To kick of the celebration, Kent and I went to an event put on by the Junior League of London (which I am officially a member as of May). It was a "Cocktails & Art" event held at a private members club in the City. We were supposedly going to have cocktails, canapes, a lecture on how to begin to invest in art, and a mixology demonstration. Well, the club was super nice, we learned about one British artist that made his fame with graffiti in East London ("Banksy" no one knows his real name) but the rest....well...we didn't get our£25 worth. At least it went to charity. We did have a few cocktails, but there was no mixology demonstration (a drink guy snuck behind the station they had set up and made us some so-so mojitos) and we did have 1 canape each. I guess mojitos for dinner isn't so bad when your celebrating your birthday! :-)
The next night, we were ready for another strange 'dinner'....this time a dinner of gourmet chocolates. YUM. There is a small chocolate shop in our neighborhood that we pass walking, and bought a few chocs last Christmas, called Demarquette Chocolates. I saw on their website that they were holding a "Chocolate Indulgence Tasting Event" the day before my birthday. Sign me up! Kent agreed to go with me, and it turned out to be really interesting and, of course, delicious. It was a small group (about 15 or so) right in the shop and the owner, Marc Demarquette (yes, that's his real name), gave a talk on how he left consulting to start this business 6 years ago, where he sources the ingredients, how he makes the infused flavors, etc. All the while, one of his staff is feeding us samples. We learned a lot about chocolate and tasting some really unique flavors of ganache (Earl Grey tea, super dark 90% cocoa, pepper, lemongrass, rum, mint) all made with fresh ingredients. I could go on and on.....it was a great event.....
Next up for the birth-week celebration was my actual BIRTHDAY! Kent made it so special.....from my 3 course French breakfast (crepes!) to a fancy picnic lunch to a nice dinner out....what a great day. We ventured out to one the National Trust parks on the outskirts of London called Osterley Park. A few pics below of our walk and picnic (thanks to Jenny & Adam for our cool picnic basket/backpack - we use it all the time!). Back home and then out to dinner at a swanky restaurant in Mayfair -- Quaglino's.
Yep, all we did for my birthday was eat and drink....and it was awesome. :-)
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