Thursday, May 04, 2006

The final breakfast, brunch and afternoon tea

D bought me a beautiful fuchsia Smythson notebook to record the sights and sounds of the fabulous Orient Express and I could often be found sat at the steward’s desk trying to write and draw neatly as the train rattled along, a fabulous experience but not a smooth journey. The final day dawned and Bruno supplied us with breakfast whilst we stopped at Paris. We lingered in Paris for quite a while to take on some new passengers – both people and lobsters. Though some of them were destined for the brunch pot. It's our final meal on board so it’s back to a favourite Lalique panelled restaurant car. We entered to the waiter pouring our remaining red wine from the meal last night and tucked into our final brunch. And what a fine brunch it was, no scrambled egg on toast for us we had: PUFF PASTRY CASE OF VEGETABLE JULIENNE STEAMED WITH STEAMED SALMON for a (light?) starter and then the much anticipated lobster – BROILED LOBSTER WITH FRESH CRESS BUTTER & POTATO & CHIVE WHIRLS. The lobster was sublime with crunchy little potato whirls and I’ve finally found a potato that M likes - unfortunately! And then as if there is room we have rhe tastiest TARTE TATIN ever. A truly fabulous finale to culinary adventure aboard the Orient Express. I am privileged to get a tour of the most unbelievably compact and bijoux kitchen, one of three that have produced the most amazing food on board. The lovely French chef looks abut twelve but he’s been working on board the Orient Express for seven years, so I guess he isn’t!

We leave France and travel back to Folkestone where we board the British Pullman again for the final leg of our journey. We tuck into a elegant little afternoon tea of SANDWICHES, WARM SCONES WITH DEVONSHIRE CLOTTED CREAM & STRAWBERRY JAM & AFTERNOON PASTIES. I am not sure if I’ll ever be able to eat again!

The journey may be over but the trip will last forever!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Sounds divine! Who'd want to ever get off this little train! DDx