The Time They Couldn't Find Our Tour Confirmation...

This blog is late because there are all kinds of formatting issues that I just couldn't resolve.

We were supposed to have a 9am tour before the store opened but that didn't go as planned--so we had some coffee.

Today started a bit rough. I had planned a before store opening tour of Harrods department store. I made the arrangements last July and then followed up three times but alas, when we got there, they had no record and the gentleman who was helping us provided some of the worst customer service I have ever experienced...and especially for a place of prestige like Harrods. However, we did not fret and awaited the opening of the store and went straight to the top to the Salon de Perfumes--the showcase of the world's most exclusive perfumes for men and women that are considered haute and can be mixed for each person. Most of these lovely perfumes were encased in Baccarat and Lalique crystal bottles and ranged from a few hundred pounds to the most expensive...150,000 pounds!

I do not enjoy walking through any perfume section of a store, but this was amazing. Nothing gave me a headache!! Paco, the head of the floor, decided to give us a tour of every single perfume brand and sprayed dozens of scents for us to smell while informing us of what they were made of. I expected to perish but no! Some were derived from trees, one brand from different types of irises and many other intriguing facts were learned. We were shown Princess Diana's wedding day perfume, Quelques Fleurs and the scent Michael Jackson wore the most. It was an amazing experience to really understand that these hand crafted perfumes did not reek and that clearly, since the really haute (expensive) brands are made of all natural items with no preservatives, etc, they were clearly unique and not smelly at all!!! Also, everyone walked away with probably 20 pounds of perfume samples!

This line has spectacular Japanese aesthetic

We didn't get to spend a long time there. Took the students down to the food stalls, because those are always AMAZING!

 

  

 

 We then headed to a tour about Food at the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Composting and reusing materials was a common theme: In this case urban mushroom farming...these mushrooms are growing in used coffee grounds and the mushrooms served in the V & A cafeteria. 

Sausages of the future--all plant-based or
insect -based

 Sausages that look like the above picture are being made of fruit: figs, prunes and nits. Another with grubs. Protein canapés without utilizing cattle or pigs.

I thought this very interesting...hence the long spoons

WWII food awareness poster

a piggy bank...made of used tea leave

A completely digestible  water pod

At the end of the exhibit, you could pick three adjectives that you would like to see used in the future of our food. Three of us selected words that only 3 or less people had chosen out of 15,000. The "better" your adjectives like: efficient, nourishing, local got you a flax seed chip with ugly tomato (tomatoes deemed to unattractive for stores) and avocado mousse. Overall, a good exhibit.