Favorite London Pastimes

Eating cake and drinking latte is one of my favourite pastimes – on the pretext of ‘market research’.

The English taste is quite different from Singapore or in Japan. Sweets here are richer and much more creamy and buttery. They have alot of rich pound cakes, heavily iced cakes and very very sinful trifles and toffee puddings.

Well, just have to share the calories around!

Lemon poppy seed cake and iced latte at Mudchute Kitchen:

Maid of honours at Newens (very quaint English tearoom):

Millefeuille at Maison Bertaux:

Chocolate mousse cake at Maison Bertaux:

Bath Spa

Beautiful weekend trip to Bath (2.5 hours from London by train) with beautiful weather and beautiful people (us! hahaha)…

Laduree

I have been enjoying myself too much and becoming too lazy to blog…

Anyway, long time ago, on graduation day, I went to Laduree with L. and D. Chef C says it is one of the best patisserie in London (but of course, the original shop in Paris is even better). It seems like they were the ones who invented the macaron shell with cream in between version that we see today. http://www.laduree.fr/

And of course, it doesn’t come cheap. 6.40 quid for 100g of macaron (about 5 pieces). I had the pistachio, caramel salt butter, rose and orange. It’s quite nice but I’m really new to macaron and I cannot tell if they are top notch. But the Isaphan (macaron shells with raspberry and lychee cream) is heavenly. The rose, raspberry and lychee flavours linger on your palate and blend so nicely together. A must try!

Nonya at Nottinghill

In London, every home-food-sick Singaporean/Malaysian will know restaurant C&R (in Chinatown) and Nonya (even my French cuisine chef knows it… hmm but he has a Singaporean girlfriend). I went C&R last Saturday with my classmates and we had pad thai (*), laksa (***), nasi goreng (**) and tom yum soup (*).

The next day, I went Nonya with Z. for lunch and had Penang assam laksa (****). Quite authentic and had real assam fish flakes. My mum used to make assam laksa and you cannot just use any fish – it has to be ‘assam’ fish and you have to put the black fermented prawn sauce. *slurp*

Columbia Flower Market

A lovely Sunday out with my classmates Kris and Cindy, walking the flower market and ending up in Brick Lane picking up second hand clothes for 1 pound!

Furry looking flower which I have never seen before:

 

Very pretty country tea set. I want to buy a victorian cake stand. Where to buy??

miu miu sale

at 45% off! Totally out of context here I know hahah….

I was there on the first day at Selfridges and at the Bond Street boutique. It’s good when your school is located at the shopping belt and you end class at 1pm. Saw a patent leather bag at 45% off (341 quid after discount). Looks good on me. Phoned hubby (to ask if I should buy it).

Hubby’s reply: ‘But you are a student. 341 pounds is 341 x 2.7 = 920.70SGD. It’s a thousand Sing for a bag! It’s up to you but I think you should not spend this money.’ *Sigh*

After finding out I cannot claim VAT return, I decided not to get it (it’s fated!). Went to Starbucks and had a latte to reward myself for saving 341 quid.

Two days later, hubby called: ‘I have thought it over carefully. I hoped you didn’t buy the bag cos as a student, I really don’t think you should buy it.’

Yeah yeah, I know lah…

‘But as your husband, I should get you the bag.’

Aww… touched. (But the bag is sold out already hahahah)

A stuffed weekend

My second weekend in London started well enough with a lunch trip to Borough market with ah mah, morris and eeps. Lotsa yummy food there with not that yummy prices but it’s enticing enough to make me part with my pounds. I really liked the Monmouth’s coffee with its rich and fresh taste (I had my usual latte). Thumbs up:)

After feeling stuffed, it’s time for some sedentary activity like going to a piano recital at St James church. It’s my first piano anything but I’m glad I went. It was quite mesmerizing although I must admit I was crunching malteser chocolates during the strong notes heh heh heh…

Sunday was lovely too! Was looking forward to dim sum lunch at one michelin star restaurant Yauatcha with ex-RJ mates. It was real good to have dumplings and noodles down my throat after 2 weeks of pasta and bread diet. I loved the cod fish and all the dumpling stuff. We had desserts too.. chocolate mousse with praline dome and a yuzu chocolate dessert.

  

Thanks brother Z for the treat! I will cook for you sometime!