i know how i said part of the reason for coming to london was to celebrate my sister's birthday with her.. well, the other less-known reason for doing so was to further my gastro-adventures.. YAYYYYY for you readers! haha
day two kicked off with breakfast at a small coffee shop along bayswater road. though we were unsure of its reputation and quality of its dishes, the sight of husband-wife patrons and road/ construction workers was enough to convince us that if this were a place where blue-collared workers mealed, it was probably authentic enough. i wanted to try a traditional english breakfast and since yang and i couldn't make up our minds, we chose the beans, toast, eggs and sausages set.i was rather bemused by the sight of breakfast and yang the kan-chiong bunny immediately whipped out the toasts from the beans and scambled eggs (after i had snapped a picture) as she wasn't crazy over soggy toast. i can't say it was a mindblwing experience or anything bacause everything tasted like what it should be. how baked beans, scrambled eggs, buttered toast and sausages isn't exactly bermuda-triangle-mystery but i did take delight at the fun experience.
we then cut across kensington gardens to high street kensington (see how much i love that place?).. urban outfitters, zara, monsoon, kew, jigsaw, river island, faith.. etc etc.. "that's cute ooo ahhh sweeettt" sometimes, i really like how alive when i am shopping.. i doubt i really feel as much for anything esle.. all that window shopping! time for a snack and what esle to have but BEN'S COOKIES!
slurped a cookie before? ben's cookies are special and i say that with an extra tinge of affection. they give an entirely new meaning to the phrase 'soft and chewy' and are indeed irreplaceable. as experienced patrons, we wanted those that were sitting by the oven (not over the counter), knowing very well that they would be softer than usual.here's my way of eating the cookies: first, split the cookie down in the middle. start from the middle (aka the dollap of white chocolate) and literally slurp up the melted-can't-hang-on-any-longer chocolate, before working your way around the chewier edges. i likey my benny.
staying on the sweet note, yang and i nipped our way towards harrods at knightsbridge where i had my virgin donut. yes, i'm nearing 21 and i haven't done too much and eating a donut is one of them. well to cut the long story short, i hated western fast food as a kid and when my parents brought my sisters and i on those long usa trips, i often suffered from motion sickness and let's just say the numerous dunkin donuts road stops that we came across didn't help.. PLUS DONUTS SMELLLL, really.
anyway it was about time to grow out of a childhood phobia and i begrudgingly took a bite out of the krispy kreme.. ok, it was too darn sweet, sickeningly soft, unpleasantly greasy.. what was that all about?!? maybe i'm just biased and paranoid but i don't really know what to make out of this donut.. one bite of it is enough to make me hereby declare this billion-dollar-making all-time-favourite-treat-of-millions E.V.I.L.
after all that saccharine maddness, i needed something tangy. we sliced our way through the crowds of oxford street eventually reaching selfridges. think food, think selfridges=salt beef. now here's another unfond childhood memory but one that eventually won me over with its undisguised appeal- cow's tongue sandwich. arh, your turn to cringe.. the notable sandwich is actually modest, if not plain-looking. just two thick slices of seeded bread, mustard-spreaded, encasing the incredibly tender tongue that borders on springy .. yes, it still sounds gross but it sure tastes g.o.o.d..reaching the end of this posts, i actually realise how sentimental i am.. AWWW.. no, really. seeing how i spent today retracing steps that i would have normally taken with my parents, reviving good ol' memories...like i mentioned before i detested western food as a kid and would inevitably ask to make return trips to chinatown for meals. young cheng was one chinese reastaurant that we pledged loyalty to. one prevailing factor, apart from the delicious food, is that throughout the years, every lunch hour, they would serve a complimentary bowl of pork bone and vegetable soup upon customer's arrival, no questions asked.
today we had dinner there, so no free soup. haha.. menus aside, we ordered the niu nan fan (braised bee with rice) bearing the confidence of regular patrons who, unlike most caucasians, were not about to be fleeced anytime. and we were not disappointed.the wanton soup, commenest of soups, was tasty and most appropiate for the chilly night. our niu nan fan, dad are you reading this? , was a salivacious affair that instilled immediate allegience within myself thereafter. the sizable chunk of braised beef tears apart effortlessly in my mouth and coupled with a spoonful of fragrant white rice, the neutrons in my mind literally went beepbeepbeep! fantasia alert! class act.
day two was highly efficient, if i might say so myself. practically checked more than half of the items i had on my to-eat list..
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