Chai 33

"In Paris they don't drink water. They drink wine."

As per usual with my travel experiences, they tend to revolve around nothing other than food. Okay maybe not NOTHING - but food definitely can make or break a day in the life.

For example, the place we ate for our first night in Paris.

Our cousins who live in France are friends with the owners of this super hip, trendy, and amazing restaurant located in Barcy, which is an area that used to be a centuries-old wine market, but was then renovated into restaurant and retail space. It's called Chai 33.

If you're anything like me, you're wondering why a famous wine restaurant has a name that means "tea"... a chai (pronounced shay as in "shake") is a place where you keep barrels of wine.

Of course, first thing's first - when we arrived my dad and I were immediately given a tour of their ridiculous wine cellar.

The cellar was underground, and was no joke built over two centuries ago. With the original stone walling still completely intact, and the restaurant sitting above the cellars. This restaurant carried over 3,000 different LABELS of wine (labels, not bottles), and when I asked how many bottles they stored, all I got in response was a laugh.

With so many different wines to choose from, they obviously couldn't have a simple wine list at every table. Instead, each restaurant guest gets to go to the cellar tasting rooms to personally look around and select their bottle.  To help out those of us who are not totally wine savy, Chai 33 even had their most famous bottles organized into categories such as...

Fruity and intense. Just like me? Meh.

Also - each general category of wine (red, white, rose, champagne) had their own completely separate rooms in the cellar. That way, depending on what kind of wine you're in the mood for, you can easily walk into whichever cellar and get a taste of your options.

I let faj do the picking of the wines, and moved on to other important matters, such as food choice.

Without going into too much detail, the most heavenly thing I put in my mouth all night was our main course chosen by Lana.  Beef Confit. AHHH. 

Beef confit is beef that has been soaked and cooked in its own fat, helping to make the meat super moist and delicious. Usually you will find duck or goose confit, but trust me - the beef was to die for.

Mmm it was covered with sweet potatoes, hence the orange stuff.

Must find duck confit before I leave france. And crepes. And macaroons. !!!!

Oh and preview into Wednesday's happenings...

The 2010 Bordeaux wine tastings! I love traveling with the faj. He's so hooked up. YAY

Sorry I'm Slacking!

My blogging skills have been severely lacking - but after complaints which i interpreted as support, I'm back!

Haven't done too much since my birthday - have been pretty sick and busy and traveling.

A few highlights - 

The London Eye is the largest ferris wheel in ALL of Europa. Pretty big stuff. 

 After a mysterious "Meet me at 7:15 at the Waterloo tube stop for a romantic adventure," Jenny took me for an exhilarating ferris wheel ride. 

The views were stunning, but it was kinda difficult to take pictures through the glass windows at night. And communicating with the 17 year old italian boys sharing our pod with us was great fun.  

Other than that, I spent a weekend in Israel before my family came to town. Since then, we've been seeing shows, shopping, and shopping some more. A little sightseeing on the side.

Coolest thing so far? HARRODS.

 Oh my fucking god, Harrod's legitimately caused temporary depression because I was so overwhelmed by its amazingness. 


You're walking along a street full of high end shops, when up ahead you see a really old, beautiful looking building that takes up the entire blocks. Yep, its Harrods. Literally - you walk inside and it is like its own little universe. With only the finest things in life. Including sushi, dim sum, rabbit, and tea.  And shoes. So many beautiful shoes. 

Leaving in the morning for Paris... C'est la vie!

"In our old age, we will regret all the sins we did not commit."

First of all, let me say that I have the best friends in the world. And they raged with me SO hardcore for my birthday weekend. Unreal.



Part 1 of the birthday extravaganza... none other than:

Rebel Fucking Bingo. Except this time we returned as veterans.


My friends spoiled me with attention as they each took nearly 200 pictures individually on their cameras, relieving me of my usual role as the paparazzi. 

Disguised as a neighborhood watch meeting, we raged and drew the fuck all over each other until we looked like....

If we're being totally honest - I didn't quite get around to playing bingo this time. RAGE.

Part 2 of the birthday extravaganza - the restaurant i've been drooling over ALL semester but hadn't yet found an excuse to go to: CIRCUS.

Circus is a recently opened restaurant in Covent Garden. What so special about it?

First of all, that's what it looks like empty. Ridic. And see the stairs leading up to the long white table? Every hour or so, right in the middle of dinner, cirque du soleil style acrobats would come out and perform - dancing, trapeze, etc.

Pretty fucking cool.


Not only was the entertainment beyond compare, the dinner and drinks were absolutely exceptional.

It started with the huuuge goblet of party punch, which we watched the waitor make. He poured an entire handle of vodka and an entire bottle of champagne, and then we all scooped it out in little mini goblets. Fun times.

The food was amazing and the desert was to die for.

When they brought out my candle and sang, I swear to god I had absolutely nothing left to wish for. Love my friends. Love my family. Love my life. :)


And of course, when the time came we made our way onto the table for our own Circus dance party.

LOVE YOU ALLLLL - thanks for making my life the bomb dot everything.


As a wise friend once said - Let's be sinful now, instead.

Sketch.

Sketch = high society gone MAD.

One of the thing's on Liv's list to do in London was High Tea. After much research, I decided on some place called sketch - the description being...


 "If the Mad Hatter were to host his tea party in London, it would be at Sketch."  Um - perfect?


Exhibit A:  Decorative dogs-humping-statue.

Exhibit B: Crazy fro statue in the hallway.

Exhibit C: The bathroom that inspired Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" video.

Exhibit D: Hopscotch. INDOORS.

And last but certainly not least....


Exhibit E:  Crazy delicious food with so much clotted cream I could've died IMMEDIATELY.

And our server loved us so much he even brought us out extra desserts for our joint bday.

vom.com/ifinishedeverythingandlivcouldntsoIWIN


And in liv's usual style - she managed to get us each a glass of champagne. On the house, of course. GRATIS.

Hilarious napkins.


I'll definitely be returning to sketch with the fam.