prawn pomelo with peanut served on betel leaf

We all know that I like thai food, I mean heck I even go to Mango Tree for a serve of awful service along side some tasty lobster pad thai. Anywhere, any time, in any state, I can always go a pad thai. So months ago, when I first saw the queues of people outside Busaba Eathai in Soho, my curiosity peaked at the wondrousness that lay within. I mean, there are so many thai places around, not to mention my favourite Siam Central a mere five minutes away. Why the queue? They had me (and my curiousity), but my patience was yet to be persuaded.

But here’s a secret. I found out (well, actually, I should have just looked on the website but thanks Charz and EuWen for helping my little brain out with this one) that Busaba Eathai actually has two more branches, all within a stone’s throw from Soho, serving up the same food minus the queue. Gold! Is anyone gonna tell those guys in line in Soho? Actually don’t. This is a good secret.

So last weekend, stocking up on nutrition before our three hour dose of Inglorious Basterds, Panu and I dropped by the Store Street branch. They don’t take bookings but for a party of two, we were seated straight away. Screw you, queue!

Read More →

kari ayam; ice kachang

Through my numerous monologues on the awesomeness of Kiasu, one would assume that I was loyal to my little Malaysian friend. However, this is far from the case. While I am fiercely loyal to my family and friends, I’m stupendously slutty when it comes to good food and I would totally drop Kiasu like a hot potato if something else were to trump it. But nothing has. Yet.

What there has been is ample recommendation. Recommendations for various Malaysian joints, none of which stood out more than those for  Satay House; I even recall someone saying something about Malaysian royalty dining there. Hmmm, seriously? Anyway, I brought with me my nasi lemak connoisseur buddy and looked forward to an evening of culinary delights.

Disappointingly, after all the hype for Satay House, I’m sorry y’all, but… I thought it was purrrrty darn average.

Read More →

Pan Fried Pork Belly, golden lotus root, honey hoisin sauce; Coconut and Palm Sugar Brûlée, elderflower sorbet

It is so weird for me to not have an opinion about something. Usually everything; whatever the thing may be – a restaurant, a movie, a service or even just my new L’Occitane Red Rice mattifying moisturiser – everything leaves me with some form of an opinion. I love it, I rave about it. But if I hate it, wow, I run around the internetz bagging it all over Twitterverse, much akin to social media murder (’tis a good thing I don’t hate very much. Or have any influence).

Drawing an opinion from me (either good or bad) is really not very hard. What’s a more difficult achievement is balancing so precisely on the thread between leading me to like or dislike something that I am left speechless (which is an unfathomable feat in itself) and without an ability to form any opinion.

My dinner at Tamarai left me with one such conundrum. I went, I ate, and I really don’t have much of an opinion about it.

Well, ok, I lie, the pan fried pork belly made my tummy dance in glee, but other than that it really didn’t leave an impression. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t bad, it was just meh. Oh wait, was that an opinion right there?

Read More →

marble beef from Inamo; friend haloumi breakfast from Lantana; tuna sashimi from Sketch; red velvet cake from Hummingbird

After surviving our food-binge weekend in Lille, my friend Ying escaped to travel through Spain, Italy and France (in relative gastronomous sanity) before stopping by London for another few days enroute back to Oz. She gave me a day, 20 hours to be precise, in which I could take her to my favourite eat-outs. I protested vehemently that 20 hours is merely a fraction of what I needed, but hey, I can improvise.

Our itinerary: dinner at Inamo, breakfast at Lantana, lunch at Sketch, and cake at Hummingbird*.

Yes, this is how we roll in the catty life.

Read More →

yum_cha_01

Tw-eat-ups! Twee-eat-ups. Tweet. Eat. Up. No matter how you spell it out, tw-eat-ups are paving way for friendships of the 21st century. Well, in my world anyway. Despite the glaring dangers of meeting up with near strangers for the sake of a decent meal, my primal necessity to seek out good food with gooder company triumphs time and time again, challenging me to take on risky rendezvous with fellow foodies from twitterverse.

And I never turn down a challenge.

All right, so Yum Cha is not exactly risky. But it was up Camden High Street.

Read More →

lychee & mango cocktail; lobster pad thai

He loves me, he loves me not. Don’t pretend you don’t know that game. Because everyone knows that game. You know, you pick a flower and remove its petals one by one and as you do, you think of a guy and meticulously chant “he loves me, he loves me not, he loves me…” and well, what you end up with after removing the last petal is as good as Fate Carved In Stone. So you better rig it and get it right. Trust me, I know. Cos I totally stuffed it up while I was thinking of Johnny Depp and look what happened. He went and got all happy and set up house with Vanessa whats-her-name.

Sigh.

Well, I have a new version of the game now, it’s called She loves you, she loves you not. And I only ever seem to play it with Mango Tree.

Read More →