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Published: June 26th 2018
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Michelin star count: Today 3; trip 11
So we started our day off with a leisurely walk across the Blackfriar’s bridge to have breakfast at the Swan, a restaurant attached to the Globe theatre here in London. Well, it was a disappointment! A British breakfast it was supposed to be. A British breakfast it was. But not a good one. I certainly wouldn’t recommend the Swan.
After breakfast we wandered next door to the Globe theatre (well, the third incarnation of it) for a tour and talk about every high school students favourite Bill! Interesting factoid, the globe was never in Stratford on Avon! Those same high school students would be much more enlightened as they drove down the 401 in that yellow school bus to see R&J in our very own Stratford! Turns out the Globe was originally built in London and that is where Shakespeare did most of his most influential writing. The first two Globe’s wer a few hundred feet down the road from where the current one stands. The first was destroyed in a fire when the crew trying to be realistic fired a few canons and a ball of fire
landed on the thatch roof! The second was destroyed by those who disapproved of the theatre. The new Globe is the best representation of the original but is only 21 years old. They couldn’t build it in the same spot as the original because a historic building is now on the site (they couldn’t actually do an archeological dig on the site because of that). It was an American filmmaker that set out on a crusade to rebuild the Globe. Go see it. Take the tour. Well worth it.
After the tour, a boat ride, subway ride and short walk to Restaurant Gordon Ramsay. Been looking forward to this one for a while (the first resto we booked). Needless to say, it did not disappoint! But before we get to the food, there was a reasonably large wedding group (maybe 15 people) in the resto when we arrived. Having just returned from France, Gordon was in time so the staff called him in to say hello to the wedding party. Not being shy, I said to our waiter, could you ask Chef to pop by, the kids really want to meet him (that was only 80% a
lie!). Long story short - I MET GORDON FREAKIN’ RAMSAY! Nice guy. For those of you that watch him on TV...way more Masterchef kids or 100 recipes to live by that Hell’s Kitchen. Now for the food. Apologies for the less than perfect pics. They took my camera away so not DSLR...just iPhone. Starters were Agnolotti and Dexter beef tartare. Not usually a tartare fan (it is usually over minced to the point of being ground beef), I ordered it thinking if anyone can do this right... I was not disappointed. Pickles, dill and Savora mustard rounded out the dish. The agnolotti was equally as good. Broad beans, marjoram and Roves des Garrigues cheese rounded out this dish. We all had the chicken for our main. A stuffed breast. Simply outstanding. Dessert was a wild strawberry basil and vanilla custard tart. A nice light refreshing way to finishthe meal. Then we got the kitchen tour Gordon promised! The whole kitchen was redone in January/February this year. Stunning. And we got to see the chef (Not GR) in action. He really does inspect EVERY plate before it leaves right down to wiping it clean it he does not think it clean
enough.
The afternoon was free to roam so we headed over to Camden market (not worth the trip) and then on an adventure to do the obligatory Pandora bracelet update for this vacation.
Quick stop back at the hotel and then off to Pret a Porter, the European version of Pandora bread for a quick light dinner before we went to see Hamilton! Having seen it in NYC in the fall, expectations were high and it did not disappoint! I wouldn’t quite put it on par with NY but 85-90% of the way there. And tickets cost me $400 in total rather than $1,200 per!
Tomorrow...London tower and High Tea (Jubilee tea to be exact!). Better be good. it is approaching Ramsay prices!
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