Mind the Foodie Gap in London Town

So the final leg of my holiday adventure has been back in the UK, where I met up with friends and relatives. It's funny how we bond and communicate over food and drink, isn't it? A shared love of food can often be that common thread and whether it is eating out, or cooking together or for each other, some of the best memories can be created over food.

And so I wrap up another amazing trip with some of the best food creations and best people, starting off with my girls' catchup session at Shutterbug, a great little creperie in Shoreditch, and which I am now in love with. Such a pity that I only had that one moment to enjoy it, but enjoy I did. Having already had a wonderful savoury snack with another friend, I decided I would order a sweet crepe creation - red velvet crepe with marscapone, strawberries and chocolate. To say it was delightful would be a gross understatement. My friend had a savoury crepe with goat's cheese, spinach, walnuts and fig relish. They also serve some awesome cocktails and coffee. I love this place. I cannot make a crepe to save my life and love them so, so this find so late in the game is almost a tragedy for me.

Later, I journeyed into the macaroon kingdom with yet another friend, at Ladurée in Covent Garden. It was a tolerable enough evening that I could brave outdoor seating overlooking the shenanigans in the courtyard below from street entertainers. The real stars were our treats, mine being the religieuse pistachio, and my girlfriend had the rose raspberry.

Finally, I brought it back home, almost, when I had lunch with my cousin the day after, at Mango Room in good ole Camden Town. Though initially I was averse to going to a Caribbean restaurant, only because I live there and can get authentic Caribbean dishes anytime, I changed my tune when I saw the menu and then tasted the food. We both ordered the Jamaican curried goat, which was fall-off-the-bone tender, well seasoned, and in one word, fantastic. The one letdown was that the one guy who seemed to be on the frontline was not a bartender and so it made the fabulous drinks menu and the well stocked bar behind us, very pointless. Still, what a wonderful meal that was.

The hardest part of it all though, is the reality that over the next few weeks, I will need to live on carrots and rice cake to tackle the damage done to my waistline by this culinary carnage over the past 3 weeks. Still, it was all so worth it, from the tapas of Madrid, to the pizza and pasta of Rome, to the hodge podge awesomeness that is London and beyond. I loved it all. Life is beautiful.