PDX1

So for those of you who don’t want to read through all that I did in Portland, here is the tl;dr version.

I flew to Southwest to Portland, somehow got free Wi-Fi.  Talked to the quickest rudest rental car agent ever and then navigated the most confusing streets of my life on the way to the hotel.  Got some pho from a food truck and spilled it pretty much everywhere.  Got +1 Tranquility points courtesy of the Japanese Garden.  Saw a dude pissing on the street in broad daylight.  Did some light window shopping where I scored some chopsticks.  Had an amazingly cheap beer at a really great 80’s arcade.  Went to my first clothing store/art gallery combo with live DJ.  Waited two and a half hours for dinner.  Got pretty tipsy at a few bars while waiting for dinner.  Found out it was actually worth the wait.  Had a waitress from a neighborhood nearby where I live now.

I’m not a huge fan of flying.  The exception to that rule is when I have to fly Virgin America.  I especially hate flying Southwest Airlines.  I much rather have assigned seating rather than go through the craziness of fighting over a seat once you’ve boarded.  It’s the worst airline to travel on if you’re flying with someone.  Solo it is pretty great though admittedly.  Still I settled into the fly pretty easily.  We scored the last two seats together on the plane and I sat back and listened to some music while reading a book.  Those Bose® QuietComfort® 15 Acoustic Noise Cancelling® Headphones have saved the lives of countless children.

View of Portland from Hotel Room

We got off the plane pretty quickly.  PDX is the biggest oddly emptiest airport I’ve ever been in.  It seemed slightly somber for a Saturday afternoon.  It was a quick walk to pick up the bags before making our way to the rental car counter.  I booked the car in advance through hotwire.  It was a Toyota Corolla, so nothing fancy but it would surely get the job done.  I came across the rudest rental car agent I’ve ever dealt with.  What he lacked in tact he made up in efficiency however.  I was able to ignore his sly comment about how he couldn’t find my reservation because it was for ten (Flight landed at noon mind you).  What stuck with me is the fact that I would need to bring a receipt back for refueling from within 5 miles of the airport.  This outrageous request made me almost not want to rent from them at all.  In retrospect, the closet gas station to PDX is oddly two miles away as I would later find out.

You don’t really need a car at all in Portland, with the exception of the trails that I wanted to go on and such I could have gotten along just fine without a car.  I would go as far as to say that Portland is not only bike friendly, but car hostile.   When you finally figure out which lane you are supposed to be in, it makes navigating the downtown areas much more complex when you have to consider that you may not be able to turn in the direction that you want to turn because of a bus only lane.  It wasn’t too tough though I am exaggerating a bit but you really have to pay attention.

As I moved to check in to the Hilton when I tried to park valet, I found out that I was staying at the other tower.  This meant I had to make a huge circle back around in order to park.  I would end up doing self-parking at the other tower.  This made for a great annoyance for the rest of my stay as the other tower was easy to find by walking, I am easily confused when it comes to direction and use Google maps almost exclusively when I’m driving.  This meant that I would make that same huge circle whenever I went back to the hotel.  I wish Hilton would save the executive tower onto Google maps to make it easier to find.

That aside, we were checked in after a bit of a delay,  I can’t complain much as we were checking into the hotel a bit early, and there was a bit of a line.  Still, I ended up in a room that was on a pretty high floor with a decent view of the city of Portland.  The room was spacious enough and the TV selection at the hotel was large enough that you wouldn’t have room to complain about it.  The internet speed was just fast enough to not annoy you.  I had no problem streaming a few YouTube videos here and there, but you aren’t exactly getting HD quality there.

The main advantage is the location.  It’s pretty central in downtown and it isn’t too far from the food trucks on Alder street.  Food trucks are pretty huge in Portland.  The food at the ones I stopped at were of pretty good quality too making it relatively cheap in order to score a good bite to eat.  Many of them also have very unique bites to eat and there is a great deal of variety as well there.

For my first trip out to the food carts, I was looking for a cart called Mai Pho.  I kind of underestimated the number of Vietnamese carts that would be in the area and I ended up eating at some random other cart that I cannot name now.  I ended up getting the pho and a Bahn mi.  I took everything back to the hotel to eat.  The problem was that the noodles and beef were packaged separately from the noodles.   Me being not so bright at the moment decided to try to dump the noodles and everything into the pho.  Since they were stuck together a bit everything came out in a big thud that resulted in me getting pho splashed everywhere.  At least the food was tasty.

The weather was to me at least, surprisingly warm.  Around fifty, which is for me having left the frozen tundra of Chicago, was hoodie weather.  Still I felt it chilly enough to make a stop at Java Man for a latte on my way over to the Chinese Garden.  It was all you could ask for in a small coffee shop, a very well made coffee that came to our table very quickly.  They also sell bubble tea there which would have been very tempting absent the cold weather.   Still, though this was certainly not my favorite coffee stop along the trip, at least they made that vanilla latte without so much sugar that I was unable to taste the coffee which is often a complaint of mine.  It was actually a very well balanced drink.

Continuing our walk, there was a bit of shock when we saw a guy pissing on the street in broad daylight.  This wasn’t your normal pissing in the street that is done somewhat discreetly up against a wall or something, this dude was just standing out in broad daylight pissing into an open patch of grass.  I seriously thought he was emptying a bottle out or something until I walked past him.  Who pisses on the street like that in broad daylight, there was a child coming from the opposite direction for goodness sakes.

Initially, I did not think that I would enjoy Lan Su Chinese Garden at all because from the outside, the garden seems very small, almost too small for me to justify the entrance fee of nearly ten bucks.  I was very wrong though.  Even with all the people walking around snapping pictures, self-included.  The garden is very peaceful and tranquil.  I got a chance to take a lot of good pictures inside of the garden it was very serene and calming.  I even had a really cool “look, a squirrel” moment. 

Here are some photos from Inside:

While we were in Chinatown, we decided to browse through a couple of the shops over there.  It seemed a little counterproductive considering we were headed to San Francisco, which has a much larger Chinatown, but I did end up snagging some chopsticks in the end.  There isn’t much room for so much Chinese themed items in my household, or to carry back in my luggage for that matter.

Voodoo Doughnuts

We figured by this time the line would have died down outside of Voodoo Doughnuts, but that place always has a super long line.  Anyway I made a stop for more coffee at Café Vita which is just across a pedestrian only street.  This little open window made some great coffee, but they win with the varieties of milk that they offer.  I actually got an espresso there that was pretty good.

The trek continued as we made our way to Ground Kontrol.  Think 90’s arcade with beer.  Astonishingly cheap beer at that.  I may be insulated from good prices on a beer from livening in the suburbs of Chicago, but when I ordered drinks, and the total came out to $8, I thought for sure the price was for one of the drinks, not both.  $3 for Deschutes is a hell of a deal.  Not to mention that evidently Portlanders have that whole crowding around the bar thing worked out and they just get in line to order a drink.

Who can argue with how great of a place this is?  It’s one of my favorites of my short stay in Portland simply because of bringing back so many childhood memories.  They are straightforward and don’t cheat you either as all of the games are very reasonably priced most at a quarter a round, and they use actual quarters as opposed to tokens.  Therefore, you aren’t locked in if you feel like cutting short your play time by a few minutes.

Next stop as we were walking was Compound.  It seemed like a pretty interesting clothing store and I wanted to head in and browse around a bit.  The store had a lot of unique items, and I thought it was pretty cool that they had a live DJ as well.  Then we walked upstairs and found out that there was an art gallery up there.  It was a crazy surprise but probably the only art gallery clothing store combo that I will ever visit that also happens to have a live DJ.  The clothing was s a bit pricey for my taste, so I didn’t make a purchase, but it is a good place to browse for some unique items.

Mole Tots at Bunk Bar

We went back to the hotel, before going out for dinner.  I knew that I wanted to have dinner at Ox, just after reading about the place online and looking at the menu.  When we got there and found out that there was a two and a half hour wait for a table, I almost didn’t want to stay.  Not to mention that their bar next door was beyond packed for standing room even.  This only kind of confirmed that this place was too good to pass up so I ended up agreeing to the wait, it’s not like I had somewhere to be in the morning and it just left us more time to drink, though now we would explore the neighborhood bars.

Mulligan and Cat's Meow at Secret Society

Our first stop was right across the street, in total opposition to the seemingly upscale bar we just checked out, Billy Ray’s Neighborhood Dive, was just that a dive bar.   The problem I had with it is that after paying $3 a beer at ground control, I felt a little ripped to be paying $6 for a well vodka tonic at a dive bar where the smell of urine assaults your nostrils.  It’s not that I’m too good for urine smells, and lime slices that have been cut so long ago that they are starting to turn brown around the edges, it’s just relative to all the places nearby, their drink prices in particular should have been a lot cheaper if that’s what they are offering.

La Yapa at Ox

Out of there and into Bunk Bar though.  I’m of two minds about this place, because I got suckered into buying a really bad drink here.  It just had a too good of a name that I read it without reading the ingredients, I kind of just briefly looked at them.  The name Typhoon Shandy was just too interesting.  IN hindsight a combination of Tequila, Lime, Grapefruit and Beer had no possibility of working.  On the other hand the place had a great atmosphere and the food was pretty good as well.  While we were there we decided to sample the mole tots, which turned out to be a great decision since they were probably the best tots that I ever had.  In hindsight the miscalculation was completely my fault, because there were other great drinks on the menu along with a good beer selection.

Bread ad soup at Ox

The next stop in the wait was The Secret Society.  They had some sort of live performance going on in one of the rooms up there, but we enjoyed a couple of drinks in the lounge area.  Having not quite enough time to enjoy one of the very elaborate absinthe drinks, we snacked on the spiced almonds, which were a steal at only $3.  The perfect pre-dinner snack to accompany our drinks.  The drinks by the way were phenomenal and coincided with the whole Victorian era theme that they had going on. 

We finally made it into Ox.  We got the text message and hurried over to be seated.  What I love about this place is despite the fact that it is an Argentinian themed steakhouse, it is vegetarian friendly and the aroma of the place isn’t dominated by that of cooked beef.  At the suggestion of our server, I decided to go with the La Yapa to drink, and let me tell you it was probably one of the best drinks I’ve had in quite sometime.  It is a well-balanced drink that catered to my love of whiskey, while being sweet and approachable.  You also have a nice bit of lemon to finish off your palate.

Duck Rillette Croquetas at Ox

First thing was a complimentary squash soup.  From there I knew this was bound to be an incredible meal.  It was a rich and creamy soup that wasn’t too heavy that it would weigh you down from the impending meal.  Combine that with the bread that they serve with a bit of a chimichuri sauce and it was fantastic.  I’ve made soups out of squash before and it still boggles my mind how they achieved a texture that smooth.

Mushrooms at Ox

For an appetizer I went with the croquetas of duck rillettes.  I felt a bit of trepidation about passing over the recommended Clam Chowder, but being that I was going to be in San Francisco soon and eating clam chowder out of a sourdough bread bowl, I decided to go for something different.  I must say I couldn’t have made a better choice.  It was the perfect balance of texture, perfectly tender meat that is so smooth that it melts in your mouth and a nice crisp exterior.  It was also well complemented by the celery root and pomegranate.  I swear that I could also live in the lemon aioli.

Potatoes with Horseradish at Ox

For the entrée, I couldn’t pass up on my favorite cut of steak, my beloved ribeye.  The steak was so tender and juicy and from a value standpoint it was one of the best I have ever tasted.  It was cooked to a perfect medium rare with just the right amount of carmelization.  Absolutely sublime.  As a side dish I went with the mushrooms and the potatoes.  The potatoes were the perfect counterpoint to the steak because they had a tasty horseradish aioli.  I still have a vivid and fond memory of taking a bit of steak and dragging it through the aioli to get the perfect bite of steak and potatoes.  Rich beef, alongside crisp potatoes and a bit of spice from the aioli.

The Main Event, Perfect Midrare Ribeye

At the suggestion of probably one of the best waitresses ever, I packed the remaining portion of food to go.  I was about to toss the bread until she suggested that the bread was the perfect size to make a steak sandwich with my leftover steak.  I didn’t plan it that way, but she was right as it did make for great leftovers. 

Dessert at Ox

I couldn’t come to a place this great and not try the dessert though.  Even though I was much too full, we had to go ahead and share the torte.  The honey chamomile ice cream was the perfect knockout punch.  Along with that crisp honeycomb candy that was a great topping for the soft rich and buttery cake.  On all levels, Ox didn’t just meet my expectations but blew them out of the water.  I still can’t believe a bill for two people was only $160 with tip, I expected it to be so much more.

Another Priceless Experience: Publican Quality Meats

A Spacious table and we would get to watch all the food
cooked behind us.

I’ve been to the Publican about 2 years ago for Chicago’s Chef week, so I knew there was good food to be had there.  The fresh made pork rinds made themselves onto Food Network’s Best Thing I Ever Ate.  Yeah I knew it would be a little tough to stay up for a dinner the night after coming back from Europe, but I couldn’t miss out on the experience.  It was something that I couldn’t think of missing unless I had some type of life threatening illness.   I somehow wasn’t even tired at all when it rolled around, I attribute that to a combination of excitement and the relaxing flight that I had in Premium Economy on Virgin Atlantic  (BTW, my Premium Economy Upgrade for $300 was only sort of worth it).

Butchers hard at work after a beef delivery

It was my first time at Publican Quality Meats which does all of the butchering for The Publican as well as bakes all of the bread.  A talk with Chef Kahn and you find that they can not keep up with the meat demand for all of the amazing cuts of sausage and cured meats that they sell at Publican Quality Meats.  The evening started with a few welcome hors d'oeuvres.   Among them were many of those awesome cured meats and those famed pork rinds.  You also had a seafood tower there. 

Dinner was served downstairs in the kitchen and after a quick tour through the meat locker, we were ready to eat.  It is crazy how hungry seeing a bunch of hanging cured meats makes you.  We all sat down at a large communal table and introduced ourselves one by one as Chef Khan prepared his first dish.  Though as we started eating you would have thought that we were all lifelong friends judging based on the loud and s  Every dish had a wine paring.  I am a beer person as well and they also had a beer paring for every dish, but I figured it unwise to try seven beers and seven glasses of wine when I had to make it all the way back to Romeoville somehow that night.

Let the curing begin

First up to the plate was the Hamachi Crudo.  This dish won based on pure simplicity.  You get the freshness of the Hamachi in a winning combination with the lemon oil providing a slight touch of acid.  The fresno chilies give a little bit of spice as well.  Lemon, seafood and fresno chillies is a combination that I love.  I use it to make a quick supper with only the addition of some mussels, garlic, white wine and pasta.  I think I might have stolen that dish from Gordon Ramsey though, don’t quote me.  The dishes were served family style and I was seated next to two people that took very dainty portions so it gave me the opportunity to finish off every plate.  There wouldn’t be a dish that disappointed me. 

Sides of Beef  Delivered Earlier in the Day

Next up was the asparagus panzenella salad.  When I usually think of panzenella I think of combining Italian bread with olive oil Basil, tomatoes and Parmaggino Reggiano. This took a bit of a different approach to that.    You had their country bread there with the salty elements coming from the olives that were strewn throughout the salad.  The English Peas added a freshness to the salad and you had the radish sprouts and arugula for a bit of spiciness   All of those tasty ingredients were bound together in a lemon caper vinaigrette that was very light and slightly acidic.  The brightness it added was like a little flashlight awakening all your entire palate to taste the individual nuances of each vegetable that worked so well together in this dish.

Steaks Aging away

I love Mussels Frites, so I was so excited to see it on the menu.  My favorite part of the dish is the broth.  When it comes to making mussels, your dish lives or dies based on how good the broth is.  When those guys open themselves up and release that fresh briny juices into the pan it creates this broth that can be a culinary miracle if used correctly.  Realistically, when making mussels, the broth should be so good that if given the choice between having a little broth and some mussels or a lot of broth and some crusty bread, you would easily take the broth and bread to soak up the liquid gold that lines your bowl.  Now take those perfectly tender mussels and that luscious broth and combine them with some awesome French fries, and a garlic aioli to dip them in and you have a winning (though very fattening) dish.  Mussels Frites is one of those anomalies of a dish where it completely socially acceptable to dip French fries into mayonnaise.

Mussels

Next up was the star of the show.  More than anything Publican is known for pork.  I mean look at the Yelp reviews, after scrolling through pages describing how awesome some of their pork dishes are, you may be able to find one thing that is kosher if you look hard enough.  Here you had a dish that was just simply mind-blowing.  It was comforting as it reminded me of breakfast of grits and bacon when I was growing up.  This was so much better though, the grits were so rich and creamy.  They had a really buttery flavor to them and were accented by the light onion taste from the leeks.  The pork belly was cooked perfectly, playing on that edge of sweet and saltiness that everyone loves together.    As if things couldn’t get better you had a side of a spring vegetable ragout with a poached egg.  Slicing into a perfectly poached  egg is one of the things I love most in food.  When you have that egg yolk run out and coat the entire plate it is blissful.  That egg yolk with the parmesan came together to create the perfect sauce for the perfect side for a perfect plate of food.

Hamachi Crudo

By this time I was completely full, that wouldn’t stop me from tasting a bit of the next two dishes though.  All of their steaks are aged in house.  I couldn’t pass up on an opportunity to taste a couple bites of my favorite cut of meat.  Ribeye.   Nothing beats a well marbled bone in ribeye steak when it comes to grilling.  It is the juiciest cut of steak and it just screams out at you with the flavor of beefy goodness.  The steak was cooked to a perfect mid rare, and though I did enjoy both pieces quite a bit, the sear was a little much and gave off a bit of a smoky quality that didn’t bring it to the unrealistically high standard I had set for it in my mind.

Then as if further reading my mind, was my favorite dessert.  I only took a single bite of the cheesecake but the star of that dish was the

Pork Belly

amazing honey that was on the plate.  It goes to show that a great honey can make a lot of difference and bring the taste of a dish to a new level.  They do sell that honey in the store, I just was too caught up in good conversation to remember to ask if I could buy some.  Next time I make it to Chicago I will check it out though.

All in all I’ve been to two of Mastercard’s Priceless experiences, and they have been an amazing value and each one has really felt priceless.  I wouldn’t trade this night for just about anything… Except a trip to Barcelona in the summertime but who can really compete with the beaches of Barcelona?

Mind The Gap: My Trip to London

Living room in my Suite at Waldorf Hilton

I made it to my hotel after about twenty minutes of walking around in a huge circle, something I would do almost all the time during my stay in London.   For my first night I was staying at The Waldorf Hilton.  It is located right in the theatre area.  When I arrived my room was not yet ready as I had expected since it was something early like 8 am.  When I booked the hotel room, I must have had some you only live once sort of reasoning in my head because I also registered for

the eStandby upgrade.  I paid for all of my rooms in advance.  The eStandby gives you an upgraded room at deep discounts usually half the price or much less.  In this case that upgrade was a staggering 80£.  Yeah hindsight is 20/20.

TV while you take a bath

I felt like a bum which is the only way you really can feel after being on a pressurized tube in such close quarters for 7.5 hours.  They offered me the chance to take a shower in the changing room while I waited for my room to become available.  The irony of this situation is that if I didn’t get that stupid upgrade my room would have probably been available at that point.

They also offered me breakfast in the executive lounge.  When I got up to fix myself a plate from the buffet, the eggs looked startlingly light in color.  Also the bacon was well below what I would consider crispy so I didn’t try that but I did go for the sausage and a bit of smoked salmon onions and capers.  I also got a slice of cheddar for the eggs.

Then there was something unexpected.  Those eggs were wonderful, probably some of the best scrambled eggs I’ve ever had.  Just goes to show you that you can’t judge a book by it’s cover.  What I thought would be an example of bland British food was actually light clouds of eggy goodness.  I’ve had good eggs before but these were great especially for a buffet.

I would then wander around the neighborhood for a little bit.  

Salted Caramel Cupcake and Espresso

The Wladorf Hilton is right in the center of London, relatively easy to get to from London Heathrow since you only have to take a single train ride.  It also has the advantage of being close to many theaters, shopping and lots of restaurant and pub options.  I stumbled into Primrose Bakery.  I really only went in because I’m a huge fan of Hunger Games and Primrose is the name of Katniss’ sister.  That’s beside the point I had the salted caramel cupcake alongside an espresso from Caffé Nero to round out a good breakfast.  The cupcake was great.  It was sweet but not too sweet and had a very delicate texture.  That saltiness along with the sweetness of the cupcake made a great combination.

Without the benefit of internet, even though I downloaded the maps to my phone, those maps were pretty much useless to me since they weren’t searchable and I had no indication of my GPS position. It’s hard enough for me to comprehend which direction I need to turn to go north when headed east.  Throw in a couple of twists and turns for a system of roads that seems to

Complimentary soda, water and macaroons at
Waldorf Hilton

be created by a civil engineer who must have been on acid at the time of designing the city streets.  I was very easily confused by the city.  Rather than doing much sightseeing, I spent much of my time being completely confused and walking around in huge circles.  I did spend lots of time browsing through stores as well as watching some street performers.  One actually did a pretty cool magic trick that was pretty entertaining.

Checking into my room it was well worth the wait.  The room was huge.  I had much more space than what I honestly needed.  I walked into a living room with complimentary sparkling and flat water alongside some macaroons.  Off to the left where I thought was a closet was actually a second bathroom that had just a toilet.  In and to the right you walked passed a pretty big full bathroom that had a tub with a TV and a shower as well.  The amenities of the hotel room were definitely first class.

After leaving the hotel for a second time, I tried to make it on my own but ended up walking in more circles before I ended up in front of Carphone Warehouse.  I had to have a cell phone at this point and needed the maps in order to get around.  I ended up getting a Sony Xperia as a phone which was pretty cheap, but I think I fell into the thinking of pounds as dollars, because the £90 I paid for the cell phone was actually about $140.  Not too bad of the phone and the rates were extremely cheap.  If I would have stayed in London for the entirety of my trip, I would have really come out ahead since my intitial £10 would have likely been enough for all of my talking for two weeks.

Carpaccio at Coq d'Argent

By this time I was starving and decided to seek out one of the places that were recommended in the travel guide that I was reading.  Silly me for not reading the dates and times that the place was open, because I ended up going to the place only to find out that it wasn’t open.  I had dinner reservations at the Savoy later on and this quick lunch that wasn’t too far from where I was sounded perfect.  I ended up going in nearly the complete opposite direction and getting a three course meal at Coq d’Argent.

Dinner started off with a Carpaccio.  The interesting addition on to this particular dish was mushrooms that were pickled a little bit.  The plating was really elegant and the pickling of those mushrooms was a great way to introduce some acid into the dish.

For the main course I had the Duck.  The duck was tender and was accompanied by a rich orange sauce.  It was very tender and juicy and didn’t seem greasy at all despite the confit method of preparation. 

Pineapple carpaccio at Coq d'Argent

I did order the Potatoes Dauphinoise as a side to go along with my main course.  Unfortunately, the potatoes were just slightly cold.  I didn’t mind that much since they took them off of the bill and gave me fries instead (due to the time it would take to cook another Gratian).   The highlight of the meal was the dessert though which was one of the best that I've ever had.  I started and ended my meal with a carpaccio and my dessert would be this awesome pineapple carpaccio.  It was sublime.  You had the fresh pinapple along with this wonderful vodka lime foam that provided a little bit of tartness in order to balance out the sweetness of the coconut ice cream.  This dish made the experience here more than worth while and I'm glad I was convinced to spend the extra £3 for the three course set menu.

Farmhouse Terrine at The Savoy Grill

I would have dinner a little later at The Savoy Grill.  I was looking so forward to having a meal at one of Gordon Ramsey’s restaurants.  I guess all that anticipation led to a bit of overhype for me.  My thoughts and expectations of what the meal would be was much higher than the actual meal was.  From a value standpoint, I have to say the name has given the establishment prices that are absurdly high.  I honestly could have passed on the whole thing.

Dinner there started with the farmhouse terrine.  I got sucked into it as an appetizer because of the foie gras parfait that was served along side it. It was a solid dish.  The meat was succulent and you get the decadence that is added by the foie gras.    The green tomato chutney adds a bit of acid to bring everything together and brighten up everything.  The dim lighting of the restaurant kind of obscures the ability to see the elegant plating of the dish.

I think my fault came in when it came to the entree selection.  I think I would have been much better off if if I went with one of the many selections from the "Roasts, Braises and Pies" section of the menu.  Don't get me wrong my Rib Eye steak was pretty good.  Cooked to the perfect temperature and was very juicy and didn't need much of the sauce.  However when I look at the menu and I compare that steak at £34 to a lamb wellington at £26, I kind of feel like an idiot for my selection.  You do get a nice flavor from the wood grill, but that particular steak was slightly overpriced in my opinion.

Raspberry Souffle at The Savoy Grill

Though I was ready to burst by this point I still decided to try out dessert, I went for the raspberry souffle.  About as light delecate and perfect as anything in I can remember, I suddenly felt betrayed by my stomach's inability to finish consuming it.  It was a really good dessert non the less.

The next morning, I started off relaxing a bit in the bath and enjoying some British television.  When I finally got my things together I took a short ride on the tube to my next hotel.   Bad sense of direction prevailed for a little bit as I thought I could manage by just seeing the directions and I walked the wrong way for a little bit.  I then made it to the Tower of London Doubletree to check in.

Room at The Tower of London Doubletree

The Tower of London Doubletree was definitely the best value throughout the entire trip.  There was an iMac in every room, which also doubled as the TV.  It might not be the hotel of choice for those who are not tech savvy or have a hate for Apple.  It turned out to be just perfect for me as I used the iMac to stream my Slingbox from home in my room while I left computing to my actual laptop.

Another great thing was that the hotel threw in a complimentary bottle of white wine.  I definitely took advantage of it drinking to my heart’s content.  I also had a complimentary drink at the Hotel’s bar.  On the top floor, the bar overlooked all of London.  I don’t know exactly the cost of the drinks, but I do know that mine was pretty tasty.  I only had the one drink there using the voucher.

View from Sky Lounge at Tower of London Doubletree

I quickly headed out of the hotel and over to the Tower of London.  Then there was the terror of Bank Holiday was upon me.  The crowds were absurd.  Queues as long as the eye can see.   I made it to the inside and opted to skip the free tour that starts every 30 minutes at the entrance in the interest of saving time.  Eventually I got wrapped up in a two hour wait to get in to see the crown jewels.  I cannot say that it was worth the wait, especially since you can’t take pictures.  Still it was a great time.  The torture chamber was a slight let down since there were only four torture devices.

Tower of London Bridge

I made my way out and got a quick sandwich right outside at a little stand called apostrophe.  It was pretty tasty and was perfect since it had very chewy crusty bread.  The spicy chorizo stood up well next to the hearty multigrain bread and you got a little sweetness from the roasted red onion.  It was served warm with a touch of arugula and tomato.

Eating as I walked I made my way towards the Tower of London Bridge Exhibition.  The bridge had lots of places that you can stop and take pictures through the openings in the windows and see a lot of the city of London.  I didn’t like the idea that you could only leave the top of the bridge via a really crowded elevator.  Again in the interest of saving time I skipped over much of the movies and such.

Calamari at All Bar One

I did some more exploring on foot as I passed by a small liquor store called Oddbins.  I was very interested in trying some of the local beers and this gave me the opportunity to try out a couple.  I ended up going for the Sweet Bee Honey’d Wheat by Brupond.  What I had stumbled onto was a craft beer from a nano brewery that is owned by someone who grew up in Colorado and went to college in Chicago.  Extremely small world.  The trippy part is that it’s a vegan brewery and though you can taste honey notes in this light hefeweizen, there is no honey added.  All of their beers have that unfiltered haze as well.

For dinner I stopped off at All Bar One.  Mostly because as I was walking by, it looked fairly busy and I saw that I could get a two course meal for 10£.  I decided to go with the calamari

Live at Muse Concert

which was light and perfectly fired to a crisp and served with a sweet chili sauce   I also had the asparagus and goat cheese risotto.  It was a nice dish that succeeded in having perfectly cooked rice.  It was a little heavy but not so much that it would keep you from moving.  You also had the brightness that was added from the asparagus and mint.   To drink I had a couple of pints of Apsall, which feels like the local equivalent of a  Bud Light, while tasting a lot better.

Crazy Acrobatics

I made my way back to the hotel and suddenly I was about to be late for the highlight of my trip.  The Muse concert.  At that time I realized I had no time to take the tube and figure it out so I took a taxi.  To make matters a bit more complicated.  I forgot the tickets.  Fortunately I figured this out a little early on, and the cab driver I had was nice enough to take me back to the hotel and wait on me without starting the meter.  He was a cool guy that spent some of his 20’s in California.  His son was the same age I am and went to the Muse concert the night before small world.

I made it to the stadium right in time about 15 minutes before Muse went on stage.  It gave me plenty of time to press my way towards the middle of the crowd.  I was wondering how their European tour could be so much better than their US Tour.  I mean pyramid of screens from the ceiling how do you beat that? You beat it with giant robots shooting fire, acrobats floating from balloons, a huge stage with tons of pyrotechnics and special effects.  I really felt like the $70 I paid for my ticket was ripping them off. 

Amazing Pyro

The concert was followed by much wandering because of the concert, many of the nearby tube stations were closed down.  It was a bit of a nightmare.  It was kind of funny because a couple from England ended up asking me for directions.  Then we talked for a while as we wandered aimlessly towards well I don’t know.  We looked for another tube station, but I ended up opting for a bus ride back after seeing the chaos that was the tube stations.  

I settled in that night to catch some basketball via Slingbox.   It was the NBA playoffs after all.   The bottle of wine that was provided for me came in handy as it was my drink of choice.  The Heat destroyed the Pacers that night and I went to sleep somewhere in the middle of the third quarter to wake up early for more sightseeing.

Food Display at Harrods

My morning didn’t get off to the best of starts as the hot water in my shower wasn’t functional.  I played around with the water for a bit trying to get it to work before I gave up and called.  They sent someone up to my room pretty promptly and it was fixed in about 20 minutes.  I had planned on making my way over to The Shard pretty early and you save a bit on tickets by buying them in advance.   Still once I thought about it even though it is the tallest building in Europe, I saw the £25 price tag as a little too steep.

Inside Bumkin

I finally made it out of the hotel much later than I expected and made my way towards Harrods.   I browsed around more than anything because the prices were slightly absurd but the selection of items was borderline overwhelming.  There I am looking at £700 crystal vases the likes of which I am afraid to even breathe on.  After my browsing was done, my allergies were picking up a little bit.  I stopped over at a pharmacy and bought some allergy medicine and it stopped me from sneezing almost immediately.  I have to say the only disappointment there came from the fact that the only two basketball jerseys they sold were Rodo and Rose.  London you can do better.

Pork Croquette at Bumpkin

For lunch I decided on Bumpkin.  Where they served traditional English fare.  The prices are decent and you feel at home from the moment you walk in.  Looking around everything is done with an eye towards being upscale while still being comfortable and simple.  The warm wooden interior and mixed match chairs gives the place sort of a farmhouse feeling which definitely coincides with the menu that focuses on locality as well as seasonality.  I sat down next to a window that was dotted with several different plants in glass vases of varying sizes that looked to be a hodgepodge of items purchased at a yard sale.  The table was set with a bright yellow flower that used an old soda bottle as a vase.  You couldn’t make this venue more comfortable if you tried.  

Fish and Chips at Bumpkin

To drink I had a Guinness.  I swear, Guinness is better outside of America.  It actually tastes like a pretty legit stout.  I decided to go with the pork croquettes to start.   This dish was amazing.  You get the tenderness from the roasted pork that is then finely shredded and formed into a perfectly shaped cylinder before being breaded and fried.  The presentation was incredible.  You had this wonderful brightness provided by pickled onions as well as this sweet apple and raisin sauce.  All on top of a little cucumber salad.  It was a great appetizer because even though the roast pork is heavy, it was portioned well and combined with the rest of the ingredients it gave a bit of lightness to the dish that made you want to come back for more.

Sticky Toffee Pudding at Bumpkin

For the main course I had the Fish and Chips, with tartar sauce and mushy peas.  Many people are down on fish and chips and British food in general and I totally don’t understand why.  This fish and chip was great.   The batter was crisp and the fish was moist and perfectly cooked.  The fries had the perfect texture, crisp on the outside and soft on the inside.  I loved it for it’s simplicity.  It was also my first time tasting mushy peas.  I had never been big on peas as a child. It was kind of a point of contention between me and my mother since they are her favorite vegetable.  I despised sweet peas.  As an adult I kind of came around to like peas quite a bit.  These peas were perfect not too sweet and I love the mint that complimented the peas as well.

For dessert there was the sticky toffee pudding.  I am not a fan of overly sweet desserts, except when some form of caramel is involved and then all bets are off.  The sticky toffee pudding was bursting forth with this rich sweet flavor.  This is one of those instances where the English language is a barrier, because it wasn’t a pudding like what you would think of from an American perspective.  It was more like a cake soaked with a sweet caramel sauce.  I was nearly stuffed but ended up powering through the entire dish.

Bathroom at T5 Hilton

Shortly thereafter a wave of extreme exhaustion hit me.  I felt like curling up and taking a nap right where I was.  I looked at the box of allergy medicine I took. “Take one half of a pill every eight hours.  May cause drowsiness. Do not take with alcohol.”  Who does that?  ½ of a pill?  Really.  I guess I should have read, but I was just trying to get some quick relief from sneezing and then suddenly I am absurdly tired.  I made my way to a café for a couple of double espressos to provide me with just enough strength to make it to the hotel.

Spacious Room at T5 Hilton

I checked into the T5 Hilton and the room was one of the best looking I’ve seen in quite some time.  I had tons of space and for a decent price as well.  Everything was very clean and I liked the feature that allowed the TV audio to be played in the bathroom.  I turned on the TV to the music channel and watched some music videos.  One downfall would have to be the fact that there was an overwhelming number of lighting controls.  This booking was a bit of a mistake though because of the location.  I had flying on my mind when buying the ticket so I didn’t take into account the fact that I would be taking a train out the next morning.  I should have gotten a hotel more central to London.

Braised Beef Cheek at The Gallery

Bank Holiday struck me again as I only had one choice in restaurant and I did want to go with the other one because of the Indian influence.  Though the fall back option of the hotel’s other restaurant, Gallery, wasn’t too shabby.  Yes it did have the typical hotel restaurant markup but it wasn’t absurdly priced.  I started off with the Scallops.  They were served over a bed of couscous that had a mixture of tomatoes and fresh mint.  There was also a bit of tangy burr blanc sauce on the plate.

For my main I ended up with the braised beef cheek.  I thought that the a la carte pricing didn’t include sides so I ended up ordering the potatoes and green beans as well only to get them in addition to the potatoes asparagus and carrots that were included in my meal for free.    The food was great at this place and I was stuffed but it wasn’t too memorable either.