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! 

Giggling Squid Thai Restaurant at Crawley

I took a train down to London Kings Cross and was bound for Crawley. Upon checking in into the Crowne Plaza, it was swimming pool, jacuzzi and steam room time! I haven't done any of those in a year! It was not easy to do laps without goggles though. Two small kids ended up chatting and playin with me in the water. They did not want to leave the pool eventhough their mum was calling them lol I had to 'swim' the kids to their mum standing near the pool. Then I met them at the dressing room again and the little girl says:

"I have a joke for you"

What is it?

"What is pink and hot?"

Uhm I do not know. Is it you?

"No, its a pig!"

Why is the pig hot?

"Because its summer!!"

Lolxx

Dinner was at Giggling Squid, a tapas and Thai Restaurant. Crawley's High Street has these amazing row of restaurants. I love Giggling Squid's decoration! Its all wood from the flooring to the tables, the walls and the ceiling.

The tables were tastefully set up with cutleries and purple napkins. Looked good to me :)

The staff were real Thai people so imagine how authentic the service and food was :):)

Drinks we had

Jack and coke

Lemonade martini: tasted more like just lemonade.

Food we ordered:

STARTERS:

1. Crispy duck spring roll - Coming down to London I always craved for duck. The spring rolls were very good. It came with a side of hoisin sauce too.

2. Vegetable tempura - Lightly battered and deep fried brocolli, onions, sweet potato and something else. It tasted really delicious too.

Mains:

1. Morning glory - a vegetable

2. Coconut rice

3. Jasmine rice with Seafood Tomyam

4. Pad Thai

Food portion was pretty satisfying. From Trip Advisor, a reviewer wrote, "The best Thai food I have ever tasted." I couldn't agree more, at least in the UK!

It was a good day. It ended with a view of the sunset from my window.

Goodbye Glasgow - London bound :)

M back in Glasgow

A hiatus on blogging the past week because I was busy exploring the beauty of Scotland. Thankfully, there were more sunny days than rain.

 

This week is all about packing up and moving out. I will miss the stunning view from my bedroom window.

Updates on my travels soon :)

Elia Greek Restaurant, Glasgow

Elia is located at George Square. It is a Greek restaurant with pretty good reviews. The staff were so friendly! You know I have been getting some good service in the least expected places in UK.

I loved how attentive the staff were at Elia and the timing from getting us seated to the food till getting the bill was perfect.

For starters, we were served slices of bread with olives and oil. I have a Greek friend who told me that it is customary for Jews to have bread, olives with oil amd a cup of red wine as breakfast on Saturday mornings. At first, the thought of dipping bread with oil did not sound appealing to me. But then again, I do eat french toast and roti canai for breakfast which are definitely more oily than what the Jews had ;)

Besides bread, we also ordered Grilled halloumi cheese and Dolmathes.

Grilled halloumi cheese: I was introduced to this delightful appetiser by my cousin from Luxembourg. Halloumi cheese is a slightly springy white cheese traditionally made of sheep's milk. I first tasted it in Nando's Glasgow. I loved it so much that when I was in Nando's London and Nando's York, I just had to order it. Unfortunately, Nandos in Glasgow halloumi cheese tasted the best among the other places.
Then, at Elia, it was definitely my first pick from the menu as halloumi is Greek :) The halloumi cheese tasted freaking delicious in Elia that I want more. Furthermore, it came with three huge slices on top of tomatoes. It was good as meal too.

Dolmathes: Rice, herbs and minced beef wrapped in the leaves of grapevine.
I think dolmathes was an acquired taste. Eating grapevine leaves was.... like eating leaves lol. It was definitely filling as an appetiser due to the rice.

For the main course, I had the Lamb souvlaki while my friend had Kleftiko.

Lamb souvlaki: Grilled lamb pieces with rice and vegetable. After looking at Kleftiko, my dish looked too simple! Nope, I would recommend Kleftiko as its worth the same price.

Kleftiko: Slow cooked lamb on the bone with tomato sauce and served with oven potatoes or chips or rice and salad. Sounds awesome just reading the description. Tripadvisor also recommends this dish. The portion for this was so big that my friend could only finish half the lamb and he had to takeway the rest. But it was really good.

We could not stomach any dessert. But we were really happy and satisfied :)

I would go back to order the halloumi cheese and Kleftiko. I think that will be enough to share between two people.

Cosmo buffet in Aberdeen

When I was in Aberdeen, I had one of the best buffet in the UK. Cosmo recently opened and the food served at the buffet tables were really delicious. Aberdeen was its first branch. They do have other locations now according to their website. None in Glasgow yet.

We made reservations online was not aware that Cosmo was fully booked for two whole weeks! So, we arrived at the restaurant thinking we had a reservation. But, all was good when it only took us 20minutes to get seats as walk-in customers. Thats the difference I noticed between Malaysian buffets and UK buffets. The people here do not spend hours filling their tummy and making their moneys worth unlike us in Malaysia. We can sit at the buffet for hours.

The service at Cosmo was very good. The interior and set up of the restaurant was well organised too. Another advantage of Cosmo is that it was located in Union Square shopping mall. This was the shopping mall where the main train station of Aberdeen was located. So, imagine just taking a train from Glasgow and arriving at Aberdeen, straight into the shopping mall and Cosmo is there. Fantastic!

Cosmo food reminded me of Malaysia. They had various sections like Indian, Japanese, Teppanyaki, Grilled meat, Dim sum and others. They did serve delicious freshly grilled lamb, lamb curry and salmon teriyaki. I opted out of trying any chicken. I only ate the seafood and lamb. They also had papadam and prawn crackers!

Unfortunately, dim sum standard there was not good. Siu mai tasted weird. Ha kou skin was not nice. They did have char siew pau and custard pau too which did not look appetizing to me to bother trying.

Dessert was a variety of cakes and ice creams. Most of the cakes looked good but it really was not that nice to eat. We shared half of every dessert because we were really full from the main meals.

Overall, I would highly recommend this place as its still better than other buffets.

Aberdeen, Scotland

I had the chance to visit Aberdeen and other places near Aberdeen. In one day of travelling, I managed to see the beauty of these places. Lucky me :)

A little bit about Aberdeen: There is a Trump golf course. Donald Trump visits Aberdeen often. Aberdeen's main industry is oil and gas. Therefore, this place has the most millionaires! Aberdeen is located up north of Scotland so it can be very cold. Besides having a couple of golf courses, they also have plenty of beaches.

It takes a train journey of three hours from Glasgow to reach York. Interestingly, upon arriving by train to Aberdeen, it stopped right inside a shopping mall called Union Square. That was something different than other places I have visited in UK.

More to come....

Scottish Highland Cows (Cattle) @ Pollock Country Park

This trip was perfect because the temperature was 7 degree Celcius and it did not rain. After experiencing minus 6 degrees for two days, 7 degrees felt like nothing. We walked so much in the park till halfway through I was walking without my jacket on.

This trip was perfect ALSO because I had the chance to see Highland Cows! First of all, I would like to say that if I did not follow the tour, I would think that I will just be in Pollock Country House visiting the museums and the famous maze. I would not have found the Highland cattle because we needed to walk further up to see it. There were two museums in this park which I did not visit.

The first farmland we walked by had Highland cows but the cows were really far away. The tour guide thought this would be the only chance we would get to see the cows, hence he directed us to trudge through some muddy undeveloped farmland near to where the cows were, in hopes of us getting a closer look at the cows. There were plenty of thin branches with sharp tiny torns. Thank god for jackets and long pants. I could hear the torns scratching (or maybe tearing) my pants as I walked through the path. I think someone once came to this place to poop a I saw a pile of it.

We could go no further as there was a river between us and the farm. We took shots of the cows from where we were. Very tiny shots.

When we were back on the main road of the park, we walked further up and lol behold, we saw another farmland with Highland cows right in front of our face. We spent a good 30 minutes or so just looking and snapping pictures of the cows.

The Highland cows looked so peaceful with no worries in the world. They did not moo at all. They hardly budge from their spot except one which came closer to us. The horns on them makes them look fierce like bulls, but they were really gentle. They have cool hairstyles too :P

Besides the cows, we also saw this huge tree believed to look like that due to a witch curse.

On the way back to the train station, I saw a set of teeth (i an guessing false teeth) in front of the Pollock Park sign board. It was intriguing but disgusting at the same time. Anything other than that, the park was fantastic.

I met some elves and horses wearing Santa hats too.