Valentine's Day

This year it was my turn to plan Vday. Yippie! We actually had a pretty late night out with coworkers the night before so we barely made it to our lunch reservation at Gordon Ramsey's Maze Restaurant but we nonetheless made it out.

We both decided to have the 4 course chef's menu. Sorry, we didn't take any pictures. Way too hungover to be bothered with pictures that day but a brief rant about our meal follows below.

We both started off with cornish pollock chowder with scallops, mussels and cider, smoked potato. It actually comes out in a tiny bowl with just the seafood and then the server pours the chower on top for you. I'm not so into the whole pour this sauce. Do that. Eat it this way. etc etc. Pretty good chower overall though. I've had chowda from Legal Seafood in Boston. Now I've had deconstructed and reconstructed chowder from Maze. pfft. Both don't got nottin on chowder from Seaside, OR.

Yen then had the slow roasted prawns with butternut squash purée, rye croutons, crab bisque and vanilla (they pour the puree in at the table). I had a bite of hers, eh. Tasted like any other scrimp with some fancy stuff around it. I had the foie gras and game terrine witth pickled mushrooms, walnuts and onions, toasted brioche. It was sickingly rich but the toast that accompanied it was nice.

For the main, Yen had the roasted organic salmon with cassoulet of white beans, pork and squid. I had the braised ox cheek, carrot and swede, horseradish mash. Maybe the best mashed potatoes I've ever had. Seriously. Even better than Popeye's mash.

Dessert time! Coconut pannacotta with black olive caramel, white chocolate granité for me and bitter chocolate tart, chocolate sorbet, pistachio sabayon for Yen. Awesome desserts. I usually never order panna cotta but I wanted to get something different than Yen and MAN what a good decision I made on that one. This panna cotta was f'n bomb diggity. It tasted like I was laying on a beach in the carribean and a coconut slapped me in the face.

Oh yeah. I had to look up the menu after the fact to list all this stuff in case you were wondering about the extent of details with each course. During the meal I could barely remember what was what. I'm a fat man. I just eat what is in front of me. Long as it tastes good. Me happy.

Maze, London. Very nice overall. I would recommend everyone go once. Maybe not twice.

We were stuffed after lunch at Maze so we went to walk around town. We decided to go to Covent Garden so we hopped on a bus and got off at Trafalgar Square.

Not sure what the history is behind it. Go to wikipedia for the scoop.

We ended up having a casual dinner at Cha Cha Moon which is owned by Alan Yau (Yen''s favorite restauranteur)

I would describe it as the trip C's. Chinese, chic, and cheap. Just how charlie like's his women. haha. Cool restaurant idea. Everything on the menu is like 4-7 GBP so its fairly cheap considering the location and the place. Come with a few friends and share some plates for a quick and easy dinner. Get the side item that has taro. Go for the pan fried noodles. Decent chinese.

That was pretty much our day. A low key Valentine's for Yen and Michael this year.