I’m not entirely sure that a trip to Red Lobster deserves an entire blog post by itself. Heh. Well, I’m going to anyway, as I never did document my visits to Red Lobsters years ago. Red Lobster is a nationwide seafood chain, serving up lobsters (doh), crabs, shrimps and more. However, my favourite memory of Red Lobster is most definately their deliciously naughty Cheddar Bay scones. Served warm, buttery, soft and herby, I had dreamt about them for many years since I left CA.

.

As usual, when we went in for an early lunch, I was not hungry at all, having just had breakfast. Seeing that the Red Lobster by Times Sq was the only one that we’d seen in New York, we thought we would pop in for a quick lunch anyway and share a platter.

The yummy Cheddar Bay biscuits. The best part is they are FREE – comes complimentary with every main course ordered. OMG. When I was a penniless student, I used to go into Red Lobster, order the cheapest entree, and get two lots of the biscuits. And then doggy bag all of it when I’ve finished with a basket of biscuit. Yeah, I have no shame . The biscuits are really beautiful. So buttery it should be made illegal, as soft as a marshmallow, it literally melts in your mouth. I have to admit though, I don’t really like the main courses as much as I love the free starter.

.

We ordered a Seafood Platter, which came with a starter of Caesar Salad. Crisp and tasty, like a caesar salad should be – just nice.

.

And here it was – the shrimp and lobster platter. A pot of buttered shrimp, a shrimp skewer, a lobster tail, wild rice, fries, ketchup and melted butter, this was seafood dipped in butter. It tastes better than it looks, and suprisingly not as greasy as all the butter would lead you to believe. The seafood was suprisingly fresh, and the butter counteracts beautifully with the well seasoned seafood. Bacon even went as far to declare that this was the best meal he had in the States – and with the places that I bring him, this is no easy feat!

I miss Red Lobster already.. It was lovely when I was a student and it is still unpretentiously lovely now. Highly recommended as a family restaurant as they cater for kids, but it serves up good value tasty seafood for adults as well. I wished they would seriously consider opening a branch up in the UK, although it would probably triple the prices!

---
You might also be interested in these :

• Only in England..
• A little prayer, a lit candle
• Happy Birthday the Land of the brave!
• Problems at Japanese banks
• Awesome Tour of Sydney-progress so far…

Before we accidentally bumped into Eileen’s Special Cheesecake, we were actually on the lookout for La Esquina Taqueria & Cafe, Mexican cuisine exordinaire. Another non-tourist haunt, this was recommended to me by a blog friend as serving one of the better mexican food in the NY area. Seeing that it is literally diagonal from Eileen’s, I still have no clue how we missed it.

Serving up mexican food street-food style, it is tacos galore, and even proper sandwiches in baguettes. There is a sit-down cafe next to it, but we decided to go it takeaway-style from the taqueria, where food is freshly cooked and the service is speedy.

Lining up. Looks like the streetfood kiosks that pepper California.

.

Bacon ordered the pepito, the grilled steak sandwich in a crusty baguette with chimmichurri sauce. You could taste the freshness of the ingreddients, and that was nice.

.

I had the fish taco, pescado a las brasas. Grilled skewer of fresh fish with red slaw and salsa verde, this was freshness to the max – obviously I didn’t realise that one portion meant one taco – could’ve done with a few monre. Fortunately I didn’t order more, otherwise I wouldn’t had been able to finish my ‘side dish’.

.

Taco soup. Hardly a side dish, this was a hearty meal by itself. Chockful of tangy tomatoes, creamy avocado, chicken and crunchy black corn tortillas, this was heavenly. It was the first time I had taco soup – and ever since returning to the UK, I had had this three more times, once in a mexican restaurant and I made it myself twice. I fell in love with this dish, and I think the magic is due to the amazing creamy avocadoes and swirl of sour cream – somehow mine just never taste 100% the same, but 97% is close enough for me! Yummys.

.

La Esquina was refreshing, a definate well-loved trendy neighbourhood haunt. It has a slightly speakeasy-like aura surrounding it. Minimalist food with extremely fresh ingredients, this really impressed me. Flavours are not masked with lashings of tinned salsa or cheese/sour cream combo that is so prevalent in Mexican restaurants in the UK. Everyone seem to know exactly what they wanted except for me and bacon, the token tourists. I am ever so pleased that we stumbled upon (well, more recommended to, thanks Megan!) this little slice of real New York, and the flavours of Mexican food delighted my tastebuds to no end. Ahh….I remember now why I used to love Mexican food. Thank you La Esquina for bringing me back.

Resource
La Esquina
106 Kenmare St
New York, 10012, United States
(646) 613-1333
Underground: Spring St Station

---
You might also be interested in these :

• Awesome America: Red Lobster
• A little prayer, a lit candle
• Happy Birthday the Land of the brave!
• Problems at Japanese banks
• Awesome Tour of Sydney-progress so far…

We were actually searching for a Mexican street-food stall in SoHo that was located literally across the road from Eileens. Being completely blind, we just missed it for some stupid reason, and instead walked into Eileen’s for cake and directions. It was late and I was tired, and the little unassuming cake shop pulled at me like a magnet due to its quaint little size amongst other building blocks. I couldn’t have planned it any better. Eileen’s, it turned out, was a very famous and popular NY-styled cheesecake shop. Eileen herself actually gave us directions (by literally pointing across the road..doh).

.

.
Founded in 1975 as a wholesale bakery, the retail doors only became a reality when people started knocking on her door to buy cake. You can still see evidence of this inside – a small eat-in area of about 8 seats is supplemented by a gigantic wholesale-sized kitchen. Eileen herself was baking up a storm when we got there; apparently she was expecting a French film crew in the next hour. She still came out for a chat with her customers, which in my opinion, provides independent establishment with the extra personal touch compared to modern carbon-copy cafes

If you believe the internet, Eileen’s serves up one of the best (if not the best) cheesecake around in New York. And I agree. Deliciously smooth and light, tempered by just the right amount of sugar – unlike the commercially available cheesecakes with their faintly sickly sweet taste.

.

We ordered two mini cheesecakes – the original and the pecan.

.

The original

.

Pictures all around the teensy store. That’s the famous Eileen, by the way.

As we set there agape staring at the walls of reccomendations and awards, it finally dawned upon us that we were indeed in a treasured NY institution. Like wow. And not only does Eileen serves up a good cake, she is friendly and helpful as well. She seems to know most of her customers that walked in whilst we were there, and having been there since 1975, it’s no suprise that she is probably as local as they come.

.

Later that day, I literally bumped into the one place that I wanted to visit. I obviously didn’t realise that the cult following of Magnolia Bakery had resulted in a number of branches all across NY City. Hm. I was walking around Mid-town, and suddenly started spotting girls with paperbags from magnolia. Interesting. And then I spotted it.

.

.

Made famous by the SATC girls gossping over cupcakes, this NY institution was instantly elevated to the levels of glamour. Who would’ve known that cakes (especially cupcakes, the bane of children’s parties) could be elevated to glamour? Tourists (like myself) came from all over to experience the SATC phenomenan – heck, I don’t even watch it. But Magnolia Bakery transformed the cupcake industry as we know it. There are now dozens of Magnolia-wannabe bakeries all over the world, concentrating on pastel colors and sickly sweet frosting. Hey, I fall for it hook line and sinker too . I even had cupcakes for my wedding before it was all in-rage like it is now.

.

It was, as expected, super busy inside.

Cakes Cakes!

.

So anyway – because we had already eaten about 3 times over, I could only order one measly cupcake for us to share (REALLY could not fit any more in!). And it would just have to be the cult Red Velvet cupcake with cream cheese frosting.

First impression, not bad. Slightly plain-looking without the usual crazy pastel colors, but I don’t really care.

Digging in.

I’ve only really tasted one other red velvet before (other than mine) and it was Hummingbird Bakery’s. Magnolia’s is lighter than Hummingbird, both cake and frosting. This is most definately a good thing, Hummingbird excels in pretty presentation, but I do find their creations too much on the heavy side, dense cake and heavy frosting. Magnolia is also lighter on the sugar, which is really good as the frosting at Hummingbird usually ruins it – it’s nice, but far too much of it and far too sweet. Whereas Magnolia struck a good balance between flavours, lightness and sweetness.

I came away slightly dissapointed by the whole experience. It is probably the massive commercialisation – I don’t know what I expected, a hole in a wall? It feels like the KFC of fast food – nice enough, but the commercialisation ruins it slightly. Even though the cake is passable (slightly better than average I would put it), the whole experience is far from the homey home-grown bakery that was potrayed when Carrie & the girls gossiped in it.

Even though Eileen’s started off as a wholesale commercial venture, it had somehow manage to maintain the home-made neighbourhood feel about it, giving the cake character and the whole establishment history. Magnolia’s started off as an independent bakery, and morphed into a faceless commercial money-making giant – complete with branded gifts, countless stores and massive queues. Oh the irony.

Resources

Eileen’s Special Cheesecake
17 Cleveland Place
(corner of Kenmare and Centre Sts., opposite Lafayette and Spring Sts.)
New York, NY 10012
Spring St. Subway Stop

.

Magnolia Bakery
401 Bleecker St (W 11th Street)
New York, NY 10014
(other locations across NY)

---
You might also be interested in these :

• Awesome America: Red Lobster
• A little prayer, a lit candle
• UK Explored- North York Moors
• Awesome America : La Esquina
• Awesome America – Lady Liberty

One of the places that I was extremely excited to try out was one of the momofuku (meaning lucky peach) chain of ethnically diverse melting pot cuisine. Too cool for school, none of their restaurants/bars are advertised on the outside – I missed the noodle bar and had to walk past it a few times before I realise it was there. Located in the East Village, chef & restauraner David Chang really hit the point with four unique, diverse and critically acclaimed eateries that dances on your tastebuds.

I decided to visit the more casual noodle bar instead of the 12-seater ko, who only took reservations online. This was the first in the small empire that David Chang build, and I had to just taste for myself the to-die-for pork buns & udons. Heavy Korean and Japanese influences pepper the menu on all four momofukus, but they are most definately not typically ‘asian’.

The utilitarian communal benches

momofuku is just ‘one of those restaurants’ that menu du jour really IS menu du jour. The choices are not repeated like for like and varies from lunch to dinner. Some restaurants serves the same daily specials day in day out, taking away all the excitement and point of having a daily special.

So this was what we had – pork brisket buns, miso ramen and chocolate chip cake truffles.

The fabulous thing about momofuku is the fact that they were entirely okay with us ordering a set between the two of us. It was 3.30pm, and we had already eaten lunch, but my eyes were obviously bigger than my stomach. Alot of restaurants out there would push and push for us to order two meals or a bunch of drinks….or served us with a fucked-up expression on their faces. Ugh. I never return – irregardless of how good their food might have been.

Bacon had other ideas on this sharing thing, and the slurpee-like machines behind the bar amused him. He ordered a lychee flavoured soju (Korean rice wine) frozen cocktail.

.

We sat at the bar, and I simply love how we looked directly into the open kitchen.

I love suprises (of the good kind only) and our barman/waiter served us some hor d’oeurves that the chef had cooked up that day – pork pate with mustard pickle on toast. Yums.

Before long, our pork buns arrived. Bear in mind that this was supposed to be a prixe fixed menu for one,therefore we only got one bun

Like wow. I had never had brisket so tender in my life-literally melt in your mouth. It went exceedingly well with the pickled slaw and cucumber. The dough of the bun was warm and soft, just perfect. Very impressive.

Next came the miso udon. Bearing in mind that bacon hates miso, he loved this dish. And certainly it did not taste like any miso-out-of-a-packet that I consume on a regular basis. Creamily savoury (what sort of magic miso IS that??!) with a swirl of chilli oil, it coated the home made noodles (it was more like the Malaysian-styled pan mee (flour noodles) rather than fat round udons) very well and imparted a savoury flavour to the otherwise plain noodles. Toppings of ramp (wild garlic), scallions, naruto maki, oyster mushrooms and toasted nori (seaweed) completes this hearty and tasty bowl.

I had to move the seaweed aside – yes, bacon hates seaweed as well.

Food over, it was time for desserts. I most definately was not going to have the soft serve ice cream, so chocolate chip cake truffles it was then. Served in a large asian teacup, we had three large truffle which was a cross between crumbly chocolate cake and chocolate coated in white chocolate crumb. Truthfully speaking, it could’ve been better, and if there was one area where momofuku had been let down, it was the dessert.

.

Momofuku Noodle Bar
171 1st Avenue
East Village
New York, NY 10003

---
You might also be interested in these :

• Awesome America: Red Lobster
• A little prayer, a lit candle
• Happy Birthday the Land of the brave!
• Problems at Japanese banks
• har meen/hokkien mee/ prawn noodle

I love buffalo wings, but had no idea it actually meant chicken wings that were invented in Buffalo, NY. I had always thought it was just some random name. Don’t know why, as Yorkshire puddings were invented in Yorkshire and Bakewell Tart were invented in Bakewell ect ect. I guess the name buffalo just seemed so – generic.

.

And Anchor Bar was where it all began. One night back in the 60s, Teressa Bellissimmo went into her kitchen at the bar to cook something up for her son and his friends who had popped over after closing time. She fried up some chicken wings (which at that time was only kept to make stock) , and slathered them with a sweet, sticky and spicy sauce and a bleu cheese dip – and the rest is history.

The Anchor Bar is located at a generic-looking suburban strip. Considering it was a weekday, it was pretty packed inside.

We ordered the 50 wings platter between the both of us much to the amusement of the waitress. We had a half-and-half of the original and spicy bbq wings. No, we didn’t finish it all, I had the foresight to take the rest away for Elvin . It is not cheap, and obviously the more you order the cheaper it becomes, but even at a platter of 50 wings this cost us $37 for the platter, making it just under $1 per wing.

.

No fuss presentation, a metal platter with chicken wings, bleu cheese sauce and celery sticks.

.

It was crispy, sweet, sticky and tender all at the same time.

My verdict? Absolutely delicious. The tender chicken meat contrasts beautifully with the crispy coated skin and the sticky-sweet sauce. Every bite crunched into the thick crispy batter before sinking into tender juicy chicken meat. Bacon was annoyed, as he would not be able to enjoy buffalo wings in the same way again after having been to the original one. I cannot decide between the original medium version or the spicy bbq version. They are both equally good in their own way, dipped in a pot of bleu cheese. Yums.

Bacon sucking on his chicken bones.

I know we were hungry, but seriously, it looks like we’ve eaten more than 1/2 of the 50 wings!

As with most things, its better eaten fresh. Elvin wasn’t very impressed with the takeaway – by that time the crunch had already been lost and the whirl in the microwave did not help the tenderness of the chicken meat. However, we continued to have it for breakfast for the next few days, so obsessed we were.

I would most definately recommend a visit to Anchor Bar if you were ever in the area. Truly an experience for the tastebuds – and this is what travelling is to me. Some people travel to shop, some people travel to relax, I travel to eat. Well, I do other stuff as well, but I believe that when you travel, you need to go native and not settle for the obvious cacaphony of fast food outlets. And Anchor Bar is truly something special. Probably as good as my experience in the hotel in Mexico where Caesar Salad was invented; but thats another story for another time .

(yes, I love visitng places where famous dishes are invented )

The Anchor Bar
1047 Main St
Buffalo, NY 14209

---
You might also be interested in these :

• Awesome America: Red Lobster
• A little prayer, a lit candle
• I predict a riot
• Happy Birthday the Land of the brave!
• Problems at Japanese banks

.

The other thing that is all-American (for me, at least) is diner food. This for me is as ubiquitous as wonton noodles stalls in Hong Kong, mamak in Malaysia and fish & chips in the UK. It just sums up the whole American experience for me – refillable coffee, lemonade & iced tea, steaks, soups, salads…simple, easy food. It does not profess to offer the most delicious food on earth, but for me, this represents good ole Americana food (even though alot of it is probably tex-mex – another American creation ). Two of my favourite diners are iHop & Denny’s . Maybe it’s the nostalgia , but as students we used to hang out in them ALL THE TIME, guzzling coffees whilst revising, hanging out after a night out or just whenever we feel like a big slab of T-bone at 3am. It’s reasonable prices is also friendly on the student purse strings.

.

First up, iHop, also known as the International House of Pancakes. The nearest iHop from us whilst we were in uni was about 20 mins drive away, which means we only go there occasionally. I must apologise for the pictures below – after a super duper long day of shopping under the scorching NY sunshine, I was bone-tired and could hardly eat…so they are taken way too close as I really couldn’t be bothered to do my usual scouting for the best position. And how weird that the last time I was at an iHop (8 years ago) , Elvin was probably there as well . We’re just missing our third amigo, and our fourth no-longer-an-amigo .

.

Elvin ordered the smoked spicy sausages with hash & fried eggs

.

Meanwhile I ordered (naturally) T-bone steak with three eggs & hash potatoes

.

They were both served with a short stack of the famed buttermilk pancakes with a dollop of melting whipped butter. Would you expect less?

Can you say YUMMY? I have been dreaming of this meal for years – sad huh? The buttermilk pancakes were drenched with maple syrup, mixed in with the whipped butter. Heavenly. Yeah, yeah…pancakes are for breakfast, but the beauty of iHop is pancakes are for ALL THE TIME! Fab . Bacon did not enjoy the pancakes as much as he was not used to the american-styled thick stacks.

.

Now, how does iHop measure up with our next favourite diner, Dennys? Dennys was literally located just across from our campus, making it an easy target for an all-day everyday refuelling stop. We would stay there for hours at end, taking advantage of the refillable coffees to fuel last minute revisions – we were actually chatting rather than doing real studying . I can vividly remember my last meal at Dennys (sounds so morbid, huh), it was a few days before I left California for good….and of course, it was another T-bone steak . Strange how they don’t sell T-bone steaks in the UK? Where does it all go?

.

.

We couldn’t actually find a Denny’s in Whippany, so when we saw this Denny’s attached to our hotel in Niagara Falls, me & bacon jumped on the chance to pay a little nostalgia trip for me and another novelty for bacon.

.

We started off with a side Caesar salad. Bacon loves Caesar salad….the side serve looks large enough for two so I dug in as well . Very nice.

.

I stuck with what I know (and missed sorely) – whaddaya know, another T bone! This time I opted for coleslaw & rice pilaf. Denny’s win hands-down (compared to iHop), cooked perfectly rare.

.

Bacon was more adventurous and went for the prime rib breakfast fajitas. Not too sure if he could have actually manage to finish this for breakfast – portions were definitely dinner-sized! Prime rib strips were tender, scrambled eggs just the perfect amount of fluffiness (seeing that bacon hates scrambled eggs) and veggies just perfectly charred. This is no 5 star dining, but good wholesome food that fill you up and make you fat. . Could do with more salsa though.

.

Not many people would recommend diner food if you told them that you’re heading to the Land of the Brave. It doesn’t help that these diner chains are usually out of main city centre drags, so if you only stay within the city, no sub-urb diners for you then . For me (and bacon) , Dennys most definitely win hands down in the battle of the diners. iHop of course does better pancakes, but Dennys’ food is just that little bit better. Ahh…let me just drown in my nostalgia now (with a side of fat & refillable coffee).

.

---
You might also be interested in these :

• Awesome America: Red Lobster
• A little prayer, a lit candle
• Happy Birthday the Land of the brave!
• Problems at Japanese banks
• Awesome Tour of Sydney-progress so far…

It felt that it took us longer to get through immigration than to actually fly across the continent – queues in newark immigration is ridiculliously crazy, even worse than what I remembered JFK to be, which was annoying. We waited so long that our luggages were already removed from the carousel as bags from the next flights were going around it. You’d think that’s the end of the drama wouldn’t you? Nooo…more await us at our lovely rental car counter! After a super long wait at Newark’s Dollar rental car (never, EVER rent from them – they were horrendous – two hours late with car delivery and not apologetic AT ALL) we were let free at last to roam the freeways of the great state of New Jersey. We found Elvin’s studio in Whippany without a glitch – about 30 mins away from Newark.

.

After a quick shower, we were ready to eat. Well, I was, bacon was bone-tired and after wolfing down the stale sandwiches offered up by Continental (he even wolfed mine down!). Why would anyone in their right mind eat that sort of garbage is beyond me. Stale dry roll with tasteless cheese – I much rather have a Ryvita. Anyway, it was onwards and upwards to the deli that me & Elvin had been plotting to go to for a couple of months – the infamous Harolds’ Famous NY Deli Restaurant.. We did get lost fighting the sat nav to find this place, as it was located in a semi-industrial estate – not quite what I was expecting at all.

.

An unassuming front right smack at a Holiday Inn carpark hides one special little deli indeed, where everything in there is ANYTHING but little.

.

They are REALLY not kidding, they are really the best in everything they do.

.

Specialising in comically oversized deli food, Harold’s really do make food for giants. I was there for the comedy effect, but was suprised by the deliciousness. The comical sizes in no way stops it from producing one of the best deli food around – it was tasty, fresh and well flavored. I did the ordering for the four of us – there wasn’t much we could order as each portion ‘feeds 4-6′ . Uh-oh.

.

We started off with a visit to ‘The World’s longest pickle bar’ – pickles of every variety

.

After much persuasion from bacon not to pile my plate sky high with pickles I settled for a small selection. My favourite is the half-sour pickle.

.

Love the old school scalloped frosted glass plates…reminds me of the 70s . It wasn’t long at all that our starter of the Jewish mainstay Matzo Ball in Chicken Soup appeared, complete with a tin mug as the scoop. The bowl was the size of a Lazy Susan – and the matzo ball was the size of a balloon. Scared yet? Here is the soup in comparision with our normal-sized plate of pickles.

.

Elvin giggling at the size of our starter

.

The matzoh ball was amazingly fluffy for something so large. I love the chicken soup – nourishing and tasty, like what chicken soup is supposed to be. I nearly did not order this, but the novelty of digging into a massive matzoh ball was too hard to resist…and I was glad I ordered it. Unfortunately we were unable to finish it due to bacon being full from his stupid stale sandwiches and elvin’s aunt seemingly on a diet…this was definately the place to check the diets in at the door!

.

Stomachs full, it was time for our next course. We ordered the Large platter (feeds 3-5 apparently), consisting of your choice of two meats. We chose Hot Pastrami and NY’s best Corned beef. I wished we could’ve tried them all instead – but it would mean killing a whole adult cow.

.

It was truly heavenley – tender fresh beef ( I couldn’t decide which one I love best – the hot pastrami & corned beef were both soooo good) eaten with pickles , some truly delicious coleslaw, spicy mustard and slices of bread.

.

Me & Elvin posing with the platter of beef – ignore my shiny face – my skin always misbehave after a long flight

.

Bacon & Elvin’s aunt did not eat much at all, leaving me & elv to munch our way through 1/2 a cow. We ate until we could not bear to move an inch anymore, and decided to just take the rest to go. There was still a good 1/2 portion left on the platter by the time the four of us were done with it – that was how much meat there were. Me & bacon had pastrami sandwices for breakfast for the next week….*burp*

.

You’d think by now we would’ve been too full to even CONTEMPLATE dessert. Well, we very nearly. Elvin had his heart set on the World’s Largest slice of Chocolate Cake – but at this point we were so close to breaking point….However, we seemed to have projected our thoughts to our nice next table neighbours – they offered us their cake!! I had taken a picture of their cake (I asked nicely) when it arrived earlier, predicting that we would not be able to order it after wolfing down the cow and giant matzoh ball. Ahhh….the kindness of strangers warms my cockles. They even suggested that we wrap our leftover meat with breads and pickles from the pickle bar, perfect for tomorrow’s lunch. How sweet are they?

The cake in it’s full size – just compare it with the coffee cup behind it.

.

And this people, is 1/2 of the slice of chocolate fudge cake that was donated to us. It took me & bacon another good couple of days having bits of cake for breakfast for us to finish this 1/2 of cake. Note that by the end of the night, this cake had been eaten by 8 people – and yet it took us another few days (more like 4) to finish it.

.

On the way out, some giant cookies…

.

Just compare my face with the rows of giant cakes in the chiller…

.

The kitchen. Notice how unassuming the whole place is.

.

Harold’s is an amazing place – reasonably priced ginorous portions of tasty deli food. It is not really near NYC at all, but well worth a side trip if you are driving through New Jersey. Obviously, go EXTREMELY hungry, and go with people….very hungry people. And be prepared to doggie-bag the rest home, the woman from the next table was right, nothing better than bread soaked with the juices of the leftover meats for tomorrow’s lunch. Mm mm good…

.

Appetite for more? Well, click on the Man Vs. Food Youtube below!!

.

.

Harold’s Famous NY Deli

3050 Woodbridge Avenue
Edison, NJ 08837-3460, United States
(732) 661-9100

---
You might also be interested in these :

• Awesome America: Red Lobster
• A little prayer, a lit candle
• Happy Birthday the Land of the brave!
• Problems at Japanese banks
• Awesome Tour of Sydney-progress so far…

As you probably figured by now, I love most stuff vintage-y, cute-sy, yumm-y and retro-y. Even baker-y. Yeah, all good things end with a Y. I’ve done a few cupcake rounds, and have grand plans of spending a day trawling cupcakeries in NYC later this year. So far, I’ve loved the Hummingbird as their cakes are not sweet, which is then nicely tampered by the super sugary icing. Bacon don’t like it as much – he thinks it slightly weird that the cakes demonstrate a total lack of sugar whilst the icing is sickly sweet. I don’t mind it as I can then scrape off most of the icing so I end up with a suitably sweet cupcake. And of course, the fact that their recipes always turn out well and tastes like what they serve in-store. BUT the Hummingbird Bakery is not the topic of my post today – the Leeds-born Sunshine Bakery is.

Most definately a welcome addition to Leeds, I had yet to find something quite like this in the Leeds area…or anywhere near. We popped in on our way to Mother’s Day lunch – very lucky as they are not usually open on Sundays- to pick up some cupcakes. I actually checked their twitter feed before I left to see if they’re open, and as luck would have it, off the back of Katie’s lovely review of their cakes, they were offering a free cupcake to anyone who said they love leedsgrub! How nice is that ??

It was very lovely inside the shop, a certain modern vintage feel to it, from the proper coffee machines to china cups. We chatted about twitter abit (i follow them) , and how more businessess should embrace it ect..I do love speaking to businessess on twitter, it’s very bizzare but lovely! It’s even more wonderful when you see the person behind the twitter account….and especially for a ‘small but perfectly formed’ local bakery like this which I would have otherwise not found out about if not for the fact it had been tweeted around by local tweeps.

More on the ‘small but perfectly formed’ part – they are looking into expanding back and front, with tables planned on the sidewalk and opening up of a secret garden up back now that spring is FINALLY upon us. Wow. I must return when that happens – I do love a good cuppa with cake in the garden! At the moment there are tables inside for you to have your cake, and if the mother in law hadn’t been waiting for us at the pub we would had probably sat down for a cuppa and continue chatting with the friendly cupcake maker behind the counter (which I had very rudely not got his name!!). So we had ours to go for after lunch, packed in a sturdy specially-made-for-cupcakes 4 hole box.

We went away with two double chocolate, one mango & passionfruit and one Eton Mess cupcake. The one with the white rose is Eton Mess

The Mango & Passionfruit is the one with choc bits on white frosting

And of course, the double chocolate

The Mango & Passionfruit was very summery – light, with the right amount of fruitininess. Bacon loved this – and for someone who dislike passionfruit & mango, this is high praise indeed. The MIL gave it her thumbs up as well – her favourite. The Eton Mess was also very, very lovely – a meringue-like frosting with the delicate white rose to top it off….and I love the delicate strawberry flavours that was in this pretty and delicious cupcake. yum yum good.

However, the best of them lot, in my opinion, was the double chocolate. The sponge was light and moist, without losing it’s chocolate gooeyness. The frosting was absolutely DIVINE – I believe it’s very whipped chocolate cream with a glaze of chocolate on top. Chocolate cupcakes tend to get slightly sickly for me with the frosting, however, I could have had 10 more of these. Mm mm good.

See how moist the sponge is? Ohmigod…

The verdict? Bacon gave it his double thumbs up, even going as far to say that this is the best cupcake he had had so far. He’s plotting to send me to one of the cupcake classes that they regularly run . As for me, I absolutely love how everything is so light and delicate, with the right amout of sugar and moistness.

The Sunshine Bakery
182 Harrogate Road
Chapel Allerton
Leeds LS7 4NZ

---
You might also be interested in these :

• Black bottom cupcakes
• A-camping we go woo woo!!!
• sun, please shine and take me away
• Awesome America – New York Cake Wars
• The Hummingbird Bakery

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

,

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.

/—————————————————————————

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.

.

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!
.

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

.

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.

.

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.

.

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

.

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*.

.

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…

.

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.

.

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.

.

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.

.

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

.

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

.

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

---
You might also be interested in these :

• Up up and away in the eye of London
• More deets on the prize
• tub
• piccies!!!
• Cabbage patch girl in the big bad city

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.

.

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.

.

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.

.

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

.

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!

.

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.

.

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

---
You might also be interested in these :

• Me + Malaysian?
• A gardener’s tale
• sheep in the city
• Cabbage patch girl in the big bad city
• and we fly away…