thekua.com@rest – Page 103

I’ll have a Vespa with that Coffee thanks!

August 29, 2005 Patrick Restaurants

Yesterday my good friend Kath (a fellow Brisbanite) came down from Oxford to visit me in London yesterday. It was a beautiful London day, and we walked around town and ended up having a coffee at Putney just across the river Thames. Avoiding the Rocket Restaurant Riverside this time, as I saw that awful waitress serving, we sat down at a nice little cafe that ended up being Carluccio’s (as in after Antonio Carluccio, the famous chef that can be seen on some cooking shows). I didn’t realise that the cafe bore any relationship until we went to have a look at the deli inside the cafe and saw his cookbook there. It’s a very nice deli, small but serving a good variety of things, from salads, cured meats, sweets and cakes, and well as many various packaged goods.

Feeling like I wanted to avoid anything with lots of caffeine, I tried the Cioccolata Fiorentina (described as a thick drinking chocolate in an espresso cup) but couldn’t help but laugh when I saw what was at the end of the menu (a Piaggo Vespa for only £1799)!

The Rat Pack @ The Savoy

August 28, 2005 Patrick Theatre

My sister and I were standing in queue for half price tickets on Saturday, and somehow ended up with some for one that we didn’t really know much about, The Rat Pack. Set at the Sands Hotel, this musical takes you back in time to a place to be entertained by the three great singers, Frank Sinatra, Samy Davis Jr, and Dean Martin (all accompanied by the Borelli Sisters). This musical will disappoint if you are after acting genius, with its story really setting the scene for classic songs to be performed including “Under My skin”, “Once if a Lifetime”, “The Candyman”, “Mr Bojangles”, “Amore”, and “New York, New York”.

Of what acting actually happened was quite well done, with all the little characteristics of each singer very well detailed. Sinatra had his strong New-Yorkian accent, even throughout his singing, Martin, his, if not overdone, constant half-drunk state for which he was well known by, and then the charismatic and energetic performances of Samy Davis Jr. The costumes were just as well attuned to each person, Sinatra’s being the most finest with gold cufflinks and a full suit, Dean Martin still classic but a little more rough around the edges, to the white socks and slightly short pants of Samy Davis Jr.

This performance is definitely not a musical for everyone and especially unlikely to appeal to anyone in my age group, but I still enjoyed the show for both its small bits of comedic acting and the stunning singing ability of the actors. Be warned though, that a number of big fans of each of these singers may attend, and sitting next to them can be hazardous to your health, as my sister will tell you, (unfortunately having to listen to their awful singing!)

Rocket Restaurants, London

August 25, 2005 Patrick Restaurants

Last night I attended Ben’s surprise birthday dinner, organised by Michelle and held at the Rocket Restaurant (Riverside). This bar and restaurant overlooks the Thames and is within walking distance of the Putney Bridge. It’s excellent location means that any sunset on a summer evening is going to be spectacular, assuming that the day is not suffering from London’s typical drizzle. The restaurants has seating both inside and out, but the most eye-catching seat in the resturant is the clam shaped, circular seating into which we all crammed ourselves in last night.

Food at the Rocket Restaurant is best classified as modern cosmpolitan, serving a wide variety of pizzas and calzones, as well as steak, tuna, sashimi and dinner salads. They also have a small number of starers, an excellent selection of side dishes but the size of their main meals do not warrant one. They also have a pretty ordinary dessert menu, with each item offered at £5. Although I did not have any, I was told that the strawberry chesscake (lavishly drizzled with strawberry juice and built up on a mini circular biscuit base) was excellent.

I had the vegetarian pizza served with lots of fresh Mozzarella was huge and extremely tasty. I ended up giving up a lot of it as it was so big and had ordered a side of Zucchini Fritters as well. The small individually battered zucchini chips were served on a decently-sized plate, and the naturally sweet flesh of the zucchini, well balanced with the light, crisp and saltiness of the batter was well received by everyone who had a taste.

Details: Rocket Restaurant (Map)
Found on: Brewhouse Street, Putney Wharf, Putney, SW15 2NS
Contactable via: 0208 789 7875
Highlights: Food quality was pretty good. Decently sized meals. Wide variety of side dishes and salads
Room for improvement: No drinks menu, service was shocking.

Initial Impressions of London

August 21, 2005 Patrick UK Life

After our fantastic holiday, I finally arrived to a slightly wet and overcast London. I am lucky enough to be staying close to the city, and can easily walk outside to a Tube station. In the last couple of days, I’ve been amazed by just how easy it is to get around, even just within walking distance. So far I’ve managed to visit Soho, Buckingham Palace, Chinatown, Notting Hill, Trafalgar Square, Big Ben, 10 Downing Street, Westminster Abbey, the B.A. London Eye, Covent Garden, Green Park, Somerset House, and the London Treasury. I’m really enjoying everything, but here are some observations I’ve made so far:

Drivers get used to looking through foggy windows, the use of air conditioning to remove the fog seems to elude them
You get used to the constant drizzle, there are plenty of people that walk about in the rain at a normal pace without a coat or umbrella
Avoid sidewalks when it’s raining. I saw someone get instantly soaked by a wave of water when a car zoomed by.
Journalists appear to be most eloquent here, with the most extensive use of the English language I have ever seen in the morning papers.
As modern as the underground appears to be, climate control seems to elude them. There is no need to heat them when it’s warm already.
Space is obviously limited, from the tiny little elevators, to where people are forced to drink out on the streets because the pubs are too crowded
Concert tickets sell out fast (or maybe they end up in the hands of the “discount” ticket vendors that are selling them for more than double the original price)
There is always something going on. This weekend alone was the V (music) festival somewhere out of London, Trafalgar Square had its own festival celebration, not to mention all of the clubs, pubs, and various music venues hosting their own gigs and events.

Dubai’s Dazzling Destinations

August 21, 2005 Patrick Travel

Our final day in Dubai was also spent indulging in Dubai’s cultural and iconic places. In the morning attended the Jumeirah Mosque tour. This tour is not one that you would typically think of, that of perhaps being guided around a building discussing the history and architecture of the building. In contrast to this, the famous Jumeirah Mosque tour takes you on a cultural tour that helps you better understand where the Mosque fits into the religion of Islam and distinguishing between activities that are part of the religion, and those that are part of the culture of the region which practices this religion. The tour lasts between an hour and an hour and a half and is highly recommended, especially if you have never visited a Mosque or read anything about the Islam religion.

Our final place of visit for the day was the 7-star hotel, the Burj Al Arab. Tours of the hotel are few and far, so either book ahead or be happy to take pictures from afar. We were lucky enough that my sister had booked us a lunch at the restaurant that resides at the top of the hotel, so we had no issues getting in. Needless to say, lunch was tremendously expensive, and even though my sister said she would pay (as she has been earning pounds for the last year), I was still uncomfortable indulging in such a lunch. I would suggest for those wishing to enjoy a meal there, definitely take the afternoon tea option.

Admittedly the view from the restaurant was quite beautiful, and the relatively clear day (at least for summer) gave us a good view of both the palm tree islands and world map islands. Lunch was enjoyable with fresh breads (beetroot loaf, parmesan and oregano crostini and a sun dried tomato foccacia), followed by a starter of shellfish bisque and the main of a modern beef “Wellington vs Rossini”. Both dishes were delicious and excellently presented, but the chef still managed to overcook my medium-rare steak I asked for.

For the rest of the day we lounged around on the beach and by the pool, basking in the warmth of our final day in Dubai before finishing up the evening with an Arabian feast at Al Muna inside Mina A’Salam.

Drenched in Dubai

August 21, 2005 Patrick Travel

My sister had organised for us to be staying at the Le Meridien Fairway for half of our stay in Dubai. It is a fantastic hotel (although if you want something even ritzier and self-contained, definitely try the Le Meridien Dubai which includes the pool-bar and hotel village). This hotel is closer to central Dubai giving easy access to the various souks, shopping malls and other city sights.

The other part of our stay was scheduled for Mina A’Salam, part of the Madinat Jumeirah Arabian Beach Resort. Jumeirah is the western part of Dubai, sprawled across beach frontage hosting a number of beach resorts, beach clubs, sailing clubs, the Dubai Zoo, the water park Wild Wadi and home of the 7-star, Burj Al Arab hotel. Describing Madinat Jumeirah is beyond any vocabulary that I have as it is just simply amazing. This resort was architected to resemble old Arabia and is made up of 5 major parts, big enough to almost be considered a village of their own. A man made waterway stretching 3.7 kilometers connects all of the various parts, with the best way of getting around being the traditional Abra boats operating 24 hours a day. Madinat Jumeirah is also home to 43 world class restaurants, 5 pool side bars, several nightclubs and bars and an entire souk of up-market clothing and fashion stores.

The resort has a huge array of facilities including Dubai’s largest pool, several more outdoor and indoor pools, five tennis courts, several squash courts, a large club gym, and a 1 kilometer patrolled private beach where you can indulge in watersports of all kinds including windsurfing, sailing, water-skiing, kneeboard and banana rides. Inclusive in the hotel rate is free entry into Wild Wadi, the most advanced water park I have ever been in. Although it is not as big as Wet ‘N’ Wild back home, it’s the only place where I know where water slides will actually push you up hill. A large water tube circuit connects most of the park, so you can skim from place to place in the park. They also have two flowrider rides which simulates the experience of tube-riding and is a must do for any one who goes. The park also has a cashless payment system where you can pay for things on a watch-like device to pay for souvenirs, food and drink anywhere inside.

At night-time, the entire complex literally lights up. We sat on the beach watching the sunset and saw the massive Burj Al Arab light up at night. We can also sit inside our room and see the world renown 7-star hotel shift colours, lighting up the Jumeirah night sky.

Driving in the Deserts of Dubai (Day 2 and 3)

August 21, 2005 Patrick Travel

Our second day in Dubai saw us back at the Gold markets in the morning and then at the City Central Shopping Centre for lunch. Dubai is supposed to be a shopper’s mecca but I have been yet to see anything ridiculously cheap. Perhaps it’s because I’ve been exposed to the US’s coupon/voucher/rebate schemes so much that nothing else seems relatively cheap. Everything is still pretty reasonable but I really have nothing I want to buy just yet.

We made our way back to the hotel where we had organised a desert safari for the evening. Costing AUE230 (AU$90) this safari offered by several companies (we went with Orient Tours) is something I highly recommend everyone do. The one that we picked combined several different facets that are hugely popular with visitors to Dubai including desert four wheel driving, visiting a camel farm, and several stops at picturesque points along the way, before reaching the campsite for dinner. Activities abound at the campsite including camel back riding, sand boarding (pretty fun too!), getting a henna design, and shisha smoking before chowing down on a tasty Arabian barbeque dinner to be followed by traditional belly dancing (oh, and be warned, pretty much everyone has to get involved as well!)

The safari package is superb value, especially if you are into four wheel driving. I haven’t ever done it back home (is it on Fraser or Straddie?), but I’m not sure if you would ever get the same sort of driving. I’m yet to work out whether our driver was cocky or just crazy for not wearing his seat belt for the entire trip. To give you any indication, my sister and I felt the need to wear our seatbelt to protect ourselves before we even left the city! I don’t think that I would ever be driving a 4WD like that, but the driver certainly made the afternoon and evening a fun one. Imagine an entourage of 16 cars all ripping it up in the sand hills of the desert. After dinner it was even more thrilling (worrying?) that we had to make our way back out of the desert at nighttime, at the same crazy pace we came back in. At least you can tell from this post that we got back home safely anyway.

On our third day, we continued with another tour of the United Arab Emirates. This tour was extremely cheap at only AED130 (AU$48) for an entire day although it did not include lunch. This tour saw us stop in Masafi to browse the ‘Friday Market’, a collection of market stores along the roadside selling various rugs, fruit and vegetables and other various trinkets. I picked up a pomegranate as it the first time I had seen one in real life. This tour was pretty much driving a long way into many of the other Emirates and even a cross over into the border of Oman for a short while. We stopped at a beach resort where we had the chance to go for a swim in the Indian Ocean. We also indulged in a Lebanese-style Mezza spread for two (that really could have filled four people) which was pretty good.

Average temperatures of 40+ meant that the sand was just as hot. Running into the sea from the sheltered beach lounges was the only way of minimally scalding your feet (which I still managed to some degree), only to find yourself standing in some really warm water (my guess, about 30°C). The water was extremely clear and blue and it was refreshing to be in it, if not only to avoid the hot sand.

We drove back through what appears to be the only mountainous regions of the UAE, with the bare rock indicating the strength of the erosive desert winds. Apparently these are the richest areas for agriculture as it receives the most rainfall and has access to the most groundwater reservoirs. Approximately 100mm of rain fall in the UAE, therefore most of the agriculture depends on processed sewerage water, and drinking water coming from refined seawater.

Our final destinations for the day saw as stop at Al Badiyah, the oldest mosque in the Emirates, at old Fujairah city where restorations of old buildings are currently taking place, and then at the old citadel at an oasis in Bithnah. This tour gives you a better idea of what life outside the largest cities is like, and an understanding of how harsh living in the desert can be.