6pm is not too late for a nap is it? I asked that of the wise twitterati and it was with great glee that I was told, no, no 6pm is certainly not too late for a nap.

And lucky that because wow, did I need that nap. My weekend began with a fancy dinner and ended with an indulgent lunch, and in between? There was a lot of gluttony going on and like any good little piggy, I just needed to sleep it off.

On Friday night, I got all dressed up for Panu’s work dinner party. It’s a two yearly event held to you know, let the bosses thank everyone for working their butts off but really, we all just get excited about the free food and booze.

This year the event was held at The Brewery, and after not hurting myself while applying fake eyelashes, I was all ready to party.

shadows: MAC Knight Divine and MAC Carbon
eyelashes: Shu Uemura

We were served a three course meal…

starter: sweet cured ham hock and chicken tian & blini and apple balls;
main: beef wellington with dijon mustard & mushroom wrapped in parma ham;
dessert: rose panna cotta with poached rhubarb & raspberry coulis

… and a seriously unbelievable amount of wine. I mean, how many glasses do you think we need at our table?!

Friday night = win!

Saturday was all about the banoffee pie. The beast deserves its own postcode, or at least its own blog post, so I’ll leave that for another day. But ok fine you twisted my arm. Here’s a sneak peek:

Sunday, The Main Event!

So you all know it’s London Restaurant Festival yada yada because you’ve seen my billions of blog posts about the thing. Yesterday was American Express’ special 10-10-10 event, pairing 10 extraordinary London chefs with 10 of their outer-London counterparts to create special tasting menus for the day.

I was lucky enough to be invited down to Blueprint Cafe to experience a unique tasting menu created by head chef Jeremy Lee, with Michael Smith from The Three Chimneys in the Isle of Sky.Β Situated along the River Thames, lunch at Blueprint Cafe yesterday could not have been more ideal, with floor to ceiling windows immersing the dining room with light from the perfect blue sky.

The chefs had put together a seven-course tasting menu, and having been seated at 1pm, we did not realise what we were in for, starting with a glass of bubbly…

.. and commencing on an epic meal…

Baked salsify, parmesan chanterelles, girolles and goat’s curd flory ~ say what? The name of this dish read like a foreign language to me. I figured out that salsify was a root vegetable, and that chanterelles were mushrooms, but what we were eating didn’t really matter because these were scrumptious bite sized portions of garlicky goodness!

A native oyster, black pudding ~ I can’t say that I’m a massive fan of black pudding, but given that Michael Smith hails from the Isle of Skye, we figured he’d make some darn good black pudding and (not) surprisingly, the coupling was somehow, some way just perfect.

Mussel & clam broth ~ my favourite course! A hearty mussel and clam broth cooked with celery, leek, onion and herbs. They didn’t skimp on the seafood either πŸ˜‰

Rump of venison, pickled prunes, damson & sloe ~ a full sized main, which aside from the watercress (eewwww), was delicious, paired with pickled prunes and a sauce of damson and sloe.

Roast potatoes, beetroot, chard & carrot ~ sides! The vegetables were just vegetables but those spuds! CRISPY and then some. I could have had another three serves of that.

Lemon posset, blaeberries ~ “blaeberries” was not in fact a typo of blueberry, but a real fruit! Yes, you learn a new thing every day πŸ™‚ This little pot of lemon posset with blaeberries was simply… too little.

Hot marmalade pudding, drambuie custard ~ by now we were on the brink of exploding, and I couldn’t down this dessert, mainly because I’m not a fan of orange peel and the pudding was jam packed full of them.

Petit fours ~ fudge. YUM. Orange peel. We know how I feel about those.

Green & Blacks chocolates ~ Green & Blacks are partnering with the London Restaurant Festival and providing chocolates to all participating restaurants, some of whose wrappers include a golden ticket, a fantastical prize for one free meal per month For One Year! Sadly, we didn’t win πŸ™

So four hours later, we emerged from Blueprint Cafe full, sleepy and immensely satisfied. I rolled home at 6pm last night, totally needing that nap and vowing to never eat again (for the rest of the night anyway) but then Su-yin went and brought me over some fig mochi cupcakes, damn her, which I had to try…

Seriously, gluttony by any other name would feel as sweet.

13 Thoughts on “my 10 out of 10 weekend and celebrating London Restaurant Festival @ Blueprint Cafe

  1. what a cool weekend you had! i love your eye makeup, that looks really great! and all that food!!!

  2. OMG SO pretty! I didn’t know you were awesome at make-up! I want to try blaeberries…

  3. jenny: thanks, lovely πŸ™‚ it was an awesome weekend!

    Sasa: Awww fanx man! I am SO not awesome at makeup, I thought I was going to seriously hurt myself applying fake lashes but it all worked out ok. Mind you, this happens like maybe twice a year MAX! As for blaeberries, they’re like bilberries… but honestly, they’re ALL like blueberries, but tinier πŸ™‚

  4. THAT’S SO MUCH FOOD. oh gsh i love. am i’m jeal. Sweet lashes my pretty..and oh that fudge too. ok i need to get off here and stop gushing like a fool x

  5. Sounds like the Amex 10 10 meals were great – sad to miss out!

  6. That banoffee pie looks amazing Catty!

  7. Oh wow check out those lashes (and beautiful eye shadow!). I am utterly useless at make up, I fear for my eyes should I ever attempt putting on fake eyelashes… I once put in my contacts the wrong way around, and then was wondering (for the next few hours!) why I had blurry vision. Total fail moment.

    You did have an awesome food filled weekend – is it wrong that the thing that excites me most is the look of crispyness on those potatoes?

    p.s. that banoffee pie was sooo good. How I love food swapping. πŸ˜€

  8. diva: Haha I know, I hadn’t eaten so lavishly for a while.. gluttony to the extreme!

    Gourmet Chick: I heard the others were good too! There is always next year πŸ™‚ and besides I’m sure you were off doing something more fun πŸ˜‰

    Maria: Indeedy it was.. will blog about it soon!

    Su-yin: LOL I am seriously NOT good with make-up. If I was I wouldn’t have been so proud and blogged it cos it would have been an every day event! I do make up nicely maybe like twice a year πŸ˜€ and yes, I LOVE food swapping too! xx

  9. hehe the food looks great but I love the eyelashes the best πŸ˜›

  10. Apple balls, wine, blaeberries, chanterelles, SALSIFY. It’s that kind of decadence that brought the Roman Empire crashing down… Seriously, that is a mega foodie weekend. What with the Sasa special, I’m starting to think you do this every weekend.

    Having a seven courser from the chef at the Three Chimneys must have been amazing. I am ever so slightly (VERY) jealous. I love the way he used some old-skool, and super seasonal, combos (black pudding and oysters, venison and damson, goats’ curd and salsify) in such a modern way, What a treat.

  11. samuel james on October 12, 2010 at 1:29 pm said:

    This looks like a grand weekend. My girlfriend and I dined at Blue Print a few months ago and in the summer light, it’s an exquisite venue. Lucky you had the sunshine with you last weekend. The meal also looks excellent, did you have paired wines?

  12. egad. how do you pack that all away into your tiny frame! *jealous* i’d had to run 4 clicks just to pack this all away guilt free. what a scrumptious meal. beats cooking at home sometimes, with what you eat =D

  13. Lorraine: hehe thanks ME TOO! πŸ˜€

    The Grubworm: I think I’m going to get gout (is that how you spell it?) if I continue my decandent weekends! It’s not sustainable and my waistline (and Panu) would probably freak out also hehe… Yeah both chefs did well with some amazing flavouring and use of seasonal produce. I learnt some new words too!

    samuel: Haha NO! I am a cadbury kid, glass and a half and I’m out.

    Judy: hehehe yeah my tiny frame is gradually expanding to fit all this food in, I promise you that! But yes, I do love my dining out sometimes πŸ™‚

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