was rare, tasty and tender, the fig sauce light and sweet, and the fresh fig was just ripe perfection.
Then they brought dessert. I took a photo of it, but am not including it because I was very disappointed in it. I ordered baked Alaska. They used a small cake round on the bottom, a nice (small) knob of vanilla ice cream, then covered it with sweet meringue. Then they’d browned it with a hand torch, I think. But the meringue was still sticky and overly sweet. After two bites I scraped off the meringue and just ate the ice cream and cake. It was okay. Nothing to remark about, really. But to have had all the other courses (5 if you include the amuse-bouche) be off the charts, I’m fine if the dessert was a “miss.”
Would I go again? Yes I would. To the dining room? Probably not – I’d try the trattoria part just because I’d like to.
15 Westland Place (about 4 blocks walk from Old Street tube station on the Northern Line)
London N1 7LP, United Kingdom
0871 330 1515 (reservations available online)
We ordered a single order of eggs benedict and shared. The eggs were perfectly done - still runny, but oozing just right. The Hollandaise was also light and pleasant (obviously they make it fresh). Not too much. Not too little. They served it with a small mound of mache and some baby purple potatoes that were perfectly cooked. I’ve seen purple potatoes, but never eaten them – they really are purple inside. I liked the texture. And the flavor. We leisurely finished our breakfast, and enjoyed every last slurp of our coffee before wandering out onto the grounds (see greenery in rear of patio photo). It was lovely – with small seating areas here and there, some in, some out of the sunshine. Fountains burbling in various places as well. Trails meander in different directions, eventually coming to the bungalows. Of course, we weren’t staying there, so didn’t get to see any rooms, but you can view a few on their website if you’re interested. The hotel is now part of the Meridien chain (Starwood). We heard several languages being spoken as we sat in the restaurant.
If you enjoy the ambiance of a small hotel, this one fits that ticket perfectly. And I concur with my friend Rachel that the food at Norma’s is exquisite. Rachel raves about the French Toast. The hotel also has a dinner restaurant which Rachel has recommended too. Guess we’ll have to go back to try that another visit. Try it we will, and maybe we’ll even go to breakfast there again. Just have a full wallet – it’s not cheap. Definitely a splurge, but I didn’t begrudge a penny of it. With coffee at $6 per pot and one breakfast entree, our bill was $34, not including tip and valet.
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