Breakfast With Charles

"Dinner parties are mere formalities. You invite a man to dinner because you must; but you invite a man to breakfast because you want to see him"

Is there anything more lovely than getting to stuff your face lazily on a Sunday morning? A dear friend of mine has been running a fantastic breakfast club for a few months and now, it's hitting the big time! Below are a few images of previous BWC delicacies. Tomorrow I shall be snaffling down a delicious menu of breakfast bites and cocktails at rooftop location somewhere near London Bridge at his new pop-up venture. Unfortunately all the spaces are now taken but like the Facebook page, join the mailing list and keep your ear to the ground for future pop-ups. Breakfast just got serious.

Light and Fluffy Wholegrain Blueberry Pancakes with Grilled Figs, Caramelised Cherries, Plum Compote and "Maple Syruped" Creme Fraiche.

Chorizo with Roasted Sweet Potatoes, Yellow Courgettes and Cherry Tomatoes, the "Perfect" Egg with Paprika and a Roasted Red Pepper Puree

Eggs Royale with Gravadlax and Smoked Salmon

Breakfast with Wes

Regular readers will know I love all things Wes and now I can play out my fantasy of being in one of his movies by heading to the lovely Fika in Brick Lane. It's had a makeover à la Wes Anderson that will last until the end of August. Sit among Margot Tenenbaum's book collection and some Moonrise Kingdom love letters as you graze on a Tenenbaum's dinner: sliders with goat's cheese, the Beekeeping Society's Chicken, and – one I have yet to try – the Foxy Doughnut, a homemade doughnut with chicken liver pâté and apple inspired by Fantastic Mr Fox! The cocktails are all about playtime. Order The Life Aquatic (dill vodka, elderflower and lemonade) or The Inventory (Cognac, chilli caramel, Absolut vanilla and cotton candy) served in interesting receptacles...If only one could borrow Margot's wardrobe to lounge insouciantly at the bar..

Here's a peek at the menu!x

Lost in the US of A

Wow, have I been off radar! Apologies lovely readers. Frantic work followed by some serious family drama and then off on the trip of a lifetime that the Boy and I have been plotting for quite some time.  My lax posting has largely been to the fact that I have been travelling for the past two weeks with rather sporadic Internet. We flew into LA and will fly out of there too but the rest of the journey has been a road trip - we clocked over a THOUSAND miles today.  I will be posting hotel reviews, restaurant write-ups and general travel notes over the next few days but for now, I wanted to brief you on our itinerary. There have been many highlights and hopefully even more to come. If you follow me on Instagram, I've pretty much been keeping a picture diary of the whole trip so far...All recommendations welcome, we hit Carmel today...

Los Angeles

Las Vegas

Yosemite National Park

San Francisco

Carmel

Big Sur

Santa Barbara

Los Angeles (Santa Monica)

Making new friends in Sin City

Snapshots of Adventures

I have been truly neglectful posting of late. After the nastiness of pityriasis rosea and then being a busy bee at work and THEN birthday...I rather let the time run away with me. Birthday celebrations were initially spent in the Shire with my family, the Boy remaining behind in London as he had exams. I had a small shindig in London at one of my favourite pubs in Chelsea, The Surprise, before being whisked off for a surprise of my own. On the Friday night, myself, The Boy and a reprobate went to see the wonderful Grayson Perry exhibition at the British Museum.  I have long been a fan of Alan Measles and am deeply devoted to my own bear, Rosy.  (See the fantastic shrine to Alan that Grayson Perry had on his 'Pope mobile' below.)  Then over mounds of delicious pasta at Ciao Bella, I found out that I'd have to be up at 6am the next morning for Pariiiiiis! We stayed in the fantastic Mama Shelter hotel, visited Pere Lachaise cemetery to say hello to Oscar Wilde, Balzac, Hugo amongst others then onto the Rodin Museum.  Dinner was at one of my favourite restaurants in the world, Le Chateaubriand.  If you haven't been there yet, GO! Sunday, after a lovely lie-in, we filled a bag full of delicious pastries and hopped on the train to Versailles.  It was spectacular, although I did wish that I could have swept through it in a Marie Antoinette frock without the hoards of tourists who only looked at through their camera lenses, never taking the time to actually 'notice'.  Versailles is so huge that we happily spent the day there taking in the main palace, the Petit Trianon and the stunning gardens...before pegging it back to the Gare du Nord and London xx

Honey buns birthday cake, Alan Measles in his shrine, very important people,  Oscar Wilde's tomb. images from Pere Lachaise, menu from Le Chateaubriand, Mama Shelter, Versailles, the green green grass of home.