Uncle Lim, a popular Malaysian eatery in East Croydon located on the upper floor of the Whitgift centre has opened another branch in South Croydon.
Since then, they have closed the shop at Whitgift and now permanently based in South Croydon.
Finally paid it a visit and tried the long awaited Hainan chicken which is only available at the weekends.
The hainan chicken was surprisingly good and very different to the Thai and Singaporean version.
It is quite basic with just chicken, a few slices and cucumber and rice.
I liked it because the soy sauce was thick and salty like marmite without the cloying sweetness of the Singaporean style sauce.
The chicken was tender, soft and fresh so overall it was very impressive.
The prawn mee was a bit disappointing as it lacked the richness of prawn as well as the red oils from the prawn head when you boil the prawns for the prawn broth.
For drinks, tried the AW Root beer which was seriously horrible because it tasted like those weird Chinese oil that people apply when they are dizzy.
I have always wanted to get an eggless cake from Cake Forest since they open at South end but the choices they had before were a bit boring and the competition is fierce as there are an abundance of eggless cakes around. Finally bought a cake for fun on Christmas day as it was a rainbow one.
Overall, it was a delight to eat as it was dreamy and pretty.
There are so many eggless cake options around so there is no excuse that they are not soft and fluffy which was delivered.
The only thing I did not like was the sweeteners or the sweetness which was too sweet for my liking as well as the waxy cream.
I've tried a few Langos stalls, so I thought I'd try this one for comparison. In terms of price, it has to be the cheapest at 3.99 possibly because it was not in London. Anyway, the toppings were slightly different and there were some modern choices like all day breakfast and sweet options. I tried the classic which I thought was the tastiest. The all day breakfast had egg which is a bit like a thin omelette and the colour of the egg looked strange as it was brownish. Topped with bacon and spring onions. Overall, the langos was nice but I felt that the langos was on the thin side like a thin crust pizza compared to the other stalls I have tried. The guy at the stall spoke really good English and was quite handsome.
Finally tried this Miso brrroth which is basically a brown rice base topped with protein. I had the tofu because the chicken looked dry. The tofu wasn't much better as it was rubbery and hard while the brown rice was too healthy for my liking as it was coarse and chalky. Overall, the miso broth was ok but not really my cup of tea. I think a noodle base would work better.
Like I always say, good food is partly luck and the right timing and clearly I went the wrong time.
In mid November I was on IKEA's website and discovered the Christmas Dinner which was apparently already available if it said "available until 23rd of December" however when I went to the restaurant it was not available yet.
It was quite disappointing because if its not ready yet then the website should at least give a date.
I visited two big stores and they didn't have it.
The Christmas dinner was finally available on my recent visit so I tried the Turkey Paupiette and Kale Roulade which is vegan.
There is supposed to be black forest roulade on offer according to their website but they didn't have it.
It was definitely a bargain for that price but almost everything was a bit dry and burnt especially the Kale roulade where you can whack it with a spoon and get noises.
Similarly with the turkey, it was dehydrated that you can see where the turkey has dried off and gone a dark pink. Only the stuffing in the middle was normal and tasty.
The bit I enjoyed most was the edible purple cabbage and gravy.
I also got the pigs and blankets which were just dry and chewy as well.
After I finished my meal, I saw a fresh batch of Kale Roulade come out how they were supposed to, you could even see the pieces of orange sweet potato contrasting the green kale!
It shows IKEA can serve it how it should be, but it was just my luck that I wasn't able to enjoy it!
The striploin and pulled beef are new and not on the market yet so I ordered them both.
Starting off with the Christmas steak sandwich, it was a little disappointing because it didn't quite look like steak slices.
The texture and taste was not bad but it lacked that beefy taste and chew.
Apart from striploin, the rest of the sandwich was well executed, the bun was good and the chestnut puree was velvety and tasty.
Moving on to the pulled beef, I felt that it did much better than the steak strips.
The texture was meaty and had an elastic chew to it like beef.
The quality was quite similar to the plant based pulled beef offered in the M&S Food range found in the no beef salt beigel and no beef Shanghai style noodles.
Again, the chef did a beautiful job with the pineapple chimichurri and pickled red cabbage.
The pineapple chimichurri was simply delicious as it had this lovely appetizing salty and tangy kick.
Although, I did not get the Bratwurst, I was quite lucky they were offering samples so I tried some.
The texture was a bit firm and chewy.
Overall, I felt that this visit didn't quite reflect Redefine meat as I didn't try the printed steak and the items I tried above are quite similar to other existing brands.
While I was dining at Marugame, I suddenly noticed some similarities between the Japanese food and English chippies. Things are battered and fried in English chippies which is the same as Japanese tempura and with chippies they have chip scraps which is similar to Japanese tempura scraps! At the chippies we have pickled eggs and gherkins while the Japanese have pickled ginger! The scraps are a good way of telling if their frying oil is clean because you can tell from the taste.
I always see Pure around in London but have never tried it until now! They specialize in healthy fast food much like Leon Restaurants. The Swedish turkey meatballs looked good with the peas and cranberry sauce so I ended up trying it. Strangely I couldn't find any meatballs in the bowl so I wonder if they forgot the meatballs or there were none left in the pot at the end of the day. The meatball sauce was delicious and full of mushrooms which tasted a bit like stroganoff not so creamy and the cranberry sauce was a good one as it was not sweet. The peas were to my liking as they were tender and sweet that they pop in your mouth. Also, on the festive menu is the parsnip soup.
As a foodie, I am always upset when traditional food disappears hence, I like to eat and document as many traditional foods like pie mash, English bakery and old school food as possible.
The humble Christmas pudding is also in danger, so I was elated that Sainsbury's are doing a Pud You Dare Cafe experience to put the pudding back on track.
Not only do they have traditional pudding but there is also a modern Caramelised Biscuit Pudding served with a spiced caramel sauce and a sprinkling of biscuit crumb.
The cafe is only there for two days where I went along and tried the puddings.
Although, I am not much of a Christmas pudding fan, it is a must during Christmas.
The Taste the Difference 18-Month Matured Christmas Pudding was seriously good and even better with double cream while the Caramelised Biscuit pudding had a modern twist without being too sweet yet decadent.
To appreciate the puddings, I opted for custard and double cream that was not spiked so that I could taste everything properly.
At the experience, you get to choose different sauces and topping with the pud complimented by drinks.
For drinks, I had the cranberry orange presse which was refreshing.
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