Sunday baking Chocolate Chip Banana Bran muffins (and photography) are the best! Click here for the full recipe (via Amy’s Healthy Baking).
Fish
Fish & Chippers.
In North America, our chips are British crisps. And British chips are North American fries. I know, it sounds wack, but once you wrap your head around chips, crisps and fries; you’re pretty much set (only kidding!).
For our first meal/ dinner, dad wanted to have British classic fish & chips. So nearby Trafalgar Square, we had an early dinner at Fish & Chipper (we didn’t do any research to which restaurant was outstanding/ recommended for f&c). A small restaurant in a busy-touristy area, there are about 5 tables outside and maybe 10 inside (tables seating 2-3).
I learned a lot of things about London in general, while eating there. 1. Most kitchens are downstairs or in the restaurant’s basement. London has 11-12 million people in population and that’s a lot of people, considering the amount of space. 2. Washrooms, or toilets (English people prefer this term) are also located downstairs. Lack of space and other factors obviously contribute to this. But it’s really different from North America.
I was already thinking of the weeks I would be away from home. And that means, not having enough fruits and vegetables in my diet. So being the person that I am, I decided to go “healthy” and stick with a chicken caesar salad. There was too much dressing and I felt like my lettuce was drenched in sauce. Dad and D had fish with chips; cod and haddock.
Mom had calimari and she was chewing on them forever. I guess we should have stuck with plain old f&c.
I’ll be blogging about more foodie related posts about my recent visit to London and Paris. Stay tuned and happy reading! : )
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Sushi Kaji
I had the finest experience in being taken to Sushi Kaji for a nice family dinner. Although the restaurant was located out west, it didn’t take long to get there. According to Dennis and Amanda, Sushi Kaji only takes reservations, that means NO WALK INs! And booking a table for dinner can take up to as long as two months, and ONLY dinner.
Outside the restaurant.
I thought the cups were original but had a twist to it, from the lines on the cup.
My setting.
I thought this chopstick holder was so cute.
Simple decoration.
First course: from left to right; pear salad with tofu dressing, eggplant with pickled ginger, boiled spinach with sesame dressing.
Course 2: steamed egg with mushroom and chicken.
Course 3 (sashimi), from left to right; spanish mackerel, lobster, sea bream, amberjack, octopus. Behind the leaf is a seaweed salad. This dish comes with soyasauce and a sesame dressing (MY FAVOURITE!).
Course 4: bottom is a radish cake with pan fried sea bream on top. There is a mix of asparagus sauce with egg yolk as a dipping sauce.
Course 5: the mini stove and the dish is called “Sukiyaki,” consists of beef, vegetables and noodle in a teriyaki like sauce. The poached egg is used as a dipping sauce.
Course 6: cold green tea buckwheat noodles topped with wasabi.
Course 7 (sushi): consisted of several dishes (top to bottom); live fuke drizzled with plum sauce, blue fin tuna, snow crab, shrimp, tuna toro, salmon roe with crab meat, scraped toro, calamari, barbeque sea eel.
Course 8 (dessert): anmitsu, green tea macaron with coffee jello, green tea crème brûlée (ALSO MY FAVOURITE), wasabi macaron with coffee jello.
Dennis keeps asking me how I feel about the food and the restaurant. It’s been several days since my visit…and I’m having mixed feelings about the whole thing. I’m not a food critic but I like to give my opinions on certain things. I mean, I was satisfied with the overall experience; the service and the presentation of the entire meal was better than expected, but I wasn’t crazy and over the top for some dishes.
Overall, I think I’m lucky to have a chance like this, to try a 8-course meal…and obviously it comes with a hefty price. I don’t think I know exactly how much the whole meal costs for s person, but if the restaurant doesn’t take walk-ins and only serves dinner…it’s quite a big deal. And don’t take me wrong, I’m not here to boast about how fortunate I am to have to dine in this restaurant…as my blog was and is intended to do…share my experiences with my readers.
*Sorry that some of the pictures are blurry, there wasn’t enough lighting and Dennis didn’t check the pictures to make sure they were focused.
Tiffanie's Chalkbored Kitchen 