Month: June 2016

Robinsons Real Fruit Adverts

On By Bao Bao QiuIn UncategorizedLeave a comment
It’s Wimbledon season! And to start off this season is this advert which you can find in Waterloo.
It’s not a poster, it’s actually a 3D image. You can’t see it in this picture… just keep going down.

Managed to get a close up one evening when I was meeting up with friends at the Czech Club. As you can see, there’s a lawn mower, a tennis net, a slice of lemon orange wedge and some 3D lettering including the Robinson’s sign. You don’t actually get to see this type of advertising in London. Very clever. Just hope it stays glued all together (well till the Wimbledon season is over). Heheh.

Moving along, there’s a few poster ads but then you see this TV screen. Had this just appeared? I can’t remember seeing it much in Waterloo.

Good advertising? Well, it caught my attention!

It was a nice evening before the storm came… Beautiful London at sunset. ^_^

Koya Bar こやバー – London Frith Street

On By Bao Bao QiuIn UncategorizedLeave a comment
I can’t believe we’re out of the EU! For my whole life, my parents, Mr Stingy and I have been in this union… what will lie ahead of us? Law changes, passport changes, no more exotic fruits and foods… it has been a depressing few days. 😦
So be it!
Introducing Koya Bar which was once called Koya. Think they’ve re-designed the place to look like an authentic noodle bar with some modern touches. I’ll give it a pass for that.
Gosh, I felt it was quite tricky finding this place as their sign is not up, and all there was to indicate this was Japanese was the front door with the blind blowing away.

I was so intrigued at this place which was already fully packed with tourists and people like me who wanted to discover something different. It’s very retro but modern. Reminds of my short time in Tokyo with a slightly bigger layout.

I didn’t know what to have, but I was aiming for any cold udon. I actually wanted to try out some dipping noodles but I thought this would be messy if I try udon as the noodles are too thick.
I ordered the Hiyashi Saba (pronounced: hee-ya-she sa-ba), which is salmon, green leaves and udon. Plus I had ordered the Kakuni which is pork belly braised in cided.
Hmmm, I think there wasn’t anything too special about the udon. I think I could’ve made this myself. The cold sauce that came with it didn’t make me go wow… The salmon was whitish – that’s the only thing that surprised me about this dish.

The hidden gem was this. The pork belly was seasoned so well and the cider was so sweet but still tasted alcoholic. It was like eating silk meat as it slivered off the bone and the fat had to be eatened (even when you’re on a diet). I wish I had more. For £6.90, I thought it was a little stingy to only give a few pieces. But nevertheless it was still tasty with the mustard paste. ^_^

Just a short post of what happened before I got to Koya Bar, The Queen was going to start her big celebrations… Roads were blocked off making my journey longer…

Well, total cost £22.40 (including an ice barley tea) which is awfully expensive. Would I go again? Only if someone asked me to go.

My geeky rating: 4.5/5

Good points:
– Authentic Japanese style food in an authentic Japanese style noodle bar
– Polite service
– Free water

Bad points:
– Expensive
– Stingy with Kakuni (I want more!)

Address: 50 Frith Street, London W1D 4SQ (No reservations)

Tuen Ng Festival (Dragon Boat Festival) 2016

On By Bao Bao QiuIn UncategorizedLeave a comment
About a week and a half ago, on June 9th was Tuen Ng Festival in Asia. What’s Tuen Ng Festival? It’s called 端午節 (Canto: dyun m jit; Mando: Duān wǔ jié) literally meaning “end, noon, festival” but it means Dragon Boat Festival.
There’s various stories of it’s origin which I think you’ll need to look up because I can’t decide which one is a good one to tell!
As well as boat racing the Chinese will eat Zhong (pronounced: Jung) which is sticky rice with some meat and veggie filling and yellow beans wrapped in banana leaves and then are steamed. I bought lots on the day in China Town (after a really, really stressful day which ended in misery at work.  
‧º·(˚ ˃̣̣̥⌓˂̣̣̥ )‧º·˚ – needed cheering up!!). 
This all cost me £31!!! OMG. So expensive. 

I bought 6 savoury ones and 2 sweet red bean ones (the smaller version) in a back street where they manufacture these and lots of other foods for the companies around China Town and London wide.

The savoury one smelled so nice!! It’s massive compared to the normal triangular version you would see in the supermarkets. There was a lot of yellow beans, some char siu and one piece of mushroom. Needed some salt! My parents had some and I had loads (finished the last one yesterday).

This is the smaller, sweet one. I didn’t really like this one. It wasn’t sweet enough. MummyGeek thinks even diabetics could have tried this one as there was hardly any sugar in it. Hahahahah. Anyway, to make it sweet, add syrup or some sugar on top methinks. 

If you see this piece of paper on the wall in China Town (if it’s still there) you know which alleyway I went into. 😉

On that weekend when The Queen was celebrating her second birthday (which was also MummyGeek’s birthday – Happy Birthday Mother!) I saw the English doing their Dragon Boat race along the River Thames! Heheheheh… thankfully I didn’t take the Tube!! ^_^

p.s. Happy Father’s Day!!!!! DaddyChef is doing the cooking this afternoon though… hahahahahahah!!

Artbox (Version 2) – London, Shelton Street

On By Bao Bao QiuIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Ack. Artbox has moved!

It’s now moved to a back street of Covent Garden as the previous location will be under construction.

Artbox are still selling cute, cute things, but fee that they have limited items on display at the moment. It’s a tiny bit more spacious than the previous store but hope they will add more items as I couldn’t see all the stationery… I really wanted to buy some memo notes but had limited stuff at the time I went…

Fingers crossed for more items!

The following pic is of lots of old Chinese people who were about to eat outside in China Town to celebrate The Queen’s 90th birthday… ^_^

Address: 44 Shelton St, London WC2H 9HZ
Tel: 020 7240 0097

Studio 6 Restaurant – London Gabriel’s Wharf

On By Bao Bao QiuIn UncategorizedLeave a comment
Straight after MCM Comic Con, Miss Pinky, her uni friend (will call her Miss Laidback because she’s so laid back and I really felt I’ve known her for years) and I went back, took the dog out, returned Baby B to Mr Picky and went back out along to South Bank. 
Miss Pinky and I are used to walking (but Miss Pinky needs to get fit before she goes back to work :p)… Miss Laidback had noticed we walk a lot in London! Why?! Because it’s somewhat faster when you’re stuck in traffic, and owning a car in London is treacherous.
It was a nice afternoon, and I think all of us were hungry, so we walked towards Gabriel’s Wharf, which is located between Waterloo and London Bridge. I forgot Gabriel’s Wharf was so cool with their mini shops and small cafes. Must go there when I have nothing to do. We browsed amongst the places that were still opened that Sunday… and we rested upon Studio 6 Restaurant, but we had to wait and see if they would accept the dog Poppy – thankfully they did because we really wanted to try their food!! Especially the desserts. ^_^

We sat there for a bit before we any service came to us, it actually felt forever, but they were busy that day.
Drinks, starters and main dinners were ordered in one go. Gosh, I think we were hungry. (And I think I ruined my diet that weekend… very badly – but don’t forget I passed my driving theory the day before, so it was deemed acceptable!). 

Drinks first! I wanted an Aperol Spritz, but they ran out. It’s become a very popular drink since I tried it out last year. So instead I had Pimms. It’s been a while since I’ve had one of these. ^_^

Next came out slowly were the starters.
Miss Pinky had her usual calamari. The creamy mustard was served with this and I quite liked it.

I decided to also have a started, something semi-healthy. Goat’s cheese frites. They used a white beetroot which I’ve never seen before. (They actually look like small white turnips). Not many people like goat’s cheese, but it didn’t taste funny, it tasted creamy and the sauce went well with everything. Felt almost full after eating this! No way!!!

Now for the dinners.

Miss Pinky and Miss Laidback had the same dish. The duck confit. I didn’t try it because of the duck fat… plus it didn’t look much. Miss Laidback enjoyed it with a large glass of red wine.
Miss Pinky wanted a pic of the wine list, so if you read this Miss Pinky, the wine list is below!!!

Me? I had spinach tortellini. Trying so hard to be healthy. And I forgot this would all be pasta! Should’ve went for the fish!!! 😦 Why didn’t I have the fish? But anyway, I finished this and it was awesome, cooked well, tomato sauce wasn’t bland and the filling was just really filling.

Miss Laidback at this point was supposed to be heading back to Birmingham but decided to stay for one more evening with Miss Pinky and the gang because we all wanted to try out the desserts. 😀 I was quite happy she decided to stay.

We all decided to have different puddings. And this is Poppy trying to get a nibble of the food.

Miss Laidback had a piece of the cheesecake, supermarkets will never be able to compare to this apparently. Couldn’t get a spoon of this. Too bad. 😦

Miss Pinky had the sticky toffee pudding which was filled with alcohol. Not sure if Miss Pinky wanted this all to be alcoholic but it tasted really nice. I would’ve have had this if I didn’t have mine.

I decided I would have the crumble with custard. I haven’t had any crumble for a long time. Unfortunately it didn’t have enough crumble but I did like it. Had lots of sour berries but if it just had a bit more crumble…

Total came to £94.20  which included a second round of drinks.
They rarely do takeaways… so you must eat as much as you can or they will try and wrap it all up for you.

My geeky rating: 4.5/5

Good points:
– Tasty food
– Reasonable prices
– Very friendly staff

Bad points:
– Although food was great, service for me was slow and a bit hard to get their attention. (Taught Miss Pinky that you have to catch their eyes and wave at the same time)

Address: Upper Ground, London SE1 9PP
Tel: 020 7928 6243

MCM London Comic Con (May 2016) – London Excel

On By Bao Bao QiuIn UncategorizedLeave a comment
It’s been a long week of working misery but must cheer up and blog! ^_^
Right. 
I was forced to go (not really) to this convention with Miss Pinky two weekends ago. So I bought four tickets. Mr Picky was supposed to come along, but unfortunately decided not to go (due to some misunderstandings… let’s not get into that). So Miss Pinky’s friend from her uni days came along and we took along Baby B – her second comic con.
We arrived quite late. It was the last May bank holiday and both Miss Pinky and her friend had slept late. 🙂 The Klingons were already leaving and I kind of made a mistake at stopping at the wrong station… But I was quite happy going the wrong way as we saw a lot of people in their outfits. Some were really amazing. ^_^

It was a very looooong walk to the entrance of the convention. I think Miss Pinky wanted to cry. I wanted to cry because the walk took forever.

Got my Sunday priority band… Baby B would’ve went in for free, but I had the extra ticket, so we used it.

And here we were at MCM London Comic Con.

We went around looking at the stalls but it was kind of like a short stay, I didn’t buy anything…

Tried so hard to resist in buying things… This stall was just the cutest though!

I’ve become obsessed with this new Sanrio character Gudetama. He has replaced Hello Kitty for a little while. I think the Asian world love him because he’s just lazy, and the cartoons they make of Gudetama are just funny. Heheh.

So we saw people signing autographs… You have to pay to get an autograph. 😦 Some were more expensive than others. I didn’t bother paying. I just stood around and taking pics from a long distance. Saving money people.

Here’ Warwick Davis.

Jesse Eisenberg … I think I need to watch some of his films to remember who he is… Sorry.

Well, All of us were standing for a very long time just to get a glimpse of the Big Bang Theory stars Kunal Nayyar. They were at a photo shoot and well, at  least they came back!

And yay! Got a glimpse of the Melissa Raunch. She is a tiny woman!

Seeing The Big Bang Theory cast made my day… Now it was time to head back as we had to get back to Miss Pinky’s friend’s dog who we thought was left alone at home (but wasn’t thankfully). 
Hahahah, Mr Stingy missed out on the original Power Rangers. ^_^

As we left, we realised there was a second section to Comic Con which had a lot more stalls of cuteness… Oh well. I think I’m just going to wait until Hyper Japan is on in July.

By the way we went out the wrong way, so we had to walk all the way back. Exhausted people!

We may have had a short time there, but it was fun. Maybe next time we’ll go early…

Website: http://www.mcmcomiccon.com/london/  – looks like there’s another one in October!!!!

Chinese Tapas House 愛吃鬼小屋 – London Little Newport Street

On By Bao Bao QiuIn UncategorizedLeave a comment
On one weekend I really wanted to try out the squid in Bigbe Chicken. But every time (that’s a total of three times) I went in and asked, they’ve sold out… meaning…?
I decided in the end to give Chinese Tapas House 愛吃鬼小屋 (Canto: oi hek gwai siu uk; Mando: ai chui guai xiao wu)  a go (apparently Miss Money goes in there all the time. So greedy!). The place literally means: “love eat ghost small house”.
Looking at the displays on the window, I wanted to try out the savoury pancake which I couldn’t see on their menu at first but saw a big picture of it when I looked up. 

I was looking at someone else’s savoury pancake being made…

With my poor Mandarin (although I understood what they were asking) I ordered it…

It was like watching crepes being made.

So when I went home, what they add is a frankfurter, fried dough (yau jia gwai), salted preserved pickles, fried pigs skin, egg, spring onions, sesame seeds and chilli oil. I had asked for it to be a little spicy but it was spicy anyway… The fried dough became soggy enough to bite into as they are usually tough. Biting it bit by bit meant I could taste the pancake blending in with all the ingredients. The pickles gave it some saltiness but the rest is bland so it went well with everything. ^_^

That was worth a good £3.50.

Address: Little Newport Street, China Town, London

Samyang Hot Chicken Flavour Ramen 삼양 불닭 볶음면

On By Bao Bao QiuIn Uncategorized2 Comments
>_< Hot spicy stir fried noodles needed!
Saw these being presented and eaten on a YouTube video by Kinoshita Yuka (a Japanese fanatic eater) and I had to try them out. I’m astounded by the amount she can eat in one sitting, whereas I could only eat a smaller portion of what she has. I’m normal. A normal eating geek.
Well, I found the noodles in China Town and bought a few packets to see what they tasted like.

So, cooked normally and placed into my bowl. The amount of noodles looks so small without the water… Placed in the sauce and topping on top.

Mixed it well… and then had my first noodle slurp… It wasn’t that spicy… until…

I added Japanese Kewpie mayo and slurped more… my, my, it’s really spicy, can’t remember if I could even taste anything else!! I added more mayo (like the Japanese do) to try and tone down the spiciness. It somewhat was ok

This is probably one of the most spiciest Korean ramens I’ve ever tried! I even bought more today because I like them so much. Hahahahaha!!
A pack of 5 was £3 something in Sun Loon Moon Supermarket in China Town… and in the confectionery shop a few doors down it is £1.20 per packet….

Try if you dare!

p.s. I took the spicy ramen challenge ^_^ … didn’t know this was a super popular ramen