Friday 31 December 2010

Goodbye and Hello

Farewell 2010, and hello to the possibilities that will unfold in the year ahead. Have a wonderful New Year, y'all!

Tuesday 28 December 2010

Time Travel

We stumbled upon a Tardis in Edinburgh.


Sunday 26 December 2010

Happy Merry!

A little belated, since Boxing Day is almost over, but Merry Christmas to you all! I hope you've had plenty to eat, plenty to drink, and plenty of presents still to open!

Thursday 23 December 2010

Eating Edinburgh (Part One)

A selection of junk food. Bad for the waistline, but strangely satisfying, nonetheless. 
 Ham and cheese croissant - train food.
 Nutella and banana crepe from the German Christmas Market. It was 'healthy' because it has bananas in it.
 Fried mozzarella sticks. We also had fish and chips but you all know what that looks like.
 Deepfried Mars bar. Yes, I did it! It was listed under 'Traditional Fried Foods' in the chip shop.
The 'Burgh Breakfast' crepe. Don't judge me, I was starving and it was a cold day.
Sour cream and chives pretzels - train food again, this time on the way back.

Wednesday 22 December 2010

(Almost) Black Books

While in Edinburgh last week, the Manbeast and I quite literally stumbled into our new favourite bookshop. Shelves laboured under the weight of dusty tomes, while every available inch of wall was covered in pithy life lessons.



Suffice to say that the both of us left that warm, magical cave with happy hearts, light wallets and heavy arms from buying too many books. 

Armchair Books, Edinburgh

Monday 20 December 2010

Half A Rainbow

I tried to make another rainbow layer cake last week, and the last layers (green, blue and purple) came out very badly. So badly that I had to chuck them. 

The flavours here are (from left to right): 
cranberries
orange peel
and hazelnuts. 

It was meant to be filled with alternating layers of vanilla and chocolate buttercream, and covered in cream cheese frosting, but I settled for chocolate buttercream inside and out. Let that be a lesson - do not bake when stressed, especially when it's the night before your wedding. 

Friday 10 December 2010

Monday 6 December 2010

Sushi Hiroba

I love conveyor belts. Put me in an airport and I could spend hours watching travellers' miscellany trundle about on a mile-long strip of moving rubber. So it should come as no surprise that I love sushi from a conveyor belt. Bite-sized nuggets of moving food. Pile the plates up and see how high the stack gets before you explode. 
Ikura sushi. I prefer these bulbous orange ones to the little crunchy prawn roes ones, because you get such a great oily, fishy burst of flavour out of them. 
Octopus sushi. The plates generally came with 2 or 3 pieces on each, but the Manbeast was too greedy to wait til the shot was taken. 
Edamame. My first time eating them, and I'm a convert now. I'd mistakenly thought they were peas (the kind used to make mushy peas), and since I would rather lick someone's buboes than have to eat peas, I avoided them for the longest time. Only to timidly crack a pod open to discover they were actually delicious soybeans.
Gyoza. Fine, not fantastic.
Prawn tempura, with a sliver of carrot tempura. The Manbeast timidly went for the smallest piece on the plate, only to discover it was a slice of deepfried carrot. Sucker. 
Generous slice of unagi on a tiny blob of rice - the way I like it.
Lovely, sweet, soft crab legs. Soooooo incredibly perfect. I would have kept picking up plate after plate of them all night long, if I wasn't already so full and about to fall asleep. I'm gonna hit them first the next time I'm there. 
Red bean mochi - chewy, pillowy soft and just the right amount of sweetness. I wish these were more easily available everywhere.

We also had a plate of deepfried sweet potato cakes and some chicken-y stuff in sweet red teriyaki sauce, both of which I devoured before remembering to pull my camera out. You'll have to take my word for it that they were both yummy.

50-54 Kingsway
Holborn, London
WC2B 6EP

Thursday 2 December 2010

Goodies


Lovely Ai sent me another package recently, full of new goodies. The blue packet of 'cigarettes' actually contains candy - I haven't tried them yet, but I think they may be similar to 'Fads' back in Australia (once known as 'Fags'). 

Well-Made cheese crackers, in Quattro Formaggio flavour - you know what, they really are well-made. Crunchy and intensely buttery, and pretty much perfect.