Luncheons on the Thames

Another long (four-day) weekend, with brilliant weather -- sunny and COOL.  And something to celebrate, of our own.  So on Saturday, we booked for lunch at the River Cafe, that pioneering Italian restaurant in Hammersmith, on the Thames.   We couldn't have predicted it when we booked, but the day was sunny and dry, and so we opted to dine on the terrace, amidst the flowers, herbs, and vegetables they are growing for the kitchen.  Children of guests played in the sunken garden in the middle of the terrace.

We started off with the cocktail of the day, Rossinis (crushed strawberries and Prosecco) while we perused the menu. Everything looked great, although the prices were astronomical.  We decided to skip the antipasti, and move straight to the primi.  R. had fettucine with white asparagus, which was perfect, the asparagus full of flavor, the sauce delicate.  I had spaghetti con vongole, shelled tender clams which also included some pieces of tomato and agretti, also known as monk's beard and marsh grass, a long thin green vegetable that grows near the sea, and is salty and tangy.  Its season, like wild garlic, is a short one.    (Looking at the sample menus to figure out what this was called, I realize how absolutely seasonal are the ingredients used at the River Cafe.)
For the main course, R had a whole (small) Dover sole, and caramelized hearts of trevise, a vegetable we saw a couple of times at the Borough Market but which has disappeared now that we found a recipe we wanted to try.  The sole was baked to perfection, easy to bone, and very easy on the palate.  The sauce -- meat juice? -- was mysterious but ravishing.

I had a piece of wild Scottish salmon that had been baked whole in a salt crust, served room temperature with an aiolli sauce.  Again, the fish was cooked to perfection, tender, firm, flavorful.  The vegetable accompaniment was sauteed Italian spinach (some of which grows in the garden there), sauteed peas, and sauteed mache.  (The peas were greener than they look here!)

The wine was a Tocai Fruiliano from Schiopetto.
We couldn't pass up dessert on such a lovely day.  Many wonderful gelati and sorbets to choose from, but we went with classics: lemon tart and chocolate, hazelnut, and espresso cake.  We didn't need to eat anything the rest of the day, and we didn't!

Our plan for either Sunday or Monday, depending on the weather, was to rent bikes in Putney and ride a ways down the National Cycle Route 4, through Richmond Park to Hampton Court and maybe beyond. The day was another sunny one, cool, and with a brisk wind, so we headed off on the Piccadilly Line to Putney Bridge and across the Thames to get to the Putney Cycles bike shop just as it opened at 10.  We rented two Giant mountain bikes, which would have been fine if R's seat had stayed at its intended height.  Unfortunately, it sagged as we were climbing up Henry's Mound (a.k.a. heartbreak hill to us) in Richmond Park, and the rest of the ride was not optimal.  All around us were serious Sunday cyclists in all manner of kit.  With its hills (hills in London? Just like Hampstead and Highgate) and long straight roads, Richmond Park is quite the cyclist's destination.  We negotiated the "peak," from which the whole of London to the east can be seen, and coasted down the other side, coming out in Kingston, and crossing the river there.  We then followed the Thames path around the southern part of Hampton, stopping for a peek at the Tudor facade.

We had the feeling that the wind was at our back most of the way, so we were worried that our return trip would be more difficult (unlike the Canal du Midi, when we fought the wind going out, and coasted coming back).  We were hoping to find a nice riverside cafe, something less congested and more scenic than the franchise restaurants across the bridge in Hampton, so we kept going down the river.  The path was lovely:  there were swans on the water and birds in the bushes along the way; sometimes more people, sometimes less, sometimes none, on the path.  The fancy cyclists had gone elsewhere - too much pedestrian traffic here, and the trail was not paved. Many cyclists like us.   Lots of boats -- cruisers, canal boats, row boats, sculls.  But no sign of a cafe.  At Sunbury Lock we were beginning to despair and thought about either turning back or exploring a dead looking village across the river, but a local walker told another inquiring cyclist that there was a hotel/pub just a few minutes further up.  This turned out to be The Weir, in Walton-on-Thames, which had a lovely courtyard overlooking the channel of the river leading to the lock.  A lot of cyclists and others were already there, but we managed to order before the crush.

Here is the hotel proper.

The atmosphere was great, and we sat down gratefully with our pints of ale, waiting for the food to be served.  We ordered steak and ale pie (below), and chicken and mushroom pie.  Classic pub fare, classically ordinary.  But the location couldn't be beaten.

On the return trip, we rode through the middle of Hampton Court's park, stopping for a quick look at the rose garden and detouring through the park past the maze, and back through the village of Ham to Richmond Park, taking a different (less steep but still facing strong winds) route through the park.  There are huge herds of tame deer throughout, horseback riders, pedestrians with dogs, and the riders in their spandex were still here in force five hours later.  We made a little better time back to Putney because I wasn't stopping to check the map every half kilometer.  (It was good we had a map! Thanks, bike shop.) The riding along town streets, behind and in front of buses, was less scary in reality than it has appeared looking from the sidewalk in Bloomsbury Square.  At one point, I realized there was a huge bus right behind me approaching a bus stop; and I wasn't going very fast.  It didn't hit me!  Were we less cautious because we had opted for helmets?  There are bike lanes on selected streets, especially those designated as part of National Cycle Way 4.  We negotiated the buses, the lights, the right turns, and the traffic circles, and made it back to the cycle shop at about 3:30, a little worse for the wear.  But it was glorious!