Saturday 3 September 2011

Items I didn't know I needed until I got them.

Another weekend, another Eggs Benedict. And another reason why I should get my mouth sewn up quick smart. I'm a real sucker for an 'Eggy Benny' and not much is more of a let down in the world than a bad one. This morning, The Wig and I fancied sampling the wares of a new restaurant, The Bishopsgate Kitchen, which has finally opened in Bishopsgate opposite Liverpool Street Station. It has been under construction for months and I think few people were more excited about it opening than me. Its owned and run by the people that own Benugo's and the restaurant is built within the Bishopsgate Institute. I have well and truly exhausted the pretty much all food options in this area so the chance of trying somewhere new was a very thrilling prospect indeed.

However, as far as food is concerned, it was a bit of a wet flannel in the face. Or rather a  raw egg in the mouth. Gag.





Clearly a lot of thought and consideration has gone into the design of the place. A lot of attention to detail seems to have gone into the choice of crockery used, the tables and chairs, linen, there are Dualit toasters everywhere for you to make your own toast, and big old fancy hams dangling down etc etc. Also, the staff were super friendly and amenable, however, the food was really not very good. At all. Its a classic case of style over substance. I've eaten a lot of Egg's Benedict's, lets be honest, you don't get a 'figure' like mine by choosing the Granola from the menu, so I like to think I'm a bit of an expert on them. And unfortunately the Bishopsgate Kitchens offering was the worst I've ever had. The main 3 problem areas were:

Hollandaise Sauce - Way too much.
Ham - Parma Ham. Unbelievable.
Egg- RAW.

As I said, the staff were very good and did replace the raw breakfast with a cooked one but by the time my cooked one arrived, The Wig had eaten his. This meant we were totally out of breakfast sync which is a terrible start to the day. Not to make too big a deal out of it, it pretty much ruined the whole day as an out of sync meal is almost as bad as a bowl of Granola. And it's for this reason, I am going to score The Bishopsgate Kitchen 4 bouts of salmonella out of a possible 10.

We had planned to go to Kew Gardens for the day but since the runny egg threw such a spanner in the works, we decided not to go and pootled around Brick Lane for a bit instead. Probably the most un-Kew Garden like place we could have chosen. However, the day did manage to get saved by some quite odd purchases of various items I didn't know I needed until I got them. It's almost impossible for me not to pick up some item or another whilst I'm out and about. I pretty much love buying stuff and at the moment, I'm really really loving buying stuff and justifying it that it might be used for the wedding. Todays haul consisted of:


1. Some old lace. A bit annoying actually as last week I paid a stupid amount in an eBay bidding war for some Antique lace. This piece was £1.75. I'm going to use it to tie around the old bottles I've been collecting to put flowers in.


2. Some old doilies. £50 p each - Bargain. I'll just sprinkle these around somewhere. Doilies at a wedding are as essential as a drunken abusive relative at a wedding apparently.


3. Gold Coloured Oak leaf broach. £4.50. Not exactly wedding related, but I liked it anyway.


4. A Portugese Broom. £12 from Labour and Wait. At first glance one might not see the relationship between this broom and the most special day of my life so I shall explain. I have amassed so much detritus in the last few weeks (china planters, glass bottles, cake stands, birds nests, small white birds etc etc) that one of the few cupboards I own is now bursting at the seams. This has meant the broom has been relegated to temporarily leaning against the kitchen wall. Therefore, if I'm going to have to look at a broom for the next 363 days, I may as well look at a nice one. Make sense? Good.



5. An iPad2. C/o The Wig. This is really the biggest surprise of all the items I didn't know I needed etc etc. Totes Amazeballs. Well done The Wig.












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