Due to overbooking of our flight (grr!) we had to spend an extra night in Hong Kong. So after having checked in at the airport hotel we took the train back to Central for some dinner and drinks, it was Saturday night after all. We wandered around Soho and liked the look of this Italian place called Posto Pubblico. 
After a small antipasti plate we chose a pasta dish each. Ro had the one with calamari and a bit of spice (top photo) and I had the linguine with clams. Both dishes were fresh and nice. 
To add some vegetables we ordered a side of grilled vegetables. They were more or less covered in oil and parmesan – very nice but not all that healthy… Posto Pubblico is a nice little restaurant. The food is fresh and we had a nice meal here. With hindsight it was perfect to have seafood before going to Cambodia and Vietnam where we probably had pork every day. Posto Pubblico, G/F, 28 Elgin Street, Central, Hong Kong
Dinner at Din Tai Fung, Hong Kong
I hadn’t actually planned to stop in Hong Kong on this trip, but since I needed to fly via either Singapore or Hong Kong I thought it would be fun to at least spend a day here. And you actually get to see a lot in 24 hours!
I travelled with my friend Rowena and as she’d been to Hong Kong before we took it quite easy sightseeing-wise but still managed to tick off taking the Star Ferry to Kowloon, seeing the light show, walking around the Causeway Bay area and the skyscrapers in Central.
We also had dinner at Din Tai Fung in Kowloon, which both my blog colleague Elin and my friend Mattias had recommended. Located in a shopping centre and a first come first serve system I wouldn’t have found the restaurant without a recommendation. While we waited for a table, only ten minutes or so, we studied the menu and filled out the menu card with our order. Very efficient!
We ordered a fairly eclectic selection from the menu, like the blanched Chinese cabbage to get our greens…
… and these steamed shrimps. Both dishes were a little blander than we expected. It was more a heap of shrimp or veg than an actual put-together dish.
But the dumplings were really good! Especially these with pork and black truffle were delicious! We also had some pork and prawn dumplings (that didn’t get caught on camera), and they were great too.
The chicken in chilli sauce was nice tasting but had a lot of fat and cartilage left on it, so wasn’t great.
After we had finished our meal we were surrounded by Chinese people at the tables near us and watching what they had, which looked a lot better than our selection bar the dumplings, we were a little jealous. But I still couldn’t help but think that we actually have some pretty amazing dim sum in London too, at Yauatcha for example. I think I had expected a bigger difference and wasn’t that blown away, sadly.
After dinner we took the Star Ferry back to Hong Kong Island and had drinks in Lan Kwai Fong, the bar district that make London’s Soho look well-behaved! It was lots of fun though and the next day we made our way to the airport only to find out our flight was overbooked, so we had to stay an extra night in the city before going to Cambodia the next day.
Din Tai Fung, Shop 306, 3/F, Silvercord, 30 Canton Rd., Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon
Best of: spring recipes
It’s been wonderful to come back to spring weather in the UK, I didn’t expect the weather would change as much as it did the ten days I was away but I am very grateful. Let’s hope spring is finally here to stay!
So before I continue with my travel posts from Asia I would like to show you a few of my favourite spring recipes that I return to again and again.
Salmon tartar with cream cheese top – this tartar is amazing and has been the starter of many dinner parties. The cream cheese top just adds that final touch!
Crab linguine with cream and white – I eat shellfish all year round but it tastes the best in spring and summer.
Purple sprouting with poached egg and tarragon crème – a perfect brunch dish that just oozes spring!
Lemon tart – I associate spring with lemon as I love the fresh flavours and citrus is the freshest of them all!
Vanilla pannacotta with rhubarb – melted rhubarb is a childhood favourite I love to incorporate into more grown-up dishes.
You can also have a look at last year’s spring recipes from the archives for even more inspiration! Hurrah – spring is actually here!
Travel pics
Hi,
I’m back in a sunny London with less jetlag than anticipated (yay!) and so much to show you. But let’s start with a selection of pictures from my trip to Hong Kong, Cambodia and Vietnam.
Neon signs galore in Hong Kong.
Caramelised pork in Hong Kong.
Tram in HK.
Angkor Wat in Cambodia.
Tonle Sap lake in Cambodia.
Market in Siem Reap, Cambodia.
The Royal Palace in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
The Reunification Palace in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
Local noodles (made with ash) in Hoi An, Vietnam.
Snails and kumquats in Vietnam.
The market in Hoi An, Vietnam.
Hoan Kiem Lake in Hanoi, Vietnam.
The Ho Chi Minh mausoleum in Hanoi, Vietnam.
Street view in Hanoi, Vietnam.
Postcard from Vietnam
Greetings from Hoi An, a little seaside town in Vietnam where we’re enjoying some downtime by the pool before going to Hanoi, our last stop, tomorrow.
Will tell you all about my trip in the coming week!
The Jugged Hare, Barbican – revisited
The Jugged Hare is a very cosy pub and restaurant, that I wish was closer to the parts of town where I roam the most. I was invited to their opening a few years ago and I am just as positive now after my recent visit.
The interior is nice with a clear pub/bar area and a specific restaurant area. After our nice meal here we went across the street to the Barbican cinema and watched the fab film The Theory of Everything.
My friend Tom had a lovely terrine as a starter (above) and then a main course whereas I chose two starters instead.
The first one was a lovely dish with croquetas, mushrooms and slowcooked egg.
And the second was snails with bone marrow. The snails and the sauce were lovely but the bone marrow was breaded and deep-fried which was a little too rich for my liking. Still yummy, though!
Tom’s classic bangers and mash was fabulous. Creamy, herb-y mash, first class sausages and nice gravy!
I promise to be back. Soon.
The Jugged Hare, 49 Chiswell St, London EC1Y 4SA
Up, up and away…
It’s time for the Easter break and I am incredibly happy to skip it all and go on holiday. Which is exactly what I’m doing! My friend Ro and I are travelling to Hong Kong, Cambodia and Vietnam and I just cannot wait to be on my way.
It might be a little quieter than usual here the next ten days but wifi connections permitting I will try to send you a postcard from Asia.
Happy Easter!
Dinner at Avenue, St James’s
In my company we don’t have the tradition to go to the pub every Friday, so I tend to grab my after work drinks with friends rather than colleagues. A few weeks ago Sinead and I met up for a glass of vino at one of the pubs near her job. Although lots of the popular pubs are far from cosy it’s still really nice to grab a drink there with lots of other people celebrating the weekend. I love that atmosphere. But we soon left to have dinner at a restaurant nearby, Avenue in St James’s.
This place has been around for a while but for some reason we hadn’t been until now and we liked what we saw. The interior was very swanky and actually nicer than we had imagined. We were seated straight away and after having ordered a glass of bubbly we had a look at the menu. We ended up with the a’la carte put the very reasonably prised prix fixe menu looked good too.
I had a warming clam chowder to start. It was very thick and smooth with bits of potato and whole clams. Very satisfying!
Sinead had the crispy chicken tacos that were delicious too!
Our maincourses arrived the second our starter plates were cleared away. A bit too soon if you ask me; we were really struggling with our main courses because we didn’t get a breather. Sinead’s cod with chorizo crumbs and cannellini beans was delicious and a substantial portion.
As were my barbecued lamb racks with cucumber and herb yoghurt. Delicious though, great charred flavour and cooked perfectly as I wanted them (rare).
Avenue is part of D&D London, Sir Terence Conran’s restaurant empire, and although we were two very satisfied customers, there was room for improvement on some areas. The service was friendly and nice, but the fact that we didn’t even get five minutes to digest our first course means bad communication between the kitchen and service. And when we were served our main courses we thought they had forgotten one of our sides and were not told it was delayed until we waved down a waiter and asked. It may sound petty but I worked as a waitress when I was at university and it is not that difficult to get it right!
And then the loos. With such a nice and fancy interior in the restaurant you expect the same vibe in the ladies room. But no. It was just a corridor with white walls, cubicles on one side and basins on the other. With bad lighting and no hand cream. Even a regular pub has hand creams nowadays.
Avenue, 7-9 St James’s Street, London SW1A 1EE
Lunch at Petersham Nurseries, Richmond
The weekend before last my foodie friend Anna was in London and we had a lovely long wine-fuelled lunch at quaint Petersham Nurseries in Richmond on the Saturday.
It was my first time there but I love the greenhouses made into a restaurant and tea room with plats, and nice furnishings every wear. So rustic and so lovely!
We started our meal with a delicious rhubarb bellini and had a scallop each; marinated in olive oil, rosemary, lemon and chilli.
Anna then had a very springlike salad of rabbit, radicchio, polenta cubes, prosciutto and violets as her starter. It was wonderful and pretty as a picture.
I had the nettle soup which was lovely too. Just look at that colour! It was served with a dollop of thick tangy creme fraiche which was the only sidekick needed.
Four our mains we both chose the same whole lemon sole stuffed with creamy spinach, spiced butter and brown shrimps. The flavours worked really well together and we thoroughly enjoyed it – and the side of purple sprouting broccoli.
After a little wine break (much needed after all the food) we were ready for some cheese and tried these three (one was a Cornish Yarg but I’ve forgotten the others), all delicious and a perfect end to our meal.
Petersham Nurseries, Church Lane, Off Petersham Road, Richmond, Surrey TW10 7AB
Lunch box inspiration
The days I forget or don’t have time to prepare a lunch box for work are sad days. I work in the London’s West End with plenty of lunch places on my (office) doorstep but I still fail to find something I want to eat for lunch. Sure, sometimes I’ll go the taco route or succumb to a nice burger, but most of the time I just get bored looking in Eat and Pret A Manger. And all the healthy food places are a no no for my stomach as I can’t have wholegrain anything or any cabbage, and it seems, cabbage is in EVERYTHING.
So without actually doing much cooking, especially if I’m short for time, I try to come up with simple yet delicious lunch solutions I can bring to work.
The salad above is a great example of lunch dishes I love to eat. The only cooking involved was to slice courgette and aubergine and bake them in the oven with some oil and herbs. While that was cooking I made the feta crème (feta, creme fraiche, salt & pepper, thyme and a bit of olive oil) and the next day I just assembled it at work with spinach, cherry tomatoes and serrano ham straight from the supermarket. I never ever mix a salad before I’m about to tuck into it, instead I keep each ingredient in its own little container. It makes it so much fresher!
When it’s too cold for a salad this warm Jerusalem artichoke purée (boil artichokes, drain and mix with butter, salt and pepper) with some fried leek, mushrooms and pancetta.
This couscous salad with fried leeks, roasted sweet potatoes and fried halloumi is another quickly made lunch I can eat again and again and apart from the roasting time for sweet potatoes it’s quick to prepare.
The time I struggle the most to make lunch is when I have several nights out in a row, but the night before I try to prep a few lunches and even if I don’t have time to prep for all the lunches at least I don’t have to buy lunch many days either. A good compromise.
Scandelights 