Day Five – Back at Sea.

For the first time on this trip we were not awoken with sunshine breaking through the window but by the sound of rain on the balcony. The cloud stayed pretty much all day occasionally being interrupted by downpours of rain sometimes accompanied by thunder and lightening. We thought that this would be a testing day for the ship with few outside activities available how would the facilities cope. Actually not bad at all, whether people decided to stay in their cabins I’m not sure, but although a little busier the inside spaces seemed to cope quite well. There were two Tate lectures today, the first on “Victorian Narrative Paintings” we both attended and found very interesting. In the afternoon the subject matter was the pre-Raphaelites which Sylvia enjoyed although I decided to sit [rather lie on the bed] that one out.

Sylvia is continuing to enjoy her sketching on the balcony, today it was the fresia that had been left in the cabin. Tonight was another formal night so we took our time scrubbing up into our best togs for the visit to XVII.

Sylvia went for a tiered chiffon look with her pearls, while I chose the  traditional tuxedo with purple waistcoat and matching bow-tie.

XVII is the second speciality restaurant on-board and it says that it will take you on a gastronomic journey to the heart of fine dining. I hope to now take you with me on that same journey! After being seated at our table and choosing our meals we were treated to a pre-starter of lemon prawn on a bed of blended pea. Small but delicious and shown below.

For starters Sylvia choose Seared Diver Scallops with green pea risotto and cauliflower latte. The scallops melted in one’s mouth.

While I went for Terrine of duck with Agen prunes, Oxford sauce and homemade oatcakes. Again a delicious way to start a meal.

For my main course I decided on the whole Dover sole a la Meuniere with baby vegetables, but being a little of a coward the waiter de-boned it for me prior to serving. I didn’t want to mess up my dinner jacket!!!

Sylvia was also in a fishy mood choosing fillet of line-caught Cornish sea bass with lobster tail and sauce vierge. Beautifully presented and tasted as good. To accompany the meal I choose a light muscadet.

Next it was the turn of the desserts but not before being served a light pre-dessert of a clotted cream panna cotta with a strawberry filled chocolate tube, or something like that!

For dessert Sylvia went for that old classic crepe suzette flambé with Devonshire ice cream. This was cooked at the table with the waitress explaining all the ingredients as she cooked. The picture does not really do it justice.

I went for [wait for this Oliver]…..expresso popping candy dark chocolate mousse with baileys white chocolate soup, a real chocolate feast. So much so I couldn’t eat the chocolates served with the coffee [which incidentally were delivered to our room later in the evening!].

A wonderful evening with terrific food, in fact we have re-booked for later in the cruise, well worth the £20 per head supplement . Not such good news on the quiz front only achieving 16 out of 20 and may have lost our lead. I can’t remember the questions we got wrong but one was about Emmerdale, must revise before tomorrow. Don’t forget that if you want quizzes visit www.kensquiz.co.uk for all the best quizzes. I trust that all these photos will post correctly!!!!!!