Chocolate

Ages since my last update - sorry about that. You know how it is.

Last night I went into London to see More Chocology, a talk about chocolate at the Royal Institution. It always feels quite special hearing lectures there (they always start with a little history about the building... 'almost everything was invented here', or words to that effect), and the two speakers were fascinating. The first guy, Dr Patrick Couzens, works for Nestle (although I didn't hold that against him) and talked about the practical side of making chocolate and the chemistry behind it. The other speaker was Sara Jayne Stanes from the Academy of Chocolate who talked us through a tasting of chocolates from Amedei. The chocolate was absolutely fantastic :) Pricey though! (the 'Chuao' was recently voted the best chocolate in the world, and I agree with that assessment, I have to say).

After the lecture at the RI we went to the Sanderson Hotel (the 'hippest hotel in the world' no less, according to GQ) for chocolate cocktails. It's a funny place - I did wonder if all of the curtains everywhere might be a fire hazard - you just need a Labour politician to go in there and bye-bye hotel. Anyway, the bar was full of hip people busy being hip, as was expected. At least there was an area outside in a courtyard where you could escape them.

After that we went off in search of sushi. We ended-up at the Tokyo Diner, just off Chinatown. I really liked this place - cheap but good food and good value. It's also open until midnight which is why we went there in the first place - our regular sushi choices had closed by then.