summer bucket list.

I’m really excited to go home for the summer. So far I only have a few things planned, but I also have quite a lot of free time as well, so I’m making a bucket list so I have something to do when I’m lazing around at home, or to do over the duration of the break. I’ll continue to update this list with more entries, and also to cross things off as I go along.

1. Hillsong Conference

2. River Camp

3. Bogor Mission Trip

4. Malaysia

5. Korea

6. Macau with the group

7. Learn Korean

8. Learn how to play some piano pieces

9. Go biking

10. Sleepover with the group

11. Visit the islands

12. Go to the beach

 

Sightseeing

When I moved to London in August, my dad came and helped me settle down. On one of the days he was here in the city, we went sightseeing, and got to see a lot of the main attractions. Possibly too many times… We took the wrong bus a couple of times, and ended up revisiting a lot of the same sites.

The day was good though, and we had amazing weather as well, so of course I whipped out my camera, and took a few photos. Until of course, my camera had to run out o battery.. I didn’t get to take photos of all the sites we visited (I took some on my phone but they came out pretty bad), so below are just a few of the more iconic landmarks of london.

The edit for some of these are really different, and I’m not too sure on which looks best.. Oh well.

Aldgate

I decided to walk home from Tower Hill, and went through Aldgate. The sky was still nice and blue (this was the same day as the previous post), so I took some pictures. Absolutely love the architecture in this city.

Gloucester Road

Had another one of those rare pretty blue sky days (it kind of feels like those days aren’t actually that rare) while I was walking to HTB St. Jude’s campus.

Eat Tokyo

A couple of friends from class and I have made it a point to celebrate the end of our school week, and the start of the weekend by eating dinner at restaurants recommended by each other, others, and just ones we’ve seen before (pretty much anywhere).

Last Thursday we went to this Japanese restaurant called Eat Tokyo that was recommended by a Japanese classmate (is it still okay to call university classmates classmates?). We had tried the week earlier, but it was too busy because it was dinnertime, so this time we made it just before the rush and managed to get a table by the window. The restaurant is quite small and cramped, but its seems to be a really popular dining place. By the time we finished, there were quite a few people waiting inside and out, for a table. The lighting is quite dim inside, so if you have poor eyesight, and have reading glasses, don’t forget them!

I love salmon, so I was leaning towards getting this dish which was just rice and raw salmon. I really wanted to get it, and I’ll probably try it next time, but I thought I should be more adventurous, so I got Deep Fried Chicken Bento. Yeah, fried chicken at aJapanese place. I’m quite the daring one (note the sarcasm), aren’t I? I knew it wouldn’t give me the fix of salmon that I craved, so I ordered a salmon handroll.

The bento box was alright. The chicken was good, but lacking in saltiness, so I dipped it in soy sauce. Are we supposed to do that? Even in the Japanese fast food joint near my place in Hong Kong I would dip my fried chicken, or fried octopus legs in soy sauce because it just didn’t have enough flavor.

I was really just waiting for my handroll. It was not worth the wait. I thought it would have more salmon, and a little more rice too, but of course the food in restaurants rarely stay true to the picture in the menu.

Overall, the food was good, and the service was good too. Next time I’ll definitely be ordering me some raw fish.. and rice.

Banana Pound Cake

As a uni student, you will soon find a way to get rid of expiring food fast. I had bananas, and felt like cake, so banana cake was the way forward. Except I didn’t have the right ingredients, so I searched everywhere online, tried every phrasing on Google, and finally found a quick and easy recipe that only requires 5 ingredients. Yes, 5 ingredients. So it was good bye bananas, hello banana pound cake.

I got my recipe from: http://www.food.com/recipe/banana-pound-cake-40374

The recipe asks for quite a lot of ingredients, so I halved it and even then, it made quite a lot; about a 9 inch pan of  2 inch thickness (I really need to learn the sizes of the pans and trays I use). I also added some cinnamon, but definitely not enough because I couldn’t really taste it.

It was quite dense, but thats expected from a pound cake. The banana flavor really came through, and it tasted really good. This is another recipe that I will be using a lot, especially when my bananas get all spotty and mushy.

I should’ve used a plate, but I was tired. It was getting late, and I didn’t want to wash extra dishes, so a piece of kitchen towelette had to do.

Victoria Sponge Cake

It was one of those rainy nights which make you feel like reacquainted with your bed, duvet and pillow, then getting cosy with your laptop and a mug of hot chocolate, and loading up your favorite rom com (or action movie if you’re a guy). It was perfect. I did all this, except something was missing from the picture. A slice of cake. Since being in London, I haven’t been able to bake as often as I have in Hong Kong, so I left the comforts of my bed (after finding a recipe of course), and ventured on to bake my very first Victoria Sponge Cake. Quite an appropriate choice if I may say so myself to bake it here in the UK.

I got my recipe from this site: http://leitesculinaria.com/83360/recipes-victoria-sponge-cake.html

I followed the recipe pretty closely, only changing the type of jam I used (blueberry because it was all I had), and adding bananas to it as well. Oh, and I used a different sized pan. I can’t quite remember what size it is, but when I baked it, I halved the batter, then baked it.

I’ve got to say, this cake is so easy to bake, and it was so good! I’m so glad I found this recipe because I’m sure that this is one that I will be using a lot in the future.

Hopefully the presentation will improve..

 

Turkish Food

There is this turkish restaurant near my church here in London that has an indoor and al fresco dining. It was a really nice day, and if you’ve lived in a city where they are rare (which they are in Hong Kong and London), you’ll learn to take advantage of them, so my friend and I decided to eat outside and enjoy the beautiful weather. When we were waiting to be seated, I saw someone eating a burger with a side of potatoes. I absolutely LOVE potatoes, and if I could, I would probably live off them, so of course, I scoured the menu looking for this dish. And I found it.

It was worth it. To be honest, I’m not a huge fan of burgers. Or any royalty linked with it (if you get me). Okay, burgers are good, but I don’t like eating burgers which I have to take tiny bites out of because it won’t fit into my mouth. I don’t particularly enjoy having juices dribbling down my arms when I eat, but I guess thats part of the deal…

So anyways, I ordered the burger, waited for what felt like forever (I was hungry), and it finally came. The lamb burger smelt and tasted amazing. The potatoes to be honest were slightly disappointing. I thought they would be salty, and would taste more… roasted, but they didn’t. It tasted more of a range of different herbs and spices, which I enjoyed.

There wasn’t that much service from the servers. Partially because we were sitting outside, partially because they were so busy (it was lunch hour), so it was kind of expected.

The only thing I didn’t like (okay the second including the waiting time which was also kind of expected) was the pigeons. This had nothing to do with the restaurant, but oh my gosh the pigeons! They didn’t care about the people sitting there and eating. They flew at every chance they could at bits of food that anyone happened to spill onto the ground. They flew at me and pretty much gave me a heart attack, but I’m alive and well, so its all good.

All in all, it was a good meal. For £7-8, it was a little pricey, especially being a student. But coming from another city where you would’ve been able to buy 3 meals for the same amount, it was alright after considering the size, and type of meat the patty was made from.

Baking Adventures

One of my most favourite pastimes is baking. I like to remember what I’ve baked before so I know what went wrong so I can improve on it next time, or see what worked out well. I’ll leave recipes along with photographs of of the different stages of baking, along with a photograph of the final result.

What I bake doesn’t always turn out well, and thats a bummer, but it makes finding those perfect recipes that much more exciting.

Oxford Street

One thing I absolutely LOVE about London is the architecture that is the backbone of this city. Everywhere you look, you’ll see remnants of its history; from the small little details on the sidewalk, to the beautiful structure of the buildings. Its hard not to notice it all, and its hard not to fall in love with it all.

The following photographs were taken along Oxford Street.