Oh hey! I didn’t see you there — I was probably too busy snapping selfies by Buckingham Palace or riding a red double-decker bus. Does that give you any hint to where I spent my spring break? If you couldn’t figure it out by now, I was in London, England! My sister (or sometimes known as my personal photographer) moved to London a few months ago, so we decided to make a family vacation out of it. What happens when all 3 of us kids (surprise, I have a brother) get together in Europe despite all living in different cities, difficult flight delays that keep us in an empty New Jersey airport until 3am, and one heck of a trip itinerary is planned out? A lot of family drama and one hell of a food blog post to write! So, on this last day of my spring break, I thought it’d be appropriate to reflect upon my travels and eats over the past week.
Having been in many spots in Europe prior to this trip (like my Norway/Sweden/Denmark excursion or Israel trip not too long ago), I expected many museums, random statues scattered throughout parks, and tons and tons of tourists weaving in and out of one another. However, London offered so much more than what TripAdvisor showed; there were international cuisines galore, old buildings and monuments beyond anything I’ve seen before, and my personal favorite: luxury department stores with world-famous gourmet food halls. Whether my family was enjoying a great meal in the heart of London, or noshing on macaroons and sipping tea with the queen (I wish), my stomach was full all week, just like my phone’s camera roll.
First is the lunch at Harvey Nichol’s, a luxury department store with a cafe on the top floor. I had the kale and pumpkin salad and my brother had the marrowbone burger with “chips” (french fries), of course!
Later that day, we went down the street to Harrod’s, my personal favorite department store, that had the incredible food halls on the entire bottom floor; considering that the store is an entire city block, there is a lot of food. There were incredible displays of sushi and cheese and meats and desserts. Here’s a snap of a display with the prettiest desserts:
Another afternoon we had tea and a light snack at Paul’s; I had my favorite green tea. We ordered a bunch of macaroons for the table thinking they’d be the typical 2-biters, but they came and they were HUGE! For an idea of how big they were, we cut them in quarters and those quarters were 3-4 bites. We weren’t disappointed, though.
When walking around the city, I often saw Itsu stores, which I quickly understood to be healthy and well-priced fast-food lunch stops. My family went to Itsu on our last full day, and it definitely lived up to the hype. I had the chicken teriyaki rice bowl that came with brown multigrain rice and lots of vegetables! We ate outside because it was (surprisingly) warm and sunny in London!
We had splendid dinners in London, spanning from local cuisine to food inspired from around the world. To name a few of the restaurants, we went to The Ivy Cafe in Marylebone, Meraki, Fredrick’s, and Taka. Meraki is an upscale Greek restaurant with the finest of fish and Santorini tomatoes for their Greek salad.
We started off with the saganaki (cheese) with pistachios and chutney, and the Santorini Greek salad; both were unbelievable, and with a family of 5, they go quickly. For our entree, we all had grilled fish with a light seasoning of salt and a drizzle of olive oil. For dessert, we got the donuts that came with 4 dips: nutella, honey, cinnamon sugar and ice cream. Everything was great!
At Fredrick’s, we had incredible service, just like at Meraki. I started off with the chargrilled broccoli, French bean & avocado salad. As for my dinner, I had the pistachio crushed rare tuna with noodles and an edamame salad. It was all quite delectable.
For the grand finale of my eats during my stay in London, I brought my parents (and practically dragged my brother) to Elan Cafe, the most Instagrammable/photogenic/perfect cafe in all of Europe. With almost 90,000 Instagram followers, the cafe is all about latte art, perfect little desserts, and pink roses along their walls. I was so excited to go, and when we finally sat down (because it’s packed at all hours of the day), I got the most perfect cappuccino and the cutest raspberry tart. Here are my photos that I personally Instagrammed of me in my element:
From unbelievable desserts to piping hot tea, to fabulous meals with lots of wine, I had the best trip with the best food. There’s not much that can top this, and there is certainly nothing to which I can compare this trip’s meals.
I have perfected my British accent, learned to sip with pinkies up, and covered every inch of my new favorite European city just in the past 6 days. The shockingly sunny days resulted in the lack of a need for an umbrella, and more time spent on the streets instead of taxis; according to my Fitbit, I averaged 16,000 steps the past week!
This is Simone, signing off as we end another great adventure.
Cheerio!
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