London day 3
Breakfast and a quick museum visit
The plan was to do our normal hotel breakfast and then make a quick visit to the Victoria and Albert museum before heading out to do a few other things on our list. We had no idea all the museum had to offer. We quickly realized we would be in the museum for much longer than planned. It was all worth it. In addition to the standard exhibit that covers the entire world, The V&A has one of the best overall permanent photography exhibits we have ever seen, thanks to Elton John and his husband. The photography center also houses a full photography book library and a camera obscura. The glass and jewelry were also not to be missed.
Harrods and Hyde Park
Since we could not do the planned things on our list and our dinner spot was not far away, we decided to explore the area surrounding the museum. We quickly found ourselves in an area with a large Middle Eastern population so we could have a great, light lunch. Our lunch stop was right down the street from Harrods so we decided to head in and gawk at the opulence and ended up having a glass of Champagne in their Champagne bar. We then headed over to Hyde Park to visit the Serpentine Gallery and architectural installation.
MICHELIN star dining
We booked a fancy dinner for tonight at Dinner by Heston, a two-star restaurant in the Mandarin Hotel.
Upon arrival, we were presented with the menus and a card game. The card game would lay out the type of evening we would have when the food was presented. We could select cards that would allow the food to do the talking all the way up to having the wait staff not only tell us about the food but give us history and stories about each dish. We decided on the most information. The sommelier selected a perfect bottle of wine for us after asking a few simple questions. The restaurant presents food that represents the history of British food. Each dish is shown where it originated and we were even given the source of the recipe.
We went with the ala carte option instead of the tasting menu. For starters, Laurie selected The Truffle (c.1500) – Truffle, mushroom parfait & grilled bread and Matt selected Rice & Flesh (c.1390) Almond, saffron, veal sweetbread & smoked eel.
For the main, Laurie selected Filet of Hereford Beef (c.1830) Mushroom ketchup & triple cooked chips and Matt selected Powdered Duck Breast (c.1846) Spiced umbles, apricot, smoked fennel & raisins.
Laurie did not select a dessert when ordering (we quickly learned that did not matter) and Matt selected the Tipsy Cake (c.1858) Spit roast pineapple with brioche bread pudding in vanilla sauce. This dessert has a story. When building the restaurant, they installed a roasting spit but quickly realized it would provide enough heat to properly cook meats and other dishes to a Michelin star standard. So, they decided to roast pineapples. The pineapples are roasted for 5-6 hours while being basted every 20-30 minutes. Right before dessert was brought out, they gave us the option of the ice cream trolley, a cart that comes to your table and the wait staff make ice cream right a the table with vanilla cream and liquid nitrogen. We could not pass that up. As if that was not enough, we were given a chocolate ganache with a small scone-like cookie to finish. Needless to say, it was one of the best meals we have ever enjoyed.
