London food hunt.

About some forever ago, (chill Bella it's only been a month pfft), I went to London with Afiqah on a day trip. East Midlands Train was running a promo, less than £15 for a return train to London - can't say no to that, can I? It was a random decision made by the two of us on Twitter. Afiqah tweeted about the deal, I asked if she wanted to go on a trip, and boom, we were both set and ready to go. After all there's only two of us bebimbos left in this cold English land since Edy is yet to return for her PhD.

Main purpose of the trip?

Food.

Yes - food hunting! We have a list of things to be ticked off, so we were pretty determined.

1. Eggs Royale

Arrived nearly at 9am, we set on foot to Dean Street Townhouse near Covent Garden after some googling effort of the best place to have Eggs Benedict/Royale in London.

Meet Afiqah. A PhD student doing Engineering in Sheffield. Highly independent, despite being the only girl the the family. Love love loooveeeee travelling - been to USA and Indonesia on a shoe string - alone. I repeat, a-l-o-n-e. In other words, a solo backpacker. Seen most of Europe. Setting herself to go to Iran this winter. MAJOR RESPECT I CANNOT. If you want to do something new, go on a adventure, learn to be brave, this is the man. Or lady, whatever. She's truly something.

Meet Bella. A Medical student doing Medicine (haha) in Leicester. Highly independent when her husband isn't around, albeit a cry baby. Cries every now and then about littlest thing, such as the weather being too cold or the grocery bags being too heavy. Been wanting to go on a solo trip, but the furthest she went alone was Scotland after her father said no to her going to USA on her own. Itu pun gelabah nak balik rumah sebab nak Facetime. In constant search for cheap flight tickets to Belfast, kesian. And contemplating every now and then if she should start making babies. 

NO I CANNOT HAHAHAHAH.

And the star of the morning, Eggs Royale. This is perfection. Utter perfection. At £6.50 each, I think it's worth trying. By that I mean trying bukan makan sampai kenyang sebab mahal. Because you will end up wanting more. The hollandaise sauce was perfect, the egg was beautifully poached, the salmon was generous. Gorgeous. And the cafe interior was very posh, making it a bit awkward for both of us cause it felt like we were on a date.

2. Cronut, or crodoughnut (a hybrid between croissant and doughnut)

This was suggested by AJ back in Leicester, so went on a search for it. If you Google cronuts in London, one of the cafes selling them is Wild & Coffee. It's a cute little award-winning coffee house.

Excitement.

The much sought-after cronut. They only had it in red velvet flavour, but it was enough to make me want more. I didn't expect it would be that good, to be honest. But it was. It took doughnut to a whole new level. There was a bit of doughnut and a bit of croissant in every bite, not to mention the fresh cream at the centre. Verdict, try it. Especially if you have sweet tooth like me. At £3.70 each it did seem a bit pricey, but definitely worth trying. 

3. Burger & Lobster

That one place in London where it's a must to post in Instagram, myself included, lol. We went to the branch on Dean Street (just opposite Dean Street Townhouse). It opens at 12pm on Saturdays and we got there at about 11.50am after getting the cronuts. And we were greeted by this.

People lining up for lunch. Looking at the crowd, I was disheartened at first, but boy we were determined. It didn't take long, and once the door opened there were plenty of seats inside. It's quite a big eatery, so if you see people lining up like this, chances are you'll probably only have to wait for a maximum of 10 minutes. Well that's the theory anyway.

Not sure which one gets my attention more, Afiqah's sharp look, or the lobster. Haha.

Senonoh mana, senonoh?

Done and dusted.

I found the place pretty cool. They only have three menus - whole lobster grilled or steamed, lobster roll, and beef burger. We went for the steamed lobster, and hands down, I was sold. There was one time I had grilled lobster in Brussels and that was nowhere near this. Afiqah, on the other hand, had a grilled lobster at Manhattan Fish Market back in KL, and she preferred that more. But still we both agreed the lobster here was amazing and it's definitely worth coming back for. The lobster came with fries and salad and a sauce of your choice. The set is priced at £20 each, but since almost all restaurants in London charge for their service, essentially it's £22.50. Speaking of, I'm so not used to service charge in the UK, and suddenly there's a whopping 12.5% service charge here in London. Makes me feel contented to be in Leicester.

4. Noodle Oodle

Afiqah wanted this one so badly so I had to play along. Haha. This is a halal Chinese restaurant near to Bayswater where Malaysian Student Department (Malaysian Hall) is, making it a famous eatery among the Malaysians in London. Their  main specialty is roasted duck, as it's not easy to find halal ducks in the UK. 

The dish looks like a chicken rice set as a whole. We got the £10.50 set where it came with dumplings as starter, duck and rice as main, and a choice between banana fritters or some mango delicacy as desserts. And no service charge (hooray!) making it a very very veeerry filling meal. I think we overkilled it with this one, though. You see, we walked for more than an hour from the last place (lobster) to here, and to justify that, we just had to order a set each. Big mistake there. It was too much for us. The whole thing was good, but when you have too much of something good, it becomes the other way round. This is definitely something I would have on a very hangry day (hungry and angry), not on a I-feel-like-eating-everything-in-the-world day. 

Since we were already near Bayswater, we went to Malaysian Hall to pray and me, to see Kak Na, the warden. Had ginger tea and kuih seri muka at the canteen while waiting for her, which too bad I didn't take the pictures, since it's a rare occasion for me to go for kuih Melayu at the Malaysian Hall.

Met Kak Na and the whole family, and she insisted on us staying for dinner (as she always does), but we had trains to catch. By the way, another thing on Afiqah's list was Tinseltown, but we were too full for that. And everyone knows Tinseltown applies the same 'hangry' rule, they do big portions and their milkshakes are to die for, so by that time we thought it was probably a bit too much. Takde rejeki. But well, Leicester has Tinseltown so it's not a big deal! Good reason to make her come to Leicester anyway. Heh.

Later that night only we realised we didn't have any pictures together, so here goes.

Parted ways at London St Pancras where Afiqah took the train back to Sheffield while myself to Leicester. And I can proudly say I had one of the best food hunt in London on that day.

I think most of it went to how we both are so easy-minded. We didn't mind walking, which having said that, we only took the tube from Malaysian Hall to St Pancras. And it's not everyday when you have a friend who's so easy going and not fussed over small things. Like going in and out of stores along Oxford Street, skimming through sales without really buying anything. I mean, I don't have that many friends, but when I do, I really treasure them.

Having said that, we had salmon, lobster, duck, and nearly lamb in one day! Total damage including train tickets was less than £50. Worth every single pence. Ahh, of London and all the glorious food.

Meanwhile I'll just stay put in Boston, ughhh.