A taste of what’s what in recent London food and drink news:
Home made baked goods with a dash of vintage style summarize the rebirth of pop-up afternoon high tea, Tete-a-Tea. If “languishing in the splendour of a secret East End location” (it's the Dalston Boy's Club this week) this Sunday from 3.30pm sounds like your cuppa, visit Tete-a-Tea's Facebook page. Londonist had a sip of Tete's offerings the first time around. As we remember it, the treats were lovingly presented, the teas were intelligently selected, the atmosphere was convivial and – most importantly – the food was delicious. Definitely worth 20 quid.
Ever outdoing themselves, those wacky jelly mongering lab geeks, Bompas & Parr, are at it again. From 22 to 25 April, B&P will delight shoppers at Whiteley's Shopping Centre with a massive chocolate waterfall in honour of the 40th anniversary of the original Charlie and the Chocolate Factory film. Just in time for Easter The Chocolate Waterfall pulls together cocoa beans from around the world (Ghana, India, Indonesia and the Caribbean) to create a first house blend “with hints of plum, red wine and earth”. Visitors to this indulgent deluge will don protective suits, step through the falls to a “chamber flooded with five tonnes of chocolate” and get to blend and bottle a chocolate elixir in the installation’s processing unit. Timed tickets must be purchased in advance through www.jellymongers.co.uk and we've just heard that tickets are still available.
Five tonnes of choco-wow not enough? How about 48 tonnes of sand dumped on the Southbank Centre compliments of London's stylized Bombay cafe, Dishoom? Bringing Bombay's Chowpatty Beach to the Thames, Dishoom will be mixing up summer cocktails with Indian spice, street food-izing their menu and hosting “spontaneous events including impromptu, unplugged gigs” from early May at Queen Elizabeth Hall Terrace.
And if simulated exotica only leaves you longing to get away, Mexican street food restaurant chain, Wahaca, has two tickets up for grabs for a trip to Mexico as “our roving reporter at the Guelaguetza festival in Oaxaca” this July. For a chance to win, tell 'em in 500 words words or less about your best festival experience. Visit Wahaca's blog for details.
