Dinner and Breakfast at the Urban Brasserie

 

At the end of the last blog post you left us at 6.10pm while we settled in to our room before heading down to dinner. Having washed and refreshed ourselves we headed down for food at 7pm.

Dinner at Urban Brasserie

The restaurant on the ground floor of the Crowne Plaza Hotel is called the Urban Brasserie, I'm not sure why, as its eclectic menu doesn't seem very urban or brasserieish, but was perfectly fine for what we wanted. 

Drew started with a Beetroot and Goat Cheese Salad, he was very pleased with it. It has a very subtle beetroot flavour which added an acidic tang to the salad – all rounded out by the creamy goat’s cheese and with added sharpness from the Balsamic Vinegar.

I opted for the Hot and Spicy Chicken Wings. While they were perfectly well cooked they used some less regular parts of the chicken, unusually there was plenty of thigh as well as wing (as it happens I'm partial to a nice bit of thigh). The chicken was perfectly cooked and the batter was more of the Louisianan style batter you see on shrimp and chicken in that state, rather than the soggier version that often accompanies the New York state batter which, in Buffalo, New York has given them there alternative name of Buffalo Wings. Again, this suited me perfectly as I like a light, dry batter, rather than the greasier form. So, I was very happy with this juicy, delicious, if not very spicy delight. The blue cheese dressing was less chunky than a US version would be, but had all the appropriate flavours. The dish was also served with a pleasant, and unexpected, salad, which was very welcome.

For mains Drew had a Hyderabadi Chicken Biryani, this was a generous portion, also served with a lovely salad, which hadn't appeared on the menu. Drew reports that the level of spices weren’t over the top, but was that they were very clearly present and pleasant. The chicken was soft, well cooked and well mixed with the rice, herbs and spices. The overall portion size was, in his word, excellent. Which is high praise indeed from a Drew!

I opted for a Murgh Makhani which had juicy chunks of tandoori chicken in a tangy lightly spiced tomato and cashew sauce. This was served with a tasty rice dish with cumin seeds and coriander seeds running through it, tasty on its own, and even tastier when drizzled with the tomato curry. This was all served with plenty of delicious naan bread and, yet again, a well dressed salad, I say well dressed as the tangy vinegar was present through the crisp salad, but didn't overpower any of the vegetables, very well done.

Not knowing that each course was being served with a salad I'd been worried about not getting enough greens in my meal, so I had ordered the Garlic Tossed Broccoli. While it wasn't necessary, it didn't get wasted, as we both loved the subtle garlic flavour, and little chunks of garlic that was mixed into the leaves. 

We decided against dessert and finished dinner at 9.20pm and headed back to the room, did our ablutions and got to bed at 10pm.

Early Morning

Like the night before, I awoke, bright eyed and bushy tailed, as they say, at 3am. I got up and began the blog I posted earlier today. I then did a bit of accounting on the Australian Holiday Finance spreadsheet - all expenditure since the meal on Wednesday night comes out of the holiday budget, so needs to be accounted for in a detailed manner. [Co-pilot's note: And he means, DETAILED, dear reader. A very detailed manner, as becomes someone who is completely retentive.]

At 4.30am Drew began to wake up and I used the kettle in the room to make a cup of English Breakfast tea for both of us. 

From 5am I began the brushing teeth, shave, shower ritual and Drew followed me once I was finished. People who have been following these blogs for years will know my strong opinions on showers, especially American ones which tend to be static and not good at getting to parts which are shaded by a belly, especially important in the past when my belly was four or five times bigger than now. You'll be glad to know the shower in the Crowne Plaza was excellent, with both a static and a removable showerhead, the best mix to my mind.

Breakfast

In spite of us telling each other we were not going to be at breakfast to early, given our experience of queuing outside the restaurant in Brussels last year, we left the room at 5.50am and arrived at the restaurant at 5.56am, four minutes before it opens at 6am!

At 6am prompt the lights went on and the six of us, who had formed an orderly queue outside, were let in. 

We decided that we'd have a good breakfast to set us up for the travel ahead. Drew's first course was Blue Cheese, Manchego, cooked ham and sourdough bread with an orange juice

I at this point, pretended to be healthy and opted for Watermelon, Pineapple, sunflower seeds and pine nuts with a greek yoghurt.

For his second course Drew went with cumberland sausages, back bacon, hash browns, fried egg, fried tomato, fried mushrooms and black pudding.

I, giving up on the healthy pretense, we're on holiday after all!! Went with pastrami, smoked ham, peppered smoked mackerel, stilton, manchego and goat's cheese

Drew completed his meal with some lovely little sweet bites: Chocolate Danish and Raisin Danish followed by Chocolate Muffin.

While Drew was having that I went completely off the healthy eating kick and had Cumberland sausages, Back Bacon, Fried Egg, Black Pudding and Mushrooms.

And very yummy it all was too.

Terminal 3

Having gone back to the room for an hour and re-packing the items we had used overnight we Left the hotel at 8.11am to walk along the tunnel (which calls itself a bridge) to the terminal 

then down the lift to the Elizabeth Line. We collect our free tickets 

and catch the 8.30am train to Abbey Wood, only going as far as Terminal 3 for us, we arrived at 8.40am. 

At 8.45am we were at the bag drop, having checked in online yesterday. We were told to go through fast track boarding, a benefit of travelling Business Class and wow was it fast. We were through the security checks by 8.55am - thankfully, for the first time in years, we did not have to remove our electronic equipment from our bags, only remove fluids (we had none) and empty our pockets (into our jacket pockets in our case). I went straight through the scanner, Drew had to be checked on a different type of scanner as he set the first one off (he claims its his magnetic personality),  

So we arrived in the Qantas Lounge at 9.05am where, if we hadn't had enough breakfast, we could have some more. We stayed with the flavoured waters (Orange and Camomile water is nicer than it sounds!) and coffee.

Now, at 10.50am, we are waiting for boarding to start at 11.10am and we'll be in silence for some time, as the flight ahead is 16 hours and 45 minutes. i.e. we take off at 11.50am London time on Friday and land at 11.40am Perth time on Saturday. So it will be at least 24 hours, and possibly more, before the next post. See you all on the other side of the world!!