London Trip Report “Dinners”

Well, the fun ended and it’s back to work and training for a week in London. It was not easy at all.

The 4-day training was a serious, no-nonsense affair. Considering the time difference between Vancouver and London, I had my training starting at 12 midnight! It was pretty tough staying awake.

By the time the training ended at 5pm, that’s when the people in Vancouver and Atlanta starts their working hours. The emails keep pouring in — there’s no way that I can take it easy at all. So, dinners for those days were quickies around where I stay.

DAY 3 — ROOM SERVICE

I was dead tired on this day and was really hungry. I couldn’t bring myself out for dinner and instead called for room service. I wanted meat but the selection on the menu had only one real meat item. I can’t believe it.

I can’t recall what this is called. It’s half a chicken with roasted chilli paste on it. Although the serving was not huge but I did not finish it at all. I guess I was not really in the mood to eat. I hardly touched the fries at all.

This costs 16 GBP.

DAY 4 — DELIVERY FROM SIPSON TANDOORI RESTAURANT

For this night, again I did not feel like going out for dinner. Instead, I ordered delivery from a nearby Indian Restaurant called the Sipson Tandoori Restaurant (www.sipsontandoori.co.uk). The delivery came in paper bags which I thought was pretty dumb. It was because the greasy curry were spilling all over the insides and very seeping out — it was a mess.

I ordered three different items. I had the Balti Chicken (7.95 GBP). The Balti is cooked with light ginger and garlic, tomatoes, peppers and onions with freshly ground spices and herbs. It was thick, rich and flavourful.

I also ordered the Mixed Vegetable Curry for 2.80 GBP and Pilaw Rice for 2.10 GBP. The Pilaw rice was great because it has been a few days since I had rice! The pilaw rice is basmati rice cooked in ghee.

On the side, I ordered the Garlic Naan for 1.95 GBP. Naan is leavened bread baked in clay oven. It goes well with the curry.

The papadum was free. Should be crunchy but it was quite soggy.

It was a good dinner.

DAY 5 — BEST ENGLISH LIVER AND BACON FROM THE PHEASANT PUB

Having eaten in the room for the past two days, I decided to walk to the nearby pub for dinner. I have never been inside a real English Pub before. It was an experience. Apparently food is sold in the pub at the back. The menu was extensive and the serving were huge.

I decided on the Best English Liver and Bacon because (1) it says that it’s Best, (2) it’s English, and (3) it’s liver! There were two big pieces of liver which was quite tasty, I must admit. The bacon was different from what I am used to in Canada. Here the bacon was a piece, not in strips.

DAY 6 — IL BASILICO ITALIAN RESTAURANT

On the second last day of the training, the company paid for a dinner in a nice Italian restaurant for all the attendees. We went to the Il Basilico on Sipson Rd.

For starters, we had mozarella, kalamari and mushrooms.

For the main I ordered chicken with fusilli (can’t remember the real name).

Here’s the attendees of the project management course. Most of the attendees are from all over Europe and are PMs in airport systems. There are only two attendees from North America.

For dessert, I had ice-cream. Oh yeah, I also had for the first time in my life a half glass of the Italian Grappa. Whew! It was strong … 50% alcohol content!

We had a great time and had a lot of learnings from each other over the week.