Quick hot pot fix at ZhangLiang Malatang Chinatown 张亮麻辣烫

If you like hot pots and everything cooked for you then this is the place to go.
You simply choose what you want from the chilled food bar, place it in your bowl, choose a broth and when it is all cooked, you just collect it and eat.

The price is by weight so some items are definitely going to cost more because of their weight.

Overall, it was a really good experience but if you can't tolerate the spices you are limited to the tomato or mushroom broth which makes it boring.

It would be good if they could have different spiciness levels for the Sichuan broth because I would definitely come back for it.

Having tried the Sichuan broth, it was very authentic but too spicy for me to tolerate hence I couldn't really eat it.

The tomato broth isn't bad as the tomato taste is appetizing and natural but ideally I would love a spicy broth for a hot pot.

Elsa's Vegan Kitchen - Broadway Market

I love Ethiopian injera and this is what they serve here with various stews you can choose from.

Since they had my favourite okra stew, I decided to try them out.

The portions were generous and the okra stew was tasty.

Also tried the ambasha bread which was interesting but the soup was too spicy.

Will be back.

Unit 80, 29 Broadway Market, Tooting High St, London

Booza Ice cream dessert and tea at Palmyra’s Kitchen

Palmyra’s Kitchen located near Finsbury park station specializes in Lebanese food.

I stumbled upon it while waiting for someone but since I only had 5 minutes I did not go in for the ice cream as they serve that mastic ice cream like the Turkish.

After dinner, we decided to come here for ice cream since it was something different and we definitely got a surprise.

For drinks we had the special Palmyra's Tea (Matteh)/mate.

When the tea came, it was served in a wooden cup with a metal spoon we thought but it was a bombilla filtering spoon straw.

Syrup is provided because the tea is super bitter.

Overall, it was a good experience just to try it but just expect it to be bitter.

When the ice cream came, it was a total surprise as they were in the form of slices and not scoops.

It looked like pistachio ice cream roulade slices as well a mozzarella slices.

The pistachio ice cream was certainly good as it was thick and chewy with delicious pieces of pistachio.

To summarize, we were so glad we went here and got some proper mastic ice cream.

Palmyra's Kitchen: Finsbury Park

Chocolate dosa at Crispy Dosa, Wood Green

For South Indian food you will find the usual treats like dosa, vada, idly vada etc which are the signature items for restaurants serving South Indian food.

In the dessert section, you will also find chocolate dosas which are the dessert version of the savoury Dosa.

I have always wanted to try this as a few restaurants have it.

Finally tried it at Crispy Dosa along with some other dishes.

For the mains, we had the masala noodles which were basically instant noodles jazzed up and topped with coriander and all that.

I had the mixed vegetable uttapam which is made by soaking rice and lentils which is ground to a batter and fermented.

The uttapam was crispy and tasty with vegetables with a lovely tartness.

Now to the star of the show, the chocolate dosa was crisp with a tartness just like Ethiopian injera pancakes.

It was definitely to my liking as the tartness of the crisp dosa went really well with the sweet chocolate hence it wasn't too cloyingly sweet.

For drinks had the Masala Jeera by Kashmira which comes in a can.

It was ok but nothing like the freshly made ones because it just tasted like sprite with spices and a kick of savouriness to it.

Crispy Dosa: Wood Green

18 High Rd, London N22 6BX

Mastic, Stretchy and chewy ice cream at SOHO Creamery

It's been ages since I had chewy thick ice cream, the last time I had it was from Mado Ice Cream in Hong Kong and then I managed to spot it at some Turkish grocery store which I regretted not buying.
Anyway, on a recent visit in Camden, we spotted SOHO creamery which claims their ice cream is just like Mado.

On closer inspections, some of the ice cream boxes say MADO where as some are covered with the words SOHO.

Tried the orange and pistachio in Camden which was ok but I feel that the nutty flavours were nicer.

Having tried SOHO creamery in Camden, decided to try the SOHO branch actually located in SOHO however the range and shop is smaller than Camden.
On this visit tried the ice cream bar which you can either eat with the spoon included or put the spoon in the ice cream and eat it like a lolly.
It was fun jabbing the spoon in the ice cream but you have to use quite some force which bends the ice cream hence it looked like a banana.
The Box version is quite nice because it looks more like a skincare product than ice cream!

 

Zheng Malaysian restaurant

This was not a planned visit to Zheng as the place we wanted to go was full so went here instead as it was raining.

Looking at the menu, they serve Modern Malaysian and Chinese dishes at a finer level being in Chelsea and for that price tag.

I was not too keen on having Malaysian dishes that day so opted for Mapo tofu with rice and Admiral Zheng's wasabi prawns.

For drinks, we had Jasmine tea and Sirap Limau.

The Sirap Limau tasted like lipsticks and was very syrupy but I expected that hence my choice was Jasmine tea.

The Jasmine tea was actually ok but the first cup poured by the staff just tasted like water because the tea leaves had not steeped properly.

Moving on to the food, the Wasabi prawns delivered as they were delicious, although it was a simple dish, the prawns were big and bouncy with a crispy coating smothered in a sauce which tasted of wasabi with salad cream mixed in.

The Mapo tofu was to my liking because it was chicken and not pork with a Sichuan peppercorn kick that has that tingling sensation in your mouth.

However, the Roti seemed to be the frozen ones that you reheat.

But overall as a foodie, I am glad I tried.

ZHENG, Chelsea

Halal dim sum at Bonda Kitchen (Malaysian Food)

Bonda Kitchen in Paddington specializes in Malaysian food hence its Halal dim sum offerings.
What makes their dim sum good is that it does not contain lard which causes bloating and indigestion in my case.

The dim sum offerings were a little different and unique like the duck shao mai which we ordered.

Also ordered roast duck with rice and some blue coloured Smurf crab and prawn dumplings.

The crab and prawn dumplings were pretty much how I expected them to be, the duck shao mai was a bit different to how I expected it to be.

Shao Mai filling is usually minced meat mixed with some flour but the duck shao mai was literally chunk of pulled duck meat which made it quite meaty and a little dry.

Last but not least was the roast duck which turned out to be sliced pieces of aromatic duck served with rice and not roast duck.

Anyway, the duck was quite dry that I felt that it was either left over duck that was refried or duck fried twice as the meat was literally quite crispy and dark brown.

In a way it reminded me of Indonesian smashed duck.

To summarize, I felt that the dim sums fared better.