St. Patrick's Day

This week was pretty uneventful for Josh and I.  We didn't have any major plans except to go out on St. Patrick's Day to a beer tasting event. 

The beer tasting was at a place called The Distiller's in Hammersmith, which is an area of London we hadn't been to yet (there are so many areas we haven't seen!)

The Distiller's Pub

 The pub was really nice inside and seemed to be a popular place with the locals.  There were rugby games playing on the TV's and a lot of happy St. Patrick's day celebrants.  The beer tasting event was upstairs in a room that was very cozy and warm...great for the drizzly rainy day we had.

The upstairs room at the Distiller's

We were given tickets for six different kind of English beers and papers that gave us lists of how to rate the beers.  We rated color, head, lacing, palate and finish.  The lady that was running the tasting gave us directions on how to smell and taste the beer...very much like how it is done in wine tasting.  The first few beers were pretty bitter ales that were not to our liking.

Josh smelling his beer :)

 Josh and I decided to get a snack to curb the flavors and decided on hummus and pita bread.  Josh went down to the bar to order but because it was St. Patrick's day, their regular menu was not available and Josh had to pick an appetizer on the fly without really knowing what he was ordering.
And this is what we got...

Mmmm...bait.

 

Yes, those are tiny fish with eyes!  On the menu it is called "White Fish Bait".  Josh thought he had ordered some kind of deep fried fish cake...yikes.  The little fish tasted sort of like fish sticks, but it was hard to get past the eyes and fins and scales and knowing we were eating the insides...

Josh and his little fishy :)

Needless to say, we did not clean our plate!  We had a few more beers to try and I picked a few that I really liked.  One was called N1 Wheat and the other Clockwork Orange (a dark beer similar to Guinness). 

Josh and I at the beer tasting.

After the tasting was over, Josh and I decided to take a walk along the Thames and find a place for dinner.  I still had fishy taste in my mouth and wanted to get rid of it! 

Bridge across the Thames...water is really low here.

Rowing team.

There were a lot of rowing teams having practices up and down the river and it was interesting to watch.  It was a nice way to spend St. Patrick's day and I will never forget that plate of fish!

I am so excited for this upcoming week!  Trisha will be flying in on Wednesday and they it is off to Paris on Thursday!  I'm looking forward to showing Trisha around London!

Until next week, Rachel