Having being affected by the norovirus (winter vomiting bug) the week before, you’d think it’ll be some time before I get infected again right? Well, ordinarily for ordinary people yes. As for me, I have seemingly caught a cold!! AARGH! Because I’ve been off two days the week before, it seems crazy for me to be off again, so I’ve been coming into work and not getting enough rest. Not only that, I have been skimping drastically on my excercise routine after having been so good for three months – being continuously sick does that to you, you know.

I have also been furiously planning for my trip down under in 3 weeks and counting! I have had to slash a few good many recommendations from people out, but basically it seemed to have turned into an eating trip rather than regular tourism. Weird. I still need to decide what I want to do in Gold Coast – it will be a trip of Melbourne-Gold Coast- Sydney. Unfortunately Perth proved to be too expensive for me to fly out and in again – with prices reaching about £200 – £300 each way. I would have had to fly into Sydney again, doubling the airtickets and effectively costing nearly as much as it would have if I were to just fly to Perth and back direct!

OH, by the way, do you like my new header? It looks more like a proper picture made for a header rather than my previously half-baked attempts. Thanks to moo who is always helping me sort out blog related stuff

So I thought I wouldn’t bother him any more than I already am as I start a new blog. WHAT?!? NEW BLOG? YOU HARDLY UPDATE THIS ONE AS IT IS!!

Erm, yes. Sorry. I thought it wouldn’t be fair to you my dear readers to have to put up with my new obsession with producing healthy lunch for myself and bacon. The only reason I blog about it is so I continue to be motivated under the watchful eyes of fellow bento-making crazies. If you think my lunches are crazy, you should REALLY click on some of the links that are on my new blog, not another brown bag lunch . Extremely impressive. For me, I just want to make sure I eat healthily, with a splash of cuteness when time and inspiration permits. I also eat far too much rice for my own good, so this allows me to strictly portion myself to 1 cup of cooked rice at any one time.

Okay, back to work before my boss arrives..shh…don’t tell her I’ve been secretly blogging…

Apologies for the lack of posting again! I’ve been off sick with norovirus last week – hugging the toilet bowl is never a good look for anyone. Neither is coming out in cold sweat at all times due to my inability to contain food inside rather than outside of my body..Thankfully I was well by the weekend, which means the trip to London was back on again – yay!!

The journey there was challenging to say the least. Somehow, the GARMIN sat nav refuses to get on the M25 (ring highway around London) and we had to go through London – again. Driving through London is like driving on the monopoly board….Whitechapel, Broad Street…hehe. We ended up at Canary Wharf not too late though at 8.40pm. Of course it was then out again immediately for dinner…and I have been dreaming of steaming bowls of vietnamese noodles for way too long to be healthy

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Pho – aromatic beef marrow soup with rice sticks and fresh herbs and spices plus a squeeze of lemon and splash of fish sauce. It was not the best ever, but very lovely; definately the best I’ve had in the UK so far including my home made one. Oh, and other than the strange fact that they do not serve it with sriracha sauce. I was apalled…I always have sriracha sauce with my pho; from San Francisco to Paris and Melbourne! Aaah!

This was what KJ had – looks like chirashi sushi. It gets mixed in with nuoc cham, a sauce made of fish sauce, sugar, lime and chillies

We also ordered the cha gio – fried vietnamese spring rolls. Delicious, I can vouch for its authenticity with its bean threads and sliced wood fungus dipped in fish sauce/sugar/chilli dip. I thought I took a picture of it, but apparently not! Again, the best I’ve had yet in the UK – and this says something for its quality.

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Saturday morning bright and early (well, about 10.30am) we headed on to Notting Hill for the weekend Portobello Market. I’ve never been to the market itself (only to notting hill for the Notting Hill Festival) and neither has KJ even though she’s been a council tax payer to the City of London for over a year.

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As we did not had anything to eat before that, we barged through the market straight to the land of pastel pink and chocolate brown; Hummingbird Bakery….heehee. It was a different experience to my previous trip – the Notting Hill branch was super cramped, way too many tourists and the staff (other than the lovely guy manning the tills) were abrupt and not very polite – my cupcake came upside down in a paperbag and bacon’s was so squashed. Bad cupcake worker!

Cupcakes on parade in all their glory…..but if you’re thinking of getting their cookbook, it’s available here for half price.

Lovely candied colored cuppas

Jam-packed queues out the store!
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Luckily, as I was inside pushing my way through the queues, bacon manage to finagled us a table outside; seeing how cramped the store was, there were only TWO tiny tables outside for customers to eat at..grr. So most people just purchased the cupcakes and had them outside, standing next to us. I much prefer the South Kensington branch where there are a few more tables available and the shop is not as teeny and cramped. Not been to the SoHo branch

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I went for the Saturday special; chocolate & beetroot cupcake. You can actually TASTE the beetroot, which was suprising as I did not actually expect to taste it. It was super moist due to the inclusion of beetroot, and lovely dark color; almost like a dark maroon red velvet cupcake. Very delish. There is very little sugar in the cupcake, which balances very well with the sweet cream cheese frosting. Delicious.

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Kayjean had the savoury muffins with spinach & cheese. Very nice. I made the ham & cheese muffins before and it tastes fairly similar to this…will try this next.

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Bacon had the brownie-cheesecake fusion…I’ve been wanting to make this for the longest time, but bacon had always been very resistant to the idea, thinking that it’ll taste rubbish. So he ordered it to prove a point and to reassure him that he don’t like it. Verdict: I think it’s not too bad, cheesecakey, brownie like, cakey…..whilst bacon confirmed that it’s not something he would be making anytime soon himself. Hmm. Damnit.

Scoffing Eating done, we continued down Portobello St, stopping at antique stalls and such…when it started pouring it down. It was so heavy we had to take shelter and kinda waited it out. It let down slightly after about 15 minutes, but not enough. So we started making our way back to the tube station, having only done about 1/3 of the market. Very soon it was shelter seeking time again (I say its the rain, but I think we wanted to munch again) , and we dipped into Arancina, an italian cafe serving up lovely pizzas from a VW Bug. Aint it cute??

Inside it was jampacked again; but this time with italian tourists. The staff are again very bizzare…kept insisting that there would be no seating available upstairs (when bacon had actually already got us a table) and sold us our food to take away. Well, fool them as it costs about 10% more to eat in than takeaway.

We got a slice of thin crust mushroom & ham pizza…very nice and yummy

And a risotto mozzarella croquette called Suppli…lovely risotto rice (I usually hate risottos) and a huge chunk of mozzarella inside, all packaged up in a yummy fried package. You can see the mozzarella melting into the rice above… Delicious

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By the time we’ve shopped our way through the market (Kayjean bought a lovely pair of patent purple wellies for £5) it was already nearly 3pm. Next stop was Harrods – my wedding & engagement rings needed a deep cleanse and I had to get to Tiffany’s to send them off for servicing. As usual, jampacked with tourists…I am probably one myself, but I am getting dead sick of tourists in London…walking really slowly in tube stations, stopping at inappropriate places to stare at the tube map, pushing their way through and then stopping in front of the ticket machines…..*dizzy*.

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As we were heading out from Harrods, I literally bumped into Laduree next to Krispy Kreme at the Food Hall. I had been in two minds about the most famous macaroon maker in the world and had initially decided against it; but seeing that we literally bumped into it, we had to try a little takeway bag of macaroons…

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At £5.80 for 5 (this was the cheapest), this was definately not a cheap treat, seeing that they are minute (large macaroons are £3 each). We had two rose flavoured, one salted caramel, one orange blossoms and one lemon. The salted caramel was the best of the lot, with a lovely toffee like flavour and chewy caramely texture. Was it nice? Hmm..as macaroons goes, pretty much. Is it worth a special trip? Don’t think so. Is it worth £5.80 for five mouthfuls of puffy confectionary? If you are *really* into macaroons…I did not regret trying it, but it’s probably not something that I would go out of my way for.

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It was about 4pm at this point, and I still had to head towards Piccadilly Square! Seeing that bento-making is my new obsession this year, I had to stock up on Japanese foodstuff and bento gear! Me & KJ ( I convinced her that making cute lunches is a good thing) walked away with a small stash of bento making gear and also foodstuff…I got some fish eggs (god I love them) which will be making an appearance in my lunch soon and also an onigri box. They do quite alot of food at the Japan Centre shop, but we didn’t have any. However, it all looks very lovely and I would defiantely recommend anyone interested in Japanese culture and food to check the place out for sushis, donburis, bento boxes and sashimis….

After stocking up, it was time to head towards my central London Malaysian restaurant for some good old fashioned nasi lemak. I’ve written about this place a few times previously, and it produces fairly consistent food. However, this time around KJ’s fried pan mee wasn’t very nice – not too sure whether it’s a compliment or an insult, but mine was nicer! Bacon’s maggi mee goreng was ok, whilst my nasi lemak was the usual standards of lovely creamy rice offset by the side sambal and creamy curry chicken

We were so full from dinner that it was then a slow trudge home…on an early saturday night. Our feet were killing us, and it was definately time for home…where we proceeded to make a carrot cake and some makis even though we were stuffed to the gills .

Fast forward to sunday, we headed towards Greenwich to do a spot of tourism at the Royal Observatory. However, we stopped at a large chinese cash & carry….and never made it to the Royal Observatory. I stocked up on more stuff….but the cash & carry wasn’t the main attraction. Next door was a small teeny unassuming shopfront (called Man & Man consulting) where A4 sheets advertised it as selling tofu. And let me tell you – it was the BEST tofu fah (a tofu dessert, with a texture like creme brulee) I’ve had in a very very long time. The fried tofu was also very delicious, and so is the soymilk. Oh god…this is what you call authentic home made soy….completely different from those you get at your local supermarket or even chinese grocery stall with preservatives, flavourings, colorings and whatnots. Am so glad I stocked up on my tofu needs…it’ll last for a week or two.

By the time we were done at See Woo & tofu shopping, it was 1pm and I was starving. So it was goodbye Royal Observatory and hello food. Bacon wanted dim sum, so KJ brought us to her local dim sum place in Millwall…we’ve been forewarned its cheap, but slightly unreliable; the food is sometimes yuck and sometimes nice. I was starving and didn’t want to go somewhere pricey where I had to watch what I ordered, so off to Lotus we went.

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First impressions: very nice! Advertised as a ‘floating’ (don’t think it goes anywhere really) restaurant; it commands the impressive background of the Canary Wharf high-powered banking houses (squint and you can see Barclays, HSBC & citibank)…the lovely sunshine definately helps. Dim sum wise, it was definately haphazard quality…everything was nice and lovely until we got to the last dish of chicken & salted fish pot rice…which came in a bowl and looks suspuiciously like sliced chicken served over steamed rice rather than a potted meal cooked together.

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Lovely dimsum…LOVED the fried har kao, light and fluffy batter

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The abysmal chicken & salted fish pot rice – where the best thing about it is the salted fish.

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Addresses & contacts

Cafe East
100 Redriff Road, London,
London SE16 7LH
t: 020 8691 7777
w: www.cafeeastpho.com

Hummingbird Bakery
133 Portobello Road,
Notting Hill, London
W11 2DY
t: 020 7229 6446
w: www.hummingbirdbakery.co.uk

Arancina
19 Pembridge Road,
Notting Hill, London

Laduree (Harrods)
Harrods, 87-135 Brompton Road,
Knightsbridge, London, SW1X 7XL
t: 0203 155 0111
w: www.laduree.fr

Japan Centre
212-213 Piccadilly
London, W1J 9HX
w: www.japancenter.com

C&R Cafe
3-4 Rupert Court,
London, W1D 6DY
t: 020 7434 1128

See Woo Cash & Carry (Tofu shop is just before the cash & carry)
Furlong House, Horn Lane
Greenwich, SE10 0RT

Lotus
38 Limeharbour, Inner Millwall Dock
Isle of Dogs, E14 9RH
t: 020 7 515 6445

Oriental City is my little secret in Leeds. I’ve been going there since they opened up a few years ago, and is the place I bring people I want to impress – like the parents, friends, outlaws..ect. Serving up one of the best chinese food in Leeds, I have always been pleased with its fairly consistent service and food. Unlike the hit-and-miss service in Red Chilli, Oriental City always offers fairly good service – not to mention that they understand cantonese there instead of speaking some sort of obscure mainland china dialect that I don’t understand and then have the nerve to stare me down. Although the owners are actually Vietnamese Chinese, all of them speak good Cantonese, making it easier for me to order. They also own the cash and carry next door, but I would defiantely not recommend it – most items are unpriced and are expensive compared to other asian grocery stores in Leeds.

I have had meals (dishes with rice) there before, but it is really their dim sum service that shines. Dim sum is translated into ‘little dots to the heart’; which is what these dumplings are, little touches to warm your cockles. Traditionally eaten during breakfast, it is now progressively being eaten for lunch instead. Not so much in Hong Kong where delicious dim sum are still being served from 6am. Oh I do love Hong Kong….ok moving on.

Oriental City’s dim sum are on par with the fabulous dim sum that I’ve had in San Francisco or Hong Kong – and definately better than the ones served up in Malaysia. This is probably due to the large population of Hong Kongers that moved here in the late 70s. You can always find old chinese ladies having a natter over a few platefuls of dim sums, chinese famillies tucking in and a handful of non-chinese tables, usually looking very curiously at everyone elses’ plates. It is not a place that you accidentaly stumble across seeing that it is just out of town, but the trek is worth it.

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I’ve had most of the items on the menu, but this time I’ve decided to go for the xiao loong bao, also known as shanghainese dumplings. These were cleverly steamed in a cupcake cup to prevent the stock that comes in the dumpling from leaking. Delicious. The skin was definately too thick for me, but the cupcake cases do keep the stock in, leakage is the main problem for xiao loong baos. A superior xiao loong bao is supposed to be wrapped in super-thin skin whilst keeping the lovely tasty stock inside (some restaurants even provide you with a teeny straw to suck the stock out). So all in all, not bad effort. Behind it is one of the more traditional dim sum item; siu mai, or pork and prawn dumpling on the menu.

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I also ordered the custard steamed bun, known as leng yoong bao in Cantonese. Not really made out of custard, it is a steamed bun with a milky/custardy crumble as a filling. Behind that is another traditional dim sum item; har kao, or prawn dumpling. It is definately my favourite item; I love prawns generally, so this is no suprise.

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We always have this during dim sum sessions – meng har kok; deep fried prawn parcels with a salad cream dipping sauce. Yes, salad cream IS traditionally used for this dish. This used to amuse bacon to no end . Definately bacon’s favourite dim sum item. Deep fried…mmmm

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We also ordered bacon’s favourite X.O fried udon with mixed seafood. At £9, it is one of the more expensive item on the menu. However, the oversized scallops, king prawns and squid more than make up for it. Very delicious…although I must warn you that it is spicy, so if you fancy having a go, just make sure that you can handle the heat!

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If you are game for authentic Chinese food, go here. If you are just wanting a normal sweet and sour pork, go to your local takeaway.

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Oriental City Restaurant
30-36 Cross Stamford Street
Leeds, LS7 1BA
0113 244 9797

Its been amazing snowfall here in the UK, with chaos wrecked on transport links and such…however, if you stay closer to home its fabulous!!! Could you believe it all fell in a 6 hour timescale – I woke up at 6.15 and it wasn’t snowing…by 7.30 the snow was about 2 inches deep. By noon it was about 6.

So deep you can’t even see my snow angel!!

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Can’t really walk without wellies anymore..

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bacon pretending to be a snowman..

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Bacon shovelling our way into the house

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The farm enveloped by super deep snow