Category Archives: Social
Yosma
A TURKISH MEYHANE, MANGAL & RAKI BAR INSPIRED BY THE STREETS OF ISTANBUL.
I love Turkish food and eat it often; so it was an absolute delight to find a restaurant in Baker Street that doesn’t do generic Turkish food but excellent Turkish food with a twist. Every dish melted in the mouth from the bread and humous to the lamb dumplings. Even the salad was amazing. Mouthwatering, with excellent ingredients where I could taste the quality. This is a true find for Turkish cuisine. Beautifully presented and served with a smile. Easily the best Turkish inspired restaurant I have eaten at in London thus far.
Edith’s House N8
If you need cake; and let’s face it, at some time in life, even if you are savoury, you need cake, then look no further. Well if you are in North London look no further. Specifically Crouch End. White chocolate Scones and condiments like black pepper and raspberry? Whaaaaaat? Yes they do have more foodie stuff because a place can’t survive on flour alone, but if you crave the sweet Edith’s House is a treat.
Legends of the Martini – Royal Academy of Arts, London. Belvedere’s a winner.
Hello back room in the Royal Academy. This was a fun little surprise for an hour. This idea is based around an exhibition that’s just a room with a boards on it and some kind of guessing game about martinis. Whatever. You soon spot the giant martini glass you can sit in and have your photo taken in.
We were then taken to a table and intensely taught for one hour about martini making with Belvedere Vodka. And to my surprise it was great fun. And I learned something. You get to learn to say exactly how you like your martini – shaken or stirred – what parts you like in it (forgotten already) and taste different zests. It’s only on until the end of August and as a bit of something to do in what feels like hidden London, go do it. At the end you can buy a very strong martini. If you don’t drink, then don’ go. You won’t like it. Go at night, It feels like you are at a secret London party in a museum.
Serpentine Pavillion
I wouldn’t normally post something to say don’t bother, as I like to focus on the positive, but this is how they have made the new structure look on their website. I was very excited and planned a day around it.
And this is what it looks like. And I was VERY DISAPPOINTED. Spend money better elsewhere. I know art is down to the individual but one definitely worth missing. A big paper mache mess.
Castellammare Del Golfo – Sicily part one
The port at sunset
We landed in Palermo and were driven to Castellammare Del Golfo, a place we had randomly picked at the last-minute, from a Sicily promoting website that said it had a great beach and was just simply brilliant. Well it does have a beach, the size of someone’s living room. And even though it was tempting to put a towel down it was like the idea of sunbathing topless in a London park. Just not done. It’s a very pretty port, with literally a handful of restaurants and a town behind it, that looked quite cool even though no one was present in any of the towns we drove through. Everyone for the summer seems to be working on the beach so if you want to drive through little towns at this time of year to discover a hidden world, Don’t.
A port with a view
We thought that we had made a terrible mistake but I have to say that the people in the Hotel Cala Marina that we stayed in could not have been nicer to us if they tried. All of them were genuinely warm and helpful. It’s worth mentioning that if you don’t have a car than book taxi’s ahead, as you will need them, unless you like to cycle. We are glad we didn’t do air b n b on this occasion as we would have been stuck. If you are driving the roads are really good and though mountainous they do have rails on the sides.
When they attempted to sell us the discount voucher for the restaurant next door but onem that had excellent seafood, I met their eyes with the usual traveller’s suspicion. But we were tired so we walked all of the one minute to the restaurant and sat outside staring at the parked boats. We ate and I have to say it was the best meal we had in the four days, amazing seafood and pistachio prawn pasta (which we had three more times in different restaurants in a bit of an obsessive way.)
Sunbathing in the storm.
When everyone goes on holiday they expect it to be sunny but it wasn’t. So we went to the beach and sat in the café praying that the sand storm going into our beer and tapas wasn’t actually happening. When the huge plant fell over for the third time even though they had tied it to the barrier, we did what anyone else on holiday would do. We walked to the shore, sat protected from the rain under the umbrella and carried on.
Manhattan Hotel Bars
No Diving unless you are a tadpole.
OK not the best photo but I had to take a sneaky photo of the pool on the roof top of Jimmy’s Bar in The James Hotel in Manhattan. It is the size of a pond and as shallow as a puddle so I’m glad they put the No Diving because you know. we were all wondering there for at least two seconds.
Now I’m a bit of a hotel bar slag. I love a good cocktail but, Manhattan your service and clientele are disappointing me. Jimmy’s bar had so many questions to get into the place from security I thought I was going through customs again. And surprise surprise, there weren’t that many people upstairs; and neither it seems was a waitress. Oh wait there was one but just not one for us. In fact I’m not sure who she served. One barman on and one man behind him with not much to do but shuffle lemons place to place and look at the floor with a face saying please don’t ask me anything. Getting a drink felt like an eternity
The seats outside by the pond are park benches. Yes the view is great. That is all that is. Google images make it look a lot better which is why I put my rank photo.
Taken from their site so it will look good
The Thomson hotel well that one was even worse. After looking nervously at a very vexed security guard to again get up stairs and feeling like you are dealing with a headmaster we got sent to the top floor only to be sent back down for half hour to the middle bar where the DJ, who did look amazing, decided she would like to play the music really loudly whilst attempting to ‘scratch’ the records. Painful to all involved. Again service pretty dismal.
We made it to the top and these seats are much comfier and the place more relaxed and chilled. Service was much better. However who you get to sit next to is roulette. You’d think if you wanted a private conversation you wouldn’t bother with others listening, but no. We got to listen in on a guy introducing his boyfriend to his very straight parents whilst the boyfriend said the classic line. It’s not just women who have a biological clock, I do too…. I almost spat my drink out at this point. After they moved we thought hurrah and then got the drunk couple making out. Fail….
Taken from their site and looks better than this
But there is a winner and no it may not have a rooftop but for great service and excellent cocktails and that’s the Crosby Street Hotel. We had someone come over and say they could make us anything we wanted. They put food on the table, they smiled without willing us to curl up and die. They genuinely wanted us there. Bar Staff and any Waitresses. Best cocktails, best atmosphere. Only moan is the bathroom is a mile away.And even though these bars are expensive, best priced. I had an espresso Martini. Delicious. I have been there about three times since. So nice to find a place where the staff don’t think they are more important then the customers.
Las Vegas – Days 49 -52
Welcome to the money pit.
The first thing that hits is that New York To Vegas on a flight is a five and a half hour trip. I could almost me back in London by then. The flight was a lot of fun though. It was a real mixture of people but I enjoyed mainly listening to the guys behind me who were drunk trying to chat up the non interested girl sitting between them whilst randomly shouting out ‘Yeah! Vegas!’.
The guy next to me was irritating as he didn’t understand the meaning of personal space. His lanky arms were knocking me the whole time and I had to give him a look of ‘go to hell’ at which he apologised but continued all the same. I stared out the window and as the landscape of the everlasting desert hit my eyes I thought this is one place where there really is nowhere for miles and if we crash landed we would be truly screwed.
When we landed a couple of people clapped. Why on earth do people do that? It was a terrible bumpy landing that felt it was like the pilot’s first time. That or he had been on the Vegas juice himself. The comedians behind me commented loudly at the two passengers clapping ‘ worst landing ever.’
So off the Wynn hotel to meet my parents who are bigger party goers than me. Vegas was having a heat wave but who would have known that? Everyone was in, playing the computer games that take your money; my-self included. When I did win all of twenty bucks I felt terribly embarrassed as the noises of what is similar to a fire alarm went off. I’m terribly English and people are looking. Shush machine, shush. The volume was down from then on.
Hey Everyone come play me lots of love Dolly.
Walking past the nightclubs I did want to point out to some of the young ladies who weren’t hookers that maybe that dress really didn’t fit them. Go a size up – I wanted to say. It will flatter you more. Maybe actually four sizes up. What could I say though ? I spent most of my time eating in amazing restaurants and drinking for free at the machines.
I’ve been a few times to Vegas and so didn’t go to see the shows. I’d always recommend ‘O’ in the Bellagio as the best one. I joined the masses throwing money away in the name of fun but I guess that’s what we used to do as kids on arcades just perhaps on a larger scale.
Philadelphia and New York – Days 42 to 48
After recovering for a few days from Road Trip a friend and I took a long hot drive to Philadelphia because my favourite sandwich is a Philly Cheese Steak and why not have it in Philly? So he very kindly drove us the three hours – I had in my head it took an hour and a half. We stopped along the way where I was introduced to Cinnabon which has massive cakes that look like deep filled chicken pie. I couldn’t do it, I had to choose the cheese steak there was too much riding on it.
Two rivals opposite each other Pats and Genos. We went to the one with the bigger queue which was Pats. The pressure was on to make sure the order was correct. It seems there is an etiquette as to how to order and how to get it right. The sandwich did not disappoint and was demolished probably a bit too quickly. The kind of quick where you sit wondering just how loud your stomach can get digesting. Within half hour we were back on the road. Five hours of driving for a sandwich, crazy I know. But there wasn’t anything else to see in Philly on that baking hot day bar a wall with some street art so we left.
My favourite restaurant in Manhattan is Stanton Social on the lower East side. It’s a place that does Tapas style food and Beauty and Essex is the sister restaurant around the corner. They are a little bit up themselves in there unlike Stanton and so are the clientele. I don’t like it really if the person asking you if you would like a drink is looking at you like a bored soon to be ex.
I don’t know if it’s a one-off or standard but in the ladies bathroom separated in a changing area they give away free champagne. I delighted in taking this offering (tipping of course) and watching the look of amusement on my friends faces as they waited to get served and I swanned upstairs with a glass of bubbly. Why we didn’t just traipse up and down all night I do not know. The waitress wouldn’t have noticed.
Later in the week, I walked the Highline which apparently on, online dating is the equivalent of going to Borough Market in London, as in everyone does it. It’s alright; kind of cool to see the city from a height, but not that mind-blowing however to walk on some concrete at a height. If I had gone on a date there I would have been pissed right off.
But New York had to have a quick goodbye for a couple of weeks after that as I made the next journey to Vegas, Miami and Tampa Bay once more.
worldwideattitude 