We had plans to be in Oslo this weekend. However about 3 weeks ago we updated (and were horrified by) our finances and decided to defer Norway to next year. With the day already logged in our work vacation trackers, we decided to make a day of it anyway and muck about in and around London.
The day started quite early. A 6 am start for me to get some last minute work done (yes, sad indeed). By 8 Ed was up and had a pot of coffee going. We spent most of the morning planted on the couch. Around 10:30 we peeled ourselves off the sofa to get dressed and were out the door by 11:30, on our way to lunch at Chez Bruce.
Chez Bruce is a relatively small and inconspicuous restaurant along the 2 block highstreet of Wandsworth Common (about a mile to a mile and a half from our flat). This year it was rated Top for Food in Zagats, ending Gordon Ramsey’s 7 (?) year reign, and beating all the other flashy name restaurants in London. It’s prix fixe menu also happens to be half the price of aforementioned flashy London restaurants so we were duly intrigued.
The food was indeed excellent. We kicked of with 2 glasses of champagne. Ed started of with an absolutely exquisite fois gras and chicken liver parfait served with a generous chunk of brioche toast. I started with a scrumptious chanterelle soup with tarragon croutons and truffle cream. For mains, Ed had the haddock, which was served with scallops, gnocchi, and prosciutto. I had the duck assiette served with some roasted foie gras and flageolet beans. I was somewhat weary of the beans and the rather soupy presentation, but the beans and tasty sauce were absolutely delicious accompaniments to the medium rare duck breast, what looked like a duck heart, and the heavenly piece of fois gras. Yummy. To accompany our meal we semi-splurged on a 1999 Nuit-St-Georges Burgundy. Quite the treat.
Food pics (L-R): Foie Gras parfait, Chanterelle soup, Haddock, Duck
The cheese and dessert that followed were a bit of a let down. The cheese was a little on the unadventurous side – nothing to write home about. For dessert Ed had the trifle, and I had the prune tart served with clotted cream. But with the alcohol still flowing (Ed has a Macallan 10 year, and I some 10 year tawny port) we were still happy as clams.
Dessert pics (L-R): Trifle, Prune tart with clotted cream
Around 3pm (3 hours later) we finally ended lunch and wandered to the movie theatre where we had tickets for the 4 pm Bourne Ultimatum. The movie was really good apparently, though I would not know since I napped through most of it. Afterwards we checked out the Clapham High Street Friday scene, and had sufficient amounts of beer and mojito, capped off with an indulgent box of KFC fried chicken. Aah. Days such as these are always nice. So nice to have both Saturday and Sunday to recover.
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