It's Snowing In Verbier And It's Great Being In London

It's Sod's law, I must have missed some amazing skiing last week after the days of snowfall followed by blue skies.  Still, I'm back in wonderful London for a few days to enjoy new restaurants, clubs, and most importantly, to wave goodbye to my entrepreneurial sons who are off to Berlin to mix and produce music (deep house for those who can appreciate). Note: Bade Records and Brothers Black.

Soooo...whilst I continue my sort of trek training and London exploring (more on that later) , I am making meals for the ever hungry household

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Chicken yakitori with courgettes  (.5 cup mirin, .5 cup soy sauce, .5 cup water .25 sake, 2 tbs. sugar) Boil sauce ingredients together and simmer to a glaze, then baste chicken and courgettes continuously under a grill while cooking)

A healthy breakfast of gruyere omelette with quinoa/spring onions/roasted cherry tomatoes (treat like fried rice and season with dried chilies) 

Tom Kerridge meatballs with a rich brown ale sauce served with quinoa and grilled tomatoes. The meatballs took forever to make because you had to massage the pork with the seasonings, refrigerate, make into balls, refrigerate, fry carefully, make sauce then bake with sauce.  Phew, it was good but....  I think next time I'll ask one of my Swedish friends to make meatballs for me instead.

It's been a busy week.  The Calder exhibition at the Tate Modern is one not to miss. Wonderful performance sculpture.

There has been much chatter about 67 Pall Mall, a new members only club that is target specifically to wine lovers (5000 strong wine list). The club also has a lounge area with a food menu designed to complement their wine list. My friends have been enjoying it (lucky to be invited) and is a must join for those who want to meet wine owners and producers and have access to the club's extensive wine library.

Speaking about spreading Ivy, Richard Caring is making sure his franchise is reaching out.  After Ivy Chelsea, he has opened Ivy at High Street Kensington, across the street from the H & M.  The menu is consistent with the others so there are no surprises and the food is good and reasonable (for London which means pricey everywhere else) , the venue quite pleasant.  I enjoyed my dinner there with the girlfriends.  It seemed the whole restaurant was filled with women catching up.

Starter raw vege salad

Ivy's famous shepherd's pie.

What else going on?  The usual suspects are still lurking at 5 Hertford Street and Kebab Kid is still doing a roaring trade.  It's nice to know that some things don't change in London town.