Thursday, February 11, 2010

London: Part 1

A great thank you to Project Alpha and MAS for flying me to London!!!

Mad sleepy for some reason so expect short captions...



Had the BEST FLIGHT EVER on the way there.

I dunno why but I guess coz it's not peak period, the plane only had 76 of us!!! ONE WHOLE GINORMOUS PLANE!!

Everyone had a 4-seat "bed" all to themselves! Service was impeccable. Food was great. Best 12 hours on a plane I ever had.



Empty empty empty!!!

Unfortunately the MAS flight on the way back was super full though. I guess the Chinese in London are going back to KL for CNY? Well, not everyday Sunday.



Taken during taxiing. ;)



Here's Niki talking to the camera while waving his slr around. So hardworking!



Jojo's so kiasu, her luggage has her surname written all over it!



Jojo and Niki leaning over my baby pink luggage. :D



After about 40 mins in a cab, we arrive at Millennium hotel!! It's right smack in the center of London Mayfair. Nice!



Look at all the posh and stuffy English people in their suits... And in contrast, David sprawled across the couch like a deflated jellybean. Hahaha

At least I THINK it's David.



Nothing to do while waiting for our keys



And there it is!

After this we take a walk out to find a place for dinner!! It only took everyone 5 mins out in the cold (about 5 degrees) to realise we all didn't have enough warm clothing, and went upstairs to pile on more. -_-

I hate being cold!!! Grrrr



And there we are at this place called Spaghetti house. Michael (left, director), Jojo (host), and Tony (cameraman).

At this point Mike arrived and walked over to meet us. He ordered pizza:





I had some fettuccine with mushroom and sausage ragout. It was ok.



David's salmon. The spinach was yummy!!



Om nom nom photo!!! Niki's vongole, Michael's... Something spaghetti. I forgot what he had.

By the time we were done it was like 10 plus or something!! SLEEPYTIME!!


Day 2:



Fleece double breasted jacket (F21), white turtleneck (This Fashion!! HAHAHA), glitter hat (Bugis V), SUPER THICK black leggings (with corduroy inside - best buy ever totally saved my life in London, and from This Fashion too at $17!), blue heart print shorts (This Fashion again), and brown lace-up wedge boots (HK). :D

My god I'm almost all decked out in This Fashion. Seriously, you just need to dig - they have good stuff!!



Here's a pic with Mike...

Anyway I took a pair of coloured contacts to London but Mike forgot to pack to the toiletries so I had no contact solution. As such, I washed my lens under the tap, and expectedly enough, it fell into the abyss below.

FML I look so hideous without my contacts. Fuck small black eyes!!

My eyes are brown with photoshop, in case you are wondering.



Mike at the lounge, waiting for our turn to be filmed. I took him to look atas and this is all he could muster. Lousy!

Fantabulously enough, we were to have lunch at Millennium's Avista restaurant - and the meal was to be cooked by a famous chef who is on Master Chef (tv show)!!!

So exciting. :D



Jojo and I



Deep fried calamari - crispy, hot and yums!!!

The black one is not due to really frying amateur skills.
It is coated with squid ink tempura.



Ok I'm not gonna apologize for the barrage of food photos ok coz this is LONDON FOOD!! Therefore must take pictures!



Incredible tuna tartar (? forgive me if I spelt it wrong and made it the teeth dirt thingy). Ok I checked and it's tartare. So tuna tartare with rocket salad. Came in a glass dome filled with smoke, and there was so much fanfare when it was opened!!!

The smoke like swirled out in a totally artsy way man!!

But I hate raw stuff so didn't eat this.



Here's our chef!! Michele. Or something similar. He is from Venice!





Yummiest freaking eggplant oozing cheese layered thingy I've EVER eaten. LOVE



One more for sashimi fans



Foie gras with beans! Looks like pate but tastes just like pan fried foie gras. Totally melts in your mouth!! LOVE



The calamari that looks chao tah. I took a bite. Not much diff from the other golden calamari.

You know what? It's like impossible to tell if this thing is charred during frying!!! Therefore it HAS to be cooked with the rest of the normal coloured tempura!! LOL





The tomatoes they had on display were so juicy, red and shiny they looked totally fake!!



Here I am with a real Pumpkin!

We requested for our mains to come kinda like tapas, so that we can try more.





This pasta thingy is filled with the juiciest softest pork ever, and comes with chestnuts. Totally chomped it down.



Potato gnocchi with something something. The pasta tastes really interesting!

At this point all of us were so full we just could eat anymore so the chef served dessert.



Chocolate with raspberry sauce at the bottom



Panna cotta with dark cherries



Queen pear with ice cream.

ALL AWESOME!!!


It was way too cold to wear my sparkly hat outdoors so I wore my furry one instead!! Also lifesaver man this hat. I hate cold ears! Bought from Accessorize!



What do you think?



Gloucester square, which was just outside our hotel. Beautiful!






Tony with camera which is ALSO wrapped up for the cold



I have no interest in buildings normally (well they mostly aren't pink, are they??!), but those in London are really different from anywhere else's! So... Victorian. Mostly.






Of course not forgetting to camwhore while we were walking



Mike and I. In case you were thinking, this photo looks like something that will be on newspapers... WELL THAT'S COZ IT'S TAKEN BY A REAL JOURNALIST!!

Niki is a reporter from The Star, the biggest English paper in Malaysia. And he takes fab pics!!



More buildings



And more!!



Ok lah this one got people, not just buildings. Everyone looks bloody rich there man. I suppose that's coz I was in the posh part of London.

And nobody wears pink except little girls. Even little girls wear black lor. -_-



SIGHTED!!! A rare pink car!!



Me with fruits. They look so colourful!



Everyone on the subway with me clearly sitting. LOL

I hate the tube btw. Most places are mad far to walk from the stations (yes, insert 'Singaporeans are too pampered' insult here) and who likes walking in the frigid cold?? Who?? URGH!

Next time I go I'm cabbing everywhere unless I can't get a cab!!

It's not that ex, maybe between 20-30 sgd. Ok what!!

Totally being prissy but it's not a trekking holiday damn it!!! If I wanted to trek in the cold I'd go to Siberia!! Well at least the ppl there have dogs to pull them and they don't need to switch dogs at interchanges. HAHAHAHA!!

But boh pian coz this time we had to shoot at touristy places and touristy places are all outdoors. Next time I just wont go in winter!

I think I threw a mini hissy fit after walking a million miles in the cold to see the London Eye... Sorry Project Alpha members!! Sorry I'm so bloody unfit!!

And thanks for the patience with me. Everyone was so being so nice!! *embarrassed face*



This is a supposedly famous angel... Once again I demonstrate my ignorance by not knowing what it is, and worse still, not caring.



Mike and I :D

I know his jacket says france (he is american) but I bought it for damn cheap ($50 - bought it one day before the trip and Mike had no winter jackets!) and france is the only logo they have!



Unbelievably enough, we saw the Texas embassy!



It was dinnertime and Ming called to spring a surprise on us.

He booked a table at a 1 Michelin star restaurant for all of us!!!!

SO FUCKING HAPPY!!!

I've NEVER had food at such a posh place before and was dying to try. :D Tytyty Boss Ming!!



Here we are



Nuffnang founders Ming and Tim







The chandeliers were gorgeous.





Ming with his friend



Mike and I again



Group photo



Here's our menu



This tasted like cream of cauliflower. Nice



Pork cubes + Parmesan biscuits



3 types of butter in salted, unsalted and Parmesan.







Here's Jojo's appetizer. She didn't want any of the 3 so I told her to get the duck egg (which nobody chose, obviously), so that we can try it.

I didn't like it. The egg was too raw and too jelat although the mushrooms at the bottom were nice.



Mine: Chose scallops coz I figured I already had foie gras that day (oh these people really spoil me).

Two freaking AWESOME scallops. Best I've ever had!! I don't know how they made just normal scallops sooooooo nice!!!

And a slab of the tender-est braised pork EVER. Oh, so delicious!!



For my main I chose the halibut with duck confit.

What a terrible disappointment. The fish was overdone and I dunno what I expect of duck confit but in my impression it was crispy?

This was just a mushy slab of dunno what. Sorry I didn't clarify. The brown thin slice is the duck confit. -_-

And the two hash brown like thingys? Nobody could tell what it was. I guess that's the salsify. It tastes like white radish/turnip.

Oh well at least the appetizer was totally awesome!



Someone else's guinea fowl. It was better than the halibut.



Here's Ming. He wasn't too pleased with the standard of the food.



Me with my raspberry dessert. Not bad but a tad sour.

Overall though, I'd still say I had an awesome experience!! Must be the company. Thanks for the treat Ming. Mad love!!

I'd leave u guys with 2 toilet photos:



Toilet bowl at Rhodes. Spotted anything weird yet?




The area around the bowl is CARPETTED!!

Now that's POSH!!! You'd expect the loo to smell like years of pee but it smells fab. I guess rich people don't drip. HAHAHAHA

Woohoo!!

Posting Day 2 up after CNY.


Happy Chinese New Year!!!!!!!!!!!!!

GONG XI FA CAI!!!


Notice I didn't say anything about Valentine's Day. That's coz I don't like that holiday. Still pissed about the $350/pax shitty meal we had at Equinox last year.

p/s: DPG please let me win loads in gambling last year I won $500 in poker please please please let history repeat itself kthxbye.

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