Summer in London for me invariably means going to A Taste of London in Regents Park. My friend and I have been regular attendees at this four-day food festival since it kicked off in 2004. Usually we go to one of the evening sessions for dinner with our husbands.
This year we ditched our husbands for a lunch instead. In all honesty, our husbands were cramping our style. They would show up late from work and then insist on having only burgers, such as the foie gras burger from Opera Tavern. Drinks were limited to beer and conversation to complaining about work. Boring.
This year’s A Taste of London happened last week. The weather was pretty good – occasional glimpses of sun were spotted. Definitely better than previous years where on occasion it has bucketed down with rain. It is an English summer after all.
All that intermittent sunshine called for drinks!
We skipped the Bloody Mary class at the Ketel One Vodka Bloody Mary workshop and went straight to the drink. Who wants to learn when I’ve ditched the family and have a free sunny afternoon? Certainly not moi.
Then there was the Havana Club who wanted to teach you how to make mojitos. What’s up with all this learning? Just give me the drink, for heaven’s sake.
What would summer in England be without Pimms? Just another rainy day.
Let’s not forget Lovo – a new drink I tried for the first time which is coconut water mixed with vodka. It was delicious and low in calories. My kind of combination.
I also loved the Lychee Cooler (Grey Goose, Lychee juice and coconut milk) from SushiSamba.
Just in case you thought all we did was drink, we also nibbled our way through a delicious sampling of food from some of London’s best restaurants. There was the pulled pork sausage roll from Chop Shop, crusted prawns from the Modern Pantry, roast duck and mantou bun from Chai Wu, and bacon-wrapped dates and manchego from Duck & Waffle.
The Spanish restaurant Ametsa with Arzak Instruction loves their Iberico ham so much they gave it a bread pillow. All ham should be so lucky, but then not all ham is served up by a one Michelin star restaurant.
This picture I tweeted about the black cod and crayfish dumplings from Roka won a prize. Fortune favours the tipsy and gluttonous.
Congratulations @justgo_places1 You won a prize! You’ll be one of the first to sample our Kaitetsu cocktail pairing menu! #TasteRoka
— Roka Aldwych (@RokaAldwych) June 19, 2015
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I’ve linked up with The Lifestyle Diaries for this month’s London Living blog hop.
Just Go Places 
This looks amazing – I never seem to make it to Taste of London as I either forget, I’m away or busy, but I should put the next one in the diary!
It is a lot of fun especially if it is sunny!
Did you really drink all of those drinks in one afternoon? Could you walk afterwards? And the food looks absolutely heavenly!
Lol. I did. I barely drink nowadays but had a misspent youth where I learned the art of drinking lots without falling over.
Sounds like a fun event. I could do with that lychee cooler:-)
I love lychees! That was my fave.
Looks like I missed out this year. And yes to the lychee cooler!
They are on the regular Sushi Samba menu so I’ll be there for sure!
We were so disappointed to miss the bacon-wrapped dates and manchego when we popped into Duck & Waffle for brunch…!
Next time right? They are so popular its a fish that won’t go off the menu.