Tay's Eatery

It's the weekend!

Hoping for a chill one... ("chilled one", as they say here... why past tense?)

But first, some Friday fun:

Thanks to Joy for this photo, snapped in Kincardine, Ontario! 

Open house

Apparently, it is impossible for me to take some nice photos of my house in a way that actually conveys what it looks and feels like (the rooms always look crappy and small!), so here, instead, are a few random detail shots.

After you enter the flat, there's a narrow set of stairs, at the top of which you're greeted by this little cat decal by Parisian graffiti artist, Miss.Tic. 

Kitchen! We have a mini dishwasher (which I love), a mini fridge (which are apparently relatively common in London flats but are SO ANNOYING!), and a washer/dryer combo next to the fridge (it's actually a washer AND a dryer, although I have never used the dryer setting. It just seems a bit wrong.)

The only basil plant I never killed. I just ate it all! Does anyone know if these are supposed to regrow?

I know you're thinking, "thanks for showing us your garbage can, Rebecca", but these are interesting because (a) they are HELLA expensive (this sucker cost £60!!!), (b) it seems like EVERY house in London has one of these! Brabantia, the brand, has really cornered the "bin" market in the UK, and (c) if you ask someone (in a store, for example) if they have a "garbage" (as you pass them an empty coffee cup), they might look at you strangely. They understand you better if you use the word "bin".

The chandelier that cost £5000 (it's made of about 200 triangle-shaped crystal. REAL crystal!). It reminds me of the house that Al Pacino and Michelle Pfeiffer live in in Scarface.

My very packed shoe rack. It is organised by designer, and this is one of my favourite mini-sections of it.

A frame left by our landlady = the perfect frame for my Pyrrha necklaces! Kudos to Danielle and Wade, the designers of this amazing line, for getting their stuff into Liberty. It's been there forever, I think, but it's my favourite department store here and a $180 Pyrrha necklace in Canada costs about £200 here! Wow-za! 

I miss being able to go to their studio-house and look through case after case of Pyrrha seals. Discovering a bracelet or ring style you hadn't seen before was THE BEST.

The very extensive record collection left in our care by our landlady friend. She also left her decks, but no amps. No amps = no fun, although I wouldn't know what to do with them anyway. I'd probably try to figure it out, though.

Tiny little bathroom. I got the same map of the world shower curtain here as I had in Vancouver. The tiny little radio actually works (thanks to Brit and my friends at Aritzia for gifting it to me!) and I like to blare it when I'm in the shower.

The white "componibilli" storage thing (I trained Elliot to say that word because it's fun to say) is a Kartell piece by Anna Castelli Ferrieri. I coveted it for two years when I worked at Caban (remember CABAN?!!!) about a million years ago. I aways remembered it being much more expensive than it ended up being, like one of those things I thought I'd buy when I grew up. I guess I'm grown up now.

Although, that said, another thing I always thought I'd buy when I grew up was an Eames Lounger. Still don't have one of those.

Our mini fireplace.

Random finds from the last Granger & Hertzog film prop hire clearance sale. In England, when you rent something, you say you "hire" it. As in, "we got a hire car for the weekend" or "we hired a car for the weekend".

Anyway, Granger & Hertzog specialise in unique and bits of furniture that can be rented for set decoration. Once a year (generally in November, I think—I'll let you know later this year), they have a big warehouse sale and some people line up in advance because it's mega cheap.

We got this random fretwork acrylic table for £5 and the bulbous lamp next to it for £10. I also got this cool, stacking container thing which stores some of my jewellery, and a round, silver TV bench. Everything cost £50 altogether. The colourful thing on top of the table is a pompom garland I bought for our Christmas tree. I decided it could stay out since it's not red and green, but haven't quite decided what to do with it yet.

Come visit and see it all in person!

British English

You wouldn't expect two people who are native English speakers, from English-speaking countries, to have a language barrier. And yet, when Elliot and I first got together, it took us ages to properly understand each other.

Every time I said "really?", he said "yes, really" in this weird, semi-sarcastic, semi-confused voice, and it wasn't until later that I realised that this was just my North American way of expressing surprise / disbelief, not me actually questioning the truth behind something.

Me: "Really?!"

Elliot: (silence.)

Anyway, over the weekend, we headed north to Leicester, a town of about 300,000 (although on our first visit there, Elliot told me it had 3 million!!!!! I very swiftly kiboshed this idea) to visit Elliot's brother's family. We passed through all the little towns and cities, which made me think of just how UN-English British English is. For example:

Leicester = "Les-ter". As anyone who's ever made shepherd's pie (or cottage pie, more probably) will know, a whole bunch of letters just seem to disappear when you ask for Worcestershire sauce. Same goes for Leicester, Bicester, and Gloucester... and probably many, many more. The C just seems to disappear, and you're left with Lester, Bister, and Glosster. WTF?

A couple of the other North American vs. British spellings and just plain weird pronunciations that came up on the drive:

• curb vs. kerb
• Warwick = "Warrick"
• Marylebone = "Marl-ee-bone"
• oriented vs. orientated

Even more interestingly, "Asian" here in England refers to South Asians—as in, people from India, Bangladesh, Iran, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, etc. If I refer to myself as Asian here, I get confused looks... and on any surveys I've done (and companies do seem hellbent on obtaining demographic info here), I have to check the "Chinese" box. People from other parts of Southeast Asia don't have a tick box. Weird, no?

Source: Office for National Statistics. I'm appalled that these figures, from 2001-2002, are the most recent listed on their site, and am hoping that there are more recent statistics listed somewhere else... 

Travel Thursday: if only via food

We haven't left London in awhile (if a month can be considered awhile), but we are potentially heading up to Leicester (pronounced "less-ter") this weekend to visit some of Elliot's family, so hopefully, I come back with something interesting to report.

In the meantime, check out the little trip to Japan sushi we made!

There are some pretty amazing restaurants here, including a ton of fantastic cheap eat options and too many Michelin-starred restaurants for my bank account to handle, but the one thing I am really missing is sushi.

Gone are the days of the $10 lunch combo box at Sea Monstr Sushi that made you so full you (almost) felt like you didn't need dinner and yet, returned for the very next day. Sure, there are good Japanese restaurants but they are way more expensive, and the fish just doesn't taste as fresh. Recommendations more than welcome.

In any case, we decided to make our own sushi at home. Here are the results:

The ingredients! Sushi seasoning is a mix of rice vinegar, sugar, and salt and can apparently also be mixed with soy sauce and sesame oil to make a tasty salad dressing. 

Vegetables (including some slightly brown avocados; oops) and crab sticks. We didn't get real crab this time, but will try to next time. They sell imitation crab here in this handy stick format, unlike the flaky chunks back home.

We also realized too late that we didn't have plastic wrap or cling film. This is because we don't often have leftovers (we also don't have any Tupperware or food storage containers!), and if we do, we just use pot lids as covers when we refrigerate food. 

Anyway, tinfoil ended up being just fine. (As an aside, aluminum—"a-LOO-mi-num"—foil is called aluminium—"a-loo-MIN-ee-um" foil here.)

Our finished rolls!

Sushi feast! Look how red that tuna is! It was delicious.

High street shopping in London

To think that a year ago, I didn't know what "high street" meant...

I had breakfast with a lovely fellow Canadian today, and the two of us trying to describe Aritzia (she misses it dearly) to her British colleague made me think of all the brands that don't exist here and vice versa.

But first, "high street." High street basically refers to boutiques that are literally, on the high street—which are, essentially, main streets. In Vancouver, Robson Street would be a high street; in Toronto, Queen Street would be one.

What's more, high streets here very often literally have the name "high street" in their name. Example: High Street Kensington, the main shopping street in—you guessed it—Kensington. This isn't always the case, of course—Oxford and Regent Streets are definitely high streets but aren't named as such.

Photo: Wikipedia. Look! There's even a "High Street Kensington" tube station!

Anyway, high street fashion brands are those that can afford the rent on these busy thoroughfares: think brands like the Gap, Urban Outfitters, Topshop, H&M, and Zara. Of course, luxury brands can afford high rent, too, but obviously, they want to maintain their position as, duh, luxury brands, so tend to group together in more posh areas. It's all pretty self-explanatory. So onto the list.

Here are a few high street brands I'm surprised don't exist in Canada yet (and please do correct me if I'm wrong!):

CoS - my favourite high street brand; CoS supposedly stands for "collection of style" and is actually owned by H&M. It's still trend-driven, but much more quality-oriented ("orientated", as they say here in England) and way, way less "fast".

I recently bought these jersey legging trousers, because who doesn't need a pair of tight coral-coloured pants?! But I do love them. (Photo: Cos.)

The Kooples - I've been seeing the Man Repeller wear a lot of this brand lately, so am guessing it is Stateside, now. My second favourite of the high street brands, the clothing is very British in its styling but the company was founded by three French brothers. Fréres.

This look is SOOOO The Kooples. But it's cute, right? (Photo: The Kooples.)

Kurt Geiger - Pronounced "guy-ger", with two hard Gs, this is a shoe retailer whose specialty, it seems, is producing runway-inspired footwear, with the odd exact-copy thrown in there for good measure. My friend Alexandra of Searching for Style did some research and found that Kurt Geiger, the company, has managed to strategically place itself in every major (including luxury) department store as it controls all of their respective shoe departments! Not sure how it does this—more research required. Stay tuned.

Hello, YSL. I mean, Miu Miu. I mean, Kurt Geiger. (Photo: Kurt Geiger.)

Uniqlo - Why haven't they opened there yet?! I don't understand.

The most amazing long sleeve t-shirt I have ever found. I think I need 5 more, just in case. And they're only a tenner! (Photo: Uniqlo.)

Next - I find this high street brand kind of shitty, but it seems to do quite well here.
Dorothy Perkins - see Next.
Mango - I know there is Mango in Canada, but seriously, only in Toronto still?!!!
New Look - Slightly better than Next—it has an ongoing collaboration with Giles on its side.

--------------------

There are probably at least ten more, but let's move on to popular brands that surprisingly, don't seem to exist in the UK:

Old Navy - There's a Gap on every other corner, and a Banana Republic, too. Why no Old Navy?

Lululemon - I'm not surprised the other major Canadian brands (yes, Aritzia, but also Joe Fresh) haven't opened here yet—after all, they just opened big shiny stores in New York—but Lulu has been in the States for AGES and there seriously seems a big gap here. Its main competitor, besides the usual sports brands like Nike and Adidas, and from what I've seen so far, would be a brand called Sweaty Betty... which I think is an unfortunate name (but there are some nice workout clothes).

A cute look from Sweaty Betty. (Photo: Sweaty Betty.)

J.Crew - I'm sure this brand will come soon (and in the meantime, they now ship to the UK).
Madewell - see J.Crew.

Bebe - I hate this store and think their clothes is mostly crappy, but I'm still surprised there are no Bebe stores here.

Bebe barf. I'm SO over batwing minidresses. (Photo: Bebe.)

BCBG - Did you know BCBG stands for "bon chic, bon genre" (good style, good attitude)? I'm not sure this would qualify as "high street" as their price point is a bit higher, but I'm still surprised there are no BCBG stores here. They do have good sales.

Club Monaco - The brand I miss the MOST. They sell some of it at Browns, an amazing, high-end department store (with an equally amazing outlet store down the street, which I literally stumbled upon! I was en route to the Sassoon Salon down the street to get my bangs trimmed and WALKED INTO THE WRONG STORE!), but it's much more expensive and I miss being able to use my press discount.

Love. Want. (Photo: Club Monaco.)

Consigning in London

When I was about 14, my mom started taking me to Danielle's Consignment Boutique in Calgary, where we'd drop off our clothes and have a browse around for any goodies. In Vancouver, I started doing this at Front & Co., which had a rule that meant you had to stay in the store while they sorted through your things (which often meant you ended up finding something else you wanted to buy).

Since moving to London, I've been on the hunt for a similar store. I've sold a few items on eBay, but consigning generally just takes less work. So far, I've discovered a few things:

1) Designer consignment stores here tend to be called "dress agencies".

2) Pricing is determined much differently. In Canada, prices are determined solely by the buying team, with the exception of high-end designer items, when they might ask how much you paid and whether you're comfortable with a particular price. At Pandora, an established store in Knightsbridge (the quite posh locale of Harrod's), all prices are agreed upon by you AND and the store, and only after this do you leave your items there.

3) Same goes for sales. At the Front, price tags are date-stamped and everything is reduced by 20% once it's been on the floor for a month. At Pandora, I assume that things don't go on sale unless you've pre-agreed to it.

4) Consignment stores are generally better organised in Canada. They don't seem to like organising shoes by size at dress agencies here!

Photo: Pandora. Pretty shoes organised in no particular way!

I also found another series of stores in Notting Hill, called Retro Man / Retro Woman. They have TERRIBLE reviews, thanks in part to their peculiar "we buy everything" policy, which basically means they'll give you ONE PENCE if they don't like something. They also have a cash or trade policy, where they'll give you double the cash value of your things in vouchers for any of their stores.

I've decided the only way to make this work without feeling ripped off is to itemise every single item I bring in and pre-determine an acceptable cash / voucher total. Last week, I brought in 9 items (2 pairs of jeans, a pair of waterproof oxfords, an old Phillip Lim skirt, and some other random stuff) and got £200 in trade. I ended up taking these two items and the rest (£20) in cash.

I love this Dries van Noten sheer dress, which was mega discounted as it is for a (very) small chested lady such as myself. I loved that entire season (fall 2008), in fact, and have a couple of other pieces from it.  Here's the dress on Amanda Laine (a Canadian model!), and a close-up of the hem.

I also got this little shearling vest, trimmed in (fox, I believe) fur. Love fur, love the colour, love that I can wear it over dresses and that it's a bit dressier than the 4 other fur / shearling vests I already own.

Monday Update

This weekend was fairly uneventful - Saturday was a day of errands, with one of Elliot's friends visiting from Ibiza and a delicious dinner at Ducksoup (typed "dicksoup" there at first, by accident... Freudian typo?!). I had rabbit rillette and cornichons, followed by cuttlefish risotto with squid ink. There's something deliciously weird about eating a plate of rice in a very black sauce.

I love how tiny and homemade Ducksoup feels (there are only a handful of tables; most people eat at the bar), but wish they would write their daily menus a bit more neatly. But whatever.

Photo: Ducksoup

On Sunday, we headed to our friend Lucy's house in Esher for Sunday Roast. This is an actual, proper noun THING here, needing capital letters and everything. Of course, we have roasts in Canada, but it isn't as entrenched a tradition as it is here. Think of it as a full Thanksgiving dinner, every Sunday. We haven't cooked one yet, but we've gone out for plenty, at pubs with names like "Duke of Wellington", "Prince of Wales", "Rose and Crown", and so on.

Photo: my BlackBerry. This is a traditional pork roast, with a big chunk of crackling on top. YUM.

I was going to write about consignment stores in London, but seeing as how this post has ended up being all about food, I'll save that for tomorrow! I'm also on two deadlines today, so that's enough procrastinating for now.

It's the weekend!

Happy weekend! I'm going shopping.

Wish List Wednesday

Thanks to everyone for your kind tweets and comments on my last post about Mango. He is and will be missed.

It's hard to follow a post like that with one about fashion, but I actually started compiling this, my first installation of "Wish List Wednesday", on the weekend. But then, that was also before I headed to Liberty, one of my favourite department stores here in London, where today, I found that half the store was on sale and the other half was full of brilliant, colourful things that had arrived for spring!

Not surprisingly, my wish list changed. Here is the newest version.

Photo: La Garconne

1) Isabel Marant's latest hidden-heel sneaker, the Willow.
Upside: I liked the Bobby from last season (but needed some convincing), but LOVE this new colour.
Downside: Too bad everyone else has come out with fashion sneakers now, too.

Photo: Telegraph

2) Christopher Kane rainbow dress from Resort 2012.
Upside: how impossible would it be to NOT be in a good mood wearing this?
Downside: likely to be one of THE most-spotted (and only wearable once) dresses of fashion week.

Photo: Net-a-Porter

3) YSL arty ring

CORRECTION: I bought this today (in purple)! Somehow, it managed to slip by the hawk eyes of dozens—hundreds, even!—of other lassies and I found it lying, all sad and dejected, in the bargain bin at Liberty. It's missing the tiniest stone but (a) it's hardly noticeable, (b) it was, like, 80% off, and (c) I can get a super-special jeweller to  find an exact replacement, or get them to put a similar-coloured bead in its place. Yay! Happy Wednesday!

Goodbye, Mango

When I left Canada, my intention was to return in February to pick up my little orange tabby, Mango. He had received his rabies shot and gotten his pet passport in August, but UK pet immigration laws state that animals must have had their vaccines for 6 months. I left Mango in the very kind, very capable and loving hands of Caitlin, who I'll be forever indebted to for agreeing to adopt him until February.

Unfortunately, I woke up one morning in November to find an email from the Granville Island Vet Hospital with the sad news that Mango's kidneys had started to fail. After two nights in the hospital, a few teary phone calls and a futile search for a cheap last-minute flight back home, we had to put him down.

Mango was the sweetest, most affectionate cat that I ever met. I've never (and still don't, really) thought of myself as a cat person, but I was truly in love with Mango and his loving head butts, stubborn orange hair—I'm still finding it on my clothes!—and little (sometimes big) meow.

He will be dearly missed.

Thanks to Caitlin, his vets Anna Wallace and Bill Ignacio (seriously amazing, those two and their team), and everyone who has cared for, pet, and loved Mango as much as I did. Thanks also to the Granville Island Vet Hospital for making a donation in Mango's name to the Pet Trust Fund, an organization that helps support learning, research, and health care at the Ontario Veterinary College.

European travels

Before Christmas, Elliot and I took the opportunity of living in London to do a bit of travelling. I don't think Europeans realize how lucky they have it. A 4-hour flight from London can get you to a serious handful of countries; the same flight from Vancouver doesn't even get you to Toronto!

Tivoli Gardens, the oldest amusement park in the world, in Copenhagen.

First, we went to Copenhagen, where we tested out Air B'n'B (a site where you can rent someone's apartment rather than staying in a hotel) with wonderful results. Our lovely apartment was in the Nørrebro area, which was great for getting to most areas of the city.

Swan chairs in the lobby of the Radisson Hotel Blu, completely designed (including interiors) by Arne Jacobsen. Room 606 is still in its original state and can be viewed by request if empty. Unfortunately, someone was staying there when we visited.

Vor Frelsers Kirke (Church of Our Saviour) in Christianshavn, with its amazing, famous corkscrew top.

Iconic buildings in Nyhavn, with plenty of bicycles lining the cobbles. 

Even though plenty of other cities in the world have colourful streets like this (Venice, San Francisco), they're still fun to see. 

Original Arne Jacobsen chairs at the Danish Design Museum. Jacobsen is basically a national hero.

Flagship store of one of my favourite interior design brands, Hay. I discovered the company at Vancouver Special, where I purchased one of its signature, impossible-to-clean-but-amazing Pinocchio rugs (below). 

Pinocchio rugs next to another personal favourite, the Eames elephant. I hope to buy one of these this year. 

Next, we took the train to Edinburgh, Scotland, then hopped on a "luxury" bus with about 30 excited Spanish visitors for an English/Scottish-Spanish wedding. We drove through massive sheets of wind and rain—what one newspaper called a "weather bomb"—to get to Inverlochy Castle. Passing huge trucks flipped onto their sides and dozens of trees ripped out of the ground (one actually tore the right-hand mirror off our coach!) was a bit unnerving.

Nevertheless, we got there and the wedding and castle (which we stayed in) were beautiful.

The lobby of Inverlochy Castle, where we were greeted with champagne and porters. 

It felt very Downton Abbey.

Blurry shot of what I wore to the wedding. 

All the ladies wore fascinators (mine was by Lilliput Hats) and my tartan dress was Luella Bartley for Target.

Finally, we took the Eurostar to Paris. 

We stayed with friends of Elliot's who work for Corteo, the travelling Cirque du Soleil show—Olga is the former gymnastics champion of Ukraine, and Joe is a very talented rigger who likes climbing high things. Their apartment was in the upscale Trocadero district in the 16th and it was only my second visit to Paris (the first was when I was about 14). It is definitely a very livable city....

The pinkest apartment you ever saw.

Snapshots taken at the Louvre.

À bientôt, Paris!