Friday 18 January 2013

London by Night/Duck and Waffle










If I had to count how many touristy pictures I've taken of the Thames, Big Ben and the London Eye, it would probably amount to a total of TOO MANY. But this has never stopped me from whipping out my camera and perfecting my photography skills every time I'm in London Town! haha and if I have to be honest, I'd say these pictures are the most satisfying ones I've taken to date. Just shows you don't need to fork out a lot of money on a DSLR to take good photos -- all you need is a steady hand, a good eye and some basic editing skills! ;) Shame the Eye was closed for maintenance so the lights weren't on display.



My friend Ewan, geeking out at M&M world. First time I've ever been.. and I really don't see the point of this shop.. 



Somerset House looking rather plain after the closing of the ice rink! 



Another first visit on the list! I can't believe I've never tried out Patisserie Valerie till now. I've always wanted to go, but something always comes up! Despite being there for a short while, it definitely was worth a visit. The cake I had (Strawberry Gateau) reminded me of a Chinese style cake, soft and moist, yummy-in-my-tummy kinda flavour! ;) Will have to come back again at some point and try some other stuff. Ewan and I were only there to kill time because we had three hours of nothing to do till our dinner reservations at 9.15pm. 

DUCK & WAFFLE 








Branded as one of the more exclusive to places to eat in London, Duck & Waffle is located on the 40th floor of the Heron Tower just across Liverpool Street. They are known for serving a blend of European and English food in which they encourage tables to share a variety of different dishes. In my opinion, I expected a lot from this restaurant, just because of the pricing and the popularity given their mega long waiting list. Originally I phoned up to book for 6pm on a Monday, but they had no spaces till 9pm. But my friend and I decided we'll give it a shot and wait out for dinner till later.

I guess you can call this a review -- but just a disclaimer, I'm no food critic, haha. These views are purely based on my first encounter with this restaurant and my personal expectations.

We arrived at the bottom of the Heron tower where we were greeted by a guy asking whether we had reservations at Duck & Waffle. After a quick confirmation, we were escorted into a fancy lift that took us directly to the 40th floor. The ride was a swift one with views gradually looking over London city.

The bar is the first thing you see when you enter and its definitely a unique looking one! Rather than having a close-countered bar, it is an open-top one which I think makes the atmosphere more intimate. But after checking the prices on the alcoholic beverages list, Ewan and I decided we were better off with just a couple of soft drinks! (Yea.. I'm a student after all, don't judge!) It was actually a long wait before we were seated to our table.. I'd say we didn't sit down at the restaurant till maybe 9:40pm. The waiters/waitresses we had were informative and we were told to order a variety of small dishes and a main dish to share, so Ewan and I settled on some raw scallops, raw oysters, pollock meatballs (which didn't register as fish in our minds..), rosemary and garlic bread and the house dish of duck and waffle.

I'd say the raw scallops and raw oysters took the cake for us. The raw scallops (as pictured above) were served on this block of salt which we were advised to use our hands to rub the scallop on and eat with. It had a really good texture but shame it all disappeared after one bite.. same with the raw oysters. The most disappointing dish had to be the rosemary and garlic bread. I didn't end up taking a picture of that one... because I just didn't think it was worth it! You would think a simple dish like that wouldn't be hard to accomplish, but somehow, it didn't taste anything what we had hoped. They tried to make it authentic but somehow failed.. because the garlic on the bread were actual garlic cloves which were slightly awkward to eat and I guess to compensate the garlic, they loaded the bread with lots of salt, so it ended being salty bread with garlic chunks. The salt was so strong I couldn't even taste the rosemary.

The meatballs were deceivingly not meat! Pollock never registered in our minds as fish.. so when it arrived, we were pleasantly surprised. It wasn't a bad dish, a little on the small size for the price, but it was still good.

Lastly, the duck and waffle took a while to be served. Ewan and I were intrigued to see how this tasted because its such an odd combination of food. The dish came with a fried egg, two waffle pieces, fried duck leg and a pot of syrup and mustard seeds. We took a huge bite with a bit of everything on the plate and it was surprisingly quite good. But if you were to look at it without associating it with the restaurant, something like this could have been mashed up together at home too without costing a bomb.

So overall, I'd say this restaurant is definitely over-hyped. The food we chose were not particularly filling but enough to suffice. But the atmosphere was nice and the views were an added bonus to the evening.



Wednesday 9 January 2013

Time of Reflection and aims to be a better me!



Having slacked sooo heavily on the blogging department of my life.. I've realised I didn't write a New Year's resolution post at the beginning of 2012, which makes my '2012 Resolution Review' invalid for this entry. =( It's a shame since its always fun reading back at what I wrote about wanting to achieve the year before and reminisce at my ambitious attempts and failures.

But I shall continue on with the tradition and give a-year's-older-me the satisfaction of laughing at my current self in 2013.





Before doing that though, I think its a good opportunity for me to reflect on how 2012 has impacted me and the life experiences I've learnt from it. I would say overall, 2012 has been a year full of more positives than negatives. First, I managed to fulfil my high-school ambition by gaining a place to study abroad for the year in Australia and this event in itself has taught me a lot about myself. Despite having not completed my year abroad as of yet, the last few months that I was alone has broadened my perceptions on life "beyond the well". Independence comes with responsibility and I found myself taking on far too much and ultimately I became so wrapped in the possibility of change - either changes in myself or the people and environment that I was beginning to adapt to before I left UK.

The beginning of 2012 was definitely a time of happiness for me - love, joy, grace were something that I didn't realise I had until I left them for a country so far away. Ultimately, as I mentioned before, I have learnt to appreciate and its important to keep in mind that sometimes, change is good for the better. Even if its for worse, you recognise who's there for you and those who aren't worth having in your life will show their true colours.


Aside from that, I have found myself travelling a lot in 2012. From Brussels, Hong Kong, Brisbane, Sydney to Malaysia, many great memories from these places will forever be embedded in my memory, and I hope I will make the most of my time in Australia next semester and continue on my travels before my bank breaks! haha






With all my New Year's resolutions, they never last beyond the first week of January, so rather making 'New Year's' resolutions, I'll just stick to personal aims which I want to conquer by the end of this year as opposed to tackling habits which die hard!


 STAY FIT
Something I successfully did in Oz, but failed after coming back to UK for Christmas. I'm definitely not a summer person, so in one aspect, I'm glad I've managed to avoid the scorching heat that is being experienced in Brisbane right now, but on one hand, I have noticed a positive correlation between staying fit and healthy and a rise in environmental temperature! haha

♥ Saying YES to opportunities and take the plunge in trying more new things! 
If there is anything that I learnt in my first semester at UQ, it has to be to grow some balls and make more of an effort in trying new things and meet more people! I'm not going to lie, but making a good bunch of friends was hard in Oz, but I'm hoping because I go back during a start of a new academic year, there will be better opportunities to meet more interesting people and join different societies (albeit.. UQ doesn't really have a good set of social societies.. )

♥ Visit KOREA!! 
YES. This has been on the top of my bucket list for a LONG time..  I'm hoping to book my tickets next week and join my two friends from UK to go on a two week adventure round the beautiful country of South Korea in Easter time! =)

♥ Blog more
I say this almost every year to myself.. but I never seem to truly dedicate a set time to blog. Mainly because I'm just generally a lazy person and at the same I'm a perfectionist. Most of the time, if not, all the time, I start writing posts which I think are interesting, but then they end up sitting in Drafts gathering dust because I always think it can be improved later. But at the end of the day when I do find time to go back to it, I lose the motivation or the 'moment' of when I first wrote it and it ends up being out-dated. To this day, I have about 20 posts sitting in drafts... I think for now, I need to focus on my travel blog more!

♥ Be more organised 
I am absolutely rubbish at keeping my life organised. I tend to be a more of in-the-moment kinda person.. but I think its important to stay on top with everything and especially I have a busy year ahead of me, I need to learn to use a diary continuously! Every diary that I've ever bought in my life have always been out-of-use by the time it hits the one-month mark! I think I just need to find the 'right' diary.. :p - yea I'm a stationary snob!

♥ Build up my CV and my future 
It's that time where we all need to grow up and hit the tedious process of job hunting after graduation. As much as I want to stay young forever... I need to start building on my CV and future ambitions! I'm hoping to gain an internship at a bank in London this summer to prepare myself for 3rd year.. or in my terms.. 4th year! YIKES! ><


With this.. I'm going to say goodbye to 2012. You were a year that taught me a lot and a year that I will never forget. =) Thank-you. 

I'm hopeful 2013 will bring me more unforgettable memories!