Dining in London's Oldest Restaurant

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One of the greatest advantages of traveling for work is that you get to eat in places where you usually wouldn't even dare to step in. 

Rules, Covent Garden, London - Picture Source

The best food I had ever tasted - sorry, mom - was in La Table d'Edgar in Lausanne's luxurious Palace hotel. Being frank, if I had gone there on my own, without any company venue, I would have possibly only been able to pay for the plate of cheese (which I wouldn't mind - but would probably be weird). 

Last time I was in London, I had another of those encounters with food heaven - and this one had special merit, as we were having english food (it's all said). After one of the cocktails, we headed out in the search of some real food and soon were recommended to go to Rules. Once the taxi had left us at the entrance a doorman with a top hat kindly welcomed us to restaurant. Obviously, we didn't get a table (after all, we didn't arrange any reservations) and headed over to Porterhouse Brewing Co. to have a Delirium Tremens, while we waited for our turn.

And it was time for us to go back to the food. Rules is one of those few restaurants left that, as soon as you step in, you feel at home. I miss that comfort and in modern restaurants - they may be all shiny, minimalistic and create liquid tortillas and cucumber foam - but at the end, it just doesn't feel cozy and warm. 

At Rules, the dishes are classics - like sirloin steak, banoffee pie or sticky toffee pudding. But compared to other places I've tried british cuisine, its dishes are local and fresh. Before deliberately choosing from the menu, it's better to take note from the waiter's recommendations - specially when it's not game season, as some of the dishes might not be available. For the record, the menu even warns you about the possibility of game birds containing lead shot! 

I ordered the roast salt marsh saddle of lamb with carrots and rosemary mash. The dish was thoughtfully prepared and tasted deliciously (which is why I'm going to recommend it to anyone considering going to the restaurant out of game season). 

Why does english food taste better at Rules?

Well, I may have some thoughts on this. 

First, the restaurant owns the Lartington Estate, where they source their highest quality game birds, roe deer and Belted Galloway beef (which is why it's probably even better to go during game season itself). 

Second, c'ome on, it's the oldest restaurant of London! It was established in 1798 and since, has only been in hands of 3 different families. You can smell and taste the tradition of the restaurant. But you can most particularly see it. Its past is reflected on its walls with innumerable frames containing photographs and paintings from London and Rules itself. 

Third, feeling comfortable makes me enjoy the food more. I stop worrying about where to put my legs, about the hard chair or the cold breeze and just concentrate on the food itself. 

What: English cuisine

Where: Rules Restaurant - 35 Maiden Lane, Covent Garden, London WC2E 7LB
Web: http://www.rules.co.uk
How much: main dishes between 18 and 26 pounds aprox.

When: Whenever, but specially during game season 

What makes, in your opinion, a good restaurant?

The Day I drank Champagne Under a Dinosaur's Tail

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Desert Buffet (not including the huge chocolate fountain)

You might be wondering what a cocktail week is like. Well - free drinks, aperitifs and buffets were tempting, but I must admit that it wasn't all as exciting as it may sound. I stood on heels 8-10 hours a day, giving the same speech to people I don't really remember (why don't they do business cards with a picture on them?) while doing my best not to stain my only suit - which wasn't always as easy as it sounds! 

But fear not! I still made my best out of it. After all, bankers have won my respect and appreciation inside and outside the bank (that is, including speedboats and pubs, too). Below some of the most memorable highlights.

• I had champagne under a dinosaur's skeleton in London's Natural History Museum (this should have been on my bucket list!)
• A trader kissed his last business card and gave it to me, soon afterwards, the banker next to him took off his tie and wrapped it around his head (it didn't last long - he was a bad boy, but not mad)
• I had my fresh fruit juice running through a gigantic american football made of ice
• One cocktail had an incredible buffet that culminated with a big chocolate fountain. Guess where I spent half of my time at the party...
• I must have handed out around 50 business cards of mine - all with a typo (which I had to explain one by one)
• While talking to one of the bankers, I was more concerned about his swinging glass of wine than the subject itself - he eventually split some of the wine in the carpet, but I had already moved half a meter away, just in case

I've returned to Switzerland being particularly concerned about the amount of food I can ingest in 3 days - scary. Must start diet. NOW. 

What have you been up to this week?

The Week Ahead...

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I'm flying to London this evening - I know, my London-once-a-month is really starting to look like a ritual.  And still, there's something about that city, that just makes me want to go again and again. I can't get enough of it! 

I'm coupling my weekend with almost a full week of work to do in London. But I'm quite excited about it this time, as I'll be meeting a lot of important people of the petroleum industry. I know, it's not as exciting as going to London Fashion Week (which also should be starting some time soon), but at least it involved a lot of cocktails and snacks in nice hotels and lounges - time to prove the comfortableness of my heels.

Anyway, it may be possible that between one cocktail and another cocktail, I won't find much time to post. But I'll be back Thursday with some juicy stories!

Besides, I'll still be on Twitter ;)

What are your plans for the weekend?

Can Traveling for Work be actually considered.. well, you know, Traveling?

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I'm back in London.

But this time it's for work, so don't expect fancy dress parties or chocolate festivals, but rather, well, maybe a picture or two from the Lloyds Building in London City and one of Champs-Élysées from the Cab once I've made it to Paris. 

You might think it's exciting to have a job in which you travel relatively often. Well, this depends on what excites you (that's not what I'm referring to, you perv - so let's better use like, shall we?). If what you like is to meet new people dressed up in suits, talk about business the whole day and eat at fine restaurants, then you might like it. But if you're picturing yourself in a two hour meeting and then having the rest of the day free for shopping around Oxford Street and drinking coffee with your friends in Soho, then you'd be disappointed. 

To put it brief: during winter, there's a high possibility that you won't see the daylight. Actually, you might even have such a thick morning fog that you can't recognize the building you're heading to. 

This got me wondering....

...If traveling is all about leaving your home to explore the World and learn about it, can actually business trips be considered... traveling?

Let's look at some things that I do when I travel. 

Getting lost in the Streets, forgetting about time and distance. 

Lost somewhere in Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2010

No maps, no GPS (or, what's mostly my case, a map - but not knowing how to read it properly). Most of the time I've walked without any direction, I've sooner or later ended up in the most charming corners of the cities (like the time I got lost in La Habana).

However, when you're on a business trip, you have a starting point and a destination. Your task is to find the quickest way to go from one to the other, and, unless these two are ridiculously near, you'll take a cab. Then, when you're sitting in a huge traffic jam, instead of looking out of the window to appreciate the Big Ben, you've got your eyes fixed on your watch, counting the minutes left for the meeting. 

Once you realize you're late, you start to calculate how many minutes you're losing in order to cut down (or speed up) the discussions, and start to wonder if you're ever going to make it on time to the next meeting, which is starting in less than an hour time. After a complete day of rushing through the City of London (or whatever other City, they now start to look the same to you anyway), you get back to you're hotel and get an hour and a half break to freshen up and get ready for dinner. It would (theoretically) mean you have half an hour available to walk around and see something of the City, but let's face it - you're tired, you're head is drunk of facts, names and numbers and preferable you would stay in bed until the next morning. Fuck the skyscrapers, you'll see them from the meeting room tomorrow.

Connecting with the Locals - specially cab drivers!

Chatting with the cab drivers in Hong Kong (whenever none of his 
12 phones were ringing...)

Connecting with the locals is probably one of the most important points when traveling. The day I arrived in Montevideo, Uruguay, I asked the cab driver which is the best mate, and the most interesting local market. Every day I had to take a 40 minutes trip with a private cab (they have a fixed price, and are usually hired by companies as they offer more comfort than a regular cab), and asked plenty of questions about traditions, history and recommended places to visit (it all started when I asked "what's mate?").

For the basic stuff, not even the language barrier is an excuse. On a Friday night in Hong Kong, I got on a cab and told him to take me to the place where the best authentic chinese food restaurants are. How? Using signs! This was the day I ate at a restaurant with all menus in chinese and no without pictures. 

But this was a 3-week training in Uruguay, and a 1-week training in Hong Kong... with at least one weekend included. When you're business trip is only for 1-2 days, there's no real point about asking the cab driver for a nice place to visit, as you probably won't have time to check it out. And besides, the only person you'll be chatting with in a cab is a work colleague calling from the office, turning your mind dumb asking for hundreds of figures. 

Tasting some regional dishes

Century Egg, at Leong's Legend (London)

not my thing, but had to try it!

If you've been reading my blog for a while now, you'll know about my love for food. What I haven't been telling you about is me ordering strange exotic food wherever I go, which is the reason why I've ended up tasting some nasty dishes, like sea urchin sushi (not my cup of tea...). 

In Asia it's usual to go out and eat in a good regional food restaurant when you're doing business. In fact, chinese love to see europeans reactions to their cooking highlights, such as the century egg or the moon cake. But it's not the case in the UK. I'm not even sure I want to actually taste its traditional food - I mean, come on, bite into something called Toad in the hole? Seriously? Ok, I would probably try it if I knew where to find it! My point is, that whenever I've been in London for a meeting, I've always had dinner and/or lunch at a hype italian / asian / french restaurant instead (and I still don't know what a Love in Disguise is like...).


According to these points, business trips can't really be considered traveling. Which are your thought on this? 
Am I leaving out something that would bring back business trips into the travel category?

An Alternative NYE - Vaporizer and Corset vs. Cocktail Dress

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New Years Eve is always a big question mark for me. I'm not the kind of girl that would run out to buy a glittery expensive cocktail dress that I would then never wear again (at least, not any more). It's actually a long time ago since I last dressed up for NYE. Last year, I stayed in, as I was spending some quality mom - daugter time in Miami; while the previous 2 years I spent New Years in Salamanca, which meant jeans, all stars, beer and rock music until 10am the next morning.

But this year, as I was going to spend the last weekend of the year in London, and we really wanted to go through the dressing up ritual, drink champagne, count down until midnight,... But then again, how to solve the glittery cocktail dress issue? Theme parties. Thinks about its advantages - You...

1. Wear inspiring outfits. It's rather difficult to find someone dressed up exactly as you are. In the remote possibility in which your basic outfit is the same, the key difference will lie on accessories. And the best part of this is that you can interpret the theme however you wish and let your imagination fly, without particularly standing out of the crowd (if you do, it's probably going to be rewarded!).
2. Increase your socializing abilities. Dressing up is like role playing - a fun way to be someone else and interact with others assuming a new self. In a theme party, people are in a playful and amusing mood and I find it much easier to talk to a stranger than in a regular cocktail party. In case of doubt, it's always possible to break the ice by complimenting someone's costume (everyone likes to hear that - after all, we all put some work on it). 
3. Get a break from the Top 10 Radio Hits. You might not agree on this one, but I can't bother listening to the same big current hits again and again. It really feels refreshing to go out, and dance to another kind of beat. If it's a real theme party, music will probably be part of the theme as well. 

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And that's what I did. The Eve of Tomorrow Ball (more info here) was hosted by Ronald Frend's Electric Corporation - a shadowy multi-national whose origins remain shrouded in mystery. The Ball was inspired in the 1930s, when technological prosperity was ruling the advancement of our society. A time during which many of the big inventions known today were launched - first sound and color movies, scotch tape and the fastest steam locomotive, among others. 

The NYE event did no less - attendants could enjoy the release of liquid nitrogen ice cream! Waiters were dressed up as robots and scientists, there were machines that predicted the future, cabinets filled with dieselpunk/futuristic artefacts and even the World's first pinball machine. The night featured a cabaret and a live band playing danceable music based on the 1930s.

The one thing I enjoyed most of this party was the fact that everyone really dressed up as whatever they felt like: socialites, aristocrats, paparazzi, industrialists, millionaires, ballgowns, adventurers, scientists... everything was allowed and creativity and individuality were to be seen in every costume. 

As per my costume, I'm not sure If I can explain what I was dressed up as, I'll just leave you with my star accessory: my vaporizer!

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What did you do for NYE? 

Have you ever been to a Theme Party? 

A Night Wanderer at Gatwick Airport

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Traveling the night before Christmas Eve is chaotic, but I had a plan. But then, does at any time go things as planned? Rarely. This is one of those stories. Let me tell you about the night I spent wandering across Gatwick Airport in London.

21:30pm Initial Flight Departure

It all started in Geneva Airport. You might believe that the evening before Christmas Eve airports will be packed with families going on vacation, students and expats travelling back home or, well, southern people – like me – that haven’t get used to the Swiss winter and want to escape to a warmer spot. At least this is what I had in mind. But I was the only one at the security check (the only one, really!). Suspicious. When arrived at gate B44, I finally realized where everybody was – stranded and waiting for they’re delayed flight (or worse, searching for alternatives for their cancelled flights).

22:20pm Actual Flight Departure

Luckily, my flight had only an hour of delay and everything went smoothly – until we landed at Gatwick, London. Earlier that day, I had reserved a room in a Hilton hotel next to Gatwick – it had a special offer, so the double bed room was cheap enough for me to decide on spending the money in a proper bed. Of course, this was too good to be true.

22:55pm Flight Arrival in London Gatwick

When I landed in Terminal North and got my luggage, I went to the Information stand to ask for the directions to get to the Hotel: “You have to take the Shuttle and go to Terminal South, it will take you no more than 15 minutes”. I thought I had read in the internet that the Hotel was near to Terminal North, but anyways – I might had been wrong.

23:55pm Found out that I had booked the wrong Hotel

And I was. I wasn’t wrong about the Terminal – I was wrong about the hotel itself! Basically, I had booked a hotel that was about 16 miles away from Gatwick (why does Gatwick even consider it an Airport Hotel? Taxi fares would have been more than the double of the room itself – does that make any sense?).

Mental Note: Check 5 times before paying in advance for a Hotel, when you’re booking from a non-official site.

00:20am  Are there any alternatives out there?

With less than 6 hours ahead from departure, I wasn’t going to pay 100 pounds on cabs – so I went on to search for alternatives. Obviously, the pretty clean Hilton I was mistakenly sent to was full. I tried out Yotel, which are cabins that you can rent per hour (with a minimum stay of 4 hours) – but it was fully booked as well. There was no other choice left in Terminal South – so I went back to Terminal North, where I found a Sofitel. Although the rooms were prohibitively expensive, they were kind enough to allow me to hang around their Lobby (and even give me a 30 minutes of free WIFI check! Whoa!). Unfortunately, I got kicked out when the bar of the hotel shut down at 1:30am.

01:30am Officially Homeless

I walked back to an area crowded of night wanderers like myself – Most of them had crashed on a few seats, and some of them seemed to be enjoying a peaceful sleep (assumed from the snoring). Myself, I did not have seats to crash on and so decided to give the floor a try. I swear, this wouldn’t have been too bad if I had planned for it – that is, if I had a warm blanket and one of these airplane pillows with me. But instead, I had a huge (and when I say huge, I really mean HUGE) luggage, my laptop and a big empty handbag (you know, for the occasional shopping).

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03:30am Checked In my HUGE luggage

I woke up with the announcement with Easyjet opening its Check-In desk. At least this way I could get rid of the big luggage I had with me – one thing less to worry about. I passed the passport control and security check like a zombie, and crashed on the first 4 seats I found once inside the Gate area.

05:50am I need a coffee

No, it wasn’t time to go to my gate, yet. My flight was only leaving at 07:50am. But, seriously, it was so freaking cold out there that I couldn’t last too long. I did sleep during these 2+ hours, but I continuously dreamt about a big pain in all of my muscles – it felt like I had been sleeping on ice! And every time I woke up, my muscles were contracted. Damn, I really missed a blanket! I sat at the café for almost an hour, heating up with the cup of coffee. Why precisely a coffee? Well, I was also concerned that I would be falling asleep and miss my flight!

07:20am At least I'm in the plane

I got in and fell asleep (me, the one that usually can't sleep on planes). I didn't even notice the giggling girls next to me and didn't realize we had 30 minutes delay until the captain apologized for it on arrival. 

13:30pm I'm in Lanzarote, Canary Islands !

Did you get home for Christmas? 

Have you ever had this kind of complications? Did you ever have to sleep in an airport?

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By the way, check out My 2011 Goals at The Novelista Barista - I just got published yesterday :)

The Sweetest Corner of London

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I know, I've been missing in action the last couple of weeks. I've been having a lot of work, business trips, visits, holidays... and haven't really had a lot of time to write about it!And that's the reason why this post comes, well, a bit delayed. 

Last thursday I was surprised with a improvising business trip to London (those are the kind of surprises I like). I had my tickets to stay over for the weekend anyway - perfect timing, thanks! As usual, the weekend could be summed up in 3 words: partying, walking and eating. Seriously, is this food obsession temporarily? Is it somehow related to age? Will I get over it before I turn into a gigantic walrus?

On planning our Sunday by, initially, checking out where to go ice skating, I stumbled upon London's Chocolate Festival. I must admit that, me (as well as most of my friends) aren't sweeties - Most of us would probably never trade a piece of cheese, ham or a dumpling for chocolate. But then - having the opportunity to explore a whole market of chocolate-related products (only during that precise weekend), who would decline the offer?


My Top 5 Selection

So, after making my way through the crowd to investigate what each of the exhibitors were offering, my 5 favorites (in no particular order) were...

1. Champagne truffles, by Co Couture. Co Couture uses only French and Italian raw materials and most of its chocolates are dairy and gluten free. Usually the word "free" isn't appealing at all when it comes to chocolate - at least that's what I thought until I saw their collection of champagne, whisky and gold truffles. 
2. Chocolate with lavender, by Bean and Pod. They use all natural ingredients for their incredible flower truffles. Lavender is my favorite flower - could there be a better combination? 
3. Cocoa Oil and Vinegar, by Hotel Chocolat. Hotel Chocolat was the only brand I knew at the exhibition. Besides from offering amazing pralines in all shapes, colors, textures and fillings they have some pretty exotic stuff that is definitely worth trying. I got obsessed with the cocoa and chilli oil and the cocoa vinegar. Did you know they even have cocoa penne?
4. Cookies, by Sobo Chocolate. Forget about Starbucks cookies, there's nothing that can be compared to Sobo's cookies. They even won de Great Taste Awards 2010! Sobo Chocolate started in 2007, when entrepreneurs Helen & James got bored of their 9 to 5 jobs and decided that they wanted to gift the world with chocolate - it could be a movie, right?
5. Rusty Tool Set, by White Fox Chocolaterie. Sorry, I'm cheating with this one. I remember their awesome collection of small chocolates and truffles, but when I visited their webpage and discovered their figurines... I couldn't resist! You've got to check our their shoes (they come in a shoe box!). 

I guess I can say that, when it comes to chocolate - I like it dark and with some exotic taste (yeah, exactly, like champagne or... chili!). 


Which is your chocolate ruin? Any particular type or flavor you can't live without?

Top 5 City Ranking (according to me)

The other day I decided to check out this years Mercer's city ranking for quality of living worldwide. Not surprisingly, Switzerland has 3 cities in the Top 10 (Bern, Zurich and Geneva). I'm sure it's high quality of life in many senses: low criminality, clean streets, efficient transport service (all this thanks to all the taxes we pay) as well as a good salary (which, at least in my case, decreases significantly after-taxes), good bread and cheese and a lot of leisure activities (all these hiking tracks, ski resorts, lakes... definitely make themselves useful).

If considering these points, I should be delighted to be living in Switzerland. And partly I am - even if I don't say that too often. The fact is: Switzerland is awesome to live in - specially when you're married and have kids. But when you are a young single expat, things might get complicated. It's really difficult to meet swiss people (generally, they are a quite closed folk), and the country is not specially recognized for its party-lust (there are some exceptions thou).

So, since I don't really agree 100% with Mercer's list (we have different qualities we value in a City) I decided to post my own ranking in which the quality of life is mainly driven by the openness and friendliness of its people, the quality and variety of food and drinks (being this, restaurants, pubs and bars), the affordability of goods and services and, of course, my own experience.

5. Hong Kong

Great city! 24-hours activity and you will find a party every day (although for non-asians its rather reduced to Lan Kwai Fon area). Restaurants offer food 24:7 and chinese are quite friendly to foreigners - I must have so many pictures with cooks and waitresses! Although you can find different types of restaurant, most of it is classic chinese which, by the way, has nothing to do with the greasy chinese food we know in Europe! Transport is cheap but the rent is very expensive - so you better find a well-paid job to compensate! Besides from the 24:7 attitude of this city, I liked the fact that, after just half an hour drive you can be at a nice beach, and with only a one hour ferry you get to Macau (an asian version of Vegas!). Its flaws? Probably the language (although I must say, cab drivers are really used to foreigners and the way they pronounce chinese street names), the weather and the extremely high pollution.

4. Madrid

It's been said that it's one of the best places to party, probably because of its huge variety on bars and its party hours - it's absolutely normal to go into late hours on a normal basis. Spanish food is great too (ok, that's me speaking, so you might disagree on this), but I do have to admit that the city is still missing variety - it has to catch up on that. However, there's something Madrid has that other big cities envy: it's underground! It's cheap, reliable, works until quite late and will take you anywhere. Probably what I most like about this city is its culture of tapas and siesta (there's too much of Spain in me). This definitely raises life standards, even if you have to deal with low salaries and extremely hot and dry summers.

3. London

I was surprised not to see London among the best cities to live and it really got me wondering if I'm being objective here - probably not. Unaffordable apartments (if you want to live in Zone 1), expensive (and unreliable) public transport, rainy days, pollution... Yeah, seen like this, it doesn't look good at all. But London has something that attracts me: it's perfect for being single. There are infinite possibilities to meet people, bars are packed with happy-hour frequenters every afternoon and you'll always find exactly the type of cuisine your stomach is asking for (there's even a restaurant offering food from Seychelles...).

2. Sydney

I don't know much of Sydney, as I only spent 5 days there (so please correct me if I got wrong impressions), but it seemed to me as a great city to live in. The climate, the sea, the beaches, the parks.. makes it a great place to be all year round. Going out was fun and also very rich in variety. I specially enjoyed its bohemian area - with late-night art expositions, modern stylish people sipping champagne and awesome little shops selling Sydney-styled outfits (which I love, by the way). However, I do think its a city in which you need to earn good money - I heard apartments are extremely expensive and public transport isn't cheap neither, besides from the fact that alcohol is ridiculously over-priced. I guess that, when living in Sydney, you have a healthier life and probably you also get a good salary - The big deal is only to get the right work permit.

1. Buenos Aires

Surprised about my number 1 in the list? I think Buenos Aires wasn't even considered for Mercer's ranking! Buenos Aires is beautiful and people are friendly, talkative and open (I love their accent, btw. its so sexy...). Never before had I seen so cheap drinks - in Palermo Soho there are bohemian bars offered gin tonics for what would equal 2€ a glass. And what to say about its wine, steaks and sweets! Besides from its national food, the variety on foreign cuisine restaurants is also broad enough to satisfy anyone's crave. It's a city full of entrepreneurs, dreamers, artists of all kind and people taking their chances. As happens with most of LatAm countries, its population is well onto the economic and political history and the present situation, and enjoy open discussions about any current issue. To highlight probable its main flaws I would mention the high crime rate (although I felt safe everywhere except in La Boca when I was caught up in the middle of a gang street fight) as well as its still unstable economy. I just hope it improves soon, 'cause I promised myself Buenos Aires as possible next destination (to live).

Which cities would you rank in your top list?