Daunt Books, Marylebone, and Hampstead Heath's Kiddie Corner

 My husband bought books for 9 and 11 year old children in the Marylebone branch and books for a three and a half year old coming up to four. The assistant found the books the older two children requested and suggested books for the third child. 

A plastic bag with a pretty design was available for ten pence.

The shop's bag

The bag was a good souvenir, a reminder of the name of the shop if you want to tell anybody else, and was a handy way to keep your own books or gifts together. The bag would have made a suitable wrapping, if you were happy for the recipient to know your gift was a book.

We took refuge from the rain in their other branch at Hampstead near Hampstead Heath after visiting the Garden Gate pub for lunch and finding the coffee shop had no room for six of us.

The Daunt bookshop was full of interesting, enticing books, those around the counter being extra interesting, as well as those on the high shelves.

Children's Corner

The Childen's Corner with seating. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

When we walked further into the shop we discoved an archway over steps leading into a short passage which had been converted into a kiddie book nook, with stools of three sizes where children could sit and look at books.

This kept the six of us, aged 3 to 78 entertained for half an hour. The oldest child was able to read to the youngest and select books for her, thus allowing the adults to browse undisturbed, Also the three childen were entertained, and bonded.

A delightful shop. We would definitely go back on our next visit, and seek out their other shops.

Bellanger Restaurant, Islington Green Has Closed - What next?

The Bellanger restaurant at Islington Green is closed since around August 10th 2019. They said if you have a booking they will contact you.

I was wondering if they would open elsewhere, taking with them the paintings and pictures and furniture. If you want to buy something, now is the time to ask.

Or will they sell the place as is?

Sometimes the landlord asks you to remove everything or charges you for removing it. Sometimes you can offer to sell to the landlord the ovens etc so they can sell it as ready to go restaurant to another business. But other times the landlord won't pay or expects new tenants to be a brand with their own decor starting to renovate and old stuff simply gets in the way.

You can read my old posts about the about to depart restaurant and the locations of other related restaurants and what is nearby in Islington.

Their old address was:
Bellanger Restaurant
9 Islington Green
London N1 2XH
England

Update
Tues 20 Aug 2019. I looked on their website.
The Bellanger website says:
Other dog friendly Corbin & King restaurants:
Soutine in St John's Wood, Colbert in Chelsea and ZL Café at Brasserie Zédel in Soho
Your closest Corbin & King restaurant is now
The Delaunay in Aldwych or Fischer's in Marylebone.

I tried googling their address to see whether another restaurant had opened up on the site but just got referred back to the Bellanger website.

Useful Websites
https://www.bellanger.co.uk/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islington

About the Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Marylebone Lights switch on tonight Nov 18 2015

DATE AND TIME
Wednesday 18th November 2015
3:30pm-6:30pm
LIGHTS ON: 6PM

GETTING HERE
The closest tube stations are:
Bond Street
Baker Street
Oxford Circus
Great Portland Street
Regent’s Park
Marble Arch

The closest overground station is:
Marylebone Station

Down side streets you will find chocolate shop Rococo Chocolates,  cheese specialist La Fromagerie, and meat seller The Ginger Pig. Plus several well known chains such as The White Shop. Landmarks include the Wesley statue in the cemetery.

More details from
Marylebonelchristmaslights.com

See my previous posts on Marylebone.
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer

From Madame Tussauds to Marylebone Shops For Wine Tasting

Outside Baker Street station is the statue of Sherlock Holmes to welcome you. Cross the road and continue south down Baker Street for a trip past Bistrot de Luxe for a top grade lunch, and window shop at the chess and bridge shop - or take today's alternative route a block or two west to Marylebone for French wine, French cheese, English meat and chocolates.

   We went for a wine tasting at French wine shop Nicholas. Being French, Nicholas does not pronounce the s on his name but calls himself 'Nicola' which sounds like a girl's name to English speakers. Here he is in a French beret.

If you get on his mailing list you will be invited to free wine tasting from three or four bottles of wine. Unlike other places which charge and tell you weeks in advance, Nicholas often gives you only 24 or 48 hours notice, but if you are in the area, or have free time and are prepared to make a special trip to London, it's a bit of fun and an opportunity to try a new wine and meet somebody who can tell you about the wine.

 I am interested because a) I am taking a wine exam, just level one run by WSET.  The initial letters stand for Wine and Spirit Education Trust - a proper government recognised body which runs courses and exams leading to certification for exams recognised by the government - taken by people in the business, wine shop staff and sommeliers in restaurants and hotels.  

My next post is on the other shops in Marylebone High Street, Wairose and the White Shop, and in Moxon Street, The Ginger Pig and La Fromagerie for coffee and cake.

Shopping For Food For Dinner & Dinner Parties In London

Dinner party with napkins depicting grapes. Paper napkins bought from one of the vineyards and museum shops in the Rioja region of Spain.

Dinner Party Checklist

I recently attended a family and friends dinner party. First find recipes you like using seasonal foods. Some people think red wine is warming in winter. It certainly is, in colour, although for years I served only white wine because I was allergic to tannins and wanted to save my white tablecloths from stains.  

Our starter was salmon en croute, home made. We used salmon bought from Waitrose supermarket and readymade roll out fill pastry but added the butter sauce between the salmon and cooked the salmon and sauce in the pastry fresh for the dinner party. Make sure you buy plain salmon, not lightly smoked.

Use dill butter. Add lemon zest (from a fresh lemon) in the dill mayonnaise sauce. Mayonnaise is only egg yolk and vegetable or olive oil. You can make garlic mayonnaise with fresh garlic. A short cut if you are short of time - use bottled dill mayonnaise.

We served the salmon with three dips, wholegrain mustard, mayonnaise.

On the subject of meat vendors, our chef/cook, call the host what you will, says the rack of lamb was from The Ginger Pig. This amazing shop is in Moxon Street, Marylebone, near Baker Street station, which is conveniently on the Metropolitan, Circle, Jubilee and Bakerloo lines. (The pig breeds are on the Ginger Pig shop website.) 

Herbs included rosemary from the garden. Rosemary is a shrub which grows all year. 

It's very easy to grow. You just pick off a bit from a plant and stick it in the ground and water it. We've had so much rain in England that unless you plant your cutting in a hot, dry summer spell, you hardly need to look at it again. But then, I probably would go out watching anxiously over my cutting for a week to check it still looked all right. And I'd plant half a dozen cuttings. Then if one failed, or only one succeeded, I'd be certain of gaining at least one new plant. 

If you live near me and know me, just ask, and I'll let you take a cutting. Better still, I'll cut off a piece, I will feel generous, you will feel favoured, and I will put it in a plastic bag for you to take home.

In addition to rosemary, the family bought fresh basil and thyme from Waitrose. I'm not sure it added anything to the flavour of the food. But it does give aroma to the kitchen and home to welcome guests.

The Suffolk Charlotte potatoes, carrots, Italian grapes and cheeses (Petit Taupiniere and not Brie de Meaux but Brie de Melun) were from La Fromagerie next door to the Ginger Pig, in Moxon St.

We ran into a problem with our dessert of hot pineapple in syrup contrasting with cold vanilla ice cream. One of the guests was allergic to pineapple. So the cook quickly put an apple in the oven to bake.

We forgot that you have to make a horizontal cut around the middle of the apple to stop it bursting. So we hid the fact that the apple had burst by hiding it in a large bulbous cup. Bulbous meaning a large round shape cut which looks as though the top is cut off, so just the top of the apple shows.

You put sultanas and a sweetener in the middle. Our traditional family recipe required you to cut chunks out of the middle of the cored apple. You can mix in chopped nuts, flaked nuts, almonds (not if your sensitive guests are allergic to nuts - best to ask first. For sweetness, honey, marmalade, best of all your own syrup made from brown sugar dissolved in hot water with added flavours such as cloves or star anise. You could add juice from tinned fruit. Purists add chunks or puree from any other fruit.

On this occasion we served a gritty chocolate. The smoothest, milkiest chocolate we've found is Lindt. Green & Black's do lots of bars of dark chocolate with fruit flavours and spices.

The chocolate brand we used on this occasion was Dolceria Bonajuto which our cook buys at Gelupo, Archer St.  They do a great affogato too!

For more about ice cream see next post.

Angela Lansbury is a travel, food and wine writer, author of 20 books (10 by traditional publishers, 10 self-published). You can watch Angela talking about table etiquette on YouTube. (Angela Lansbury the actress is likely to pop up first, so type in Angela Lansbury author or Angela Lansbury poet or Angela Lansbury speaker Toastmasters.) You can read posts by Angela on her other blogs, also on Facebook and LinkedIn.