I have been following Polly’s blog Follow Your Sunshine for a while now, but let me give you some background information on Polly first. Polly once lived in London, before she went to follow her sunshine. She went to be closer to the man of her dreams out in Doha, Qatar leaving her family and friends behind here in England. Polly has called Doha her home for the past three years now and has even married the man of her dreams and even had a baby named Sophia.
Polly is no stranger to London though, she can just never stay away, no matter how much she wants to. I guess there is something that London guarantee that Doha certainly can’t, which is rain. Yes the glorious little droplets of water that falls out of the sky, the ones that many of us curse at the sight of but for Polly it is like a dream come true.
Polly has connected with many of us London bloggers and we have grown close to her, even if she may be over 4,000 miles away. So when we heard she was going to be back in town for a longer period than normal, we decided it was time for a well overdue meet up. Therefore one sunny Sunday afternoon, in Kensington we gathered at The Ivy (along with the blogger husbands)!
It was so nice to hear all Polly’s stories directly from her, but I think we also expressed extreme jealously of her life in Doha. After all, not everyone has a beautiful view of crystal clear blue water and docking boats from their balcony. Not forgetting the high temperatures and scorching heat.
We decided to order food before we set off into deep conversation that nobody could stop once we started.
I ordered the slow roasted lamb shoulder which was absolutely divine. It was served on a bed of soft parmesan polenta with roast peppers, olives and a delicious rosemary gravy. The meat literally melted in your mouth. Mmmmm!
Jessi from 2 Feet 1 World ordered the grilled chicken salad, with a generous amount of chicken. I think we were all a little surprised!
Emma from Adventures of a London Kiwi ordered the salmon and smoked haddock fish cake with creamed spinach, soft poached hen’s egg and hollandaise sauce… again another massive portion. The Ivy really know how to spoil their diners and make them fat!
Polly had the chicken milanese which is brioche breaded chicken milanese with fried hen’s egg and black truffle mayonnaise.
Angie from Silverspoon London didn’t have anything, since she had lunch not long before and strict diets needs must apply. I was supposed to be on this diet too, but you know… Polly was in town. That’s my excuse!
The blogger husbands ordered some hearty meat dishes…
Mr. Sunshine ordered the aromatic duck curry which was coconut based, with some lemongrass, lime, chilli, roasted cashew nuts, served with steamed jasmine rice.
Mr. Silver went for the Kensington Brasserie shepherd’s pie, which was made with slow braised lamb shoulder with beef and Keen’s cheddar potato mash.
We nattered to our hearts content, with us all being having the travel blogs and constant wanderlust in common, there was so much talk about trips, where we want to visit next and even about visiting Doha…one day!
Polly and I clearly share the love for sweet things, so we both just had to order dessert. Especially as they had crème brûlée on the menu, which is an absolute favourite of mine.
Polly had the chocolate bomb which resembled something I had at Bob Bob Ricard. A chocolate bombe with milk foam, vanilla ice-cream and a honeycomb centre and when it’s drizzled with hot caramel sauce, the chocolate slowly melts. Of course I was too busy taking pictures of my brûlée that I missed the perfect photo opportunity, but managed to get the end product before Polly dived in.
I never wanted the lunch to end as it was so enjoyable but it just goes to show that true friends have no limits. It’s amazing to say that we all met via the internet too because we had one passion in common and from that evolved this wonderful community of like minded individuals who spend time together outside of the blogosphere. It was so great to meet Polly and Mr. Sunshine’s latest edition to the family too, when they are babies around nobody can say no to a little cuddle. I even had the great pleasure of getting a few giggles out of her, so precious.
Before we knew it though, it was time to separate and go our own ways again especially as we had over stayed the table reservation but it was so lovely to catch up together and talk freely in person instead of via 140 characters on Twitter.
However it was not goodbye, it was left as a “i’ll see you soon!”
Until next time…
