Monthly Archives: June 2011

Lord of the Flies

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I’d been very worried that the weather would ruin our evening at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre tonight but thankfully we arrived at the park to this …

… and thankfully conditions stayed pretty much like that for the rest of the evening.

The Open Air Theatre was a very fitting venue for tonight’s Lord of the Flies theatre performance. The outdoor element of the theatre really emphasised the island feel and though I couldn’t quite say that I felt like I was only the island with them (we were sitting too far away for that! Side note: Great tapering on the seats!) it certainly felt like we were perhaps sitting on a boat not too far from shore. Heh heh.

The set was quite awesome to be honest. They’d even dragged on what seemed like to be the back part of the plane but could have equally been a cleverly built set. I love the luggage strewn all over the ground and clothes up in the trees. And for a set which really couldn’t take too much the production crew did well to transport us from one part of the island to another with just a few changes in the scenery and where the cast members were standing.

Most people are pretty familiar with the story behind Lord of the Flies and it’s a rare person (Laney being one of them!) who has neither studied the book at school nor seen any of the film adaptations with the 1990 version starring Balthazar Getty being the most recent. In contrast with Laney I both studied and the book and saw the movie! The basic story is that a group of British school boys are stranded on a deserted island who have to learn to survive, and more importantly, learn to govern themselves. It’s a commentary on human nature and the effect of selfishness versus the greater good. The dark themes are strong in this one.

There was some very decent character acting by the kids who displayed a certain amount of maturity in their acting that I was quite surprised by. The play is also very physical requiring the young actors to run and leap absolutely everywhere. And they all handled it with aplomb. The other unexpected element of the play was the number of musical scenes which involved much music, dancing and chanting. Along with the lighting it really added to the menacing tone over the overall play. Very well choreographed.

An all around fantastic evening of theatre.

Butley

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I’ve never saw the hugely popular tv show The Wire, but knew enough of it to recognise lead Dominic West. When I saw he was going to be in a play on West End of course I jumped at the chance to go see it – without even reading what the play was about! Rehana was my willing accomplice.

Butley is revival of a play from the 1970s about an alcoholic English lecturer Butley, played by West, who loses his wife, and as we find out later, his male lover in the same day. He is both a bully and a coward, self-destructive, hypocritical and yet strangely charming. I couldn’t help be lured in by West’s energetic and lunacy! Seriously.

Centering around an English lecturer the play is very very wordy so you can’t check your brain at the door. I think it kind of helps if you had studied some English literature as there are many references during the play to various pieces. There must have been some English teachers or professors in the crowd tonight because there were certainly some rather outrageous and over the top laughter at particular moments that you suspect were insider joke moments.

The cast was very impressive and everyone really embraced his or her character. West and his timid male “lover”, played by Martin Hutson. The play itself was incredibly witty but as I said you have to concentrate to make sure you catch everything.

Overall an entertaining evening all around.

Grand Imperial Yum Cha

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Avoid Grand Imperial Yum Cha at all costs! Laney and I had been told by a friend that this new restaurant at Victoria had an all you could eat offer on their yum cha on Sundays. We arrived disappointed to find that this wasn’t offered to us and, after looking at the prices, we were too embarrassed to even broach the topic with our waitstaff – tea, for a start, was priced at £4.00 per person (!) and dim sum dishes started at about £4.00 (on average they should start at £2.50ish!) Hilariously I don’t think I’ve ever had quite a large teapot for my Chinese tea before. I could barely lift it!

Deep Fried Ice Cream was intriguing at £6.00 (on the menu outside) but a total turn off when we looked at the menu inside and it had jumped to £8.00! Oh boy. Anyway, we had made our reservation and now had to eat it. The Grand Imperial is attached to the Thistle Hotel just outside Victoria station so it couldn’t really be in a more convenient spot. You’d think we would have been wary of a restaurant attached to a hotel but to be honest there are so many restaurants attached to hotels in London that I didn’t even think about it. No doubt about it Grand Imperial certainly looks the business – high ceilings, black lacquer tables and chairs, chandeliers, and embossed serviettes but did it deliver on food?

I actually had Grand Imperial down on my to-eat list, but that was from the regular dinner menu. My mistake for thinking that just because that menu sounded good the yum cha would be good too! At the prices we were being charged I was expecting something spectacular – plain and regular was what we got instead. And tiny! Our steamed prawn dumplings (priced at £4.80) was absolutely miniature (that I didn’t even bother taking a photo) as was the steamed pork bun. Two staple dishes done very disappointingly.

And our Prawn Cheung Fung seemed to have had a third cut off! The only highlight was the Pan-Fried Foie Gras and Beef Dumpling (3 for £4.20), which was actually quite delicious, in an otherwise ordinary meal.

Since we had our wallets out we also opted for the Chocolate Dim Sum “Platter”. Don’t be deceived – it was a mere four pieces of various different chocolate dim sum: Canton Cracker, Coconut Delight Pumpkin Bundle, and Cashew Crescent for £6. Pretty is about as positive I can be about this platter.

I don’t think I’ve ever walked away from a yum cha meal quite so hungry. Still, there are good reviews out there for this restaurant so I’m willing to give it another chance to see if their other food does the reviews justice.

Plateau – The Restaurant

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The beautiful thing about Plateau are the floor to ceiling windows with views over Canada Square Park. Two and a half years ago a visit to the Grill half of Plateau with Sandra got us views over the ice-rink, tonight with Jenny we had views over the British Heart Foundation Canary Wharf Jog – quite a site to watch the runners run their laps … as we sat in the comfort of the restaurant eating our fine, rich food!

Later on there was also a band … though it was a bit sad that only three people were watching / jiving!

Plateau is very trendy in that city way – it even has gambling chip type coat check tags just for fun. As I mentioned Jenny and I dined in the restaurant section of the venue where the a la carte menu was a lot more intriguing than the set menu. However, the manager was still happy to comp us our aperitif which was very nice of him! In fact service tonight was superb – the waitstaff were engaging (they actually seemed interested in making conversation with us – even to the extent of making teasing comments like saying the truffled mac was simply too good to share), impressively they brought over spare plates so that we could share starters and desserts even though we hadn’t asked for them and they didn’t try to push us out of the restaurant once we were done. Admittedly on this last point they weren’t hugely busy but it was still nice to be allowed to sit there and chat even with nothing on the table.

And the food! This was absolutely gorgeous. Fresh and warmed and served with yummy butter (I think that’s part of the reason why I was so full even after only two courses …) For a starter I was enticed by the English parsley risotto, sauté of snails with garlic butter. I’m not entirely sure what the dark sauce was on the plate but it was quite delicious and just on the right side of well-seasoned. Jenny passed on starters to finish with dessert.

For our mains it was Seared fillet of sea bream, aubergine caviar (interesting), slow cooked onions and peppers for Jenny and I simply could not go past the Poached and roast corn fed chicken, truffled macaroni, baby leeks, jus gras. Yes – it was definitely the truffled mac which made me choose this dish. Would have been a tough call had pork belly been on the a la carte menu! The corn fed chicken was perfectly tender and juicy and the truffled mac – do I need to say anymore!

To finish Jenny had a beautiful Warm bitter chocolate tart (more chocolate fondant than tart), kalamansi sorbet (yay for a Filipino fruit) and Oreo cookie crumb. Even I was intrigued by this dessert … shame I was too full to indulge!

If Plateau was more centrally located (I was over Canary Wharf side to visit Jenny at her new workplace) I would definitely eat there more often. Guess I’ll just have to satisfy myself to occasional treats!