It happened again. This time last year, I remember waking up, frothing at the mouth excited like someone was giving me a puppy wrapped in a ticket to Vegas on Christmas morning. But it wasn’t Christmas and there was no puppy. A ticket to Vegas did come eventually, but that’s not the story. The story goes that this time last year, I was so eager to get to Taste of London that I made Panu run to the event.
For realz.
And this time this year (well, this time yesterday to be precise), I did the same. Wide eyed and bushy eyebrowed, I jumped out of bed at 9am only to realise that the event, it doesn’t start for another three hours and now I’m all like excited and stuff and thinking about big fat juicy scallops and gah! I’m never gonna get back to sleep 
I occupied myself with tedious house cleaning. Time passes, so slowly. The Righteous Brothers were ‘right-yes’ indeed. Ha. Yeeeaah.
Ok ok, I know I’m not funny at all.
Anyway. Scallops. Craving. Needs to be satisfied. We get to the festival and I wandered around and checked out all the stalls that sold scallops this year and here’s the thing ~ maybe it’s pretty or something but why serve them on the half shell? In case you guys didn’t notice, I can’t eat the half shell! But you’re still charging me for it? Interesting.
I moved along until I found someone who served scallops off the shell so instead of getting just one scallop on a half shell hey guess what? I get three! Asia de Cuba, rock on.
With scallops safely in my belly and the little monster catty somewhat subdued, we started our journey through the festival with crowns in hand and a plan to consume.
Here are some of the other very delicious dishes:
Yauatcha: spicy chicken wonton dumplings
Better than I expected from Yauatcha. Not normally a fan but this could change everything.
Tom’s Kitchen: 7-hour confit lamb with balsamic onions and mash
Ugliest dish of the day. Favourite dish of the day. SO. GOOD.
Launceston Place: spit roast Old Spot suckling pig and black summer truffles
Why did they ruin the suckling pig by making it into a faux-burger? Pig was scrumptious.
Salt Yard: courgette flowers stuffed with goats cheese and drizzled with honey
Aside from the scallops, this was the only other thing on my radar today and it did not fail to impress. What was unimpressive was my hair getting in the honey and sticking to my face. I is classy, aiight.
Tukdin: chicken satay with cucumber, salad onion and rice cubes
Pretty darn good, says the Malaysian in me. I inhaled it pretty quick though because I was hot on the tail of some girl handing out free nonya kuehs!
Gaucho: Argentine black angus sirloin served with humitas chimichurri
Chimi-what?! Oh I know we are meant to be boycotting Gaucho but really, the scent of meat coming from their counter was far too hypnotic and before we knew it we had a piece of sirloin in our hands and I have to say, it was rather scrumptious.
Oh and that chimi thing? It was corn all mushed up, served wrapped in something. I know, I’m real technical.
Bentley’s: smoked salmon
They’re as creative with their dishes as they are with the names of the dishes.
Dinings: chilli garlic black cod
I had this last year. And this year. And at least twice in between. One of my favourite London restaurants and why is their website down???
The Cinnamon Club: lassi pannacotta with Alfonso mango salad
Also served with a basil mousse, this dessert hit the spot. But just to be sure, I hit the spot again with a Bea’s of Bloomsbury red velvet cupcake on the way out
Another successful event. A happy catty. So happy in fact that I rolled myself to Selfridges to check out their summer sale and hi, meet the two new additions to my wardrobe:
Ted Baker’s jersey biker jacket on sale for £90 and All Saints Belvedere leather jacket not on sale and I’m not saying how much because my mother reads this blog.
ps. ok told a little while lie, I actually bought the All Saints one last week… remember this?
pps. that is not me in the photo with the Ted Baker jacket. If only my arms were half as lanky as that.
ppps. I thought there were way too many alcohol stalls at Taste of London this year. Maybe I’m just a party pooper but they were taking up precious food space man!