New Year's Eve

It's New Year's Eve, Mr KE and I have got absolutely nothing planned and it's great. We have had a lovely Christmas break, just the two of us taking it easy. I haven't even been sale shopping; haven't even been into town....which is very unlike me (contrast with last year) but oh well, I have other things on my mind! This year I have spending my money on buggies and baby clothes :)

So what have we been up to?

• We had roast chicken for our Christmas dinner; with pigs in blankets (cocktail sausages wrapped in streaky bacon), roast potatoes, baby carrots, peas, bread sauce and gravy. No christmas pudding because Mr KE doesn't eat it and I'm not such a big fan. Instead, lots of chocolates and sweet gooey things all day.
• On Boxing Day Mr KE went to watch our local football team with his friends while I snoozed on the sofa.
• We have been sleeping in, going on long walks in our local parks and eating lots of indulgent food.
• Mr KE has been DIY-ing while I watch TV ....yes, it's a hard life....

It's now 7pm, we have no plans for dinner (takeaway? forage in the fridge? just eat more chocolate?) and the lack of pressure is really relaxing. You know what I mean - it's New Year's Eve...must have a good time.....even if you get totally stressed out doing it!

Happy New Year everyone!

Barcelona, June 2008 : Food

I have finally had a chance to sort through the Barcelona photos and I will upload them over the next few days. Here are some photos of the food we ate in Barcelona.



This was our typical breakfast. Cappuccinos, toasted cheese and ham sandwich for Mr K-E and ham baguette for me.

We could have had a buffet breakfast at our hotel, but it was 16Euros each. A bit steep, especially as the Euro is now 1.23 to the pound.

So we decided to have a small breakfast and big lunch instead.







We had paella for lunch one day. It's the classic Spanish dish: rice cooked in seafood stock with mixed seafood. The yellow colour is from saffron, I think.

I liked it, but the seafood taste was a bit too strong for Mr K-E.









We had lunch at this tapas bar. Look at all the hams!!

The tapas is lined up on the bar, little snacks eg bread and cheese and ham held together with toothpicks. When you have finished, they count up your toothpicks.








Once when we were lazy, we had Spanish fast food hahaha. Just as greasy and fattening as fast food everywhere else.











Lunch:
Bread with tomatoes and garlic
Patatas Bravas (Potatoes with a spicy sauce)
Bacallao (Salt Cod) Fritters
Small Fish

Lunch took ages. I am not exaggerating when I say we took more than 2 hours to have lunch. Everyone just seems to take their time...except for us impatient tourists.







After that, dessert. Mr K-E had Creme Catalan which is the Spanish version of Creme Brulee.


















I had something called "apostles sweet" which were crisp pastry rolls filled with custard and sprinkled with icing sugar. You also get a small jug of warm chocolate sauce to pour over....yum yum.













We had dinner at this trendy restaurant. People eat dinner late in Spain... it was 10:30 when we were seated. You could see people arriving and meeting their friends for dinner at 11:30!










The food was lovely and the cava was delicious.


(Cava is Spanish version of champagne...)












For dessert, we shared a cinnamon bread pudding with cinnamon ice cream.

It was the first time I have had cinnamon icecream, it tasted really good.











And last but not least..no holiday would be complete without lots of icecream.

Barcelona, Baby!

Barcelona was great :) We had a great time and I will post some photos once we have had a chance to sort them out.

There was so much to see and do that I didn't even get a chance to look in any shops. Yep, I just walked past Mango, Zara and *sob* even Loewe. Although I did manage a sneaky peek in duty free before we flew home but the selection was tiny. Probably a good thing, I don't think I really need another handbag hahahaha.

Things we did

• Saw lots of interesting architecture (this was the highlight for me)
• Ate like dinner at midnight like proper Catalans
• Ordered random tapas.....is it meat? is it seafood? Enjoying the surprise when it arrives...
• Wandered through the Gothic Quarter
• Explored the Olympic Park Area and the castle on the hilltop
• Wandered along the beach
• Went to L'Aquarium and enjoyed the breeze in the harbour area

We walked miles everyday and I am still exhausted!

Going Away

I'm glad I enjoyed the quiet time at work without getting paranoid because suddenly it seems that work is landing on me from all directions...oh well, back to normal.

Tomorrow I am heading to Barcelona for a long weekend, boy, am I looking forward to it. As usual, my husband, Mr Last-Minute, is "busy" sorting out all his toys eg camera, chargers, packing etc.

We booked a taxi to take us to Gatwick and it costs £39 now! I guess all the taxi fares have gone up because the petrol prices are going crazy. It's worth it...I don't fancy dragging my suitcase to the train station at 6am.

Happy Easter

It's Easter, which means church, chocolate and DIY. The Pope is on TV, the chocolate eggs have been plundered and I am eating hot cross buns.

It's cold and rainy today, but that's not going to spoil my Easter mood.

Happy Easter everyone. Rejoice!

Mr K-E and the Mountains

Mr K-E is back! After 10 days of this...

Here's Mr K-E wrapped up warm as it was -12 degrees. Bbbrrrrr.

He took a few photos of the food, like a good blogger's husband. This is weinerschnitznel.

This is schinkenbratkartoffeln - which means bacon and fried potatoes. It also comes with two fried eggs on top. Just what you need to warm you up on a cold afternoon. Mr K-E says you have to eat fast, or else your food freezes (literally)!

Mr K-E was in Switzerland with his friends for 5 days and then Austria for the rest of the time. Here's the house they rented while in Austria. It has a sauna and plunge pool too, how civilised.

Happy New Year Everyone

Happy New Year everyone!

I hope everyone is having a lovely time celebrating Chinese New Year. I was going to have a day off today but an important meeting was scheduled so had to abandon those plans. The meeting went really well though, so that was good start to the year.

I sent Mr K-E to load up on food from Marks and Spencer and he has done a good job. We are watching TV and eating our Big Party Platter.

In what ever way you are celebrating new year, have a great one.

Japan, November 2007 : Modern Architecture

During our trip to Japan we saw some interesting modern architecture - amidst the temples, shrines and neon-lit streets.

(We nicknamed this one "the worm")

Tokyo, Japan November 2007 : Shinjuku

While we were Tokyo, we stayed in the Shinjuku district which is also the red-light district. It was a great place to stay because there's lots going on during the day and at night. There are cheap restaurants everywhere, big department stores and then at night there is the fascinating Japanese sleaze culture. (well, you know what I mean...) Not to mention the enormous pachinko parlours and arcades.

Mr K-E could barely take the photograph below, he was laughing so hard. It's an innocent pachinko parlour, by the way.



There were services available for both men and women :) but I couldn't really understand the stuff on offer for women. Look at the guys below. That over-teased hair, those coy looks... they look like women!!




Apparently, these guys are not 'hos. You just pay them to keep you company in the clubs and pay you compliments all night. Yeah right! Hahahaha.....

Tokyo and Kyoto, November 2007 : Food, beautiful food.

Tokyo & Kyoto, November 2007 : What We Ate, Part 1

Ordering food was an adventure in Japan; thank goodness for picture menus.

This was taken during our first meal in Tokyo.













I ordered fried rice and Mr K-E ordered a pork cutlet dish. When I say "ordered", what I mean is that we pointed at the menu and nodded a lot.

We also ordered some gyoza (the dumplings). The meal came with bowls of miso soup, which is pretty much standard for meal "sets".

You get iced water as soon as you sit down; one less thing for our jet-lagged brains to deal with.









The next day we ate here. This place was really cheap and fun.

While we were in Tokyo we stayed in Shinjuku. It is the red-light district (more about that later) but is full of places to eat.











First choose what you want from the plastic food display.

Yes! Yes! Plastic food, I love it!









Then pay for it at the ticket machine. It spits out a ticket which you take inside.

We had to remember the characters from the plastic food display because there were no English characters on the vending machine.
















You sit at the counter and give your ticket to the cooks. You can see our tickets in the photo.

They then cook your food and serve it up in a few minutes.









Fast food, Japanese stylie. Classic katsu don i.e. pork cutlets on rice with egg on top. Yummilicious.













We were a bit perplexed when we had to order from this menu.

Mysterious.















The friendly waitress helped us out so we didn't end up too badly...

I had eel on rice, which was one of the things I wanted to try in Japan. Mr K-E had teriyaki chicken.

You can also see miso soup, pickles and salad; which was part of the meal sets. All beautifully served.







We didn't have any of this.
















Or this.

















We also tried okonomiyaki; to compare it to the okonomiyaki we had in London.













It was good.

We had yakisoba (fried noodles) on the side.














And of course we had to try eating a meal Japanese style i.e. sitting on the floor. I was OK but Mr K-E said "I feel uncomfortable already" within 1 minute of sitting down, hahaha.












We cooked our food at the table in a light soup. Just like "steamboat" at home.












There was chicken, prawns, tofu, noodles, mushrooms, fishcakes etc. We were stuffed at the end of the meal.

Isn't it artistic the way the food has been arranged? That's my over-riding impression of Japanese food : even the humblest meals are beautifully served.