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

See ya later London Met!

I am now officially done with London Metropolitan University!! I had my last final today and afterwards turned in my withdrawal form and student ID. My post school plans are to take a year off for baby and then **hopefully** continue my pre-Dietetics studies at a community college before enrolling in a 3-4 year RD program at University. As with most things in life, sometimes you are thrown a curve ball, (baby) and you just have to put everything on hold to roll with the punches! 

Sitting here, I wouldn't have thought in a short span of 3 weeks, we would be moving back to the states, looking for a new job, apartment, AND getting ready to have a baby. While out walking my dog, I'm now taking more time to look around me and really enjoy the last sights and sounds of London and our neighborhood before we get ready to leave. Our movers are coming next Wednesday, and we're booked on a flight for Saturday.

Some recent eats:

I've had such a hankering for chicken throughout my pregnancy and earlier this week was no exception. After work, T picked up some Nando's chicken to go along with some piri piri dusted french fries and corn on the cob. Mmm mmm delicious!

The chicken is best eaten with your hands and dipped in hot and garlic Nando's sauce. :o) Anyone know where you can find Portuguese style chicken in the states?

 

I've also been back on my Pret a Manger kick. 

chicken and bacon sandwich with cheese and onion chips

creamy tomato soup on the side. I'm not sure if they have Pret in Chicago, but Corner Bakery is a good substitution!

T made us a lamb meatloaf with lots of veggies for dinner earlier this week.

It tasted yummy but my tummy didn't really feel so good afterwards..  :(

 

For lunch, I made myself an oven baked salmon (garlic, salt, cayenne pepper), and kale sauteed brown rice with soy sauce. Yum!

more Pret for lunch today. I know the pregnancy folks say I shouldn't be eating deli meat, but this chicken and bacon sandwich sounds so good lately!!

with more chips and tomato soup

Pret's tomato soup is really lovely; it's creamy and thick with chunks of tomato.

Let me out!!

Week 20 update

Week 20 Update

So my belly doesn't ever feel like its growing but if my pants are any indication, it definitely has since we started this journey. I am now at the halfway point in my pregnancy and instead of feeling great, I feel miserable. M-I-S-E-R-A-B-L-E! I had this seemingly incurable itchy rash ALL over my stomach, which my doctor categorized as Uticaria. Listen up, this ain’t pretty (ewwww!!), and it sure as hell is itchy. I couldn’t sleep for 3 days because I would be up in the middle of the night itching, and plus I had an awful stuffy nose that paired with it. I finally thought the rash was going away last night when I discovered something starting on my legs which looks like it could be a similar type of rash. I’m going to see my midwife today so hopefully she might have something else to tell me besides“oh its just uticaria!” because honestly, why would it be spreading?! Sigh..

On the somewhat happy side, I laid down this morning and started listening to some bachata music and he actually started moving as if on cue. Right now I’m still not getting much frequent movement, but I’ll feel him mostly in the evenings thumping randomly or if I’m really lucky, I’ll feel one strong movement as if he’s turning around in my belly. It’s pretty darn cool!!

Life Update
We're now scheduled to leave London for GOOD on January 21. We have first class tickets back to the good ole U.S.of A and I couldn't be more thrilled to leave! I'll write a post sometime on what I'll miss about London but for now, all I can think of is USA! or more importantly, sweet home Chicago!

Some recent eats

We ordered some sushi from Mai again, and I got the soft shell crab appetizer, crab roll, miso soup, and donkatsu.

I wish I could have eaten some of this..

Some Ben and Jerry's- phish food and caramel chew chew for dessert

I made pancakes and eggs for breakfast on Saturday morning.

Someone stole my camera and took these pictures!

leftover salmon and prawn dinner (evoo, salt, pepper, minced garlic) with brown rice and sauteed mushrooms.

Weetabix, sliced bananas, and dark chocolate chips for breakfast.

T made us some awesome beef dumplings last night for dinner and I made a side of bok choy.

Lunch today was teriyaki beef with brown rice and romaine lettuce.

In the past couple of weeks I've watched: Puss in Boots, Mission Impossible III, Friends with Benefits, Captain America

I've also read: Girl in Translation, Belly Laughs

Currently reading: Baby 411

My last week of school/finals are later this week so its time to get my study on!

Matzo Ball soup

 

Before my mom left back for the States, she left some marinated meats in the freezer for a hassle free lunch or dinner. Aren't moms just great like that?

all I had to do was defrost the meats on the counter top for most of the day and then cook on the stovetop!

 

beef bulgogi with a side of wild rice.

 

For lunch, I made some salmon filets seasoned with sea salt, pepper, garlic powder, and cayenne pepper

The fish was baked at 200 C for 10 minutes and came out with a wonderful crust.

 

We trekked out to Brent Cross shopping centre for maternity wear this morning (my jeans don't fit anymore!!) and I somehow left with more baby clothes than clothes for myself... okay I take that back, I got a lot of both :-) but not actually the one thing I need which is bigger pants. I did order a waist ban extender though so hopefully this solves my problem-O.

I could shop for baby clothes ALL. DAY. LONG. If your heart doesn't melt at these cute tiny slippers, your heart must be made of STONE!! :-)

 

After some shopping, we stopped at Henry Morgan's deli and split this delicious lunch of soup and salted beef

We went to this Jewish deli in Prague and ever since then, all I can think about is their delicious sandwiches and matzo ball soup (I didn't order this in Prague but for some reason it sounds so much better right now than a regular chicken noodle soup!)

Yumm!! Is it time for dinner yet??