Day 9: Tipsy Tea at Mr. Fogg's

We had one main activity a day in London, since it was supposed to be restful...today's activity was an afternoon tea at Mr. Fogg's Residence. We did go to the Victoria and Albert Museum first, but upon realizing how huge it was, I decided I needed to research what to see and go back the next day. So, we walked down to a pub called The Bunch of Grapes, where I had a chicken and mushroom pie with gravy and "chips."  

From there, we walked past the Wellington Arch to Buckingham Palace. Since I've been to England before, I wasn't too set on dragging Taylor to all of the touristy sites; but I love the Queen, so you have to walk past her house!

As we made our way to the tea, we walked more through Mayfair to see more of the ornate Christmas decorations, and Taylor bought a razor from a fancy shaving store (though after ruining my razor on his face, let's note). 

Finally, it was time for tea! Mr. Fogg's has several different branches in London, and they all look awesome, but I wanted to do a proper tea. So, we did the "tipsy tea" at Mr. Fogg's Residence, which is down a back alley that looks like it should lead to nowhere at all. Inside, it looks like you've stepped into the parlor of a wealthy and well-traveled packrat. 

The tea started with a tart, citrusy cocktail, and then it was time for a tower of little sandwiches and desserts. The red velvet cake bites and the shortbread cake with a dried strawberry were the best. 

The tea pots were bottomless for two hours, so Taylor got a gin tea and I got a champagne tea. My favorites were "All the Trimmings," which had cranberry juice and strawberry jam, and also the "Pome Pudding," which had rose liquor, jasmine syrup, and cherry puree. 

And most exciting of all, there was a magician at the tea who went to each table. He melted a coin, did a card trick, and then asked me to think of a really random object that neither Taylor nor he could possibly guess I would say. So, I thought about my retainer, which after so many years of braces is my most important physical possession. Then he asked me a few more questions, AND THEN HE DREW A RETAINER. That's real-life magic, right? Also, I bet he thought I was super-cool with my object. He said the most common objects people think of are houses, cars, dogs, and penises. Maybe that last one is why the world is in such bad shape. 

I was definitely tipsy when I left this tea, so it lived up to its name. 

My favorite of all of the lights were the ones that looked like peacock feathers. 

To end the night, we went to Minimo, a Georgian restaurant that had been closed when we went a few days ago. We started with an eggplant dish, but the yellow sauce was curry so I was sad and didn't eat it. (I really hate curry...like passionate hate.)

The next dish was khachapuri, which is a baked cheese bread with an egg on it. Weirdly, it tasted a lot like buttered popcorn (which is great, I wish everything tasted like buttered popcorn). 

And finally we had khinkali, dumplings filled with spiced meat (these also had cilantro with the spices, which I'm not sure is common since I've never had Georgian food before). The dumplings were really good--you pick them up by the stem, bite a hole to suck the juice out, and then eat the rest of the dumpling and leave the stem on the plate.