London Coffee Festival

This is my first time visiting the London Coffee Festival at the Old Truman Brewery on a Friday afternoon. It kicked off on Friday 27th April at 5pm as the morning was specifically for the traders only. This is the second birthday of the Festival in London, and I'm certain that it will be back next year again!
Tickets can be booked in advance, however, you can purchase them at the doors for £3 more.

As soon as I walked through the entrance, the smell of coffee and overloading caffeine were literally everywhere! Inside the exhibition, there were many booths, all promoting their own brands of coffee beans, machines, grinders, cups, and all kinds of snacks you eat when drinking coffee.

The exhibition is divided by zones - Hyde Park, Showroom, Soho, Growing Community and Shoreditch.
The Hyde Park zone has the band area (with live music!) and the 'picnic' area where you can sit on benches and drink coffee and enjoy a quick snack. There are also chocolates, macarons and cupcakes (Hummingbirds). And if you have had enough of coffee, you can find some but limited tea exhibitors around. Oh do drop by Gelupo for a free tasting of their sorbets and gelato.
The Showroom has the hippest, hottest and the best looking coffee machines and other brewing kits where you can test around and ask the professionals for advices.
Soho area is more focused on the roasting process of the beans. There, you will find artisan cafes.
The Growing Community is an interactive zone where you learn about the very beginning of coffee bean, and this is sponsored by charities, raising funds to help the environment in coffee producing countries.
Lastly, what you will find in Shoreditch is food and snacks, mostly from artisan producers. There are also a few food stalls where have sell Spanish paella, Burger, French Crepes etc.

I managed to try some tasty and aromatic authentic coffees, and a few that I wish I haven't. I would advise to stay away from barley coffee (it is a misleading concept for your brains afterall).

 

You will receive a goodie bag in entrance, and you will receive a guide to the London Coffee Festival and all its info, coffee and tea samples, Green and Black's chocolate bar, biscuit and other promotional leaflets.

See you all coffee lovers next year.

For more information on the London Coffee Festival, please visit them on http://www.londoncoffeefestival.com

Gourmet food in a gourmet cookery school

In my last post, I wrote about my experience of attending the Petit Fours and Macarons course at Bellouet Conseil. It was a intensive three day course, with hands-on experience to take on making some of the finest desserts that I have ever tasted.

Another unexpected delight on the course was that both breakfast and lunch were provided - and of course you would not expect anything less than gourmet standard in a proper cookery school!

Breakfast - warm pastries were served fresh from the oven every morning, courtesy to the students from the previous pastry classes who prepared them all. Croissants, pain au chocolat, apple filled pastries... and the list goes on.

However... this sweet little pastry really deserves a shot on its own (it's my favourite!). Soft brioche with almond crunchy topping, oozing out with cinnamon and blueberry custard filling. It's truly so good - so good that I could probably have this for breakfast everyday.

Lunch - the term "school lunch" for me usually means "cottage pie", "roast chicken with gravy", "spaghetti bolognese". Nothing wrong with those dishes - however, in a cookery school there is a totally different interpretation of "school lunch".

A buffet? With escargot filled pastries? Pan-fried foie gras? Seafood salad? Chicken terrine?

No joke, but I must be living in dreamland.

Again, courtesy of this gourmet feast to the wonderful classmates next door. They were taking on a three day course on professional catering for groups. 

Salad cup

Selection of chicken, seafood and
vegetarian terrine

Tea time! More desserts, anyone?

Chestnut ice-cream cake

Extra-large Ferrero Rocher!

Raspberry mousse cake

Vanilla ice-cream, with Orange
Grand Marnier
sorbet and chestnut ice-cream

There were endless selection of delicious desserts to satisfy my sweet tooth... these must be the "hooks" that will make me want to come back to take on all the other courses!

The aftermath of... RS sample sale

It is not always good to look at the aftermath of a sample sale, who would want to calculate their damages?

For those of you who did not manage to go to the Rupert Sanderson sample sale, you have missed out big time! Shoes were starting from £45 a pair! Unbelievable prices!

Unfortunately I arrived late after work, so my sizes were ALL gone by 6.30pm! Of course, if you are either a size 34, 35, 36, or 40, 41, you would have had no problems finding your perfect pair of heels at a bargain price!

I had been told that many ladies started queueing religiously from 7.30am this morning in the horrible pouring rain (mind you, door opens at 8am!). Utmost respect for those who made it in the rain! However, because of the crowd, they had to limit each shopper of a 10 minutes stay only. That ultimately led some ladies coming back again in the afternoon for round two!

 

 

Coachella

Kind reminder to Rupert Sanderson Sample Sale

Essential details:


Thursday 26th April 2012 - TODAY!


Upstairs at Rupert Sanderson
19 Bruton Place, Mayfair
W1J 6LZ


8am - 8pm (last admission is 7.30pm)


Please remember to print the invite to gain entrance! (Please refer to previous post for the invite)

Cha Cha Moon

Another creation of Alan Yau. Though he was best known for setting up Wagamama in London, to be very fair, the quality of the 'street food' in Cha Cha Moon is by far better than Wagamama. I'm not going to sugar-coat it for you, as a Chinese, the quality of these noodles and bite sized dishes are nowhere near to what we eat back at home. However, having said that, Cha Cha Moon offers the best alternatives to us.

Their signature is the Taiwan Beef Noodles, which has braised beef brisket and beef stock.

 

Some may find this bowl of noodles oily, but this is the essence and extract of the beef brisket which usually has been braised for at least 2 hours.

I have not been back here for a while, but their budget set menu is fairly new to me, and I find it very reasonable. You are to choose from a set menu, and for £10, it includes a choice of a main dish and a side dish (Only available from 2-6pm daily)

I went for the Singaporean Fried Noodles and Guotie (Chicken dumplings).

 All in all, this is not the best Chinese 'street food' you will get in London, however, for what it is worth (quick, simple and on a budget), you are in the right place.

Food rating: 4/10

Budget rating: 6/10

Cha Cha Moon

15-21 Ganton Street

W1F 9BN 

BALENCIAGA SS

Check it out @ Selfridges or Balenciaga

Choccywoccydoodah

This fairly new chocolate shop hidden just off Carnaby Street is a chocolate paradise. To me, it felt like it was a museum of chocolate, a home of a chocolatier who demonstrates so much talents in arts.

It originated from Brighton, where they specialise in chocolate sculptured cakes and more. I was particularly amazed by the flower decoration on one of the cakes; I had been told that they are all made out of chocolate, nothing from fondant, or any sugar pastes - amazing!

On the first floor, there is also a cafe and there, you would be able to sample and savour their chocolate masterpieces with a cup of tea!

These cakes are available to be order, or create your own bespoke design for special occasions.

Choccywoccydoodah
30-32 Fouberts Place
Carnaby, W1F 7PS

To get their updated newsfeeds, check out their Blog

Spuntino

Spuntino... where do I start?
Well, I sort of got lost in Soho while looking for Spuntino. I was expecting some sort of restaurant sign or a big glass window over looking Rupert Street. I had to double check with Google and its website to make sure that this is it...

The decoration of this place is really just simple, and down to earth. From the outside, it looks like it is still in the refurbishment progress. And that theme leads right into the interior. Metal bar and stools, greyish white tiles on the walls, with bright lightbulbs dangling from the ceiling.

I was amazed by the budget prices of its menu - though simple and comfort food, the prices were incredibly under!
We ordered Truffled Egg Toast (a must try!), Eggplant chips with fennel yoghurt, Jerusalem artichoke, treviso & truffle vinaigrette salad, Cuttlefish, butterbeans and ink and Shoestring fries.

  

The Truffled Egg Toast is definitely a must try. Even though I am not a cheese eater (I scraped off the cheese on top), the taste of the deep fried toast, with fresh egg yolk and the truffle were just amazing and very well-balanced. As one of my guest puts it: "Making the simple classic dishes excitingly fresh again."

The Eggplant chips did not really work for me, the batter was light, however, it became a bit chewy. The eggplant has shrunken, therefore leaving some gaps in between the batter and the eggplant itself.

Shoestring fries really does resemble the looks of shoe strings. They were lovely seasoned, however, I prefer them to be nice and hot rather than served warm.

The Cuttlefish dish was good, full of fish and cuttlefish's ink flavours, and the cuttlefish were tender, not rubbery at all. I was more than happy to dip my fries and finish off the ink sauce!

As for dessert, I was contemplating between the Peanut butter and jelly sandwich or go next door and grab a healthier option at Snog. Well, I ended up licking my spoon and plate off the classic Peanut butter and jelly sandwich. 

 

You cannot really go wrong with this classic combination. But, broken pieces of peanuts and sugar had been added to this dish for an extra dimension and added a bit of a crunch to this dish.

Spuntino has definitely been added to my favourite restaurant in London. Its dishes are simple and yet innovative and fresh. 

Next time, I will be ordering their signature burgers and more tapas sized dishes.

Until next time... 

Food rating: 9/10

Budget rating: 9/10 (6 dishes for 2 people were just under £40)

Spuntino

61 Rupert Street

Soho W1D 7PW

PS: They do not take reservation. Either go before noon or after 1pm is recommended on weekends.

 

Sample Sale @ Browns

I know we are all trying to be good at the moment, saving up for the annual summer holiday getaways, maximising our extra special holiday over the Queen's Jubilee weekend and the Olympics. 
BUT having said that, sample sale at Browns is just too good to give it a miss!

Needless to say, this is the sample sale of the year.

Get ready to grab your favourite items!

Caravan

Caravan, located in Exmouth Market is a vibrant and buzzing place for brunch. This place never disappoints me. It is always jam packed on both Saturday and Sunday morning, filled with local who looked like they had just a bit too much to drink the night before. And all of them are here to get their daily coffee fix.

Caravan's coffee is one of the best I have had. Roasted, grinded and served fresh to your taste.

I'd advise to get there before noon if you have a party of 3 or more, if the sun is out (very unpredictable these days), I'd recommend sitting outside at their long benches and catch a bit of fresh air. If you do arrive later and find yourself waiting, Caravan will give you a bag of coffee beans with number written on them as a way of queueing. It is a very cute and special gesture.

Their Brunch menu is pretty standard with no surprises, but sometimes, no surprises is good. Who would want to spend 15 minutes reading the menu when all you want is just a good fry up to cure your hangover?

We had ordered the Smoked Mackerel, potatoes and tomatoes Omelette with Aioli, Caravan Fry Up, and don't forget to get the Chorizo on the side, they are to die for!

 

Food rating: 8/10

Budget rating: 8/10

Caravan

11-13 Exmouth Market

EC1R 4QD

http://caravanonexmouth.co.uk 

Get your heels on!

Rupert Sanderson is having their first ever REAL sample sale in a week's time (26th April 2012), held in their store in Mayfair.
As I recall, their sample sale last year was held in the Music Room (off Bond Street) and it was aaaamazing! Hence, this year's will be their first REAL sale!



See you all there!