Providores for brunch. The best brunch in London. Following that I did some more Selfridges damage (sale season REALLY hurts right now...) and hosted a dinner at mine using a new Gordon Ramsay recipe. (We had the opportunity to go to Dinner by Heston last night but Mass opted to have my cooking instead...sweet right??)
Hope your weekend was well! Photos to come from Saturday...
FOREVER 21 shirt (stolen from sis), GUESS trousers (my first GUESS item in years and I must admit I was slightly apprehensive about buying them, but for $30 CAD, it was worth the risk), ASOS belt, ELIZABETH AND JAMES booties (unseen), VINTAGE ROLEX and VINTAGE JADE ring (both given to me by my loving mom for graduation and Christmas), SNAKE bracelet (gifted by a best friend), FILIPPO CATARZI hat (best hat ever to travel with; it never creases no matter what position it is held in)
A few weeks ago my exceptionally talented foodie friend, Scott chose a restaurant in Toronto for me to taste while I was back home (well, he chose one, then was overruled by other exceptionally creative friend Ivy, and we ended up at Bohmer).
Bohmer Restaurant was opened by Paul Bohmer (formerly accredited with Rosewater and Scaramouche to name a few) and I think one word sums it up: local. Organic and homegrown, most of the produce comes from our backyard in Ontario. I don't know if Canadian cuisine has a real identity yet, but if it doesn't, Bohmer might just be creating the definition.
Above are some of the pics we flooded the place with while we were there. I especially love the one of us three.
Hope everyone had a great weekend!
LISA: MAJE dress, BURBERRY trench, DRIES VAN NOTEN shoes, ROBERTA FREYMANN bib necklace, MIU MIU purse
MASS: NICO DIDONNA trousers/jacket, CUSTOM from ITALY shirt, NYC belt, CAMPANILE shoes
Two weekends ago, Mass and I headed out to Reading for my friend's son's christening (isn't he adorbs?). Following the ceremony, we stopped by my favorite town for my favorite meal in the UK: Caldesi in Campagna in Bray. Some of you might recognize Bray to be home of the infamous Fat Duck, but I like to think of Bray as home to Waterside Inn and Caldesi.
Mass took me here for my bday last November and it was heaven. Caldesi is where I first laid eyes (and nose) on my eternal favorite produce, the white truffle. This time around was no less spectacular. Although Bray is a small town known for its Michelin star restuarants (houses two 3-stars w/in a 2km radius), it's such a treat when you need to get away from London. (Caldesi also has a restaurant in London (Marylebone) but I prefer the ambiance in Bray).
Boarding to Sicily now for the rest of the wknd. Will be back in London Tuesday. Have yourselves a fantastic weekend.
Mass has started his own Cigarando blog featuring everything you need to know about them. Stay tuned for posts and links to come!
When I have kids, I want them all to look like this.
With the owners of Casa del Habano in Teddington (& event coordinators) Ajay and his wife.
I'm wearing: Balmain (potential KO) blazer, Gap shirt, Asos trousers, belt stolen from sister, Miu Miu bowtie and shoes, Mulberry clutch (stolen from Mass - it has an attachable strap)
Mass' wearing: Nico Di Donna pants, shirt, and jacket, Italian scarf, Persol glasses
Sunday was slightly more eventful. Actually it was pretty action packed. Started off in London heading towards Teddington where the Casa del Habano is in the UK. Had some prosecco, mojitos and ditched everyone outside at one point to watch the Italy game inside.
Finished off the day at Viajante again for 5 hours and 12 courses (not including two amuse bouche or bread with lavender butter) and 12 wine pairings. I love food, but you need a break every two hours from eating.
I know the above isn't exactly what you would call a perfect BBQ outfit, but nevertheless, worked as a day to night ensemble.
Ciao ciao!
Wearing: Elina Cheung jacket from Shanghai, gold sequin top from Maurie and Eve, Marc Jacobs black and gold necklace, gold medallion necklace from street vendor in Sardinia, ring gifted from Mass from Rome
I'M FREE!...sorta. Yesterday's exam marks the last one of my LLM. Unfortunately that's not the end, but we're happy at least one hurdle has been tackled. In celebration, Mass surprised me with flowers (as you've seen on twitter) and a resto. Tonight's choice: Nobu on Berkeley. Ok, I think I should tell you my opinion of restaurants like these first. Nobu, amongst others, in my opinion, is a restaurant trafficked by countless wannabe financiers who think they can buy their way into woman everywhere, which normally they can in places like Nobu. Why? Because countless high class hooker equivalents stand at the bar waiting for their pick up lines. Maybe I'm being a reverse snob, but personally, I go to restaurants for ambiance and food. Not to be seen and/or a new Chanel.
Anyhow, minus the pretentiousness, in terms of food, I was pleasantly surprised! Comparing it only to the Nobu in midtown NYC which was so-so, the food was unexpectedly good! A bit of an overkill with the ponzu butter for the king crab leg tempura (I have a HUGE ponzu fetish), but all in all, quite delectable. If only the whores weren't around...oops, have I gone too far?
I didn't look particularly amazing last night, thus why the pictures are from the neck down. I'm wearing another Elina Cheung creation (same designer as the white shirt you saw here) from Shanghai. The front lapels extend downwards like a tuxedo. The gold shirt is the same one you saw here but I substituted the Roberta Freymann necklace with a medallion necklace from Sardinia street vendor and a Marc Jacobs necklace layered on top. Finally as you recall here Mass bought me a green ring made from glass from Venice, here is the debut. She's a beauty isn't she?
The sun decided to shine for my first day of semi-freedom! Lovely day in London.
Ciao sweethearts!
Wearing: Blazer from Intermix in NYC 2 years ago, Mandarin collar shirt from Asos, Tights from Wolford, Brogues from Cesare Paciotti, Broach from consignment store in Tokyo, Earrings from mommy
Anyone who loves Japanese food in London knows of the Nobu equivalent, Zuma (and by association, Roka). Restauranteur Arjun Waney sought an Italian, upscale, winebar opportunity during the recession and opened up Il Baretto in Marylebone. Roka being one of my fav go-to places for japanese when visitors are around, we decided to try Waney's newest creation to see if he lived up to his former expectations. My rating: half and half.
Good news first? The sea bream I had was fantastic - I'm a big fan of seafood so my own expectations were slightly higher to start. The wine is a Mass Toscana favourite, Solare, which means, 'can't go wrong with Sangiovese grapes' in Italian. A good wine list paired with a good meat is always a plus. However, this only put us at mediocre after the terrible service at the beginning. Poor hostesses, 1/2 hour wait after our reservation (our reso was for 9:30pm!), another wait to take our order, impolite hostesses (did I say this one already?), all boils down to ineffective scheduling and organization. Sorry, no Michelin star for you Waney.
Half and half like a man who wants to cut down on the 18% cream in his double double but can't bear the thought of total saturated fat in his coffee.
As an aside, the above look is pretty simple/classic. Nothing too fancy schmancy. The tight japanese looking bun works well the overall slick structure of the outfit. The broach I bought in Tokyo was love at first sight. If you look close enough it has the American flag all over it (yes, the American flag in Japan). And if any of you ladies ever want to invest in a kickass pair of tights I highly recommend Wolford. They are so silky, have yet to run, and make your legs feel like soft butter all day long (but don't mind how big my legs look in the above pics - I blame it on ballet for 20 years). A bit pricier than your normal tights but definitely worth the price.
Happy Friday!
Ciao ciao bellas.
As you know from my post here, El Bulli was knocked off the no.1 spot for The World's Best 50 by S. Pellegrino. Another thing they lost out on was Nuno Mendes. Nuno is an ex chef from El Bulli, bred from Portuguese background, whom started his own culinary masterpieces here in London recently. To date, he's delivered Bacchus, The Loft (which is a neat Chef Gallery concept for 15 people weekly in Nuno's own Loft - close to our place in fact), and most recently, Viajante. After rave reviews from my gf on The Loft, we were anxious to try Viajante and because he's in such high demand, the first dinner booking available wasn't until mid-late June. The anticipation for the dinner reservation killed us, so we decided to try lunch figuring that at worst, it would act like a teaser for the next one (it also serves the 6 courses akin to dinner, however the dinner menu also has a choice of 9 or 12). It was fantastic. He somehow knew my secret love for beets and decided to make one dish with a variety of beet textures, needless to say my mouth was happy (insert twss joke here please).
We decided to keep our dinner booking for mid-June.
After lunch and a sufficient 6 wine pairings later, we took a few shots outside the resto/hotel, the old Bethnal Town Hall. Happy and slightly inebriated (the good kind).
I'm wearing: Balmain strong shoulder blazer (suspect it is fake, bought in SH and a fifth of the price - sorry I take that back, KNOW it is fake), Asos Silk trousers, Jonais ankle boots, the purse you know all about from SH, Two scarves intertwined together from Woo posted here, Prada over the elbow lambskin gloves (which if you follow me on Twitter you know Mass found these in a cab a few weeks ago.)
Mass is wearing: Armani jacket, Italian scarf from Superman in Fabriano, DuChamp pocket square, and Nico DiDonna shirt
Happy Monday!
Ciao :)
