This week Jeremy and I finally tried out The Parlour, Fortnum and Mason's ice cream cafe. It's a pastel haven of flavoured frozen cream, the trademark Fortnum pale green shade splashed over the decor. And the sundaes are insane. We both had the Dusty Road, which is served in a huge rose-pink glass bowl, filled with two scoops of chocolate ice cream and two scoops of coffee ice cream, the latter of which was so intensely flavoured I couldn't sleep for two nights. That's all covered with chocolate chunks, butterscotch sauce, a mountain of whipped cream, oh and a bloody macaron. Needless to say we were on a sugar high for the rest of the day WEEK (hence our slightly crazed post-ice cream faces, above).
I'm a big fan of that classic British tradition, Afternoon Tea, although I've never done it at Fortnum and Masons (Claridges is the best place to go in London for that FYI, well, unless you can get into The Savoy, darling). Meanwhile Jeremy is cultivating a passion for trying as many different ice creams as possible, he's so dedicated to his mission that it almost borders on obsession, "I can quit at any time!" In fact the night before our Parlour outing he ate three scoops at Gelupo. Hey, no judgement, I'm just stating the facts. For the record he thinks the gelato is better at the Bocca Di Lupo off-shoot, but he appreciated the spectacle of the F&M sundae, and the experience of eating a very American-inspired dessert in such a classically British institution. Can a shop be a British institution? If it can, then Fortnums definitely qualifies.
Afterwards we went to the Dennis Hopper exhibition at the Royal Academy, (amazing, particularly the photos of Montgomery and the Civil Rights marches), sat on the floor in Foyles reading books, and then watched Purple Rose Of Cairo at Prince Charles Cinema. It's amazing how much you can pack in
to one day when your veins are throbbing with that much sugar. Yep, those sweet, sweet dairy dreams really can come true.