Day 6: It’s Grinchmas Time!

If you are ever in London, I highly recommend Brigit’s Bakery tours. We went to their normal afernoon tea bus ride last summer, but since it was December, we decided to do their “Grinchmas” Afternoon Tea Tour today. What amazes me about this experience is how good the afternoon tea and service actually is, when it is all served while on a double-decker bus tour of London. For this experience, the seats were covered in Grinch green fur and the treats were all Christmas and Grinch themed. Christmas music was playing and you had the option of coffee or tea served in a take home Grinch themed coffee mug. Not your normal tea cup, but hey you are on a bus moving around town while trying to drink our tea! Just a really fun way to see the city.

Next up, we headed to Fortnum and Mason. William Fortnum was a footman in the household of Queen Anne. The royal family's insistence on having new candles every night resulted in large amounts of half-used wax, which Fortnum promptly resold. Fortnum also had a side business as a grocer. He convinced his landlord, Hugh Mason, to be his associate, and they founded the first Fortnum & Mason store in Mason's small shop at St James's Market in 1707 (per Wikipedia). In 1951, it was purchased by Canadian businessman W. Garfield Weston and is currently run by two of his granddaughters. The store itself is not on the same scale as Harrod’s, but it has the same luxury feel. We went to pick up some biscuits that were also featured on Somebody Feed Phil - London edition. We enjoyed looking around and doing a little shopping at this iconic store.

We decided to walk our way back to Covent Garden and our route took us past Buckingham Palace, so we had to take some photos there, although there was not much to see. We stopped at few shops and pubs along the way as strolled down London’s various streets. In a short time, Jimm already knows his way around without a map for the most part and we feel really comfortable with the area. London is definitely one of our favorite cities.

For dinner tonight, we decided to go to Din Tai Fung in Covent Garden. Din Tai Fung is a Taiwanese restaurant famous for its xai long bao. Based in Taipei, Taiwan, Din Tai Fung also has branches in Australia, Mainland China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Macau, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States. I visited my first Din Tai Fung in Shanghai, China while on a business trip. I fell in love with the xai long bao or what is also commonly referred to as “soup dumplings.” When I saw they had a restaurant here, I had to add it to our itinerary. It did not disappoint! I really need to learn how to make these. They are just one of my favorite Asian dishes. Great end to the day.

For more photos of our London trip you can click on this link.