Streetfood in London

One of the things I miss most about Asia is all the wonderful cheap streetfood - so far I have not been finding much of it in London. Of course there are the hot dog stands and bits and pieces at the markets - Italian pastries at Portobello Road, curries at Brick Lane Market, a couple of jalebi wallahs in Southall.

Today I had the ultimate experience - the real deal - a steamed vegetable bun at the very back of Chinatown, in a narrow street as you walk towards Charing Cross Road. For just £1, it was the best snack I've had in a long time - fluffy, tasty, fresh. Much better than the mediocre, tired food served in many restaurants.

Any more street food ideas? Here's what I found around the Internet ...

They say everyone should try jellied eels before leaving London. Hmm ... I think I'm far too squemish for that.

Part 2 of the London streetfood documentary

Chinese Pastries in London

Yes, I am going to blog about Chinatown again and you are not going to stop me. I had the most amazing pastry at the Kowloon Cake Shop, Gerrard Street. It looked like a cream-filled doughnut, except the dough was much fluffier, almost like steamed and the cream was lighter and the surface of the bun was sprinkled with coconut. HEAVEN! And it only cost 80p, darlings.




If you want to be a little more adventurous, try something like a banana and red bean paste roll. I bought that in a shop on Macclesfield Street once, it was rather interesting. Definitely not a taste that the European palate is used to. Forgotten the name of the shop, though! Sorry.

Btw. The Singaporean in London wrote a post about the Golden Gate Dessert House not so long ago. Looks worth visiting too.

Other London blogs I follow

Spreading some love among the blogging community, I thought I would let you know which other London blogs are worth reading, according to my humble opinion. (OK, not so humble. I don't do humble.)

• The Singaporean in London - personal favourite, expat thoughts, lots of Chinese food alerts


• Fresh Eyes on London - great photos of London, new one every day


• London Review of Breakfasts - self-explanatory

If you know any more, let me know.

Czech movies in London

I am a Czech girl in London and it has just occured to me that I have not posted anything Czech-related on here yet. So here's something - Czech movies coming up in London's cinemas.

26th April - Teddy Bear, at the Greenwich Picturehouse - I watched this one back home, it's very good, featuring some of my favourite Czech actors and actresses, including Anna Geislerova, Tatiana Vilhelmova, Jiri Machacek, Ivan Trojan and so on.
26th April - Of Parents and Children, at The Ritzy in Brixton
3rd May - Dolls, at The Ritzy in Brixton

Go see them!

For more Czech events in London, czech out (pun alert!) the Czech Centre.

London Tea Shops

I love tea. A friend of mine in Paris served me a mind-blowing cup of jasmine tea pearls recently. It's basically whole long strands of tea, rolled into little balls. She told me it came from a tea market in Delhi (Sunder Nagar, I think). That made me rather angry. Why did no one tell me about this place while I still lived there? So far the most exciting tea-trip I made was to the Bharat Tea Estates in Cameron Highlands, Malaysia. If you've never been to a tea plantation, you should go. The scenery is mind-blowing and it's nice to drink tea and see exactly where it's grown. They even kept some very old English traditions there - scones with strawberry jam and cream for breakfast, for example!

Determined to find some specialty teas in London, I set out on little shopping trip.

First, there is the high-street chain, Whittard of Chelsea, which can me found in a number of locations around the city. The picture here is of the Chiswick branch, where you thankfully don't have to elbow your way around in a crowd of tourists. They have a decent selection of loose leaf teas and sometimes they even stock flowering teas, but no jasmine tea pearls.

Next up, the Twinings Shop on The Strand, opposite the Royal Court of Justice, near Temple Station. The shop has been here since 1717. They didn't have the jasmine tea pearls but stocked other interesting teas - tea pressed into the shape of a heart, tea wrapped into the shape of butterflies and tea rolled up into little squiggles, which I really wanted but it cost £25 for 125 grams! Way above my budget. Most of these interesting teas were from China, but they also stock the usual suspects from the Indian subcontinent - Darjeeling, Assam and Ceylon.



Saving the best for last, The Tea House in Covent Garden. I've been to this place before but did not pay much attention to the tea after discovering a pretty incense stick holder that I fell in love with.

So, finally(!), I found the jasmine tea pearls, but for around £11 for a tiny little bag, I thought the price was a tad bit too much. In the end, I bought some rather interesting Silvery Strawberry tea balls. It's white tea sewn into the shape of a strawberry. The shop also stocks flowering teas, black tea compressed into little nests, plus all types of black, green, white, mint, jasmine and fruit tea. There's also a huge selection of teapots, cups, strainers and all kinds of other tea paraphernalia.

As far as I know, these are all the tea shops that can be found in London. If you come across any more, do let me know. And if you fancy ordering online, here are some places I found, though I haven't tested them, so no endorsements.
http://www.leafshop.co.uk/
http://www.teapigs.co.uk/
http://www.giftsoftheorient.co.uk/

Bicycle Rental in London: OYBike

You may remember I wrote about renting a bicycle in Paris and what a great idea I thought that was. It's much cheaper than the metro, more ecological and definitely more fun. So, you can imagine my excitement when I came across something similar in London the other day. See, like many young, single, working Londoners, I live in a studio. I can't get my own bike - there is just no space for it!

I saw one of these in Hammersmith and later in Shepherd's Bush. Well, in Paris the rental stations are on every corner and each one of them has at least 10 - 20 bikes. So this is a slow start. But it is a start, nevertheless! I decided to investigate ...

The company is called OYBike and here is a map of the locations where these bikes are available: http://oybike.com/OYBIKE/obhome.nsf/locations.html

Most are in west London and it seems that there are unfortunately no central London locations. They charge an initial £10 registration fee which is given to you as credit for future rentals. All rentals are free as long as you return the bike within 30 minutes, after that you are charged depending on the amount of time you use the bike.

Now the big question: Am I brave enough to tackle London's traffic?

Does the economy have a sense of humour?

I walked past this place at the weekend, near Hammersmith - the Credit Munch Cafe. Ironically, it seems to have gone tits up.

Breaking News: Soho Documentary

The BBC has done a programme called West End Jungle.

"Banned when made in 1961, this documentary offers a comprehensive insight into the history and seedy reality of the sex industry in London's Soho. Examining the consequences of the introduction of the Street Offences Act in 1959, which until then had seen as many as 10,000 prostitutes line the streets and alleys of Soho with nothing more than a deterrent of a small fine, the film explains what happened after those streets were cleaned up and looks at the many different guises as one of Britain's oldest professions continued to operate and thrive. "

Catch it on iPlayer while you can! http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00jw9cy/West_End_Jungle/