Travels of THB: London: Day 4

Day 4: London

QOTD:

Was that a snow flurry?

Weather: Really cold. How cold? Really cold: 39, and with wind chill probably in low 30s

Long overdue, our apartment building

THB sleeps in and through the night, a freak occurrence. Four of us breakfast on various cereals, and DBl, with DBr’s help, makes his first use of Uber.

We’re off to the Tate Modern and the 10am opening, that’s when our tickets to the Modigliani show are booked for. Fortunately, the timing is just right and we are standing outside waiting to get out of the really cold weather for less than a minute.

No pics of Modigliani work allowed

The Modigliani show is way better than THB imagined: the work is grouped chronologically for the most part, the big and little explanations are very helpful, and the guy died early having done mostly easily accessible portraits and nudes, with a few sculptured heads.

Wilhelm Sasnal

El Anatsui; this piece drapes on the floor

Julie Mehretu

Mark Bradford piece (that is not Mark in front)

Detail of Bradford

Part of show of work by women

From there we split up and agree to regroup in one of the Tate cafes at 12:15. The other exhibitions we roam through are very good, and we only get mildly lost trying to find the café. DB and THB split an oat bar of some sort, $4.40, otherwise we won’t have enough fuel in our tanks to reach Borough Market and tour through all the food stalls before making a lunch choice.

While it is only a 10 minute from the Tate, it is really cold out. Really really cold. And, wouldn’t you know it, at 12:30 on a Friday afternoon in February with the temp nearing freezing, the market is absolutely mobbed. We think it is almost snowing. Maybe you can’t keep a mob of tourists in their hotel rooms and Airbnb apartments unless it is snowing and -10 degrees.

DB and MB remember there is actually a fish restaurant (indoors!), fish!, in the middle of the market and amazingly they can take four us right away. DB and MB have fish and chips and DB and THB have grilled octopus, with one bottle of still water, $70 per couple and well appreciated for the “ambiance” as well as the food.

Lots of good looking bread stalls

Inside Neal's

Now for a visit to a very unique (by US standards) cheese shop, Neal’s Yard Diary. Tastes from large rounds of aging cheeses (cheddar and others) followed by tastes of blue and goat cheeses (not from rounds). We end up with three cheeses and a pack of oat cakes, $25.

Time for a visit to the Hayward Gallery in its recently redone state. It is back on the other side of the Tate, so around 1.5 miles from Borough Market. That’s 1.5 miles in (with wind chill) around 30 degree weather. Yowza!!! Cold!!!

We had been to the Hayward many years ago and the refresh has come out quite nice and very much traditional. 95% of the Hayward is devoted to an exhibit of large (very large) photographs by Andreas Gusrky and 5% to an installation by Simon Starling that is reminiscent of Jennifer Bartlett’s work in the Benesse Museum on Naoshima, Japan.

All part of Simon Starling installation: a canoe made of magnesium leached out of the Dead Sea and then set adrift

Entrance fees are $17.50pp and THB pays to offset the fees for the Modigliani exhibit at the Tate Modern paid in advance by DB/MB. We take our time, the photographs are stunning and Gursky really tries to show the bigger picture while making the viewer very aware of the details juxtaposed with the view from a distance.

Photos of photos generally don't come out all that well; THB takes pic of Gursky's pic of Turners

THB's version of a Struth pic in front of a Gursky pic

Exhibit is broken into analog old-style pics and digital re-composed digital pics. The catalog cover shows a digital pic, THB must preferred the non-digital (when he could tell the difference)

Uber back to 18 Cadogan place for a rest up and a cuppa very strong Yorkshire tea accompanied by Harrods cookies.

Picadilly area is jumping around the Underground station

It’s a fine line: a shorter rest up and we’re not quite refreshed or a longer rest up and we can’t get motivated to leave. This time we take the underground three stations on a very crowded Friday night train to Nopi, and Ottolenghi upscale restaurant.

In an oddity, or was it?, there are 5 tables and ours was the only one with men, otherwise it was pairs or trios of women.

The good news: the food is way better than the to-go items we’ve had from around the corner. And, the food is nothing like THB has been making from the Jerusalem cookbook the last three years.

We share the following:

· Mixed seed lavosh, burnt aubergine with leek oil and walnuts

· Truffle polenta chips, parmesan, aioli (think fish sticks filled with soft polenta instead of fish)

· Stir-fried morning glory (like cooked spinach) with monk’s beard, anchovy and shoyu

· Courgette and manouri fritters with cardamom yogurt

· Valdeon cheesecake, pickled beetroot, almonds, thyme honey (think hot thick soufflé in skillet)

· Slices of rare venison with caramelized yogurt, peanuts and blackberries

· Chickpea pancake, spiced peas, tomato, pickled chilli (DB got the chilli and clean sinuses), and yuzu

Lavosh

Not Nopi-baked, excellent country-style

"Cheesecake" gone before THB remembered to take a pic

Venison, ditto

Chickpea pancake

Morning glory

Polenta chips

Back of main floor; downstairs are two large communal tables, loos, and kitchen

Three puddings/desserts, an espresso, and a very interesting bottle of Italian white (somewhere between a Sauvignon Blanc and a Chardonnay), $125 per couple (all prices include tax and tip/service, which is generally between 10 and 13%)