Walkers Sunbites

Walkers Sunbites multigrain crackers taste so good. Its like eating oat crackers. On the pack it says LIGHTLY salted. Indeed, it was not very salty which was to my liking.

They were giving it away for free on Victoria Street. I would member have tried it at all if it was not free because I am not a fan of chips. I am glad I tried it!

Gourmet Burger Kitchen, GBK

I finally had a taste of GBK at Fulham Broadway. GBK is a franchise and so numerous GBK restaurants can be found around London. I have always wanted to try it but I never gotten around to it.

7.95 pounds for a original sized cheeseburger:

Delicious! It reminded me of burger bakar Abang Burn and Burger Lab in Malaysia. Of course in Malaysia that kind of burger cost only 4 pounds. GBK's burger was much better than Burger King's and Mc Donalds. Unfortunately, it can't compete to Malaysia's burgers. Go Malaysia! ;)

On a other note, I left my first footprint on Westfield shopping mall, the largest shopping mall in Europe.

I did not go with high expectations but once I stepped foot in it, my jaw dropped and I was in awe.

 There were so many things to see and do there. It was like having shops from Knightsbridge, Kensington High Street and Oxford Street into one building and also every single food cuisine can be found in Westfield mall!!

Look what I found- A restaurant called Penang!

They serve food like pisang goreng, char kueh teow and other Penang food.

I'd definitely go to Westfield Mall to shop again since it is indoors, very suitable for the rainy wet weather in London. Plus, I dont even like being under the sun so Westfield is fab. The aircond was also full blast so its not so stuffy like some other malls.

I should make some Instagram videos of Westfield mall next time.

Pret A Manger and Itsu

I love Pret A Manger and at Victoria Street, I found out they have one of the biggest Pret A Manger shop I have seen.

If you have not been to London, you need to know that there is Pret A Manger at almost every corner of London streets especially where the tourist attractions are situated.

The owners of Pret A Manger also recently opened Itsu, which is a Japanese restaurant.

Its concept is similar to Pret A Manger where dine in was more expensive than take-away and the 'products on shelf' concept was the same.

I personally enjoy dining in Pret A Manger and Itsu because everything from the sandwiches to the sushi and to the tables were always well arranged and organised. The floor is never filthy and the  staff make it a point to serve within 1 minute and clean the tables within that time too.

I have tried Itsu's salmon teriyaki and salmon sushi box.

Most of Itsu's fish range are salmon, either sashimi, sushi or  rolls. They also have tuna fish sushi and edamame. Recently, the bento boxes came out which was a variety like teriyaki chicken and others. I love edamame so I liked that they have meals which comes with a side of edamame. Besides cold food, they also serve hot food like duck hot pot and others. I would have tried the duck hot pot when I visited Itsu but unfortunately they do not serve duck on weekends. Itsu also have their own range of drinks. I tried their raspberry water. It tasted like water and cough medicine. Not my taste at all.

Best of all, with this concept, customers get to see the end products of the food before making their choice. Its better than looking at a list of menu with no pictures and trying to guess how the food will turn out.

On another note, while strolling around london I stumbled upon the house of the guy who made penicillin! 

I know this because it was written on that blue round sign on its wall.

:):)

Crussh smoothie

Gotta love the smoothies from Crussh at Kensington High Street. I had a smoothie with a blend of raspberries, strawberries, banana and apples. I can't get enough of that!

I saw this cute statue in Chinatown.

If you have not been to a Salsa bar, you should.

Basically, everyone dances salsa! It was amazing to watch the more experienced dancers doing their thing. Its also cool to see random strangers partner each other just to salsa dance to one entire song and they gel so well together!!

Chinatown in London

I finally managed to spend some quality time in Chinatown before salsa classes. I had my duck rice for dinner at a restaurant next to Four Seasons. Four Seasons was always the recommended restaurant to go to for roasted duck on Google and other sites. But, I did not really fancy their roasted duck. Maybe the reviews written were outdated. There were plenty of restaurants selling roasted duck in Chinatown so I decided to try my luck with a different restaurant - the one located next to Four Seasons!

I highly recommend this restaurant which I unfortunately forgotten its name. The roasted duck was so good and the price was much more reasonable. My roasted duck cravings were satisfied that day.

After dinner, I popped into See Woo, the Asian supermarket and lol behold, there were durians for sale! It is durian season afterall back home in Malaysia. I already had my share of durians a few weeks back therefore I did not buy any this round.

The reason I was in See Woo was to buy fish balls. I miss eating something so simple as fish balls  so I just had to get some. Besides that, I also wanted to make dried shrimp sambal because I craved for spicy food too. Dried shrimp sambal was one of my favorite recipe thanks to my mum. Its such a simple dish to cook and it goes well with everything from bread to rice to vegetables or meat. Just yesterday I made pork loins salad with the sambal. The sambal gives the necessary 'kick' to make food taste fab.

Heres the salad:

Five minutes away from Chinatown was where my salsa classes were held - at a Salsa bar. The teacher taught a really interesting dance set that day. It was worth recording. Video at the end of post.

The weather has been a bit chaotic here. It has been cold and wet the past few days. But, the heat will be back tomorrow again. Truthfully, I am not really sure if I prefer the heat or cold.

I learnt a new word: toodle pip - means goodbye 

Rekorderlig cider

A new cider I tried which was absolutely to die for is Rokorderlig cider. It wasn't very sweet like other ciders and it had this crisp to it which was amazing. It was like drinking a fizzy juice or champagne. The flavour was wild berry and best of all, it is pink! So feminine and gorgeous just having it on the table :)

Tau Yew Bak

Waitrose was having discount on meat. Therefore, I bought a couple packs of minced pork, pork loins and chicken. I knew what I wanted to do with minced pork and chicken, but I was not too sure about what I could do with the pork loins.

On the day I decided to cook the pork loins, I googled and remembered That I always wanted to make tau yew bak. I did not have all the ingredients in my cupboard so the taste and colour was not similar to the authentic one. Nevertheless, by just mixing water, soy sauce, dark soy sauce and oyster sauce, it tasted delicious. Adding diced garlic, boiled eggs and mushrooms was also a good option. I also used linguini as noodles because I did not have any chinese noodles.

Simplicity at its best :)

Along the River Thames, London

I took a walk around the River Thames in the evening and it was a sight to behold. London's summer heat has left and the cold and rain has returned. In a day, it rains lightly for ten minutes, stops for 5 minutes, then continues to rain for awhile again. That was during the day. But when evening came, it was breezy and it was raining cats and dogs. I reached home just in time before the storm and on the way home, I saw rainbows.

An evening walk around the River Thames calls for a beautiful colored skye because the sun was setting. Nothing could be more beautiful than a sun set. Even our face complexion looks better during sunset. I took photos of course :)

Salsa away

If you have not tried salsa, you should!

Its the one time as a female you get to hold different guy's hands with no strings attached :p 

Truthfully, switching dance partners is not really nice because you have to touch other people's sweaty hands. But, the dance itself is beautiful especially when the men are good at leading. This is one time I will let the men lead ;)
Below is a video of what I did in salsa class.

On another note, there was this amazing hotel/apartments in Battersea which had their balconies all covered with glass.

Heathrow Airport is so near to Battersea area that I can hear the roaring of airplanes constantly throughout the day. Note the plane flying above the apartment in the picture below. Its so frequent that you will never miss it and the planes are really low so the sound is much louder.

Best salad for summer

The best meal I had for the summer is grilled salmon topped with herbs, vegetables and garlic bread. Its so easy to make that I had it 10 days in a row for dinner. Best of all, it takes max 20 minutes to prepare!

I tried various ways of presenting it and using the garlic bread as a whole or cutting it into cruton size. Gastronomic!

New haircut @ Toni & Guys Academy, New Oxford Street

Few months back I realised my hair was really long, which I liked, but there were too many obvious split ends. Hair cuts in UK aren't exactly cheap so I put off cutting my hair till now. Being in London, I suddenly recalled about my free hair cut in Toni and Guy Academy in Malaysia. So, I started googling 'free hair cuts' and there were a list of people looking for hair models to get free hair cuts and wash around London in Gumtree's website.

The haircut I did in Malaysia took four hours because it was a bob cut. This time, I was just looking forward to getting half of my hair chopped off just to be sure there will be no split ends.

I sent a couple of text to some students of Toni and Guy Academy who avertised on Gumtree. The first two were fully booked till late august! Luckily, one of the student introduced me to her friend who needed models.

It started off with the student explaining to her supervisor how she plans to cut my hair. It was something about angles and terms I have never heard of. I remember back in Malaysia, the supervisor drew on the mirror to show how to cut my hair.

After that, I had my free hair wash by the student. Then one hour of hair cut. My haircut gets assesed twice by the student's supervisor. Once when my hair was still wet and the second time when my hair has been blowed dry.

It was a pretty busy day for everyone at the academy. The haircut was alright :)

Cafe Nero, London

Its 9.30am. I took a cab from Crowne Plaza at 7.30am to Gatwick airport. I had a few things to settle at the airport so I figured there was no harm going early. Unfortunately, my barcode on my boarding pass was not accepted to go through security to the departure hall because "I was too early for my flight". That was what appeared on the screen when I seeked assistance from a staff. He had a good laugh too because that was the first time he saw that statement. He even asked his colleague, "Have you ever seen that before?" Lol

So here I am sitting at Cafe Nero with another cup of hot chocolate. I seem to detest the concept at most coffee shops in UK where the price to sit-in is always more expensive than take- aways. The price difference was always just 10p or 20p. Is it necessary?

Nevertheless, after having my first hot chocolate from Cafe Nero at Crawley yesterday, I must say it is quite good. I do not drink coffeee hence hot chocolate was the next best thing. I have tried plenty of hot chocolate drinks around UK. I can now say Pret A Manger and Cafe Nero do serve the best hot chocolate.

Yesterday I had Cafe Nero's hot chocolate and fruit scones. Pretty decent stuff, both of it. Always makes my day after a satisfying and tasty meal :)

Now finding things to kill time.

No laptop with me.

Just my iphone which I have to use wisely to try to save battery. Iphone battery does drain quickly!