Smiths of Smithfield

Grace and Sook Leen both recommended that I try this really cool steak place near Spitalfields Market...

The unique thing about this restaurant is that each of the 4 floors has a distinct style - food, design and atmosphere.

GROUND FLOOR: Gastro pub / bar like level with leather armchairs.

1st FLOOR: Wine room that has a selection of 40 different champagnes and 140 different wines. They even have wine tutorials and wine tasting during the weekends. The wine halls can store up to 2,000 bottles of wine.

PRIVATE FLOOR: That's where they cater for private dining and special occasions such as weddings, anniversaries, meetings and business lunches etc.

2nd FLOOR: The dining room specialising in clay oven and chargrilled food.

3rd FLOOR: The rooftop restaurant with views of the city that is famous for its rare breed, organic and additive free meats accompanied by its fine wine list.

Guess which floor I went to????

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Hahahaha... yeah... I went to the top floor restaurant... :P

But unfortunately, they ran out of rare breed steak.... hmmph... in the end I went for the pan-fried black sirloin steak... (don't ask me what black sirloin is... the waitress told me that it's supposedly more intense while their park sirloin is more delicate...????)

And for starters, I had half of a Dorset crab served with mayonnaise... the crab meat was really succulent... but regretted it a bit because it was so difficult to eat it gracefully in such a luxurious place!!!

I would definitely recommend this place to anyone who loves their steak. The steak was really delicious and they have a pretty good wine list to pair each of course.

Definitely worth a visit!

Summer Ball

The annual AIMS summer ball... it's one of the few social events that my department has... I missed the Away Day this year but luckily not the Summer Ball. This year's Summer Ball was at The Dochester Park Lane, which was significantly better than the venue we had last year...

The food was certainly much better... we had smoked salmon for starters and beef steak for mains... and for the dessert, we had this funny salted ice-cream which surprisingly wasn't salty at all!!!

As usual, they had a casino and dance floor after the dinner... at one point, I got really lucky on the roulette!!! But too bad that it's not real money... bleh...

Anyway, all in all it was quite an enjoyable evening and I had a chance to put my Barcelona shopping trips to good use... hehehe... I wore one of the dresses that I bought from my Barcelona trip in January and a lot of people told me that it's a really nice dress!!! (P/s. I only bought it for 19 euros!!! muahahahaha :P)

Of bananas...

Okay... this is perhaps by far my most unsuccessful ever baking venture... I've seen the banana muffins that my lil sis baked on her blog and asked her for the recipe since about everyone around me LOVES bananas...

BUT... I'm sad to say that it didn't turn out to be what I expected... I supposed it didn't help that I didn't put enough bananas and forgot to add the crumble before putting the tray in the oven...

I blame it on the banana factor... bleh...

Until I get it right the next time, there's no banana muffins for everyone!!! :(

(Yes, I ended up throwing everything into the bin... well... I don't eat bananas at all... so I not going to finish them all by myself!!!!)

Our half-yearly pilgrimage...

To Barcelona for SHOPPING!!! :P

Hahaha... I think Bin Bin and I are getting addicted to the Barcelona sales...

This time, our guest was Sook Leen...

As usual, we took the early morning flight on Saturday to spend our weekend shopping in the streets of La Rambla... and hey... we actually did some sort of touristy thing ok?? We went to the famous market along La Rambla for lunch (before hitting the shops!!! :P)

Barcelona is really beautiful in summer... look how colourful everything is!!!

Hehe... see even Bin Bin couldn't resist taking a picture with the pile of fruits...

If it was left to Bin Bin and I, we would have probably gone to KFC for our lunch! hehehe... but Sook Leen managed to convince us that we should have our lunch at the market...

And I'm glad we did! The seafood was absolutely fantastic... hmmm.. yummy clams, squid, prawns and scampi... even the mushrooms were delicious!!

After the slight detour... we re-align our focus and hit the shops... the sales were really good!!! I found so many items that I want to buy and they are really really super cheap... I mean I bought tops for about 8 euros, jumpers for 5 euros, jackets for 15 euros, t-shirts for 3 euros... etc.

While we were too engrossed in finding the best bargain... it started raining... no, correction... it started POURING!!!! The rain was so heavy that we couldn't go back to our hotel and were stuck in the shops!!! (Lucky Sook Leen who went back earlier... hehehe.. I think she just couldn't take anymore shopping!!)

We finally made it back, but we were soaked!!! And some of my precious shopping was wet as well!!! :( In the end, we had KFC for dinner as we didn't want to risk getting caught in the rain anymore...

Hehe... me laying out all my shopping from ZARA, Mango and Stradivarius (our favourite Spanish brands) in the hotel at night before going to bed...

The next day, we woke up early for breakfast and was all set to go shopping again....

BUT...

To our horror... THE SHOPS ARE ALL CLOSED ON SUNDAY!!! What??? Since when did they change their trading hours??? Bin Bin and I were so upset that Sook Leen found it really funny... In the end... we were forced to do some sightseeing...

We called our hotel reception and he gave us hope when he said that the shopping mall at the end of the pier might be open... so we tracked our way there... Sook Leen went off for more (proper) sightseeing since she hasn't been to Barcelona and she didn't mind not shopping again...

When we reached the shopping mall... Bin Bin and I really squealed for joy when we found that the shopping mall is not only open, BUT.... there's a Mango, Stradivarius, Bershkha and H&M in there!!! Hahaha... you should have really seen how we jumped for joy...

Well... the shopping mall sort of made up for our earlier disappointment... but nevertheless, I think we'll be back... and the next time... we'll avoid Sunday at all cost!

And oh... if you ever go to Barcelona... I would recommend you to stay in Hotel Curious... it's newly renovated, good location, has English speaking staff and decent breakfast...

And sorry Sook Leen... if we scared you with our shopping addiction!!!

Yi Hua's Visit

Yi Hua came over to the UK for her younger sister's graduation... She stopped over in London before flying back to KL... It's really not that often that my friends from high school visit me here in London... So I was all up for hosting her but alas, her trip was in total only about 1 day 1 night in London!!!

Although I offered her my humble abode for her 1 night stay, she declined as her family had already booked accommodation at the Malaysian Hall for the night... but due to their flight delays, they only reached London quite late and the Malaysian Hall actually had a curfew!! What????? I thought curfews were only for prison-like hostels!!! (Like the hostel that I used to stay back when I was in college!! urghh..)

So, in the end everyone came over to my flat to stay for the night!! I really felt a bit bad that her parents had to put up with my tiny flat and sleeping in the living room!!

Anyway... I hope that they at least enjoyed their trip in London despite everything...

Me, Sook Leen, Yi Hua, Yi Hua's Mum, Yi Hua's Dad, Yi Hua's sister Yi Wei and Yi Hua's hubby Ian at the Bayswater Four Seasons... I didn't know that even people back home heard of the supposedly famous duck from Four Seasons!

Poker Tournament

We celebrated Drakey's birthday with lunch instead of our usual Saturday night dinner because he wanted to go for a charity poker tournament that evening... but without any plans for the night, everyone tagged along to the poker tournament and ended up signing up for it.... apart from yours truly as I wasn't feeling up for it... (ok fine fine... I was tired, lazy and chicken out of it... :( bleh...)

But anyway... Drake, Bin Bin, Mr Yeo, Naveen and Aldric all signed up for the tournament...

And surprise surprise... Bin Bin, Drake and Naveen all got into the final round at the main table of the tournament!!!

Bin Bin looking really stressed in the final table, trying hard to concentrate on her game with a drunk Mr Yeo providing distraction to everyone!!!

AND....

Drumroll

Drumroll

Drumroll

Bin Bin won the whole tournament!!! Woohoo... She took home the top prize of a 32" Sony LCD flat screen TV!!!

Way to go girl!! Girl Power!! (In fact, there was another girl who finished 3rd in the tournament!!)

P/s. Bin Bin - If you do sell the TV, this post is dedicated to you so that there's evidence you won a poker tournament before and beating 70+ other players on the way!!!

Drakey and Naveen finished a credible 7th (£50 Selfridges voucher and a mp3 player) and 10th (a bottle of champagne and a mp3 player) respectively...

Wow... Guess our weekly poker sessions standards are not that bad after all with 3 in the top 10!!!

Drakey's (Pre)-Birthday

Since Bin Bin and I won't be around this coming weekend to celebrate Drakey's birthday, we decided to have a pre-celebration for him...

We went for lunch at the Athenaeum in Mayfair...

And the day before, Rui and I went shopping for his birthday gift...

Ok ok... I know it's not good to give people shoes according to Chinese beliefs... but Karen was quite sure that he's not superstitious... so... we went ahead to get him Adidas football shoes (Well, football shoes lessons that I got from Rui: When it comes to football shoes, Adidas reign over Nike)

And oops... we actually got him a cake... but unfortunately we forgot to bring it to the restaurant!!! Oh well... so we had to cut the cake some other time...

So after dinner on Sunday evening... we had the cake cutting ceremony... I wonder what wish did he make... erm... to be a big shot banker??? :P (Or perhaps that everyone at Thame Road won't kick him out of the house in future?? hehehe....)

Aaaawwwww.... see how happy he is to cut his cake... just like a little boy!!!

Well... Happy Be-early Birthday Drakey aka Drag!!! Hope you had a good time over the weekend and sorry that I won't be around this weekend!

Bon Jovi Concert

YES... you read correctly... I went for the Bon Jovi concert!!! (What?? For someone who doesn't have a single English song on her iTunes?? I know, I know... even Sook Leen who bumped into me at the concert was surprised to see me there...)

Well... Veni, vidi, vici...

Everyone hanging around (and the guys making fools of themselves by entertaining each other with the bags of peanuts that they bought) while waiting for the actual concert to start... Well, I said actual because they have some performance by this band called The Feeling as a filler...

And yes... finally... the concert took off with the song Lost Highway... hehehe... since I didn't know a single Bon Jovi song prior to the concert, I thought I should do my homework... so I downloaded their greatest hits and their latest album Lost Highway... and I have been listening to the 28 songs daily during my commute to and from work...

AND...

I'm proud to say that I actually know more songs than everyone else cuz all of them are only familiar with Bon Jovi's classics and not the songs from their latest album...

Hehehehehe :P

The stage was really pretty especially once the sun set and the lighting effects came on...

And oh...

Hehehe... a tired Mr Yeo sitting down on the floor not even halfway through the concert... guess it's because we have the standing tickets and have been standing since 6pm!

Thought it was funny how excited the crowd got every time they sang one of their classics like "It's My Life", "Livin' on a Prayer", "Always" etc...

Just see the video below... everyone was singing and dancing along...

Whereas when they sang songs from their latest album, the crowd pretty much went silent!!!

After two encores... they finally closed the curtain down...

And my my my... look at the crowd trying to get home... somehow... we ended up going in the wrong direction and walked to another station instead of Twickenham... and it was a really really long walk...

I did enjoy the concert... it has been a while since I went for one... but.. I felt quite exhausted at the end of the night... sigh... signs of old age when I can no longer jump up and down throughout the whole concert without feeling tired!!!