Waterzooï

My favourite Belgium dish is a seafood stew called Waterzooi Langoustine.

Waterzooi typically made of the fish (or chicken), vegetables including carrots and leeks, herbs, eggs, cream and butter. Originally, it was a family dish that is made with all the left-overs for the day. It sounds like a bouillabaisse. However, it is quite different and has more variants than bouillabaisse. In fact, the dish always looks completely different in different restaurants

The variant that I particularly liked was the one with langoustine. I first had this Waterzooi in Antwerp. It was made with fish and I thought it was good. Then in Brugge, I went to one of the restaurant recommended by the host and I had an amazing Waterzooi made with Langoustine (it's kinda like yabbies)! It was soooo yummy that I find my way back to the restaurant the day after to satisfy my cravings. hahaha

This dish as a 'whole'!


Empty!

Lindsay House. Our first Michelin star!

A few weeks ago, SP and I was watching 'The Great British Menu: The Queen’s Banquet' on BBC. In the show, a number of top UK chefs compete for a spot to cook for the Queen's 80th Birthday banquet. The dishes are to be representative of the British cooking style (whatever it is).

For those who are interested, the winning menu is as follow:

• Starter: Smoked salmon with blinis, woodland sorrel and wild cress (Richard Corrigan, Northern Ireland)
• Fish course: Pan-fried turbot with cockles and oxtail (Bryn Williams, Wales)
• Main course: Loin of roe venison with potato cake, roast roots, creamed cabbage and game gravy (Nick Nairn, Scotland)
• Dessert: Custard tart with nutmeg (Marcus Wareing, Northern England)

We found out that Richard Corrigan has a restaurant in London, and the restaurant has one Michelin star. We knew that the Michelin guide provides one of the most famous and influential gastronomic ratings in the world, so it must be reliable! So when SZ and ML are visiting London, we quickly make a booking at the place. We were put into the Chef's table, which is really a table put in a small room, which can't really fit much else.

We had the standard tasting menu with matching wine. However, the girls want to try the seared tuna so we changed our fish dish from Lemon Sole Fish to Seared Tuna.

The dishes are as follow:


Appetizer


Cured Poached Foie Gras & Sauternes Jelly



Roast Diver Scallop & Pea Gnocch


The girls had Seared Blue Fin Tuna & Pan Fried Foie Gras


The boys had Lemon Sole with Courgette & Fresh Water Crayfish

Best End of New Season Lamb

With Caramelized Sweetbread, Wet Garlic & Moussaka

Banyuls Soaked Crozier Blue with Thyme & Celery


Glazed Chocolate Brownie with Sour Cherry & Yoghurt


Overall, the food was OK. It certainly doesn't worth the £££ that we spent. And I know a number of Sydney restaurants which would beat Lindsay House hands down! I think one Michelin star is roughly equivalent to one chef's hat.

Anyway, we had a great evening. It is the 10 year anniversary of the friendship between ML, SZ and SP. With the influence of alcohol, we had a number of confessions (According to SP, it was more like bitching) from the boys, which was definitely the highlight of the night. We just hope that whatever was said in the room, stays in the room :P

I am glad that we had a room to ourselves, because we were definitely very noisy!


Group photo!


More information:

Lindsay House
http://www.lindsayhouse.co.uk/

Socceroos are out of the World Cup! :(

I was listening to the game on the car radio. And my heart sank when I heard the penalty being awarded just seconds before the match was due to end.

It was not a good way to exit the game. Anyway, I think Australia has done well to get this far.

World Cup in England

UK is a football-mad country. The people give full support of their national team and they genuinely believe they are going to win the world cup!

It is not uncommon to see people flying the St George's Cross flag in London. Still, I was a bit surprised when I see the flag 'set-up' in a local housing estate. It looks like a fete!



These people must be very proud of their country.

England is playing Ecuador tonight. I sincerely hope they will win, as I don't want a riot in my neighbourhood! :P

CRO 2-2 AUS

Australia is through to the knock-out phase! Next match is against Italy.

I just realise that there is this new song for the Socceroo. Does anyone have the link to it?

 

The top 50 things every foodie should do

Sadly, I have only done #8 (fresh sea urchins are really really delicious!) and #33 (2 kingfish!).

I may also partially qualify for #31 (Billingsgate fish market), #40 (I've got the certificate from many many years ago to prove it! hahaha).

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/foodmonthly/story/0,9950,1481375,00.html

AUS 0-2 BRA

Australia did try hard. But Brazil is difficult to beat.

At least they did better than 'my' team (Serbia & Montenegro) against Argentina!

Using your credit card in UK Part II

Written By: SP, 16 Jun 2006

Got a call from HSBC card service team yesterday. After a lengthy investigation by the team, they claimed the problem is due my repayment to my credit card (CC) account on Monday. It got nothing to do with my spending patterns or anything they claimed earlier on the day. Their system cannot differentiate or do not have the information to determine if my repayment is cash or cheque deposit (hence valid - ie "won't bounce") and in order to safe guard HSBC and its shareholders, they will need 7 days or 5 working days to clear my CASH deposit. Even after 2 days of repayment and their HSBC Online shows I have the available fund to use on my CC but in reality, I don't have access to it and in the mean time, "Thank you very much Mr Poh, I'm earning interest on your money"

Case closed. I'm definitely changing my bank, I have enough with these idiots. But again, my colleagues has warned me, DO NOT expect any service from UK banks - coz it will just ruin your day!

Using your credit cards in UK

Written By: SP, 15 Jun 2006

Ms K always complained that I did not write much entry on our blog or make any comments on her entries. Well, I'm going to take this opportunity to tell you our experience yesterday in Lindsay House.

We went to a restaurant yesterday with 2 of my best buddies from HK, together with their wives to be. I thought this is a rare opportunity to have them together in this sad city (according to Mr SZ) hence I've really look forward to this dinner and booked into a well respectable chef restaurant that is fit to cook for the Queen's birthday. I shall leave the food and waiter service to Ms K to comment.

So we need to fast forward 5 hours to around 12am on 15th June 2006, we asked for our bill and it came to a total of £765.90 for six of us. Yes, it’s very expensive given the quality of service on that night but I have to admit we had a good time and have a room for ourselves. Again that for Ms K to comment. I made a gesture to the waiter that I'm taking the bill. Don't get any ideas; I pay it with my HSBC MasterCard (CC) first and settle the bill later with the 2 big bosses later. I'm very confident that my CC has the sufficient amount because I've checked it 5 mins before I leave for the restaurant.

As you might have guessed, the transaction was declined. Initially, Ms K thought I was drunk and entered the wrong PIN number. Well, she might be right that we have drank a little too much that night but I'm sure I know what I entered on those wireless EFTPOS machine and I'm not drunk!  So I asked for 2nd try and it was declined again. I think then Ms K was a bit worried about the state I'm in and she volunteered to use her card even though her card is link to the same account! And it failed again....then I think its Mr SZ made a comment that it must be the machine as we have million £ limit in our account so the waiter was reluctantly change a different EFTPOS machine. I've tried again on the 2nd machine, doesn't work. The waiter offer to reduce the transaction into smaller amounts, doesn't work. Ms VL offer to use her CC, doesn't work. Mr SZ offer to use his GOLD CC, doesn't work. I think at this stage, I can guess the waiter was thinking "we don't need anymore illegal immigrants in this restaurant to wash dishes or cleaning the toilets, 999 only will delay him to close down the restaurant for the night.....so what can I do with these bunch of Asian looking (Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese????) People who does not have money to pay for their bills"

I was about to use my trusted Australian Visa card but then I just thought that the card rental still have a lock of £1100 on my card and need couple of days before they going to release my credits on my CC so I did not offer to use my card. Ms VL came to the rescue with her multi-millions limit Visa card. Bang - it want through straight away and the waiter made a comment "well, it looks like someone has money in their account" That is so humiliating, I'm sure he doesn't mean it but it doesn't sound like a joke either. But what can we do, so we just quietly leave the restaurant. But just to get repay for the waiter comment, SZ and I decided to go to fire hose their toilet! But I determined to find out the truth of the declination of my CC with HSBC tomorrow.

So this morning I dropped down to a HSBC branch near my work so I can avoid the long queue during lunch time. The lady over the desk is very helpful and she looks pretty good and sexy too! hehehehe. I told her of my ordeal with my CC with the restaurant yesterday and handed my card over to her. She brought up information and said there is no restriction on my card and it seems that I have enough fund to cover the bill. So she picked up the phone and ring HELP-LINE. For security reason she only allow to tell the lady over the phone my CC number, tell her my problem and then she need to pass over the phone to me. As usual, couple of security checks to verify they are talking to THE Mr SP. After that she scroll through my CC transactions and saw a lot of declines from the previous day and tell me the reason for the declines are due to my abnormal spending pattern and they have a security check in place which will automatically decline all payments if you have a sudden spike in your value of your CC transaction. I guess this is pretty good as you don't want your girlfriend to spend your money on the CC you given them when they get pissed at you because you are late to a dinner or forget their birthday. But then I never offended Ms K and she will never do that as she always had said "my money is her money, and her money is her money" so she will not spend her money like it’s not money!

So I politely asked the lady over the phone to remove that security check as it really inconvenience for me and of course there will be plenty of time that I will spend a similar amount to take Ms K to dinner and cannot afford to have another humiliating scene again. However, she said she cannot do anything as it’s in a security process and all she can tell me is that every time if I going to spend a large amount of money on the CC, I shall ring them to let them know so the system will approve the transaction. WTF!!! First I thought, she was joking and I asked her, so if I want to go a restaurant, I shall give you a call. She replied "Yes, sir. Just give us a call and we will noted down on the system and everything should be fine. And if you want, you can ring us after you get a decline on the CC" WTF again, I guess she never been to a restaurant or she always carrying cash load of cash with her to a restaurant and hoping that the bill does not exceed her cash on hand. OR asking for permission to what she allows to order the menu from the HELP-LINE before the waiter can take her orders. I'm so furious that I'm asking her if this is HSBC process or MasterCard process because either way, I'm changing bank or CC.

Do you believe this, I'm spending my own money on my CC (well technically not my money) and I'm not allowed to spend it just because the stupid security check system they have in place. In essence I understanding the need for the security in place but to this stupid extend, the person behind this idea should be shot! Even back home in my Skippy land, the bank actually gives me a call and asked me if I have in the last couple of minutes trying to use my CC on a particular purchase.  And for this city, one of the top financial hubs in the world, telling me I should give them a call before I use my CC which is going to be out of my normal spending pattern! Well, I guess to work around this problem is to take Ms K to a very expensive restaurant for the next 2 months, just to get my spending pattern that looks like a millionaire. Hahahaha....remind of me of a book I should have read (recommended to me by Mr SZ)...."you should think and spend like a millionaire before you become one"  

One Michelin Star!

I had my first Michelin star today.

To be honest, it wasn't a very impressive star.

More about it later.

Bodium Castle

After we visited the cliffs near Eastbourne, it was already late afternoon.

We took our chance to see whether the Bodium Castle would still be opened. It was slightly out of the way but it came highly recommened by SP's collegue. The medieval castle was built "more for show than for defence". The castle is surrounded by a moat, which is now filled with HUGE carp. If only we have our fishing rods with us! 

The castle was locked up when we got there. Luckily, the grounds were still opened to public and we had fun looking at the hot air balloons which were going up nearby.

SP and I in front of the castle. It is so fairytale-like!

The fields around the castle. Notice the hot air balloon!

 

The ballonist invited us inside the hot air balloon. It was amazing!

 

For more information:

National Trust Information on Bodiam Castle
http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-vh/w-visits/w-findaplace/w-bodiamcastle.htm

White cliffs at Beachy Head, Eastbourne

After our visit to Brighton, we took a 30 minutes drive to see the amazing white chalk cliffs at Beachy Head near Eastbourne.



The cliffs rise 162 metres (530 feet) above the sea below and it is the highest chalk sea cliff in Britain. According to 'trusty' Wiki, the chalk "was formed in the Cretaceous period when the area was under the sea, 65 million years ago. Since then, earth movements have raised the chalk up to form the dramatic cliffs of the Sussex coast."






It is definitely much more dramatic in person than in pictures!

Half a Day in Brighton

With the 'surprise' arrival of SZ, the L family + partner, SP and I venture out of London in a large peoplemover (it can accomodate 9 people and still have lots of room for lugguage).

Brighton, is a town in Southeast England. It is one of the most popular seaside resort in England, and it is also one of the most accessible tourist beaches from London.

Group photo at the beach.

The seaside is really beautiful. Howeve, the beach is all pebbles and it can be rough to the feet. The weather was great so we sat around for a bit.

After we have left the beach, my dad rang up to tell me that they have safely arrived in HK. My dad then said there was a nudist beach in Brighton more than 20 years ago, so it must be still there! hahaha. I just double checked: there are at least two designated nudist areas there. We totally missed it!

This once sleepy fishing village was 'awaken' in 1700s when a famous doctor began prescribing the medicinal use of the sea-water at Brighton to his loyal patients. As the people benefits from these relaxing holidays (hence 'medicinal'), posh Regency terraces began to be developed around the town and Brighton quickly become a fashionable resort for the rich.

The growth of the town was further encourage following the patronage of the Prince Regent, who eventually became the late King George IV. He ordered the construction of an expensive Royal Pavillion during early days of his Regency. The building has Indian-influenced architectire and Oriental interior design.

SP and I at the Royal Pavillion

Another attraction at Brighton is the Brighton Pier (or the Palace Pier), which was opened in 1899. It features a large funfair, cafes and arcade halls. We didn't have a go on any of the rides. However, SP won a soft-toy from the funfair.

SP and I on the Pier.

The girls on the deck chairs. The deck chairs are free for use on the Pier!

We had an uneventful lunch at Brighton. The food was so ordinary. The view was great though. If you ever wish to visit Brighton and have a meal there, I would recommend you to move slighly 'inland' and go to a proper cafe with fresh seafood. The food there looks yummy!

AUS 3-1 JPN

Everyone in the office is laughing at me for getting excited over it!

:)

The Golden Lane in Prague Castle

We are back from Copenhagen (and Malmo!). There are still some backlog of photos from Prague.

Above is a photo from the Golden Lane in Prague Castle. It served as a small 'shopping' district within the castle and many shops now sell sovenirs.

Stonehenge... and more henges... and more stones

It is funny that, as many time as my parents have visited to UK, they have never visit the Stonehenge. They certainly know about 'those' stones. Since even my much-less-well-travelled brother visited those stones earlier this year, they decide it is a must-see for this trip.

The Stonehenge is probably one of the most recognise piles of stone in Britain, and possibly in Europe. Archaeologists have agreed that Stonehenge was built in four distinct phases, with the first phase began at around 3200BC. This is what I call antiquity!

A lot of people have heard about the Stonehenge, and it has become a very touristy spot, with a big carpark opposite the road and layers of fences around it.

But little do they know that there is a Woodhenge not far from the Stonehenge.


(Source: http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/img_fullsize/16119.jpg)

Woodhenge is supposed to be much older than Stonehenge. The monument consisted of concentric rings of tall wooden posts over a circle with a diameter of 520 meters. It is approximately aligned to the Midsummer sunrise and it must have been an impressive sight! The wooden posts have long since disappeared and rings of concrete markers now mark where the posts would have originally stood.

In addition to the Woodhenge, the Avebury Henge and Stone Circle at the Avebury village is also worth seeing. It is four times the size of the site at Stonehenge and it certainly has more stones to it!


(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avebury_stone_circle)

The main feature at Avebury is a huge stone circle (the Outer Circle), which is some 421 meters in diameter. Surrounding the Outer Circle is a ditch and bank which is close to a mile in circumference forming a henge. Within the Outer Circle are two Inner Circles, Northern and Southern.

Unfortunately, only 27 stones of the Outer Circle are 'original' and even then, many of these are re-erected in the 1930s. Most of the damage to the site has been done within the last 500 years. During the early Middle Ages, the church attempted to purge the area of pagan beliefs by persuading locals to pull down the 'devil's work' and bury the stones. This practice came to an abrupt halt when one of the stones toppled over killing a barber surgeon. His skeleton was discovered under one of the stones on the southern side of the main circle when stones were being re-erected earlier this century. More destruction came during the 18th century when local farmers took to toppling and breaking up the stones to make way for agricultural land and to use the stones as building material for the village of Avebury and local farm buildings. It's a shame but I guess that's just part of the history.

The White Horse

We decided to take my parents to the Stonehenge. As we heads to Stonehenge, we saw on our map a few signs which screamed "tourist attractions". A few of them are the infamous White Horses. SP read about these figures of White Horses ages ago and he believed it was antiquity. So we thought it was 'worth seeing'.

The first White Horse (the Cherhill White Horse) we saw wasn't very impressive, as we could only view it from a distance. So we picked another one from the brochure and head for the oldest, and one of the more accessible White Horse - the Westbury White Horse.

The Westbury White Horse is supposed to be one of the best situated, being high on a very steep slope and offering a panoramic view of the surroundings.


The Westbury White Horse

It is situated underneath Bratton Castle, an Iron Age hill fort.

Some people actually suggested that the horse was an ancient figure created in 878, possibly to commemorate the battle of Ethandun, in which King Alfred fought off Viking invaders. However, there is no evidence to suggest that the battle took place in the area or that the original horse is this old. So what SP read was only speculation.

Anyway, the white horse is known on the site for at least three hundred years so while it's not exactly antiquity, it is still worth seeing. As you can see from the photo, the horse looks like a normal horse 'standing' on the hill. But the horse hasn't always look like this. Instead, it looked more like this:

(Source: http://wiltshirewhitehorses.org.uk/images/oldwesmaphorse.jpg)

In 1778, a guy named George Gee decided that the old version wasn't a good representation of the horse so he re-cut it to form the basis of the present day design.

And in the early twentieth century, someone decided to add concrete to hold the edging stone in place. The decision to concrete it over was made to stop the chalk surface of the horse, which rests on a steep slope, from crumbling away. One 'good' idea follow by the next, in the 1950s, it was decided that it would do good to the maintenance budget to paint the figure in white. The concreting was again repeated in 1995, giving us the now-a-day Westbury White Horse.

My thoughts? As we had towards to the horse, the wind grew much stronger and I almost got blown off the hilltop (serious!). Even then, I braved the wind and I was rewarded with an unoriginal, not-old-nor-new, painted and concrete horse?

You may say, the view must be great from the hill top. Yes, it was, except that there is this massive chimney of a local cement works right in the middle of my wonderful view.

Life is full of irony.

Spring in Cotswold!

My parents have decided to visit me for a couple of weeks. And despite having exam preparation commitment, I've decided to take them over to Cotswold for a long weekend trip. (Actually, my dad declares that exams are immaterial once I've started working full-time. He seemed to be encouraging me NOT to study!)

Anyway, SP and I visited Cotswold on our first trip to England enjoyed it very much. It is a relaxing place, with picturesque cottages, gentle hills, valleys and rivers. According to Wiki, "The Cotswolds lie within the current ceremonial counties of Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, Somerset, Warwickshire, and Worcestershire. The county of Gloucestershire forms the largest area of the Cotswolds." and it is only a 2-hours drive away from London.



Map of Cotswold (Source: http://www.cotswoldreview.co.uk/images/Cotswold%20Map_36.jpg)

My parent's flight arrived on Saturday afternoon so we need to head straight to Cotswold as soon as we've dropped off Valerie and the luggage at my place. For those who don't know my parents, they treasure every opportunity to travel so jet lag was not a concern to them and this is not case of 'parent-abuse'!

After a few hours in the London and Oxford traffic, we arrived at our B&B at around 8:30pm. The property is a sweet place. We didn't get a room in the cottage as we booked too late. But we had a cabin all to ourselves and it was not too bad.

It was quite late and most places have stopped serving food. We went into the village and a restaurant was kind enough was kind enough to accommodate us. We had a nice dinner. The gents had a nice piece of beef. My mother has a yummy fish dish and my duck dish was also very tasty. With our tummies filled, we returned to the B&B and had a good (not-so-good for some!) night sleep.

Next day, we started our visit at Bourton-on-the-Water. It is one of the prettiest villages in the Cotswold...


My parents and I on the bridge. The sky is still greyish in the morning.

We had a good walk around the village and visited the monthly farmers' market. Not much there we can buy though coz it's all food. We did manage to get some really yummy apple and mango juice though.

Later in the day, the sky started to clear up and we ventured into the nearby villages.


Slaughter (I can't remember whether it's Upper-Slaughter or Lower-Slaughter)

There is a really nice ice-cream bar in this village. (Again, I can't remember whether it's Upper-Slaughter or Lower-Slaughter). The special of the day was blackberry and apple-crumble ice-cream. Very tasty!

Nevertheless, I can somehow sense that my parents are getting bored walking around. When you are visiting villages like those in Cotswold, there is usually no defined itinerary and certainly no 'sights' or landmark per se. Therefore, we decided to find a landmark which looks special. We saw a picture of the Broadway Tower earlier in the morning so we thought we would go there via Stow-on-the-Wold.

Stow-on-the-Wold is where we stayed last time. It was a small village with a good pub at the Royalist Hotel. The brasserie of the hotel was also excellent. We intended to visit it again for that night. However, in the morning, our fellow B&Bers claimed that the food for this particular weekend was awful and his wife had to send the food back. They also had a positive dining experience last time they visited. So, we decided to stay away from the brasserie this time and asked our host to recommend a different restaurant. More on that later. Anyway, this time, when drove past Stow-on-the-Wold, we found that it has become much more commercialised. They even built a giant Tesco complex just outside the Town Centre. It was a bit disappointing. Even though the Tesco is built in a country house-style (a giant country-house, I must add), it has truly damaged the fairy-tale like beauty of the village.

Broadway Tower, at 1024 feet (312m) above sea level, is the second highest point on the Cotswold region. You can, apparently, see across the Severn Valley and as far as the Welsh Mountains on a clear day, .


SP and I at the Broadway Towers

That evening, we went to the restaurant at the Mousetrap Inn as recommended by our host. Our entrees were all yummy. Unfortunately, everyone except me had wonderful main course. My Wild Mushroom Risotto turned out to be more risotto than mushrooms (I can't even see the mushrooms!). And I can barely taste any flavour in my dish. For the rest of the night, I was thinking , "The lamb that the lady on the next table ordered looked very yummy. I should have ordered lamb" O well :(

For the next day, we know we have to move quickly out of the villages to avoid more boredom on my parents' side. So we quickly visited the Arlington Row at Bibury.


Picture at Bibury. Sorry, I didn't pick our picture of the Arlington Row.

On the way back to the car, we took a different route and saw an old lady feeding the ducks by the river. We stopped and had a chat to her. Then she offered us bread for feeding. She got ten loaves of bread to feed them (the bread look new to me)!


Some ducks jumped up and took food straight from my hands!


But some of the smarter ones seem to be able to sense that I ate one of their fellow members just two days ago! I love ducks. Both alive and on a plate :)

After Bibury, we left the Cotswold region to search for real 'sight'..........

(to be continued)


More information:
Whiteshoots Cottage - Our B&B
http://www.whiteshoots.co.uk/

Eagle and Child, the brasserie at the Royalist Hotel
http://www.theroyalisthotel.com/hotel-eagle.htm

Broadway Tower
http://www.broadwaytower.co.uk/

Mousetrap Inn
http://www.mousetrap-inn.co.uk

A map of regional expressions in Aussie English

http://www.abc.net.au/wordmap/search_map.htm

This link provides information about Aussie English by region. Quite interesting.