Birthday Tea at La Duree
Yet another year and another milestone. When I was 25, I never thought I would be in London expecting a 2nd child when I am 35. I am not the type to have plan my life very much i.e. engaged by 25, married 27 that sort of thing so it has all been a pleasant surprise.
What did I do on my birthday? Took a day's leave and walked around town with MH, like a couple. Dipped in and out of shops, looking at sale things, testing strollers and finally ending up at Selfridges eating tosei.
After a quick post-lunch nap, we headed out to Harrods for tea at La Duree. Alas, no need to travel all the way to Paris for my favourite macaroons.
How pretty is the entrance from the street! There is another entrance via the Food Hall in Harrods ~ right next to Krispy Kreme of all things.
The salon is split into three areas with this impressive looking counter filled with delicious goodies. I am such a sucker for pretty displays like this. Pastel colours, beautifully wrapped boxes, pastries shaped and iced to perfection and the creme de la creme, macaroons in all colours of the rainbows with intriguing flavours like caramel with fine salt, rose petal and liquorice. No photography allowed unfortunately and I took these images from their website.
We sat at a rather utilitarian section with marble top tables. On hindsight, it might have been better to opt for the seating above. There is a full afternoon tea with sandwiches for £21 per pax but we opted for just tea and coffee with some macaroons. It was all very civilised. And of course I didn't leave the place until I bagged a box of macaroons one in each flavour.
Following a car bomb threat in Piccadilly and later on Park Lane, our bus was diverted and we ended up at High Street Kensington. Oh well.... when you have lemons, make lemonade. We went to the new Whole Foods supermarket at High Stree Kensington, at the former Barkers Building.
I was gobsmacked! It was previously a quaint shopping mall; not very ritzy at all. But now, it is a giant organic supermarket. Three floors of organic or natural produce and food! Used to the spartan selection we get at supermarkets or small stalls at various farmers' market, we are not ready for the huge selection of products; from cheese to seafood to clothes and baby diapers.
The basement is the main supermarket and I was amused to see Red bananas on sale all the way from Costa Rica. Have to show it to the little one ~ we talked about red bananas before and she could not believe that bananas come it other colours than yellow.
There is a muesli bar where you can mix all the dried fruits including dried bananas similar to pisang salai (very delicious and not very smoky) and a nut butter churn where you can buy peanut/cashew/almond nut butter, freshly churned.
Up to the ground floor, where the ready-to eat foods like cheese and breads are. There are three massive takeaway bars with salads, rice, cooked curries and other dishes to purchase. A long bar for hot soups. You can buy these and adjourn to the 1st floor where there are seating as well as other stalls to buy food from.
All in all, a lovely experience. It was not too crowded when we went but I should imagine it will be heaving on the weekends
