We Live on Drury Lane

On our return from the Lake District, we moved to a new flat for the duration of our London stay, a modern one-bedroom flat on the ground floor of a block in Drury Lane, just one block west of the Royal Opera House, and around the corner from just about everything else, including one of our favorite restaurants, 32 Great Queen Street, and an excellent modern Indian restaurant, Moti Mahal.  (In fact, it is very likely that our flat's rear wall is adjacent to MM, or if not, the Prince of Wales pub next door.)

Everything is very modern in the flat, with high tech appliances from Zanussi that would be impossible to operate if I hadn't found the operating manuals on line.  The built-in convection oven seems more reliable than our oven on Bloomsbury Square, but the elegant hood above the stove top has no manual and no way to operate it.  (The oven will not work until the clock is set, and the automatic feature turned OFF.)

The kitchen and living room are all one unit, but quite spacious, and the flat screen television on the wall (there is another one in the bedroom) plays radio and TV, and music from our ipad, through the Airport Express connection R first set up in Bloomsbury Square.

The dishwasher is 3/4 size, and the refrigerator is also very small.  The freezer is very tiny, and there is only one microwave oven.

There is a decent array of cooking pots and implements, but we are glad to have our own batterie.  One could easily live here and not cook at all; there are restaurants and cafés and coffee shops and bars galore in the neighborhood.  There is also the Grand Lodge of the Masons, a hulking 1930s building to which dozens of men in black suits arrive every morning, carrying their secret regalia in bags or briefcases.  From our flat, we see nothing of this.

The view from the flat is onto this interior courtyard, around which are arrayed about 11-12 flats per floor. (Some look in, some look out onto Drury Lane or Wild Street.)

This Covent Garden neighborhood can be very noisy, as there are many bars with patrons spilling onto the pavements just outside our door, but inside is very quiet, except for the helicopter that circled all day last week because of a fire at Marconi House, and yesterday a flock of seagulls that kept circling in much the same way.

The time is growing short, and there are still restaurants to try, which compete for meals at home.  We went to 32 Great Queen Street on our arrival, and last week visited a Spanish-Moorish restaurant, Moro, over in the East, that has been highly recommended.  And following a great theatrical event, a revival of Arnold Wesker's "Chicken Soup and Barley" at the Royal Court, we had a post-theatre supper at St John Hotel, in the heart of Leicester Square.  This was the second time we had eaten there after the theater, and both times, by 10:30, the crowd was thinning out.  This time, though, the crowd included Fergus Henderson himself! He was dining with his family.  As other patrons left, they seemed to know him, and went up and thanked him and told him what they'd had for dinner.  We did not report to him, but we will do so here:  R had tripe and peas with pea shoots for a starter, and lamb's sweetbreads and butter beans for the main.  I had "terrine" for a starter, which was a delicious paté, and duck leg with carrots for the main.  The duck was tender and succulent, and the carrots were perfectly done.  The waiter talked us into dessert, somehow: we had stewed figs, custard, and fried honeycomb; and a custard tart.  Both were delicious but perhaps a bit de trop.
But we also had continuing ambitions to try out the new kitchen and continue to make the most of the Borough Market.  Our first meal in the new place, following Saturday's trip to the market, was halibut in parchment - except that we forgot the parchment at the old place, so used foil.  First, the "wild Scottish halibut," from the Furness Fish Market:

We planned to keep the halibut moist by making a butter with chervil, as in this action shot.

Next, we butter a piece of foil.

And place the fish on top, salting with Cornish sea salt. (Isn't that just a beautiful piece of fish?)

Smear the chervil butter on top.

And seal.

Meanwhile, we prepared some baby carrots and peas, and simmered them briefly separately and then together, while the fish is in the slow oven.  Potatoes are boiling off to the side.  This AEG ceramic stove top is much more sensitive than our electric cooker at Bloomsbury Square.

After about 10 minutes (10 minutes per inch), the fish is done, and the packet is opened!

Serve with the peas, carrots, and boiled Jersey Royal potatoes, for a royal housewarming dinner.

The wine was from our cache of two cases that we bought from Majestic  Wine Warehouse (delivered), just up Drury Lane from our flat.  This bulk order is much preferred to bringing home a bottle or two or three at a time from Waitrose (and Majestic sells only in minimums of 6).  With the halibut, a Muscadet sur Lie.