girls gone wild at uh…. Royal China?

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royalchina_01

I have been really really slack with my posting. I can’t help it, I get so excited about my recent baking adventures that they are like my favourite children, my fingers stumble over each other trying to post them straight away and every-thing else falls by the wayside.

Favouritism. It exists. Deal with it. 

Anyway, I’ve been pre-occupied with I-don’t-know-what, but I do know that I’ve been so pre-occupied with stuff that I totally forgot our Girls Gone Wild (keep dreamin’) In Alicante trip is this weekend. It’s been two months since the planning began, right along side those Harwood Arms scotched eggs, and while there’s been many a date night since to drill into the finer details of our trip (amongst them Buddha Bar, which was just dark and expensive and I didn’t love it anywhere near enough to post about it), my favourite girls-weekend-planning-lunch has been at Royal China on Baker Street.

Good ol’ dim sum.

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when in the ‘Dam, do as the damned: my most gluttonous weekend yet

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fries & mayo; dutch breakfast; poffertjes; waffle with banana & cream

Location: Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Theme song: Bicycle Race, by Queen

Objective: Amsterdam is a hodgepodge mix and everyone seems to be there for far and varied reasons. Sure there are the bucks weekends which is a no brainer really because there is just so much sex walking around on legs of all shapes and sizes that it’s bound to be a good weekend. There are also hens weekends, which has me more perplexed. There are also the maryjane fiends, who giggle their way in and out of coffee shops. And there are the genuine architectural enthusiasts who are in awe of the canals and bridges ~ more canals than Venice and more bridges than Paris, they say.

And then there is me. My objective? Eat Amsterdam.

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20 hours & 4 restaurants: Inamo, Lantana, Sketch, Hummingbird

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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.

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swedish meatballs & finnish meatpies: nordic glutton heaven

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veal meatballs, cream sauce, crushed potato, lingonberries & pickled cucumber

Last weekend saw me pack my little red suitcase for what was to be a hectic weekend: flight out to Stockholm late Friday night, a day in Stockholm, cruise to Helsinki overnight on the Silja Line, and a day in Helsinki, then back in the London gloom. It was my first time in Stockholm, but I’d been to Helsinki before, because that’s my boyfriend’s home town. Well, kinda. He’s Finnish-Australian, like I’m Malaysian-Chinese-Australian, which is a bit of a mouthful but eeek, imagine if we had kids? Finnish-Malaysian-Chinese-Australian? Wait a minute, did I say kids? Phwoarr… what a brain fart! I totally hope that he doesn’t actually read this blog!

Anyhoos, diversion. Food. Though we only spent a day here and a day there (and half the meal potentials were wasted on the cruise buffet), I can solemnly say that on this trip, I had the best meatballs I’ve ever had. Ever. And this time, I’m really not exaggerating.

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how Lille was conquered in a day (or two… of eating)

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macaroons from Les cailliardises

One of the things that still completely amazes me about living in London is its ridiculously close proximity to all things European. And considering the fact that I think everything is in Europe, I propel myself at every opportunity to travel (because travel is why I’m living 500 gazillion miles away from my friends and family). You need only say “hey Cat, do you want to g—-“ “Yes! YES I’ll go!”, it’s that easy. Because of this, I’m so in the red that I am red (oh wait, that’s from peeling beetroots the other night), but I also get to go to Stockholm, Helsinki, Amsterdam, Alicante, Vegas, San Fran and LA, all in the next ten weeks!

Oh, and I was just in Lille last weekend.

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accidental fine dining in France: L’Huitriere, The Oyster.

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L'Huitriere

So I accidentally went to yet another Michenlin star restaurant. Accidentally.

Planning for my weekend trip to Lille, some friends who had been before suggested I check out this restaurant called L’Huitriere, which is French for The Oyster. They said this so casually that they could’ve been telling me to go grab a croissant there, you know like just pop in, and grab a croissant for the road. No one, not once, mentioned it had a Michelin star and might set me back the cost of oh, my week’s rent.  I’m not cranky about it, it’s just, isn’t that something you’d mention? So anyway, I booked the dinner, and this is how I inadvertently ended up fine dining last Saturday night.

I told you it was an accident.

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