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Bugis Street Brasserie – London, England

This restaurant is located inside the Copthorne Tara Hotel in Kensington, London and this was the hotel we checked into. After a long walk to the hotel from Trafalgar Square, we quickly went downstairs after putting our belongings down and headed to Bugis Street Brasserie.

We got seated and the staff here are extremely friendly. The waitress spoke to us in Cantonese through the duration of our evening at Bugis Street, which was probably practice for her, as I don’t think too many Asians would eat Chinese food while on holidays to London.

The Hainanese Chicken Rice – 海南鸡饭 that we ordered was quite a large portion, with a big bowl of rice, probably more than a quarter of the chicken, and some sauces that came with this order (which is typical) was really pleasing to the eye and the stomach. This dish was the most pleasing for me, as I had a cold during this time – and a bowl of rice always satisfies an Asian’s belly. It wasn’t hot and warming though – like my next dish.

We ordered the Singapore laksa 辣沙 which is a spicy noodle soup that really originated more from Malaysia in my opinion, even though it`s called Singapore Laska… but it does have a Chinese name – which always always fun to think about the Asian dishes and their names (“laksa” meaning “spicy sand” in Chinese, and this is from the sandy or gritty texture in the sauce from the ground dried prawns). Anyway, enough with my tangent, this belly warming noodle soup was full of intense Asian flavours such as lemon grass and ginger. A hot and spicy bowl of soup right before bedtime makes for a restful sleep. This dish wasn’t so spicy that you’d need to use the washroom during the entire evening, which was wonderful! This bowl of Laksa wasn’t authentic to me, but it was a very tasty bowl of noodle soup!

Finally, we ordered something much more Chinese which was Fried noodles with shredded chicken 杂菜炒面 and the noodles in this dish was really thin and delicate… which meant a lot of short pieces, but the flavour was plentiful, and the chicken slices was generous in portion sizes and slices.

Overall, I really enjoyed this stop for dinner #2 of the evening at Bugis Street Brasserie, after a long hike from dinner #1. It was extremely satisfying to the tummy, the body and the mind! It was a wonderful way to wind down the evening as everything was so pleasing and satisfying.

Bugis Street Brasserie

Copthorne Tara Hotel London Kensington
Scarsdale Place
Kensington
London
W8 5SR
United Kingdom
44 (0) 20 7937 7211

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Muku Japanese Ramen – Calgary Alberta

I’ve always loved Japanese noodles and ramen, and when I heard about Muku Japanese Ramen, it bumped a lot of places down on my “to-go” list. I was sick and exhausted and I just wanted a fantastic bowl of noodles. I think I got my hopes way up as we entered the parking lot, I couldn’t stop smiling. Well, unfortunately, that smile quickly turned flat for confusion, and then upside down.

The menu was great, it offered a lot of options and different types of ramen from different regions of Japan. Seeing the menu so specialized, I figured it didn’t matter what I ordered, it’s gotta be good. So, we got a little appetizer and we ordered the Shrimp Dumpling, which really was as it stated on the menu “steamed shrimp dumpling” which is what the Chinese has for dim sum… but here at Muku, they lacked flavour. It was really bland, and I had to add hot sauce to the dipping sauce it came with.

I tried the Shoyu Ramen and from the menu, it says it’s from the Tokyo region, with ramen cooked in chicken broth soup with a soybase sauce. The Shoyu ramen was topped with sliced chicken breast, green onions, bamboo shoots (menma), a tiny slice of Japanese fish cake (naruto) and a sheet of dried seaweed (nori). I must say, it was definitely prettier to the eye than to the taste buds. The noodles were under cooked, and there was a taste of

We also ordered the Koku-Miso Ninja Ramen mainly because it sounded cool! Who doesn’t want a bowl of ninja ramen? Well, this bowl had bbq pork, green onion, bean sprout, and corn, and the miso soup was quite different. It was yellow and much greasier.

Overall, I think someone would really have to drag me here for me to go again. I’ve heard of a few other Japanese noodles places in town that I’d love to try before returning. The prices weren’t terrible, but I was a little disappointed with the lack of flavour, and the texture of the noodles with a weird taste of the noodles, and the amount of grease in the soup just doesn’t attract me.

Muku Japanese Ramen

326 14 St NW
Calgary, AB
(403) 283-6555

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Higher Ground Cafe – Calgary, Alberta

I have been craving for a Cafe Rolo or some sort of Rolo Latte for awhile now. I’ve recently been to many coffee shops to see where I can find one! I found one here at Higher Ground Cafe in Kensington. Even though they don’t do foam/latte art, it’s still a good cup of coffee!

The Cafe Rolo is one of Higher Ground’s specialty coffees made with espresso, hot chocolate, caramel and whipped cream. It one quite delicious and it’s definitely sweet enough. The whipped cream is also a home made chocolate one which really adds lot of flavour to the coffee. I normally don’t order drinks with whipped cream, but this was my special case scenario! I had it and loved it! This drink, I would highly recommend.

The lattes from Higher Ground are quite typical, and it’s actually a lot milkier than an average latte. It’s not bad, but it’s not rich and creamy the way I prefer my lattes… unless they didn’t actually use the 2% milk! 🙂 Which is fine too!

Higher Ground Cafe

1126 Kensington Rd NW
Calgary, AB
(403) 270-3780

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Lido Cafe Ltd – Calgary, Alberta

We made it to Lido Cafe Ltd right before the Sun and Salsa festival started – as I was starving and needed something to eat! We randomly walked into Lido without knowing anything, sat down and looked at the menu. The first thing that popped in our minds was “random”. This menu had American breakfast and lunch menu items and Chinese lunch and dinner menu items. The place is ran by Chinese, so it was really neat.

When we were seated in a booth with a jukebox hanging off the side, we were even more confused! This place is wonderful, as it’s got no specific theme or anything! I’m sure if you want something – anything, they would have it!

All joking aside, we did go for an American breakfast, as we ordered a French Toast with Sausage and a Breakfast Special with Sausage which included 2 eggs, hash-browns, toast and your choice of ham, bacon or sausage. It was a great deal, and since we went on Sunday, they served this all day long!!

The food tasted just fine, the price is just right, so, nothing wrong with that! 🙂

Lido Cafe Ltd

144 10 St NW
Calgary, AB
(403) 283-0131

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Spoon Me – Calgary, Alberta

If you love frozen yogurt, then this is a pretty neat place to go. If you’re looking for a nice creamy soft ice cream, this is not where to go! But, Spoon Me is quite a lot of fun as you get to choose which type of frozen yogurt you like, and as much as you like… then you get to put all sorts of toppings on to top it off!!

Each bowl of ice cream is weighted and that will determine how much your frozen yogurt will cost! I think this is a great place to bring kids, where they can get their frozen yogurt and lots of neat toppings — even gummy worms!

I tried the Green Tea Yogurt and I only put on coconut shreds and some milk chocolate chips and it was pretty neat!! I’m sure I could have made my cup of frozen yogurt really gross — really fast! The green tea yogurt was really quite odd, it’s not “green tea ice cream” flavour, it was like actual green tea made into a yogurt! It isn’t a flavour you can have a lot of in one sitting for me!

We also had a bowl of Mango Orange Yogurt and for the toppings, we had dark chocolate chips and walnuts and it was good also! The yogurt taste was really refreshing — great for a hot summer day! It wasn’t expensive — depending on how much yogurt and toppings you choose. It’s $1.79/100g and for me, as I didn’t take a lot of either, I thought it was very reasonable.

Spoon Me

#100 1130 Kensington Road NW
Calgary, AB