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

Continuing my reviews of chain restaurants – another restaurant that I have been encouraged to try from the Hi-Life card range is Chiquitos. I absolutely love Mexican food, although not so much after leaving California. I cannot recognise dishes that most restaurants here in the UK (and Malaysia too) try to pass off as Mexican. I pray for the day that Taco Bell eventually makes it out of the States (yes, its THAT BAD). A proper San Franciscan burrito with refried beans, carne asada and rice topped with unlimited fresh salsa (seasoned with freshly chopped coriander) – just like the way they serve it up at Mission district. Sigh. And yes, I do know that San Francisco is not Mexico, but a San Franciscan burritos is actually different from a regular mexican burrito (its got rice wrapped up as well as meats, beans and veg).

Beggars can’t be choosers right? I had never wanted to step inside Chiquitos before for fear of having to pay full price for food that I hate (it’s not exactly cheapo McDonalds). However, it gets thumbs up from me, and we’re turning it into our regular Thursday night spot….yep, the Hi Life card offers two for one mains there up to Thursday! I usually go for the tex-mex option rather than proper mexican – introducing my steak fajitas.

Bacon had just the steak, which came with yummy fries, coleslaw and grilled sweet corn on the cob. I love steaks done on the grill, and again, Chiquitos got bacon’s steak cooked the way he liked it, medium-rare. I love mine so rare that it’s close the being blue.

Sure, this is hardly mexican (nowhere NEAR authentic) but it’s fun tex-mex, and DELICIOUS. I had been dissapointed to find that TGI Fridays in the UK is seriously not nice at all – I used to love TGI Fridays when I was in California, and even in Malaysia they usually taste quite passable. Chiquitos also offer the usual selection of burritos, chimichangas, quesedilla ect..which I really need to try. Who knows, it might actually BE close to authentic Mexican. At the moment I still think my best bet would be heading towards the land I called home for three years….I hear a Mission-styled burrito calling my name……

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Chiquitos
(Outlets across the UK)

I am not a pizza person. Fact. I’d eat pizzas, but it’s never my first choice. Pizza hut ( bacon loooooves it) probably contributed to it. Thick, stodgy crust with bare-bones toppings, too much salt and a thin spread of tomato paste…ugh. To hide the disgusting crust, I usually go for pizzas that’s piled mile high with toppings…equating to an even more oil-soaked crust contributing to a thoroughly disgusting meal. Double Ugh.

So it was refreshingly suprising that I have fallen in love with Pizza Express this year. Believe it or not, I have never been to Pizza Express until this year – partly due to my repulsion of pizzas and partly due to my general adversion to chain restaurants. Visits to Pizza Express is now a near-monthly occasion….even though I had not blogged about it before, I had regularly tweeted my pizza express photos. Admittedly, these visits might possibly coincide with us owning a Hi-Life dining card this year; giving diners buy-1-get-1-free on all mains in Pizza Express Sundays through to Friday.I also love how they are usually very efficient – I have issues with inefficient service and servers having a chinwag whilst customers waited vainly for their cheque. On a full-house, I can usually expect my pizza on the table within 15minutes of ordering. I have been to near-empty pubs where it takes them a WHOLE HOUR to serve me my food.

I have ordered a different pizza each time I went, I love the super thin crust, light base sauce and classy toppings that is a step above ham-and-pineapple. So last Sunday when we were at Pizza Express again, I went for the skinny options. The Legerra Pizzas supposedly has less calories (apparently hovering at the 500 kcals mark) than conventional pizzas – with the crust shaped like a doughnut rather than a full disc. The middle bit of the pizza (best part!!) is replaced by a salad of rocket & spinach – god knows what they do with the middle part that they’ve removed? It is also smaller, contributing to portion controls I guess. Low-fat mozzarella is used – this is fairly obvious and I did miss the creamy taste of the mozzarella.

Unfortunately for me, apparently the skinny option does not leave much of a choice for the carnivore. I went for the only Legerra pizza containing any meat; the Gustosa. The Gustosa (the name sounds so robust) is ‘Hand torn prosciutto cotto ham, fior di latte mozzarella and slices of portobello mushroom with sweet yellow peppers and a sprinkle of thyme.’ Hmm. The amount of proscuitto ham was so minute that I had to stop half way through to check whether there were actually any ham on my pizza.

I know it all sounds like a complaint, but if this is diet food, it is defiantely one of the tastiest diet options out there. The pizza is very light and flavours not overpowering. The salad (I replaced mine with a rocket-only salad) is nice enough, dressed with what looks like Pizza Express’ creamy salad dressing. Apparently the crust is made with a ’skinny’ recipe, but I must say I did not notice the difference there.

Bacon went for one of his old favourites; the 14 inch Etna – spicy soft sausage, fiery roquito peppers and speck ham; finished with grated grana padano. I was happy with my lighter option until I had a slice of his meaty and spicy pizza….the lesson is when you’re having a skinny option, DO NOT TRY THE FATTY OPTION. Left alone with the Legerra I was happy….having a bite of the Etna reminded me of the times when I ordered the Diavolo, the Sloppy Guiseppe and my favourite – the Pollo Pancetta. It took some self control for me to return to my doughnut decorated with rocket.

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This was my first Pizza Express pizza by the way – they don’t do this anymore – oval pizza with torn mozzarella, rocket and pancetta.

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Whilst this is the yummy Pizza Diavlo. Love the jalapenos

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Would I go for the Legerra option again next time? Hm. I probably would appreciate it more if they added more non-veggie option. I still love Pizza Express though, and am still slightly amused that they have managed to turn around my adversion for pizzas.

Pizza Express
Get details of your nearest restaurants

Remember this post where I ate at Jamie Oliver’s Italian in Oxford? Well, thought it was time to visit another one (on expenses again) whilst I was away on one of my tours down to Brighton. The last time I was there I had chinese buffet – which was the simplest thing really as we were really tired and just wanted something in our tummies and be on our way.

On a blustery Monday night, things were fairly quiet; none of the crazy queues that we saw in Oxford branch. Which was really suprising, as we were told they were only able to fit us in at 6.30pm (we were aiming for 7pm you see). So some of us got seated at 6.30 whilst waiting for me to arrive at 7. We did not even ordered till 7.30pm, so what was the harm in seating us at 7pm instead? Especially in an empty restaurant! That was kind of offputting and annoying. I do hate places where they just want to tweak your timings slightly – just because they can.

Interior-wise it was lovely – nicer than then one in Oxford. Translucent pink chandeliers set off the dark woodsy interior – and coming down the stairs you were treated to a live televised view of the kitchen which was projected on the wall facing the stairs. Olive oils and wines line the wall, making for a very impressive rendition of a modern italian eatery. I was with loads of people from work,thus the lack of pictures in case they think me freaky! I did not order any starters, although I was very, very tempted. Sat at the girls end of the table, they were just all on a perpetual diet. However, I was pleased that I waited for my main course instead of having a starter – it would have completely ruined it!

They call this Fish in a Bag. Yes, I did order it just because it was called fish in a bag. Slightly dissapointing that it did not come in an actual bag (I was expecting zip lock bag and all) – instead it was a seafood parcel, wrapped in waxed paper and tinfoil. Inside were some clams, mussels, a side of seabass and some sliced baby potatoes, all topped by fennel, capers and a lemon slice and then baked. The juices were absolutely lovely..very light with a touch of white wine and the lemon to bring out the zing in it. None of the mains comes with any sides, so I had a side of rocket and radicchio salad with parmesan cheese. The portion was HUGE – it was more of a main meal than a side salad, but not a problem there as I absolutely love rocket. The simple balsamic dressing was very very lovely – again, light, tasty and easy on the palate. If there was one complaint it would be that there were too much grated parmesan on the salad (my fault for not asking it on the side) – it kinda took the shine away from the light dressing.It might just be me, as I am currently trying to watch my cheese intake carefully.

I polished it off very satisfactorily. A braver person would go for some of the funky chips – there were that good that one of us had it as a starter as well as a side . It took me ages to decide if I wanted a dessert. None of the girls would have any….we were talking about weightwatchers points throughout dinner, which was slightly offputting….and there was me, stuffing my face. So whilst they chose coffees, I chose a variation of coffee – tiramisu . I had this last time, and it was so good I had to have it again! I was definately thinking of bacon when I ordered it – he absolutely loved it when we had it in the Oxford branch.

I love how it is so well-soaked with delish espresso, with a generous grating of orange zest. Sigh….heavenly.The side of mascarpone was a little too much for me, so I left it whilst I polished off about 80% of the tiramisu. I already feel bad enough stuffing my face without the female species eyeing me speculatively whilst I polish off a gazillion pointed dessert! Strangely enough someone else pinched the mascarpone and just ate it as-is. Hmm.

All in all, very satisfactory. I didn’t go for the pasta this time around, but those that had absolutely loved it. Would I have the same items again? Sure. Jamie did not dissapoint again. And AM SO LOOKING FORWARD TO LEEDS BRANCH OPENING IN APRIL!!!

Jamie Oliver’s Italian
Brighton Branch (with branches all over the southern part of the country )
11 Black Lion Street,
Brighton BN1 1ND
01273 915 480