The V&A Museum and the National Portrait Gallery

Patrick London To Do, UK Life

Victoria and Albert Museum

I ventured out to visit the Natural History Museum at South Kensington today but the drab wet weather the long queues that formed outside made me decide that the wait was not worth it. Instead I took the opportunity to cross “Museum Lane” to the side that houses the Victoria and Albert Museum. This museum displays probably one of the largest collections of decorative arts including contemporary and historic, and just like most other museums in London entrance is free.

The museum itself houses apparently 146 different galleries and regularly hosts a number of seminars discussing various topics in contemporary art. The building itself is massive composed of several floors each with different parts displaying various works such as ceramics, glass, metalwork, furniture, photos and paintings. Though some of the selections are not always relevant or functional, many of them you would still appreciate as being impressively decorative.

After a while of walking around I caught the tube and visited the National Portrait Gallery. The gallery is yet another free institution most well known for the large collection of busts in paint, picture of photos on display. Its prime location between Trafalgar Square and Leceister Square makes it extremely popular and definitely worth the visit. Being Britian’s national gallery, you should find it no surprise that many of the busts inside are mainly English people. On the first floor that I visited there was a eerily life-sized portrait of Dame Judi Dench and even more amazing 3D display of JK Rowling (the author of Harry Potter) in a setting that truly looked life like. Of the exhibitions that I visited, I definitely enjoyed the “Look at Me” the most. This exhibition was commissioned and took a close look at the lives of teenagers from around England, some of which were predictably amateurish but others that were both powerfully relevant and presented magnificently.

It’s Official, I’m a Researcher!

Patrick London To Do, The 'He Who Knows' Challenge, UK Life

British Library Reader CardLast week’s attempt at checking out the British Library had been thwarted by the fact that you need to join as a reader before you could enter any of the reading rooms. This week I was more prepared with:

  • A proof of signature (my passport); and
  • A proof of residency (my bank statement)

After you fill out an online application form detailing things such as what research project you are working on, what resources you have tried, what other libraries you have visited and what your book reading list is, you are given a brief introduction to the library by a New Reader Admissions Officer. Soon after you are issued with a card and are on your way to accessing pretty much, as its website states, “The World’s Knowledge” made available from over 200 miles of books, journals and other archived media and information.

With the ability to get access to the reading rooms, I headed to the software section (it is what I said my research project was on) and it just so happened to be the top floor. It is extremely surreal entering the reading rooms, almost like another world. You must adhere to strict rules when entering the rooms such as you cannot bring coats, bags, food or drink and anything taken in must be carried around in zip-lock carry bags they provide. Internet access is provided for free from many terminals and Wi-Fi is available upon request and with payment. The top floor looks out on all of the other floors, and it is simply breath taking to see all the other researchers sitting in the well spaced and almost luxurious cubicles with a wealth of information at their finger tips.

Pretty much any book in the archive can be requested, although some may be better to ask for in advance with the retrieval process taking up to 70 minutes. A quick scan of their catalogue has pretty much every book I would ever want and the books on the shelves seemed quite up to date as well.

The library is an amazing place and is definitely well worth signing up.

The Kua Rating: 9 out of 10

Out to Oxford

Patrick London To Do, UK Life

OxfordOn Saturday I took a trip up to Oxford to visit my good friend Kath from back home. I’d been meaning to visit her since I got here as she’s come down to visit me twice now, so I thought this weekend was as good as any. There are several ways of getting to Oxford but by far, the best I know of is the series of buses called the Oxford Tube. In almost all ways, the Oxford Tube is much better than anything that the London Public Transport department has to offer. The double-decker buses that come almost every ten minutes operate 24 hours and are fully air-conditioned, outfitted with reclining and very comfortable seats and a toilet to boot. The buses have three pick up and drop off points in London city (one very conveniently a ten minute walk from me at Notting Hill Gate) taking about one and a half hours to get to the high street in Oxford city.

Despite the prediction of gloomy and drizzly weather, we were spoilt with almost clear blue skies for most of day and got to see Oxford when it was most spectacular. There is an open topped tour bus that takes you around to all of the different sights to see, but because we had Kath as our own little tour guide, we got to see it from a completely different and most probably much better angle.

Unlike the universities we have back home or in the United States, Oxford is laid out as if the entire city is the campus. Students must be affiliated with a college that is really more an association that anything (only the freshers or first year students tend to stay on campus) and are strewn between the cafes, pubs and stores of the city. The actual University buildings are a little bit further out but things are within a decent walking distance made even shorter by a bike or bus ride. Every college is extremely private with visitors not generally welcomed and the grounds kept pristine at all times. We had a good laugh at the story that Kath told us of the beautifully green grass that college members had “grass privileges” for in the summer time allowing them to sit on it, or play croquet only between the times of 11 and 1. Having said that I suppose there were very good reasons it was as green and lush as it was.

The town itself is beautiful filled with many historic and well maintained buildings linked together by a series of cobblestone paths. We saw many sights including Carfax Tower (the best aerial view of Oxford), Christ Church (one of the largest colleges surrounded by stunning gardens and rivers full of rowers and punters), the Radcliffe Square and Radcliffe Camera, the Bodleian Library (that stocks all of the published articles and journals in the world), and the Bridge of Sighs (a model of the famous Ponte de Sospiri in Venice). All the buildings are intricately detailed with stunning stone work and heads of people, dragons and gargoyles adorning the outside.

We had a great lunch at the pub, Far from the Madding Crowds, and indulged in the whole café, market and book culture (the amazingly huge Blackwell’s). It was a great day thanks to Kath and we headed back completely tired and content.

Picnic at Hampstead Heath

Patrick London To Do, UK Life

A picture of Hampstead HeathLast week I organised a picnic with a large group of great people to visit Hampstead Heath yesterday. These huge parklands lie on London’s north side and contain large parts of untouched English greenery, the most I have seen since being here. London was even kind enough to lay on a beautifully warm day, despite the weatherman’s forecast for weekend showers. Everyone brought a lot of different food and the spread turned out so big that we could not even finish it all. We played a bit of football (soccer for all those back home), frisbee and Michelle even had a go at flying her kite. It was a fantastic day for what seems like one of the last sunny days I might see for a while. Thanks to Ben, Michelle, Karl, Caroline, Megan, Mel, (the other) Ben, Paul and Nathan for tagging along and making it so good.

Midweek Theatre: James Thiérrée’s La Veillée des Abysses

Patrick London To Do, Theatre, UK Life

Once again visiting the Peacock Theatre, which likes to play host to visually spectacular events, I saw with my sister last night, James Thiérrée’s La Veillée des Abysses. It is best classified as a theatrical comedy. Take your typical theatrical comedy, remove all the dialogue and add a liberal dose of circus skills. Just like Momix, this show had amazing sets and leveraged each part of the stage, including the airspace above the audience. It certainly had much larger set changes, and focused on individual items to create clever and humourous situations.

This show had apparently once shown at Southbank and its popularity and positive reviews deemed it fit enough to return to London for another short screening. I think my most favourite aspect of this show is that with only five performers, the audience was constantly laughing and it was all through the use of visual comedy. It amazes me at how well the director and writer of the show could get five completely different performers (such as a contortionist, an acrobat, and a musician singing opera and playing the piano) delivering a seamless show that was visually rich and yet emotionally entertaining.

Dinner at The Ivy

Patrick London To Do, Restaurants

The Ivy The initial question guaranteed when you tell people that you had dinner at The Ivy is, ‘How did you manage to get a table there?’ It is one of those places in London that you must book ahead, from anything up to four and six months for a table of two. The biggest reason that my sister wanted to go to this place was because it was well known for one of those haunts where you might cross paths with some celebrity. I, on the other hand, don’t really care too much for celebrity status with my preferences being placed more heavily on the great food, service and ambiance and despite my initial thoughts that it might be a pretty pretentious environment, I was pleased to find that everyone was treated equally and the service was prompt, polite and unobtrusive to the entire dining experience.

The Ivy is located on a rather non-descript street just at the back of Covent Garden and you would never really guess that it contained such a famous restaurant, with perhaps its only indication being a doorman dressed in black tails welcoming you as you enter. The restaurants’ windows are made of, what looked like, 1920s stained glass, effectively preventing anyone from being able to peer inside or out, but adding to the nice dining atmosphere. Darkly stained wooden veneer covers much of the insides and the dimmed lighting helps to add much to the ambiance of the entire place. The main dining room, for which you pay a £2 per person privilege for eating there) is not as large as you might expect and the tables are optimised to make use of the entire space without making you feel uncomfortably close to other diners. There are plenty of wait staff buzzing around resetting tables, taking orders, and delivering food and drink and yet it did not seem like a chaotic environment.

Bang Bang ChickenThe menu has a large variety of offerings, with many of the items constantly changing on a weekly basis and is best described as a combination of innovative contemporary and traditional English meals. A wide variety of meats, seafood and game is on offer, all cooked in many different styles and dressed with many different sauces. For the sort of place that it is, I was surprised to see that many of its dishes were not ridiculously over priced, with many of its main dishes below £20. Be warned though that, if you decide to go the full three course meal, the starters and dessert prices are not as slim for what you get.

For my starter, I ordered the Bang Bang chicken just out of curiosity. It was a dish in which smoked chicken lightly brushed with a sweet-chilli sauce, covered in a smooth peanut sauce laid a top a bed of finely sliced vegetables. The smoke flavour in the chicken was deliciously subtle though probably over powered by the peanut sauce that seemed a little bit more like peanut butter than anything else.

The Fillet of CodMy main was a grilled fillet of cod served with on a bed of crab risotto and my sister and I shared a side of Parmesan-fried courgettes served with tomato relish. The thick slice of fish that arrived was perfectly cooked with a nicely charred bottom and juicy flesh that you could tell had just gone from being translucent to white. The small bed of risotto that accompanied the fish was also excellent, each mouthful bursting with flavour but without being overly fishy.

To finish off the evening, I had the dessert of the night, which was a piece of vanilla roasted pineapple served with a scoop of lime and coconut ice. Although the warmed pineapple was perhaps a bit overly sweet, its soft flesh was perfectly paired with a bit of the ice which was strongly flavoured and slightly tart. The caramelised edges were probably the best bit of the pineapple as it had the strongest vanillan flavour but unfortunately its excessive sweetness overcame me and I could not finish it.

After dining at the restaurant, I am actually quite glad that I did go as it was a unique experience. It’s not one that I can afford to do any time soon and I can now actually recommend the experience to everyone. Taking pictures of my food was tolerated until the flash accidentally went off when taking a picture of my main, so unfortunately no picture of the dessert.

Details: The Ivy
Found on: 1 – 5 West Street, London WC2H 9NQ
Contactable on: 020 7836 4751
Highlights: A fine dining experience at (relatively) reasonable prices and for those inclined, the opportunity for a celebrity sighting.
Room for improvement: It would good if you didn’t have to book so many months in advance.
The Kua Rating: 9 out of 10

To Market, To Market

Patrick Food, London To Do, The 'He Who Knows' Challenge

Update: Summary added for the ‘He Who Knows’ Challenge

The Borough MarketsLocated just outside the London Bridge Underground station, you will easily stumble across London’s Borough Markets, with the closest thing back home in Brisbane being the farmer’s markets organized by Jan Power. I had high expectations for these markets, having read about this place sometime last year at The Passionate Cook’s food blog, and after visiting can say that I was definitely not disappointed.

The only way that I can succinctly describe the markets is that it is distinctly London. Unlike the powerhouse markets back home where you can walk up one side and down the other, the Borough markets can be difficult to navigate. Just like the city that hosts it, the markets comprise of winding paths connecting all the stalls seemingly held together by the swarms of people from all over the world that flow through them all. Admittedly the markets are not as big as I was first anticipating, consisting of about 70 stalls and a handful of stores, but the quality and variety of food and produce available certainly make up for it.

The offerings of food is amazing and had I actually had a kitchen to return home to yesterday, probably would have come away with much more than I did. Stretching further than just typical farmer markets fare, the markets have pretty much everything you would need for any pretty fine dinner, and listing them all here would not really give justice to what the markets really do offer, but you can find huge varieties of fresh fruit and vegetables, seafood, poultry, meat, game, jams, cheese, wines, breads, cakes, chocolates and just so much more.

Whats Up Doc?One of London’s premium coffee stores, Monmouth, has a double presence here with a small stall in the heart of the markets fuelling the crowd’s almost frenzied movements with shots of caffeine, and the more permanent fixture on the street just opposite the markets. The more permanent fixture is so popular, that like all busy pubs in the city, that it has people cascading onto the streets, all standing around chatting and drinking coffee out of proper cups and saucers. Neil’s Yard Diary, well known for its quality cheese products also has a physical store just next to Monmouth but was so busy inside I didn’t feel up to pushing my way through to its delightful offerings (especially where there is one just a street away from work).

It should be fairly obvious to a person new to London that meat and meat products play a big game in British food fares (or is that just London?). Amongst the many meat products on offer, I saw a much wide variety of things including fresh Haggish, Black Pudding, pies, sausages, rabbits hanging, wild boar, pheasants and an amazing amount of cured, smoked or dried meats. I was thoroughly impressed by one particular store, the name currently eluding me that had four or five legs of cured pork meat each held by a single vice all on a large long bench. At the request of a customer, attendants would shave off fresh slices of what looked like prosciutto or parma-ham, with a long blade to be carefully layered on sheets of plastic.

Feeling like I couldn’t come away from the markets without making a purchase, but unable to really buy anything that useful (my hotel room doesn’t have a bar-fridge or anything) I decided to pick up a punnet of fresh raspberries to snack on, and a small bottle of oak-smoked garlic butter to give to my sister.

The markets are only open from noon until 6pm on Friday and then 9am to pm on Saturday. Crowds on a Saturday are thin early on, but increase in density pretty quickly. There are plenty of things that you can still pick up, even if you don’t live in London (fresh coverture chocolates, cakes, croissants, sweets, berries, coffee, etc) and even though the markets are on the southeast side of London, it is extremely easy to get to. It’s definitely a place I will be visiting regularly.

Details: The Borough Markets (Location)
Found on: 8 Southwark Street, SE1
Highlights: Fantastic variety of food, nice atmosphere and great variety, and the potential to see Jamie Oliver walking around.
Room for improvement: Crowds and people with strollers make it difficult getting around to all the stalls and combined with the winding paths may make it difficult for you to return to that stall you may want to revisit.
The Kua Rating: 8.5 out of 10 (I’m impressed but I haven’t visited any of other London’s market offerings)