Oz vs Denmark

Patrick Sport, UK Life

Last night I went along to see the Australia vs Denmark football (aka soccer) match held out at White City. It was a very disappointing game for all the Antipodeans given that Denmark scored within the first 10 minutes and managed three by the end of the first half. We managed to score one in the second half but it was apparent we were unlikely to win. Other than being supremely cold in the stadium on the plastic chairs, it was a fun night and nice to get out and support some sport.

Australia vs Denmark

Final score: Australia 1 – Denmark 3

Favourite Local Website

Patrick UK Life

After living in a city for a while I think you start to form ideas of which websites offer you the a good insight into the city. London has a huge number of sites showing what’s on where, and interesting news ranging from the BBC to Timeout. A favourite website of mine recently is Londonist – a blog put together by various people writing about all different aspects ranging from music, food, photography and news all about London. I highly recommend the read, and would enjoy hearing which site’s are your favourite.

More Hyde Park

Patrick Bayswater, UK Life

One of the really nice things about living in Bayswater is its proximity to Hyde Park. I said I’d catch up with Angela who’s also a photography enthusiast so I thought we’d kill two birds with one stone and walk around Hyde Park for a good part of the day. As I soon discovered, Angela also has a really nice SLR camera and quite the collection of lenses to go with it. It’s the first time I’ve switched lenses, and I got to try a 75-300mm that worked amazingly for portrait and distance shots. Here’s one of my favourites from the collection (click on the link to have a look at other ones that turned out).

Person walking in Hyde Park

Shanghai Blues

Patrick Food, Restaurants, UK Life

Earlier this week I dined at the decadent Shanghai Blues found in a part of the Old Town Hall on High Holborn. It’s very close to my office and I’ve walked past it many many times and since the prices are significantly more expensive than many other Chinese restaurants I’ve never really had a good reason to eat there. Since my month of vegetarianess (is that even a word), I noticed that they offered an impressive range of vegetarian dishes, at least in comparison to your typical Chinese restaurant. Admittedly their normal menu looks superb as well. One unfortunate thing for me though was a special for the month of January where all of their four varieties of Lobster Noodle, typically £40 only cost £25. I was extremely tempted to turn pescatarian just to have them.

The inside of the restaurant is intentionally dark, adding to the atmosphere created by the black lacquered tables and chairs. Everything is very well presented and the menu is presented with both a bowl of nuts and a bowl of kim chee to nibble on as you decide. The offerings are wide and tempting although my task was made much easier with only a page to choose from instead of the overwhelming different ways in which all the meats are served.

Ordering tea is quite the experience as well, with each pot served in “one person” sized pots. A tea trolley is wheeled to your table, with the tea pot and the tea cup cleansed in front of your eyes with boiling water before being filled with the fresh tea leaves (presented to you first, strangely like a newly opened bottle of wine). The tea was nice and fresh and at least for such a small pot of tea, the waiters work constantly to ensure it is filled up during the meal.

Details: Shanghai Blues
Found on: 193-197 High Holborn, WC1V 7BD
Contactable on: +1 20 7404 1668
Highlights: Distinctly different dishes, a wide variety of offerings in a much more upmarket and stylish restaurant. Service is extremely attentive without being the excessively in your face. They also host jazz on certain nights of the week.
Room for improvement:Expect to pay a little bit more than your average Chinese restaurant.
The Kua Rating: 7.5 out of 10

The Lion King

Patrick Entertainment, London To Do, Theatre, UK Life

Last night I finally managed to see the much talked about Lion King at The Lyceum Theatre. The story should be pretty well known since it follows almost exactly the story of the original movie and is filled with the same rich music. The highlights for me included the amazing costumes and devices they employ to help the production including the elephant and giraffe costumes, the lion and hyena masks, and finally the Zazu bird puppet. Almost every part of this musical impressed me except for a few small parts that I thought the director over indulged in their “abstract” interpretation but I still highly recommend seeing it. The songs are moving, the characters bright and colourful and is a fantastic conversion from an animated film to a live performance on stage.

TheKua.com Rating: 8 out of 10

Ginger

Patrick Bayswater, Food, Restaurants, UK Life

Ginger is an Indian restaurant easily located on Westbourne Grove. It serves a few typical Indian dishes but by far, the highlight of their menu are the bangladeshi styled dishes served in a much more fancy dining experience than many of the other Indian restaurants around London. Everything in this restaurant is branded beyond belief, from the dishes and table clothes down to the cigarette tray that everyone around us seemed to be using. It’s a very spacious restaurant although I think it was a little too dimly lit for my tastes. Large wine glasses line the white tablecloth as you enter, and although it looks like a very fine restaurant it wasn’t as busy as I thought it would have been on a Saturday night.

Food is priced on the higher side for Indian food, with naan and rice starting from £2 and mains averaging around £10-£12. Ginger certainly offers a wide range of very unique dishes, although many of them had meats or seafood, but even some of the vegetable based dishes were quite unique. Food portions are at least reasonably sized except for the rice and the naan both a little overpriced for what you get.

The three staff gave pretty terrible service all night, such that we almost had to seat ourselves from the start, and ask for most things like a top up of water, and the second naan bread that disappeared. The staff generally had to be flagged down to be asked for something and took their time producing the bill which we were most eager to pay.

Details: Ginger
Found on: 115 Westbourne Grove, LONDON, W2 4UP
Contactable on: +1 8713 320 878
Highlights: Different offerings for Indian cuisine presented in a nicely decorated restaurant.
Room for improvement:Prices are slightly excessive for the sides you would normally have, and the service was downright awful when we went.
The Kua Rating: 6 out of 10