I have been quite busy with school for the past couple of weeks. But rest assured, more blogpots to come once I get through some assignments. Coming up:

Foods:
Bounty
Porridge

Restaurants/cafe:
Poppies Fish & Chips
Paul
Konditor & Cook
Simurgh
Pret
Snog

Places:
London Markets (Brick Lane, etc.)


A lot to write about....

Review: Nude Espresso Brick Lane

I love dinning and I am always in search of a fine dinning experience. I plan to share my dinning experiences in London here starting with Nude Espresso where I had brunch this afternoon with some of my classmates. So here it goes:

Nude Espresso
26 Hanbury Street
London
E1 6QR
http://www.nudeespresso.com/

I had high expectations. I was told Nude makes the best coffee in London. Before going to there I explored the website and searched the menu for a delicious brunch. It looked great.

There was a line up inside the restaurant when we entered. That's always a good sign. We were told to wait for "a while" for a table. However, we soon after were seated once my friend who frequents the place walked in. We sat down on two tables attached to each other. Comfortable seats and nice ambiance.

Soon after we got water and menus and ordered our food and drinks. Everyone went with Eggs Benedict with Salmon and Spinach. I had heard they make very good Flat White and having never tried it decided to go with Flat White with semi-skim milk (note: in London, low fat = 2% and most of the time you can't find skim milk, they basically consider semi-skim with 1-2% fat = skim milk).

Flat White

Eggs Benedict with Salmon

Note on Eggs Benedict: this wasn't a typical eggs benedict with english muffin, etc. It was basically poached eggs + Hollandaise Sauce on top of salmon flakes and on top of a piece of toasted wholewheat bread.

I ordered Eggs Benedict minus the Hollandaise Sauce (I avoid butter), Salmon and Spinach.

Eggs Benedict + Salmon without Hollandaise Sauce

The restaurant was busy so we patiently waited for our food. First the hot drinks arrived. I liked the Flat White. It's more like a strong latte. My friends also enjoyed their drinks.

It took a while for the food to arrive. A while. We were almost done with the drinks when the food arrived. I am usually very patient especially when the restaurant is busy, but I really think drinks and food should be served short after each other, so the customers can enjoy them together.

So the food arrived minus the spinach. It took a while until the spinach arrived. We reminded the servers about the spinach a few times. One of my friends did not even get her spinach. She had also ordered orange juice and did not get that one either. After our meal, when we informed the server about this issue he gave her a glass of orange juice on the house. A nice gesture!

Spinach

So how was the food? Keep in mind that this meal did not require much cooking. You basically need to assemble your already prepared salmon on already prepared bread and cook the eggs, sauce and spinach. So you better nail the eggs, sauce and spinach. The eggs were disappointingly overcooked. I am no expert in making poached eggs, but I am not a restaurant chef. The taste was fine but that wasn't properly poached eggs. The salmon was fine. The bread was fine and the spinach was just meh. I did not try the sauce so can't judge that. Overall, not impressed with the food.

Now let's talk about the service. Staff weren't particularly nice or rude. They were just humans carrying food and taking orders. That's all. One server who checked on us knew one of my friends and mostly interacted with her. Given how some of the items we ordered did not arrive and there was minimal interaction with the staff, I'd rate the service low.

Also, salt came in a small bowl not in a shaker. You had to put your fingers in there and sprinkle it on your food. How sanitary is that? We asked for pepper and ground it on our food. I don't mind this at all but in Canada, servers always offer the pepper and grind it themselves. I enjoy that. Perhaps that's not a British tradition so let's forget about this.

So do I recommend the place? Overall, no. The drinks seem nice so I may consider going by and pick up a drink to go. That said, they don't have skim milk so I'll most likely avoid the place all together.

A disappointing experience.

The fire alarm goes off really easy at my little studio in London. I have to be careful with the steam when I cook and keep the bathroom door closed when I take a shower. So I came up with a guide to cooking Quinoa at my residence without setting the bloody fire alarm. Here it goes:

First, put the lid on your pot. Then, place a thick cloth on top and make sure to cover the lid's top surface entirely such that no steam can escape. In order to keep the cloth in place put a heavy object on top of it, e.g., a bag of onions of various sizes works quite well. Make sure to keep an eye on your pot and patiently wait.

Furthermore, if you did set the fire alarm, don't panic and keep calm. Use the cloth and wave it in front the smoke detector like a maniac. It'll stop and life will go back to normal.

ps - this method is also applicable to rice, pasta, etc.

H & H

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today was the Canadian Thanksgiving. Being here in London at this time of the year I miss certain things about home, pumpkin, spices, pies and red orange tree leaves. You feel autumn in Vancouver. It seems as if autumn has't really arrived in London. It's just rain and rain and rain. Speaking of the rain, I thought as a Vancouverite rain wouldn't be an issue in London, but the rain is different here. It's so wet. I don't know how else to describe it. It penetrates and soaks you wet from head to toe *sigh* I'm still adjusting. Anyways, back to Thanksgiving. There are probably 8 of us Canadians here at my residence. Most are from Toronto and Montreal and McGill grads. I am the only one from Vancouver and Western Canada (though my Saskatchewanian friend considers herself Western Canadian but that's up for debate in my opinion :P ). It was wonderful! We gathered at 7 pm at our residence common room for a Canadian Thanksgiving potluck. I had class till 6 pm so didn't get a chance to cook. I searched around on my way back home from school to find an apple pie and finally discovered it at M&S Foods. Here in London when someone says pie people automatically think savoury pie. It's not difficult finding a chicken or beef pie here but finding an apple pie is certainly a challenge. Don't even think about pumpkin pie. Oh, pumpkin pie! How much I love it. See, if I were in Vancouver I could easily find it at my local Save-on, but here in London there is no pumpkin pie. In fact, one of my Canadian housemates searched around London for pumpkin and finally managed to find it at Whole Foods on Piccadilly Square. She made delicious pumpkin cupcakes. Despite all challenges the food was great. We had store-bought chicken instead of turkey, no stuffing and no cranberry but a lot love for Thanksgiving. We enjoyed laughters and made fun of each others Canadian-ness. It was fun, a little piece of home, some delicious food and genuine laughter and something to be thankful for. So what am I thankful for? As always, thankful for my health (I said this to friends a couple of years ago at Thanksgiving and they laughed at me, well, haha, what? I am thankful for my health!). Everyday, I consider myself one of the luckiest people alive. Life sure hasn't been easy but I've had amazing people beside me to support me through it all. My parents have been there no matter what. I've had inspiring mentors. My friends are incredible and the loves of my life. Ultimately, I am thankful for today, for where I am, who am I and who I want to be. I am thankful, because I can think about these things while so many out there can not even imagine the thought of being someone other than what others want them to be. Let's cherish this very moment and think about all the beautiful things in our lives. We are all lucky in our own ways. We all have something to be thankful for, sometimes we have to search for it, but it is there, just look carefully. Happy Thanksgiving, Canada!

Health & Happiness

It's my third week in London and I have fallen deeply in love with it. What am I doing here and where did I come from? I am here to do my post-graduate studies and I come from Vancouver, Canada. I will be here for a year, but truth be told plan to stay for as long as possible and perhaps forever. London has so much offer that a life-time in London won't be enough to explore it. Living in London is like living in a mini-world, where all cultures, languages and ways of life live side by side in harmony. No one cares where you come from or what you do. You are welcomed. Coming from Vancouver, a relatively quiet large city to London, a huge and crowded city I wasn't sure how welcoming Londoners were. I was pleasantly surprised by the warmth and genuineness of Londoners. They won't hesitate to go out of their way to give you directions or have a random conversation with you at the cashier's about what VAT (Value Added Tax) is. It's only been three weeks and I feel like I am home. I fit in.

This is my first posting and I already feel like I am behind. There will be many more posts to come. For now here is a picture of an Ethiopian food stand at the Brick Lane Sunday Market where I purchased my dinner. The ladies were so kind and the food is just amazing (eating it as I write this). Enjoy from afar.

Health & Happiness

PS - I also scored this handbag (aka purse in Canada) for £15 at the market. 

I really wanted this one too, but the seller wouldn't go below £25. :(

And got some fruits for £4.

Next time I'll post some pictures from the market. More to come.