Friday 22 April 2011

A Weekend of Feasts (1)

Part One - Bicester Village and Hilton London Stansted Airport Hotel


On Friday, we set off to London Stansted Airport to pick up my mom who was coming to the UK for holidays and we took a detour to Bicester Village in Oxfordshire.


Bicester Village, Oxfordshire

It was a nice, hot day with scorching sun above us and the place was bustling with people and cars that it took us at least half an hour to find a parking space. By the time we walked the entire length of the street we were starving, hence we found this Italian restaurant - Carluccio's - to satisfy our hunger.


Fresh Lemonade

First, we ordered freshly made lemonade to quench our thirst, a lemonade that looked and tasted more like fresh lime juice to me. Very nice and refreshing though, on a hot sunny day like this.


Bruschetta

I ordered the Bruchetta served with riped tomatoes with herbs, roasted peppers and extra virgin olive oil on toasted Toscano bread - to start. The refreshing and juicy ripe tomatoes with fragrance from herbs and olive oil plus the smokiness of roasted peppers goes really well with the crispy Toscano bread. Although, I thought the salad that came with it was too bitter for my liking.


Milanese di Pollo

The Milanese di Pollo - Breast of chicken flattened, bread-crumbed and fried, served with green salad. Sprinkled with sea salt and lemon juice, a very summery dish. I quite enjoyed the crispy fried chicken where the meat is not too dry. Yummy!



After doing some shopping, we headed to Hilton at London Stansted Airport Hotel for a rest then had some dinner at their in-house restaurant.

Sirloin Steak

The medium-well done steak as ordered was not that bad, but still not one of the best steak I had before. The peppercorn sauce went rather well with it as it is one of the most classic sauce for a steak. A rather enjoyable meal, a little bit too expensive for what I had but that is the norm in any hotels.


Full English Breakfast

However, the buffet breakfast, included, does make up for dinner. They had a warm breakfast section and also a cold breakfast section. At the warm breakfast section they served scrambled eggs, hash browns, grilled tomatoes, sausages, baked beans and mushrooms. This is in fact, quite nice to have as not many European hotels offer this type of breakfast selection.

I did not go for the cold breakfast section as I was rather full from the full English breakfast. However, I did try them on our stay in The Tralfagar by Hilton the next day. They had several selection of cold meat including salami, ham, smoked salmon etc. They also had Camembert cheese, cheddar cheese etc. A selection of fresh breads, Croissants and muffins. Absolutely amazing breakfast for a hotel, which again, was included in our room rate!

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