From C&R to C&R Izakaya

السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته and good day!

It has been so long that I've updated this blog, it seemed so rusty now. So, I thought the best way to start again is to talk about food. haha...

Last weekend I met up with a friend, and of course, usually meeting friends equals to food. She suggested that we go to a Malaysian restaurant called C&R at Bayswater. So we planned to meet at Malaysia Hall for Asr prayer since Asr is around 1.30pm now and we walked together to the place. 

I've seen the place before many times, but never really had the chance to eat there. I know where it is located, so we walked and when we passed the store, I asked my friend, 'this is it right?' 

Then we looked up to the sign, it has changed, but I still saw the name C&R. even though the font become smaller and the larger word is Izakaya. According to my friend, the place has been refurbished. Since I haven't actually been here, I took her word for it.



This is what it looks like then....                                                       This is what it looks like now

The ambience of this place has changed since they changed the furnishing. It felt as in a fine dining restaurant, very comfy.

Even the menu has been changed. The main dish is now Japanese, not Malaysian anymore. I thought the price was a bit high at first, but after we received the dishes, the portion was huge and suitable for the price.

These were the things that we ordered. 

These are mocktails. Non-alcoholic cocktails. They do serve alcohol at this establishment, so choose carefully. The pink one is called the pink lady (the only ingredient I could recall is cranberry..haha..) and the next one is with lime, honey and soda. Very refreshing!

This is eel. I've eaten eel before which I love, but these two friends of mine never tried them before. So, I insisted they tried some. It was delicious, but they still need a bit more to get used to it. LOL

This is my dish which is seafood ramen. The dish is in a somewhat huge bowl, filled with A LOT of seafood. Yummeah!!!

This is my bestie's dish, spicy ramen. It is quite spicy but just nice for someone with pallet like ours. Filled with beef.

They also sell my favourite dish here, Takoyaki!!! I've been wanting to find an authentic halal Japanese restaurant that sells these, and finally, I did!! The best!!! Look at all those fish shavings. The portion has five takoyaki. 

Overall damage was about £20 each. Not bad..

Until next time...

Dum Dum Donutterie and Tun M?

السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته and good day!

I once saw a video someone posted one Facebook about cronuts and crones, which is a combination of doughnuts and croissants/pastries. Check out this video of it.

We went to look for it with a friend of mine that lived nearby. She told us that there are actually two Dum Dum Donutterie, one at Brick Lane and one at Shoreditch. We found the one at Brick Lane first, but it was closed, not sure whether for good or just for the day.

 

So we kept walking. The east end has a lot of street art. We managed to capture a few.

 

There's also a mosque at Brick Lane. It's quite big as well. I love this pole. Very distinct that you can see from afar.

  

So if you are ever near here, you'll know that there's a mosque nearby for you to perform your prayer in comfort. 

 

Here's another mural. Underneath it, there's a jerk chicken stall. It smells nice, and it's halal!

We kept on walking and suddenly..

I suddenly smelled something so good, and when I looked up, I saw this store full of chocolates....

Look at these heavenly balls of cocoa..yummmeah!!

There're so many different kinds to choose from. It's a bit pricey, though. 100g for £7.50. fuh!!

We walked around further towards the Shoreditch High Street overground station where the BoxPark is located. The BoxPark is like the shipping container-type building where there are various types of stores from food to clothing. 

The Boxpark has two storeys, we went upstairs to have a look first.

The Dumdums is located downstairs.

tadaa...

Greeted by these heavenly delights.

Luckily as we entered there were no customers, so we get to ask a few questions and had some time to have our pick. While the staff were preparing our treat, the lines started to grow all of the sudden. I guess we attract people..haha!!

Tadaa...this is a giant crones (Donut+Croissant+ice cream). The mighty combo!!! Woohoo...This little baby is called very berry. 

The ice cream was so delish! There were fresh strawberries inside!! and topped with more mixed berries. 

Just to show you how the pastry actually looked like. The white stuff is condensed milk, I think. 

We also bought one cronut, just to taste. It was awesome!!! Not too sweet, just enough that makes you crave for more.

Luckily there were these lounge chairs beside the boxpark for us to sit and relax. There's even a big screen, but it's showing the sports channel.  

I just want to mention also the other day, we went to a dialogue session by the previous Prime Minister of Malaysia, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad. I'll discuss his talk in a later post. For now...just pictures!!

We also get to meet and shake hands with his wife, Tun Dr Hasmah. I've always respected this lady. There were so many people. We could've had a chance to take closer pictures with her, but we didn't want to hold her more than it already has. She wasn't able to stand for much longer. 

Another interesting presence there was matluthfi (a famous vlogger). He was in London for a Youtube summit. I didn't notice him eventhough we stayed at the lobby chatting until there were no one left. That's some heated discussion. haha...

Until next time...

Festive Weekend

السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته and good day!

This weekend was full of festivities. On Saturday, there was the Malaysia Festival (previously known as Malaysia Night). This festival has been my routine thing every year. 2013, 2014.

 

This displayed Lotus sports car is one of the exhibition that is being showcased every year.  This car is manufactured here, but I just knew that DRB-HICOM owned the company through its subsidiary Proton. Awesome right! One of the great achievements of Malaysian company.

 

I didn't do any posting for the 2015 since we came very late and didn't stay very long.

 

Just bought some dinner and came here to meet my friend who just arrived for her masters.

 

We did our bachelors degree together in IIUM and she's continuing her masters degree in King's College last year. 

 

This year, we came a little bit earlier after finishing my lab work. There weren't a lot of people just yet, so it's great to look around.

 

We suddenly bumped into the Inspector General of Police (IGP) of Malaysia. We actually saw someone that my bestie knows, and it turns out, she was accompanying the IGP and his wife. We got to talk with the Puan Sri, asking where they head to, she asked what we studied and prayed for our success. She was very friendly and nice.

 

 I mostly love browsing and shop for food that are quite hard to find here in London. I found some Longan!!! But it was expensive!! 7.50GPB which is equivalent to RM35+..woah...

 

Neelofar Hijab made it here. huhu..I know these things are quite the catch back home.  

Guess who else I met.

 

Dato' Seri Ahmad Farid Ridzuan, the  CEO of the Television Networks and International Business, CEO of the Media Prima Berhad. I guess they were doing some report about the festival.

 

On the next day, as every year, there was the Japanese Matsuri festival. My aim was only two:

 

Motchi...this one is matcha motchi..huhu...it rolls off the tongue by saying this 

 

and the main aim...TAKOYAKI!!! I've been craving for these for 2 years. Last few years, we didn't get to buy these since we didn't manage to go to Trafalgar Square two days in a row. The day we did manage to go, it was already very late, so they ran out. Looks good right?? hehe... 

 

We found some dorayaki (Doraemon's favourite food) too...

 

 

There were also chances for visitors to try on the traditional kimono for 3GBP. This guy isn't Japanese by the way...haha...he's Bruneian. But he did look the part. =P

 

Cute/weird Domo which  is the official mascot of Japan's public broadcaster NHK.

 

The great part of the Japanese Matsuri was that they have many stalls with Japanese crafts and culture (anime, manga, cute plushies..), which I thought the Malaysia Fest is missing. Malaysia should introduce our arts and crafts more as well as our tourism and food. The only upper-hand that the Malaysia Fest had compared to the Japanese Matsuri was the performances. 

 

The Japanese Matsuri did show some very interesting performances such as this one, which is the Odori Deer Dance that is the folk dance widely practiced at the north-east of Japan.

 That's it for now. There was also one magician that gave an awesome show, integrating tradition and the art of magic.

Until next time...