London Weekend

When I looked at my previous posts, it's quite interesting to see that around this time last year, we went up to London for a show and spent a nice foody weekend up there.

For months, Fely and I have been planning our trip to the Stitch and Knit Show at the Alexandra Palace in London and it finally took place three weeks ago (Yes, I know... I am a bit slow these days)

We (Steve and I) thought that it would be nice to also take the opportunity to spend sometime in London, watch a show and eat some nice food. So we went up to London the day before and Steve's brother kindly arranged and bought us tickets to a show in London, Avenue Q as a belated birthday present for me and it was entertaining, light and quite funny. I wouldn't say that it was of the same standard and quality as The Lion King, but for a two-hour entertainment, they didn't do a bad job. Singing and dancing muppets - can't go wrong with that. After the show, we were treated to a really posh Italian restaurant meal in which I enjoyed a really nice Fresh crab Fedelini and got to taste Steve's Seafood Stew as well.

Because I was having my foot problem, we couldn't walk very much and I felt quite guilty most of the times for wanting to take the easiest form of transport which requires the minimum amount of walking. Worst of all, after the meal I insisted that we took a cab back to Steve's brother's place.

The next day, Fely and I had a scrumptious meal of dim sum at Leicester Square before heading to the show. Due to maintenance work at tube stations, it took us FOREVER just to get to the show but when we finally got there, it was all worth the effort and we were hypnotized and mesmerized by the multitude of gorgeous and wonderful things surrounding us. The only regret we had was that there wasn't enough time to spend together at the show because Steve was waiting to take me home after the show, I didn't really want to let him wait for too long and I had to leave quite early, leaving Fely behind at the show (which thankfully she didn't mind too much because she got to 'play' with a sewing machine).  All in all, a fantastic and wonderful weekend spent in London, watching a show, having lovely food and catching up with my dear, dear friend.

As usual a weekend in London is not complete without some nice pictures to show you. So I'll let these pictures tell you the story.

I got told off after taking this picture as there was NO PHOTOGRAPHY allowed in the theatre (the lady screamed). To be fair, I didn't see a sign and also the show hasn't even started yet !!

 After the show, we went for cocktails and Steve ordered something with passionfruit and it came out in flame.

While waiting for Fely outside the Four Season's restaurant in China Town at 10am, I took this unusually quiet and chaos-free scene of China Town.

 The happy lady.

Looking demure with her Chinese tea trying to pick a dish to order.

Pork puff. Yum...

 Roast pork Cheong Fun.

 Chicken's feet, of course.

 Siu Mai.

 As much as we would have loved to, we didn't stay all day at the dim sum place and we moved on to the show. I didn't take many pictures of the show as you can imagine that the last thing I wanted to be doing was taking pictures and not properly utilizing every minute I had there.

The gorgeous Amy Butler corner.

There you go, hope you've enjoyed looking at a few pictures from my lovely weekend.

London Weekend

steve's brother is on holiday in peru so his house in london is unoccupied so we thought we'll make use of this opportunity to have a 'mini' free holiday in london town last weekend...

steve complains that he is always the planner for our past holiday trips so i took it upon myself to plan and reserve the restaurants for the london weekend (i went to the length of making a fully timetabled schedule, accompanied by a detailed tube journey plan)... 

but the weekend didn't turn out the way i had planned at all (sod's law)...

first of all, steve came down with a cough and cold before we left (i did say we should cancel but he said he was fine, in case you wondered if i twisted his arm to drive us down to london)

then when we got to his brother's house in london after a mad hectic rush after friday work, we found out that the workmen who he had hired to paint the downstairs weren't finished when they were supposed to have finished the job, so everything was covered with cloth so no telly and no relaxing space for us and the whole house looked like it was struck by a tornado because they must have packed and left in a hurry (as you would....)

so we retired upstairs to the room...the super king size bed made up for the lack of telly... steve's brother loves reading and he buys all sorts of books so it was like being in a library so we each picked a book we liked and soon were happily reading... 

the next day we didn't get out till after 12noon coz steve wasn't feeling well, then when we got to the italian restaurant (highly recommended according to timeout london guide) for our lunch reservation there was NO ONE in there so steve refused to go in and look like two pumpkins... so we went into a nearby sushi bar instead, Itsu.. it was great and it was heaving !!! so that was good....

When we went in, luckily there were two empty seats left at the bar so we quickly sat ourselves down and even before we settled down we picked our first dish to gorge on...

Tuna sashimi coated with sesame accompanied by a very unusual and delicious salad...

then we went to oxford street and it was raining so i made steve hold an umbrella over himself in case his cold worsened.. and then i dragged him into john lewis so that i could look at some overpriced yarn... and then we went to have a custard puff in the famous papabeard in oxford street... 

days leading to the weekend, i promised him we would shop at china town in leicester square, get some goodies and i would cook him a lovely chinese meal on saturday night but the kitchen was beyond rescue so we had to forget about cooking so we didn't get anything from china town, didn't even get dinner...

we went back to kentish town at 6pm and by 6.30pm we were on the road back to bournemouth...

so overall, didn't turn out as planned but it was still a semi great weekend in london :)

'Wicked' and Sake no hana

There were two things that we were excited about during our London trip last weekend. First, we were going to watch the musical 'Wicked' and second, we had reservation at one of the most highly recommended Japanese restaurants in London.

We went for the matinee showing of 'Wicked' and there were LOADS of children in funny, halloween costumes and the whole of the Apollo Theatre was jammed packed!! Because we only paid £20 for each ticket so you can imagine that we were sooooooo far away from the stage (the second last row) that the characters on stage were as small as my thumb, haha. We paid £1 to hire the pair of binoculars supplied but we could just about make out the faces of the characters through the binoculars. Overall the musical was good, but not as great as The Lion King, I must admit.

By the time we squeezed ourselves out of the theatre at the end of the musical, we had plenty of time before we had to make our dinner reservation at Sake no hana on St. James Street, near The Ritz Hotel. So we took the underground heading towards Green Park. It was a good job we had ample time as between us, we had two Google maps on our mobiles and still we managed to go the wrong way, twice. 

Upon reaching the restaurant, we still weren't sure we got the right place as  the area around the outside of the restaurant was dark; there was no clear sign board apart from some small letters next to the entrance. The entrance to the restaurant reminded me of the entrance to a secret society. It was dark and gloomy I actually thought in dismay that the restaurant was shut. The glass doors slid open after we stood there for a full 10 seconds and we were ushered upstairs to the main restaurant. Sake no hana is divided into three sections: downstairs is the conventional Sushi bar; upstairs you have the cocktail bar, followed by the main restaurant area where you have the choice of sitting on the floor (not quite on the floor because there are holes where you can dangle your feet), or you can sit at tables.


We chose the 'sitting on the floor' table, mainly because we knew we wouldn't be expected to fold our legs and sit properly like a real Japanese due to the hole in the floor. The interior of the restaurant was a neutral blend of bamboo and wood, with dim lights projecting from the right angle to create a very elegant and soothing environment. Before I had to take my shoes off and settle down, I visited the ladies and as expected, it was as equally impressive as the main dining area. It was too bad I didn't have my camera with me at that time... don't worry, I wasn't about to take a picture of myself on the bog, but the sink area was a spectacle in itself and I can only describe to you what it was like. Again the theme of bamboo and wood blend was evident in the ladies. The hand-washing area is formed by a main tub with a wooden tray sitting in between, for the disposal of used hand towels. There is no tap at the sink. Instead the water comes through two 'chutes' from the wall, into the tub. Washing your hands with water gushing down through the chute was so satisfying that I spent quite sometime washing my hands, haha.

Then came the exciting part of ordering for food from the simple menu of Starter, Salad, Sashimi, Maki, Rolls, Sushi, Tempura and Side Orders. After obtaining help from a really friendly waitress, we decided on our order and when our first order of Warm Softshell Crab with Rocket Salad came, we were well-impressed. Everything tasted as yummy as they looked and as soon as we had finished one dish, our next order materialized out of no where. One thing I must say is that the waitress and waiters were super efficient and super friendly.

Warm Soft Shell Crab Salad with Wasabi Sauce

Duck Breast Tempura drizzled with Sweet Vinegar Sauce (can't remember what the sauce is called)

Dragon Roll -- Eel, Avocado and Tobiko Caviar

My miso soup with tiny mushrooms, very nice

6 slices of Sashimi -- Seabass, Tuna and Salmon (just that plate cost us £15, eek)

We had some mixed tempura of prawns, scallop, pumpkin, courgette and mushroom too but didn't get chance to take any picture before we started digging in. At the beginning, because we knew that we only had a two-hour slot in which to order and dine, we were literally wolfing down our food thinking that we were not going to have enough time. But by the time we were eating the dragon roll we realised that we still had ample time so we slowed down and really took our time to enjoy our lovely and beautiful food. Steve was even persuaded to order some Sake which he really enjoyed tremendously. I had a sip or two and liked it too. The Sake tasted pure and had a full volume to it. Of course, no meal is complete without dessert, so to make ourselves feel less of a glutton, we shared a portion between ourselves.

The passion fruit cheesecake with yuzo ice cream that we couldn't resist

Overall, the bill should have been a little over £100, but because we managed to obtain a special 30% discount time slot, our whole bill came to £88, which is still a lot for a meal, but it was a special treat seeing that we don't go up to London very often. And it was a truly fantastic and tasty experience.

It was really a great foody weekend : over the weekend we dined at a French restaurant in Marylebone Street on Saturday for steak and chips for lunch; Japanese restaurant on St. James Street for Saturday dinner; and Breakfast at The Brew House Cafe in Kentwood House at Hampstead Heath.

Have to limit my intake beginning of next week.... but it was all worth it !! I shall finish off this blog with some really beautiful pictures I took of Hampstead Heath this morning, a wet but colourful windy morning. Apparently, this is the setting in which Julia Roberts did the filming of her period movie in the movie The Nottinghill (I hope this makes sense).

The Reunion (Part III)

So we finally and gleefully arrived at Leh-Ces-ter Square and were immediately faced with the dilemma of which Chinese Restaurant should we patronize?! And to decide that, we used the always reliable 'the busier the better' judgement and decided upon 'Crispy Duck Restaurant' or something that sounded like that.

We barely had the three separate menus in our hands for a full two minutes before our Fely decided that we should order this, that, that, this and that!!! Like she mentioned in her post, thank god we can both eat like pigs for I gladly went along with her suggestions. And before long, we had four different types of dim sum in front of us, and with half a chicken's claw dangling from our mouths, we decided that we would also order Braised Pork with Yam!!

And that is to be followed by a platter of roast meat and some noodles. But thank god we came to our senses and stopped ordering after the pork coz we were stuffed like pigs after that. But it still didn't stop us from ordering a mango pudding and yam with taro balls for dessert! Haha. It was yummy scrumptious and absolutely delicious and we even dedicated the mango pudding to Bea who was supposed to be joining us but couldn't coz she's working!

ps: This is for you Beaaaa...

The Reunion (Part II)

So I arrived in London in good timing at around 8.10am. Walked from the coach station to the train station and text-ed Fely to let her know I'll be standing outside HMV (so old-fashioned, haha).

Seriously, one word of advice, never travel within London on the public transport during rush hour. The people streaming out of the trains, through the gates, into the station... they have no souls.. they are just empty shells with one single objective in their minds - must get to work, must get to work, get OUT OF MY WAY, get OUT OF MY WAY !!! Every single one of them have a dazed look in their eyes and crossing their path is a huge huge mistake and if you're not careful, you'll get run down by this constant stream of human traffic.

So there I was, with me tea in my hand and standing outside HMV, mentally preparing myself for the arrival of a friend whom I've not seen for 8 years. When she arrived, I knew that all the mental preparation was not needed, she looked just like she was when we said our goodbyes after our graduation in Mint Hotel in 2001. It's amazing huh, after 8 years of not seeing each other, and after a longgggg hug, we picked up from where we had left and started yakking as if we're on one of our weekly coffee meets.

Without wasting time, we made our way to the Malaysian Embassy to get the serious business done before we can have a proper pig out at Leicester Square (Leh-ches-ter Square, as we were constantly making fun of it) as formerly agreed. I was on a mission - to get Fely to the embassy as quick as possible so that we can get an early appointment and be done with the application in no time at all !!! I became one of those empty souls with a single objective in my mind and elbowed anyone who stands in my way!!! So all thanks to the forever useful Blackberry, we didn't get lost and managed to find our way to Belgrave Square where lots and lots of embassies were situated.

After getting Fely's passport renewed, we then had time to walk slowly and to take some really nice pictures..



PS: Remember I got dressed in the dark, and in a haste :P so don't be too harsh on what I was wearing... :P