London Apr10 (3)

London Day 4

First part of the day spent at Victoria & Albert Museum - also another highly recommended attraction. Started with the Fashion Gallery which showcases pieces from well-known designers like Gucci, Giorgio Armani, Dolce & Gabbana etc.

Next, I ventured around the hallway which was filled with sculptures & also explored the photography room. Quite interesting.

At first look, it's just like any other black & white drawing. But it's actually a photograph of a burnt room!

After that, I headed to Covent Garden & shopped around with Elaine at the Covent market and Seven Dials (small streets with many cult brands & homegrown fashion shops). Ended the day with the much-anticipated dance musical "Dirty Dancing" which turned out REALLY disappointing. It was no more than an amateur high-school production - bad acting, poorly choreographed dance moves, poor storyline. Tsk.

London Apr10 (2)

London Day 3

Visited Tate Modern (many recommended this) and explored some of the free rooms. Very abstract art expressed through objects, materials, paintings, photos etc. Interesting but a bit too abstract for me. Just go with an open mind & check out the special exhibitions on their website before going. Some are supposedly quite good, depending on the dates you're there. Afterward, I crossed the Millenium Bridge & walked all the way to Somerset House. 2.5km so it's up to you.

Somerset House is a major arts & cultural centre but not normally mentioned in travel guidebooks. I say totally go for this but again, check their website first. Lucky for me, the "Pick Me Up" Contemporary Graphic Art Fair turned out to be really good! You'll know from the photos. I love the Nadal one but it was NFS :( Each artwork is at least 70£ I think, but really depends on the number of pieces they have. For eg., the "red bulb with yes" costs 175£ as they only have one.

What's even better than the artwork is the installation of some of the artists' studios! You can see how the printing is done. Some by hand (like the 2 below), some by machine. But mind you, the machine-printed ones (forgot what the technique is called) are also not just a 1-step process. The 2nd photo shows the studio of a rather popular artist called Rob Ryan (http://rob-ryan.blogspot.com/). Very unique & intricate technique.

Ended the day with a nice Korean BBQ dinner. Apparently it's so good that many Koreans frequent here. Was a lil disappointed with the lack of appetizers (as expected from most traditional Korean meals), but the marinated meats were not bad. You MUST order the beef in the photo! So greedy we ordered 4 meats & a kimchi soup which left us with bad sore throats.

Name: Asadal

Location: 227 High Holborn, London WC1V 7DA

Expenditure: ~50£

London Apr10 (1)

London Day 1

Sushi lunch at a Japanese restaurant recommended by a friend. Apparently quite popular. You should go at 12pm as it does fill up, although not the super packed kind so I don't feel rushed at all. Run by Japanese - something you hardly see in Paris! And my friend was right. Go for the set lunch (£10). Good price good quality. [NB: there's supposed to be 3 pieces of tofu & sake was extra order]

Name: Ten Ten Tei
Location: 56 Brewer Street, Soho, London W1F9TJ
Total expenditure: £15.80

Met Juelin at Chinatown & drank red milk bubble tea! Then hung around at the usual shopping streets: Oxford, Regent, Carnaby... Didn't quite enjoy since they're all the common high street fashion brands (zara h&m topshop etc) which can be found anywhere else. So just browsed through. Then took the tube to Harrods. Nice building with very exquisite interior. Even if you don't do atas shopping, the architecture is still worth a visit. For dinner, we headed to Mandarin Kitchen. Very good lobster noodles & steamed seabass.

Name: Mandarin Kitchen
Location: 14-16 Queensway, London W23RX
Total expenditure: £67 for 2

Left house late at 11+ so only had an hour or so to walk through part of the Hyde Park. Very green and peaceful. Especially love the fresh air - a change from the busy & dusty London. People were reading, sitting around, chatting & basically enjoying the sun...a very european sight. There were even free sunbathing chairs provided! If only I had the time. If you do, walk through from Hyde Park Corner to the other side (through Kensington Gardens) & settle down for a great lunch at the Royal Garden Hotel. This place is perfect. The view, the ambience, the FOOD (go for the set lunch with wine + xiao long bao. i promise it won't disappoint). My cousin and I had such a good time :) Oh, better to make reservations on their website just in case.

Name: Min Jiang at Royal Garden Hotel
Location: 2-24 Kensington High Street London W8 4PT
Total expenditure: £51 (do tip them since svc charge not included)

Walked our lunch off at Spitafields market. Waxed (never heard of it before actually) my brows at benefit (not bad) and browsed around Brick Lane before rushing for our film. It's called "We don't care about music anyway", part of the East End Film Festival. Cheem stuff. Totally not to everyone's liking. But I find it rather interesting after my cousin kindly explained the elements to me. Hah.. So according to the art student, it's a very well directed film. Thai dinner after. Spent £40 for 5 dishes. We're insanely gluttony to have spent like that at an average restaurant!

Leon de Bruxelles; La Defense

S is back in s'pore for the week to run some errands. Lucky her. Able to eat kway chap hokkien mee and the likes. *drools* 3 weeks in and I'm already missing food back home so much! Grr. But I'm also not doing that bad la. Heading over to London tmr to visit my cousin Elaine :D So nice of her to put me up at her place. Will be chiong-ing the chinese food there! Received many food recommendations already so the excitement is boiling. Expecting to spend the bulk of my $ on eating. Wheee..

Ok back to Paris. S' friend Charmaine (when she was here last week) wanted to bring us to this mussel place at Champs Elysees but couldn't find it. So S and I returned another day and managed to locate the not-so-elusive-afterall restaurant. Gosh we loved it. If you're ever in Paris, please go for it. Cheap (by europe standard) for its quality and quantity! So good we patronized it again the next day. Aha. 1 pot has at least 50 mussels. More than enough for 2 persons. We were just saying how we weren't really fans of mussels as they're usually overcooked/tough (like when cooked in seafood spaghetti etc.) But this was soft and juicy and tasty! No fishy clammy taste at all. Chose the white wine base but will definitely do the tomato base some time. Cold prawn appetizer & fried smelts (small fish) were not bad as well. Not forgetting the unlimited fries.

Name: Leon De Bruxelles

Location: Champs-Elysees

Website: www.leon-de-bruxelles.fr

Total expenditure: 30€

And here are just some photos of the La Defense area where I'm putting up right now. The Grande Arche de la Defense. Huge structure/building that houses many offices as you can see from the windows on the inside.

La Defense is actually outside Paris but you can still see the Arc de Triomphe. In fact, you can see the Arc and the Eiffel Tower from almost anywhere in Paris! Just shows you how small Paris is.

Sam's Place

Feasting at sam's place again! Since it's a lil warmer now, we bravely headed upstairs for our starters. Alfresco-style... very nice. Dabao-ed the cheap oysters I mentioned previously and some good sashimi/sushi from a small shop near S' office. SO hard to find good japanese food here, so we're both super thankful for this.

Restaurant Georges at Centre Pompidou

It's warming up already. For the first time, I can step out wearing three quarts and just 2 layers. No more jeans and white jacket (if u have observed from several of my past photos). Whoo!

Met Bel & Sam for dinner again (since they're stuck & i'm sure you know why) at Restaurant Georges at Centre Pompidou. Food not worth mentioning since too pricey for its quality, but the view's definitely nice enough for me to want to head back there again! Drinks this time, at the alfresco area. Huge restaurant although only about 40% filled. Wonder why they always required reservations. But yeah, worth a visit I would say. Especially during the evening when the sun is setting...

Name: Georges Restaurant at Centre Pompidou
Location: Place Georges Pompidou, 4th arrondissement
Total expenditure: 45€ per head

Le Cordon Bleu

Attended a Le Cordon Bleu cooking demonstration last Sat and it was quite enjoyable. The 3-hour class is called 'Cooking for Friends' and the menu that day includes Langoustine (a type of prawns) tartare with virgin olive oil, Sauteed beef steak Bordelaise style with patato gratin and French green beans, and Licorice flavored souffle. Sounds complicated already? Wait till you get down to the real action! Only a list of ingredients were given to us, not the recipe. So we had to copy notes like lecture students throughout the demonstration. Was a little flustered and confused regarding the sequence of steps. Zzz. (Have to compile the 3 different versions of notes later.) Don't think we'll be able to cook this up on our own, especially the souffle! Ultra hard work. Maybe, just maybe, the potato gratin? Looks easy enough :)

Our chef, and his young translator. Quite humorous. Not grouchy like how he looks in this photo.. Heh.

This photo doesn't do the food justice at all!!

Tada, my fav - the langoustine tartare (like prawn sashimi)

And so you can see, we were rewarded with a degustation of what he cooked. Rather substantial actually. Loved it. The other 2 weren't really fans of the red wine reduced sauce for the beef, and also not too used to the licorice flavoured souffle. I, being the glutton, ate up everything :D

First home-cooked meal; Paris Marathon

Our first home-cooked meal.. pork chop. Love our standard everyday entree: cheese, ham/jamon, foie gras/pate, greens & crackers. Getting very frenchy ;)

Went to Foch Avenue last Sunday to support S' friends at the Paris Marathon. A pity we couldn't catch them at the finishing line as our eyes had to fish through 40,000 runners. It was great though to see marathoners of seriously ALL shapes and sizes and ages. We even saw a banner cheering for someone who's 80 years old!

Here are the 3 super achievers: Sam, Sharon and Bel. I have to take my hats off them. Running 40km in the blistering cold!! Well done.

That night, we went to Sam's place, which boasts an absolutely breath-taking view of Paris. Photo taken at the rooftop of the penthouse. I was in awe the moment I stepped into the apartment.

And this is what we saw while we were enjoying an excellent dinner (thanks to the 3 chefs) with excellent wine (thanks S for sharing your 86 Pichon)...

Apparently the Eiffel Tower glitters every night at 10pm and then hourly until I don't know what time. So prettyyyyy...