Fish, Chips, Mussels, Beers and a Merry Christmas

I have three real passions in life. Writing is one of them. The other two are travelling and eating. Okay, full disclosure: The fourth is napping. This past Christmas, instead of doing our traditional prime rib dinner at my in-laws, we decided to hop the pond and visit the UK, Belgium and the Netherlands over the holidays. My gorgeous sister-in-law was turning fifty, her birthday on the 24^th of December. She had decided that this year’s celebration was going to be special, and in her unwillingness to share the spotlight with Jesus, she had decided to cancel Christmas and spend her birthday in London (Christmas dinner be damned). Of course, my husband and I quickly got on board with this paganistic plan and decided to pop on over to surprise her. On the night of her birthday, we had dinner reservations at Aqua at the Shard, a pretty swanky restaurant on the thirty-first floor of the Shard building near London Bridge. My sister-in-law was under the impression that she and my brother-in-law were having dinner with a common acquaintance’s London-based friends. The moment she saw our smiling faces, she shrieked so loudly and with such intensity that the floor-to-ceiling glass windows nearly shattered, and my husband and I nearly handcuffed for assault. Despite the commotion, the kind folks at Aqua didn’t throw us out and served us a pretty good dinner instead. The highlight of my dinner was a rich pumpkin soup with truffles and what can only be described as some variant of Rice Krispies at the bottom. I suppose the real draw of the restaurant was the awesome view of London with all its twinkly lights. Overall, a very enjoyable evening.

The next day, as most restaurants were closed for Christmas dinner, we found ourselves in Chinatown of all places. Prime Rib was quickly replaced with Peking Duck with no complaints here. Unfortunately I can’t recall the name of the place we went to. It was one of many nondescript restaurants with roasted duck hanging by the front window, where char sui and dumplings were prevalent and steaming hot tea got served by the potfuls.

I have to admit though, London is no foodie destination – at least not for this foodie. While I did thoroughly enjoy my full English breakfasts, typical British fare didn’t really have me drooling.  To be honest, one of the most satisfying meals I had in London was at Jamon Jamon, a Spanish tapas restaurant. Show me some Iberico ham and croquetas, and I’ll show you a happy woman.

I’m of the belief that once you’ve seen one big city, you’ve seen them all. While London did have its charms, my husband and I decided to go the road less travelled and booked two nights at a town called Whitstable, one and a half hours east of London via train. This cozy seaside town was the welcome respite that I needed on this trip. We stayed at a lovely B&B right by the beach. It was the tiniest room I’ve ever been in, but it was clean, with a balcony bigger than the actual room.

A bus ride away from Whitstable was the lovely, historic town of Canterbury. With its meandering cobbled walkways and festive Christmas bazaars, it was the perfect place to pass a wintry afternoon. At the Old Weaver’s Restaurant in Canterbury, I had a most delicious lamb and rosemary pie. Nothing beats meat, fresh herbs and gravy topped with a crown of fresh puffed pastry.

From the UK, we travelled to Brussels and stayed at the Bedford Hotel and Congress Center. In a room four times bigger than my Whitstable cubby hole, we could have happily played bocce with room to spare. I highly recommend this place if you’re travelling to Brussels – a very short walk to the Grand Place, affordable, with clean, big, although a bit dated accommodations. As fish and chips are to London, moules (mussels) are to Brussels, and we were more than happy to partake. At Chez Patrick, we had moules au vin blanc, which while enjoyable enough, was nothing to write home about.

Last stop on our trip was Amsterdam.  Amidst the fog of cannabis and the ruby-lit, living, breathing window displays of the red-light district was a beautiful and enchanting city of canals, coffee shops and crepes.  I thoroughly enjoyed our time here. We sampled traditional Dutch cuisine at Moeders – a kitschy small restaurant plastered with pictures of mothers from every generation.  Again, while the food was not unpleasant, it didn’t really make my taste buds sing either. Oddly enough, the best meal in Amsterdam was had at Aneka Rasa, an Indonesian place which specializes in what they call “Rijsttafel”, which is basically a sampling of different types of Indonesian fare. They all came out in small plates served atop a metal heating plate. What can I say, I guess I’m really a tapas-type girl.

We flew back to New York and spent New Year’s Eve at the family riverside cabin in Pennsylvania. A campfire, good food, a nice long nap, champagne and fireworks at midnight. Truly an evening well-spent. The perfect end to a great year – a year of goals met, victories won, love openly shared and countless memories made.

I wish you all the very best for the coming year. May everyone get that much closer to living their best lives, and may each succeeding year be better than the one before.