Foodie stuff, the good and the ugly

Thinking we were getting a bright, dry day in London I had the kids choose between Covent Garden and Borough Market for activities today.  Both were foodie destinations that appeal more to me but they DID get to tear up the Science Museum all day yesterday.  Their choice came down to the restaurant options for the dinner/bribe at the end of each.  I had gift certificates for sushi near the Borough Market so there we went.

Even though the day changed to cold rain interspersed with grey drizzle, the market was fantastic.  It has existed as a food-buying center since at least 1014.  The stalls were beautiful and varied from organic vegetables to exotic fruits to wines to whole animals and everything in between.  We sampled fresh soup, turkish delights and hot drinks.  I can't guess how many languages were spoken all around us.  When I tried to practice my French at one shop the gentleman laughed in a nice way and asked in English were I was from.

To make all of it up to the kids I had to tear myself away and head for the sushi.  Unfortunately they weren't serving dinner yet, so we popped over a few blocks to Tate Modern.  I hadn't planned to tour this one because it would bore the Tweens.  It exceeded that expectation.  I could barely stand to spend an hour there myself and enjoyed the view of the Thames from the 5th floor more than anything else.  A helpful guide did point us towards 2 exhibits that were interesting: a VW bus surrounded by WW2 era rescue sleds and a pair of "trees" carved from huge blocks of wood.  The vast majority seemed like pure nonsense to me.  Maddy liked a few of the sculptures but not nearly as much as she liked the classics in the other museums.

Finally, time to run through the rain back to the restaurant, Tsuru.  The waiter who earlier pointed us to the Tate had saved a nice table for us with a cool little place card.  The Tweens ordered edemame and a huge platter of various sushi and sashimi while I wimped out with katsu curry.  They finished the tray of RAW ugly fish, squid, lobster and god knows what else before I was done and were still hungry.  Since my certificates covered more than we had spent so far I let them reorder.  We are back in the flat, warming up and relaxing.  Their full bellies are putting them to sleep faster than I can write this.