Dinner and Goodbyes

The highlight of my day yesterday was Lunch at Heston Blumenthal’s Dinner located in the Mandarin Oriental Hotel. The concept of the restaurant is interesting; the dishes are from British past but the presentation is very modern. Many dishes were dated from the 1700 and 1800’s. Something I didn’t know is that the restaurant isn’t run by Heston himself, but by his executive head Chef Ashley Palmer-Watts of his more famous and upscale restaurant The Fat Duck.

 For my starter, I ordered the roast bone marrow with pickled vegetables- it was creamy, smokey and warm. The pickled vegetables helped balance out the heaviness of the marrow. I almost wish I ordered the Meat Fruit starter but was initially turned off by 1.) the name of the dish..umm meat FRUIT? 2.) it was a chicken liver starter and I'm technically not supposed to eat too much liver during my pregnancy. Thankfully our friends ordered this starter and it was by far my favorite tasting and looking starter. Here's what it looks like: The plate comes out looking like you're about to eat a mandarin orange but when you cut through the middle, you find a super flavorful chicken liver pate. If you ask T, I don't even like liver, but this was the best liver I've tasted.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/feb/02/restaurant-review-dinner-heston-blumenthal

T had the rice and flesh starter with saffron, calf tail, and red wine. It looked and tasted equally good! He was a bit disappointed by the little 4 pieces of calf tail (flesh) that was in his dish.

Tarek and I split the Wing rib of Irish Angus with mushroom ketchup, which tasted exactly how it sounded, a tart tasting sauce with mushrooms, and a red wine juice that was a perfect complement over the steak. Yum!

Sides- triple cooked chips, black cabbage, green beans

Dessert was really fantastic though. Each couple ordered the tipsy cake, which tasted similar to a sugared, incredibly soft donut with a butter topping. The warm pineapple that was placed aside the cake had been roasting for hours and was so good!! My only complaint was that we didn’t order two!

 We ended the meal with a rich chocolate mouse with a hint of orange. It was seriously so decadent that I couldn’t finish the tiny shot glass! Besides the chocolate was an earl grey and caraway biscuit that helped balance out some of the sweetness.

After our 3 hour lunch, we only had 2 hour to recuperate/cat nap before heading off to our next outing: our farewell dinner and karaoke night. Dinner was at tried and true Lahore Kabob house and then karaoke at Rudy's Revenge. Lahore was the only place that could host such a large group and thankfully, the food is delicious. It was really nice to say goodbye to friends and Tarek's colleagues.

Surprisingly, I wasn't too in the mood to take pictures but T convinced me to bring it out so I made him do most of the dirty work. I often wonder if we would have any pictures if I didn't remember to bring my camera! No one seems to care much for pictures in this group

May the road rise up to meet you, may the wind be ever at your back.  May the sun shine warm upon your face and the rain fall softly on your fields.  And until we meet again, may God hold you in the hollow of his hand.  ~Irish Blessing