The End, Abruptly

It’s time for this blog to die. In the next few weeks, I’ll be packing up as my husband and I prepare for an unexpected move back to New York. (New job, nothing bad.) And although I’m sad to be leaving London, I am also happy to be returning. A few things I’ll miss: the smell of Cornish pasties in the subway, the architecture lit up along the river at night, tiny green parks that pop up where you least expect them, the vast array of Indian ingredients available at regular grocery stores, and heated towel racks.

This will be my last blog post here, but if you’re interested, head over to snyppet to see what I’ve got planned next.

And thanks for reading.

Random Atmospheric Photo

Flower box on St. Thomas Street, outside of London Bridge Station. London Bridge itself is having an anniversary this Saturday with a “fayre” featuring “activities and entertainment designed to give a flavour of life at the time of the Bridge’s opening 800 years ago.”

Neighborhood Find: Del’Aziz

As they say on their website, Del’Aziz is “a delicatessen, bakery, brasserie and gift shop offering an array of products, from freshly baked breads to pastries, olive oil and vinegars, chocolate and confectionary,” and the list goes on. It’s also a restaurant, where you can have a full meal or just a snack (that’s my carrot cake below, which was unorthodox—no cream cheese frosting and not many carrots—but tasty, shown with a gigantic cappuccino and a small one).


And the sign out front promises cocktails and belly dancing. So this is, needless to say, a welcome addition to what was once our up-and-coming neighborhood of Bermondsey but is now pretty well established as a rather fashionable place (or so it seems to me). I also bought a bag of taralli (to which I am addicted) and was tempted to buy some fruit preserves and jasmine tea pearls. But there’s plenty of time for that, I figure. Because I plan to make this a regular stop in the neighborhood.

A Time for Humor

I’ve seen these Mr Jones watches only online, but I love the way they display (in addition to the time) a distinctly British sense of humor. I especially like the Accurate model and the Mantra.
      And here are some thoughts from Ricky Gervais about the differences between American (optimistic) and British (pessimistic) humor. And here’s what Simon Pegg thinks about how irony works in the two countries.
      Whatever it is, British humor (humour) is one of the best things about living in the UK.

Random London Photo

A display of minimal kids’ building blocks yesterday in the Muji store on Tottenham Court Road. (And I noticed their porcelain incense holder in the shape of Battersea Power Station is now on sale. It makes me smile every time to think of tiny wisps of smoke coming out of those tiny chimneys. Get it while it’s hot and while you're here: the power station doesn’t appear to be available in the US store.)

Restaurant Recommendation: The Park Terrace

Take advantage of London’s first-ever official heat wave and head over to the casual (but elegant) Park Terrace restaurant on the ground floor of the Mandarin Oriental. Outdoors and enclosed by green hedges and with a view of the trees across the street in Hyde Park, this small patio restaurant offers up a small menu of tasty items, such as poached salmon, Thai green curry, or a platter of beef carpaccio (friends who ate this said it was great). It did look nice. I, however, started with a selection of sashimi sprinkled with jalapenos before moving on to a slab of miso-marinated black cod.


Both of my dishes were good, but were they as eye-openingly good as the original preparations, which, I think, come from Nobu in New York? No. I did, however, sample a lovely summery British wine that I’d never had before: the Chapel Downs Bacchus, made in Kent. Give it a go. Perfect for a night outside in the heat.

(There are also these summertime cocktails from restaurants in New York that sound pretty good. Coconut martini: yes!)

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