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