Too much great food

Chef Brett Graham of The Ledbury, where I ate last night, operates another restaurant, the only gastropub with a Michelin star, The Harwood Arms.  Thanks to the help of a friendly server, Sam, at The Ledbury last night, I was able to enjoy a late lunch today at The Harwood Arms.

The food was simply great, British classics redone with such skill, superb ingredients, and excellent presentation that you would scarcely believe how good each was.

Many years ago, I was part of the foolish group of people that said there was no good English food.  How wrong I was.  Restaurants like The Clove Club, The Ledbury, and The Harwood Arms prove that not only is there good English food, there is superb, world-class English food.

The only problem with two such meals in two days is that they represent entirely too much food, so I am now in a food coma and useful only for reading and stretching out in bed.  To which I will now return.

Still lazy in London

I slept late in a delightfully cool room and then walked not quite a mile to see a new play, The Ferryman.  After picking up tickets, I grabbed a quick lunch at a nearby Shake Shack--sue me for eating at a U.S.-based chain, but it was just what I wanted--and then entered the theatre.

I need to do a longer review of this play later, but as the title of this post notes, I'm still lazy in London.  Suffice for now to say that though the play was emotionally devastating, it was absolutely brilliant.  After three acts and about two and a half hours of watching the play, I leapt to my feet to join a well-deserved standing ovation.  If you get a chance to see this play, do not miss it.

Dinner was at another of my favorite London restaurants and another of the top 50 restaurants in the world, The Ledbury.  The meal was awesome from start to finish, a true world-class feast.  If you can afford the admittedly high cost, eat at The Ledbury.

Now, to read, and then to crash.

The three highlights of a wonderful London day

Touring a lot of the Impressionist section of the National Gallery and getting to see half a dozen Van Gogh works, including the remarkable Sunflowers.

Watching raptly The Old Vic's production of Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, in which the entire cast, notably stars Daniel Radcliffe, Joshua McGuire, and David Haig, were superb.  This time around, I found the ending particularly touching.

Eating and enjoying a world-class dinner at The Ledbury, a restaurant that deserves every accolade it's received.

Wow, what a day.

Busy, busy

I don't think I will ever see all of the British Museum, but I visit it each time I'm in London.  My progress is slow, though, because there are so many exhibits that I like to see again.  Today, I spent most of my time in the Egyptian sections, which are obviously huge and so take a lot of time even if you're only browsing.

After that, I popped over to the Shaftesbury Theatre to catch the musical, Motown.  Long on music and short on accuracy, the show was both fun and, at times, a touching quick trip through some of America's fairly recent past.  I don't feel I learned anything about Berry Gordy, but the story served as an adequate framing device for the many, many songs, and they were great.  (I should note here that I am a Motown fan, so I already knew all of these tunes.)  As long as you go just for the music, this show is a blast.

Dinner tonight was at one of London's finest restaurants, in my opinion possibly its finest, The Ledbury.  I had eaten there on my last trip to London, and that meal was fantastic, so I wanted to see if a second visit would prove to be as good.  It most certainly did.  I cannot recommend The Ledbury highly enough.

I'd write more, but it's quite late, and I'm very tired, so to sleep I go.

Oh, yes, there is great British food: In praise of The Ledbury

In my blog post from London on August 11, I promised to tell you about a spectacular dinner I enjoyed that evening.  Now, more than a month later, I'm finally going to deliver on that promise.

As this post's title states, the meal was at The Ledbury, a wonderful establishment that chef Brett Graham has led to the number 10 spot in the 2014 ranking of the world's 50 best restaurants.  Using almost entirely ingredients he sources in the U.K, and often riffing on traditional British dishes, Graham and his team are creating amazingly delicious meals and delighting diners from all over the world.

Including this one.  The meal that night looked relatively simple on paper:

Click an image to see a larger version.

I mean, how exciting can a salad of cold green beans and almonds be, right?

Wrong.  It was more delicious than I could have imagined from the description.

Of course, the fact that the almonds were both powdered and chunked helped, and the presence of cold grated foie gras gave the dish a lovely umami mouth feel, and the peach was a delicious touch, but the green beans themselves were simply wonderful, fresh and crisp and full of flavor. 

The salad didn't even show up, though, until after some snacks.

Wow, were they both beautiful in presentation and tantalizing in flavor.

Every single course delivered perfect flavors and a variety of textures, and every single one dispelled any thoughts that British cuisine was doomed to be as bad as the jokes so many make about it.

I'm not going to show photos of all the courses--it is late--but do check out this final savory course, the Berkshire Muntjac, a variety of venison, with veggies and smoked bone marrow sitting like butter atop one chunk of meat.

The venison was so tender and so flavorful that I was certain they had cooked it sous vide.  No, they told me, they simply roasted it.  Amazing.

Getting into The Ledbury is not always easy, and the meal is pricey, but it is absolutely worth the time and cost if you can afford both.  My dinner there ranks among the best meals I have ever had.

I can't wait to go back.