Lunch @ John's

Today's lunch was on MK today courtesy of payday, yay! R & Miss Kitty ran through the rain-filled streets of London to reach Ekachai.

This oriental dining room is tucked away in the Liverpool Street Parade. It is ideal if you are pressed for time, but want to sit down and eat good food in a casual atmoshere. According to the website, ekachai is to the thais like john is to the english, pierre to the french, luigi to the italians.

For starters, curried samosas and sesame prawn fingers. R ordered the crispy duck salad and sparkling water and being the seafood junkie/alcoholic that she is, MK had the garlic and pepper seafood washed down with a tsing-tao.

Now, a few quick criticisms: the sesame prawn fingers were somewhat disappointing. Maybe, R & MK need to experience more sesame prawn toast outside of the usual sphere of Chinese & Japanese cuisine, but this dish contained hardly any prawn and was soggy inside as though it was made of raw, eggy dough? Is this normal?

Then came MK's main dish: prawns, mussels, fishballs & fishcakes in a garlic & pepper sauce on a bed of lettuce,hey but hello where was the squid as specified in the menu? It was the only reason why Miss Kitty ordered this particular dish.
R was also disappointed with his dish (then again, he is extremely hard to impress): crispy duck, sliced and tossed in a plum vinaigrette with julienne of cucumber, tomatoes & spring onions on a bed of salad. However, Miss K totally loved his dish (apart from the red chillies, although a big fan of the spicy stuff, would have preferred if they were in my saucier dish!).

Total: £27.80, bit pricey for the amount of food we received. For the same price we could have feasted at either Tai Wu or Sapparo Ichiban. But, alas, both are south of the river and us being in the city, you kinda have to bend over and take what these city folk give ya.

Was expecting a little more value from a restaurant named after the common man.

Find Surma!

…just a little, Discworld Noir joke (ahem!).

Yes, well anyway, after all the fuss about this restaurant being voted Best Indian Restaurant in East Dulwich, Miss Kitty decided to find Surma and decide for herself.

Luckily, she decided this on Sunday, when the All-You-Can-Eat for £6.95 deal is on!!
After ordering a large bottle of Kingfisher beer, Miss Kitty padded her way to the buffet, plate in hand.

Well, there were plenty of poppadoms, an array of chutneys and pickles, a cornucopia of nan bread and a bucket of rice. The curries were not as abundant: the trusty Chicken Korma sat there looking very sweet and yellow, Chicken Sag looked saturated in oil and Chicken Tandoori looked tired and dry. However, it was very tasty, the Korma, although fluorescent, contain chopped almonds and there was a Prawn Sag which, to Miss Kitty's delight, contained more prawns than sauce. Plus lots of the overlooked Vegetable Pakura, which was crispy and packed full of chilli.

To top it all off, Miss Kitty ordered a Mango Delight, which was a mango shell filled with sorbet.

Is it the best Indian Restaurant in East Dulwich? Miss Kitty's mission is to spend more of her Sundays indulging in other such restaurants in the area before to be able to complete that comparison!

Gung Hay Fat Choy!

After her Dog Day Afternoon, Miss Kitty was intent upon seeing the Chinese New Year Parade, as she was convinced it would bring her luck for the new year, the year of the pig!

And being a monkey under the Chinese Zodiac, Miss Kitty spent the entire day monkeying around and chasing the red and white lions whilst they danced down smokey alleyways that were eventually cordoned off by police officers.
The crowd was immoveable, but MK still found a way to get close to the two lions and almost feel their breath, whilst the drummers beat out that hypnotic rhythm which has stayed in heart ever since.

The lion dancers would go from shop to shop in China Town to "choy chang" (採青 lit. picking the greens), as the business is suuposed to tie a red envelope filled with money to a head of lettuce and hang it high above the front door. The lion would then approach the lettuce like a curious cat, consume the lettuce and spit out the leaves but not the money. The lion dance is supposed to bring good luck and fortune to the business and the dancers receive the money as reward.

It was all great fun, and Miss Kitty enjoyed it very much. She finisehed off the day by eating a Chocolate Brownie Sundae and then proceeded to spend lots of money on Chinese plastic charms: a blue glass pig, a wooden pink pig, a dragon lantern with a pearl in it's mouth, a goat shaped lantern and a Hello Kitty-imitation wall charm which has light and sound effects! All now adorn Miss Kitty's walls, so that she can remember the day with warm fondness...until the next Chinese New Year!

Temaki-tty

...and so the Sapparro Ichiban is!

Ok, so they've swapped the meditatively-focused minimalist look of plain square white tables with origami paper, swans coloured glass starfish and plastic bonsai trees, but the food is till excellent quality and value! Miss Kitty has been to quite a few Japanese restaurants around London, and none seem to compare in presentation, flavour and price with the Sapparo.

G & MK had an assortment of starters: Agadeshi Tofu, Tuna & Salmon Sashimi and the famous Salmon & Avacodo Fashion Sandwiches, which look identical to English tea-party, no crust sandwich squares but taste authentically Japanese.
For mains, G had Chicken Teriyaki Bento Box (no surprise there then!) and MK had a Seafood Ramen with Udon Noodles, which was served in a small black cauldron.

Washed down with a crisp Sapparo beer, Miss Kitty started feeling more feline.
Down with Dog Day Afternoons!

Dog Day Afternoon

Saturday 17 February and Miss Kitty is spending a lazy Saturday afternoon, sulking, plucking her eyebrows and painting her nails, when she suddenly gets a call from her little bro, Guybrush (lol, he'll hate me for that!)…he's bored and want's to go out somewhere. So, being the good big sis that she is, Miss Kitty slaps on the warpaint, bejewelled and clothed leaves her lair on a mission to entertain Guybrush.

First stop was Horniman's Museum, said hi to the very grumpy-looking goats and then gallivanted around the gardens. There were a lot of hand-holding couples about, which Miss Kitty would have sneered at if she wasn't feeling so pathetically vulnerable as she was that day.

But all introspection ceased when we entered the Museum...

The tour started at the new Aquarium, which dare she say, Miss Kitty wasn't too impressed with. Maybe, it was due to the fact that most of the exhibits were missing, or that the prized jellyfish were aimlessly drifting around in a blank tank look as though they had been literally bored to death. Hearing a young boy call out frantically, "Mummy, this one looks dead", confirmed my fears.

After, a brief looking-over of the colourful and kitsch voodoo shrines in the token African exhibition, Guybrush and MK set off to the Great White Bear exhibition. Here we shrank at the 8 foot, snarling polar bear standing with paws poised and bare teeth slavering albeit stuffed and in a glass case. The exhibition was a collection of photos of dead and stuffed polar bears, which Miss Kitty didn't like at all. Surely those who kill wild animals to parade as trophies are suffering from short stature or undersized genitalia, or probably both?

Anyway, Miss Kitty & Guybrush were only a few canopic jars and a gigantic walrus away from viewing the entire Museum and as the sun set, all was not lost for Guybrush suggested that they go to the best restaurant in South-East London for dinner…

Love Cats

The most dreaded day in the calendar for Miss Kitty, even more so than Friday the 13th is February the 14th…and so this Valentines' Day, knives were out and ready for love's slung arrows.

But thank the Worldwide Web for e-cards, MK sent out some pretty ones with black roses and gothic gravestones to her girlfriends, and she received some interesting ones back…

After mysteriously vapourising from her desk at 5pm, Miss Kitty scampered down to Covent Garden where she met R and they had a meal at Boulevard Brasserie

It was quite a quaint place overlooking the dizzying lights of theatreland. There was a slightly, sickening attempt to set the mood...the tables were scattered with heart-shaped foil confetti and Lindt chocolates. Fortunately, this was completely ruined by the appalling range of pop music playing which made neither R nor myself in the mood for romance e.g. Akon's 'Lonely'.

Both R & MK ordered grilled goats cheese on focaccia bread with tomato chutney for starters. This was then followed by roast salmon fillet with rosemary & garlic crushed new potatoes and hollandaise sauce for R, and duck confit served with cassoulet beans and caramelised baby onions pour moi.

All washed this down with two bottles of Domaine du Mordoc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Vin du Pays d’Oc (2004), and we were staggering along the street of Covent garden in search of St. Martins Lane.

Our tipsy tomfoolery was appropriately silenced when we entered the Coliseum and were greeted with disapproving stares and shakes of the head by the theatre staff. Being 20 minutes late for The Marriage of Figaro, is not something to be proud of and so once being let into the hall, we were made to stand at the back in shame. And rightly so.

This was to be the first operatic performance that R & MK had ever experienced, save for the sopranic strains of students in the Covent Garden Market.

It was quite interesing to see The Marriage of Figaro, based near Seville but ideologically rooted in pre-revolutionary France, somehow fetched up in an English stately home of the early Thirties.

But unfortunately, the strain of standing, heat of the densely packed hall and el vino coursing through veins caused R & MK to leave the performance during the intermission.

And within 30 minutes, back in good old Honor Oak Park and to bar Equal where couples were getting it on whilst listening to some of Miss Kitty's favourite 80's tunes. She was embarrassed to have known the words to Alexander O'Neal's "If You Were Here Tonight" and "Mind Blowing Decisions" by Heatwave, but this soon passed after drinking a few glasses of champagne thanks to Equal's 2 for 1 Wednesday deal.

R & MK then retired with two bottles of Cava later and proceeded to watch Going Overboard, a film so unfunny that Miss Kitty was rolling on her back with laughter..now that was a 99p well spent!

Kitty Sark

It was a couple of Sundays ago when R & Yours Truly decided to be brave and venture away from the bosomy warmth of SE23 into the unchartered, pirate-infested waters of Greenwich, home of the famous Cutty Sark.

Having no interest in the ship itself since it is now infested with small children, we stepped straight off the dock of the Docklands Light Railway and headed toward Desperados, a Mexican Tapas Bar that serves a mean tequila beer and Miss Kitty's favourite cocktail, Spidersweb, which has the perfect partnership of Goldschlager & Strawberries. R & MK proceeded to stuff themselves with a range of snacks: Jalapeno Poppers (jalepeno peppers stuffed with soft cheese and deep fried in breadcrumbs), Calamari, Stuffed Mushrooms and, of course, Nachos.

However, once making our way towards Greenwich Market Square, hunger kicked in which we quickly plugged up with salmon and avocado temaki, spicy tuna rolls and miso soup from the sushi stall they have there, mmm 風味がよい!

Finally, we decided to end our gastro-tour of SE18 with red wine and cheese at the good, ole Café Rouge!

Harry Altman rules!

Miss Kitty has recently joined her local Video Shop, or rather DVD Rental Store. It is called Visual Eyes, and although does not contain the largest collection of entertainment, it seems to cater for quality rather than quantity. On her first visit, Miss Kitty indulged in the following:

Spellbound - no not the Hitchcock film, this is the documentary about the U.S Spelling Bee. Miss K quite enjoyed this, it had a gentle, jazzy swing kinda like a Snoopy cartoon. And how incredibly mature and intelligent were these youngsters, why at their age Miss Kitty was climbing pear trees to watch the sunset and leaving offerings out for the fairies...

Children of Men - bleak and grey, Miss Kitty wasn't terribly fond of this and the characters weren't entirely convincing. However, the soundtrack is pretty interesting and there is a 6 minute climactic battle scene which apparently took place in one uncut shot.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - now this is an orignal film, and Miss Kitty totally loves romantic sci-fi's! Still what else can you expect from Michel Gondry but vision pure, limitless, surreal and inhibited...he is my hero.

Miss Kitty pulls a sickie!

Well, since the weather had been soooo dismal that Miss Kitty and her friend R, decided one day last week not to go to work at all, but to spend the entire day in various pubs, bars and eateries in the SE23 area. We like to think of ourselves as celebrating National Sickie Day. The course of action for the day of truancy was as follows:

12 - 13:30pm - La Querce - here we took advantage of the lunch time offer which includes Pasta and Bruschetta with a drink for only £5.90. Miss Kitty ordered a Mozarella and Rocket Bruschetta and washed it down with a glass of Montepulciano D'Abruzzo. The atmosphere was a little frosty, the bruschetta wasn't the best Miss Kitty has experienced and R was convinced that the grated parmesan was cheddar cheese in disguise…still for such a modest price one can hardly complain.

13:35-15:00pm - Jam Circus - This was our first time in Jam Circus and we took advantage of the lazy mid-afternoon, mid-week lull in the very kitschly decorated back room. Slouched on the battered leather sofas staring in wonderment at spikey living-room clock, orange glass lamps and psychelic paintings we knocked back a few more glasses of red and a bottle of the most loveliest raspberry beer called Frambozen

18:00-19:30 - Honor Oak Tandoori - after a slight respite, Miss K & R returned to the hub of Honor Oak Park to get a spot of dinner. And where else but Honor Oak Tandoori to mop up the afternoon's dregs of beer? Miss K had King Prawn Butterfly to start which was slightly dry, but still the best starter on the menu. To follow, Mixed Tandoori, Cucumber Raitha, Nan and Pilau rice..not to mention a few Kingfishers. After basking in the relaxing, breezy atmosphere of the H.O.T and rebuckling our belts, we then moved on to the one and only…

19:30 - 21:00 - Bar Equal - just for a few cocktails…R had the usual Long Island Iced Tea and Miss Kitty tried a My Thai, which was flavoured with a manner of exquisite and exotic things. Then finally after a pitcher of Amstel, we decided to put an end to our fun day of playing truant to an end and prepare to make up excuses for the following day of work...