Something more delicious than my brunch this morning (and infinitely better value – ha ha) was Laney’s famed Chicken and Rice. Granted it is made from a packet but its still pretty delicious, and despite being made from a packet it still takes some effort including cooking the rice in the sauce, boiling up chicken, prepping the veg etc.
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Dave also brought back some chocolate from Europe for our dessert. Anyone every tried bacon flavoured chocolate?
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Saturday or Sunday Brunch is such a treat! There is nothing I adore more than having those breakfast items. I hadn’t seen Jo for a very long time – she’s was working in New York for most of last year and then when she came back I went off to Oz. We decided to meet up at the Electric Brasserie … when I say we decided to meet up I meant, I strongly encouraged Jo to meet me there. heh heh.
Being Saturday, the day that all the tourists come down to Portobello Road for the market, the streets were absolutely heaving and the Brasserie had started to develop a long line of waiting customers. Just as well we’d been able to secure a booking. I’d been checking out the menu the day before so already knew that I was going try the French Toast with Maple Pecan Butter with a side of bacon. I’m normally the Full English Breakfast type of girl but was feeling the maple pecan butter.
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The French Toast was delicious but expensive at £7.50 for one slice of toast, thick as it was. Jo said her smoked haddock was tasty but at £8.50 it too looked a very small portion. Service was very patchy – drinks took a while to arrive and they made a mistake with Jo’s, and then it was hard to get wait-staff attention when we wanted it. Not sure I would put this place on my regular to go for brunch venues, even if it is local – it was passable without being spectacular.
Craig arranged for a bunch of us to have a night of pool followed by dancing at Gingliks. Although Shepherd’s Bush is an area which is literally about a 5 minute bus ride away from me I am only ever in the area to either go to Westfield or the cinema. The Green Room is a pool / football table bar just off Shepherd’s Bush Green. It also had table football, giant projection screens and a wii for hire, and 2-4-1 cocktails until 8 even on a Friday. What I liked about the venue was the fact it was large and spacious – tonight it wasn’t particularly busy which suited us as it meant getting our drinks a lot quicker. Drinks were pretty potent too – though I’m not a good one to judge seeing as how I’m more susceptible to drink than most.
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At about 11pm we headed over the Green to Ginglik for some live music. Unless you know about Ginglik you probably wouldn’t realise that a club lay just under the surface. The bar/club/music venue actually used to be a public toilet! (used in the 1908 White City Olympics!)
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It’s a very intimate venue and attracts what seems to be the quirky and eclectic.
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A fun night.
Every and now then you just have to go and see a ridiculous movie.
I Am Number Four (from which no doubt there will be a number of sequels) tells the story of teenager John Smith (played by English actor Alex Pettyfer) who starts the movie on the run from big scary people who are trying to kill him. His guardian is the enigmatic Timothy Olyphant. Theirs is a story of constant changing of identity and moving towns until it is all brought to a head when the bad guys finally catch up to them. Along the way John Smith falls in love with Glee’s Dianna Agron, I mean, who wouldn’t I guess, and suffers through the usual teenage angst. Oh – John also picks up a lovely little beagle sidekick along the way (who turns out to be his monster bodyguard – still kind of cute in its own fugly way.)
The bad guys are seriously over-the-top and channeling some Romper Stomper skin head energy. Honestly – I think the bad guys would have been more menacing had they not been so over-the-top. (Cheese anyone)
Suspending any sort of logic or belief this movie is fairly enjoyable for its attractive leads (let’s not forget the kick-ass Aussie Teresa Palmer who comes zooming in on her motorbike all kitted out in her sexy PVC bad guy fighting outfit) and epic battles. Not entirely sure the romance was a necessary addition to the story – but I guess it gave our hero heart and filled in some time …
Just over a week ago I visited Dong San for the first time and I was happy to be returning with Rehana tonight. With Korean it is very easy to over order – and that is exactly what happened to us tonight!
Although Dong San’s menu is broken up in to Appetisers and Mains food generally seems to come out at once. This is what Rehana and I indulged in tonight. From the Appetiser menu we “started” with Dumplings and Seafood Pancake.
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We then followed this with Grilled Eel, Galbi and and Bulgogi.
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This was also accompanied by a Mixed Namul selection.
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Apart from the eel everything was divine. The Dumplings were nice and juicy, the seafood pancake the right mixture of crispiness and softness, and the bulgogi (cooked on the barbecue on the table) was extremely flavourful and tender. My favourite dish had to be the Galbi – beef short ribs marinated in garlic, sesame oil, soy sauce and pear. So tasty!
It was all we could do to finish our food though. One of the female waitresses was shocked at how much we had ordered – she said if she’d taken the order (our order was taken by one of the male waiters) she would have told us we had over-ordered! Having said that … we did clean everything up.
Service at Dong San is friendly and efficient. However, after they serve your food and cook up your barbecue they tend to leave you alone – which is good if you want to sit there and have a chat as there is no real pressure to move on. Price-wise its fairly reasonable with our meat dishes averaging around £7-£10 each. Our bill ended up being about £35 including service and two drinks each.
I would definitely recommend Dong San for the discerning Korean diner.
Princess Garden is one of the generally consistently good places to go for Yum Cha. Today the service was quite disappointing – admittedly it was rather busy but you’d think they’d have the hang of that by now. Anyway, despite over eating during the meal Nate and I indulged in Princess Garden’s fried ice cream for dessert (Caro sensibly went for a fruit platter…)
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The fried ice cream was over-priced at £5 and couldn’t really compete against my Dad’s version but I guess it was okay. Don’t think I would have it from Princess Garden again but at least I can say I’ve tried it now.
The Palm Beach Casino is a slight step up from the Empire in Leicester Square – but mainly because its not located in tourist central. You are supposed to register to get in but at the time we came in there were so many people hovering around the front desk that we only had to get our photos taken – translate that to: the girls at the front desk couldn’t be bothered registering people, which turned out to be a ridiculous move as the electronic roulette machines required you to use your membership cards to withdraw your winnings.
The venue is quite small but attractive. There is plenty of seating around the bar area and also what appeared to be quite a nice restaurant surrounding the casino. The clientele seemed a little more well-off and nicely dressed than the types you see hanging out at the Empire. But having said that there were still a large number of foreigners – all carrying around their £50 notes …
The casino wasn’t too crowded for a Friday night but spots at the tables with lower minimums (at least £10) were rare. James, Wongo and I managed to get on to one blackjack table eventually – where it proved to be very entertaining. I was sat next to this 50+ year old Russian guy who was very vocal in what he thought about the players on the table. Whenever someone made a stupid move he would gesture and shout at them. One girl got a bit intimidated by this and was cowering behind her boyfriend. Very funny.
We all had a good night with Wongo, D and I finishing up, James was down but not by much (ironically, the more attractive our dealers got the less luck James ended up having!) Still, an enjoyable night was had by all.
I have been looking for a Korean Restaurant that serves Korean Fried Chicken ever since coming back from New York and I have been sadly disappointed in my search so I was happy to find Dong San. Dong San has Deep Fried Spicy Chicken on their Appetiser menu and this combined with the good reviews for the restaurant as a whole saw me heading there for dinner with Laney tonight.
In actuality I’m coming back to Dong San with Rehana in a week’s time and tonight’s visit was more of an impromptu one to take Laney out for dinner since I missed her celebration at Sketch over the weekend which I missed as I was sick. I was hoping that I would be able to keep my food down tonight!
Upon arrival at Dong San we were directed to one of the tables at the back. This was a good thing as we were seated at a four person table – which meant we could order more food! Ha ha! I’m going to do a more in-depth look at Dong San in a week’s time but suffice to say that Dong San certainly deserves the good reviews it gets. The service is friendly and efficient, the menu is diverse and prices not too exorbitant and the food is delicious. The only disappointment was the Fried Chicken – it didn’t live up to the standards I was expecting! Taken on its own it was probably an alright dish but paled in comparison to its New York cousin.
From one baby visit last night to another today – Pat and I met up with Connie and Michael and their little tike Matthew for brunch. It was actually a goodbye brunch as Connie and Michael are soon heading off back to Australia to set up house 🙁
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One of the prime considerations when you’re meeting people for a meal and you have a baby is that you need a place which is baby friendly. Del Aziz in Swiss Cottage is certainly that if the number of babies in the joint was anything to go by! I’ve never actually been to a Del Aziz but I really enjoyed the atmosphere at the Swiss Cottage venue. Large, airy and spacious – and very relaxed. Food isn’t too bad either!
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Congratulations to Batool and Akhlaq who welcome their first child into the world. Mother and fatherhood really sit well with the two of them. They are totally adorable!
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