Month: January 2013

Like Coffee Mug（＾▽＾）／＼（＾▽＾）

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Another year. Another new mug. 

You are probably thinking why I’m blogging about a mug… Well, 1. It’s a present from Mr Bear and, 2. He knows that I’m one of the biggest social networkers he knows in the office! (He’s more social than me outside work).
My new coffee mug 😀
Read the description!! ^^

I’m always networking between family and friends inside and outside of work. I’m always deprived of sleep. Only joking! I get loads of sleep (when I can), but I do socialise a lot (it’s the only way I can get gossip ¬_¬””)!! 

Hah! This mug describes me a lot. I like coffee and I like networking. My real job involves a lot of networking between different organisations too…!! So many emails. So many phone calls. So much talking involved. And so many meetings. 😛 … Heheheh… I need a quiet job…
Coffee M
The social networking mug for the ultimate social networking geek!! ^_^

p.s. I’m not on Facebook. I deleted that account a few months ago because I was getting no likeys 😦 …

Curry Garden – London Surrey Quays

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What? Another Surrey Quays restaurant? Yeah why not, I love, love, love curry!

I was at Miss Pinky’s yesterday with Master H trying to relax but I also had to look at one of her assignments (I got a big headache in the end), she also got herself a goldfish (also called Pinky), which we almost killed because the bag it was in suddenly dropped onto the floor. I am now a godmother / auntie to a goldfish ¬_¬”. Thanks Miss Pinky.

We actually all had a hearty meal at KFC earlier (I had no idea they changed the way they served – it’s pretty cool!) and I wasn’t hungry until quite late yesterday evening. Miss Pinky was craving for Indian food for a month! Hahahah, so we ended up in Curry Garden, which is also on Lower Road in Surrey Quays. She’s been in there before, and it was the first time for me so I had to try it out!
Outside Curry Garden

Inside Curry Garden

Napkins were folded nicely

Now I’m going to stop talking and show you the pictures (sorry they’re not good but my battery was very low, so the flash had to be switched off).


We both had this starter, a sheek kebab (one each, because I didn’t order a starter)…
Sheek Kebab – this is Miss Pinky’s… I forgot to take a picture…

Miss Pinky had the lamb daghini with boiled rice. This isn’t very spicy. So if you like curry, but only prefer very mild spices, try this one out.

All the food

Lamb daghini

I had the chicken jalfrezi with pilau rice. This is a spicy dish and I like it! I chewed on one of the chillies and mouth was burning, so Miss Pinky ordered a G&T for me to lower the heat in my mouth (she didn’t want to part with her Cobra beer)! Extremely hot!

Chicken jalfrezi

Pilau rice

Miss Pinky and I really enjoyed ourselves at this restaurant. A group of ladies who were there had a funny conversation with a couple of the waiters! And we couldn’t help listening in. ^_^ The waiters are very East London like (if you have watched Eastenders, you will know what I mean).


Total cost came to £27.10. Really worth it for 2 people!

My geeky rating: 5/5

Good points:
– Friendly and funny service
– Great food
– Reasonable pricing
– Not many customers at the time we went, so we had loads of time to spend in there without being rushed!

Bad points:
– Can’t think of any – but I would definitely go for more!!!


View Larger Map

Here’s Miss Pinky’s gold fish Pinky by the way… It survived!

Meet Pinky the goldfish


And here’s my KFC!! ^^ So filling!

KFC lunch

Longdan Express Oriental Supermarket – London Elephant and Castle

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Anybody living in South East London (along the lines of Elephant and Castle)? If you do, you may have noticed an Asian store that was being renovated for a few months, and you may have been thinking when will this place be opened. Well, the store opened two days ago (January 21st) underneath a block of student flats that has replaced a gas station which once had a drive-in Burger King. Ah, no more Burger King. (I only went in there once!).

Longdan is a Vietnamese run chain store. From their UK website it looks as if this is one out of four stores running in the South East area of the UK so far. I think this might also be smaller than the other stores, but it’s bigger than some of the other Asian stores around the area.
Longdan Express Oriental Supermarket


Opened on 21st Jan 2013


The Entrance and there’s a cafe called “aobaba” – not set up yet I think…


A look from the outside


The hot food section – doesn’t look ready yet

Well on the outside it doesn’t look big, but when you go inside, it feels big!! 


There are a few long aisles… 
This is what you see when you go in!


The cookery utensil section at the back of the store


A look from the other end

A lot of frozen sections…

Ready meals and desserts!


Lots of stuff ^^


More frozen stuff

There are some chilled sections (I forgot to take pictures of them!). They have some Japanese sushi, Korean kimbap, Korean pancakes and a lot of other stuff! And here’s the drink section…


A Japanese / Korean frozen food section (there’s also a dry food section that sells other stuff like miso paste, sushi rice wine etc, etc)…

Japanese and Korean frozen foods


Vegetable section

Cookery utensils…

Wow!!


Awesome cookery stuff ^^

Other stuff…

Cute sweets!


Vietnamese bread

And the most important section for me is the BENTO BOX section!! (I think Japan Centre have met their competition here in London!!).

Yeeeeah!!! Bento Boxes (lunch boxes)!!! 


Ordinary lunch boxes


Loads of Bento Boxes and utensils!!!!!!!
Here’s my purchases from yesterday. It was £9.35 for everything. The bento box cost £3.90. The pot noodle pho is 70p. The dried shrimp cost £2.45, and the fishballs cost £2.30.

My first purchase

I went in there again today to purchase some more things, and also to have a proper look at their frozen section. They have one of my favourite Japanese foods – takoyaki (fried octopus balls), which I tried out last year! (It was buy one get one free, but I didn’t get the free one because I bought the last bag). They even have Korean dumplings (I have always wanted to try them)!!! Here I spent over £22 (because I bought a couple more lunchboxes for a friend in Canada)!!

My second purchase
A closer look of the other bento boxes that I will be sending to Canada! ^_^ (sorry for the flash bit – too lazy to take another pic!)
Longdan is a little expensive compared to other Asian stores in the area and of course in comparison to London China Town. So I guess you should compare prices before buying. They don’t sell some of the Chinese foods that I like, and they don’t sell Nissin noodles, 😦 (they do now) but I don’t mind the bento box section – as it’s in my price range! ^_^.

So overall, I will still be going to other local Asian stores but I will definitely go to Longdan for some of the frozen foods!

Address: 128-132 Walworth Road, London SE17 1JL
Telephone: 020 7701 2566

Opening times: Monday – Saturday 10am -10pm, and Sunday + Bank Holidays: 11am – 8pm

Other stores are located in: Leyton, Kingston and Shoreditch




Update 25/01/2013
There’s more stuff! More bakery stuff! More chilled foods! And I found beef flavoured mandu!! ^_^

Update 02/02/2013
Well I finally got some more pictures of the chilled section… 

They sell tofu dessert too!! ^^

Big selection of chilled foods!!


And some of the food I bought…

Korean “sushi” called maki

Korean savoury pancakes – pajeon

Japanese Takoyaki balls (Octopus balls)


Update 01/04/2013 (not an April Fools joke!)
The cafe is now open!!! Passed it on Saturday, and they’re already in business!! ^_^

Some other Asian stores you may be interested in which are also in the area…
http://asimplegeekylife.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/little-orient-elephant-and-castle.html
http://asimplegeekylife.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/other-asian-supermarket-stores.html

Snow in Kennington Park ( ・_・)＿ …-=≡O

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Armed with my Kickers (worn by kids and teenagers – but I don’t care), hat, scarf, massive coat and camera I went out today to capture the last bits of snow in Kennington Park.

Kennington Park is an old park based in South London, and it’s over a hundred years old. It was actually there before it became a park… Wikipedia has a better history of it! It’s about a 5 minute walk from Kennington Tube Station, and a minutes walk from the Oval Tube Station.

So before the sun went down and before the snow completely melted away today, I took a few snaps of the park… Well, it’s a lot of snaps, but just scroll  through them!
War Memorial built in 1924 – Starting from Kennington Park Road end

Pretty flowers being drowned by the snow!

I like this pathway, it’s like a never ending trip through a park

Can you see the two snowmen facing each other?

Family in the distance building a snowman!

Prince Consort Lodge

This raven was chased by…

This dog!! ^^

Tinworth Fountain

Cyclist in front ^^

Snow in the trees

Can you spot a jackdaw in the tree?

How many jackdaws can you spot? 

A blossom tree… Not shaken by the snow!!

Sports Ground… Nobody playing… Too much snow?

Part of the park

Shelter in the park… Great as a meeting point!

This is a cheeky jackdaw!!

The Flower Garden

Plants in the Flower Garden

More plants drenched in snow

Heheheh, I saw this mini snowman sitting on a bench!! So cool!! (I didn’t make this by the way)

Another attempted mini snowman sitting on the same bench (I didn’t make this too!!)

The Café which was re-opened in 2002

Seating area… but full of snow!!

Kennington Park noticeboard

Children’s playground

Fitness Equipment for children

A birdhouse hangs in the tree ^^

Kennington Park from one end
Kennington Park may not be as big as Burgess Park, but it’s a place full of history and to have a good walk around…

Website: www.kenningtonpark.org

History from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kennington_Park

Update 20/01/13… p.s. There’s more snow today…. Brrrrrrr

Aero Chocolate Lamb

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Can’t help myself. I saw this cute little lamb on the front of the wrapper and I said to myself it’s so kawaii (cute) that I cannot not blog about! Awww. Look at the lamb!!
Cute little lamb on the package!
Aero have somewhat surprised me with this chocolate!
Kawaiiiiii!!
It tastes bloody good (excuse my language). So much chunky chocolate – it was really hard to break into two, so I had to bite it! And there’s not an ounce of sweetness (as in too much sugar) in which I have found in their other chocolate bars (those £1 chocolate bars).
Some really thick and bubbly chocolate – you can see my teeth marks
It’s expensive for a little lamb, but I liked it 😀
‘Loveabubble’
Where to buy: Tesco (or other supermarkets if you can find them!) … And don’t worry I doubt there’s any horse meat in these (^_^)v … sorry – lame joke about Tesco!!

Cost: 60p

Cafe Mama Pho – London Surrey Quays

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After the Ice Sculpting Festival and having eaten some cold and lukewarm food at Wahaca, Miss Pinky and I, plus Master H who joined us later in the evening went to a local Vietnamese restaurant in Surrey Quays. An Instagram follower suggested this place, and I thought, why not!!
Outside Cafe Mama Pho

Some of the pictures displayed

I’ve tried looking for blogposts about this place, but there’s not much. Short history – it’s been opened since 2009. The previous cafe there was called Cafe East, which has moved near to the Odeon cinema and run by a family member of Cafe Mama Pho.



Since I’ve have never eaten at a proper Vietnamese restaurant before, it was hard making a decision with what to eat, although I have wanted to try out Vietnamese rolls for a very long time!!

So here’s our food, plus my drink (Miss Pinky and Master H had fizzy drinks and a Chinese tea… Not adventurous)…
Some garnishes for you to add to your food

Master H had the Com Suan, which is a lemon grass pork chop – it is sweet and glazed, this was served with rice and salad… He enjoyed it as he was hungry!

Com Suan

Miss Pinky had the Com Tam Cha Suon Bi. This consisted of the same pork chop, shredded pork and pork skin, Vietnamese meat pie served with rice and salad… Miss Pinky is quite a fussy eater. She didn’t like the sweetness of the pork chop (which I liked because I tried some). And the meat pie? She didn’t eat much of it, but I had the rest! It was good!! She said she would have preferred more soy sauce on her rice but there was none at the table for her to use (I did tell her to ask!).

Com Tam Cha Suon  Bi

Now for my food. I had the Che Sun Sa, which is a coconut cream milk with jelly and rice bits. It was like having a pina colada… but a non-alcoholic version of it. Thumbs up! (^_^)b

Che Sun Sa –> ^_^

Big strings / lumps of jelly

I then had the Bi Cuon which is a pork skin and pork meat roll. It was served cold with some chilli sauce, which I wasn’t expecting. This is probably best served in the summer rather than in the winter! Master H liked these. Miss Pinky wasn’t thrilled. I was ok with it. But I think I will try the hot Bahn Cuon (cheung fun) next time.

Bi Cuon

Sorry… I couldn’t focus well…

Then the best food came out… Pho Chin… This had some well done beef served with pho (ho fun) in spicy soup (you can have non-spicy soup if you don’t like spicy)… Wow! I loved the beef. It was so tender. The ho fun was nice, not tough and just right. And the soup was very good too! The soup wasn’t as spicy as Korean spicy soups but spicy enough to keep you warm! I would definitely have this again!!!

Pho Chin

Pho Chin – Yummy!!!

Miss Pinky had two complaints afterwards:

1. They don’t serve alcohol (I didn’t mind), and
2. It was a sit, eat and then go type of place and you couldn’t relax much (people were standing at the door, and it was soooo cold!)… We actually moved seats twice because the first time we sat next to the door and then the second time because there was a bigger group coming in… 😦

I hope that one day they will expand the place, as the place is quite small for a busy place i.e. use the upstairs or basement to fit more people in. This place is really popular with the locals, and I’m sure people who are not from the area will go and visit this place too…

Total price came to £33.30 (incl. £2 service charge).

By the way, we were so full afterwards, it was very hard to walk back to Rotherhithe!

My geeky rating: 4.8/5

Good points:
– Speedy and friendly service
– Loved the pho and meat pie! I want more!
– I loved my drink too!!!
– Pricing wasn’t too bad – similar to Chinese restaurants

Bad points:
– The place is a little cramped, but seating wise it was ok
– Felt a bit rushed eating as the waitress staff were coming and going

Address: 24 Evelyn Street, Deptford, London SE8 5DG (Directions: as you come out of Surrey Quays Overground, make sure you exit towards Lower Road. Walk down Lower Road… Keep walking pass the traffic lights. And once you see McDonald’s it’s a few more meters ahead…!)
Telephone: 0208 305 6649

Ice Sculpting Festival – London Canary Wharf

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My colleagues know I love taking pictures, and they know I love anything that goes on in London (that’s free of course!). So one of my friends / colleague, who I am going to call Mrs SweetTooth (because she loves chocolates and sweets) suggested I go to this Ice Sculpting Festival at Canary Wharf. Oooo. I’ve never been to one before, and I actually wanted to go to one as I saw a recent news footage of a place in China that has just opened an ice sculptured city for people to go to and play.
Ice Sculpting Festival 11th – 13th January 2013
I was going to go with Mrs SweetTooth, but I ended up yesterday going with Miss Pinky instead!! Miss Pinky lives really close to the area, so it made sense for us to go together in this freezing weather… The festival started on Friday 11th, and ends today (don’t know what time, sorry). So if you have the chance to go, go quickly!! 

When we got to Canary Wharf, we didn’t know which way to go, so we followed the crowd. Miss Pinky spotted this one… A pretty sculptured dolphin. Wow!! These sculptors must practice a lot!!
I like this dolphin sculpture ^^
We walked down further and there were more activities and sculptures…
People chipping at ice ^^

Giant Chess Set

Nice chess piece!
Then we saw an arena full of people and ice sculptures! It was amazing, although we had to go around a different path to get to the entrance. What we found down there were food stands and different countries competing with each other to see who sculptured the best ice sculpture, as well as a snow pit for children, and people trying to make their own sculptures! 😀
Read those instructions!! So funny!!

Snow rink for the children

People sculpting away

Wow so many people… I’m sure there were loads earlier in the day!

So much ice…

The sculptures… (I seem to have missed out on the Belgium one!)…
France

Netherlands

Bulgaria

Latvia
Hungary

Portugal

Spain

Sweden

United Kingdom

The UK design on paper

USA
It was amazing seeing all these sculptures! And now here’s a couple of the interesting food stands.
Swedish Food!

Curiosity Cola – Interesting name!! ^_^
Here’s a couple of events that were happening at the shopping centre…
Sculpting in the Shopping Centre

Other children’s activities… not sure if this was part of the festival 😛
Here’s the ice rink near the shopping centre.
The ice rink!
In the end, Miss Pinky and I ended up in Wahaca… I’m afraid it was bad… Cold food (the taquito, but the sweet potato was hot), and a manager who thought the food will be delayed by 30 minutes… Miss Pinky’s was lukewarm… Didn’t want to disappoint the waitress as she was so nice, so I said that the food was ‘ok’… 
My cold food at Wahaca in Canary Wharf… disappointed…
Yesterday there was a surge of people wanting to eat food. I’m sure there will be today too!!

If you live near Canary Wharf, go NOW!!

Japanese Kit Kat – Blueberry Cheesecake Flavour

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I know I said I will write something different other than chocolate but OooOooo, Japan Centre are back with their Japanese Kit Kats! Yay! I didn’t realise they were selling them again since November 2012, and I was going to update my previous post but thought I will write a new one ^_^.

They are currently selling a limited edition Kit Kat Blueberry Flavour in  replacement of the Almond flavour I think. Wow. So I got three and I’m saving one for Miss Pinky and one for Mr Bear. The price has gone up and the postage and packaging is still expensive!!

So here’s my three mini, mini Kit Kats…
Blueberry Cheesecake Kit Kat – Limited edition!!

^_^ Yummy!!
Once I opened it, I could smell the blueberry flavouring straight away.
White chocolate with blueberry cheesecake flavour
Tasted of blueberry, and had a long lasting taste. It’s also 68 calories! I don’t count calories, so I don’t know if that’s good or bad.
They are so small!
Anyway, here’s the updated information on where to buy and how much it is etc…

Where to order: www.japancentre.com
Individual prices: £1.30
Boxed prices: £14.95
Flavours available: Kyoto Matcha Green Tea, Shizuoka Wasabi Horseradish, Yokohama Strawberry Cheesecake, Jyo-Koushinetsu Blueberry Cheesecake

Check out my previous post:

Cadbury Egg ‘n’ Spoon

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Another chocolate post? Yessiree! (I promise to post something different in my next post). I’m really trying hard to get away from the chocolates, but I can’t!!

This time it’s something very new from Cadbury again!! They seem to be in the Easter mood too. Hah! … And it looks like the 2013 Easter Chocolate Wars have started! (Heheh, just made myself giggle). Geek!!
Egg ‘n’ Spoon

This is how you eat it 
But what happened to Valentine’s Day? Shouldn’t chocolate companies be thinking about the other events (for couples, people who are dating or simply ‘love’ Valentine’s Day). February comes before March and April… ¬_¬””

Anyway, here we go again with another round of Easter eggs. This time I think it will be a success for dessert lovers. (I’ve just had a quick search on the Internet for these, and it looks like they’ve been out for a while, but in other countries other than the UK).

4 eggs and 2 spoons – does that make sense?
There’s four in a box, and they come with 2 special dessert spoons (why not 4 if they’re for sharing?), so don’t lose them!

You have to bite the top to see what the spoon is used for… and what’s revealed inside is some chocolate mousse! Wow!! Yummy!! ^^
Nice egg – the chocolate is very soft, I think it melts quite quickly

Oooo… Chocolate mousse ^^
And now the mousse is gone revealing a hollow chocolate egg. (^_^)v
Where did all the mousse go?!
I lost my receipt (bad at keeping receipts), but I think it was £3.49 in Morrisons (it may be £3.99)… I will double check next time!

Update 26/01/2013
It’s defo £3.99!!

Update 16/02/2013
Morrisons is selling them for £2!!

Kit Kat Chunky Champion

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Incredible! Nestlé are surprisingly working hard! I read @grocerygems reviews and thought I must try them out too! Nestlé have released FOUR new flavours of Kit Kat Chunky and they want those who can find them (Costcutter and Local Newsagents) to vote on Facebook to say which one’s the best.

Well, here’s all four of them, plus I’ve added a limited Kit Kat at the end of this post, just to spark off some controversy from Kit Kat fans ^__^ (only joking).
Kit Kat Chunky Champions plus White Choc Chunky

Firstly is the Hazelnut flavour. You can’t smell much of the hazelnut. Actually I couldn’t smell much at all! Tasted of normal Kit Kat, but then the hazelnut taste just comes into place just after sucking at the melted chocolate. Didn’t like this one much. Thumbs down! (-_-)p

Hazelnut Chunky

Yummy!!

Second Kit Kat. The Coconut flavour. I’m afraid I’m not a coconut fan. And as soon as I smelt the coconut I said to myself “ugh, coconut”. But surprisingly it tastes really nice. There’s a distinctive coconut taste that lasts in your mouth from the very first bite. I quite enjoyed this one. I felt there was a taste of dark chocolate too. Thumbs up! (^_^)b

Coconut Chunky – sorry I ate the chocolate before taking the pic of the wrapper!


Time for a coffee break….

Two hours later and after I’ve digested the other two chocolate bars… ¬_¬” … (plus I had dinner beforehand, so I was pretty full)…

Third one is the Mint Flavour. Hmmm.. Mint chocolate… I like mint mixed with choclate. Once I opened this, I could smell the mintiness. On the first bite, it took a small while for the mint to sink in, it was quite disappointing, as I would’ve expected an oomph flavour, like a strong mintiness to be there… But there was none… A dissappointing thumbs down (-_-)p
Mint Chunky

Fourth one is the Choc Fudge… Ummmm Sounds like my kind of Kit Kat Chunky. ^_^ …. Uh, wrong again. A sniff of it smelled like fudge. There was an extra layer of chocolate in there. But yuck. I almost puked (sorry). Don’t like this one. Sorry Nestlé. Whoever thought of this flavour needs a whack on the head! A massive thumbs down (-___-)p

Choc Fudge – Yuck!

Finally, just to confuse you all, (and after I was trying to down myself with my decaff coffee after eating that horrible Kit Kat), I’ve added this limited edition of Kit Kat Chunky White Choc… Is this good? Yep!! Nice!! I’m not usually a white chocolate fan, but this is good! Creamy. Scrumptious!

White Choc Chunky

Tasty! ^_^

Right, so which Kit Kat gets my geeky vote (I think everyone has voted for the one I’m going to vote for on this blogpost).

.
.
.
.
.

It’s The COCONUT CHUNKY!! The only one out of the four that got a thumbs up from me!! … If only I had a trophy to give away… ^_^

No more chocolate bars for a while now… Well, maybe…

Where to buy: Costcutter & Local newsagents (and anywhere you can find them!)
Cost: 55p-60p (depending on which shop you go to!)


Update 17-01-2013

Here’s the new TV ad… I’m not to going to say a word about it… ¬_¬