(December 9th-15th, 2012: Oxford) Let's start off where we left off, shall we? Late night, Oxford. Elizabeth and I aren't exactly the type to go bar hopping, but I did convince her (without much prodding I should add) to take me by some of her favorite haunts from her time as a student. We started off with a visit to Freud's, which I've since learned is a small English chain with a second location near the hotel that Kim and I stayed at in London (still a few posts away)...
What really struck me about Freud's was the wall of their own concoctions. My eyes zeroed in on whatever had elderflower as an ingredient. Elderflower really is something I've come to miss...it's a light, floral addition to drinks that reminds me of a pleasant spring day. We made other stops that night, but nothing too memorable. It was a week night after term had ended, so that meant that a lot of the establishments were fairly empty. Kind of a depressing feeling...drinking in a relatively empty bar? But at least Elizabeth and I were able to get a table without a problem and have an actual conversation that we could hear...
The next night we made our way to Edamame for dinner. Edamame is one of those places that, come a Thursday night, is insanely busy to get into. They've a total of about ten tables. Some are for two people, some are for more...which means that if you're just two, then you'll be sharing that table with other people. It's small, cramped, and utterly fantastic. The other thing about Thursday nights that makes it significantly more difficult than any other night of the week is that Thursday night = sushi night. Try as we might, we couldn't get a table on a Thursday night, so instead we settled for the next day. Friday night is, as you can guess, a few sushi offerings if there were still some fish from Thursday night (surprisingly, this is better than you'd expect), and traditional Japanese food.
Tofu steak, hand roll, sushi (nightly specials, so I've no idea what fish was inside...), and Satsumaage (pan fried fish cakes). Not pictured: Tsukemono (pickled vegetables) and Horenso Ohitashi (spinach in a sesame marinade).
It might partly be how difficult it is to get a table there, but Edamame quickly became one of my favorite places to eat in Oxford (though I've only managed to go there twice now, with the second time coming some five months later). There are a lot of quality restaurants to choose from, though, so my list of favorites certainly doesn't stop here...
Aside from our "adventure," which will be detailed in the next post, Elizabeth and I had one more memorable stop: Queen's Lane Coffee House, the longest established coffee house in Europe, dating back to 1654 (of course, the "oldest" coffee house in Europe was reputed to be across the street...). This is Elizabeth's favorite place to grab a coffee, and their non-coffee drinks certainly satisfied me.
One more post to go for Elizabeth's visit...stay tuned for our exciting adventure!
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