Taste Of London 2006

Described as "an adventure playground for all those who enjoy eating out", the Taste Of London 2006 took place on 15-18 June 2006 at Regents Park. And of course, being a foodie, I would not miss the opportunity of this event. As I was away from London most of the weekend, I managed to rush back to the city for the Sunday evening session, which was the last session of the event - and I made damn sure that I did get back to London on time, as the platinum tickets for me and Russell didn't come cheap at all.

We got in relatively quickly thanks to the "fast track entrance" - and we wasted no time in sampling the dishes (so we managed to try out most of the things we wanted, while most people were still walking around trying to decide what to try). There were a few restaurants' stands that we avoided because of crap food or we go regularly enough that there's no need to sample the dishes (eg Jamie Oliver's Fifteen, Yauatcha, Zilli Fish, Carluccio's). Here's a list of dishes we have tried at the stalls (not in the order we tried) and my verdict on each dish:

1. Mango & Cardamon Brulee (Cinnamon Club) - A wonderful dish (see picture on the right). The mango was fresh and ripe, and it complimented the creme brulee well. One of the few dishes which we would have liked to have seconds.
   
   
2. Iced Dragon-Fruit and Strawberry Lollipop with Berry Compote (Imperial City) - I wanted to try this dish simply because of the use of dragon-fruit as the ingredient. Originally the dish was supposed to be "Iced dragon fruit souffle served in a chocolate cup with berry compote" which would have been a lot more interesting. Still, the lollipop was refreshing enough, though it lacked that spark I was looking for.
   
   
3. Valrhona Hot Chocolate Fondue, Marshmallows, Biscotti & Strawberry Kebabs(Boxwood Cafe) - Probably the best dish we've had in the whole event. Dipping the various things into the hot chocolate fondue was simply divine. It just shows that you don't need to have fancy cooking, just good quality ingredients would be sufficient to create a wonderful dish.
   
   
4. Braised Pork Belly with Chick Peas & Paprika Squid (Tom Aikens) - I usually try to avoid dishes with chick peas simply because most places don't seem to know how to cook the thing properly. But here the chick peas are moist and tasty, and made a great compliment to the "melt-in-the-mouth" pork belly and squid. To the right you will see me holding this wonderful dish.
   
   
5. Rice Noodles with Chilli, Prawn & Coconut Sauce with Fresh Herbs (Nahm) - A wonderful surprise. As expected, the dish was spicy but all the ingredients (down to the peanut sauce) blended in well together. If there was no one else around, I would probably have picked up the paper bowl and licked it all clean!
   
   
6. Salad of Smoked Duck, with Baby Beetroot, Walnuts & Pickled Shallots (Pearl) - The duck was tender, and the use of the various ingredients gave this dish an interesting mix of taste and texture. Even though I am not a fan of beetroots or pickled shallots, this dish got my thumbs up.
   
   
7. Mango Rice With Mango Parfait & Mango Mousse (Tom Aikens) - The only stall which got a re-visit from us really. This dish was refreshing and had got all the right sweetness and flavour of good quality mangoes. The vibrant yellow colour somehow reminded me of the Presidential Palace in Hanoi, Vietnam! To the right you'll see Russell holding a cup of the Mango Rice before it disappeared into his stomach.
   
   
8. Sesame Seared Salmon with Black Bean Dressing (Zuma) - This one was a disappointment really. It was way too bland - OK, the salmon was nice but we couldn't taste the dressing. With the right dressing, it would have brought out the combination of the sesame and the salmon well, but it failed on this occasion.

In addition, with our tickets, we get to sit down in an exclusive area for the "Ultimate Taster Menu", which consisted of the following five dishes:

1. Seared Marinated Irish Organic Salmon with Lemon Confit, Artichokes and Mache Salad (Boxwood Cafe) - The lemon confit dressing was delicious and went well with the salmon. The texture of the salmon could have been better - if the salmon had been cooked in less time, I think this dish would have worked magic.
   
   
2. Thandi Tamatar Ka Shorba (Zaika) - This is a chilled tomato soup with an Indian twist. it was tempered with onion seeds, ginger and lime leaves, served with Goan spiced crab chutney. The soup was spicy, and the spiceness travelled round the mouth as soon as the soup hit the tongue, but the taste was short-lived. Probably the dish I liked least in this taster menu, and I was glad that I didn't try it at the stalls. Still, I finished the soup, but the couple sitting next to me barely touched the soup - they were also not impressed by the taste.
   
   
3. King Prawn Tortellini, Fennel Puree, Herb Vinaigrette (Angela Hartnett at the Connaught) - What I nicknamed "Giant Overcooked Wanton A La Italienne"! It would have been a very nice dish, if the king prawn inside the tortellini was not overcooked.
   
   
4. Rare Breed beef Off the Barbie, Hand Cut Chips (Smiths of Smithfield) - The beef was tender and juicy enough, but the sauce was not consistent. Part of it had too much of a horseradish kick to it.
   
   
5. Pannacotta Con Fruitti Di Bosco E Vaniglia (Zafferano) - A light dessert of pannacotta with mixed summer berries and vanilla to finish off this taster menu. Actually this was the best of the five dishes - simple, with good vanilla flavour. Just wished they had given the full glass of pannacotta rather than the half glass (there's a problem with the amount of pannacotta in each glass - some people seemed to have a glass full of the stuff, while some got short change).

After the taster menu, also managed to do a bit of walking around the stalls, and picked up some goodies to take home.

Cartoons and Manga in my childhood

When I was very young, I was brought up in Hong Kong. The television stations there used to play some brilliant Japanese cartoons / manga (all dubbed into Chinese, of course), and recently I have been doing a search on the internet for the various cartoons that I can remember.... Here I am introducing you to a few of my all-time favourites - these are all original Japanese versions but have got English subtitles:


(1) Doraemon

The cartoonist for this rather brilliant Japanese cartoon is Fujiko Fujio (his real name is Hiroshi Fujimoto). Doraemon is a mechanical cat from the 22nd century, but lives in the 20th century with Nobita, a rather timid and clumsy boy.... There's a pocket in front of Doraemon, where various useful (or useless, depending on how you see it) gadgets are stored and would come out.



(2) Galaxy Express 999

An absolute favourite.... The setting of this manga is futuristic, and it's about a train journey (Galaxy Express 999) for a young boy called Tetsuro and his female "guardian angel" Maetel. Tetsuro's goal is to get a mechanical body so that he can become immortal. Each episode is like a stop at a particular planet and the adventure that Tetsuro and Maetel would embark upon. It really captures my imagination at the time (can you imagine me playing with my lego train set, pretending that it's Galaxy Express 999 train flying off?)

Here's the very first episode of this cartoon in three parts.

(3) Dr Slump

If you think The Simpsons was ground-breaking at the time with adult jokes etc for a cartoon, think again. Dr Slump was way ahead of its time - it's about a mad inventor (Dr Slump) who thinks that he's handsome and intelligent (in fact he is short and fat) and his robotic girl (Arale) who has unlimited power and energy but completely naive. Here is the first episode in two parts:

Part 1:



Part 2:



(4) Q-Taro

Created by the same cartoonist as Doraemon, Q-Taro is a ghost that is rather useless and also ends up making a mess of things in life. Many of the characters in this cartoon share marked resemblance to the ones in Doraemon. The only video I can find on this one seems to be the opening theme song in Japanese.

MUSIC REVIEW: Our Time Has Come - Denise Ho

I probably should have reviewed this album a few weeks ago, but as usual due to my laziness I have not got round to writing something about this till now.

This is the long-awaited follow-up album from Denise Ho (HOCC), after her rather brilliant musical The Legend Of The Next Lives Of The Butterfly Lovers. My first impression is that there's a mixture of good and bad in here - I am not convinced by her more rock-oriented songs.... Nothing wrong with her singing, it's just the tunes were not that good, and no matter how hard she tried, it's not going to make these great songs. See for yourself with this first track of the album:




Having said that, I got attracted to nearly every single ballad in this album from the start. "Faultless" (Track 8) was the first track to be promoted from this album - I wouldn't say the song is faultless itself, but it's certainly a strong track.



Another track that I have fallen in love with is "I Wish I Could Learn How To Let You Go" (Track 2) - Both the lyrics and her emotion in this song came across as very powerful, and I was listening to it more or less all the time last week.



But in the last few days, I have ended up listening even more to another track "Knocking On The Door In The Middle Of The Night" (Track 6) - no video yet, but I guess this track would be another one worth promoting.