Fond Farewells

It almost feels like a family tradition to have leaving drinks at The Remedy, so last night I introduced the lovely Emily to the best wine bar in London.

 Great chat, delicious wine, meat and cheese.

Pure Taste Restaurant Visit

Where: Westbourne Grove, London, W2 4UP

When: 30.12.14 at 20.00

http://puretasterestaurant.com

A while back, we got the opportunity to sponsor a Paleo-friendly restaurant in London and we jumped at the opportunity. The sponsorship package we chose gave us a starter and dessert for free, once the restaurant opened. After months of waiting, the email finally arrived announcing that Pure Taste was opening. We immediately booked ourselves a table and poured over the online menu in anticipation.

Last week, we finally ate at the Pure Taste Restaurant in West London and we were not disappointed.  Unfortunately, Cecilia is in Sweden so it was only the London contingent that could go.

We did some more soul searching over the menu and then made our choices and the waiter gave us a great recommendation for a Spanish red wine, which would go with our meaty starters and mains. Then they started us off with a complementary mise en bouche with salmon sashimi and wasabi puree. So refreshing!

Then on to the bread basket: Italian breadsticks, coconut flour flatbread with onion and cumin seeds and Rosemary plantain crackers, served with extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar and tzatziki. Our favourites were the warm Italian breadsticks, which had loads of Italian spices on them, but we were really intrigued by the plantain crackers which were extra crunchy and similar to Swedish knäckebröd.

For starters Cat had the free-range charcuterie, garlic stuffed olives, sundried tomato and rocket salad and Simon had the pan fried breast of wood pigeon, roasted baby beetroot, activated walnuts and baby watercress. Both were good (charcuterie is always good), but the wood pigeon was the more interesting choice. The meat was served cold and melted in your mouth, surprisingly similar to a pork tenderloin.

The mains came next and Cat chose a pan-seared breast of wild mallard duck, celeriac rosti, sautéed kale, spiced cranberry and Clementine sauce and Simon the canon of venison, brussel sprouts with bacon, boulangere Jerusalem artichokes in a red wine jus. We were both initially a bit disappointed that the steak was sold out, but this made us a little more adventurous with our choices. The duck was beautiful, served rare. The venison as you would expect had a strong gamey taste, but worked well with the brussels and bacon.

Dessert was a very difficult decision as all the choices sounded amazing. After much consideration and help from the waiter, we ordered the sticky toffee pudding, toffee sauce and salted caramel ice cream and the spiced pear and pecan crumble with almond milk crème anglaise. By this point, we were both stuffed (Cat more so than Simon) and we both could hardly finish. The crumble with the non-dairy custard was great. The sticky toffee pudding was nicely balanced by the salted caramel ice-cream, but as we rarely eat sweet stuff anymore, it was a little bit on the sweet side.

All in all, we had a lovely evening and it was nice to be able to order from a menu without making any modifications. We have already recommended the restaurant to our friends, who will be going very soon.

The End of an Era and the Beginning of a New One

Last day selfie

I cannot believe it! The day has finally come. It is my last ever day in a corporate environment. I am packing up my belongings; a cafetiere, a calculator, a pen, a Christmas card and a pair of Vivo barefoot shoes, and shutting off my computer for the last time. 

Bye bye, desk!

I am excited and terrified in equal measures. We are packing up our London lives and moving to rural Sweden in January. First things first though: crackers and turkey with the British family.

Watch this space for updates on the move!

City Essentials

Parachuting out of London meant removing a lot of clutter from my life. Among them were clothes, jewellery, handbags, shoes and makeup, ie anything that didn't serve an immediate purpose in a garden or field or forest. Mamma remarked at some point that it would be nice if I wore something else but my jean shorts and one of my gazillion white tank tops, but I haven't seen the point.

Returning briefly to "civilisation" in London has me donning stuff that now feels oddly foreign to me, things that seemed useful to me in my earlier life. Grandma's cherished ring is still gorgeous, but feels over the top on my blackberry scratched fingers. The handbag that I "invested in" right before I decided to leave still smells divine and elegantly carries all sorts of junk, but feels like a bad joke when considering how much food the money I bought it for could buy. The measly pieces of makeup that I still have left make me feel almost garish when I use them, despite being probably unnoticeable to people around me.

Add caption about silly handbag splurges 

Funny how things that used to feel so essential now just feel like a burdensome, superfluous. Why is it so important to look a certain way, to be so polished? Why do we spend so much money on stuff that is pretty but unnecessary? We're fools, yeah.

London, Baby!

I'm off to London for Lil T's christening. I'm so excited to see the rest of the PB posse and my friends again! I know that money will be tight in the next few years, if not for the rest of my life, so this is a true luxury that may not be repeated anytime soon. I'll just have to rely on my friends to come visit! (*thinking long and hard of how to make that prospect irresistible*)

Despite my excitement, I don't actually miss London. I love the place, don't get me wrong, but it's the people that make the city and many of them have moved on. Also, London is so tightly intertwined with my old career, a career that now seems so utterly foreign to me. And I don't miss that at all, not even on a particularly bad day in the sticks.

I thank my lucky stars I was able to leave and let go, just like that.

Relevant picture of my foot dangerously close to massive heaps of cow dung (in London, that would be dog poop)