LONDON IS.......LONDON!
Silly Goose! That's what someone in all her/his wisdom decided to christen the houseboat, moored at Regent Canal, London. Obviously, the name ingrained deep into one's head and while calling the family members ' You Silly Goose' at every occasion was overlooked, it took quite a bit of tongue biting not to apply the moniker to others too! Then, a few days later one finds that overnight a new houseboat has lined up with the others, proudly bearing the name, 'Toodle Pip'. This time only the first half of the name parked itself in the head and one went toodle, toodle all over. And far away in Henley on the Thames, someone must been quite high spirited literally to name the boat 'Down the Hatch' with Once More. Well what can one say but cheers to the British sense of humour
It was however, not funny at all when one morning while we were walking along the canal side to cut through a park and head off to our planned destination, a very evident mugger decided that we looked like easy prey. At that hour there were not not many people around. Trailing us but trying to look like another person walking the route, he would walk a little bit ahead, often pretend to walk up to the park and suddenly pop up behind. Lets say we were not sitting ducks. It was not his day however brick-headed he was about he was about stalking us.
BRICK BY BRICK
Incidentally, on this trip Brick Lane was the first place we headed for. More than two decades ago Monica Ali's book, Brick Lane had built a vivid description of the address but despite wanting to check out protagonist Nazneen's new home and all that went with it, one hadn't been able to do so. Brick Lane today is said to be a hotspot because of its vintage shops, art works, eating joints especially Bengali food with its large Bangladeshi immigrants.
What was hardly visible at eye level were bricks! Most of the walls were covered by so called artworks that at times could easily qualify as ugly.The Bangladesh community here is Sylheti and their cuisine is said to pack in the spice factor. We chose to eat at Graam Bangla with its claim of 'homestead deshi dining'. But more than it is the only eatery in Brick Lane that was visited by the present king and queen with four pictures taken on the occasion proudly displayed on a wall inside. A small place with the curries and sishes of the day displayed in a glass fronted cabinet. Having many a times slurped one's way through delicious East Bengali food, the one at Graam Bangla was quite mediocre or rather that zing was missing.
Loved the Brick Lane Bookshop and more than tickled pink at spying for the first time ever a circumcision clinic spread on one whole floor of a building. Dropped into the Whitechapel Art Gallery and saw the Hamad Butt exhibition. Couldn't relate to it.
The beigel shops or rather the two beigel shops in Brick Lane are legendary. The Beigel Shop set up in 1855 is still a family run business and remains open 24/7. The other, imaginatively called The Beigel Bake is much younger having come up in 1979 and yes, also stays open 24/7. Another yes - both shops claim that the beef beigel are their bestsellers. The only difference: at the Beigel Shop it is called Hot Salt Beef and at the Beigel Bake it is Salt Beef. Almost all legends come with stories and this has a rather sad one. The founder of the Beigel Shop had rented the premise from his uncle and when it became successful he was shown the door by the uncle who took over the business. Years later the Beigel Bake came up, just two shops away and it is said to have the longer queue of clients. Sadly, we decided to skip because the line seemed endless and some people lack patience.
Sometimes, life can can spring pleasant surprises. Brick Lane was sort of done and dusted and soon after the skies decided to open up which meant no more jaunty exercises to further explore the place. And somewhere we walked into a restaurant because it looked cheerful despite the inclement weather. The gods were certainly smiling down on us, it was one of the best fare we have had. No oversell, no too clever by half flipping and fusing of recipes- just delicious dishes one after another. The restaurant is called Palmers at Mile End and as per its claim it is a brasserie style restaurant that serves modern British food. A friend long ago had churned out an article where he propagated the theory that Britishers went out into the world and set up colonies in every possible corner of the world because they just could not bear another day of eating what was cooked in their kitchens! Palmers quietly demonstrated that modern British food, the emphasis on modern, would have anyone going in for seconds. Not just British, even Moroccan going by the chicken tajine. The 'summer pudding' with luscious raspberries had everyone drooling.
MARKET MATTERS
Farmer's markets are universal and the one at Victoria Park fitted the typical format, just that there were more dogs around and all the better for it. And a kiosk called Spring was devoted entirely to ' natural, 100% handcrafted bone broth' of every variety. Made sure to stay far away from it! The Broadway Market close by was like a copy-paste template . The demographic change over the years was evident in the number of food stalls with Asian cuisines ranging from Gujrati to Nepal, Chinese to Thai to Spanish and plenty of takers for it. Quite amusing to find a permanent shop, ' F. Cooke' provided both Hot Jellied Eels and Eye Examinations under the same roof.
Where markets are concerned it was naturally given that revisiting Borough, Camden Market and Covent Garden markets was par for the course. The Borough market memories we had from our earlier visits were trampled and crushed into smithereens with what we encountered. Packed to the gills - as all successful markets should be and that too on a weekday - but shouldn't the size of the market be considered while planning how many stalls and kiosks there should be. To the disappointment of the family members the exotica meat stall seemed to have disappeared. Worse, there are just two toilets/WC and the queue before each grew every second. We gave up and moved across the street, bang opposite Borough Market, to the Vietnamese eatery Keu and gorged on humungous delicious Bahn Mis. While the spread at Keu far superseded value for money, the Thai dinner at a small place called of all things. Mum Likes Thai, at Bethnal Green was very average and overpriced beyond belief.
In contrast, Covent Garden market was a pleasing experience. Unfortunately, forget getting the seating facing the Covent Garden Market square, getting a table on the terrace of The Punch & Judy, the pub since 1787, was a no go. We contented ourselves by settling for a table at the 'seating well', the open space within the apple market and the series of live performances made up for it. However, there was no way I was going to like the strawberry cider with a medicinal tonic pink colour, the taste put me off. Cider is apple cider, period.
The visit to the Camden Market had a purpose. The other half was keen on checking out if Chin Chin Labs, Europe's first nitrogen liquid ice cream parlour was still there. It was, right at its old spot and crowded as ever, still turning out ice creams in two minutes and the flavours were as intense as ever. One has never been disappointed and wasn't this time at sighting punks around. Their attire, their attitude seemed to have grown significantly. Impressive too were the giant croissants at a Cafe we stopped for a coffee bake. They looked like they could easily slip into the Alice In Wonderland story. It felt good to see the quintessential Kolkata Kathi rolls mark its presence. And this time, insisted on hanging around to watch the ritual of opening the lock gate on the Regent Canal to let the boats pass. One boat near the gate pulls back quite a distance in the narrow canal, then two men manually open the fence like gates, the boat on the other side slowly sails down and after that, the one that had pulled back comes back to its original place. Huh!
Often dubbed the busiest shopping street in Europe, Oxford Street is a retail heaven for sure but going by the crowd around, the shoppers and even the gaudy rickshaws plying around with blaring Arabic music, one wouldn't be altogether wrong for feeling like being somewhere in the Middle East! The is-that-really-so ones can check out Selfridges and Harrods. Also walk into the retail stores and the majority of staff are from Asia. Hmm.... Dinner was at the fine dining Italian restaurant Isola. And it must be said, for our palates the dishes were so bland. Fabulous ingredients but hell salt, pepper, olive oil and herbs alone do not turn out work magic, Yes, you are welcome to say what do you expect after decades of being accustomed to zingy food and what do you expect from continental fare! One has to say that however, when it comes to tiramisu, the Italians have no competitors.
DOWN AND THEN UP
London Dungeon? Another hmmm. One has to admit that recreating the country's macabre history day in and day out can't be a child's play. But somehow, despite the superb acting, near authentic presentation of the concerned periods, the ensemble etc, that excitement and sense of fear didn't happen. I suppose there is an age, time and mood to fully enjoy the London Dungeon. As for that inevitable question - the why- because someone despite being a full fledged adult wanted to relive the experience. And also because it is close to the South Bank and above all, the National Theatre Bookshop and the cafes around never fail to charm. Checking out the open air bookshops under the Waterloo Bridge is additional pleasure. An aside and a confession :Either one is seriously a full fledged art philistine or modern contemporary art has evolved so far that it should be made compulsory for the artists whose works are on display to be present and to explain what their work is all about. Despite all my efforts I came away from the Modern Tate gallery quite befuddled.
It needed a good Japanese lunch at Okonomiyaki, Westminster to get one's bearing back. The Tony award winning musical comedy, The Book of Mormon dissipated all doubts about one's capacity to enjoy creativity. Boisterous, sonorous and laugh-every- minute kind and putting to rest any fear whether the play would mock some religions. The musical about two Mormon missionaries, two distinct personalities like cheese and chalk. despatched to an Ugandan village and what follows is irreverent, satirical, mocks religious beliefs and from curtains up to the end it kept the audience totally enthralled. It also shows how far Western civilisation has come that the play has been successfully running for 11 years without no how-dare-you or up-in-arms protests and demonstrations.
It was quite a high, literally. The Shard, on the south bank of River Thames and located beside the London Bridge - if you didn't start' humming or singing under your breath, London Bridge is falling down, My Fair fair Lady, you are lying - is considered the toniest address in London and rightly so as it is the tallest building at 1,016 ft with a commanding view and at times when the sun is high, its facade seems to glisten. Designed by architect Renzo Piano it looks actually like a spire reaching up to the skies and houses offices, a five star hotel, restaurants, residences and UK's highest viewing gallery somewhat prosiacally named, 'The View from the Shard' which was opened to the public in February 2013. Getting there was almost an ordeal as one route was closed resulting in the cab going round and round like what seemed forever. Going up to the viewing gallery involved quite a ceremony of changing lifts and being guided until one reaches the viewing gallery on the 68, 69 and 72 floor offering a 360 degree panoramic view of London for 40 miles in every direction. It is indeed a towering experience even from the loo.
OF OLD AND NEW
Who on a holiday insists on seeing how a defunct antiquated coal fired power station has been transformed into sleek zone of entertainment, dining, shopping and residences? Someone did and Battersea it was. One learnt that the power station was decommissioned sometime around 1983 and for over 30 years it lay abandoned. Sans the long history of what/how a consortium of Malaysian companies landed the job of developing it and up came the Battersea Project Holding Company to execute it. The result of over four decades plus of redevelopment has worked magic (the project is still going on) and what is awesome is that the ancient four towering chimneys are standing intact .The station has been turned into an impressive shopping mall with eateries, art centres and what have you. There are residences too. Not just that, its namesake park, all around boasts of fountains, a boating lake and a Japanese Peace Pagoda.
Just how many China towns exist all over the world? Stop - I have already done the googling task. There are four in South East Asia, three in East Asia, one in India, USA has four and so does Canada, France and the Netherlands has one each, three in Latin America, Australia and Africa and three in UK. Phew! Above all, nearly all of them are located in prime areas; right next to Soho in London. Apparently the China Towns were not prime areas to begin with but, over the years became so because the Chinese immigrants knew and know what economics is all about without losing out on their identity and culture. More important without rubbing their new neighbours in the wrong way. No surprise that most China towns are tourist hotspots and so is the one in London. Proudly proclaiming its ethnical identity- right from the entry gate - it has nearly eighty restaurants, over fifty shops and several pubs and bars. To go to China town and not gorge on Chinese food is sacrilege. From Beijing duck to spicy pork, egg fried rice to beans with mince bacon, we had them all. But one dish we 'un-had' was the pork belly in chili oil, the chef had clearly double salted it! But then they had one of my favourite drinks, the Japanese Umeshu.
THE SCHOOL ON THE HILL
It had seven prime ministers as students including India's first prime minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and the legacy continues more than 450 years later. Impressive is the establishment as are its estate, buildings and church. Maybe because of the history attached to it, maybe because it is located on a hill standing aloof, the atmosphere too seemed elite, at least to me. And it was in Harrow on the Hill, a charming historic, genteel locality with scenic views that one found a home so cute that it felt that it had walked out of a fairy tale. Again, it was in Harrow on the Hill that the other half found his 'goat curry' apparently authentic goat and not lamb and naturally, everyone was escorted or rather bundled in to 'savour' it. Ours is not to ask why and not even to question the grandiose name the restaurant, Connoisseur of Sushi &Spice offering Nepalese, Indian and Japanese! As presumed it had Nepalese management. It was quite an odd mix with goat curry and chapati, scallops I-don't-know-what-style among others but then the evening was heavily overloaded towards spirits.
SPIRITED MUSICAL TALES
The spirited trip continued as we booked the Soho Music and Historic Pubs tour of Soho. I have always believed that the guide can make or break a tour and we were fortunate that our guide Callum Sivyer ensured that was no room for even an iota of complaint. Incidentally, Callum is an, 'actor, musician and cabaret performer' and delivered a rocking performance. He has the looks, typical deadpan British humour and very engaging. And oh, he has a French wife who is a dancer. And if anyone is interested his father is going to remarry next year to a British Punjabi woman and the wedding will take place in Punjab, India! He brought alive the musical history ( and a little bit more) of Soho alive and it helped that he suggested the best tipples as accompaniments. So we admired Paul McCartney's office - a full building for it with inconspicuous 'mpl' above the entry door - squinted hard and tried to read the plaque high up at Trident Studio where David Bowie recorded the albums Dory and the Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the icons Space Oddity.
For all those who thought Mozart was a musical genius right from his crib days, please know that he had a rather pushy father and in 1764-65 he 'lived, played and composed at Prince Edward Theatre' and also performed in pubs. Not surprisingly Keith Moon , drummer for the Who, apparently detonated a dynamite in the loo of the pub, The Ship after he was pulled up for creating a ruckus. Myth or fact, the broken window is still pointed out as evidence. Callum guided us to the lane where an ultra drunk Pete Townshend, cofounder of the Who (again!) passed out and spent the night only to be woken up in the morning by a policeman threatening arrest. All was well after the cop realised 'who' the person was. Fact or fiction but it was an unbelievable story - legendary jazz queen demanded that a toilet be built exclusively for her at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club and after her contract expired the toilet was whisked away lock, stock and barrel overnight! With lots of different varieties of beer, pink gin etc at The Glass House Stores, Dog and Duck, The Ship etc, who would challenge such juicy stories?
