Nopi by Ottolenghi

You might be thinking - Nopi? What in the world is that? Let me decipher that for you. It means NOrth of PIccadilly, which is also the name and location of a wonderful new(ish) restaurant by the people behind Ottolenghi. Situated on Warwick Street (just off Regent Street, and indeed yes north of Piccadilly Circus), this beautifully designed restaurant is like a more polished and sophisticated cousin of the casual and relaxed Ottolenghi. It is by no means stiff and formal but the white and gold room definitely has a posh air about it. Some parts of it were definitely a bit too gold for me but I couldn't take my eyes off the beautiful gold flower lamp that hung over the reception.



Since last July, the Ottolenghi team has documented the entire project of conceptualising, designing, implementing and finally opening Nopi on their blog here. After 7 months of hard work, Nopi opened its doors to the public in February. It's amazing to read their journey, if you have time, hop over and look through the posts and you'll be rewarded with insights to and appreciate the amount of work that goes into opening a restaurant.

I've always loved Ottolenghi and I'm so happy that they've decided to open another concept that's based on the same values that made Ottolenghi successful - emphasis on distinctive design, food that showcases the quality of ingredients as well as interesting flavour pairings, and communal dining. And Nopi lived up to my expectations, and in fact surpassed them. It's been a while since I've been surprised and won over by a dish, and I think I had 2 such dishes at Nopi. Don't get me wrong, I've been eating plenty of very good, well-executed food but I guess the danger (?) of being exposed to too much good food is that the bar is set pretty high, and it's getting more and more difficult to wow me. But Nopi managed to do just that.

The menu is a series of small plates for sharing divided into sections - Veg, Meat, Fish, Sweets (at least for lunch which was when I went) with average prices of each dish between £8-12. It is by no means a cheap lunch, since the server recommends to get 5-6 dishes between 2 people, not including dessert. My lunch partner and I proceeded to order 5 savoury dishes - the fish carpaccio (forgot what fish it was!), burrata, seared scallops, swede gratin and the slow cooked lamb belly. The portions were not very big and we were just about full (and we are small eaters) so I guess if you were feeling ravenous or with a bunch of meat-loving guys, this probably isn't the place for you.

My favourite dish hands down was the Burrata. This was one of the creamiest burratas I've ever tasted and it really got me hooked on burrata over the next few months, (I'm still looking for a place to buy a burrata that is this creamy!) looking for it at every restaurant I go to but none can compare. The Nopi burrata is served with bits of salad, blood orange slices, spiced pita chips and dressed lightly with some olive oil. The genius in this dish is the toasted coriander seeds. Having been toasted, the usual pungent taste of the coriander seeds was toned down and instead, tastes like kernels of popped corn. The combination was just amazing, I still think about it.

You can tell that the restaurant knows which are their winners as these are the dishes that stay on the menu, while the rest vary on a daily basis. Another staple is the seared scallops with a pickled radish salad. While not written in the description, the scallops are served with a dollop of spicy prawn paste sauce (better known as sambal belacan to me!). Even though it was more salty than spicy, it was a familiar taste and reminded me of home. Again, it was a superb combination of flavours.



The other dishes we had were alright but I would return for these two dishes alone (and have!). The dessert is worth a mention as it once again evoked familiar tastes. The pineapple galette with coconut ice cream and pandan syrup was crisp, had the right balance of sweet and sour and who can fault coconut with pandan?

The great thing is they seem to change their dishes on a daily basis, presumably depending on what's in season/available, which is good for repeat visitorship. However, the price point is slightly high, compounded by the need to order at least 3 dishes/person in order to be full, means I can't go as often as I would like to. But perhaps for the sake of tasting that burrata again, it is time to make another visit.

Can't resist one more shot of the beautiful gold lamp!

Nopi
21-22 Warwick Street
London W1B 5NE
+44 (0)20 7494 9584

Gastronomic Ultra-Marathon Part III - Chez Bruce

The third installment of the never-ending Gastronomic Ultra-Marathon that was Eugene's farewell. After hearing him rave about it for the longest time i.e. since I arrived in London, we had to make this one of the stops on the list of must-eats. Since it's tucked away in some corner of Wandsworth (SW17!!) and not exactly accessible by public transport, we rented a Streetcar for the evening for our journey there. The journey there and back was another adventure in itself since it entailed me trying to drive a manual car (but that story is not for here).

Chez Bruce is located on a street of quaint shops and restaurants, Bellevue Road, in a quiet fairly residential neighbourhood. The dining room itself was cosy, and was surprisingly full for a Monday night. After we were seated, the first thing I noticed was that the crowd was predominantly female, probably 90%. There were groups of women laughing, enjoying a good girly catch-up over good food and wine or perhaps Bruce is an exceptionally charming man!

We ordered the prix fixe menu, priced at £42.50 for 3 courses, which is very reasonable considering that you get a good selection of dishes to choose from, about 8-10 for each course. They change their menu very regularly, in fact I just looked online for the menu, and it's almost completely different! Great for diners who eat there often!

For starters, we had a beef cheek tagliatelle and two types of fish cake and fritters. I can't recall exactly the menu names and items, but I do recall that the tagliatelle was full of flavour and really left you wanting more and the fish was very fresh. Eugene had a panfried seabass for his main and I ordered a wild mushroom vol au vent. While I was very pleased with the medley of mushrooms and puff pastry, what blew me away was the jerusalem artichokes that was served with it. It wasn't even listed on the menu, probably something seasonal they threw in but I loved the texture and deep chestnut-ty flavour of the jerusalem artichoke. I think it was the first time I ever tasted it and forgive my gastronomic ignorance, I didn't know it wasn't an artichoke! Well, guess I liked it because it didn't taste like one (though somehow I had guessed it was an artichoke, without knowing they weren't related)!



For dessert, because we were both very stuffed, we ordered the lighter ice-cream (honeycomb ice cream and passionfruit ice cream) dishes on the menu despite there being amazingly delicious sounding desserts like fondants, cakes and puddings. Next time perhaps, and there will definitely be a next time because Chez Bruce is a restaurant I can imagine myself going back again and again.

Chez Bruce
2 Bellevue Road
London, SW17 7EG
020 8672 0114

Gastronomic Ultra-Marathon Part II - Battle of the Japanese Restaurants

I love Japanese food. I think I could keep eating Japanese food and not get sick of it, because there are just so many different types of things to eat - ramen, sashimi/sushi, teppanyaki, donburi, tempura, hotpots, grilled items, salads, small plates and the list goes on! Sadly I've never been to Japan, it will definitely be food heaven for me!
I was very excited to be going to Sake No Hana as part of the eating ultra-marathon. With Connie knowing what the best dishes were to order, we were definitely going to have a huge feast! We had quite a number of dishes between 4 of us - from sashimi, grilled dishes and handrolls to udon and other cooked dishes. My favourite dish was definitely the special udon. It wasn't the usual fat one, but almost like thin rice sticks but what really blew me away was the soup base it came with, which made it a real comfort food, perfect for cold wintery weather. Best of all, it was one of the cheapest items on the menu! I think I could go back there and just order the udon (although the staff there would probably give me dagger looks). I also liked the aubergine, grilled chicken and yellowtail cheek. Overall, the meal was good but would have been quite pricey if not for the discount we got. Would probably go back for a special occasion meal.





That same week, I also went to Roka. As usual, we ordered too much food - 9 dishes between the 3 of us. I think the waiter was quite shocked by the amount of food we were ordering but well, it was part of the marathon and we had to satisfy Eugene's appetite for variety right?

Roka has a lot more grilled items as that is what they're known for. They have an open grill/kitchen right in the dining room, which means you will come away smelling of food. We had some tuna tataki and tartar as starters, followed by grilled black cod, chicken wings, glazed baby back ribs, king crab kamameshi (rice) and 2 different aubergine dishes. My favourites here were the aubergine, ribs and king crab kamameshi. I had ordered the latter thinking it would be like the one in Sun and Moon (which I love), which is like a claypot rice dish but the Roka version turned out to be a lot more like mui fan, almost porridge-like with a starchy sauce. Nonetheless, it was very very tasty and we were savouring every bit of it with all our different dishes. Roka does their grilled dishes very well and till now, I am still thinking about their baby back ribs.



Between the two, I have my favourite dishes at each place but overall I prefer Roka for slightly better value and more contemporary style of cooking.

Still to come - Chez Bruce and the Ramsay Restaurants!

Gastronomic Ultra-Marathon Part I

Happy New Year everyone! After some new year house troubles with my heat and hot water, I'm finally not cold and homeless anymore, just in time for the big London snow-in (or so the media puts it).

I still haven't blogged about the eating ultra-marathon that was Eugene's farewell. I seem to have been eating non-stop since November and I definitely have put on quite a few pounds, definitely need to start exercising. Anyway, there are too many restaurants so will do it over a few entries.

First up - Galvin Bistrot. This is the bistro, a slightly more casual sibling of Galvin at Windows. Simple french fare at quite reasonable prices. I had a mousseline with wild mushroom soup for my starter, which was an interesting play of textures. I had a simple sage and saffron butter pasta as a main. No surprises there, well-executed but not mind-blowing. Which is probably what summarises the restaurant. I probably won't go back since it didn't really stand out, but it was relatively easy to get a reservation even on the day itself.




Next we went to Hawksmoor. The rest had been raving about it for the longest time and I was curious to taste for myself what was supposed to be one of the best steaks (with very good cocktails) in London. Well, it didn't disappoint. I can't really remember what cocktails we ordered but I remember the guys had this big girly punch which was much yummier than the strong drink I had (and then gave away). For starters, we had the shrimp cocktail, some scallops and the grilled squid salad. While they're known for their shrimp cocktail, I really liked the grilled squid salad. And of course there was beef all around for mains. Other than the usual cuts on the menu, they had special cuts by weight on the daily menu, like the huge huge prime rib (? or was it the porterhouse) Eugene and Connie shared. The beef was juicy and flavourful (i.e. full of fat) but I couldn't help but compare it to the steak I had at Robert et Louise in Paris. I think that was better, though this was pretty close.



By the time it got to dessert, we were all way too stuffed to properly appreciate the dessert - sticky toffee pudding, super sinful and super rich. The next time we go, I'll have to save space for dessert.



Next up - Battle of the japanese restaurants!

Home Made Food

You can probably tell I'm trying to clear my backlog of posts. Here are some pictures I took around my neighbourhood one Saturday as I explored the farmer's market downstairs my house (Pimlico Farmer's Market) and the Partridges Market at King's Road.



I haven't gotten around to baking much but I did manage the below. Made a blueberry and fig tart with some figs I brought back from Barcelona. They were squashed on the way back so I had to quickly do something with them. I made a shortcrust pastry from scratch which was surprisingly quick, easy and came out well. The lattice was also fun to weave and turned out really pretty. Also made a brownie for a quick dessert the other night using a recipe from my Hummingbird Bakery book, which also turned out fudgey and chewy.



As for cooking, I've been trying to cook and eat at home but it's been quite hard since my schedule isn't very fixed and it takes planning to buy the ingredients, defrost things and portioning the food. Most of the time, I cook too much, which means I end up eating more than I should, or I throw out quite a lot of stuff. Like bread, I hardly ever finish any loaf I buy.

Well, I don't take pics of everything I make but here is a selection. I should start keeping recipes and blogging them down. Like the chwee kueh I made that day, turned out pretty well except I overfried the chye poh. Will try again and take some pics. I also finally got around to using one of the Prima pastes that I brought with me. Tried the chicken rice mix and it was really quite decent. I felt like a real hawker as I was deboning and smashing my chicken thigh and chopping it up haha.


The top pics are actually of a beef stew I attempted over the weekend. I finally took out my Le Creuset pot to make the stew :) A stab at Boeuf Bourguignon, but not really true to the traditional recipe since I didn't have mushrooms so I used a root vegetable mix. Put in a bit too much tomato paste but otherwise really yummy. Paired that with a simple potato gratin made in my mini Le Creuset, a gift from a fellow foodie. It was a good dinner and I had plenty more stew for 2 more meals. The other 2 pictures of the ham was from the stash of Jamon Iberico de Bellota that I lugged back from Barcelona. Shared it with the San Sebestian gang at a pintxos party at my place before we trooped off to Waterside Inn. I need to have another party soon to finish up the stash :)

First House Guest

I had my first house guest this past weekend! My colleague Serene from Singapore extended her work trip over the weekend and stayed with me. She's into vintage stuff and markets so we went to Portobello on Saturday morning. The last time I went to Portobello I didn't really manage to see much of the vintage and antique shops and wasn't very impressed. I was quite amazed to see all these alley ways of shops in the snaking galleries behind the main shop front. Much larger than I thought they were and full of all sorts of trinkets and furniture and jewellery from yesteryear.

I managed to pick up a few nice pieces of jewellery for myself and Serene also scored quite a few purchases. Wan headed straight for his German food truck with another friend and we only managed to catch up just before we were due to leave for our lunch appointment. I had a proper undamaged Hummingbird Red Velvet this time and it was truly moist! I need to make cupcakes like that. This second trip opened my eyes its treasure trove and I will definitely be back.

We left my friend shopping and the 3 of us headed to Launceston Place (off Gloucester Rd) for lunch with other members of FAT (Food Appreciation Team, more on that next time). Launceston Place is part of the same group of restaurants (D&D London) as Orrery (which wasn't that great) and quite a few other nice restaurants. The chef Tristan Welch was previously from Petrus so it was something I was looking forward to after a friend recommended it highly. A 3-course lunch for £19 sounds like really good value at this restaurant. After some initial confusion, we managed to claim the table and got our order in before the kitchen closed. What followed was possibly one of the best meals I've had in London since I arrived (have I said this before?).

All of us had similar variations even though there were 3 choices for each course. We were served pickled cucumber in a yogurt sorbet as an amuse-bouche and for starters it was pumpkin soup or crab risotto. I personally had the pumpkin soup, which was amazing, very smooth and velvety with the right sweetness, accented by the tender beetroot cubes and finely grated cheese for slightly more creaminess. The crab risotto seemed pretty good too, full flavoured and served in a crab shell with a wasabi-laced pesto puree.

We then had our main course, which was poached chicken breast (yes all 6 of us had the same thing) with girolles in a hollandaise sauce, accompanied by some kale and baby carrots which we ordered as sides. While it sounded simple, the chicken breast was very tender. Usually I tend to avoid chicken breast as it is usually dry but this was juicy and tender, without the fattiness of the thigh. The baby carrots were really delicious as they were caramelised.

The palette cleanser was a lime and raspberry sorbet, a little too sour for me but did its job. For dessert, most of us ordered the roast peach with almond ice-cream while there was also 2 people sharing the gigantic apple tart. The apple tart was excellent, handmade flaky puff pastry with chunky pieces of caramelised apples served with clotted cream. Yum. My roast peach was alright but next time I go back, it's going to be the tart. I was quite wowed by the food, although the same could not be said about the service. Patchy at best, and not very friendly.

I was so full afterwards (we only ended lunch at 4.30pm) I had to walk around to be debloated. I went home and 'exercised' by potting my plants, which caused a massive backache afterwards. Stooping over the step and scooping compost into pots in the dark was not exactly fun. I had gotten some lavender, herbs and small flowers the previous week and just chucked the pots on the balcony. I only recently managed to buy my compost and long container so I wanted to transplant the plants. Unfortunately, I don't think I have very green fingers and my plants look worse after repotting. I must have overwatered most of the plants cos the lavender's drooping (apparently it likes well-drained dry soil) and the violas are also wilting. Sigh. At least the herbs look ok.

I can't believe after that we still went out for dinner at Cha Cha Moon that night (one of my fave cheap eats) albeit a little later than usual. I finally got to try the Chiu Chow Rice Cake, which was chwee kueh! I had spied it on my last visit and was determined to see if it matched up to the ones back home. Sadly, they were served cold, and small (they probably made it in a petit four tart shell) and the chye poh was mixed with bean sauce and a bit salty. The chicken satay salad was not bad but the winner of the night was the tea. Advertised as Hong Kong Milk Tea, it was really teh tarik (HK Milk Tea usually has another taste) and it was good! My constant gripe about Cha Cha Moon is that there is no dessert :( They really need to add dessert (are you reading this Connie? heehee) and it would be perfect!

Summary of the Week

I know I'm rubbish at updating. It's been quite manic these past few days. I've quite a bit of backlog in terms of posts - at least I try to tweet more regularly...

The weekend went by in a flash, spent mostly unpacking my stuff (yay!) and going to markets (Borough and Columbia again) and buying some plants. I got a small olive tree (which I actually wouldn't call a tree, more like a plant) and some lavender and calla lilies. I stuck them in my balcony, waiting to be repotted when I have time to go get the supplies. I hope they don't die before that.

On Tuesday I went to Paris for another day trip for work. Everything that could go wrong went wrong that morning. The taxi I booked was 20 min late (I think they completely just forgot about my booking) and I left my tickets in the office. Arrived at St Pancras with only 15 minutes to departure and sprinted (with a bad back) to the ticket office to beg them to reprint my tickets and sprinted to check-in and clear customs. Luckily I made it. And all this before 7am, sigh.

Work aside, I managed to spend some time after the show at the supermarket. As Le Bon Marche and La Grande Epicerie was en route from the show venue to Gare du Nord, I did some marketing there. The French definitely place a lot more emphasis on food so it was a joy to browse and shop there. There was so much specialty stuff available, from baking to world food etc, I was like a kid in the candy store. And molecular gastronomy is like the latest food fad to hit Paris with a few shelves dedicated to tools for making espuma (foam), gelatinising things and turning foods into weird texture using gums, chemicals and whatnot. Amazing. Everywhere I went, they were selling foaming canisters (like the stuff you get whipped cream out of). I never imagined that molecular gastronomy would be accessible to the home cook, but there it is! And now I know where to get supplies if I ever venture into that field.

I didn't have enough time to visit FNAC to pick up some cookbooks :( (I did go a little crazy the last time I was there bringing back tomes on macarons and other yummies) Honestly I think nowhere can you find good patissere books except in France though most are in French. The cookware section in the store also beats the ones in London hands down, just so many more varieties of cookware and dinnerware and much better designed. I wanted to get some pie/tart moulds but I clouldn't decide whether to get a few small ones or a big one so didn't get any. I seriously have a kitchenware hoarding problem. Need to make use of then stuff I already have.

Oh, and also managed to squeeze in a quick visit to my favourite home store Maison Du Monde! I love love love love it. I would buy everything there if I had endless supply of money haha.

Why Everyone Needs a Phone Line in UK

I can't wait!! My shipment arrives today! Or at least it's supposed to... one more hour.. counting down! Maybe by the time I finish this post, it'll be here!

After yesterday's fiasco with the Internet guys, my confidence is not very high in the systems here (what systems??). I took the day off, or rather it became more like working from home, to wait for the Virgin Media guys to come and install internet. There I was, all happy to finally get real broadband, instead of my 3G dongle thing. But as the time passed, and I waited and waited, I finally called up the hotline to find out when they were coming cos in this country, no one really gives you a specific time and you have to just WAIT. The lady on the phone told me they'll come before 1pm but specifics she won't give me i.e. just be PATIENT.

Finally they come and they start poking around the house looking for the correct socket. After climbing up and down my small balcony to examine the wires running outside and testing every single hole in the wall, the guy told me it seemed like I couldn't get Virgin Broadband in my house though from my postcode it seemed like I could. What?? After I had waited 3 whole weeks for this appointment you tell me I can't get Virgin broadband??? (background: they're the only ones that do fibre-optics cable, the rest of the providers give you ADSL through the telephone line, which means you need an active phone line first but more on that later) Anyway, they poke around outside some more and finally they call me over to the common corridor, and point to a bunch of wires hanging from the ceiling opening, looking pretty despondent, "Ma'am, these are our wires. Unfortunately, they don't go anywhere. You'd have to get permission from your landlord for us to drill some holes through the ceiling and door and run these wires in the common area to get it into your house. I doubt you'll be able to get that permission though." Geez, thanks guys! So what do I do now??

The background to it is that UK has like 3 major TV/Cable/Phone providers (like Starhub back home) - British Telecom, Sky and Virgin Media. The rest of the telcos like Vodafone, O2 etc do some mobile and internet but not that comprehensive. Since there are these major providers who do everything, you'd think that you can just call up one company and get it all done in one installation and one bill right? WRONG. Apparently, whilst everyone has 3-in-1 packages, for most of the internet here, it's all through ADSL. And what does ADSL need? An active phone line. And here's the punchline - only BT provides the phone line. So that means that before you can do anything at all with anyone, you have to get BT to activate your phone line (and pay them while at it, this is the hidden cost that NO ONE tells you when you see all those cheap packages - £11/mth!!), which is why everyone ends up getting BT internet and phone. I was totally resisting this monopoly cos I really don't think I need a home phone line, since I had my mobile. After a lot of research, I thought I could bypass this by getting cable internet through Virgin (I wanted TV too but apparently I can't get their TV from where I am) and TV through Sky. Which brings us to yesterday's fiasco. And now I'm back to what I was trying to avoid i.e. getting a phone line. I don't even want to think about how long more I have to wait for the phone line and THEN the internet.

I proceed to call up Sky (my provider for Cable TV who's coming to install TV on Sat) to see if they can do an all-in-one installation for me when they come around. I get passed from one person to another and everyone I speak to has thick Scottish accents, which for the life of me, I cannot decipher over the phone. I kept going "Sorry? Say that again? I don't understand," to them and they must have thought I was a nincompoop. Finally after a long time, this is what I understood - I'd have to get my Sky TV and become a customer first, before he could send an order to BT to activate my phoneline (through Sky) and this will take 10-15 days. After my phoneline is active, then he will set up my broadband order and send me a self-installation package through the mail (another 3-7 days) and I will be all set! Errr, that's another 2-3 weeks if my maths doesn't fail me. By this time, I was totally exhausted and told him yah, whatever you need to do, go ahead. I just want my broadband, with or without a stupid phone line. The system just tries to wear you down with all its silly rules and regulations and waits to the point where you just surrender and let them do whatever. And this is supposed to be a first-world developed country??

That's the story of my Internet/TV/Phone fiasco, which I hope will not be repeated today with the movers. I had similar problems with them, having to call them up once every few days to check where my shipment was and everytime they told me they'd call me back with the information and not once did they call. I always had to call back to chase. So I'm really praying very hard that it comes today, and I'll be having TV from this weekend onwards! Plus my Kitchenaid, containers, vases, books, coats and toiletries!!! Oh and I watched Julie & Julia last night, so I'm quite inspired to cook, which means I want my things!! Please please please let it be here today!

Monday Blues

Just a quick post to let people know I'm alive. Work's beginning to build up and honestly, I feel kinda swamped at the moment. A lot of the time I feel inadequate to make decisions, not having the background knowledge or relevant info but I suppose I need to bite the bullet and survive this baptism of fire (I hope!).

Despite endeavouring to spend more time at home, relaxing and just doing nothing, I've not been able to do that. The days just fill up (which is good in a way) and even during weekends, I find myself out more than in. This past weekend, we went to Bicester Village, which is the factory outlet near Oxford and boy did we shop. On Sunday, we went to Greenwich and though it was grey and cold, which meant we couldn't sit around the park, we spent a nice couple of hours walking the market and town.

This was followed by a meal at The Gun, a gastropub at Canary Wharf. The Gun came highly recommended and it was all in all pretty good. Good flavours hearty food. I had the Pork Belly which was this really well cooked errr seo bah for lack of a better term. The meat was soft and came apart quite easily and the skin was very crispy. The fat was also melt-in-your-mouth though I cut away most of it since I really shouldn't be eating so much fat. My companions had a ribeye steak and veal rump. The accompaniments for each dish was very good - shoe string potatoes and onion rings and hand cut fries. For dessert we shared a chocolate pistachio tart with honeycomb ice-cream. It was as good as it sounds, not overly sweet and the ice cream was great! Overall, a nice dinner and pretty reasonably priced (we spent about £25 per person).

The Gun
27 Coldharbour Docklands London E14 9NS
T: 020 7515 5222

Midweek

I've finally kinda caught up on the housework, put away the leftover laundry, cleared the table somewhat and *almost* cleared the boxes. My new white table and fuschia pink chair from Maison Du Monde came yesterday, which was a nice surprise when I returned home and saw two big ass packages awaiting me. Amazing that I got my furniture from France before stupid UK Ikea (still another 2 weeks!). Go figure.


The chair is even brighter than in the picture. I contemplated for a long time if I should get the grey (other than black above they also have this dark grey) instead of the pink. I wanted a pop of colour in otherwise pastel/white room. Well, it really erm pops. the colour in the above looks more like a very strong pink, and well mine is BRIGHT almost flourescent pink. Guess it's also cos of the light shining on it. Regret it a little :(

I've had quite a few busy days at work, lots of networking which tires me out cos I'm not so good at it. Didn't manage to catch the window to watch 2-for-1 movies today, really can't bear to watch on any other day and spend £13 on a movie. Came back home after my event and actually cooked beehoon. I had opened up my fridge and the vegs (which have been sitting there for quite a while) were calling out to me. So I finally made the beehoon I had been planning to make since Sunday. As usual I made way too much, will bring the rest of it to work for some friends tm. Can't wait for the weekend, plans to go to Bicester, which is the factory outlets though the sunny weather is gone. Has the sizzle really fizzled?

This blog is kinda turning into I did this, I did that blah blah chronicle huh. Not very interesting I must say. Oh well. Boring life, what to do.

My Weekend

It was quite a packed weekend, starting once again with an outing to Ikea on Friday night. Background - I had gone there just on Monday since it was Bank Holiday and we rented a trusty Zipcar to carry back all the stuff. Somehow we managed to spend the ENTIRE day in Ikea, like from 10am - 7.30pm, and we still didn't manage to get everything cos errr I was quite indecisive plus several pieces of the furniture were going to be too heavy and big to lug back by car. The VW Golf, however, did manage to fit in all the small barang barang which somehow added up to a mountain of stuff. And since I didn't have access to my house carpark with my key yet, we had to unload by the street and wheel 3 trolley loads across the street and parking lot.

And yes, we went there again on Friday as I couldn't get all the stuff online (what's the point of online shopping if you can't get stuff online??). Got my boss's car for the weekend so off we went. Once again, we came back with a whole load of stuff. This time, at least we got into the carpark and there was only one load. I spent a good part of Saturday evening building the furniture until my hands hurt. I had never wanted a power drill more. Then more hand torturing on Sunday evening as I set out to do laundry. I never liked doing laundry since college days, and my old fears came flooding back when I had to wring dry my handwashing. My hands were still smarting from the previous day's furniture building and it was not fun at all. I think I put too many things into the washer-dryer as well cos my things didn't really dry and I had to hang dry most of it still. While the laundry was drying, I proceeded to scrub the limescale and water marks off my bathroom glass divider and the bathtub. Again, not fun. I can't imagine having to do this on a regular basis - it'll eat up all my weekends! I haven't even stayed there for 2 weeks! The kitchen probably needs some wiping down as well, and I'm sure it'll get worse the more I cook. Gah.

Yeah, so lest people think I lead a glam glam life, I don't! It only seems that way cos I blog about the highlights. On regular days, I wake up, take the tube to work, spend the day at work in meetings or in front of computer, go home, unpack/clean/run errands/cook, sleep and then it starts again the next morning. Occasionally here and there I do go out for nice dinners and try to do some shopping (I think Saturday will be marketing/shopping day). I will also try to cook more. Can't wait for shipment and all my cooking equipment to come!

Oh, and we went to Datchett and Windsor on Sunday, the former for a work-related social event in this huge huge house with big grounds, where there was free flow drinks, food, ice-cream, entertainment, bbq, the full works for about 150-200 pple. We even took a steamboat up the Thames (yes the house is right on the Thames further out where Thames is a narrow river) to Windsor. Neighbours with the queen, now that's a prestigious postcode. The place was just amazing, and we even got to take back vegetables from the hostess's garden!

We left early cos we wanted to take a look at Windsor Castle, but unfortunately it was already closed :( We walked around and had tea (or rather I had coffee, yes travesty I know) & scones at this really cute place called The Crooked House of Windsor. It really is quite slanted and crooked. According to its history blurb it was built in 1592! Apparently it's the place to have tea in Windsor and is featured as one of Britain's must-go tearooms. Well the ambience was great, the scones were not too bad though we thought it would have been better warmed. The Americans at the next table had the full-fledged tea set, sandwiches, cakes, pastries the whole works. I do need to do tea at one of the institutions here in London one day.

After tea, we walked around and unexpected came across some cheap wall art that we bought. It was a nice way to spend the Sunday afternoon. I will be back to actually go to Windsor Castle next time.

End of Week 3

Time flies. It's been 3 weeks since I got here. The past 3 days I've been busy trying to move into my new place. What that means is lugging lots of luggage and things back and forth. I'm thankful that my friend helped me with quite a fair bit of the heavy carrying when he can. One can't imagine the number of things that you would need to make a house a home. Ok maybe it's just me since I seem to need more things than normal people.

Over the past few days, I've had to go to the department stores and supermarkets and lug back duvets, sheets, pillows, broom & pan, frying pan, kettle etc. Some of these things are pretty bulky and it's been quite a feat trying to bring it home, usually I bring my expandable sports bag and stuff the things in. I haven't even gotten my crockery and cutlery yet cos I'm going to Ikea only on Monday so I'm living off my tupperware and plastic cutlery I got from the supermarket.

Yesterday I went to a big Sainsbury to try to get some basic groceries like tea, coffee, sugar, cereal and cleaning stuff like detergent and cleaning liquids. I was a tad ambitious in the amount that I thought I could carry. After I paid and put everything into bags I knew I was in trouble. Nevertheless I carried what seemed like 20 kg (no I'm not kidding) and attempted to make my 15 min journey home. Mind you, I was in heels (after work) and the plastic bags were cutting into my fingers. After about 10 minutes, my fingers were numb and I looked around and it seemed as if I had gone the wrong way! By this time, my arms were about to give way and I thought there's no way I'm going to backtrack and potentially face an even longer journey. So I stopped and tried to flag a cab. Luckily one came by and I quickly got into it, relieved. It turns out that I was walking the correct way (luckily I didn't try to 'backtrack'!) just that I wasn't familiar with how the road turns. Finally I was home. I'm seriously contemplating buying one of those trolley things to carry my marketing. Very auntie I know.

Enough of the unglam stuff and onto more glam things. I was in Paris for a day trip for work yesterday (before the supermarket saga). It is amazing how one see Eiffel Tower, Champs-Elysees in the afternoon and then Westminster, Big Ben at night. It was really quite rushed, with 4 meetings back to back but I enjoyed the sunny Parisian weather (London was grey and rainy) and just soaking the French air. I do miss Paris and come to think of it, it's been exactly one year since I went last year. The trip where I learnt how to make macarons :) Hopefully I'll be able to take more leisure trips to Paris soon.

I'm hoping to get the kitchen and house stocked up asap cos I can't seem to concentrate on anything else. Though I know it's quite silly and I should be able to just do other things but somehow it's become an obsession. I need to tell myself I can slowly do it, and just need to get the essentials. There's this cabinet from Laura Ashley that I would really like to get, it's light aqua blue and it's really pretty. Except it's going to take 9 weeks for delivery. I shall go and contemplate tonight. I need instant gratification.

A Foray to Bray & Fat Duck

So yesterday, 4 of us went trotting off to Bray in search of 3-star Michelin restaurant, The Fat Duck. After missing the first train, we caught the 1743h train towards Maidenhead. We passed through Slough and my companions informed me that it was one of the most unimpressive places in Greater London. Well, it was where The Office (remember Milton and the hole puncher?) was set. Yeah, it's quite depressing.

After a 45 min ride, we were finally in Maidenhead! We caught a cab to nearby Bray, the cabbie took one look at us and immediately said "Fat Duck or Waterside Inn?". Now, was it THAT obvious? Guess 3 chinese and a caucasian aren't that common sight there huh? We arrived plenty early for our 9 o'clock sitting and so we went traipsing the little village. The place is really very pretty and quaint, with small streets, cottages, flowering gardens and greenery all around as you can see from the pictures. There were also plenty of fancy cars, surely patrons of the fancy restaurants. We walked towards the Waterside Inn where we scored another reservation there for October. So we will be returning to Bray soon enough :)







To while away our time, we chilled at the Hind's Head pub next to Fat Duck. The bartenders and waiters there all somehow had the Heston Blumenthal look - bald with metal frame glasses. Maybe it's a cult of gastronomers? We were kinda hungry, so we ordered some of the bar snacks, they were actually not bad, my first time having Scotch Eggs, which is an egg (quail's in this case) wrapped with sausage meet, breaded and fried. Yum.

Finally, it was time for our meal at The Fat Duck. The place is tucked away by the streetside with no obvious sign except for its logo hanging outside. The restaurant was full, as expected, and we were shown to one of the only remaining tables. The decor is understated, well really not much decor at all. It was converted from an old pub so it has low ceilings and has exposed wooden beams. We were seated and were asked if we had any allergies or dietary restrictions. Since there was only the Tasting menu (they got rid of the a la carte menu in July) with 13 courses, the only choice was whether you wanted the budget wines, mid-priced or high-end wines. My companions all opted for budget wines and I went for an organic apple-pear juice.

Before long, our waiter came by with some contraptions and proceeded to prepare our amuse-bouche. He had some liquid nitrogen in a pot, and he squeezed a dollop of egg white meringue onto a spoon, which he proceeded to drop into the liquid nitrogen. He then turned the meringue around a few times in the liquid and took it out, and sprinkled green tea powder onto it with a big puff. We were served one by one and told to put it our mouth whole as soon as we got it. The meringue was icy cold, tasted of lime and green tea and kinda melted/dissolved in your mouth leaving a tangy cool aftertaste. A worthy palette cleanser and it set our expectations for more theatrics to follow. Oh by the way, this menu is known as the Alice in Wonderland variation and here's the entire menu for reference -

LIME GROVE
Nitro Poached Green Tea and Lime Mousse

RED CABBAGE GAZPACHO
Pommery Grain Mustard Ice Cream

JELLY OF QUAIL, CREAM OF CRAYFISH
Chicken Liver Parfait, Oak Moss and Truffle Toast (Homage to Alain Chapel)

ROAST FOIE GRAS
Gooseberry, Braised Konbu and Crab Biscuit

MOCK TURTLE SOUP (c.1850)
"Mad Hatter Tea"

"SOUND OF THE SEA"

SALMON POACHED IN LIQUORICE
Artichokes, Vanilla Mayonnaise, Golden Trout Roe and Manni Olive Oil

POWDERED ANJOU PIGEON (c.1720)
Blood Pudding and Confit of Umbles

TAFFETY TART (c1660)
Caramelized Apple, Fennel, Rose and Candied Lemon

THE NOT-SO-FULL ENGLISH BREAKFAST
Parsnip Cereal
Nitro-Scrambled Egg and Bacon Ice Cream
Hot & Iced Tea

CHOCOLATE WINE "SLUSH" (c.1660)
Millionaire Shortbread

WINE GUMS
Historic Trade Routes of Britain

"LIKE A KID IN A SWEET SHOP"

Next up was the Gazpacho with mustard ice cream. The Gazpacho was really cabbagey, for lack of a better description, which I quite liked. But there were also some pickled vegetables and the pommery grain which I didn't really like, so overall the dish kinda tasted like Chinese pickles.

This was followed by the next theatrical dish. You will notice this will be an over-riding theme for the restaurant, where the uniqueness and wonder is derived from the bells and whistles and the unusual ways of presentation, rather than the taste of the dish. Yes, so back to our next dish, which was a combination of crayfish cream, jelly quail and liver parfait with a piece of truffle toast. Before we got to eat though, our waiter brought out a bed of moss with these melt-in-your-mouth films, like the listerine mouthwash kind except that this tasted of erm... forest. He poured some liquid (nitro?) onto the moss which began to 'smoke' except I didn't smell anything though I definitely tasted forest. Only then were we allowed to eat our dish. The crayfish cream was really quite delicious, not unlike a lobster bisque except lighter, and there was some green cream at the bottom layer of my creme dish which I really liked. Oh, and the truffle toast was good.

Next up was the foie gras. This was one of my favourite dishes in terms of taste. The foie gras was just nicely done, not too livery nor fatty and the crab biscuits and konbu seaweed were a nice touch that was different from the usual sweet fruit compote that foie gras usually comes with. Our only lament was that they could have given us a FULL piece of foie gras instead of that small half! Especially considering how much we were paying for the whole meal!



The Mock Turtle Soup definitely wins for best presentation hands-down. Our waiter, in his thick French accent, told us the story of how in Alice in Wonderland the Rabbit dipped his golden watch into his tea. As you can see from the series of pictures below, we had a golden watch in our tea cup, and when hot water was poured into it, it began to dissolve and the gold flakes started to swirl around in the 'tea'! This was then poured into this beautifully plated dish, which I think consisted of steamed egg, some really cute tiny mushrooms, truffle and veg cubes and some pork slices, transforming our dish into the 'mock turtle' soup. I just can't get over how cute the small tiny mushrooms were! Don't let the pictures fool you, the eggy dome was only about 3cm in diameter. The 'tea' was in fact a savoury (chicken?) consomme and the pork slices with some fat in between was really quite yummy.

The signature "Sound of the Sea" was next. We were presented with these shells which had an ipod tucked into it. We were to listen to it while enjoying our next dish. The sound was of the sea (what else?), with waves crashing and seagulls calling. The dish itself was also made to look like a scene of the beach, with tapioca and eel somehow made to look like sand (on top of the plate, not the below one, that's real sand), and different types of raw fish and sea weed and small ikan bilis with some seaweed foam as waves. I really enjoyed the 'sand' as it was part crunchy and part melt-in-your-mouth. The fish was so-so but I really liked the ikan bilis (hahah I'm cheap).

The next 2 were main dishes, one was a semi-poached salmon in liquorice gel with a whole lot of other flavours on the dish, and a pigeon dish. I really didn't like either of these. The salmon texture was nice, like aburi salmon that you get in japanese restaurants but it was quite bland. Perhaps it was purposely made bland so that you can taste the ikura, vanilla mayonnaise and the artichokes (which were yum). It was kinda sweet, with a faint taste of liquorice and quite strong vanilla, which was strange for a savoury dish. And then the pigeon, which was my least favourite dish of the night. I'm not sure how they cooked it, while it was not bloody, the texture and taste was quite raw and gamey. Did not rock my boat. There was also some bloody pudding, which again, is something I'm not hot about. My favourite bit was the pigeon cracker. For a degustation menu with 2 main dishes, it was really quite disappointing that neither of them were substantial. We concluded that perhaps it was harder to do something special with main dishes than appetisers and desserts. I guess we all would have preferred a thick slab of wagyu.

The next 5 dishes were dessert. First up was the Taffety Tart, with lots of goodness like rose, apple, lemon, a berry sorbet and thin tuile sheets. It was a tad sweet after a while, though the tartness of the berry sorbet did cut the sweetness a little.
Then came the famous Bacon and Eggs. This was part of a trio of the Not So Full English Breakfast. Our entertainer waiter came by again with his favourite ingredient liquid nitrogen. This time, he took out a couple of eggs and cracked them into the pot, poured liquid nitrogen over it then 'stir-fried' it and out came scrambled eggs! Except that this was scrambled eggs ice cream! We found out that it wasn't really egg inside the egg shell, they probably emptied the egg and refilled it with some egg custard and sealed it somehow. Ingenious. And I wonder how they get the texture of the ice cream to look like scrambled eggs as well! Other than that, the bacon strip was like a bacon flavoured candy, and it was served on french toast. It was also topped with some sweet pepper confit, which I wasn't really a fan of. This dish also came with hot & iced tea, which was a tea that was hot and cold at the same time! There was a cold denser viscous liquid suspended in hot jasmine tea, and when you drink it together you get both hot and cold sensations. Amazing. Think this was the crowd favourite of the night!
The other part of the breakfast was our Parsnip cereal. Well just some dried parsnip chips in milk. Nothing very wow but the packaging was really quite cute.
We're almost at the end! The next two desserts were the chocolate wine slush, and the wine gums. The chocolate wine slush is exactly that - a slushy chocolate wine errr slush, served with a really good dark chocolate shortbread. I liked the shortbread better than the slush haha. The wine gums were literally that as well, gums made of liquer from various parts of the world. They were placed along the respective countries they came from and we were supposed to eat them in order - Mead, Cognac, Madiera, Sherry, and Rum. Somehow this dish made us giggle a lot, we were all very high and happy from the wine (me from the slush and wine gums) and some of us had trouble following the numbered route. It was very fun peeling the wine gummies from the picture frame *giggle*
And now, for the last dessert and dish of the evening - Like A Kid in A Sweet Shop! We were all presented with a pretty gift bag with a variety of sweets and a explanation card that smelled like a sweet shop! Actually it somehow evoked a memory of Paris for me instead of a sweet shop. We were discussing what a sweet shop smelt like and Connie said that it should smell of old ladies and lavender, which prompted our waiter to burst out laughing. Smells aside, the goodies in the bag included an aerated orange chocolate (not great, I prefer dense chocs), a coconut caramel baccy (which tasted like gula melaka + coconut i.e. onde onde), caramel apple toffee (yum!) and a white chocolate + fruit compote Queen of Hearts (it was very exquisite, even the envelope seal was chocolate!).
We finished the night off with 2 pots of Yellow Tea (supposedly the rarest tea in the world), which cost 20 quid each - yeah so that's like SGD100 for both. It was kinda like Longjing, not terribly impressive.

I was impressed with the overall experience of the meal, of the thought put into packaging and presenting the meal, though not so much the taste of the food and flavours. It's more of a restaurant to be entertained rather than good food. They definitely do appetisers and desserts better than they do mains, since the salmon and the pigeon failed to impress. It was a positive experience nonetheless and I think we enjoyed ourselves. The wines (which I think Connie will write about) were mostly quite good, and that was just the budget wines - think of what the high-end wines must have been like! It's worth a trip at least once just to be thrilled and wowed by the cool liquid nitrogen stuff. I'm looking forward to the Waterside Inn, where it's not so strange food.

Other than the entertainment from our food, we were highly amused (and annoyed) by the table next to us, where a twat of an Eton boy (16 yrs) was dining with his father. Throughout the night, we were regaled with stories of how he (the boy not the father) loves to dine at posh places (he's apparently trying to get an El Bulli reservation) and other things that sounded like he was trying to impress daddy. He even tried to pay for the meal, which was dumb since his dad obviously would be paying for the supp card. Gosh, if you're eating at the best restaurants in the world at 16, where do you go from there?

Gosh, this review took as long to write and put up as it did to eat - 4 hours. As I was mentioing, Connie writes a food blog as well and she will most probably be putting up a review real soon as well! Check out her blog here!

I'm intending to do a eat-off challenge for the various Singaporean / Malaysian restaurants here in London i.e. go to each of them and compare some of the signature Singaporean / Msian dishes and see how they compare with each other. Stay tuned!

Homesick

It's been about 2 weeks since I got here, how time flies. I'm beginning to freak out about how long I am going to be here and what that means. Getting increasingly frequent pangs of homesickness and mini panic attacks. Yes, I know life here sounds exciting (it's London after all) and the experience of setting up a new home and all is great but at the risk of sounding ungrateful, I sometimes ask myself wtf did I think I was doing deciding on this move. I miss the familiarities of home, of my close friends and loved ones, knowing where all the things and shops are, having the convenience of a car and knowing I can meet up with my dear friends whenever I want. Here, I find that I have to watch what I spend on, ask around before I know where to get certain things, I don't even know the areas when people talk about them, and generally I just feel lost and unresourceful. I hate hate hate feeling like that. Whilst it's definitely been easier having a couple of friends here who have been more than great in showing me around, it's just different.

Restless, unsettled, lost.

Jude Law in Hamlet

Once again, I lucked out, thanks to Eugene the well-connected one! Someone couldn't go last minute to the Hamlet performance last Thursday and I jumped at the chance since this was a sold-out show. And of course, what wouldn't I give to see Jude Law up close and personal?




Sorry my pics turned out quite crap since I was using my iphone to sneakily take it. Yes, the figure next to the ghostly white lady is Jude Law. Yeah so his face looks like every other ghostly white person on stage haha.

The show itself was alright, though half the time I had no clue what they were saying cos it was all in Shakespearean and it's quite hard to concentrate after a long day. It was quite a minimalistic set, kinda modern/classic costumes. The performance by Jude Law was good, portraying Hamlet as a tortured and almost mad prince. The rest of the performers were so-so, I didn't really like the 'shouting' and way of acting by some of the actors. But overall, guess it was quite a good first London theatre experience. And did I mention Jude Law? Yum.

Eunice in Wonderland

Ahhhhhhhhhh!!!!!! I'm going to Fat Duck on Saturday!!!!!!! No 3-month long wait for me!

Woooohoooooo I can't wait!

I super lucked out, all thanks to my good friend here :)

Notes of a New Londoner Part II - Food!

I'm slowly catching up with the posts I've been meaning to blog about since last week. First up, I wanted to show everyone where I'm putting up at the moment - Saco Covent Garden Serviced Apartments. It's a nice one bedroom apartment with a kitchen and a large outdoor terrace that I don't make enough use of. It's right in the heart of Covent Garden on a quiet street, walkable to work, with H&M, Ted Baker, Paul Smith etc right at my doorstep on the same street.

Since I have a kitchen, I have been making use of it. No, not macarons or any sort of baking, but making simple meals (remember the student life I mentioned?) to save money. I do wonder if I am saving any money since I keep buying groceries from M&S, Tescos, Sainsbury. Stocked up on cereal, milk and some pasta ingredients. Here are my first home-cooked meals in London - Capellini with Sugar Snap Peas and Beef Bolognese, Scrambled Eggs and Capellini with Sugar Snap Peas and Sausage in Tomato Sauce. I usually make way too much, and end up either stuffing myself or eating leftovers for the next few meals. Totally not helping in my dieting plans.

And to make things even worse (in relation to my diet plans), I've been dining pretty well. Wan has been introducing me to all the good food and must-try places. His bunch of foodie friends meet quite often to try new places to my benefit. In the short week that I've been here, the places that I've already tried are:

• St John Bread & Wine (British food) 94-96 Commercial St, Liverpool St tube, E1 - good simple British fare with undecipherable menu names, like wth is a white faggot? stinking bishop? speckled-face sheep? ok I think the last is what it says it is.
  
• Rock & Sole Plaice (fish & chips, bottom left pic) 47 Endell St, Covent Garden tube, WC2 - age-old fish and chips institution that is getting pricier.
  
• Orrery (French chichi place) 55 Marylebone High St, Marylebone tube, W1 - tried the cheap(er) set menu, so-so not blow away but not too bad considering price. Many upmarket restaurants are offering 'recession' set menus
  
• GBK (gourmet burger chain) 50 Westbourne Grove, Bayswater, W2 - yummy beetroot burger!
  
• Hummingbird Bakery (famous cupcake place, top 2 pics), 133 Portobello Rd, Notting Hill tube, W11 - If you're wondering why the cupcakes in the below pics are so smashed up, it's because the silly carrier box they gave us was super not sturdy plus an entire day of walking around caused the cupcakes to do somersaults and backflips. We tried Red Velvet, Carrot & Black Bottom (my fave!)
  
• Cha Cha Moon (Alan Yau's take on noodle bar, bottom right pics), 15-21 Ganton St, Oxford Circus tube, W1 - Wan had really good crispy duck noodles (meepok!!!) and I had Jia Xiang Beef Hor Fun, which was very tasty beef hor fun with black bean sauce. Definitely gonna come back and try the other stuff.
  
• Dragon Castle (Chinese restaurant), 100 Walworth Rd, Elephant & Castle tube, SE1 - supposedly one of the better Chinese restaurants around, it definitely didn't disappoint, most things were quite authentic, not your usual angmoh chinese restaurant place.
  
• La Trompette (French Michelin 1-star), 5-7 Devonshire Rd, Turnham Green tube, W4 - I didn't know this was Michelin-starred till I went back and googled it. I had a business lunch there and I think the standard of the food was much better than Orrery. Chiswick, the atas residential area it's in, is also very nice. Probably will go back one day to walk around.
  

Sorry don't have pics for most of them cos it would have been a tad touristy to whip out my camera at the nice chi chi places haha. So the below would have to suffice for now.

London In Pictures

Figured this would be easier since people would be lazy to go over to flickr. I'll be adding more to the Markets set since my stupid Flickr Pro expired and 1/3 of my photos didn't upload properly.

Random Sights Around London

Markets in London

Notes of A New Londoner Part I

I feel like a student again. Everything's so expensive here, I have to watch what I eat, drink and buy in case I overspend. I guess I should stop converting everything back into SGD cos that's only going to give me a heart attack soon. I probably will end up eating Pret sandwiches a lot, or take-out M&S food, gotta start rationing my Starbucks coffee as well, gone are the days of S$1 kopi. The plan is to cook for dinner and bring in the leftover for lunch and have 2 nice meals during the weekend. Let's see how I do on that. Although it's just sad that I have to watch my expenditure so closely.

Not just that, but I am really starting to miss the convenience and luxuries of having a car to zip around anywhere anytime. Here, I'm subject to the ubiquitous oft-broken down Tube, bus or walking everywhere (I've already worn out my cheapo Far East shoes) cos I can't afford to be cabbing everywhere. Hais...

Speaking of shoes, EVERYONE in London seems to be wearing flats. Not that that's a bad thing, but I had thought more people would be wearing heels, judging by the amount of heels H&M, Topshop are selling. But no, everyone's feet are clad in flats. Some even wear trainers or slippers with their work clothes (I suspect there's a pair of heels hidden in their bags) and that attests to how much of a walking culture there is here. Not just a walking culture, but a practical culture since pain-free feet take precedence over style. Either that, or I'm totally hanging out in plebian cum tourist land where the chi-chi fashion forward Londoners don't hang out. Probably the heel-cladden fashionistas are zipping everywhere in black cabs or their shiny beemers.

I really should find out where the real Londoners hang out. So WHO are the real Londoners? The old money and aristocratic? The surburban working middle-class? The stylish fashion set? White-collared I-bankers? (who have most probably been retrenched and disappeared these days) Or is it the cosmopolitan melting pot of immigrants and transient working people (like me) that I come across everyday in Central London? Seriously, when I take the Tube, not one person is speaking English (American doesn't count). A smattering of various tongues can be heard and I thought I came here to be surrounded by the Queen's English.

I guess this is the real London - a city where paths are crossed and different people of the world come together to call this place home. Just like me. Now I just need to find out where Hugh Grant hangs out.

My Sweet Pad (Almost!)

So, after 5 days of relentless viewings and tons of walking, I finally found the place I am going to call home for the next 3 years. Well, almost as I've got to wait for the paperwork to clear before I get the keys. Crossing my fingers that nothing goes wrong and the approval goes through.

I'm really quite excited about it! It's situated in Belgravia, near Sloane Square tube and also Victoria tube. It took a while for me to get used to the idea of this neighbourhood as I was earlier quite set on something in Marylebone (the Rosetti House property). This area is slightly quieter and less err poseur I feel (although many would beg to differ since this is the poshnosh area). It's a short walk to Sloane Street where all the designer boutiques are situated leading to Knightsbridge. Around the neighbourhood is King's Road, Pimlico Road and Elizabeth Street, which are full of cafes and cute small shops. The apartment's in not in a period house (which I originally wanted), but in a non-descript block but at least I'll have a porter (caretaker in Brit).

Ok ok, here are the pics I took from the apartment viewing that day.
What really got me was the decor of the place, everything's pretty new, and the kitchen. Yes, I've been obsessing about the kitchens. This has all the appliances, all new AND a gas stove plus plenty of storage. I also have a tiny tiny balcony to either put plants or maybe even BBQ (not in winter tho). The landlord's also a big corporate landlord with their own tenant support system which would be so important if anything breaks down.

Yeah, I'm very thankful that I managed to settle this before I start work next week, which promises to be crazy and full of back to back meetings. Really hope there aren't any problems with the lease and everything will go smoothly.

I kinda feel purposeless now that I've found a place. Was walking around today and feeling very lost, the shopping didn't really call out to me, and without any place or neighbourhood to view, I really didn't know where to go! Quite a bit of observations and thoughts to pen down over the next few blog entries so I guess stay tuned!