The Times Travel Show @ Earl's Court - 8-9th Feb

Earlyish start today - train to London at 9am - breakfast ready and off we go! Breakfast was lovely, brioche, fruit salad and smoothies - fit for the train. Smooth sailing - though passing lots of flooded areas and we were at Earls Court before we knew it!

It wasn't overly big but set up in different regions of the world with tasting sessions and the extreme taste zone. We wandered the world - literally and headed to some taste zones.

We tried some pulled pork from the North America zone - was very nice, not sure about the citrus element to it though. We also tried some guacamole and nachos from the Central America section along with some cacao liquor - that was a little like medicine. We had some cheese from the Europe zone and some wine from the Czech Republic. But the weirdest things we tried were hands down the curried crickets and toasted grass eating ants. The crickets were surprisingly nice - dry and crisp with a curried aftertaste - not at all offensive. Not sure why some refused to try them so we had seconds! The ants on the other hand left a nasty aftertaste and kind of popped once you bit through the crusty shell. Not seeing us eating those in the future when we have to start relying on eating insects. It will happen!

We collected loads of brochures for inspiration - heavy they were and headed to the hotel which was fine for one night. Not too far from Earl's Court tube was hotel Oliver, we watched some Winter Olympics on the relatively hard bed before heading over to China Town. We frequented some bars for Belgium beers which were nice then went to the Chinese supermarket for some Chinese rice wine and Sichuan peppercorns! It was awesome in there, though we were probably the only Brits in there!

Our meal was amazeballs! And ridiculously cheap! We had the set menu, starter platter, duck, Sichuan prawns, beef in black bean sauce, rice and veg for £20 each - with drinks!! Awesome!!

After some more Belgium beers we headed back - our whistle stop tour was great! Shame the train on the way back Sunday took a little longer but a few crosswords and we were home. Now to start exploring holiday ideas!!