All the leaves are falling...

I think this might be my most fave time of the year! Walking home that day the temperature was perfect, not too cold but with a little chill in the air. The sky was clear and blue with just a few cloud streaks and the wind was gently swirling the leaves on the ground. The golden, red and crunchy leaves. It's so magical when they fall out of the tree as you walk by, like it's their way of saying 'Hihi!' I think I like autumn as much as I like it when it snows!

That was yesterday. Today it's spitting all over me. You know when you speak to someone who is a little over excited with their speech and get a little too close and you have flying spit all over the place? That's how the sky is treating me today, spitting all over my parade!

So great to have autumn here, you don't really get the same effect in Sydney and def not in SEAsia.

Yay to pretty leaves covering my pathways.. Till they start to decompose and be yucky of course ;)

All the leaves are falling
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Mr Mooncake Prat

Its a little late (ok a lot late), but we only just ate our mooncake. He was cute, plus he was JLO friendly as he only had lotus paste in his insides. I did wish he had some egg yolks though, haven't had double yolk mooncake in so long!

The packaging made it look like he should have had legs but no, we were victims/suckers of cute packaging and so Mr pig seemed to morph into mr mooncake rat once opened.

Mr mooncake pig/rat (= prat). A little tough on the outside but soft and sweet inside. aww!

Mooncake Pig
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Becomes Mooncake Rat!
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Easy friendly Mash

Potatoes are a super favourite in our household. They are easy to eat, easy to make and easy to prep. Plus they keep well for the next day if you have any leftovers! Win-win all round I say.

What I haven't been able to do is make a good dairy free mash without causing commotion in the kitchen. I hate the mashing thingies with the grid, it causes me post potato stress as the washing is so hard! Plus most creamy mashes call for milk, which is of course not friendly for all..

That day I was making soup so I went a little crazy with purchasing potatos and discovered that by Thursday I had gigantic proportions of potato left. Not that there were many of them, I had 2 giant ones so though I'd make some mash.

I usually just smash my potatoes as it's much easier than trying to make it creamy but this time I boiled them a little longer than usual till they were breaking apart (skinless potatoes). After draining the water from the pot I chucked in a handful of fresh rosemary and a good splash of olive oil. I mixed it a little then covered the lid and left it for a few mins. Using a strong spatula, I stirred while adding in more olive oil till I got the consistency I liked. Salted, a bit of a stir and high praise from JLO!

Rosemary mash
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Chicken for the Emperor

I get a little silly when I go to the Asian supermarkets here, perhaps it's because there is an abundance of Asian grocers in Sydney and here they just aren't the same. I like the massive warehouse sort in north/south London - Wing Yip or See Woo. The variety and prices are so much better than the stores in Chinatown and I tend to buy things I don't really need or will ever use.. Quite the same as hypermarket shopping - I'm just a fantastic impulse shopper!

I found this brilliant little packet of emperors chicken spice mix, which reminds me of what my family had a few times in Malaysia called beggars chicken. Not sure why the emperor is eating the sane thing as beggars (or the other way round?), but it is super yum and really easy to make.

The emperor chicken packet is about £1.50 and in it you get a pouch of powder mix and the necessary wrappers (one plastic wrap and a foil wrap). JLO and I usually get a whole chicken just under 1.5kg off our dinner, so we get some leftover for lunch the next day. I prefer the corn fed organic chicken, it seems to be more tender after cooking.

Wash the chicken, dry and place in the center of the plastic wrap with the foil wrap underneath. Rub all over with the powder mix and (as an extra touch) sprinkle gojiberries all over and place some inside the chicken. Wrap the chicken in the plastic, then the foil. Steam for 2 hours. Simples!

Steaming as opposed to baking is the best as the juices provide great gravy and makes eating any unloved part of the chicken easy. This is easy to make, and makes me look like a regular nigella at home as JLO loves it too.

I'm so glad that's what I'm having for lunch today. Thanks Wing Yip and the magical power of microwaves, without it I couldn't have yummy leftovers!

The magical packet
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Emperors Chicken, in it final glory state
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Burger & Lobster

We've been to this restaurant more than a couple of times now, and the love affair is still going strong!

It all started closer to the beginning of this year, when PMan decided that we should try out this place in Mayfair that only serves lobsters and burgers (surprise surprise). No reservations were allowed and you had to turn up, put your name down and wait for a table. There were 7 of us, so we knew we had a long wait ahead of us! Pman got there at 5pm to put his name down - and JLO and I turned up about half an hour later to meet him at the pub.
Any guesses for what time we got a table? 
10pm. TEN. By the time 9pm came we were at our wits end, but it was either waste the 4 hours or wait for the additional one..

Needless to say we did enjoy it, otherwise we wouldn't still be giving them our hard earned money. Since then they have opened a branch in Soho, which is the one we frequent most often (apparently you can book a table if you have more than 6 people). Turn up at 6 and you shouldn't have a problem getting a table (except fri and sat nights). The menu is fairly straightforward: burger, lobster or a lobster roll. All served with salad and fries, which are pretty awesome as they are skinny! Everything is £20, and you can upsize your lobster if you wish.. But seriously, a normal one is enough even for a lobster lover like me. I go through all the parts, probably why I'm always the last to finish. Am pretty excited that they are opening a third branch soon!

How does this compare to the lobsters in Sydney? Well the ones I've had in Sydney have been at the fish market and I remember it being pretty dry, but the ones I've had at Chinese restaurants have been awesome. How I miss lobster noodles! We've been trying the different lobster noodles here in London, and I think we like the one at Pearl Liang the best. With JLO's allergies, we have to get vermicelli instead of egg noodles and they do it really yum!

While I love Burger and Lobster, it can't compare to the seafood in Aus and the yummy seafood restaurant we go to in Malaysia.. Makes me miss home!

the Burger & lobster bibs
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nom  nom nom nom grilled lobster with fries, salad and garlic lemon butter!
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Car Lashes

A white fiat 500 flirted with me today. It had on some car lashes and was so cute (though a little prissy I guess..) it made me love the little zippy car even more!

It's around £10k for an automatic (shamed to say I lost my manual driving skills about 2 seconds after I last used them back in 2001) second hand 2011 model; and £14k upwards for a nicely kitted out brand new one. I think the super standard manual model starts at £9,960 but doesn't even have air conditioning included. It's a £550 extra! Reminds me of the lower cost airlines, sure it only cost £30 for the seat, but £9 for admin, £16 for luggage, £10 for food and then a credit card % just to round it all off. Lovely.

Back to cars, I really do miss my car in Sydney. Had plenty of great times in that car esp with the top down in summer - TL with her hat! Good thing LC and Billy are making good use of it as he loves the wind in his face; I hear he tried to jump out once. (Billy is a greying 7 year old staffie who loves to dig holes and eat mandarins. Wow, how did that manage to sound like a match.com ad!)

There are much fewer Japanese cars here compared to Sydney. That day we were strolling outside Harrods (as you do when you are feeling poor) and it took us 10 mins before we saw a Toyota! Choices here are so much better, and cheaper in comparison.. If only the lottery would hurry up and pick me as a winner. I'd so go out and buy a new fiat500; either the Colour Therapy (super cool colour pops) or the fiat 500BYGUCCI (it's like a giant handbag right?). Awesome.

Look who flirted with me today!
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Off to Battle!

A group of us went to Battle today, where the battle of Hastings occurred. A very significant battle in English history, but I shan't bore you with my long winded history storytelling skills!
(on a slightly geeky note, how cool is it that the station we got off at is called Battle?)

Train Ticket - London to Battle!
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At the Battle Station (hehe)
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We left pretty early (845 train from charing cross), but had to stand in the rain outside for a bit as the grounds weren't open yet. £3 pink and purple umbrellas later, we were on our way in to witness the coolest re-enactment I've ever seen. We had a good 4 hours before the actual battle but the most frustrating thing was the weather. Rain, sun, rain, sun, rain, rain, rain... Seriously, make up your mind! I was not clever and wore my toms which were only a week old. So silly considering I have perfectly good wellies that would have been perfect. The pictures really don't do any justice to the yuckness of the weather.. somehow all my pictures make it look like a great summer day. In actual fact they had to cancel the event the next day as the ground was too wet and dangerous, not to mention all the mud!

3pm came and the excitement levels were really high - people were getting antsy that they couldn't see and others were pushing to get to the front. Was a little frustrating but for a while (due the fact I wasn't born a tall Asian), I stood behind a cameraman and watched his screen for a bit of the battle. People left as it started raining again, and we managed to secure a good viewing spot just in time to see the king get killed. 

The battle was pretty cool. Hundreds of men dressed up with weapons recreating the clash of the two sides. I was surprised at the scale of the event, plus there were actual horses!

Top 3 things to bring if you decide to go
- Wellies!
- Waterproof picnic mat
- a camera! The place is beautiful.


Thanks Tate for the awesome weekend activity!

The Battle of Hastings - It was canceled the next day due to bad weather
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The Old Abbey
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The Battle warm up!
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Pineapple Pastry joy

While JLO was in Taiwan attending our friends wedding, VLing brought him to buy what is apparently the best pineapple pastry in town. I think he was quoted as "if Elaine doesn't like these we are no longer friends". I've been told the queue was half an hour or so, thus I was super eager to try one!

They come individually wrapped with 12 in a box, so they are great as they seem to keep well. I wasn't sure what to expect, and was secretly hoping they would be like giant pineapple tarts (love pineapple tarts that we get during Chinese new year).

When I finally got my hands on one, I was surprised that they looked so perfect. In my head I thought they would be more man-handled and less from a mould. However, the pastry was soft and melted in my mouth, and the pineapple was way less sweet than I expected. Overall, the inside and out work well together, and it really is like an easy to eat giant pineapple tart.

Its a good thing I like them as I now have 24 to eat :) Looks like we can continue to be pals VLing!

close up of the pineapple pastry
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Chia Te packaged goods!
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My Croatian oopsie

I broke a shot glass that we bought while visiting Croatia (it was a lovely trip, swimming was super), and boy was JLO upset at me. He decided to place the 3 shot glasses on the book shelf below where the other shotties live, and while I was trying to fit my new cookbooks on the book shelf I heard a heart shattering crash of cheap ceramic.
Normally I wouldn't concern myself too much with €2 items but this was only one of three shot glasses JLO insisted on getting while in Croatia. Reading back that statement I'm not sure whether to laugh or cry at our € spend on cheap mass produced souvenirs.

So to sum up, he was upset it broke and I was upset he put the silly thing there and we still had shrapnel on the floor and a piece cut my foot; really there were no winners in this..
Except 'Andrews of Hamstead' which is where I bought the super glue to fix all our problems. Glue: £2.89; shot glass: €2.50. Ridiculous.

Oh and after all that, my cookbooks don't even fit on the damn shelf.

just call me dr fix it
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Anyway, a little bit on our trip to Croatia not too long ago (over the long weekend at the end of Aug). The 8 of us were keen to be sunned up, and the trip was lovingly organized by GC who managed to get us a boat to take us around. I don't mean just during the day, no, we actually stayed on the boat for 2 nights! Our skipper Mladen (pronounced Mh-La-Dun) was very experienced and took us around - he kind of looked like James bond in his bright yellow shorts. Too bad I didn't take a picture for fear of looking like a stalker.

Croatia was really lovely; sparkling waters and endless views
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Basically the boat had 3 bedrooms, each room slept 2 with an additional 2 beds in the living area. It was crammed, but cosy as well - I might have been grumbling about the room size originally as we got the biggest room and I was feeling guilty, I didn't want everyone else to feel bad that their rooms were smaller, so I went on a bit.. oops. I concluded that I was just too big for the rooms. But it was our own boat - very cool.

This was what we did as spoilt children on the boat:

Day 1: Check in at Split (where we got picked up from the Split airport and driven to the boat), sailed to Brač island to swim off the boat, and then to Hvar island. We visited the old town of Hvar, where we bought one shot glass (of course) and slept at the Pakleni islands in front of Hvar, a place called Palmižana. The most amazing thing was that the waters we were on were so clear, even at night as you could see right down to the bottom. At this island, Mladen took us to this incredible restaurant for dinner where we had platters of lobster, prawn, fish, squid, fish soup, cray fish.. an ocean of seafood (and lots of other starters) magically appeared on our table. I'm hungry all over again just thinking about it. The bill was pricey at just under £50 each, but it was worth it - our first meal was a hit!

Day 2: We continued sailing from Hvar to Korčula island (cue broken shot glass), stopped for lunch at a small restaurant and did some swimming at the island of Šćedro. This island only has about 30 residential houses, and no commercial development is allowed so that no one can ruin the island. The restaurant here served meat and seafood, and the bill only came to £76 for 9 of us and we were stuffed. Good food at good prices - seems a theme here!

Day 3: Our last day on the boat! How time flies when you are on holiday. We sailed from Korčula to the small island called Badija for some last-chance swimming and then went to Pelješac Peninsula which was our check-out location, a place called Orebić. The journey was long - at least 3 hours, which we spent flopped over different parts of the boat sleeping and drowning ourselves in sunblock. At Orebić we bid farewell to Mladen and waited in the hot sun for our transfer to old town Dubrovnik (third shottie).

Day 4: We stayed within the old town and it's very touristy there - I guess you can tell as everything is catered for the English speaking tourists. Lovely cobblestone streets and windy paths with local's homes and accommodation seemingly built into the walls. Its an amazing town, and am glad we got a chance to take the cable car up to see the view. 

A couple of friends swimming off our boat; like your own very gigantic swimming pool
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Overall my experience of Croatia was fantastic - good food, good company, good weather. I would certainly head back and get another boat offering. Its nowhere near as expensive as Greece, and the different islands are not as touristy. The views and food in Greece were amazing as well, so if I had money to burn I'd go back to Greece; Croatia is a lovely cheaper alternative though!

Meal for one please

As JLO has been away this whole week, I've been addicted to food-for-one meals and eating plenty of green salad (lux leaves only of course!). It's amazing how much one person can eat; my weekly shop managed to fit into one bag. One. The rice cooker must feel neglected by now but should be quaking in it's little made-in-china holder as JLO returns tomorrow to continue what appears to be his mission to turn into a giant rice grain.

I've always wanted to appear on a supermarket sweep sort of game show. How fun it would be to sweep the shelves dry and not care about being judged that I have taken not one, not 2, but 3 packets of toilet paper. Heh. The Asian in me shines through.

So, I've been sampling the meals for one that various supermarkets have on offer and there is so much choice here compared to Sydney, it's really appalling to think of what was on offer in Coles. Tonight I had a seafood pie (which had proper prawns, salmon, cod and topped with mashed potato), a great mix of salad leaves, and some excellent smoked salmon. Under £10 for all of that! Plus walking into an M&S food always feels like an after-work food joint where the wealthy but not too pretentious social-class-A-group type people shop. Everyone is so well dressed I feel like a hobo sometimes. In other words, I don't feel like I'm going to get caught up in a hold up or get rolled while purchasing some brioche, or some figs, or a bottle of wine, or fresh lemonade, or cheese... What was I saying?

Anyway, on the matter of the battle of the supermarkets: M&S food wins. That is all.

Oktoberfest

Last weekend, we went to Munich for Oktoberfest. Now its not something I have wanted to do, like ever, but my friends (and esp JLO) were very excited about going. So much so that we even made a groupie-like t-shirt to showcase our lameness and awesomeness at the same time.

Stein of Hacker-Pschorr beer 2012
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This is the extent of the keen-bean friends I have: we left on Friday night and arrived in Munich at close to midnight, and flew back to London on Sunday night. We were in Munich for one weekend - literally!

Good thing we had a local friend who steered us in the right direction when it came to not having tickets for a tent! For those who have no idea what Oktoberfest is about, its basically a big carnival in one location with beer tents that people can sit around all day and drink in. The tricky bit is actually getting into the beer tents - there are massive structures which house 10K people (sure felt like it) and if you weren't one of the fortunate ones who managed to get a reserved table, you would have to queue up outside in the morning to get in. Cue us. 

We had to meet our mate at 745 at the main station, but on a positive note (though I don't really enjoy beer) I had a stein of beer in front of be at 9am. Too early to drink beer you say? I have to agree. The inside of the beer tent is pretty cool; heaps of tables and decoration never to be found in my house. We hung out in the Pschorr tent, singing and drowning our sleep deprived brains with steins of golden liquid and overpriced roasted chicken.

Pschorr Tent 2012
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Inside the Pschorr Tent 2012
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To be allowed to serve at Oktoberfest, the beer must be brewed in Munich and have a minimum of about 6% alcohol content. The breweries that can make Oktoberfest beer are
Augustiner-Brau, Hacker-Pschorr-Brau, Lowenbrau, Paulaner-Brau, Spatenbrau and Hofbrau-Munchen.

Augustiner-Brau Beer Tent 2012
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Decorated Gingerbread hearts sold over the festival which started as a wedding celebration
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Brief history of Oktoberfest: King Ludwig was marrying Princess Therese and there were festivities to celebrate the royal event. Citizens of Munich were all invited and had such a jolly time that they celebrated every year on the same field called Theresienwiese and from then on the festival has become the world's largest fair. Plenty of rides (seriously there were so many), entertainment, game stalls, food... there was something for everyone!

Rides and more at Oktoberfest 2012
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So after a very hectic Saturday, we did a walking tour of the city on Sunday and went with the Sandemans walking tour. I'd previously done one with them in Amsterdam and was impressed; this one didn't let me down either. Heard plenty of stories about the history of Munich, many related to (surprise surprise), beer!

Alcoholed and pork knuckled up, we returned home on Sunday night only to find the Heathrow Express closed! Kinda expected though right ;)

vegan (egg&dairy free) banana muffins

Recently I've been feeling rather homely, so a couple of weekends ago I pulled my partner (JLO - who is of no association to any singing competition and does not look great in a glittery dress or use Venus razors) to sainsbury to get a whole heap of baking supplies. It's really not the best place to start, but it's got all the necessary ingredients plus I got these silicon muffin trays for about £3 each; great buy in my very limited baking experience!

JLO has a few allergies to food products, so all baking needs to be vegan-ish. While it might sound like a challenge, I really don't know any different! I found a couple of vegan muffin recipes online and went baking! Super easy stuff.

JLO-friendly BananaMuffins
Mash bananas(3), oil(1/4cup), sugar(1cup) - mix well; sift & add the flour(2cups), salt(1 tsp), baking soda(1tsp)!
Bake in 180degreesC for about 20-25 mins, on testing a toothpick should come up clean. I like to leave mine at least 25mins so I get a slightly harder top. makes 1 dozen.

I also made some icing but it wasn't that great.

Done! But just for fun I added in some dairy free chocolate - love how the chocolate breaks up the muffin texture and oozes out..

My first baking experience was only hampered by the broken light in the oven.. Ok I lie. The light hasn't worked for weeks now, and frankly I'm a little sick of bending down and using my iPhone light to check on food in the oven. It always gets a giggle out of JLO though. I'm sure mr phone is sick of getting food all over the screen as I keep unlocking it to use the light! how on earth do i fix oven lights?

I will try something else next time.. yay to baking! (and bribing JLO with yum treats into washing up after my fun :) )

vegan banana muffins with icing
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fresh muffins out of the oven in my new muffin trays
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Welcome!

Welcome to the orangesponge!

Hi & big welcome to my blog. I've been inspired by a friend (who would likely refer to herself as Miss K) to get back into blogging and here I will be writing about my experiences living in London, covering most of my weekend adventures and my thoughts on living in this great area of the world. I've previously lived in Asia and in Australia (some might call this the Pacific) and its likely I will be referencing this in many of my posts. Its been a while since I blogged, so forgive me for any views which you don't share, and if you agree with me or have any thoughts to add feel free to drop me a line. 
Why orangesponge? Actually I'm not too sure why myself; I love the colour orange and sponges are absorbent (not too sure how thats related to anything though).. on spending some time with my friend Google, I've discovered that entering 'orangesponge' returns a whole lot of orange sponge cake recipes. How anyone will ever find this blog among the orange goodness out there, I'm not sure..

I hope this provides some sort of an interesting read, and helps brighten your day!

x
E

Olympic Park, London 2012
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