Lost in a "Maze" of culinary bliss

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Geo: 51.5002, -0.126236

I woke up feeling fully refreshed, until I glanced over at my alarm clock - 2:30 AM!!! What the heck??!!? Back to bed until 7 AM. This time I woke up feeling very tired. What the heck??!!? It also wasn't the most comfortable sleep in the friggin' short bed. I kept hitting my head on the headboard.

Had some toast with Nutella and coffee. Mmmmm ... Nutella .... too bad the coffee I brought from home was crap. It was Kona coffee, but had been in my pantry for a long time.

B&H weren't up yet but I decided to make breakfast anyway. Since the store last night only sold onions in bags of three, I fried up an entire onion to go with some eggs. Not too bad with the creole seasoning I brought from home.

Since B&H still weren't up, I did some grocery shopping - looking at what we had bought yesterday, there wouldn't be enough food for sandwiches. I got some kickass multi-grain organic bread - after finishing breakfast, I made myself some sandwiches for later and munched on some grapes.

B&H still not up ... so I left them a note saying that I'd be back at the apartment at 6 to go to the Christmas market in Hyde park, and if I didn't see them here I'd meet them at the restaurant for dinner. But I was becoming concerned - were they hibernating? Had they been poisoned by the black mold in the shower stall? Should I call an ambulance? What to do???

Though it was only 5 or 6 degrees out, it felt hot compared to yesterday! Off to St. Dunsten's - pretty cool. Off to the Temple built by the Templar knights - it was a boring compound devoid of anything even remotely interesting. Kind of like Milan!

I didn't mean to, but I walked past St. Paul's Cathedral. It just happened to be on the way to the Borough market - a real paradise for foodies! The sights, sounds, and smells ... I absolutely loved it! There could only have been one way to improve it - sprinkle in some Spanish hotties! I spent a while browsing - I regretted packing sandwiches instead of just sampling the goodies on display. The divine scent of lamb burgers being grilled almost drove me insane!!! Though the smoked ham and cheddar on organic bread sandwiches I made were still very tasty. But luckily, I always have room for dessert so I gorged on cakes instead (see pics for the yumminess, in all its glory!).

London is a great strolling town (when it's not cold and rainy!) - there's always something to see or do. The Verve's "Bittersweet Symphony" came on my iPod as I was walking - a perfect song for the moment, as I recalled the video (basically a guy strolling around town, like me!) I hit Brixton Market before heading off to Harrod's.

I have been to Harrod's before and normally wouldn't go see it again, but I thought there might be some special Christmas theme or displays. I was wrong. The Christmas Wonderland section looked like it was already being dismantled. The food halls were cool as always - now they serve dim sum, and there's also a Krispy Kreme franchise. I guess it's still a novelty for Europeans, unlike in North America where nobody cares about them any more. I also didn't remember the Laduree café (a famous Parisian café renowned for its supposedly incredible 9 euro hot chocolate).

I walked through Knightsbridge and did some window shopping on Brompton Road. After that, I strolled through Belgravia and Soho on the way back to the apartment. B&H weren't there - so they must not have been poisoned after all, only hibernating.

Off to the Hyde Park Christmas market - a little disappointing. I expected a giant extravaganza, but it was only worth a brief stroll. The market stalls didn't offer anything special, and the food selection was very limited. It's kind of neat that they've set up a ferris wheel and ice-skating rink, but overall it was nothing special. The carnival rides were a bit tacky - it was just the standard stuff, re-decorated with some Christmas trim. I mean, what the heck does a haunted house have to do with Christmas?

Having some time before dinner, I decided to walk over to Buckingham Palace. Our chosen restaurant for dinner was back towards the apartment, so I headed towards the ferris wheel erected in Hyde Park for the Christmas market. I got a little turned around and it didn't quite seem right, but how could I go wrong walking towards a big landmark like that? Traveler Tip: Landmarks are very useful for navigating. They never move, so can never be wrong! So I continued walking towards the ferris wheel until I saw ... Big Ben ... what the heck? I went in the complete opposite direction of where I needed to go! Travel Tip: Only use landmarks when you are sure that you are going towards the correct one. Don't be a dumb@ss and walk towards the London Eye by accident!!!

There was no way I was going to be able to walk to the restaurant in time for the reservation (only 15 minutes to go!) so I hopped onto the Underground. I was a little concerned because when I made the reservation several weeks ago, the restaurant was very clear that we needed to be on time or run the risk of losing our spot. I arrived five minutes late with B&H nowhere to be found. Luckily, there was no problem with the reservation. So where did we dine tonight? In one of Gordon Ramsay's restaurants - Maze. Theatrics from his TV shows aside, the guy is one of the top chefs in the world. To be honest, it wasn't his fame that made me want to dine here but the things I've heard about his food.

Maze isn't his top restaurant in London , and I don't know how deep his affiliation with the food runs beyond being an owner. We could have gone to one of his other higher-end restaurants, but this one was pricey enough as it is with the brutal exchange rate. Dining at one of his other places would've bankrupted us! Not to mention the fact that they had dress codes, and I certainly wasn't going to carry the extra weight of dress pants and a blazer just for one dinner!

The interior was beautiful - sleek and contemporary, and was lively yet cozy at the same time. Despite having a "smart casual" dress code, I was definitely under-dressed in my jeans and shirt. Maybe everybody was extra spiffy tonight because it was Christmas Eve? I also noticed that much of the staff was French-speaking.

B&H arrived a little bit late. I don't envy them, having so little time in one of the most amazing cities in the world. Really, they only have 1.5 days to sightsee, because everything shuts down for Christmas day tomorrow. We perused the wine list - the most expensive bottle was 2600 GBP (almost $5500 CAD)!!! It was just a TAD outside our price range ... luckily there were numerous more reasonable (for London ) 30 GBP selections available.

We settled for a semi-dry Chiroubles (Burgundy) - not too bad, but I certainly wouldn't pay the equivalent of $65 CAD back home for it. But when in London ... my strategy of picking the 3rd-cheapest wine in the Burgundy section wasn't too bad, after all! But it sounds more impressive to say I selected the 4th-most expensive one on the list!

A side note - we all remarked on how nice the toilet paper in the bathrooms was. It was the Mercedes of the toilet paper world! A sharp contrast to the sandpaper-like stuff you'll find in some Eastern European countries.

It was a pretty awesome meal. It goes to show you that food doesn't have to be overly fancy or revolutionary to be incredible. I'd describe the food here as being relatively normal and traditional, but prepared exquisitely, and imparted with a modern and unique touch. But still, as much as I love sampling cuisine like this, sometimes an excellent burger and fries is just as good The only disappointment tonight was that Gordon Ramsay didn't come out and tell us to "piss off!" or call us "wankers!" After, we were stuffed and needed to walk (more like waddle) to burn off the calories. Check out the pics for the complete play-by-play.

We walked down Bond, Regent, and Oxford streets to check out the Christmas light displays. All were over-rated. It was a quiet night, but still a nice stroll. My knees were starting to kill me - I think I'm getting old!!!

Back to the apartment. We watched a REALLY trippy Korean movie entitled "Old boy" until 3 AM. Very good, but some very twisted subject material. We ate some wonderfully aromatic grapes as we watched. Three cheers for non-genetically modified food!

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Photos

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My sweet, lovely Nutella - if you were a human, I'd marry you. But since you're not ... well, I'd still probably marry you ...

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Free range eggs. The yolks were a rich orange colour, and quite robust. At first I thought that they had gone bad, but realized that the bad eggs were actually the genetically-modified crap that we get back in North America.

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The ignition on the gas stove wasn't working so I borrowed a lighter from the front desk worker. My reflexes are getting bad - I singed all the hair on my fingers.

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The old ruins of St. Dunsten's. A pretty cool place with a lovely garden inside.

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All of the problems people have during Christmas are now solved!

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The Temple of the Templar Knights. Blah.

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A cool little spot.

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Say the name of this restaurant quickly enough and it sounds a little bit bad ...

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Juiced - is this where Barry Bonds and all the ex-Balco clients go to get their steroid fix?

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Knightrider court ... you'll never guess who I saw here ...

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... it's the Hoff!!!

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A different interpretation of St. Paul's Cathedral.

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Eat. A well-chosen name, beautiful in the manner that it so simply explains the purpose of the place. If the owners opened up a brothel, they could probably come up with a similar name, consisting of only four letters ... can you guess what that might be? For all of you that are thinking of a four-letter word starting with an 'F' - you should be ashamed of yourselves!! I was thinking that they could call it "Love". Get your minds out of the gutters ...

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Borough Market - a Spanish food store. But again, it was a case of false advertising - no Spanish hotties were on display :(

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Mean time - kind of a funny name for a beer, don't you think? Kind of reminds me of Mary during the Baltic trip. Whenever I would tell Mary "It's time for me to make fun of you" she would respond with tears in her eyes "You mean it's mean time?"

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Blow's Yard, eh? This must be the red light district ...

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Southwark Cathedral - where I enjoyed my treats from Borough Market.

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I had a delicious, moist carrot cake with roasted hazelnuts (roasted hazelnuts in carrot cake - pure genius!!!). The sickly sweet and grainy icing wrecked it a bit, so I scraped off most of it. Especially yummy when eaten in the shadow of Southwark Cathedral!
The cake was rather filling so I saved the brownie for later. I really didn't want to get the carrot cake. I only did so because I felt I was lacking in veggies and that the carrots would be good for me. Honest!

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Brixton market (can you tell I like markets?) - chaotic, crowded, and frenetic. It smelled like Chinatown - I wasn't a big fan of it, but it still was worth a visit. The area seems to composed mostly of African and Caribbean communities. There was a small amount of Spanish being spoken but unfortunately, no Spanish hotties :(

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Electric Avenue! Not quite like Calgary's old Electric Avenue, however.

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How cool is that? A skating rink set-up in the moat of the Tower of London!