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The finest house in all of Darbyshire

kayt — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 04:44:26 +0000

Our last full day in London started with a short walk over mist-covered moors to the Chatsworth Estate. There are many many historical houses and estates to visit throughout England but the house and grounds at Chatsworth are said to be some of the finest.

The day did not disappoint. Unfortunately the vista of the house is a little marred by scaffolding for extensive renovation work being undertaken on the facade, but that is soon forgotten as you enter the house. It belongs to another time- the house was built and rebuilt and decorated by a lineage of Dukes dating back to the Tudor monarchs, and the splendor of the house draws from all of their history, travels and great wealth. You begin by walking up the the formal staircase, admiring the celestial ceiling murals as you go. The staircase terminates at a small exhibit on the many films that have used the estate, including 2005’s Pride and Prejudice, 2008’s The Duchess and the upcoming remake The Wolfman. From then on the house is spectacular to the point of being overwhelming. Unfortunately, the house is very dark to preserve the extensive mural work so pictures were impossible. We were both impressed by the wood carvings that adorn many of the walls, as well as the extensive design pieces in the collection: an enormous chandellier of gold stags heads with real horns to commemorate the Dukes’s hunting exploits, the antique Chinese ceramics, the inlaid wood Harpshicord, the Roman-style sculpture gallery (featured in Pride and Prejudice). The collection even includes a sterling silver telephone presented to the Duke of Devonshire by Alexander Graham Bell himself. The wonders of the house give way to the spectacular gardens, which contain a hedge-maze, spectacular flower beds, and many water features. Our time at Chatsworth continued with a visit to their acclaimed restaurant “The Cavandish Rooms” built into the stone gallerys of the former stables. We enjoyed our first traditional English afternoon tea complete with cucumber sandwiches and scones with clotted cream and strawberry jam. We were picked up at Chastworth by Steven, our knight in shining teenybluebritishcar, who planned our walking routes for us and has been carting our luggage between all of our B&Bs. He dropped us off at the train station to begin the journey back into London. After a lengthy train ride we met up with Megs at another of London’s oldest pubs: Ye Old Cheshire Cheese- a dark Labyrinthine place with scurrilous ties to Victorian England’s sex trade and now an after-work stop for Fleet Street bankers. Then we carried on to The Eagle, London’s original gastropub. The food was delightful, delicious, unpretentious and accompanied by delicious wine. Although they seem to have some trouble with the menu system, the chalkboard definitely mentioned a dessert with prawns (sadly sold out by the time we got to pudding.) The next few hours are a little fuzzy, there was wine and talk and song and we ended or London stay with the king of all London drunk-foods: a donner kebab from somewhere on Edgeware Road. Then we drifted home in a black cab and off to bed for the long trip home in the morning.

Stay On The Road, And Keep Clear Of The Moors

alex — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 20:10:47 +0000

Refreshed and rejuvenated from our restful night in Castleton and full English breakfast, we head out on our first of two 11-mile walking days.

Day one took us over some hilly terrain, with spectacular views to match. We began by climbing Mam Tor and followed the “Great Ridge” up to Lose Hill, which provided spectacular views of Hope Valley on one side and Edale Valley on the other. We climbed down a relatively easy descent and started another arduous climb up Win Hill. The two peak district hills are supposedly named for a battle between the armies of King Edwin of Northumbria, who camped on Win Hill and King Cuicholm of Wessex, caamped on Lose Hill. The Hill names are a dead giveaway as to the result of the battle. More spectacular views ensued, and the pictures do more justice than my words ever could. Hopefully, I’ll be able to stitch these together at home for a panorama. After a slippery and rocky descent, our last couple miles were spent walking through towns and across fields paralleling the River Derwent to our evening’s stop in Hathersage. It’s worth pointing out, that after a somewhat exhausting day, we arrived in Hathersage to discover that our B&B was another mile across town, and straight up hill. Let’s just say we really earned our evening pints. Thankfully The Millstone Inn was both a pub and B&B so we didn’t have to go too far for our dinner. We both enjoyed a selection of sausages and mash as we went over tomorrow’s directions over, you guessed it, a couple of pints. Day two started with an immediate climb up to the ridgeline, but we were relieved to find that the rest of the day was much more level. We started at Higger Tor, a local rock climbing destination, and continued on to Carl Wark, the site of a fort that’s been around since the Iron Age. We ambled through the Longshaw Estate, 1,500 acres of open woodland containing the former Duke of Rutland’s hunting lodge. The house is not open to visitors but the grounds are peaceful and scenic and a popular spot for hikers and their pooches. We stopped by a local for lunch, The Grouse Pub, where we were the youngest people by at least 40 years. But no matter – lunch was good and filling, and we carried on our way. Up to Froggart, Curbar and Baslow Edges for more magnificent views, and we even found another group to take a photo, so we can both be in it for once! We descended into the small town of Baslow, and hopped across a stream to the even tinier town of Pilsley. Pilsley is so small that the B&B we stayed is connected to the town supply store…and the post office…and they’re all run by the same woman. We walked half a block to the only pub in town, ate some more English pub food, drank some more delicious cask-pulled pints, the notable difference was that we had dessert in the form of a fabulous Bakewell Pudding: the secret recipe is closely guarded by the original bakery but the Peak District specialty is essentially a flakey strawberry tart with egg custard on top, served warm and covered in creme anglaise. I resisted the urge to lick the bowl.

Why do the British drink warm beer?

alex — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 15:50:59 +0000

Because Lucas makes all the refrigerators! For those of you that didn’t get that (all but 3 of you) I apologize, but this post is all about British cars, and the little car show we went to in Castleton.

Due to a mix-up in scheduling, our hostess was not yet ready for us when we arrived, so we took the opportunity to explore the town of Castleton. We decided to stop in for dinner at Ye Olde Chesshire Cheese. We were thrilled to find something we hadn’t seen since California: local micro-brews! And not just any micro-brews: hand-pulled from a wooden cask. Kayt and I couldn’t resist sampling a couple each, after some recommendations from the bartender. For dinner, I had the fish and chips with mushy peas (the refried beans of England). Kayt had a regional specialty, a Yorkshire pie. Essentially, it’s sausages, vegetables and onion gravy served in a Yorkshire pudding, which is basically a bread bowl. After dinner we were able to get settled at the Causeway House, where our lovely hostess, Janet, insisted on taking us to the local car show. I did not need to be asked twice. The event was hosted in a field adjacent to a nearby pub (shocking) and included everything from former rally cars to beat up Defenders to a Ferrari Testarossa. My favorites include the gorgeous Triumph TR3 pictured above. It reminds me of the TR4 my dad used to work on with me and take me for rides in, on the rare occasion that it ran. American cars were well-represented, including a ‘68 Mustang convertible and a ‘58 Chevy Bel-Air, which looked enormous next to the teeny English cars. There were even a couple Shelby Cobra replicas, one powered by, of all things, a Rover V8 and the other a Chevy small block (blasphemy!) At the end of the night, the British have a tradition I hadn’t seen in the States – watching all the cars leave, cheering appropriately for burnouts. It was great to see and hear all of these cars in action, especially the air-cooled flat-six of a vintage Porsche racer. Once things had calmed down, we enjoyed a nice evening stroll back to town, and lay down for a very restful night.

The Pied Piper

kayt — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 11:33:25 +0000

After a train ride from Stanstead Airport we arrived in the University town of Oxford, and checked into our hotel: The Old Bank. As the name suggests the hotel is built into one of the city’s banks and it’s one of the best hotels I’ve ever stayed in.

After the hustle and bustle and confusion in Ireland, it was wonderful to relax and listen to some fine jazz in the hotel’s restaruant Gee’s and enjoy a romantic after-dinner drink in the Library Bar. We slept soundly in the featherbed and awoke refreshed to spend a very little time in Oxford proper. If I could have spent more time in any city on this trip it would have been Oxford our train to the Peak District left at 1:45 so we really only had a few hours to admire (and photograph) Oxford’s architecture. Stepping just outside our hotel’s glass doors, St. Mary’s church is just across the street. The kahki stone and spiral columns drew our eyes upward. Oxford proper lay beyond. With hardly an inch of skyline left without a peak or spire or tower, Oxford is breathtaking. The crested buildings and student flitting about in robes and ties and mortarboards certainly suggests some temple of learning lost in time. It’s a bit jarring to continue on towards the train station to the more commercial end of town where Mark and Spencers rub elbows with Topshop and an outpost of the venerable London Clothier Ede and Ravenscroft. However, we did manage to find England’s loneliest Tiki Bar We stopped into Oxford’s covered market for lunch; selecting from among the stalls selling sweaters, traditional English meats, and ice cream. We ended up a Pieminister a small chain selling creative and award-winning versions of England’s traditional meat pies. We decided to try the Moo Pie, filled with a classic beef and ale stew; the Minty Lamb filled with lamb, peas, mint sauce, parsnips and gravy; and the Mr. Porky filled with delicious pork, bacon and onion. All three pies came atop a pile of “mash” with a ladlefull of onion gravy. Hearts. We carted our luggage back to the station and boarded the train that would take us to the large Manchester-Picadilly Station from there the teeny local Sheffield line brought us to Castleton. 0nna

Long Way Down

alex — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 20:57:15 +0000

Driving on the left side of the road is hard. Megs learned this very quickly, as she is the only one of the three of us who is both old enough to drive a rental in Ireland (23) and can drive a manual transmission.

For her, the drive through the Irish countryside wasn’t all that relaxing, but for us fortunate passengers, the views were spectacular. Meg’s nerves fried quickly driving through city traffic, so we took a quick pit stop in Athalone to taste McDonald’s Ireland’s ‘Tastes of America’ menu. I enjoyed the Chicago style burger, which was essentially a bacon cheeseburger, with the perplexing addition of salsa and was reshaped into an oval. Kayt went for a more local snack – chicken mcnuggets with curry sauce. Reinvigorated, we head out across the open country. Megan quickly discovered that it was nearly impossible to reach the speed limit of 100 km/h on the rather narrow roads, and allowed the locals past as often as possible. After about 3 hours (Ireland isn’t a very large country) we reached the western coast and the spectacular Cliffs of Moher. Honestly, we could have spent several days touring the coast line, but we made do with the couple hours we had allotted ourselves. We had dinner at the highly recommended Vaughn’s pub in Liscannor. The quaint pub had a nautical theme, and all the earmarks of a fine place to sample county Clare’s famous seafood. Our foodie alarms went off when an amouse bouche of truffle risotto with truffle foam arrived at our table. Equally confusing was the fact that it was immediately followed by a basket of traditional Irish brown bread. The menu came soon after, and it became extremely evident that the restaurant was somehow too big for its britches. With starters of traditional fish chowder sharing menu space with seared scallops topped with caviar, the menu was both underwhelming and overpriced. Afterwards, we returned to the nearby town of Ennis to find somewhere to stay, and check out the famous traditional Irish music scene. The cute town is full of pubs featuring live music played by a handful of locals sitting in the corner booth with their penny-whistles and fiddles. We enjoyed a couple of pints, while trying our hardest not to look like tourists. Upon leaving for the night, we discovered that Ennis, being the largest town in the county, is somewhat of a destination club scene for the young crowd. On our stroll back to our hostel, we saw plenty of girls in clothes that certainly weren’t warm enough for the region, and guys in embroidered shirts and too much cologne. All together it was more Jersey Shore than Irish Coastline. We settled in for a restful night, as we had lots of travel to do the next day.

Was that Glen Hansard?

alex — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 09:49:41 +0000

While London provided us with a meal that deserved its own entire post, our two days in Dublin were really only exciting enough for one.

We arrived early in the morning to O’Neills pub hotel. The accommodations certainly had their charm – the pub’s been open since 1885, and had a very authentic feel. The upstairs guest rooms, however, were a little more bare-bones, and our host, despite being 3rd-generation owner, was a little gruff. We didn’t come to Dublin for the rooms, though, we came for the sights, so we headed out. We grabbed some sandwiches from the Honest to Goodness cafe, and walked across town to the Guinness factory. The factory is still in use at the original St. Jame’s Gate location, for which Arthur Guinness signed a 9,000 year lease. Informational tours are done through a gorgeous 7-story tall facility in the shape of world’s largest pint glass. The tour is not a part of the Brewery itself, and the informational videos, old machinery and huge water feature make it feel a bit like the wait to go on a Disneyland ride. We learned all about the brewing process, and enjoyed the freshest pint any of us could ever hope to have while enjoying a 360 degree view of the city in their top-floor bar. The “Gravity Bar” introduced us to one of our favorite Dublin experiences (no not the Guinness): the jams, much of Dublin seems to believe its 1994. During our say, I heard “Greased Lightening” three times and don’t even ask about the crush Dublin has on BoyzIIMen. In light of our 3 hours of sleep the night before (remember, we were out enjoying maze until 1:00, and had to be up at 4:00 to catch our flight) we decided this would be a good time for a little nap. Upon waking, we headed downstairs for some real Irish pub food, and we weren’t disappointed. Neither Kayt nor I could resist the fish and chips, and Megs had some amazing smoked salmon. We weren’t quite fully rested, so we called it an early night and headed upstairs for a solid night’s rest. In the morning, we headed off to see the sights. First, it was Trinity College, followed by the Chester Beatty museum and Dublin Castle. If you head to Dublin make sure not to miss the Chester Beatty Museum, the “library” has an extensive collection of ancient and antique books and book making supplies from all over the world. We saw amazingly preserved papyri of Paul’s Letter to the Colossians, illuminated copies of the Qur’an, and ancient Japanese woodblock books among many others. We spent the afternoon checking out some of the local shops. Kayt found a new pair of sneakers, as all this walking was getting to her. For our afternoon sugar kick, we went to the Queen of Tarts and enjoyed a frittata, tea and assorted cakes and crumbles. Afterwards, it was back to the room to rest up and get ready to go out for the evening. For dinner we went to Gruel, and had some local flavors of Ireland. We also had our first Irish celebrity sighting – Glen Hansard from the movie Once. After dinner, we took in the local nightlife via one or two traditional Irish pubs, and a club or two for some dancing. Overall, Dublin was a fun stop for us, but there really is only about 36 hours worth of activity to be had.

Degustation

kayt — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 19:04:39 +0000

above: Braised octopus, oxtail vinaigrette, dehydrated black olive, fine herbs and confit lemon

Once in a while you have a gustatory experience so extraordinary that it elevates the food to something besides mere nourishment. Whether the food is Pumpkin Luna with Sage Butter at Mario Batali’s Babbo, or a Maple-Bacon donut from Dynamo Donuts or my Mom’s Eggplant Parmesean. Gordon Ramsay’s Maze was one such experience. The restaurant is hidden in a Mayfair townhouse and the overall atmosphere is relaxed, from the modern lighting to the informal utensils to the dark wood floor to the minamal colour scheme. You would expect the award winning restauraunt of an international celebrity chef to be a pretty pretentious place, but at Maze the restauraunt is about the food – and the people who love it. Our lovely server started off the evening delivering a trifecta of binder-sized menus to the table. She explained that Maze was a tapas/tasting menu and that each of us should pick three or four dishes. The sommelier arrived soon after and helped us decipher the inch-thick wine list, and selected a reasonable and extremely tasty Austrailian Pinot Noir to compliment our food (a note for wine lovers, I’m not sure where the sommellier thought we were from but as I started to explain what sort of wine we wanted he asked “had I ever had a Pinot Noir form the Napa Valley…”) I could try to describe all the things we ate for dinner, but the pictures will say more than I can. Let me say that each dish was a taste poem, with layers of flavors surrounding a thematic element. Alex’s leg of quail with quail reduction was complimented by the mushroom risotto that accompaied and and the quail egg at the bottom of the risotto pot brought the flavors full circle. Megan’s pan-seared cod was floating in a pool of luxurious prawn bisque and finished with a trio of rock shrimp. And my baby-lamb chop was topped with seared lamb tongue and came with a mini shephard’s pie pulling together a sophiticated version of a traditional Engliah roast. The beauty of the tasting plate is that the chef is able to focus on clarifying all the flavors, and I can truly say that more than once during the meal the flavors of the food brought us to silence in order to better savour our dishes. I can only say, look at the pictures and do your best to imagine the taste.

All the world’s a stage..

kayt — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 17:42:08 +0000

After yesterday’s shenanigans, we were running on slow today. We dragged ourselves into Soho to have a coffee at one of London’s best cafe’s: Flat White. It didn’t disappoint, the Americano could’ve put hair on my chest. We did a little shopping in and around Regent Street and as the day turned into the afternoon we decided to try to catch the matinée of As You Like It at the Globe Theatre. We got there a little later than planned, so lunch was a sausage from a street vendor outside the Theatre. The sky was threatening rain so instead of standing in “the pit” we opted for seats in the north tower. The show began with monologues and drums and while we weren’t exactly transported back in time, the theatre experience was different from most performances you’d see today. The actor’s ribald interpretation of Shakespeare’s verse and their use of the audience as the butt of many a joke engaged the “pit ” in the way few performances do today. As You Like It contains some of the Bard’s most memorable lines and I couldn’t help but feel like I was in “Shakespeare Disneyland” a bit of a surreal experience. We did experience a lovely English tradition at Intermission, the Pimm’s Cup. Pimm’s Number 1 and Soda in a cup with various fruits, usually straberries and cucumber, is the official drink of Wimbleton and is a staple of many daytime outdoor events. We meandered home, a little buzzed, to prepare for a dinner that’s so exquisite it deserves its own post.

Cheers

A Night Out on the Town

alex — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 22:35:39 +0000

After a full day of museums and shopping, we were ready to head out for an exciting evening with Megs. Based on her recommendation, we went to the charming neighborhood of Chelsea to the Pig’s Ear. It was a typical English gastropub experience full of oysters, scallops, and fancied up fish & chips. From there we headed off to a club called the Borderline to seeing up-and-coming dance-pop artist Unicorn Kid. While his music is enjoyable, he needs a bit of refinement as a performer: he went on at 9:30, and we showed up a little late, around 9:45 or so. ‘No big deal’ we thought – we can still get in a solid 45 minutes of dancing. One round of drinks and three songs later, the show abruptly ended. We went upstairs and found out from the manager that the show was supposed to go until 10:30, and he was kind enough to refund our cover charge. From there, we headed down the street to a small bar called Lab. After being confounded by the 40-page drink menu, we made friends with the Swedish bartender who was happy to try out some of his own concoctions on us. I must say – I have never been so impressed by a bartender. We we would describe our tastes to him, he would say ‘let me see what I can do’ and he would whip up a unique combination of flavors like nothing any of us had ever had. It was a fun way to end of the evening, and we stumbled home to a well deserved bed.

Arc de Soliel

kayt — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 17:21:26 +0000

You know that feeling you get when you’ve built an experience up in your mind so much that the actual event is nothing but a disappointment? The British Museum was absolutely nothing like that .

We started our day with breakfast at a little cafe in Soho called “The Breakfast Club.” Soho is pretty hip and the restaurant didn’t disappoint with updated versions of classics. I had a traditional English Breakfast (fried eggs, toast, tomato, sausage, beans) but with the establishment’s own vegetarian sausage. Alex couldn’t resist the Breakfast Burrito, and found that a tortilla in Britain is exactly as weird as you’d expect. From there we hoofed it over to the British Museum, famous for it’s huge collection of antiquities from all over the world. There are some highlights; the museum contains the Rosetta Stone- which like many famous artworks, seems much smaller in reality that it is in your head. That being said, standing in front of the tablet, surrounded by Egyptian cartouche and monumental sculpture I felt humbled that this one artifact had unlocked our entire understanding of one of the most fascinating cultures of the ancient world. Progressing through galleries of Assyrian winged lions, Egyptian bas-relief, and Cycladic figurines, the downstairs wing culminates in a room full of marble sculpture and frieze from the Parthenon. The ancient figures are headless and much damaged by war, however, they convey a full understanding and perfect respect for the human form. After a few more exhibits, we caught the Tube to explore some of England’s most respected establishments, starting with Harrod’s. It was everything I expected, from the beautiful shoes (…drool), to the fine china and the extraordinary food halls. One of the most ineresting things about the Harrod’s food halls is that they have specialties from different regions with outposts in the store: a sushi bar, a Krispy Kreme and a Laduree. Laduree is a French Patisserie known for creating the French Macaron: two thin almond wafers, often infused with other flavors, sandwiched around complementary-flavored ganache. From left to right we have Violet/Black Currant, Raspberry, Rose/Cream, Vanilla, Salted Butter Carmel and Pistachio. Delicious. Macarons are the next Cupcake, I swear. You can get them in Hayes Valley in SF at Paulette Macarons if you’re curious. We walked along Hyde Park and Picadilly back to the St. James neighborhood to visit some of London’s finest Hatmakers, Shirtmakers and Tailors. Unfortunately these establishments are extremely hesitant to let you take photos so you’ll have to wait for another post with more detail about heritage businesses.

Cheers