Weekly Roundup No. 3
In this week’s roundup: food, frozen yogurt, running and the outdoors! Practically a lifestyle blog today. Of note: finally, something good to be said for British cuisine!
1. Deliciousness of the week
Two delicious meals (and a dessert) this week! On Tuesday, T treated me to dinner at the Malaysian canteen – it’s an unofficial eatery, tucked away on a rather random residential street. A sign outside says “Malaysians only.” My my! I felt very special, and kinda sneaky. Nasi lemak, yum :)
And as I said in my last post, I went out to dinner on Thanksgiving, again with T and her friends from church. The poor unsuspecting folk, I did make them all do the “What are you thankful for” icebreaker, and they were good-spirited enough to go along with it.
We had dinner at a Korean place called Koba. I was confused by the name of the restaurant—it sounds more Japanese to me! But apparently their specialty is Korean BBQ, hence… Ko(rean)…. ba(rbeque). Now, as I’ve mentioned before, it is against my principles to have to PAY for kimchi and the lettuce in which to wrap your BBQ beef. But it was Thanksgiving after all, and I decided to let it go just this once. And it was delicious. Still wrong, but delicious. Granted, there were three types of kimchi, and they were arranged so beautifully: cucumber kimchi criss-crossed like a log house, cabbage kimchi piled high like Jenga, and kkakdugi like a tower. But there is still no excuse. A tiny bit of nicely arranged kimchi should not cost $8!!!! THAT’S RIGHT. I PAID EIGHT DOLLARS FOR A TEENY WAD OF KIMCHI. Whew. I didn’t realize that I had internalized this anger.
Anyway, it was delicious and wonderful (the haemool pajun was also very good). In the end it didn’t come out to be exorbitantly expensive, though in the States we’d have gotten bigger portions. (Come to think of it though, portions are always smaller here—and in the rest of the world. Only in America do restaurants try to take all your money and make you obese.)
Afterwards, we went to a frozen yogurt place called Yog, and… friends and foodies… Pinkberry and Red Mango may have started this trend, but they’ve got NOTHING on British frozen yogurt. The yogurt here, first of all, is so much better than it is in the States. It would only naturally follow that the frozen yogurt here is also umpteen times better. As you may have picked up from this blog, there are precious few things in British cuisine that I rave about. But the pomegranate frozen yogurt at Yog was, hands down, the best I’ve ever had.
2. Autumn in Hyde Park
I’ve been going on a jogging route through the park that’s approximately 3.5 miles around. From Lancaster Gate, along the Serpentine, to Hyde Park Corner, then along the south side of the park past the Princess Di memorial fountain to the Prince Albert memorial, then north to Lancaster Gate. Whereas in the gym I probably wouldn’t last for 3.5 miles of treadmill boredom, in the park I just can’t get enough. The swans, the trees, the flowers! The baby strollers, the dogs running free in the fields! Seriously, every time I see unbridled doggie joy I just think, that is how a dog’s life is meant to be.
It’s just so lovely and wonderful that I took my phone along today and snapped photos along the way. Some of them are warped because I took them while running…
