We set aside a full day to explore the royalty of London, both living residences and final resting places, how they spend their day and how they spent their lives. The grand tour began at Westminster Abbey where we paid homage to some of the greatest minds in the world, let alone in Britain. The most interesting part of the Cathedral was the Lady Chapel where Queen Elizabeth and Mary Queen of Scots were buried, surrounded by an incredibly intricate series of seats for each region in the UK, complete with crests and flags. After remembering each author and mind in the Poet’s Corner and stealing a glance at Sir Isaac Newton’s tomb, we made our way to Buckingham Palace. We were fortunate that the State Rooms were still available for touring, an opportunity we waited patiently for and relished once we got inside. Walking through the incredible rooms, we imagined Presidents and Kings and Prime Ministers being welcomed and made comfortable in the most elaborate decoration I’ve ever seen. It was more impressive than Versailles because these rooms are still in use and are pristine!
We couldn’t resist sitting on the back patio of the palace for a snack overlooking the garden. How often are you invited to the palace garden? INVITED is what I’m telling people.
From there, we walked through the vast garden that is Hyde Park, admiring the flowers from their disparate origins to their masterful English design. It was an overcast day, so the colors of the flowers bloomed extra vivid against the gray sky. When our feet could barely take another step, we reached the Serpentine Gallery in Kensington Gardens. The highlight was the Pavilion—like a floating aluminum pond reflecting down instead of up.
When it was finally nearing 4pm, we made our way to the Lanesborough Hotel to the Apsleys restaurant. We tried to do some research on the best tea in London and figured we couldn’t go wrong with so many reviews about the solarium. It was glorious! Half of high tea is atmosphere. I’m convinced a proper tea cake can only be fully enjoyed in a light-filled, Victorian room with fabric-covered walls. Apsleys had a giant skylight with chandeliers like I’ve never seen and a deconstructed Birth of Venus mural adding more life and light to the space.
The cake tray was a mountain of treasures. The savory finger sandwiches were the highlight: sliced beef with carmelized red onion tomato chutney and stilton, curried chicken salad with raisins, tuna salad with rocket and sun-dried tomato bread with cheese. Goat cheese and leek mini-quiches were delectable, tangy and savory with a little too much crust. Smoked salmon on a sticky egg bun with herbs and cream cheese was a slightly more robust bite than the delicate finger sandwiches. I love an assortment of flavors, especially when they are unique but not overpowering of each other. The curried chicken was so light, the chicken was barely coated with spices and mayonnaise. Mixed in raisins added a burst of sweet to complement the soft bread and thin layer of chicken. I was so enamored with these particular sandwiches that I revealed it o the waiter who brought a whole additional plate of them!
We moved upwards through the tiered tray to the dense tea cakes: orange chocolate and carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. May palette prefers savory to sweet so I dutifully tasted each cake but they didn’t hold a candle to the sandwiches. By the time we arrived at the top tier, we were full of cupful after cupful of Afternoon Blend and cakes so I broke off tiny corners of the pistachio, passion fruit and chocolate truffles. They were so artfully presented it was difficult to disrupt them! And after all that, our trays were cleared and what should appear but traditional English scones and clotted cream. The scones had risen perfectly, like savory biscuits with sweet dried cranberries. Smothered in tangy lemon curd and buttery clotted cream, it was worth finding room in my tummy to try these mini-masterpieces.
It felt so good to rest and gorge myself on bite-sized tastes of heaven, it was hard to believe it was only 6pm when we made our way from Apsley House to Harrods. While I’d heard plenty about the department store, nothing prepared me for the sight of what I can only describe as a real, live grocery designed by Charlie of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. It was incredible—while I did find my way upstairs to peruse fashions way out of my price range (and way out of my ability to pull off)—it was the food floor that took my breath away. When I arrived in the chocolate and candy room I couldn’t believe the lengths they had gone to so that you felt like you were in candy land. I’ve never seen so many truffles and candies and petit fours stretching around the room so that you could never experience all of them!
Every imaginable cuisine had a counter with prepared dishes for takeaway and stools for sitting and ordering. The dim sum wafted spicy, steamy, herbal flavors right when I walked in. Hanging dried peppers and garlic indicated the tapas counter with takeaway meatballs and olives. The Indian takeaway was so pungent and delicious-smelling, I was tempted to eat yet again. Most impressive to me was the terrine counter with at least 20 different pates made from duck to shrimp to vegetables. Incredible! If I lived in London I would be at Harrods every night to try a different terrine. Someone was ordering prosciutto so an enormous pork leg was being sliced with a giant knife as we watched. I wanted to stay and taste cheeses but they were closing down and it was time to head back to the hotel and put our feet up.
We had late reservations at Ivy amidst the West End theaters. A hangout for actors and theater-goers since the 20s, we were kind of hoping for a celebrity sighting but on a Monday night in the middle of most shows the likelihood was not high. Plus, I wasn’t wearing my glasses, so who knows, we could have been sitting right next to someone famous! Ivy was recommended by my coworker who used to live in London, and his description of the Shepherd’s Pie was that it was “trancendent” so of course, it was a no-brainer for my order. We started off with steak tartare, a spicy and sweet blend of mustard grains, pickles and quail egg that was absolutely delicious. I didn’t discover steak tartare until I met John a few years ago and while it’s not typically the first thing on a menu I’ll go for, there’s something about the slimy, crunchy texture and mix of salty meat and sweet pickles that is so interesting. And since we’d spent all afternoon eating sweets, I was seriously craving some meat. Even if my main course was also meat-tastic. We also split the grilled squid, chorizo and parsley salad, a very interesting combination of rubbery pieces of seafood and sausage, fragrant herbs, crunchy breadcrumbs and vinaigrette. Such an interesting combo. I must remember it for a light starter.
The shepherds pie was, indeed, transcendent. In the middle of a large, shallow bowl sat a circle of tender ground meat topped with a perfectly crispy fluff of mashed potatoes both swimming in a pool of red wine gravy. Unreal. An average person might find this dish too salty as the gravy, lamb and beef pie and mash was dripping with such saltiness that it almost made it spicy, but I was thoroughly loving it. Another texture adventure, the meat was rolling around in my mouth with whipped potatoes so light yet crisped on top that you just might forget you were practically inhaling carbs. And the red wine gravy was so rich and salty I wanted to drink it with a spoon. I may never come to London again without a shepherds pie at Ivy. What a way to top off our royal day.
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