Giggling Squid Thai Restaurant at Crawley

I took a train down to London Kings Cross and was bound for Crawley. Upon checking in into the Crowne Plaza, it was swimming pool, jacuzzi and steam room time! I haven't done any of those in a year! It was not easy to do laps without goggles though. Two small kids ended up chatting and playin with me in the water. They did not want to leave the pool eventhough their mum was calling them lol I had to 'swim' the kids to their mum standing near the pool. Then I met them at the dressing room again and the little girl says:

"I have a joke for you"

What is it?

"What is pink and hot?"

Uhm I do not know. Is it you?

"No, its a pig!"

Why is the pig hot?

"Because its summer!!"

Lolxx

Dinner was at Giggling Squid, a tapas and Thai Restaurant. Crawley's High Street has these amazing row of restaurants. I love Giggling Squid's decoration! Its all wood from the flooring to the tables, the walls and the ceiling.

The tables were tastefully set up with cutleries and purple napkins. Looked good to me :)

The staff were real Thai people so imagine how authentic the service and food was :):)

Drinks we had

Jack and coke

Lemonade martini: tasted more like just lemonade.

Food we ordered:

STARTERS:

1. Crispy duck spring roll - Coming down to London I always craved for duck. The spring rolls were very good. It came with a side of hoisin sauce too.

2. Vegetable tempura - Lightly battered and deep fried brocolli, onions, sweet potato and something else. It tasted really delicious too.

Mains:

1. Morning glory - a vegetable

2. Coconut rice

3. Jasmine rice with Seafood Tomyam

4. Pad Thai

Food portion was pretty satisfying. From Trip Advisor, a reviewer wrote, "The best Thai food I have ever tasted." I couldn't agree more, at least in the UK!

It was a good day. It ended with a view of the sunset from my window.

Amore Pizzeria, Ingram Street, Glasgow

Another night out for pizzas and I only realised for the frst time that Ingram St had quite a number of Italian restaurants. How is it that we sometimes do not explore the interesting things located closest to us??

A quick walk through Ingram St and we settled for Amore Pizzeria. It was a warm and beautiful summer's night.

Interior of Amore was pretty and cozy! We were snapping photographs and the waiter jokingly said, "We charge for taking phtographs" and another one joined in saying, "Its true." That was how friendly the staff were :)

Comparing the pizza to Barolo Grill's one, I would still recommend Barolo's . For starters at Amore we had breaded mushroom which were quite plain tasting. I must say I preferred Aldi's breaded mushroom more.

For our mains, we ordered pizza margherita and pizza pepperoni.

 Amore's pizza had the thick crust which was tough to eat and the pizza was not nice already when it was cold. Furthermore, the pizzas was too salty for my friend and I. It was hard to finish it without downing with loads of water.

On the bright side, the pizzas were stonebaked and it was not oily. Besides that, the pizza portion was so big that I decided to not eat the crust!

We then shared a tiramisu for dessert.

Tiramisu was so good it made me feel very happy after eating it! Now I would recommend that!!

The bill came with lollipops. Tasted not good. Would have preferred a mint sweet.

The verdict: Starters and Pizza no. Will try other dishes next time. Dessert yes.

Chocolate hazelnut cheesecake @ Barolo Grill

Me: I read raving reviews on their chocolate hazelnut cheesecake. We should try it.

The Scottish: What? You want pudding?

Me: Not pudding. Cheesecake!

The Scottish: Same thing.

....

The cheesecake at Barolo Grill was simply out of this world. We were so stuff from the pizza that we decided to share a cheesecake. 

At first I was imagining the cheesecake to be a triangular shaped size, but it was round. It looked really small when served and was not fit for two people to share ;p

The Scottish: Are you sure you want to share?

We did share because the pizza was quite filling. The chocolate hazelnut cheesecake had a texture like praline and mousse. Imagine taking Nutella from the bottle but a bit softer! It tasted like nutella I guess because of the hazelnut but it was not as sweet as Nutella. One spoon into the mouth and it melts to perfection. It was not cheesy and the base was made of biscuit like other cheesecakes.

The cheesecake was topped with orange peel which went really well with the cake. I'd say its better than eating pizza and steak!

On another note, it was an enjoyable evening because company and banter with the Scottish makes me very happy.

Never a dull moment :)

Barolo Grill, Mitchell Street

Currently prepping my tummy at Barolo Grill for some good, authentic Italian pizza!

"Our pizza are hand stretched by our 'Pizziolo' and baked in a traditional Woodstone pizza oven. We use San Marzano tomatoes and Fior di Latte Mozzarella on all our pizzas"

Other specialities are their steaks according to reviews from Trip Advisor

Teaser by Maltesers

I am at the Queen Street Station waiting to board the train to Aberdeen.

I went into Boots to buy something to munch using my Boots points. Ended up with Teaser, a new chocolate from the same creator of Maltesers. It was good but I prefer Malteser balls because the malt inside melts on the tongue and taste good.

Cheesecake stuffed strawberry

Too easy to make this. A simple way to curb cheesecake cravings instead of baking a whole cake while enjoying strabwerries at the same time :)

Directions:
1. Rinse off the strawberries.
2. Cut off the stem of each strawberry and then hollow out a little more of the center.
3. Prepare all of the strawberries and set aside.
4. Beat cream cheese, powdered sugar, and vanilla in a mixing bowl until creamy.
5. Place the cheesecake mixture into a piping bag with a star tip. Pipe into each strawberry and arrange on a serving platter.
6. Once the strawberries are filled, sprinkle or dip the tops with graham cracker crumbs.
7. Serve right away or refrigerate before serving.

Chilli Tuna Spaghetti

A can of tuna always comes in handy when I did not stock up my fridge. For the past week, I tried to go meatless but failed. I feel trying to whip up something meatless takes more effort than a dish with meat. I also tend to binge on junk food like bisuits and chocolates after those meatless meals. It was like havin withdrawal symptoms. Meat is my drug :p

Today, with a fridge with zero meat, I only had a can of tuna in my cupboard. I boiled spaghetti and drained it. Then I fried the spaghetti with the tuna and its oil, added some fish sauce and sprinkled chilli flakes. I then mixed in an egg. It was a similar method to cooking fish fried rice.

Yummy meal in less than 30 minutes :)

Dinner date @Rumours Kopitiam, Glasgow

Initially, we planned to have Nando's. but since the weather was so beautiful, there were tons and tons of people everywhere on Buchanan Street. It was afterall the first day for a sunny weather after all that cold. No jacket required too! The wait at Nando's was one hour 15mins! we definitely did not want to wait that long.

In the end, I suggested Rumours. I have not been to Rumours Kopitiam since two years ago. I had dinner there. It is surprising how so many locals have never heard of Rumours eventhough its been around since 2008. I also realised they hung out more at the West End than at Central Glasgow. We did not have any problems getting a table at Rumours :)

Rumours Kopitiam = Malaysian food feast time :)
We had:
Salted and chilli fried squid
Char kuey teow
Curry Laksa
Thai green curry with noodles

Great weather. Great food! I am a much happier person when there is good food to fill my tummy :)

Spring is just fantastic!

Pret A Manger, Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow

Pret A Manger is a franchise shop all around UK. There are a few Pret A Manger in Glasgow but I have never bothered to try their food. When I was in London, I saw Pret A Manger shops at almost every street! Sometimes there were two Pret A Manger shops on the same street, just at a different block.

I finally tried Pret A Manger yesterday because I was given a food assignment :) I get to order any hot drink and choose any sandwich for my lunch. A job that pays me to eat is awesome :):)

I chose the free range egg mayo sandwich and a cup of hot chocolate. I know I should have chose a better sandwich since it was free. But, trying something that was commonly found at other places like Tesco, Sainsbury's etc makes the comparison more apparent. I would say that the egg sandwich at Pret A Manger was fab. The filling was a lot which was good.

As for the hot chocolate, it came with a star and I must say it was a star. I do not drink coffee, so hot chocolate or tea would usually be my choice of hot drink whenever I patronise cafes. Recently, I tried Gregg's hot chocolate and the hot chocolate at that posh looking Betty's Tea room in York. No, I did not fancy the hot chocolate from those two places. But, I was pretty happy with the hot chocolate at Pret A Manger :)

I guess it says a lot just by looking atthe number of Pret A Manger shops around the UK. The one I went to in Sauchiehall was packed. But, the place was clean and dining there was easy as the staff cleared the trays and wiped the tables pretty efficiently.

One downside would be the price tag. For a new comer like me, I would not have realised that there were two different prices for the food when we eat-in and take- out, until I paid for it. But other than that, my friend and I had a good experience there. They play nice music too.

Oven egg

I found a new way to cook egg - using the oven. This method was so easy and fast.

The idea came about when I felt like having an egg sandwich, but when I looked at the filthy stove (ilivewithsomeonefilthy), its just ruins the mood to cook. I was carrying my wok to and fro to the stove thinking if I wanted to use it. Then, the thought of cracking an egg on top of my bread and cooking it in the oven came up.

I just estimated the temperature to 220 degrees celcius and i cooked the egg for 5 minutes.

first attempt at cracking the egg on the bread failed. The yolk slid away from the bread. Then when I tried to put it back on top using a spoon, the yolk broke n u know what happens...

Second attempt was a success. The egg stayed on the bread, maybe coz the tray was balanced that end.

One thing I should have done was to butter the surface before putting the bread. I did not do that resultung in some parts of the bread being stucked to the foil. Egg sticks thats why.

Anyway, this is a healthier approach to eating eggs. No more oily fried eggs for me or microwaved eggs :)

Also, I can now cook 10 eggs (or more) in five minutes :)

Breakfast

I have finally found my kind of breakfast:
A cup of tea.
A bowl of homemade blueberry yoghurt, a piece of rich tea biscuit, one piece of oat biscuit and plain cornflakes thrown in.
An apple.

Korma chicken

A simple meal I made for dinner.
I just used a bottle of Patak brand korma paste, pour it over raw chicken thighs placed in an oven tray. Then I set the oven to 250 degrees celcius and put the tray of chicken inside. Cook chicken for 30 minutes.

While waiting for the chicken to cook, I boiled some rice in the microwave. In 7minutes, my rice was ready.

30 minutes later, dinner is ready.

I made a new tag for this: 30 minute meals

Afternoon tea @ Ocho on the canal, Glasgow

I went to Ocho on the Canal again today. This time instead of fish and chips, we had afternoon tea. The difference between afternoon tea and tea break is that afternoon tea means 12pm, the other is at 2.30pm. Basically, we had lunch at Ocho :)

Fish and Chips was fantastic the last time Ann and I tried it. This time round it was tea with five Thai girls and two Malaysians. Lovely time spent with new friends and one hour with a table of six ladies chatting is never enough.

The food served was ok. We had the voucher from Living Social so it was cheap. Otherwise, I would say its always not worth paying for tea as its just scones, cakes and sandwiches. Everything could be made at home. I'd recommend the scones at Ocho but the sandwiches were tooo tiny and the filling for each sandwich was pathetic.

Other than that, the company was great and the service was good as last time.

Elia Greek Restaurant, Glasgow

Elia is located at George Square. It is a Greek restaurant with pretty good reviews. The staff were so friendly! You know I have been getting some good service in the least expected places in UK.

I loved how attentive the staff were at Elia and the timing from getting us seated to the food till getting the bill was perfect.

For starters, we were served slices of bread with olives and oil. I have a Greek friend who told me that it is customary for Jews to have bread, olives with oil amd a cup of red wine as breakfast on Saturday mornings. At first, the thought of dipping bread with oil did not sound appealing to me. But then again, I do eat french toast and roti canai for breakfast which are definitely more oily than what the Jews had ;)

Besides bread, we also ordered Grilled halloumi cheese and Dolmathes.

Grilled halloumi cheese: I was introduced to this delightful appetiser by my cousin from Luxembourg. Halloumi cheese is a slightly springy white cheese traditionally made of sheep's milk. I first tasted it in Nando's Glasgow. I loved it so much that when I was in Nando's London and Nando's York, I just had to order it. Unfortunately, Nandos in Glasgow halloumi cheese tasted the best among the other places.
Then, at Elia, it was definitely my first pick from the menu as halloumi is Greek :) The halloumi cheese tasted freaking delicious in Elia that I want more. Furthermore, it came with three huge slices on top of tomatoes. It was good as meal too.

Dolmathes: Rice, herbs and minced beef wrapped in the leaves of grapevine.
I think dolmathes was an acquired taste. Eating grapevine leaves was.... like eating leaves lol. It was definitely filling as an appetiser due to the rice.

For the main course, I had the Lamb souvlaki while my friend had Kleftiko.

Lamb souvlaki: Grilled lamb pieces with rice and vegetable. After looking at Kleftiko, my dish looked too simple! Nope, I would recommend Kleftiko as its worth the same price.

Kleftiko: Slow cooked lamb on the bone with tomato sauce and served with oven potatoes or chips or rice and salad. Sounds awesome just reading the description. Tripadvisor also recommends this dish. The portion for this was so big that my friend could only finish half the lamb and he had to takeway the rest. But it was really good.

We could not stomach any dessert. But we were really happy and satisfied :)

I would go back to order the halloumi cheese and Kleftiko. I think that will be enough to share between two people.