Easter 2015

This year we spent Easter with my cousin Severe, aka Emilia's babysitter, and her lovely family. On Saturday we invited them over for lunch and then they invited us over to their place in Wimbledon on Easter Sunday. Both days were nice and sunny and we spent most of the two days just eating, as good Italians do! Here are some pictures of our celebrations. 

Day 1:

In preparation for Easter, Emilia had made a lovely Easter tree, painted and decorated some Easter eggs with nonno Walter and nonna Patrizia while we were in Berlin, and together with me she made beautiful place cards for all our guests. Needless to say, they were a big hit! We had a very nice and relaxing day eating and chatting!

Day 2:

On Easter Sunday, we took the tube all the way to South Wimbledon and then enjoyed a nice walk to Severe's house. Again, we spent the day eating and chatting...and this time we also sang and danced!

One More Time!

When people heard we were leaving London, they started booking dates to come and visit us straight away. September, October and November were busy months with lots of visitors in the Otremba/Asciutti house. Everyone wanted one last trip to London and everyone wanted to come and see us in London one more time. Originally, we thought we would leave London around December, hence all the visits in Autumn. Things, however, have been progressing very slowly with my visa application and we are still here. So, we are now experiencing a second phase of booking! 

A little while ago, my mum told me that she would have liked to take grandmum to London one more time before our move. As our babysitter is holidaying in Italy at the moment, we thought this would be a great time for them to come and visit us, and offer a little bit of help as well. So, they arrived last Thursday and will be staying until Saturday. We kicked off their stay with a yummy lunch at Hixter last Friday. We knew they would appreciate the iconic chicken! Grandmum loved it and even played a bit with the bird's feet...while Emilia took part in the art competition (no doubt, she will win, right!?!). 

Date Lunch: Sushi Samba

Before the arrival of Emilia this blog used to be full of things I like as well as reviews of Countries/cities I visited and places I had been to in London as well as abroad. The blog was all about my world. I suppose Emilia has now become a central part of my world, and that's why I mostly blog about her.

One of the very good things about having mum and grandmum here, among MANY others, is that Rob and I can do things that we usually wouldn't/couldn't do now that we have Emilia. So, before mum and nonna arrived we made a list of things that we wanted to do while they were here and have been taking advantage of their presence since day one! Today, Rob took me out for a date lunch. We talked about having a date night and originally, we planned to go to Locanda Locatelli. After seeing the Italy Unpacked series on tv, we fell in love with the chef Giorgio and thought it would be just lovely to try his Michelin star restaurant in London. However, a few days ago Rob had a meeting in the Heron Tower, one of the latest additions to the London skyline, and absolutely loved the roof top restaurant, Sushi Samba. So he booked a table for lunch, as it was impossible to find space for dinner. Needless to say, we loved it. We enjoyed getting ready and all dressed up (I even worn make-up today, which I NEVER do!), took a taxi and headed to the city.

The restaurant is located on the top floor of the Heron Tower, on the 40th floor. If you know me, you know that I don't particularly like lifts but this one was a glass lift and I absolutely enjoyed looking at the view - London is even more beautiful from the sky!

The menu was rather eclectic, an interesting combination of Japanese and Latin American dishes. However, our favourite things were definitely the Japanese nigiri and maki rolls - sorry, so conservative!

And after a sushi feast we opted for a refreshing (and crazy looking!) desert. Isn't it marvelous!? The yellow ball is made with sugar and was filled with lemon custard. Yum.

It was a lovely time for the two of us and we can't wait to do it again! Perhaps, next time we'll go in Summer and enjoy the bar in the outdoor terrace and its wonderful orange tree.

Joseph Joseph Index Advance Cutting Board

Back in June my wonderful colleagues gave me a set of John Lewis vouchers as a wedding gift. I was waiting to use them to buy something for the new flat and finally, last Saturday I was able to start using them. And one of the things I bought is this super cool "index" cutting board, which had been on my wish list for quite a while.

P.S. I can hear you Gareth, but you know, we all get excited about different things :)

La Porchetta

A Pizzeria in London I would definitely recommend. La Porchetta is a quite cool restaurant with five locations in London (we tried the Upper Street one) and is authentic Italian, but in a modern way, and not like a trattoria that you'd find in Little Italy. I love the chairs, the wallpaper and the artwork but more than anything else I loved the pizza! It was so very good, perhaps the best pizza I have had so far in London!

I'll go back!

My Lunch Break

I love Spring lunch breaks! I am very lucky to work next to a park, but then in London you can find a park at every corner. Today I grabbed a bowl of chicken noodles and enjoyed them at the park. Many many other people had the same idea. It was lovely!

Date Night

Rob and I don't really have date nights but we appreciate going out for dinner from time to time and we realise how important it is to keep some sort of romanticism in the relationship. 

Last week Rob was away for work from Tuesday to Friday. On Wednesday evening I received a text from him that put me in a rather good mood. It said: Let's go out for dinner on Friday, wherever you want! So, I immediately went to consult my London file to look for the perfect spot. I chose Bistro K. We had never been there before but I trusted Glamour when it said that it is the best restaurant in town for privacy, just what we needed.

The French restaurant is in the heart of South Kensington, an area we don't go to very often. Housed within an Edwardian building, the decor throughout the restaurant is very clean and elegant making it a perfect venue for a relaxing dinner. As with every French restaurant, the menu was a bit difficult to decipher but both Rob and I managed to pick something good. I opted for the set menu (3 courses = £25) which I thought was a rather good deal. We both started with a lovely glass of champagne, we felt to celebrate! And then I had pumpkin voloute' followed by a delicious plaice accompanied with garlic risotto. Unfortunately, and this was a bit disappointing, the only thing that I didn't really enjoy was the dessert. A shame, since I always look forward to a nice dessert at the end of the meal. I had Prune and Armagnac Parfait, I ordered this without even knowing what it would be, exactly, My fault. Rob, instead, opted for pannacotta with rhubarb compote, a much better choice. 

However, even if my choice of dessert wasn't the best one, they immediately redeemed themselves when together with the bill, for Rob, they gave me a complimentary box of artisan chocolates. Such a lovely touch!

The Folly Bar

Tonight it was Girls Dinner Out. First of all, let me say, I love girls dinners out; I love hanging out with nice friends, having a drink, letting my hair down and chatting and chatting and chatting! We meet every first Tuesday of the month and we pick a different restaurant every time. It sounds like we have been doing this for ages while, in fact, we have just started. Tonight we celebrated our third girls dinner out and we could have not picked a better place. The Folly Bar, to put it simply, is just my cup of tea. The ambiance is amazing, a mixture of bohemian, shabby chic and modern all together. The venue is quite big and is furnished in a wonderful and quirky way, with a fantastic attention to detail. We were sitting at this very long picnic table with benches covered with bright pink cushions. The food was quite good too, I had a delicious lobster risotto but I want to go back to taste one of their burgers and fries, definitely fries, which they serve in terracotta vases. I will certainly go back.

One piece of advice: make sure you book a table as no matter how big this place is, it gets packed!

Story Deli London

If I didn't live in London, I don't know what I would write about on this blog...

London gives me new material to write, and dream about every day. I don't make a note of everything I am attracted to as otherwise this blog would become a London tour guide, but sometimes I really cannot avoid to write a couple of lines about my old and new favourite spots in this amazing city.

Today I have finally been able to try Story Deli. I had seen this little beauty before but only today I had the chance to wander around Brick Lane and stop by to try one of their delicious pizzas. Story Deli is much more than just a pizzeria, it's also a lovely bakery and a wonderful shop where you can buy both organic products, such as oils and candles, and jewelry as well as home decorations.

I am sure it comes as no surprise to you that I absolutely loved this place! A place where you can eat and shop at the same time?! Who wouldn't love it? I was tempted to buy all sorts of things but one silver flower surely got my attention: a dry hydrangea covered with silver glitter, just amazing! Every table was adorned with a glass, milk bottle with one of these flowers inside; if only we had a nicer and bigger place to decorate, I would have totally bought a few!

And now to the pizza: I am Italian and I like my pizza to be good! And I can say, I truly enjoyed this pizza. I opted for a roast vegetables pizza, which turned out to be a very good choice. The pizza here is very (VERY!) thin and the toppings are somehow *different*. When I saw the menu I was a bit sceptical but I absolutely loved it! I would definitely recommend a visit!

Until my next discovery...

Pizza East

Following my previous post...if you, like me, live in London and can't really justify to spend a night in the Rough Luxe Hotel, that perhaps is just a couple of tube stops from your own flat, then here is a suggestion for something you can definitely do in London, in fact, you should do it!

I had lunch at Pizza East today and simply loved it! The atmosphere is fantastic, the industrial interiors simply amazing and the food just delicious! Go there for a Sunday brunch or lunch after a quick shopping at the nearby Spitafields Market.

Must try it soon! You' ll love it, I promise!