My trip to London! Better late than never!

I’m a disgrace! I know. I went to London about two weeks ago and still haven’t shown you any photos. I actually didn’t bring a camera. So I just took photos with my phone, excuse the poor quality! The highlights of my three day whirlwind romance with the English Capital begins with my lunch in The Hummingbird Bakery in Soho. I made a beeline from the airport to here. I sat perched on a stool eating this beautiful raspberry cheesecake brownie safe in the knowledge that I have the recipe at home in their brilliant book. Swoon. This was followed by an amazing sugar headache and a trip to Maison Bertaux for some more cake and pastries. I also went to the Selfridges Exhibition of Shoes by Vivienne Westwood, amaaaazing. Especially if you’re off your face on sugar. Then I sat in a park in Soho reading for two hours and watching people play table tennis.

I also went to The Victoria & Albert Museum. I love it. So many beautiful things all together, and they have a brilliant shop too! Their glass collection was really gorgeous, I could have wandered around looking at it all day. They also have a beautiful cafe where we had a really nice lunch and sat in a huge room with massive glass globe lights and stained glass windows with a golden painted ceiling. Very beautiful.

The Tate was amazing. Interesting and modern. I would have loved to have seen the Gaugain exhibition, I think it may be open now and would be well worth visiting.

We also went to my most favourite restaurant in the world. I love the food. Ottolenghi! Yay! I have both of their amazing books and my bestest sister Maeve actually got both Sammi Tamimi and Yotam Ottolenghi to sign my birthday card this year. I’m a major fan. The food was perfect, a dreamy haze. So nourishing and inspiring. I actually saw Sammi going from the kitchen to the office while I was halfway through my aubergine and tzatziki and I nearly died. Starstruck.

The main reason I went to London was to visit the incredible Miss Marmite Lover and her Underground Restaurant. I was actually so excited about this because I have been reading her blog for a while now and read about her last year in The Irish Times. She did a brilliant write up of the night with great photos on her blog here. It was just amazing, the whole meal was beautiful and her house is just like a fairy tale film set. A cream Aga, Smeg and Kitchen Aid! Blue and White china as far as the eye can see. I wanted to live there. Wow. Maeve and her friends Josie, Claudia & more were doing stand up in between the courses so it was a tasty mix of food and humour. Just like dinner at home!

I would love to do a supper club night like this. I’m thinking probably in Dublin as my kitchen here in Cork is too small and too hidden away. I just love cooking for people and having people chatting over gorgeous food. Let me know what you think!

Lilly x