Last weekend!

I survived my assistant week. We did everything perfectly. I got to school on Friday at 7:30, before school was opened (ooppss) because I was nervous that I wouldn't be on time. I was on time, too on time, but I got almost everything set up before Mike, my partner showed up.  I got to use the stupid dumbwaiter before the other people needed it and before the basement kitchen started to smell like nastiness. We had Hottie Chef which is always a little more pressure than the rest. He's quite intense. I don't remember what I was chopping but I scooped it up with the help of the big chef's knife and of course cut myself. I want to bring these knives home, but I'm pretty sure they are a liability in my mom's kitchen. He was very sweet when I cut myself, I thought he was going to yell at me but instead he gently bandaged it up and as Shibani says, we shared a condom (not a real one mom and dad, a finger condom to I didn't bleed everywhere. 

Friday, after class I left for London. I was frustrated because my gateau basque didn't come out perfect, but the pastry cream was better than the one in the demo. I actually had burned some of the milk but added more and ended up with the perfect consistency. For the first time chef pulled us aside and critiqued our work. I was unhappy with it. He asked if I could potentially sell it in a shop. Of course I said, "I can sell anything", wrong answer. Immediately I recanted and said no. "That's what I wanted to hear", he said.  

It really was awful. 

I made it to London where my gateu basque turned into pudding. 

Train food.  I brought them for Lily and Simon, but I ate them all.

Lil in front of her apartment!

 I was so excited for London because I got to go to my favorite cupcakery, Hummingbird Bakery! I got 3 cupcakes and Simon, Lily and I ate them all standing up in the middle of the sidewalk. 

Chocolate with Vanilla frosting (YUM) and Toffee Apple (not my fav.)

Red Velvet (YUM)

Saturday morning, Simon, Lil and I went to burrough market. It's a hungry persons paradise. We walked through the stalls trying all they had to offer. I had some of the best buffalo mozzarella I've ever had in my life from these two lovely girls. I must have tried 30 samples because I was almost stuffed when it was time to decide which food I wanted  It's always better to taste food from people who are as passionate about it as you are about enjoying each bite. as we walked in there was a fresh fruit juice stand set up. 

I ended up with a mango orange juice which was nice, but not mango-y enough for my liking. However, I did drink it within 3 minutes while Lily sipped her pineapple orange juice.

Side note: unfortunately passion fruit is not as popular in the US as it is in Africa, the Middle East or Europe. 

We ended up at our last stop in a part of the market that Lil hadn't been to before. It was a goats milk ice cream stand with a lovely lady standing behind it with some scrubby man. The only other time I have eaten goats milk ice cream was this summer when my mom and I happened to stop at a farmers market in Northern California.  Towards the end of the market was a goats milk ice cream stand (save the best for last). 

Unfortunately the ice cream in the states was better than the one at the market because it was creamier and less icy, but it was still good. I stood at the counter like a little girl trying almost everything. The woman took a liking to me so she started giving me samples. The best one was the honeycomb. It didn't have a strong honeycomb flavor but there were chunks of light and airy honeycomb on top. 

I ended up buying dried chick peas and tikka masala powder to make some sort of replication of my moms chick pea dish. 

Here is the market through my eyes/ lens. 

For you Lilla

Later that day the three of us went to my cousins hotel upon his arrival. It was so nice to see a family member. The four of us, lead by Simon's blackberry, went to Rose Cafe for lunch. 

Rose is tucked away on the top floor of quite the interesting "market" as they call it. It is very different from both Paris Roses. The bottom floor is a museum like gallery (potentially a shop) that has a variety of skulls. Rose splits their space with a store. There aren't any doors splitting off the spaces, just some tables and their counter where they cook. I ordered a few of their salads. Usually at Rose in Paris they give bowl of 3 salads and it's usually to go food but in London, they have less space to cook, maybe 3 burners behind the counter, so they rely on their salads for lunch. They also have more normal hours in London, potentially because it is less well known so they don't run out quickly. 

The salads are comparable to Paris Rose although I wasn't extremely excited about the carrot cake, it was okay. I also went with Addie the day I left for home and got a banana chocolate muffin to go, it was dry and not very good. The pancakes however were incredible along with his eggs. 

Saturday night the cartoons (thanks shibani) rallied to finally make it to Lonsdale for Shibani's birthday around 9. Adam, Nisha and I sat down for drinks at the bar. There were some interesting gentlemen behind the bar, each seemed more drunk than the one before. I'd describe them, but a picture is so much better.  I asked them to take a picture and they enthusiastically obliged so here is the picture of the three muskateers. 

Bar at Lonsdale

It took all three of them to take our food order. Oh and one woman who actually executed it, perfectly. One hamburger (the only one I've liked in almost a year), mac and cheese, green beans, rocket and parmasean, and gnocchi with  peas and fava beans (better than mac and cheese).  

As we walked out we were looking for a cab. Ironically enough lily and simon explained the cab/mini cab situation to me earlier when we passed a mini cab that had a sticker for something that he had done wrong. What I learned was that mini cabs don't go to school while cab drivers go to school and have to know every street in London. Also mini cabs are slightly more sketchy. Per example, our mini cab driver doubles as a drug dealer. So back to the "bouncer". He did the whole "honey" thing then told me that I didn't sound like I was from England. He wouldn't let me speak so I got up and walked away. He then walked up to the mini cab driver and said "they think you're illegal". What a thing to say. Needless to say, the driver drove away. Point made sir.

I think I need to describe the people in the situation a bit better.  Jonah has quite good connections so after Lonsdale I ended up doing more partying then I do in Los Angeles. We left Lonsdale to go to Eclipse where we sat at a table and ordered more shots than I've ever seen in my life.  They were some sort of alcohol of the bottom and champagne on the top, yum.  I sipped my slowly. 

They also ordered this infamous watermelon martini thing that comes in a hollowed out watermelon with 9 straws (not sure why so many) which was also pretty good. 

After an hour or so of watching two fat older men grind up on each other in the dimply lit bar, we left for Boujis, some swanky underground club thing.  We sat at a table thing next to some footballer.   Nisha is Jonah's friend who is getting her MBA right outside Paris, so she was there too.  She is quite the character.  She drank more than I've ever seen anyone drink in my life and she's one of those girls who moved to LA from some midwest state so she overcompensates for her non-authentic LA-ness.  She also rarely speaks in full sentences.  Her key phrases were "don't even" (with the pointer finger pointing to you while waving around in your direction) and "Uh, NO", again with the finger.  All I could say was "no what? Don't even what?!"  She's certainly a character and as the night went on the two word phrases continued, but became more unintelligible as to what she was referencing. She is nice though, I'll give her that. The other girl that Jonah brought was some chick named Lindsey.  She was sweet and I liked her because she loves to travel.  I wasn't so interested in what she had so say about me as someone has said she's a madame, well not really but she has some modeling/advertising agency that she started. She was cool until she got totally wasted and started apologizing for being so wasted.  

London was amazing.  Jonah has just informed me that he is coming this weekend to Paris with Lindsey so I'm excited to see what this weekend holds for me.  Also @loganDORSENTtweet is also coming with his lady friend @insaladameesta.  I am so excited to see them both, well Logan for sure. I must take them to ROSE!!!!!!!!!!

I apologize for any typos at the moment or in the past blog entries.  I have been typing this blog on my ipad and blackberry and have finally got my computer to work again and just want to send this out before everyone "unsubscribes" and thinks i've died. 

Thank you all for reading.  I really appreciate it!

I also know that there was a p.a.c (Pain au chocolat) somewhere in that weekend but obviously it wasn't memorable!!!!

I had two on the way to school today.  I will blog about them tomorrow!!!!!!  

Bisous