Month: April 2014

Spice & Nice Ltd – London Camberwell

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One lunch time my new colleague and I went out into the wilderness to find food. She wanted to eat jerk chicken, and I said we should go to this place called Spice & Nice. It was one of the oldest Caribbean takeaway stores in Camberwell and very popular amongst the local people.

Spice n Nice

My colleague and I both opted for the rice and peas (kidney beans), jerk chicken and some plantain. I got the large portion (not sure why, but I didn’t eat dinner that night after the Eason Chan concert!!).

This cost £8.50 I think… It was good. Very filling!!

My geeky rating: 5/5

Good points:
– Very local food
– Cheapish – for the big portion it’s reasonable

Bad points:
– None so far!

Address: 8 Coldharbour Lane, Camberwell, London, SE5 9PR
Telephone: 020 7750 9180

Cobra Beer Poster Ad – Live Smooth

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I feel tired. I don’t think I like boxing. Boxers have a tough workout!…
Ok, so onto this poster ad from Cobra Beer. I think this might have been out for a long time but I giggled when I saw it. The man is the boss day and night. It might be sexist in a funny way but does Cobra beer really make you the boss?
I’m more of a Heineken sort so what does that make me?

Cobra beer just makes you the boss! XD

Fairy Poster Ad – The Power of Soft

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The poster ads are really coming out this month!
Isn’t this poster ad from Fairy just clever and SUPER cute??!! Fairy really did well with this as they fitted a sleeping baby with a superhero costume who’s sleeping on top of the mother. (I didn’t even spot that motherly hand until I started blogging about this… ¬,¬). Awwww. Cuuuute!!
Fairy Poster Ad

Use Fairy, it uses “the power of soft”. It creates a softness just like a baby’s skin. ^_^ Heheh.

Marks and Spencer Poster Ads – Leading Ladies

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What do you see in these poster ads from Marks and Spencer (which has been out for a few weeks)? 
That’s right, actresses and models modelling the 2014 spring / summer collection from M&S. But if you look carefully, it looks like it’s ‘exceptional mature women’ versus the ‘sophisticated young ladies’ of the future. 
M&S Leading Ladies
For some reason Baroness Doreen Lawrence (yes I had to look her up) looks out of place in this following poster (she looks wonderful in the top one though). This poster actually looks out of place anyway… They are having too much fun!! Well the mature leading ladies are in this one!!
Does this ad seem out of place? I think they should have mingled in this one

There’s also a third poster but unfortunately I couldn’t capture it as it was replaced by a Garnier ad today in Vauxhall. 😦 (Advertisers are so quick!!). The third one looked really sophisticated and they looked like Leading Ladies of the UK in that poster…

M&S are really trying their hardest to get us women to buy their clothes… What about the male range? Will there be a “Leading Men” poster ad? Or is marketing indicating more female shoppers will shop at M&S this spring and summer? Time will tell I guess!

Update 06-05-2014

Finally found the sophisticated Leading Ladies poster advert along Borough High Street… I found this one better than the ones above. It shows that all these ladies can be “leading ladies”…

Lurpak Butter Poster Ads and Adventure Awaits TV ad

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I think the advertisement section for the Danish butter Lurpak is trying to make Londoners smile a bit more. 😉 It definitely made me smile when I saw this poster ad… There haven’t been many fun-filling posters for a while!
“Wonder Awaits” if you use Lurpak to whip some great sauce it tells me. Heheh. Great stuff!
Wonder Awaits

I saw some more ads around the Waterloo Station area so I captured them all.

Let us “Venture Forth” by spraying some fish with Lurpak and grilling it to make a great dinner this one tells me.

Venture Forth

“To New Frontiers” by roasting a whole chicken with Lurpak…

To New Frontiers

And “Be Bold” by smothering this wonderful piece of steak with Lurpak. XD

Be Bold
Heheh, my imagination fulfilled these brilliant poster ads. I really liked them. Very imaginative and very bold of Lurpak to do this!
Definitely made me smile!!
Also watch their ad on YouTube which is called Adventure Awaits. It’s pretty much like what the poster ads are telling you. In this ad they have used Richard Strauss’s Sprach Zarathustra making this a wild, scientific cooking advert. ^_^ The brilliant voice actor Rutger Hauer really gives this advert some flavour too. Whoever came up with this funny dialogue is a real comedian!!

:

https://youtube.googleapis.com/v/vmOr9I2JxZs&source=uds

Fun!

Kaspa’s Desserts – London Walworth Road

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Ok, lazy geeky blogger is back! And it’s finally Easter!! ^_^
Today I’m going to blog about Kaspa’s which is an ice cream / dessert shop which has opened for a few weeks in the Walworth Road. It’s practically the first of its kind in the area, although you can buy desserts and coffee and milkshakes in nearby coffee shops or restaurants and supermarkets.

They opened on Saturday 29th March and they were doing discounts on all purchase on both that Saturday and Sunday… And I went on both days with MummyGeek.

Kaspa’s on Walworth Road
There are many ice cream flavours in this store!!
So much ice cream!!
The inside looks really dark but as you sit down there’s a bright light shining on top of the table.

On the first day, I ordered a cappuccino and the Mango Mania…

My cappuccino
This is the Mango Mania. It looks massive! The vanilla ice cream was the bomb. ^_^ Smooth and not too sweet. The sourness of the mango sauce went well with the vanilla ice cream, and there were real pieces of mango included too!! Overall a satisfying ice cream
Mango Mania!!

The next day (the Sunday) I went again with MummyGeek and this time I wanted to try out the waffle. I got my mother this Strawberry Mousse cake. The cake was good but the strawberry on top looked bad.

Strawberry Mousse

And for myself I wanted to try out a waffle and I chose this Strawberry n Butterscotch. It was so filling I couldn’t move after eating this. Didn’t realise a scoop of vanilla ice cream went with this. Verry good stuff!!
Strawberry n Butterscotch waffle

It was a good weekend of desserts… XD
And somehow I won Shot of the Week with a picture of the Mango Mania. So the following weekend I tried out the Ferrero Rocher Sundae, which unfortunately was melting away whilst I was taking shots of it. I think I preferred the Mango Mania. That was more satisfying than this one.
Ferrero Rocher Sundae

It’s melting!!!

I forgot the prices, but it was all less than £10 for each occasion…

Overall this place a good place to eat dessert. You might find yourself surrounded with little kids and teenagers. It’s almost like a hangout already!!

My geeky rating: 5/5

Good points:
– Love the vanilla ice cream
– Big sundaes and waffles

Bad points:
– A tiny bit expensive
– A bit dark in the place… makes it very atmospheric!

Address: 321 – 323 Walworth Road London SE17 2TG

Website: http://www.kaspas.co.uk/

Old Justice – London Bermondsey (now at K Place, St Mary-at-Hill…)

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This place has now moved and renamed: K Place, 1 St Mary-at-Hill London EC3R 8EE 

From eating expensive an Korean bbq meal to eating cheap Korean food…

Whilst watching a Korean drama (the online English subbed version XD) called Let’s Eat, I started looking online to see if there were any cheap Korean restaurants that did a do-your-own grill that you often see in Korean dramas. And I found one in Bermondsey which is not far from where Miss Pinky lives!! Yeah!! 

Miss Pinky, Mr Picky and I already passed through there at the start of March, but unfortunately there were no tables and they said we needed to book a table… (I swear I never knew as it was not mentioned in a few reviews I read). Oh that was an unfortunate opportunity. So in the end I found their number on their Facebook page. I think they have changed their numbers quite often and have now stuck to a mobile number. Booked a table for 3 and voila.
Old Justice used to be a pub, and I believe it was bought by a Korean and turned it into a restaurant with people living above, so you actually have to be a bit quiet when leaving.
Old Justice – Have used this picture in a previous post
It looks quite small on the inside considering this used to be a local pub!
Not very good lighting on the inside
There is a lot of choice on the menu, so it was a little hard to decide, but I definitely wanted to try out the barbecue meat. And so I chose the £18.99 (per person) Unlimited meat special with a lot of side orders. I think the minimum number of people to order it has to be 2 people and so Miss Pinky said she will have the same with me. Yay!! The only problem is, if a person in your group of people does not order the same thing, they cannot have any of the meat grilled or they will be charged the £18.99. Clever Koreans.
Mr Picky chose a set menu but we swapped a lot of the dishes around as he didn’t like some of the ingredients in the dishes… Miss Pinky and I were also teaching how to us chopsticks too! ^_^
All the side dishes came first…

Kimchi was so-so, not as nice as the ones in Koba or Woo Jung.

Kimchi cabbage

This was Mr Picky’s pancake, he didn’t attempt it because it had pieces of mussel in it… Just needed some seasoning in it…

Pancake

Mussels were good!!

Mussels

This is fried chicken and sweet potato. We all enjoyed this one. ^_^

Fried chicken and sweet potato

The dumplings Mr Picky ordered but in the end it wasn’t what he wanted so Miss Pinky and I ate this…

Pork dumplings

Here’s the side salads and veggies to bbq!! ^_^

Veggies to bbq

Seasoned lettuce

Round lettuce for the meat

Here’s also another side this… a cold bibimbap. Miss Pinky likes it in those hot stone bowels, but she took this home to eat in the end.

Bibimbap

Mr Picky ordered this sweet bbq beef and rice. He liked this one.

Sweet marinated beef and rice

And time to bbq!! We got a mix of beef and pork here. And we all cooked by ourselves… You get tongs and scissors by the way…

BBQ time!!

Almost done!!

still cooking!!

After the first round of meat, we went for the marinated meat… You can have an unlimited amount of meat if you go for the £18.99 per person bbq deal…!!!

Marinated meat

The bill
Total cost came to £67.62 including a 10% service charge. Very good meal for 3 people!!

My geeky rating: 5/5
Good points:
– Cook your own meat
– Cheap Korean style cuisine
– Located south of the river and easy to get to
– Ok service… not the best, but ok

Bad points:
– Have to book a table to get a table for definite
– Person who doesn’t pay for the unlimited bbq cannot eat anything that is cooked by the other person(s)
Address: 94 Bermondsey Wall E, London SE16 4TY
Moved to K Place, 1 St Mary-at-Hill London EC3R 8EE 
Tel: 020 7621 0002

https://www.facebook.com/oldjustice – Check their Facebook page for their phone number (in case it changes)

Mama Thai – London Walworth Road

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Continuing from my day off work (which feels like decades ago) I went to Mama Thai on the Walworth Road. I went there a few years ago with Miss Pinky to compare with Kai’s in Kingston and I hadn’t been back since because I was too lazy to go in. I think Miss Pinky likes Kai’s, and I don’t we have found a place as good as them.
I pass this place nearly every day, and every time I pass it in the evening it looks empty from the outside, but you can’t really see the inside very well as it looks dark from the outside. On some evenings and lunch periods they do get quite a few customers, but I don’t think a lot of people eat Thai food around this area… That’s a shame. On the day I went there were only two customers. Eat Thai food people!! It’s good for colds!!
Mama Thai

From the inside it looks like a very posh restaurant. [Side note: I’m not a massive fan of eating at posh, posh restaurants that have famous chefs or owned by famous people. Food is what really matters – and it has to taste GOOD!].

Lovely decorative place

Quiet restaurant
I already knew what I wanted to eat but I had a quick check on the menu to see if there was anything different from the one online… No changes on the menu.
I ordered the prawn tom yum soup. This is a traditional Thai soup, it’s spicy, a little tangy and there was a lot in this bowl. I generally like the one in Kingston as the soup was a little thicker or darker in colour, but this was good.
Tom yum soup with prawns

Next I started on this green curry. I love green curry especially when there are aubergines and loads of sauce which there was in this dish. It had a spicy kick into it, and it was very filling with the rice. I felt very full after eating this, and very pleased with myself for coming as it has been so long!

Chicken green curry

 You might be overwhelmed with the number of spoons you get, but each dish will have one spoon with it to avoid mixing of foods I guess.

Boiled rice

I can’t remember if I have mentioned in the past but I had learnt that drinking coconut milk is the best way to cool yourself whilst eating spicy food, and that’s what I ordered – a coconut cooler. This was really nice. It was like having a coconut milkshake / pudding.

Coconut cooler
I would have ordered dessert but I was too full and needed to buy an early birthday cake at the time. ^_^
Total cost came to £19.40. It is a little pricey, but I don’t blame them as customer turnout might be low.
My geeking rating: 4.5/5
Good points:
– Quiet place to eat Thai food
– Friendly service
– Good portions of food
Bad points:
– A little pricey (but worth it if you don’t go often)

Address: 235 Walworth Rd, London SE17 1RL
Telephone: 020 7277 2734

Yaki Japanese Bakery – London Goodge Street

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Er I went to a zumba class today, and secretly I enjoyed it… reminded me of being back in secondary school!! ^_^ Well now I’m going to talk about food… XD
When I went to eat at Koba with Miss Posh a few weeks ago we came across this place called Yaki which is a “Japanese Bakery”. I wanted to try this place out because I haven’t had an okonomiyaki for a while and wanted to try out their takoyaki balls. Well, I had a day off (the day before my birthday) and I decided to go here!
Yaki Japanese Bakery
The place looks very neat. Has a Japanese feel to it… 
Inside Yaki
I think I had a hard time deciding although I had already looked at the menu online beforehand… I wanted the Yaki-Combo! This meant I could have any okonomiyaki, 6 pieces of taco-yaki, a salad and a drink for £7.29. That’s not a bad deal for lunch although just a tiny bit expensive.
Here’s my okonomiyaki with some brown sauce and mayo on top. I chose the ham and cheese filling. Unfortunately it wasn’t that great. I miss the taste of the cabbage and the way it’s prepared (like the one in Brixton).
Okonomiyaki
Ham and cheese filling
Here’s my drink and my udon salad… These weren’t bad at all, and I really like this! The salad dressing was not bad at all.
My drink and udon salad
I actually did take a close up picture of the taco-yaki, unfortunately it didn’t capture the images onto my phone 😦 … The taco-yaki was cold I’m afraid and so I didn’t enjoy it that much.
My meal
Taco-yaki
The one thing I did enjoy was this banana and choco tai-yaki!! It was freshly made, and it just tasted awesome!! This one’s a thumbs up! 
Tai-yaki
Shape of a koi fish
Banana and chocolate filling!! Yummy!!
Total cost came to £9.28. It wasn’t a very bad meal, but the food could have been hotter.
My geeky rating: 3.5/5
Good points:
– The tai-yaki was a surprise. It tasted really good!
– Clean place
– Nice service
Bad points:
– Hot food became cold food too quickly
– Just a little expensive for lunch
Address: 53 Goodge St, London W1T 1TG ‎

Backstreet Boys – In A World Like This Tour – London O2

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My 400th Post!!! 

Back at the O2 already? Yep!! This time I’m joined with Miss Pinky and Miss Money. Both of them have met each other in the past but haven’t seen each other in a while I believe.

Well, yes, I am a Backstreet Boys fan. (Don’t boo me for being a fan) In the past I thought they were just a copy cat of Take That, but I soon grew to like them after listening to their songs. I still have their CD’s somewhere but have digitised everything. ^_^ I’m not the only fan from my secondary school days to have went to this concert, and a couple of old classmates went to!! ^_^ I managed to see one but not the other unfortunately.
So The Exchange who are an a-capella group came on first. As we sat down they started singing. Wow. Good timing!!
Sorry for bad quality pictures. I should have used my Nikon camera.

Next came All Saints.
Mr Bear loves them to bits and thought they were pulled out of the concert. No my dear. They weren’t… So I took loads of videos and some pictures for him!!

Here’s the All Saints Videos:

And finally after a short wait the Backstreet Boys came on!!! I love them all. And it was my one dream to go to a Backstreet Boys concert… After all these years, this is the first one I’ve been to!!

This was a brilliant concert!! It was a full house and they sold out too!! Woooooow!!!! So happy for them. I loved it, Miss Pinky and Miss Money loved it, and my old schoolmates loved it too! I must go to their next concert whenever that will be. XD
I must say, they could give the Korean boy bands a run for their money, and I think Americans and the Europeans need more boy bands that can sing and dance…
Videos will be up soon… Not sure how long it will take… Keep coming back to find out!

Here’s one video so far from the Backstreet Boys… Their opening song…

And finally the rest of the songs!!

Video 1 – Incomplete

Video 2 – As Long As You Love Me

Video 3 – Safest Place To Hide (a capella) & 10,000 Promises

Video 4 – Madeline

Video 5 – Trust Me

Video 6 – Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)

I want to see them again… Come back to London soon!!!!