Pictures – Page 31

September 18, 2011September 19, 2011

Scones with Clotted Cream

Cream scones as they call it is apparently a very English treat, and delicious when warm out of the oven. With me going to England once every 10-ish years, I am not exposed to their culture – so it was neat to be introduced to something local. I do know that Princess Diana and Prince Charles had one course at their wedding reception of strawberries and Cornish clotted cream… but clotted cream was only popular in South-West England, so they had to bring it in to London for the occasion.

Regardless of what I know and what I don’t… we got to try some scones with strawberry jam and clotted cream where the ingredients were bought from the store to compromise as we were pressed for time. The clotted cream was light, fluffy – yet dense and kind of tasteless, with a “cream” taste, and a subtle sweetness. It is quite different from a whipped butter cream, since it was much thicker.

Apparently, clotted cream is used for Cream Tea which we failed to try this trip… so, we gotta try it one day! 🙂 I know making it at home in Calgary will be so different, so I’m not even going to attempt. But, I did get to try ice cream with clotted cream, and I must say – that was the best ice cream ever!

Clotted Cream Ice Cream with Fresh Berries

September 18, 2011October 23, 2011

Hamley Squiddy

Okay, I’m not 3 years old, but I do enjoy some toys in the bath-tub, so when I was at Hamley’s Toy Store in London, I fell in love with a squid bath toy. It’s pretty cool, as it claims to swim, spin and dive around the bath tub — which he did! It was really cool! I guess it was actually a Hamleys brand toy that we purchased, but there are others just like it! 🙂 I know it’s funny that I’m talking about a bathtime friend, but I’m really happy that I spent the money on it. It wasn’t cheap, as it was around $15 Canadian and I was expecting it to die after I submerge it in water… or even worse, electrocute myself as it takes 2 AA batteries. None of the above happened, so I’m recommending Hamley’s Squiddy!

Click here to view information on insert or changing batteries for Squiddy

Here’s a clip of him under-water! My tub is yellow-ish…

September 17, 2011May 11, 2019

Melati – London, England

While we were in London, we wanted to try some Malaysian/Indonesian Cuisine, and my brother-in-law recommended Melati on Peter Street in Soho, London. He’s got excellent taste for tasty food, and this location was no exception!

We walked into the restaurant, which looked quite big and was quickly greeted and seated. It was interesting, as one of the workers there started talking to us in Cantonese, and it was actually kind of strange he did that. Regardless, the hospitality in this restaurant was really hospitable.

This was a lighter dinner as we ate not long before this, and we were going to go for other snacks after this meal as well, so we just got enough to sample the goodies. I ordered a Lychee juice and my husband has a Sugar Cane Drink and both the drinks tasted delicious and was really refreshing – especially when used to cut some heat!

The most memorable dish for me was the Sambal Soton which was squid in Sambal sauce, which really means a chili based sauce. The squid was tender and soft but the sauce made it memorable. To my surprise, it wasn’t super spicy as the sambal sauce would make me think. It was sweet and spicy which was just what I was looking for, as we had some other dishes that was super spicy.

One of the super spicy dishes that we enjoyed was Kachang Panjan Belachan which was Malaysian long beans with dried shrimp paste, garlic and other spices. Belachan means shrimp paste, which is a common ingredient in Asian cooking – even the Chinese use and like it. It’s got a very distinctive smell and taste, which of course is an acquired taste like most other Chinese goodies! Most of the time, this isn’t this spicy, but the choice of chili’s and spices used by Melati made it the spiciest dish we enjoyed for the evening! The balance of flavours made this long bean dish really made this dish very enjoyable.

We often have a chicken dish, and for this meal, Kam Heong Ayam cooked with the chicken off the bone was what we ordered. The chicken is cooked in a mild Malaysian spiced dried shrimp sauce and this tasty dish is often enjoyed in Chinese and Malaysian cuisine. With the sauce over the chicken, I ate a lot of this dish with coconut rice. It really satisfied my belly.

The last dish we ordered would be Kari Kambing, which is your traditional lamb curry with potatoes. The lamb was cut into slices and was cooked to perfection – tender and juicy without to much “lamb” taste. The potatoes soaked up the delicious curry sauce flavour, and this was a very filling dish with rice, but well worth it!

There was no room for dessert this evening, as my sister was going to make us some scones with clotted cream for dessert! 🙂

Everything about the food at Melati was so good I would highly recommend this location to anyone who’s craving a bit of flavour in their lives! Bold flavour on top of a bed of rice – you can’t go wrong! We went for both coconut rice and jasmine rice and they both taste so good with all the flavours of Malaysia and Indonesia. The concept of this restaurant was well thought out, and the quality of food will please anyone!

Melati

30-31 Peter St
London,
(020) 7437 2011

September 12, 2011September 19, 2011

Lufthansa Airlines to Birmingham via Frankfurt

Ok, this is an interesting travel arrangement, and it’s not like me. It’s actually my first time flying on Lufthansa, and I must admit, I really enjoyed it! The economy class was quite spacious, and the food was really decent!

We sat pretty much at the very back of the plane, right in the centre seats where the configurations change to 3-3-3, and we were really lucky – the 2 of us had the 3 seats in the centre for the entire flight. It made getting up and going to the bathroom easier, and we got to order food and drink from which ever side came first! It was great!

We boarded this flight in the afternoon, local time, and it became an over-night flight with the time zone shifts and what not. We arrived in Frankfurt about 6:30 in the morning the following day. The transition was really good and avoided tiredness and jet lag, since I slept on the plane.

The hot dinner provided on-board in economy class was actually really good. I ordered the chicken meal, which was a hot dish of chicken meat, mashed potatoes and broccoli. All the meals had the standard bun, salad, cheese & crackers, and apple crumble.

The pasta dish was really nice as well, it was penne in a light tomato sauce, topped with olives. It’s a great portion size, and much bigger than some other airlines I’ve flown with before as well.

My favourite would be the chicken meal, and the apple crumble. I inhaled the entire thing, and it wasn’t because I was hungry, it was actually because it was a good meal!

Then, near the end of the flight, they served us a hot breakfast! It was a giant plain omelette that sat in some spinach sauce. The omelette was really quite fluffy, and a large portion of the egg as well. It had a sausage, which was really good, and not too greasy, and some potatoes. The meal also had some yoghurt and little roll which I ate with jam!

When we deplaned in Frankfurt, we were actually to walk down a set of stairs where a shuttle would take us to the terminal. It was quite an neat experience, and it was really refreshing to walk off the plane and get some fresh air right away!

Cool thing about the flight is the safety video – it’s in German! 🙂

August 31, 2011March 17, 2019

Sushi Bar Zipang – Calgary, Alberta;

After just over a year of wanting to try Sushi Bar Zipang I finally went! It was great, the fish was fresh and reasonably priced.

The sashimi slices were really thick as well – which made it really good, and justified the price! The location is a little restaurant, and with constant customers – they’ve built a reputation for success here!

I would definitely go back given the opportunity! The restaurant had a dining area and a sushi bar area, and the overall ambiance was very quiet and casual. The service was alright, but the food was just excellent.

I love starting with Gyoza’s, and oddly enough, they don’t have any here! They have quite a large selection of appetizers, but they just didn’t have dumplings — unless of course, I just missed it.

We ordered from the sushi/sashimi sheet, and from there, we selected sushi such as hokki – surf clam,
smoked salmon and hotate – scallop. All of these were really good as well. We had no complaints at all during the entire time we were at Zipang.

We ordered spicy salmon roll which consisted of salmon, spicy sauce, lettuce and the spiciness was just right, you still get the salmon flavour without the spiciness to overwhelm the entire sushi. It was well balance and one of my favorites for the evening.

Then, we ordered an Alaska roll which was sushi wrapped with smoked salmon, avocado, cream cheese and this wasn’t as flavourful of an Alaska roll as some other places I’ve tried. It seemed to be lacking some flavour, but you definitely got the cream cheese taste. I think they may have put too much cream cheese in.

Just to have a wider selection of sashimi, we ordered their Special Assorted Sashimi and this assortment had salmon, tuna, octopus, and scallops. It was actually really good, and this plate came with 14 pieces of sashimi for $19.50, which is quite a good deal!

And, at the end, we ordered an order of Agedashi Tofu, and it wasn’t really a good deal at all. It was $5.00 for only 2 pieces of tofu, and we all know tofu isn’t expensive. It tasted good, but it wasn’t worth it in my opinion.

Overall, I will be back, I really enjoyed the atmosphere, the sushi, and the sashimi… and that’s all that matters in a Japanese restaurant when we’re out for sushi! 🙂

Sushi Bar Zipang

1010 1 Ave NE
Calgary, AB
(403) 262-1888