Friday, 25 September 2009

Bourough Market, London

I've been meaning to post this experience for awhile but something else always came up... like that nice smelling cream from Skin Food. : ) As part of my new explorations in London last month, my friend Siu Mai took me to Borough Market.

No, I had never heard of it which seemed incredible to her. This was kind of like how the conversation went:
SM: "We could go to Borough Market."
Me: "Where's that?"
SM: "You've not heard of Borough Market?"
Me: "No, where is it?"
SM: "You used to live here and you have NEVER been to Borough Market??"
Me: "No, should I have? I've not heard of it before. I've been to Camden and Portobello Markets." (Guess that didn't count in her eyes. :)
SM: "Borough... B-O-R-O..."
Me: "I KNOW how to spell Borough, I have just not heard of it and never been there! What kind of market is it?"
SM: "Oh, it's a really famous market for fresh vege and food. I just found it odd that you have not heard of it.

She went on to tell me about all the good food by the stall vendors like this best-in-the-world chorizo sandwich, the grilled cheese sandwiches, assorted of cheeses, pastries... oh an endless list of yummy stuff. I took lots of pictures and will describe through pictures. It's much better that way.

Walking into the lane that leads to the market from Elephant & Castle station. Some cheese vendors on the left. If I'm not mistaken, this shop sells $$$ cupcakes.


Fruit and vege.
Fresh flowers and plants.

These are peppers but apparently they are only decorative and not edible.

I love Hydrangeas and these were so vibrant!

Mmmmm... pastries! We bought a few from this stall. Check out the size of those meringues on the right!

More cake and pastries.

Main entrance. Big sign, can't miss it.

On the first floor on the right of that building is a restaurant called Roast which has very traditional English Roasts.

I had my coffee fix here.

Their version of fast drip coffee.

Ok, now this lady is selling those delicious chorizo sandwiches that SM was raving about. All her friends who tried it swore it was the best. I was not disappointed! The chorizo's are fried in olive oil (that's going on behind her) then put on a bap drizzled with more olive oil, topped with a roasted red pepper and lots of rocket leaves. The peppery taste from the rocket mingles so nicely with the slightly spicy chorizo. The sweet bell pepper just tops it all very nicely.

The chorizo is under all that rocket.
Ok the toasted cheese sandwiches here are filling and the best thing is they taste so good when they go down!

Here they are being prepared in bulk.


Fruit and vege.

These are all curries!

As the sign goes... seafood.

We stopped here for some scallops topped with bacon. It was only ok. The scallops could have been seared better and the whole thing could really have done without all the garnishing save for the bacon.

SM had some oysters from the same stall but was not impressed. Later she went to another stall which had fresher oysters near the entrance.

As you can see I am so impressed with their fruit and vege selection as I feel quite deprived here in Seoul.


Here we have dried fruits and nuts.

Turkish delight in all flavours and baclava.

Olives anyone? I did a bit of sampling here... yummy!

These Parma Ham with Melon and salad packages looked so good!

Ah... the other oyster stall which SM got her oysters fix from.

Plums and Apples

They had all these interesting banners hung around the market. This one in particular caught my eye. Truly eccentric throw on the artichoke.

I sampled the Thai Green Curry here which was pretty authentic.
If you are interested to visit Borough Market, here is the website: http://www.boroughmarket.org.uk/

It was a totally fun and filling day for me.

Wednesday, 23 September 2009

Chicken & Spinach Masala ala Hamlyn

Recently I stayed at my friend's place and while sitting in her sunny kitchen noticed a small cookbook. It's called Hamlyn All Colour Cookbook: 200 One Pot Recipes. First of all the sausage caserole (It's actually a Sausage and Sweet Potato Hash) on the front cover caught my eye and the following pages were a rich collection of delicious looking-easy-to-put-together meals... or are they?
Sausage and Sweet Potato Hash

I managed to find it in Waterstone's bookstore at Regent St. in London and when I got home tried the Sausage and Sweet Potato Hash first which was alright. Bought some deli pork sausages but cooking took a little longer than expected.

Tried another dish which is the Chicken & Spinach Masala. This was quite successful but I added some tumeric (about 1tsp) to add more colour. The recipe only needs cumin which gives that strong Indian curry flavour without the need of curry leaves. Very different from a Malaysian curry that relies more on coconut milk, this masala only uses cream.

Straight from the book

The finished product

Sunday, 20 September 2009

Smell Yummy...

Skin Food is prone to give plenty of freebie samples when you buy stuff from them. So my Mom brought back this sample which just sounded tasty! I like the smell of oranges and teamed with mint? Yum... I wasn't disappointed. Besides doing its job by doing a good job of moisturising my skin it also smells so good! I actually do cook a roast chicken with orange and mint that has a good combination of flavours and this sort of reminds me of it. ; )

Pucca is MINE!

Talk about the coolest surprise gift! I got the Pucca USB Flash Memory the day after I posted that blog for my birthday from my Man. Surprisingly he was actually paying attention (for a change) to what I was raving about. : ) Kee kee kee kee kee!

You can find it at Yongsan Electronic Market for about KRW35k for the 4GB. It is twice the price on the Singapore eBay site. Here are some pics of my Pucca. My gadget of the year!!!










The cheeks glow when you plug it into the USB port.

Tuesday, 15 September 2009

Pucca 뿌까 USB Flash Memory - SOOO CUTE!

I was recently introduced to Pucca 뿌까 and thought it was a rather cute anime/manga character. Pucca is actually created by a Korean company called Vooz Co Ltd and started out with online animated videos done in Macromedia Flash. You can find out more on Wikipedia.

I like her cos she's cute. My daughter having to look a bit like Pucca with hair like Garu has nothing to do with it either! ; ) Anyway, I found out that they have released a USB Flash Memory in 2GB/4GB/8GB! I have not found out where to buy it yet but I will. Here's the video I saw on the PuccaClub.com website that is too cool.

New Moon Trailer #3 is OUT!

I'm a fan of the Twilight Saga... who isn't? (Ok, don't answer that!) I haven't come across a vampire series that I have liked since picking up Anne Rice's 'Interview With A Vampire'. I heard about Twilight through some girly mag's book and movies review. Since I was planning a long trip I decided to put the movie on my iTouch. *Gasp*

So, while waiting 5 hours at the less than efficient immigration department in Malaysia, I managed to finish the movie. Even through the tiny screen, the characters, scenery and mood just jumped out at me. I loved it. Bought the book as a box set and now I am waiting for New Moon to come out in the cinemas.

New Moon is in my opinion the weakest book in the series. I understand how Stefenie Meyer wanted to potray Bella's angst and pain but sometimes I thought it went on for too long. I also didn't particularly like the focus of over half the book on Jacob. Bring back Edward was what I was thinking! The book turned movie I am most looking forward to though, is Breaking Dawn.

So here are some of the trailers you can find on YouTube including their latest one with Dakota Fanning gone crazy with raccoon eyes.

The Twilight Saga: New Moon Official Trailer


The Twilight Saga: New Moon Official Trailer #3

Saturday, 12 September 2009

Making a Lover 애인 만들기 Piano Sheets - SS501 (Boys Over Flowers/꽃보다男子)

Well it's certainly been some time since I have posted music sheets. Listening to the Boys Over Flowers (꽃보다男子) soundtrack recently inspired me to post one of my favourite songs on the OST which is Making a Lover (애인 만들기), one of 2 songs by SS501 on the OST. I think having Kim Hyun Joong on the cast really does help the other 3 to boost their exposure.

No music notes are missing so the scan was good. I couldn't help but post some gratuitous photos of Kim Hyun Joong as Yoon Ji Hoo as well. These pics are from the piano book.

Page 1

Page 2
Page 3
Page 4

Page 5
I read somewhere that he has had his nose done. Not sure how true that is but his teeth have definitely had been whitened. I am not sure about some of his wardrobe choices though. Like the navy and white polka dot scarf with the outfit in the first picture!


Must not forget Gu Jun Pyo

Very stylish here