Rum, Nigella Lawson and Cake

Last Friday, I received an email from Jamie Oliver magazine that I won a rum tasting event in London. What a nice surprise! I was gonna be in London anyway, but for another reason (I'll get to it in a sec).

Wednesday, 13 October 2010
The Rum tasting took place in the trendy, Circus Bar in Soho. There were acrobatic, fire-eating, burlesque performances throughout the evening. Hot stuffs...

The tasting itself was conducted by a guy called Jamie (not Oliver) and he knows rum. Rum is not normally my drink of choice, cider is, but expensive booze for free? Why not. We tested few different kinds of rum, from the generic commercial one to the £500 a bottle one; and also two cocktails, Mojito which I love and Jamaican Mule, made with rum, ginger beer and lemon (I think. I wasn't thinking very clearly at that point) which was also very refreshing.

At the end of the event we all received a goody bag with more rum inside, a Jamie magazine and cookbook.

My friend and I stayed a little longer at the bar and ordered the dessert platter which you can see below. They are passion fruit panna cotta, raspberry ripple and white chocolate cheesecake, chocolate trio, banana bread with chocolate ice-cream, pineapple sorbet and black forest gateaux in a jar. Oh so delicious!


Thursday, 14 October 2010 (the day I turned 23)
So, the main reason I was in London was for a book-signing event with Nigella Lawson. How exciting! for me anyway. I absolutely love Nigella Lawson. She's like a member of the family I never had or my friend's very hot mom. I have yet come to a conclusion.

At exactly 5 pm, Nigella arrived at the book store and I had to pinch myself that it was really the domestic goddess. She was so beautiful. It wasn't long until it was my turn to speak to her. I told her how happy I was to meet her and how much I like the apple and mustard sauce from her latest book, Kitchen. Nigella signed my book and she wrote Happy Birthday....


In the evening I met up with my friends, Rani and Elisabeth for dinner. At the restaurant my friends surprised me with birthday cake. It is traditional to have candles on a birthday cake, but my friends decided to challenge that custom and put a portable torch/fireworks on the coffee and walnut cake. It felt somewhat special especially when everybody sang Happy Birthday to me.... however dangerous. If you're not covered by your insurance for burn damage, please do not try this at home. The torch took ages to burn out which gave me enough time to write my will on a napkin, just in case.

the cake, the torch, my will and a frightened smile :)

Thank you everyone for the birthday wishes on facebook or email. Yous all made my day.