NEW YEAR’S DAY

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This is our last day, no plans other than dinner. Just relaxing in the room, reflecting on the year gone by, and packing of course packing.

This is our second year in a row we opted to spend the Holidays out of the country, a nice tradition that we would love to continue, but next year we do have a three week 10/15-year anniversary trip planned to Italy/Slovenia/Greece in October, so we likely won’t do another big trip at the end of the year. We are tentatively planning just the New Year Holiday in Paris.

Overall, this has been a great trip. Yes, there have been the bumps, but that is to be expected. We are glad we made the trip and day trip to Brussels, even with all of the train delays. London is a great city, unfortunately it is becoming more like New York, and less English. It is easy to see the US influences everywhere, beyond Starbucks, the general attitude of Londoners’ seems to be very similar to New Yorkers, but yet they still are far and away more polite and friendly.

Perhaps Brexit is a good thing for the UK and will assist in getting some of the identity and unique culture back. London of course is a huge melting pot and always has been. It is a very international city, and that part hopefully never changes. The multi-cultural aspect of London is what makes it such a great city. We didn’t get a real opportunity to get out to the country side, Cotswold was pretty organized and on Christmas day, so we didn’t get a real since of life outside of London. That is the foundation of another trip devoted to the English country side and Scotland.

We did get to sample a good cross section of traditional English food, some better than others. A Fish n Chips sampling would make a great trip. I am sure we will be back to London in the future, if for no other reason the theatre, prices can’t be beat.

2017 will be a challenging year for many reasons that need not be discussed here. We have now been in New York for over 3 and half years and likely won’t be moving until retirement, unless we hit the lottery or some job opportunity presents itself that just can’t be turned down. A return to the west coast other than for a visit is highly unlikely. My 50 years in Oregon are now behind me and new adventures are ahead. There is much travel left in us, and part of our travels now include exploring places we may eventually may want to make our home base in retirement. We will of course travel until it just isn’t physically possible, even if it means being pushed in a wheel chair.

So, our last event for this trip is our traditional very nice dinner, we have chosen the Savoy Grill for our last night. One, because the Savoy is a historic hotel and two, the Savoy Grill is a Gordon Ramsay restaurant, and I have a love hate relationship with the man. Expectations are very high, but then he brings that on himself.

Ending on a high note

We dressed for dinner suit coats and ties and as usual we were the best dressed there. People just don’t seem to have any class or since of style or elegance anymore. Dinner was at the Savoy Grill a Gordon Ramsay. As I stated earlier my expectations were high as the last time we ate at a Ramsay restaurant was in Versailles on my 50^th Birthday and it was exceptional for the most part.

The décor was very stylish, the place you want to dress up to go to, well at least we do. We were seated at a great little corner booth table in the just slightly off center, we had a great view of the rest of the interiors. The service was the best we have experienced, all very knowledgeable, friendly and pleasant. I went in ready to have the beef wellington, something I make very well, and that Ramsay touts as being one of his signature dishes not only on Hells’ kitchen but his restaurants as well. Unfortunately, it was only made for two and we really didn’t want to have the same thing. So, the battle of the Wellingtons will have to wait another day. They did look very good as the table next to us had them all around.

A word about the service. Alex our main waiter was very good, friendly but not intrusive. We wanted a salad between the appetizer and the entrée, but they didn’t really have one on the menu, he had the kitchen make us a proper salad and even brought extra dressing (the British do not dress their salads very well). The sommelier was excellent, he is just starting his advance class in school and really knows his stuff already. We had chosen a Brunello for our entrée but wanted a white to go with our appetizer’s, he suggested a very nice Gaillac from eastern Bordeaux. It pared perfectly with the appetizer. He decanted the Brunello and allowed it to breath just the right amount of time. Our second server (did not catch her name) but she was very young and from Naples, we had a nice conversation with her about Naples and Pompeii. She wants to move to the West Coast USA and open a restaurant, I wish her great success. The hostess was also extremely pleasant and from Hungry, we had a brief conversation with her on our way out about how much we enjoyed our trip to Budapest a few years ago.

Now for the meal. We truly ended on a high note. Everything was cooked perfectly and tasted wonderfully. The only exception was the Béarnaise, I beat Gordon hands down here.

We started with cocktails Martini for me, in my continuing search for the best Martini (I do have a winner to announce, but that is at the end of this post). Jerry had a glass of Champagne. I am going to go back to a method of a few trips ago and list Jerry’s meal first then mine:

Jerry:

Appetizer: Scottish Smoked salmon severed with a bit of lemon and crème fraiche, it was simple but incredible.

Salad: Simple mixed green salad with a lemon vinaigrette.

Entrée: Sole Victoria, pouched sole with spinach, crayfish and a lobster beurre blanc. It was cooked perfectly and light and very favorable.

Chris:

Appetizer: Linguini with Cornish crab and white truffle sauce. The pasta was fresh and cooked perfectly al dente. And the truffle flavor was intense but not overwhelming. Could have eaten it for days.

Salad: Same as Jerry’s

Entrée: Veal T Bone with béarnaise. The veal was cooked perfectly medium rare and one of the best pieces of veal I think I have ever eaten. The béarnaise was lacking, vinegar, shallots and most importantly tarragon.

With our entrées, we had a couple of sides a Cauliflower Gratin with English cheddar, god it was good and I don’t even like cauliflower. Finally, a side of Truffle Mashed potatoes, simply the perfect mashed potato.

The wine went so well with the meal and we were not rushed at any time. We were there for over 2 hours.

Dessert was a Baked Alaska; the first I have ever had and it came with a show. You know how I liked things lit on fire and done table side. I was not disappointed here. It had a really; nice peanut butter ice cream inside.

It was absolutely the perfect meal to end our London Holiday trip.

One final comment on London before the best of list. London is possibly one of the most Christmas friendly cities I have ever been, everything is decorated, stores, restaurants, businesses, etc. They take the holiday very seriously here.

The trip is now over, all that is left is to fly home tomorrow. This will be the first time I have actually managed to post my final blog entry while actually in the place I am blogging about. So now for a recap of the best and not so good of the trip.

Best overall experience: Hands down (and Jerry agrees) Dreamgirls, perhaps one of the best productions I have ever seen.

Best Meal: The Savoy Grill, from start to finish the food was great the service perfection the atmosphere inviting. (The Red Fort was a pretty close second, the Indian food was incredible)

Best Cultural Experience: Day in Windsor from the castle to the pub.

Most disappointing experience: This is actually a close call and almost a three-way tie, but at the end of the day, the Day trip to the Cotswold’s was the most disappointing. It just wasn’t as advertised and certainly not lunch in Cotswold. We barely saw the Cotswold except as we drove through. The runners up here are, The Bodyguard and Christmas Eve dinner at Simpson’s on the Strand.

That pretty much wraps up this blog. Our next trip is to the Bay Area, but probably won’t blog about that as it is mainly to visit family and friends. After that it is the 4^th of July I Ashville North Carolina, then the big anniversary trip to Italy, Slovenia and Greece.

Until then may all your travels be safe and full of good food.

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