32. Go to the Taste of London festival

I managed to get tickets to the Taste of London festival this year. My organised friend actually sorted us out and we were set to attend the festival on the Sunday.

Taste of London is held at Regent’s Park and consists of 40 restaurants serving up bite sized pieces of their best dishes – an entree, a main and dessert plus a signature dish. There were also other food and drink stands offering an array of samples to try as well as exhibition areas where famous chefs can show off their skills.

Of the Best in Taste awards, we did try was the Foie Gras Burger and Summer Truffle from Club Gascon (pictured below) – it was very indulgent and like eating a fried butter burger.

49. Go to the Victoria & Albert Museum

I’m falling quite behind with updating this blog but nonetheless am still continuing with going through my 101 list and trying to get as many things done as possible. I might review a few things on this list and replace them with some new ones as it seems more and more unlikely that some may never be achieved (especially those that involving travelling due to budget constraints – BOO!!!).

Today I’ve decided to write about my trip to the Victoria & Albert Museum – otherwise known as the V&A. I’ve actually been there three times now, once with a friend visiting from Melbourne and the other time through work.

On one of my visits I went to see the Yohji Yamamoto Exhibition.

Yohji Yamamoto is an internationally known Japanese fashion designer based in Tokyo and Paris. I really liked his clean lines and the boldness of his designs.

I really enjoyed walking through the V&A and hope to be able to visit it again before we return back to Australia.

18. Learn a martial art

I’ve found a weekly martial art class to go to which doesn’t require attendance each week and doesn’t have grades – Krav Maga.

It’s probably the most quickest and useful martial art to learn – very much a street style of fighting. It was taught to regular and special forces in Israel.

The general principles include:

• Counter attacking as soon as possible (or attacking pre-emptively).
• Targeting attacks to the body's most vulnerable points such as the eyes, jaw, throat, groin, knee etc.  (pretty dirty tactics)
• Neutralizing the opponent as quickly as possible by responding with an unbroken stream of counter attacks and if necessary a take down/joint break (yes that is breaking someone’s arm or leg whilst you’re at it)
• Maintaining awareness of surroundings while dealing with the threat in order to look for escape routes, further attackers, objects that could be used to defend or help attack and so on (but importantly, remember to run away!)

Since I’ve started classes there have been two times that I am glad I knew some basic skills. The first was when I was partially involved in a pub crawl and the second was when we were harassed by four guys in the dark narrow alleyways of Marrakesh.

You can see a video of some Krav Maga here

11. Do a first aid course

Today I did a basic St Johns Ambulance 1 day first aid course out near Marylebone. I really enjoyed it and believe it is a great life skill to have.

We learnt about how to do a primary survey

D – Danger

R – Response

A – Airway

B – Breathing

C – Circulation

And how to administer CPR, how to treat burns, cuts, stings, bleeding and fainting plus much more.

Here’s a picture of Annie – our dummy we practiced on.

33. Try 3 Michelin restaurants (1/3)

Firstly, what’s a Michelin restaurant? (I didn’t know myself before moving to London).
A Michelin star restaurant is similar to (and probably better than) the Chef’s Hat in Australia.
According to to Wikipedia:
“The guide awards one to three stars to a small number of restaurants of outstanding quality. One star indicates "a very good restaurant in its category, worth a stop." A two-star ranking represents "excellent cooking, worth a detour", and three stars are awarded to restaurants offering "exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey."
A three-star Michelin ranking is exceedingly rare. As of late 2009, only 26 three-star restaurants existed in France, and only 81 in the world”

 

St John Bar and Restaurant

So the first Michelin restaurant (to be included in this blog) is St John Bar and Restaurant. A friend of ours organised a group for the feasting menu with a whole pig being the highlight – everything from nose to tail - yep – everything a pig could offer (including the head and trotter!).
We watched the pig as it was brought to our table to be served.

Well it certainly didn’t look like the pig that’s pictured on the St John’s website (below)

And was it tasty? Well it just tasted porky. Erm. There was a lot of meat – LOTS – even with twenty of us, we couldn’t finish it. Did it taste like a one star Michelin restaurant? maybe not. I think it was different in what it presented but I didn’t think the food was anything special.