Morning, beautiful

Morning, beautiful

Although my hotel on Osborne Street in London gets bad reviews on travel sites, I didn’t have a problem with it at all. Yes it’s a little run down and I’m sure some people may not find the area attractive. But I like Brick Lane with its vintage clothing shops, cool record store (Rough Trade), Bangla Deshi restaurants, ‘beigel’ bakeries and photo opportunities. Plus some excellent coffee at Coffee@.

Some photos taken in the Tower Hamlets area.

‘Hoi Tjie Fan Dai’ at A-Fusion


Anyone speak Chinese? I’ve checked tons of dim sum menus online, but I cannot find out what ‘Hoi Tjie Fan Dai’ means. That’s what this pork (?) dish was called on the Dutch/Chinese menu.

Tjie = Jee / Gee = Pork

A-Fusion is a really nice place stuck between the mostly grisly looking shops and restaurants on Zeedijk. Once you’re inside it’s kind of hip and trendy in a cool Asian way. I tried their bubble tea, they’ve got tons of different flavours, but I have to say I thought the coffee flavoured one I tried was a little bland. I prefer the Indonesian version of this type of drink, called ‘cendol‘.

I also tried their ‘thigh’ meat (deep fried battered chicken) and siu long bao. I’m not an expert, but I think the siu long bao was too dry. Descriptions of the dish always warn for the hot broth that spills from the dumplings once you bite them.

Service was a little hapless, though I noticed they were a lot more attentive to their regulars.

I hope they like frogs

Checking my Amazon Associate reports, I notice that four people ordered Cuisinarts through the links on my sites this Quarter.

I repeat, four U2log/Whedonesque readers ordered 30 dollar Cuisinarts.

Why?

Update: I had a closer look and it appears they are all parts for a Cuisinart, so it is probably just one user expanding. Ah well, it was funny while it lasted.

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De-iceman cometh

Finally landed in Dublin at 10.30pm local time (was supposed to arrive at 8pm). I was lucky, there were people on board who had been waiting at Schiphol Airport since yesterday and the woman in front of me,who had been travelling for 24 hours, was pulled from the flight because she had never actually checked in for the flight (yet she had been given a boarding pass!)

Total chaos.

When we finally boarded, we sat waiting on the tarmac for another hour or more. We were in a queue to be de-iced, but they made a mistake and we missed our slot and had to wait some more.

De-icing was fun – they hosed the plane down under very bright lights and then sprayed something (anti-freeze?) on it. It’s a long process and I think it allowed for only 5 planes per hour to take off. Funnily my friend W., a flight attendant, was in another plane in the queue with me. We were texting each other. Aer Lingus crew said nothing about not using mobiles. They were going off left and right.

There was no food on the flight except Kitkats and Pringles. And no drinks except tomato and orange juice. ‘We are running out of coffee and the wine bottles are broken. That’ll be four euro, please.’

Too late to meet up with friends, so here I am talking to you. I’m having a chicken and stuffing sambo for dinner.

Ireland feels very mild and warm (+5). Like a blankie. ‘Rest up’, he says, but I am totally wired-uh.