Tag: Shopping

Oseyo Eats (Korean) – London Waterloo

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It’s been a very long week with snow, work and sleep (no driving this weekend, I quit with manual driving, so I’m going for automatic… I have a brain that can’t hack manual yet). Thankfully it’s all over in London. The snow has melted away. 😊
Hmart seem to be swinging into the London action (sorry for bad pictures of the shop, I crossed the road and forgot to take a better pic, and it was raining on the day I went).
I’ve been waiting for this shop to open (back in January). As soon as I saw K-Culture on the window I wondered what they meant by that and what type of shop this place was going to be…
Edit: Using Google Translate, I think Oseyo (Eats) 오세요 means “please come (and eat)” – please correct me if I’m wrong.

Inside the shop they sell refridgerated Korean dishes, dried foods, drinks, hot foods, K-pop CD’s, confectionery. There’s a seating area you can eat your food… Basically like a cafe but with a bit of Korean hype. 
I spent £13.68 on all the items in the picture below. The crackers are fat free pumpkin flavoured which cost £1.20.  The noodles are worth trying. There are two portions in each bag and are £3.99 each.

This is beef bulgogi kimbap. It was ok, but I think this was one of the popular items – the guy at the till had to check if there was anymore! This cost me £4.50.

p.s. This place used to be a bookstore before it was turned into a new building… goodbye bookstore!

Address: 158 Waterloo Rd, Lambeth, London SE1 8SB
Tel: 020 3105 4857
Website: http://www.oseyo.co.uk/

Japan Centre – London Panton Street (is this the final move?)

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よし！Alright! I’m hoping this is the final move for Japan Centre. Fingers crossed that we don’t have to keep travelling to find this Japanese store. I think I’ve encountered their four stores and three moves from when they were on Piccadilly Street to Regent Street St James’s to Shaftesbury Avenue and now Panton Street.
Stay where you are now Japan Centre! (Fingers crossed in the meantime).

As you enter you’ll see a food counter and a bit home-ware…

Liking the light bulb arrangement!

Then you go down some stairs and you’re greeted with a big food area and I feel the shopping area has gone a little smaller… maybe because lots of stock had gone beforehand. Hmmm.

On exiting to the till area, you’ll see a lot of raw meat, fish and a whole big section of sushi.
I’m trying to cut down on the rice, but that might not be possible if I came here all the time!! ^_^

Usually I spend a lot in Japan Centre, but on this day before the end of September I received a text message offering a discount! So in the end I spent under £15. So happy, but I think I should have bought more…. 😦 
Think the layout is not super great… The magazine section is right next to the takeaway hot food section – bit of a bother if you wanted to browse. 
The toilets are right next to the till areas, it means you have to pass the queue to get there… 
Maybe a re-layout needs re-thinking!!

At the end of this short visit, I decided not to eat in Japan Centre, but instead went to the neighboring Kanada-ya of Panton Street and tried out the expensive Destiny 2 Ramen. The waiter said it was super spicy… hmmm… I didn’t think so. Soup was quite bland too, so I wasn’t too impressed. Maybe I should have ordered something a bit salty. Oh well!

Address: 35b Panton St, London SW1Y 4EA
Tel: 020 3405 1246

Sainsbury’s @ Elephant & Castle

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Two months ago a new Sainsbury’s appeared amongst our many supermarkets in the area. Still waiting for there to be a mini ASDA, LIDL and ALDI… Come closer to Walworth Road please. ^_^
Elephant and Castle is becoming trendy at the moment. People are already trying to forget there was a council estate there. Don’t worry, people like me will not forget the once atrocious area!

Before shopping there I went out to the Czech Club with Mr YellowCloak and Ms LǜFù (pictures of food below), then followed Mr YellowCloak to get the City Link train – it’s so quick using this train. Unfortunately Mr YellowCloak told me to get on the wrong train, which didn’t stop at Elephant and Castle, so had to get a bus from Blackfriars… Was very fortunate that I had 20 minutes left before closing time!

It’s quite a big store. Even though there’s a lot of variety, I still prefer Morrisons and Tesco.

There’s even a small Asian section, but I would likely be heading towards Longdan Express for some of my Asian food stock.

Here’s a reminder of the times it opens and closes.

Very conveniently placed near the bus stops (like the one in Waterloo. ^_^ )

Good luck Sainsbury’s Elephant and Castle!

Address: 40 New Kent Rd, London SE1 6TJ

Here’s what I had that evening. Battered cauliflower with salad. Black tea. And I also had an apple struedel. Trying to prove to Miss Vegan that I can be semi healthy on a night out. LOL!

On my way out from Blackfriars, a cheeky fox just walked past me… Not scared at all! I meant the fox was not scared of us humans. >_<"

Pimlico Car Boot Sale

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Blogging time! Getting back into regular blogging is going to be difficult – because I’m lazy. :p
One rainy weekend was spent going out to a car boot sale with MummyGeek for her birthday outing. Well, it was something to do. ^_^  Miss Vegan had told me about this a long time ago, and I thought I would give it a go. It’s on every Sunday.
We took the bus C10 in front of the Imperial War Museum and got off at Pimlico Academy. It was raining really heavily and we only saw a few cars which we thought – Is that it? No, that was not the end of it. MummyGeek saw people coming out from around the corner, so we decided to give it a go.
Didn’t realise it was a £1 entry (for the 11.30am entry) until the people in front said so. Oh well. Might as well give it a go.

Not much was going on… people sat in the rain selling their items and it was pretty much wet.

Thankfully there was an indoors section… some of the items were too pricey for a car boot sale. Miss Vegan told me later that I should be bargaining there… Woah. I’m allowed to bargain?!! Well if there’s no price, then bargain away…!!

There are lots of nice cheap things there but I decided to skip. Maybe next time when the sun is out and when there’s more sellers around.

Don’t forget, this car boot sale is in a school playground area.

In the end I bought this box for Miss Vegan for £1 to put her change in. ^_^ Pretty isn’t it?!

Address: Pimlico Academy, Lupus St, London SW1V 3AT
Phone: 0845 094 3871

Entry prices: £5 at 10.15am and £1 at 11.30am

Artbox (Version 2) – London, Shelton Street

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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

Hoo Hing 和興 Chinese Supermarket – London Mitcham

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So far, my week off has been ok apart from the wind and rain.
Next stop during the weekend was to go to one the branches of this Chinese supermarket Hoo Hing 和興 (Canto: wo(r) hing; Mando: he xing). I went with MummyGeek who says she’s been here before (but she doesn’t even remember how she got there!). 
We took the Northern Line on the tube and headed to Colliers Wood. Then we took the bus 152 which headed straight there. This world is small because I actually bumped into a colleague of mine who lives in Mitcham. Strange. He also told us where to go as well. Lol!! Stop at Lewis Road… 6 stops I think,

Hoo Hing is a little expensive compared to the prices in China Town, but it’s the only place nearest to where I live that sells frozen cheong fun (flat rice noodles with fillings).

You can buy live crabs and lobsters in this place! Wow!!

Hoo Hing in Mitcham is like a big warehouse. Lots of freezers and lots of restaurant equipment etc.

Well if you visit make sure to check out the little restaurant they have… was too shy to go in.

Address: Bond Rd, Mitcham, Surrey CR4 3EB

Website: http://www.hoohing.co.uk/

H Mart Mini Korean Supermarket – London Tottenham Court Road

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So I finally went to H Mart Mini  in Tottenham Court Road (after a morning trip to London Zoo – bought a full membership for the year, so I’ll be going there more often than usual… I’m actually excited because it gets me out of my own home when I’m bored)!
From London Zoo I took the Northern Line and got off at Goodge Street, but what I should have done was get off at Warren Street. I walked the wrong way to the top of Oxford Street and it was actually at the other end!! 😦 Took the bus all the way back downhill towards Warren Street. Exhausting… 

The bigger H Mart is located in New Malden which I have yet to find and discover. Can’t wait for that to happen!! This is a smallish store. I think this place was a newsagents so you probably can understand the size of it all. 
They blast some Korean pop music and there’s actually a rack of albums you can quickly look at and buy!

Most of the foods here you can buy in other Asian stores, but I think H Mart Mini is quite unique. They sell the flat fishcakes and Korean kitchenware… and they even sell these fishy sausages. Ugh!! Remember I tried them before – the ones I bought from Hong Kong… Bleurgh.

I bought a good £15 worth of stuff… frozen rice cakes, fishcakes, spicy ramen, dduoboki sauce… and what did I make? Rabokki – a Korean street food snack.

As well as the ingredients for the rabokki I bought refrigerated boneless fried chicken. Yaaaay!! ^_^ So happy!!

I even bought a water bottle that you see in some Korean restaurants. For some reason I wanted one of those for a while. Now I know!

Think I’ll be coming here from time to time. ^_^

Address: 115 Tottenham Court Rd, London W1T 5AH

Wing Yip Supermarket Cricklewood, Edgware Road

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This is not a Christmas post but I’m becoming bored of adverts at the moment, so a change for a small time being before the ads start charging back in.
I’ve been to the Wing Yip in Purley but I think it was about time I went to their other store in another part of London. So I went with MummyGeek going from mid-south to the north. 
Google Maps suggested we take this route from Kennington Station to Waterloo Station then change for the Jubilee Line up to Willesden Green, then finally catch the 266 bus, count 8 stops and get off at Humber Road. That was actually an easy route. It just took about over an hour to get there.
You can’t really miss this place as there’s a big pagoda right at the front of the street.
Wing Yip Cricklewood, Edgware Road
Massive pagoda

So MummyGeek and I went around. Be careful of the traffic as there’s a parking lot outside and one on the side of the supermarket section.

Be careful of the parking lot!

This Wing Yip is probably one of the busiest, busier than the Purley based one! Many people go just to yum cha or stocking up for their restaurants. It’s just busy. 
Santa and his pumpkin (which will turn into reindeer at night – joking!)

Items are definitely cheaper there than in China Town, but I do prefer China Town as it’s more convenient, more restaurants and more choice really.

They sell DURIAN COFFEE!! YEEK!!

An easy way of making loads of bubble tea

If you’re lucky you might be able to try out food. MummyGeek and I were quite lucky to try out some dumplings and we got packets as it was buy 3 bags and get 1 free, all different flavours of course. My brother Mr Stingy went there the next day and he didn’t get to try out any food. Heheheh ^_^.

Food tasting ^_____________^

Within the supermarket there is also a cute store called Fortune Stars 星城工藝, but this one is not as big as the one in Purley Way and it doesn’t have many things that I liked. 

Cute Store – Fortune Stars

Next door there is an electrical store, so for restaurants and those looking for good cookers, it’s a place to look into.

Electrical appliances store – more cookware

I didn’t get to see the bakery – probably hidden away near the restaurants…!

The pagoda area is I believe the businesses like travel agencies etc., but they were closed on the day we went. It was a Sunday we went!
Massive pagoda!!

On returning we went a different route. We took the number 32 bus to Edgware (I didn’t realise it’s so far from Wing Yip!) and then we took the tube back to Kennington. Such a long journey back, but worth it. ^_^

Buses to get to the store

Between both stores, Mr Stingy and I vote for Wing Yip in Purley as the best out of the two. Mr Stingy said people in the Croydon area are friendlier. I vote for the Purley store because their cute store is bigger! ¬,¬”

Address: 395 Edgware Rd, Cricklewood, London NW2 6LN

Nearest Tube stations: Brent Cross, Willesden Green and Edgware
Buses: 32, 266, 632 and N16

Website 1: https://wingyipstore.co.uk/ – for online shopping
Website 2: http://www.wingyip.com/ – for more info

Biwon Korean Restaurant 비원 – London Coptic Street, Holborn AND Centre Point Food Store

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After another Japanese lesson (my bag has started to get heavier at this point). Too much learning. I haven’t been so keen in learning a new language since my first year when learning Mandarin!
This time I wanted to eat Korean and I actually wanted something a bit different to what I would usually eat.
I stumbled across Bi Won a long time ago whilst walking from Holborn to Tottenham Court Road, just never tried this place. I think Bi Won 비원 means “The Secret Garden”. Heheh, it looks very secretive from its location point!!
Bi Won Korean Restaurant
As I entered I was greeted by a busy looking woman who looked slightly annoyed as there were hardly any seats around for just one person although I think there was sitting upstairs (not sure about that). Well anyway, I got a table in the end and I had a flick through the menu. There was so much to choose from and I just didn’t know what to choose!!
Didn’t want anything spicy so I chose this beef stew set (I think this is galbitang). It’s something different from what I would usually get…
Beef stew

The beef stew came with white rice in a silver bowl (as they usually do in a Korean restaurant).

Stew and rice

It was a proper beef bone soup but there was a lot of beef bits in the soup as well as some Asian parsnip.

Not a lot of meat on those bones, but there is a lot of loose meat in the soup

Side dishes came with the set… kimchee cabbage, burdock root and beansprouts.

Side dishes: kimchi cabbage, burdock and beansprouts

The soup came out very hot. So I had to blow on it quite a lot. It tasted ok, not too salty not too bland, just ok. I mainly put the rice into the soup to eat like you would with kimchi stew but I think I shouldn’t have because it was hard to eat!

My meal

It was a good meal, I had all the side dishes to cool off the heat from the soup… Unfortunately I couldn’t finish all of the soup because there was so many people just staring about and I felt conscious that people were looking at me… I would rather sit in a dark hole and not be stared at!!

Finished!!

Total cost came to £12.50 that included a £1.20 service charge (10%). Not sure if I should have ordered a drink otherwise I think the price would have been average for this meal.

My geeky rating: 4/5

Good points:
– Nice small Korean restaurant
– So-so service
– Like the side dishes!

Bad points:
– Service charge
– May have to wait for a table

Address: 24 Coptic St, London WC1A 1NT
Telephone: 020 7580 2660

[googlemaps https://www.google.com/maps/embed?pb=!1m14!1m8!1m3!1d2482.780438302017!2d-0.125937!3d51.51724399999999!3m2!1i1024!2i768!4f13.1!3m3!1m2!1s0x48761b3306a88a2b%3A0x853c01b282cd54ac!2sBi+Won!5e0!3m2!1sen!2suk!4v1403217831149&#8243; style=”border: 0;” width=”600″>

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p.s. If you are looking for Centre Point Food Store (the Korean food store that used to be on St Giles High Street) it is now on New Oxford Street!!

Address: Centre Point, New Oxford St, London WC1A

Sweets From Heaven – London Charing Cross Road / Tottenham Court Road

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There’s a new sweet shop in town, and it’s right next door to Leicester Square (and very close to China Town)! Yay!
I passed this a few weeks back, and I forgot all about it and I have this feeling that I’ll be there every month or so just to find new sweets. XD Arrrrggh, this is very bad for me since it will give me the highest chances of diabetes since it runs in my family… So maybe once every four months, would that be better? Well for one thing, some of the stuff is quite expensive, I already spent £21.74 in one go. I just kept seeing things at the counter, and couldn’t stop myself… ^_^
Sweets from Heaven in Charing Cross Road
Lots and lots of sweets in the windows
It’s like going into your favourite sweet store that stocks the unusual or the things that you could only find in foreign countries and NEVER in the UK.
In the shop
Here’s just a few things I came across… I think a lot of my blogging friends and readers who live around London are going to enjoy coming here every so often!! Make sure you save up loads!!
Milka Melo-cakes… What are those?
American cereals
Peanut butter and jelly a lots of peanut butter… Is that grape jelly/jam too?
I bought this Fluff stuff… want to know what it tastes like!!
More cereals
Look at all that!!
The cool sweets in the windows – a closer look
Oh my… this place should be called “diabetes heaven”
If you can’t get to the one in Charing Cross Road, there is one in Tottenham Court Road which is just opposite to Muji’s.
Sweets from Heaven in Tottenham Court Road
Be wise people. And don’t eat too many sweets!!
I will be reviewing the stuff I bought soon. So watch out for more posts. ^_^

Address in Charing Cross Road: 33 Charring Cross Road, London, WC2H OET
Address in Tottenham Court Road: 260 Tottenham Court Road, London, W1T 7RF

Website: http://www.theheavengroup.com/