Day 8: London (still here)

I’m feeling a little under the weather, blowing my nose and feeling a little less perky than usual. I may also be suffering from uncertainty. There isn't much certainty forecast for the next little bit. So here we are.

I didn’t want to sit around in the room worrying about plane flights or blowing my nose so I rousted myself and walked down to Tate Britain—a little longer a walk than I had imagined but just fine. I was able to see some of my favourite paintings by the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (the PRB), an odd assortment of British painters who had affairs with their models, occasionally married them, and fell in love with each other’s wives. Being English in the middle of the 19th century, they felt extremely conflicted, guilt-ridden and sexually repressed. I don’t know that I would go so far as to say I love their work, but it is really interesting and beautifully painted. I am especially fond of the work by Edward Burne-Jones and the designer William Morris. Tate Britain has a great collection of their work which I visit every time I’m here. Then I walked through an exhibit by Chris Ofili, a Brit who is probably best known for his use of elephant dung in this paintings. He’s moved on to other things now—but I must admit I like the elephant dung pieces better than his current work.

I realized early this morning that I wanted to have a simple meal we could eat in our hotel room tonight without having to make plans and reservations. So I stopped by a local deli-type place called Jak’s and bought two plastic boxes of various salads of my choosing and some cooked salmon. Our dinner is waiting for us upstairs in our room’s mini-bar fridge.










If I find out anything about our plans later today when Katherine returns from her office, I’ll add a note to this posting.

Day 7: London continued

We went to see the movie The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo as planned. Even the subtitles could not detract from this spooky and spine-tingling movie. I was glad that we had read the book, especially at the beginning. While the film doesn’t follow the book plot exactly, the film version is marvelously told and doesn’t suffer at all from the omissions. The acting is superb. Lisbeth Salander is a character you won’t forget maybe ever. If it comes to a theater close to you, see it.

And then we had to run—literally—down Fulham Road to meet our friend Chris who was waiting for us at Pellicano, a really nice Sardinian restaurant in our hotel’s neighborhood. We had such an active conversation going from the very beginning that I forgot to take pictures of the food. So I’ll give you a quick run-down and you’ll have to imagine what it looks like for yourself. I had mozzarella di buffala with tomatoes (which weren’t bad considering the season); the mozzarella was fantastic with a creamy center like burrata. I shared it. Followed by fresh tagliatelle with a wild rabbit ragout. Katherine chose a risotto with radicchio on top, and Chris had the home made ravioli filled with potato, pecorino cheese and mint in a tomato sauce. We shared an arugula salad with parmesan cheese and fresh spinach sautéed with garlic and chilli. For dessert we were supposed to share (but I actually ate) a Sardinian tart with pecorino and lemon zest drizzled with honey served with fresh raspberries. Chris and I drank a Sardinian red and Katherine had a pinot grigio. It was a lovely evening and an unexpected treat to be with Chris.

Day 7: London

The flight we have scheduled for tomorrow, Monday, is most likely going to be canceled. Apparently the airlines are taking up a small number of planes to see if they might be able to resume some flights. Meanwhile the back log of people and produce just keeps piling up around the world, causing hardships, financial losses, and endless uncertainty for thousands upon thousands of people. In relative terms, we are in good shape. We are staying in a beautiful city in a nice hotel and are slowly developing our options. At this point we think it unlikely that we will fly to Syria this week, but next week is a possibility.

I just finished the Steig Larrson book The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest and this afternoon we’re going to see the Swedish movie of his first book, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Then to dinner with Chris Kuelling, another stranded compatriot, who is married to Katherine’s dear cousin, Sibyl.

Day 6: London (continued)

London is just gorgeous. The skies are clear blue—in spite of the debris-laden air keeping the planes grounded—and the temperature is warming. We walked to the Victoria & Albert to see a quilt exhibition. I was a quilter for many years starting in Berkeley in 1974 and lasting until the early 90s in North Carolina when I decided that I wanted a quicker turn-around from conception to realization than hand-made and hand-quilted projects allowed. So this quilt exhibition was a connection with my past. And it was splendid.
All of the quilts were British, most were quite old with a few judiciously chosen new ones. All were in superb condition and were a thrill for me to see. My favorite was made for a child’s bed out of various colors of silk, with a thick batting which created a nice depth in the quilting. It was made by Priscilla Redding sometime between 1690 and 1720. She had made a note of it in her tiny journal which was also on display.

We ate dinner at a Chinese restaurant called Hakkusan which I found listed in a book which Franz and Michelle had give me for Christmas called The Fortune Cookie Chronicles by Jennifer 8. Lee. One of the stories involved the author being asked to find “the best Chinese restaurant in the world.” And Hakkasan was one of her final contenders for the title. It was superb. We had the dim sum platter, jasmine tea pork ribs, fried aubergine, and a lamb salad which was to die for. The lamb was cooked in a garlic sauce and the dish was multiple layers of lamb, Asian pear, mango, and green papaya pickle with some of the sauce dribbled on top. For dessert we had a coconut rice pudding with a mango “yolk” in the center and a chocolate extravaganza called Chocolate Textures. We were so happy.

Day 6: London

Today was the day we were to fly to Syria. No doubt you have heard about the closing of all the air space in Great Britain and now many other parts of Europe because of the volcano in Iceland spewing a combination of glass, sand and rock which is catastrophic to airplane engines flying through it. We learned first thing this morning that our flight this afternoon was canceled and that we are rescheduled for Monday. We are hopeful but it is entirely possible that that flight could be canceled as well. It all depends on the volcano and this plume of stuff moving south and east at about 25 miles per hour.

So we unexpectedly have a weekend in London to do as we please. More to come.

Day 5: Oxford to London

Thursday night I ate alone at 4500 Miles from Delhi, a very nice Indian restaurant right around the corner from our hotel. Eating alone in a restaurant is not my favorite activity but I think of it as a survival skill I have had to learn. My favorite place to eat alone is at a bar, preferably in front of the people who are cooking my food or a friendly bar tender. The activity gives me something to do. I never bring a book with me: I believe that eating alone gives me the chance to taste my food and if I’m reading I will be distracted from appreciating it. What’s more, I have always thought that a woman reading while eating her dinner looks a bit pathetic. I don’t want to generate sympathy. I want to have fun and enjoy myself and tell myself stories about the people eating around me.

That said, the dinner at the Indian place was really very pleasant, even though it didn’t satisfy my preferences when eating alone. I was seated at a table looking out toward Park End Street. There was a family sitting in front of me; two Indian fellows, one of whom had his cell phone glued to his ear; a table of four and a table of two women—plenty to keep me occupied. I started with Poppadoms served with four chutneys; moved along to Aloo Tikki, fried potatoes cakes stuffed with peas; and finally Chooza Makhni, tandoor chicken in a delicious tomato sauce with some Garlic and Coriander Naan. A glass of house Merlot. The family finished eating, paid their bill and left the restaurant. A few minutes later I saw the four of them on the top level of a bus as it drove by. I thought to myself: When have I ever seen a family of four in the US riding a bus home after dinner in a nice restaurant? Isn’t that true?

Now jump to Friday. We packed up our bags to come back to London. I set out for a nice walk through Oxford one last time, looking for a place to have lunch. I had noticed several places selling pies with various savoury fillings. In a covered market just off High Street, I found a nice shop called Pieminister and ordered a lamb and mint pie which was served with gravy. The crust was not as flaky as I would have liked and the filling didn’t have much lamb or any mint that I could detect. But what I liked most about the experience was catching sight of two students next to me eating their pies in the traditional way: with mashed potatoes, gravy, a mound of mushy peas on top and a dollop of ketchup on the side.

We took the train to London later in the day and had a lovely dinner with friends at their home—such a nice change from eating in restaurants. The food they prepared was beautiful, fresh and delicious. Thank you, David and Sarah.

Day 4: Oxford

After posting the blog yesterday, I set out for a bookshop I vaguely remembered from the last time I was here. Blackwell’s. I found it, looked over the cookbook section for anything new and interesting and bought the third in the trilogy, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest, written by Steig Larrson and not yet available in US. I’ve read the first two: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The Girl Who Played with Fire. Well I started reading about 5:30, fully intending to stop for a bite of dinner. But I couldn’t stop. Just kept on reading until Katherine returned about 9:30. So exciting. I wasn’t hungry for anything but more of this fascinating and absorbing book. The other two items in this photo are my travel journal (thank you, Anne) and my little dinner journal in which I write all the food I'm eating on the trip.

I determined that today would be an art day. The small Modern Art Oxford was a wonderful little museum that last time I was here. But unfortunately I found out this morning that it was closed for refurbishing until April 17. So I set out on a different path: The Bodleian Library and The Sheldonian Theatre. But I also stopped at Marks & Spencer to look in their food area which is quite good. I love supermarkets and this one was full of women doing their shopping. Two things were especially interesting: The labeling here is much more complete than in the US and it is required to include the country of origin. The only coffee they sold was Fair Trade, which means that the farmers growing the coffee aredealt with directly and are given a better price than they would get on the open market working through a middle person.

And can you imagine what I did next? Back to the hotel for more reading…