Keep Calm and Carry On: The Diary of Foodie and Gourmet

Before visiting Kensington Palace, I took my parents to The Ivy: Chelsea Gardens for a lovely brunch. As fairly frequent visitors to London, we have our favorite places, but I thought that it would be nice, on this trip, to try some different places.  I'll be completely honest -- the only reason I knew of this restaurant was from my instagram account. A few days earlier, I was on my instagram and saw that Anthropologie (I'm a massive fan of this store) had posted a really stunning photograph of a restaurant, whose whole front was covered with flowers. As soon as I saw that photo and learned that the restaurant was in London, I knew I had to visit. Although the really colorful and magnificent outside of this restaurant is a show-stopping experience, the interior is also quite nice. I found it to be very elegant, with earthy tones and garden-like furniture. It was almost like eating inside a very posh greenhouse. The breakfast menu has a wide range of dish...

A few months ago, I checked out Ottolenghi in North London. This very trendy Middle Eastern/Mediterranean restaurant has been recommended to me by a few people, so I was very curious to check it out.  The restaurant isn't super big, but it's fairly long and narrow. The dining room is communal sitting for the most part, while the front of the restaurant it more cafe style and you can buy the mouthwatering confection in the window. I came here with my parents and from the moment we walked in, I felt like this might not be their scene.... The decor and the furniture was just a little too modern and trendy, if that makes sense. Heck, even I wasn't crazy about it. It almost felt like I had traveled back to the 1970s. Groovy, man. The front of the restaurant and then dining room in the back Yum yum! Ottolenghi's dishes are very much tapas style plates and the flavor inspirations are a mix of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern. The menu is divided in half ...

Since coming back to London in mid-July, I've been doing my best to see as much of London (and the surrounding areas) as possible before I return to the US permanently at the end of August. There is so much to see, but with my time limited, I decided to focus on things I'd never seen/visited before. When coming up with places to visit, I consulted Buzzfeed.com, which has many lists of places to see in and around around, as well as trip adviser. One location that kept popping up was London's "Little Venice."  A bit of history (taken from Wikipedia): - Little Venice is comparatively recent name for Parts of Paddington and Maida Vale, in the City of Westminster, which had been referred to as London's "Venice" for a century before the "little" became current. The name was in frequent use by the latter half of the 20th century.  - The origins and coinage of the name are disputed. One story goes that it originated with the poet Rober...

A few weekends ago, I ventured out to Walthamstow Central to visit "God's Own Junkyard." I read about this place on Buzzfeed and was really intrigued. Having lived in London now for almost a year, having lived in this city for a few months at a time in the past, and having vacationed here several times over the past decade, I thought I'd seen nearly everything London had to offer. Boy, was I wrong! To quote the Buzzfeed article:   Tucked into an East London industrial estate, a 10-minute walk from Walthamstow station, God's Own Junkyard is a shrine to the art of neon sign-making, featuring hundreds of originals and vintage designs. For fans of neon, it's like going to church.  The collection was started by Chris Bracey, a graphic designer who joined his father's neon company in the 1970s and started making custom signs for the sex shops of Soho -- he once told the BBC he did "99% of every sex establishment in Soho for 20 years.  Holly...