Entertaining Away and Hosting a Party on Holidays – Our London Launch Party

“Will you be having one of these parties at every destination you visit?” was the most common question we fielded at our buzzy Grantourismo launch party in London on Thursday night. Maybe. For us, entertaining when we’re away is one of the most fun things to do in a holiday rental. And it is something we do plan to do throughout our yearlong global grand tour devoted to slow, local and experiential travel this year.

If you’re arriving here for the first time, the reason for the questions was that we hosted a pre-launch sunset soiree at our luxurious villa rental on The Palm Jumeirah in Dubai last week, then the cocktail party here this week at our beautiful home away from home in London, which is a cosy and comfy multi-level holiday rental. So naturally it might be assumed that we were establishing some kind of crazy pattern of party-throwing.

“No, definitely not!!!” I immediately responded, surveying the mess in the kitchen as Terence and the chef from catering company Kitchen Angels were prepping canapés. “Although we might host the occasional small dinner party or casual drinks as we make local friends…”

Food is an essential component of the kind of travel we do – whether we’re shopping locals markets for fresh local produce, dining out at our restaurants, or doing a cooking class. Food is an important aspect of our grand tour this year as food is a fantastic way to connect with locals, local communities and local cultures.

But for most people on holidays, ‘entertaining away’ is little more than picking up some dips and crackers or getting takeaway and wine and beers. Most people don’t want to cook when they’re on vacation.

Yet for us, learning to cook some local dishes, buying local produce, and staying in to prepare at least one meal a day is one of the reasons we prefer holiday houses and apartment rentals to hotels. Even better if we can entertain new friends.

Entertaining Away and Hosting a Party on Holidays – Our London Launch Party

Let’s face it: eating out is most travellers’ favourite thing to do when they’re away, and the ability to cook and eat in is one of the most enjoyable aspects of staying in a holiday rental.

Whether it’s simply laying out a spread of local cheeses and cold cuts for sunset drinks on the balcony before going out, or a family or group of friends grilling up a barbecue by the pool, being able to entertain is one of the big advantages of choosing a holiday rental over a hotel, and it’s a big cost-saver too.

That explains two of Terence’s projects this year for every place we settle into for two weeks at a time: firstly, to devise a simple breakfast eggs dish based on a local dish or local ingredients that anyone can cook up in their holiday rental, and secondly, to learn to cook a quintessential dish that’s unique to each of the places we visit and to perfect it.

And ideally, if and when the chance arises, to cook that dish for the person who might have taught him how to cook it or for new local friends or neighbours we meet who know the dish. Entertaining away on a larger scale, as we have done in Dubai and London, was not part of our original project. But, kitchen mess aside, now we’re kind of warming to the idea…

In contrast to our pre-launch Dubai party, for which Terence and I did all the cooking, for the London party, our project partners HomeAway hired caterers Kitchen Angels, to free up our time to socialise. In keeping with sustainable travel mission, we asked them to prepare British canapés made from local produce.

And because Terence couldn’t resist, he also devised several types of canapés of his own that were inspired by the local produce we’d tried in London this week and the British food we’d been eating at London restaurants, and worked beside our Kitchen angel chef to prepare them. It proved that it was possible to entertain away and host a party in a holiday rental. And in case you’re curious…

Our London Grantourismo Launch Party Canapés Inspired By British Produce

These are the British-inspired canapés that Terence created for our London Grantourismo launch party:

Smoked Trout and Goat’s Cheese Tian on Blinis

This was a modification of a trout tian recipe that Terence loved from Tetsuya restaurant in Sydney and made for many years. Terence’s justification for transporting the dish to London: “The smoked trout in London is wonderful so I combined it with a local fresh goat’s cheese, Childwickbury goat’s cheese, that is light and lemony.”

“I also added local capers, anchovies and herbs, as well, and this was bound with egg yolk,” Terence explained. “I simply served these as a small ‘tian’ or small tower on the blinis. These disappeared so fast we had to whip up a second batch!”

But as the night wore on and Terence’s energy wore out, the third batch morphed into traditional smoked salmon on blini with caviar, which is far easier to make if you’re feeding a crowd.

Smoked Mackerel on Celeriac Purée with Bacon on Oat Chips

Terence wanted to use smoked eel, which we’ve eaten this week, but we couldn’t find any in time, so he substituted eel for some lovely mackerel. He was also keen to use some celeriac that we kept seeing on menus and at markets.

“I don’t see celeriac much in either Dubai or Australia, apart from in restaurants,” Terence said. “So I wanted to work with it… and the highlight of my night was the chef tasting the seasoning of my celeriac purée and declaring it ‘perfect’.”

“I was quite chuffed as he’s a non-nonsense chef – and a damn good one,” Terence revealed. “Correct seasoning is so important with mash, purees and soups – and it’s a common mistake to over- or under-season these. I served the mixture on the oat chips with the mackerel and bacon chip on top.”

Pork Pâté with Bacon Powder and Red Wine Reduction

Terence loved the pork pâté we tried at The Ginger Pig and wanted to incorporate it into one of the canapés for our launch party, rather than just serve it alone with bread or crackers.

“I toasted some local bread, cut bite-sized squares, and placed a slice of pâté on top,” Terence explained. “On top of this I added a little brush of red wine reduction. I’m increasingly interested in texture in dishes, in the way that Thai cooks use different textures for ‘mouth-feel’. So for this canapé, I simply blended up some bacon crisps and sprinkled this over the pâté to give some flavourful crunch.”

If there isn’t a blender or food processor in your holiday rental kitchen, you could pound crunchy fried bacon in a mortar and pestle. And if the kitchen doesn’t have a mortar and pestle, slice the crispy bacon pieces finely, pop them in a plastic zip loc bag and bash them with a rolling pin or meat tenderiser or whatever you can find.

The Very British Drinks We Served

We also served English wine and apple juice from Biddenden Wines, and of course we offered a cocktail of our own, for which Sarah, our HomeAway project partner, found a recipe on the Marie-Claire site:

Truly British Cocktail

50 ml gin
dash elderflower cordial
apple juice to taste

In a tall glass, pour the gin over some ice, add a dash of elderflower cordial. and top with apple juice. Stir well and garnish with a slice of local apples. (We actually garnished with strawberries and mint.)

The London launch party for our yearlong Grantourismo project was loads of fun. But food and drinks aside, like the Dubai party, what made it especially fun was the chance it gave us to meet people we’d only known from Twitter or the blogosphere – and what a lovely bunch they were!

It was also great to finally meet other travel writers and editors and travel industry folk, who we’d been in touch with through our work before, but had never met in person, and to be able to share travel tales and tips.

So now, after our successful London and Dubai launch parties, we’re liking the idea of entertaining away and hosting relaxed social gathering at our holiday rentals this year when the opportunity arises… what do you think?

Next stop: our official first stop on our yearlong grand tour dedicated to advocating slow, local and experiential travel is Marrakech in Morocco, where we’ll be settling in for two weeks. Our ‘Marrakech home away from home’ will be a beautiful riad in the heart of the medina.