LobsterFest at Belgo, London

•17 June 2009 • Leave a Comment


Hurry up if you don’t know….

Belgo currently is having the Lobster Festival until the last day of June 2009. I had this on the first week of June but too lazy to blog anything….

Surely, booking is essential on Friday evening at Belgo, you will see how busy that basement location is…. people waiting at the bar, or queuing.. just to want to go in and have mussels or any other Belgian foods. This reminds me the meal i had in Brussels, superb mussels … but we can’t compare it to London’s Belgo. But got to say their mussels in Belgo is well tiny!

Okay.. i am not a big fan of mussels, and i am here for the lobster festival. So Lobster is a must… while i was debating on whether to get a whole lobster or half and half (half lobster and half steak), i decided to go for a whole.. as i reckon i can get better steak somewhere else. 2 friends and myself in the end ordered a whole lobster each.. they had chips but i requested to have plain mash aside. Forget that stomp mash, i HATE spring onions! kekek~~~~

After our order, the full set of lobster kit were given… wow, that nut cracker. Voila, my meal has arrived! … i finish the whole thing quite quick, its quick easy with the tools…. some people might find it hard. Taste wise…. i can’t seem to taste the freshness of the lobster, but then i just think how fresh can you expect…… and a lb of lobster, its tiny =( … ah, aroma wise it smell good, taste good; i just don’t like the fact i have to dig the meat out. If you have ever tried the chinese style lobster at any chinese restaurant, you will understand what i mean….. they chopped the lobster one in pieces. no working just use your chop stick and munch!  Ahh talking about lobster i miss Atami’s lobster tempura… ahh memory.

To cut it short, make you sure go for it… kekeke

Belgo Centraal
50 Earlham Street
Covent Garden
WC2H 9LJ

Giraffe, London

•9 June 2009 • Leave a Comment

Giraffe…. 長頸鹿, long neck deer(bad Chinese English saying, haha~) i have seen this chain in quite a few locations now..

Two weeks ago it must be, the sunny Sunday… I visited this place out of the blue (like the chair above) with my dear friend. We decided to meet and chill at the market and looking for things to snap but in the end my tiredness overtaken my objective of the day to finish off 36 exposure of my film.

Anyhow, with the restaurants fills with people inside or at outside tables. This must have said something to potential diners….. the food must be tasty! Okay… here we go!

First glance, ambiance is great…. i love the exotic colours of this restaurant, feels very refreshing…just perfect interior for a good Sunday. The entire restaurant can be quite space out, there are few types of tables to meet different needs. First glance to the menu… quite limited huh?? but the more you studied it, the more you realised there are things that you have never thought it can pair together and most importantly you never tried them before. Flicking around… i set my heart on the Chicken, prawn and mango salad; my friend ordered fish fingers burger and we also shared a topped wedges. Drinks wise i got the mango one….. the waitress was good, she literately asked us… do you want some tap water to go with your meal. Surely, this shows something…  and i also saw that they actually serve you in filtered tap water!!!!! extra marks…..

I ordered the wedges for no reason as i just want to eat them, but come to my surprised the topping is quite a lot. And the favour is quite impressive to pair with the wedges.. giving the boring wedges a kick of tomato/pepper taste.
I didn’t have much expectation to my salad; i just want something light on that day due to the hot weather. But with such generous portion, i was actually full from this salad.  The chicken, prawns and mango… also the sauce on the salad, great ratio! I m scared of salad that has much sauce on them, as that will just overpower the salad; making it become more of a heavy meal. I am pleased. When i dine out, i rarely would order a salad, to me its like paying 10GBP and what you get its a few leaves and meat… not worth the price; although i still think so, but for this salad i am actually not regretting ……. its just so fresh! it shocked me to see how fresh this salad is. kakaka~~ ah i can’t stop talking about it, i will go back for this salad again and try other starters…   and surely wouldn’t forget my topped wedges, just love them!

Wonder if you have ever tried innocent smoothie…? i am a big fan of it, although i rarely drink it now as once i drink i can’t stop, which means i would have taken more sugar than i need. In short, not good!  When you dine out, apart from the boring freezy drink, water etc.. i m always keen to try something new, their mango smoothie seem super refreshing.. ordered. oops…..  it taste a little bit too sweet though.but the fruit doesn’t taste like canned puree… mmm….  anyhow, i find the giraffe stirer very cute, i want to take it home with me…. ah!

Love this place, really great to have your sunday brunch here.. esp when you are around the East London markets.

Giraffe
Spitalfields Market
Crispin Place
Spitalfields
E1 6DW
Tel 020 3116 2000

椰絲麵包卷 Coconut Roll

•1 June 2009 • Leave a Comment

椰絲麵包卷.

很久沒有弄麵包了﹐有年多了吧。 再次嘗試弄弄看﹐烤出來時候很滿足﹐起碼功力還在.  哈~

Tierra Brindisa, London

•30 May 2009 • 2 Comments

Tierra Brindisa.. initially i would like to visit its Tapas Brindisa before going to here but you know life is unexpected.
Rib or Spanish.. i let my friend make the decision but a voice inside my heart says “pick Spanish!”.. so here we went there without booking. Standing at the entrance, greet by the waiter and got the reaction that you don’t have booking.. hang on, but the restaurant is half empty. Never mind, she still offered us a table near the kitchen but told us that she needs the table back by 20:15pm. more than enough for a meal to us…. By the time we arrived to our table, i am glad she actually set us around here, because the interior is much nicer near the kitchen than the front part of the restaurant. You see the chefs in action, the bar next to the table.. and lights hanging above, the room is brighter which reminds me of how sunny and fresh Barcelona is. ah i misses my Barcelona trip that i went 2 years ago… when can i return??

To my surprised their menu here is quite limited, first thing pop up in my mind is… if i tried all dishes will i ever return? anyhow….. we ordered the dishes as pictured plus some breads and tomato breads. Talking about tomato breads, is actually a Spanish local side dish, they actually rub the tomato over the breads and eat it like that.. surely you must be thinking, is that fulfilling? its tapas style….  its more about relaxing, dining late, tapas with wine.. hence so. but for my meal, with these dishes plus bread, roast potatoes and other is actually enough.

I am quite bias.. but what needs to look out its probably the Tiger Prawn “a la plancha”, fresh and crispy prawns… but then you need to learn how to take off the shelf using your knife and fork or via your teeth (with my brother can do it so well when my mom cooks ketchup prawns!!!). No doubt its not easy to eat fresh prawns in such tapas form..
One of the dishes that i love the most from my Barcelona trip was croquettes, its like deep fried potato cakes, i just love mash potatoes…. but this one is called Home Style Chicken Croquette, something i have never seen in Barcelona. No doubt the texture here is a bit too soft, and the seasoning were too much. its so saltyyyyyyyyy~~~ it taste different but it doesnt make me keep on eating it.

You might start to think the dishes look a bit like main meal rather than Tapas. Yes, you are right Tierra Brindisa is doing tapas but also plate food. So its slight different to proper tapas which is more like tiny dishes of each. Their menu consist large number of seafoods and limited choices on meat. With one of my friends cannot eat meat, we pick fishes.. my aunt jokes saying if you don’t eat fish; you will never be able to swim. haha~ such a big lie. Anyhow, mullet with mash, my beloved dish of this meal.. i m so sorry i am just bias with mash potato, but the balance is great… the fish meat is light but you can taste fish fish…  on the other hand, Rock Salmon marinated in paprika, garlic and moscatel vinegar; i finding a bit unique… never tried it before but yet the season can be a bit too strong on the fish… surely its sort of advance prepared but nevertheless with such presentation and taste its worth trying! And… Sea Bream with funnel Salad, mmm………. i never ate Sea Bream before, but i just think the fish is nice, the texture is quite dense.. not like cod, similar to dover sole …  because of it as a salad surely the taste is quite light.. but all of us loved it!

Apart from the beginning, the service generally is stunning; the waiter is quite attentive and the meal was deliver well on good time space. The food quality is fair, very refreshing although totally different to that tapas that i have ate in Barcelona. This place is great for summer meals….

I have certainly enjoy my night, nothing to complain about… yay! next … i need to visit Tapas Brindisa. i want chorizo…..  and this place is certainly better than La Tasca chain … kakak…

Tierra Brindisa
46 Broadwick Street
London
W1F 7AF
Tel 020 7534 169

Prague‧May 2009

•25 May 2009 • 6 Comments

Went to Prague for 4 full days, and have been back home for 1 week so far. Misses the holiday feeling, work is going to get stress soon.  Hoped to go on holiday soon away, but … financial is a factor! kakak~~~

Prague is a pretty city, but yet i find few other EU city much prettier than Prague. Nevertheless, walking around Prague was a great cultural location to be, food not many choices but weather was good apart from first night. The castle was a great disappointment but the bridge was super pretty. hehe.. and most importantly i found the weird no face baby on the tv tower! Petrin tower was a great place to view the entire Prague city, but so tiring walking all these steps upwards and downwards. Clock tower area was real tourist venue, everyone waited to see the clock tower but felt disappointed in the end as the act was so quick! … great place to chill for a long weekend, but perhaps 3 days is max for EU city.. i got quite bored on my 4th day before i head home LOL…