London Film Festival returns

Next month sees the return of the London Film Festival, BFI's 57th one! 

I've been attending for the past few years since I became a BFI member. Due to money constraints, I normally can only attend a few screenings (the prices are higher than normal), and after choosing to see 'Once Upon A Time In Anatolia' on a whim a few years ago and subsequently been quietly blown away, I try and book for films I wouldn't probably see on general release. 

So this year, after some booking issues, I've decided on:

Ladder to Damascus

Ilo Ilo

and the much talked about Blue Is The Warmest Colour

Pasta adventures

Last week, I made pasta for the first time. I had acquired a ravioli mould from a vintage market in Bristol the weekend before, so set out to make ravioli. 

I had also received the book 'Italian Food' by Elizabeth David as a present earlier this year, so I found a recipe in there to get started with. First published in 1954, David was the first chef to really bring Italian food and cooking to the British public. I also really like the look of The Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking - it has pictures for a start - but I already have several cookbooks that aren't as well thumbed as I'd like. 

I decided to use the cheese mixture from David's ravioli caprese recipe - essentially lots of parmesan and gruyere (in absence of some caprese goats cheese or something) with some eggs and seasoning (nutmeg, marjoram, salt and pepper). In this recipe, it mentions that some believe basil to be a foreign interpretation of Italian spices, and that you should only use marjoram. David doesn't make a firm stand on this but I decided to use just marjoram, partly because I had never used it before! She suggested using a different pasta recipe for this ravioli but I decided to use the standard one (taken from her tagliatelle recipe) - apparently it's harder.

David suggested using unbleached all purpose flour, I bought the special pasta flour '00' (Italians grade their flour differently to us, '00' means the whitest flour). 

I'm generally not keen on rolling out pastry so did struggle rolling out the pasta flour. And post-cooking, we thought perhaps we hadn't rolled it thin enough as it was a bit more al dente than anticipated. 

Our first batch was perhaps a little too full of cheese mixture so it was harder to seal the parcels, but most turned out pretty well and the cheese mixture was very yummy when all melted.

Flour is just about big enough for mould

Adding the cheese mixture

Waiting to be cooked

Open House Weekend

This weekend sees the return of the annual Open House Festival in London, where over 800 buildings and properties of architectural note open the doors for free, some are not usually open to the public, some are usually paid for and some put on special tours, etc so it's a brilliant event. 

Since the event caught my attention a few years ago, this year will be the first time I can actually attend. The amount of buildings involved is very extensive, so you really need to know what you're looking for. 

I have managed to book myself onto special tours of Lambeth Palace (never been) and Horniman (haven't been since I was a child). Around these pre-booked tours, I'm hoping to go to Battersea Power Station, Trellick Tower, Stoneleigh Terrace, Freemasons' Hall, 17B Ainsworth Way - like most of the buildings, they are first come, first served so I probably won't be able to manage them all. 

Battersea Power Station 

Trellick Tower

Freemason's Hall

Get planning!

Scrapbooking

I had a day off this week, and intended to start sorting out our cellar - since we moved in, it has become a little like Monica's mess room in Friends. 

My friend had bought me a lovely scrapbook for my birthday, so I thought I'd make my first scrapbook. I keep tickets and mementoes from holidays and activities so there is finally a real use for them! 

I kept so much during uni that I couldn't face starting there so I began with 2008, the year after I finished university. I've done up to 2012 and hopefully can fit some of 2013 in there. 

It took an surprising amount of time to sort this all and stick in. The cellar looks marginally better. 

Now for the next scrapbook...

Urban wanderings

A few weekends ago, we took the opportunity to do some London exploration before the end of summer.

On Saturday, we took the train from London Bridge to Erith, it's in zone 6, by the Thames.

We walked from Erith along the Green Chain pathway, taking in Rainham Marshes, the desolate Thames and old wooden piers. We passed St John the Baptist's Church - which has existed for nearly 1000  years - before crossing over the dual carriageway and up Hillside to Frank's Park (named after a local philanthropist). 

Looking over to Rainham Marshes, Erith

We walked through Frank's, across some roads till we reached Abbey Wood, we lost the trail for Green Chain Walk for a bit so explored the wood until we found our picnic spot - the ruins of Lesnes Abbey. This was built by Richard de Luci as penance for his part in the murder of Thomas Becket. We planned to walk further but time was getting on so we got the train from Abbey Wood back to London Bridge (20 minutes).

Abbey Wood

Lesnes Abbey

On Sunday, we went on one of the Barbican's Architecture Tours, this is part of their Urban Wanderings exhibition. I'm a big fan of the Barbican, I would say I'm generally a fan of tower blocks in the way they look but the Barbican has a much greater aesthetic than most social housing. I have never full explored the estate, as I tend to get lost and run around till I find where I'm actually needed to be. 

We were the only two on the tour, so it was quite informal. And by way of starting, our guide explained that many people get lost here, not just me. The Barbican Estate is 32 acres and was built with defense in mind, hence all the convoluted entrances. The architects wanted all entrances to be above street level but there is one at street level, for The Arts Centre. Additionally, The Arts Centre wasn't originally in the plan so there wasn't much room for it, it's thought of as a vertical structure as opposed to a horizontal structure, hence why you get lost even more once inside.  

The guide mentioned semi circles were a big theme of the design, this is taken from the semi circle remains of the 13th Century London Wall within the estate. The architects wanted history to play a big part in the design, the housing blocks are named after people connected to the area, Cromwell was married in St Giles for instance. See here for more. 

The architects were also influenced by castles (the logo on the blocks is a castle turret), again echoed by the fortress-like quality to the Estate.

Crenellation of roofs to echo St Giles Church 

The Conservatory 

Complete with 'arrow slots'

People see The Barbican as a brutalist structure, but the architects actually tried hard to make the buildings attractive. Ways of doing this included lots of plants, the artificial lake and the granite concrete used on the exteriors was drilled to create a texturised effect - this was done in situ, it's now less surprising that it took 20 years to complete the Estate.

St Giles church

Semi circles everywhere

Residents' spot

Maintenance room where a wall remains of exterior concrete tests

All photos my own. 

A visit to Abeno

Last week, my friend and I finally made it Abeno after our failed attempt earlier in the year (Holborn one is reservations only, Soho one generally has a massive queue). 

Abeno is a Japanese restaurant specialising in okonomi-yaki - japanese pancakes - which they mix and cook in front of you. 

After it's cooked, they decorate with Japanese mayonnaise, fish flakes, dried seaweed and some other sauce which is more fruity. 

Cooking

Decorating

We forgoed (I presume I can this in past tense but dictionary disagrees with me) dessert in favour of some gyoza, again cooked in front of us. Yum yum 

I also tried some plum wine - my second try of it, first been not so good in Soho - and this time it was very nice and apparently like the ones in Japan. 

New snacks

Whilst doing a quick scour of Tiger this morning - I'm not often in the area - and as per usual, I bought something random and perhaps unnecessary: some apple chips. I hadn't tried them before and happened to be googling healthier forms of crisps the other day. 

They were tasty but perhaps a little sweet for what is expected of a crisp. 

Also tried some pitta chips in the pub on Saturday which were yummy, packaging was very nice too 

Kew Gardens excursion

Over the bank holiday weekend, we headed to Kew Gardens - my first time since a school trip a good few years ago. We had booked several months ago, and unfortunately the weather on the day of our visit was predominately rainy. Luckily they are quite a few conservatories at Kew so we headed to the Palm House - one of the largest glasshouses and built in Victorian times. The house plays host to lots of tropical plants including Coco der Mer, bananas, funky giraffe trees and Kew's oldest potted plant (supported by crutches). You can walk around the top of the palm house for a great view of all the plants, plus there is a marine section in the basement with jellyfish, seahorses and lots of other fishes.  

Palm House

Next up was Waterlily House - the Victoria lilies we saw in Oslo were here alongside lots of chillies and we learned that birds can't taste chilli! The dye the water black in here (a safe dye), which creates great reflections in the glasshouse. 

Waterlily House

We had our picnic lunch standing around in the doorway of one of the houses eyeing up the female resident peacock before heading to Princess of Wales Conservatory (cue memory trigger of school trip). We got sidetracked before entering as the rain had stopped so we went into the Rock Garden and Davies Alpine House. After that, we stopped off a cookery demonstration for a bit of risotto - we presumed the chef was using veg and herbs grown in Kew as we were next to a section with lots of edible plants - I tried some mint, super strong.  

Next up, time to brave the Treetop walkway, it was very cool although we did rush around it due to the wind! The lift doors on the upper level look like they are doors to nowhere. 

View from the Treetop Walkway

The lake in front of the Palm House is currently playing host to Bompas & Parr's Tutti Frutti Boating Experience - part of the bigger IncrEdibles exhibition. We were given polarising glasses which made everything pretty trippy and boarded our rowing boats. The banana grotto under Pineapple Island is very small, you enter through banana scented mist and here, your glasses come into their own.

Playing with my polarising glasses in the pub