Friday Night at the V&A

image from http://www.vam.ac.uk

So, on Friday night I headed over to the Victoria and Albert museum in South Kensington to see the exhibitions Quilts 1700-2010 and Horace Walpole and Strawberry Hill. 

I had been quite - well, actually VERY - excited about both of these shows for some time (and even more so for Grace Kelly, Style Icon which I want to see this week), as I have a strange love for crafts and quilting, and have absolutely loved Strawberry Hill and Gothic Revival architecture since studying it for A Level Art History. I know that this isn't really supposed to be an art blog, and if you're reading this then you probably know that I'm a much better cook than art historian, but I feel that, for such exciting shows, I should say a few words!

So, to begin with Quilts (just because that's the one I went into first), this has been billed as the first ever exhibition of British quilts, and as a chance to see the V&A's "unseen" collection. Whilst I would like to take issue with the problems of this "unseen" and the general concerns of a female-dominated, self-consciously craft exhibition, the first thing that struck me about the show was the design. By this, I mean that it was very pink. Surely the curators wanted to make this a genderless exhibition? Doesn't a bubblegum pink backdrop to an exhibition of of craft just make it seem like exclusively a show of "women's art"? As the exhibition progressed, though (it gets a bit confusing half-way through as you have to go down some back corridors before you can find the second half of the show...) it did improve and I could see why the general consensus is that this is a great show. My main highlight was the Prison Quilt (which the V&A don't have on their website, sadly, and the postcard is so tiny that it really doesn't do it justice), and I fell in love with some of the really amazing historical quilts.

Meanwhile in Strawberry Hill...Somehow I managed to get into this show for free, which was fab! And I really enjoyed this one! Again, check out the design of the set, because it is beautiful - really intricate gothic tracery in the heights of the 'roof'. The show is much better than the museum's website makes out, there's been hardly any hype for it and yet they've managed to get all of the most exciting items from Walpole's collection, plus loads and loads of beautiful drawings and paintings of Strawberry Hill which I had never seen before. It's hung in a really good way, so that each space in the exhibition represents a room in the house, and shows what it would have looked like and some of the items which would have been displayed in the collection kept in that room. The video at the end (I can't believe I'm saying this) was probably the best bit for me though - I'm so excited by the restoration of the house which has been going on for aeons that seeing it 'up-close' was very exciting for me! The house looks so close to completion now (it's due to re-open in the autumn) and I just wish that this show had had more hype around it so that more people will be as excited as I am to visit the awesome historical sight that is Horace Walpole's Strawberry Hill.

Anyway, back to food.

So, after a good look around the shows, my friend and I headed off to the V&A dining room for dinner. Usually a Friday night dinner is a little disappointing as it's a late opening and most of the food will have gone by the time we want to sit down to eat. This time, however, the food that was left was actually the food that I would have chosen overall anyway! 

Friday - Goats Cheese, Onion and Pepper Tart, Lentils with Beetroot, and Salad Leaves

Looks yum, right? Well, I was pretty puzzled by the beetroot-lentil combo, but it was, surprisingly I must admit, really lovely! The tart is puff pastry with caramelized onions and green and red roasted peppers with exactly the right amount of goat's cheese melted on top. This is definitely something that I want to be re-creating at home, so watch this space! It probably needed something herby to just pick up the flavours a little more, so that's one for the test kitchen. The lentils were just so surprising! - I know I keep using this word, but both my friend and I were pretty dubious about this combination but it's great! I still haven't quite worked out when and how to make this one though...The salad was mixed leaves with a mustard dressing which went really well with the tart too.

If you haven't been to the dining rooms at the V&A at night time then it's a must-do. During the day it's not so noticeable but by night the absolute decadence of the back rooms is just stunning. The V&A dining rooms are catered by Belgo and during the day also have a salad bar, loads of cakes, sandwiches, and more hot food options. The V&A is served by South Kensington underground station.