McDonald's 1955 Burger - Peninsular Park Road, Charlton, London SE7 7TZ

I am a sucker for adverts and weirdly enough, with McDonald's, there doesn't usually even need to be adverts for me to want to have it. I could be on a bus and see an empty cup by the road, and that would be enough to make me want some chips from Maccy D's. Sometimes, I don't even require the empty cup, as images of Big Macs and McChickens float by voluntarily across the Slideshow that is my Imagination.

So you can imagine the amazingly successful effect a PAID advert by them would have on me. For a few weeks now, there has been a kinda catchy advert by them on telly, featuring Ray Bans and a 1955 burger. It starts off with a couple coming out of a suburban driveway in modern-ish clothing, and through their journey to the food haven that is Maccy D's, a transformation from Modern Day Joe to Greased Back Hair Henry (complete with sunnies because the weather has ultimately also gone through a change, who would've imagined) is going on. By the end of the advert, they're almost rocking the image of Sandy and Danny dancing and singing around a Double Cheeseburger.

How could I resist?

Having heard some OK reviews from a friend, we decided to try it out last week - on a sunny day, which always makes burgers taste better.

Having gone to our usual drive-through (which isn't the best one - consistency seems to be an issue here), we bought the 1955 Burger Meal to share. Pulled up at the nearest empty bay, and proceeded to take lots of pictures of chips - trying not to be worried by the stares from the other cars. I'm convinced they were worried - surely it doesn't take THAT long for both cars to finish their Value Meal.

How was the burger? As I probably shouldn't offend any other establishment by comparing a Maccy D burger to theirs, I shall use other Maccy D burgers as a benchmark. We'll call it the McMark.

(Note: I don't anything against Maccy D's as such, as I actually rather like them, but I know some people who really dislike them, so I'm assuming I musn't use them as a comparison against other burgers ...)

Comparing this to our favourite burger here, which is the cheeseburger (soft squishy bun, tangy pickle, plastic cheese and dry meat patty - love it), this 1955 burger just didn't impress. Yes, if I am impressed by the cheeseburger, you get the idea of how easily impressed I am.

I didn't like the amount of onions in this burger. Similar to what you get on hot dogs, there was just too much of the translucent slices in there to ignore. Usually I don't mind a bit of onions in burgers (like what you get in the Big Mac, which is a small portion of diced onions, covered in ketchup which makes everything taste alright), but almost every mouthful of this 1955 burger had onion in it.

The other thing which was annoying was the lack of any sort of sauce to help with the dryness of the meat. There was some sort of orange-coloured sauce by one side of the burger, so either the positioning of the sauce wasn't all that great, or they should up the amount of sauce they put in there.

Anyhow, for about a fiver, it fed us well, but I won't be buying this burger again anytime soon. Bring on the cheeseburgers.

Itsu (nearest Tube Oxford St), 313 Regent Street, London W1B 2HP

I met a new friend recently (with new friends come new food), and we got to talking about what we have for lunch, dinner, etc. You know, fun stuff like that. I seem to talk (to myself) alot about food, so it's no wonder that I talk to my friends about it too.


The Oxford St. / Regent St. outlet (not my usual)

It might be worth noting at this point that I have been having the same thing for lunch for the last 3 months.


Monday: Itsu Detox 7 Vegetables Noodle Potsu
Tuesday: Itsu Detox 7 Vegetables Noodle Potsu
Wednesday: Itsu Detox 7 Vegetables Noodle Potsu
Thursday: Itsu Detox 7 Vegetables Noodle Potsu
Friday: Itsu Detox 7 Vegetables Noodle Potsu

And surprise, surprise. On Saturday, I took the husband to Itsu by Oxford St. to have ... Itsu Detox 7 Vegetables Noodle Potsu. He was allowed to go off the beaten path to have the Itsu Grilled Chicken Udon Potsu instead, just because he's allowed variety.


The Grilled Chicken Udon Potsu

If you want the menu to find out what else they have to offer (weirdo), here it is (click here).

Some people have asked me why I have the same thing everyday. Don't I get bored? Is there something wrong with me? While I answer 'no' to the first question, and then 'I don't know' to the second, I just find it immensely comforting to be able to have the same thing everyday. It's kinda like having to wear a uniform on a daily basis.

Doesn't require much creativity, or even contemplation. Sure I enjoy the privileges of dressing up and that, but sometimes, usually when it's cold or when I'm really tired, I'll throw on the first thing I find. It's almost like lunch - where I'll just eat the easiest thing I can find.



Where I work, there's not a whole lot for me to be creative with. There's the usual Pret A Manger, M&S, Pod, Strada, and Gaucho (you gotta be kidding me if I'm gonna spend £35 on a piece of steak for lunch).

Why not try something else from Itsu, you might say. Why should I, I might say. Because I like the soup, I like the veg, and I like the glass noodles. Only 180 calories, too. And at £3.29, it's cheap enough to be eaten on a daily basis.

Those adventurous ones amongst you might be excited to know that they also do a very nice version of the frozen yoghurt (between £2-£4 depending on what toppings you ask for).



This one here is the frozen yoghurt with mixed fruit topping, and hot caramel sauce instead of pomegranate (because that had gone off).

Samurai, Holborn

I’ve always wanted to do a little post about the stuff I eat everyday; you know, the things which you eat just because of convenience, or because it’s affordable to be had on a daily basis. I’ve not really mentioned this before, but usually for lunch, I either have what I bought for breakfast (porridge or something), or some fruit from the fruit basket.

It’s partly because I’m reluctant to pay £5 or so for lunch – something which I eat at my desk, while not really putting much thought into anyway. I also don’t fancy much of the stuff on offer around, mainly Pret, Eat, McDonald’s and stuff from the canteen. Sometimes, when I fancy a treat, I get a few bits of sushi from Wasabi, but I usually end up spending quite a good few quid without getting full.

So, since I can’t eat something nice, and can’t get full anyway, I usually decide to just either not eat, or nibble on other stuff throughout the day.

Also, since I can’t bring my dSLR around on a daily basis (already have enough stuff to carry around while trying to avoid taking up any space on the Tube), it would make a food post rather … boring.

So, last weekend, the fiance and I were in town, and deciding that we’d like to have something easy to eat, but yet satisfying, we decided to go to Samurai. Now, I don’t know about you, but I have my list of which are the best Japanese ‘takeaway’ style places to go to in London.

1. Yoshino (which used to be part of the Japan Centre, wonder if it still is?) on Shaftesbury Avenue. Sometimes, they do 50% off offers if you go at the right time.

2. Samurai (which does the freshest sashimi and sushi considering this is after all, a takeaway). Pity they don’t have squid there much, if at all.

3. Wasabi (from where I buy lots and lots of squid sushi, and sometimes the crab roll).

Back to Samurai. The one we went to was the one at Holborn, just kinda by where the Tube station is.

It was really crowded in there, and we (almost) had to share tables. Lots of trendy, chic-looking singletons eating sushi on a Saturday lunchtime while reading a book.

I’ve not tried the hot food from here before, but I reckon it’d be OK.

We bought 2 sushi sets; one was for the man (sashimi) and one was for the lady (maki and crab salad mmm mmm mmm).

The sashimi was really thick, and fresh to the bite. Really fab for a sushi takeaway place. Best of all, it came with this lovely tangy, sesame oil, nutty, sweet and sour sauce in which we dipped the sashimi.

I’m not sure why they serve sashimi with a dip here, and I know you’re probably not meant to dip fresh fish into anything which then hides the freshness of it, but this sauce works!

Their makis also manage to retain a lovely, soft bite to them, without a single hard rice in it. Lovely stuff. The crab salad was also remarkably fresh, with the slightest hint of mayo to it.

I really like Samurai, and wish they’d have more outlets around town. Oh, and do try out the miso soup too, one of the best in town (yes, it seems most other places can’t master the art of putting hot water to miso paste so these guys somehow manage to grab first place).

Abduls Kebab, 318 Wilmslow Road, Fallowfield, Manchester, M14 6XQ

You know a kebab place is good when you go there for lunch (as opposed to stumbling there after 10 pints or so, like many people do). But those are inferior kebabs, so that’s understandable.

I guess this explains why the 2 guys at the table beside us kept looking while I was snapping pictures of the kebab, saying, '”Is she taking a picture of the kebab?”. While I don’t appreciate being made to feel uncomfortable just because I was photographing the kebab, I can see where they’re coming from. I’d probably make the same comment if I saw someone taking pictures of paint drying, when it might not seem so strange to a paint drying blogger, say.

Abduls’ is a chain of kebab restaurants (or whatever you want to call it) in Manchester, and their kebabs are unrivalled in London. One theory we have is that up North, kebabs are served with naan bread, which allows the sauce to be soaked up well.

In London, or anywhere not Northern, the kebabs are served in pitta bread, a poor, lack-lustre excuse of a substitute for the naan. Instead of soaking up the sauce and the meat juices from the kebab, pitta bread tends to just go quite soggy, and then chucked with the rest of the paper and polystyrene box.

On the left, is a chunk of donner meat. Made of who knows what, it’s usually served in slices, and is slightly chewy, slightly salty, slightly everything, but mostly nice. I like it, but some people tend to scoff at it, from the higher ground they’re standing on as they eat their Big Mac.

So, for those of you who have never had a kebab – What is the big deal about it anyway?

This, my friends, is a very well-presented kebab. Ignoring the fact that ambience is almost nil in these places (not why you go to a kebab restaurant, after all), Abduls has a very comfortable eating area for us hungry folks.

Once you’ve placed your order, you just sit and wait, tapping your foot impatiently.

Patience is then rewarded with a big, over-flowing, naan-based chicken kebab with donner meat (special request, off the menu), all for £6.20. Who needs utensils at a time like this. It’s everyone hungry person for themselves, as we each dive in, fingers ready to tear at the chicken pieces.

Tender pieces of chicken, bouncey (my favourite term for something that it slightly chewy, the way I like chewy to be) pieces of donner, and warm naan bread impatiently soaking up all the juices from the meat. Not fine-dining, more, mine-dining.

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Fish ‘n’ Chips, Harry Ramsden’s, Brighton

I have watched you on the shore
Standing by the oceans roar
Do you love me do you surfer girl
Surfer girl surfer girl (Beach Boys)

No, I’ve not taken the lazy route of just posting lyrics with my pictures (actually I have). But the lyrics quite fit the picture, so it’s OK.

Trying to decide where to eat after a lovely day at the Brighton beach, we had shortlisted a few places and went from one to the other, just looking in to see what the dining possibilities were.

Option 1 – fish and chips at the local chippy (greasy breezy)
Option 2 – fish and chips by the beach in the shack (microwave ping)
Option 3 – fish and chips at Harry Ramsden’s

Seeing as we had all these varied and international choices to choose from, we decided on Harry Ramsden’s, purely based on the fact that it was (surprise) the cheapest. The dining-in prices were not cheap, but the takeaway (ie going to the counter, buying it in a takeaway box, and sitting outside) prices were cheap.

Divided by the restaurant wall, this option saved us about £10.

Looking good, like the counter at KFC.

If you’ve never had fish and chips before, you’re missing out. Although the chips don’t look great here (they actually look quite bad), they were surprisingly crispy on the outside, soft on the inside. The fish was slightly more crispy than how I usually like it to be (soft batter is the way to go), and it felt as though the fish had been overcooked as it didn’t flake. Rather, it was kinda chewy, and if you can make cod and haddock chewy, you know you need more training with the fryer.

With fish and chips, you gotta have mushy peas. Made of peas, and mushed, lovely.

To conclude, it was a reasonable meal, not the best (hey, cheap options usually aren’t) but good enough to please these non-discerning diners.

Young Cheng, 76 Shaftesbury Avenue, London (2nd review)

Of the 3 Young Chengs in London Chinatown (I’m not sure why they’re called the same thing either), I’ve only been to this one. As far as I know, one of the other ones is a buffet restaurant, while the other one is sit-down order type of place but at slightly higher prices than the one featured in this post here.

There are usually groups of people gathered outside this place at any one time, presumably not to admire the view but because they’ve been asked (for want of a better word) by the waitress to wait outside, menu in hand, for a table to be vacated. This is understandable, I guess, as the space in this restaurant is really well-utilised.

From my experience of Chinese restaurants (eating in them), space utilisation is almost an art form. If there is anything more than an inch between one chair and another, you’ve wasted considerable space which could have been used for another diner.

Sometimes, even gravity should not be an obstacle. If there is some space from the ceiling, why not glue some chairs there, that way the diners can fill both floor space and ceiling space, doubling profits. This is an idea which I’ve considered patenting, but until some Velcro shoes and ceiling paint is invented, I’ll wait.

Roast ducks by the wall. The duck here is nice, not as nice as the ones in Four Season, but nice enough. If you order a plate of mixed meat rice, you get lots of mixed meat, which makes greedy diners like me smile.

Smile. Lots and lots of mixed meat, delicious gravy and rice.

A friend of ours ordered the beef ball noodle soup, which I’d never tried before from this restaurant. As the soup noodles in Malaysia are far better than any I’ve tried in the UK, I didn’t even consider ordering this, but when the bowl of steaming hot noodles arrived, I was pleasantly surprised. It looked almost as good as the ones in Malaysia, but my friend confirmed that while it looked OK, the soup was lacking in any real taste. If the soup in the soup noodle is not great, there goes 50% of the points.

Looks nice, doesn’t it? Since most of the food pics show what the food looks like before it’s eaten, sometimes some people might not know what it looks like once it’s being eaten, so here it is. This is what soup noodle looks like.

Beef wat tan hor (beef hor fun in egg sauce) £5-ish

This is not on the menu, but from what people have told me, it seems lots of good stuff in this restaurant are not on the menu. The waitress there knew what I was trying to describe, so she managed to get this done for us without much fuss, and we’ve had this dish twice now, both times consistently fabulous, so be sure to order this next time you’re there.

Would I recommend this place? Most definitely so, just be prepared to wait outside with a menu if the place is full. Either that, or invent some Velcro shoes.

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Eating in (not something I’d cooked earlier) – April 09

Having stood outside the ship windows of Cinnabon many times, sometimes with the bf, sometimes without, but each time with hungry looks, the bf decided to just buy me a bun and stop the silliness once and for all.

As he’s said many times before that he didn’t like cinnamon, I gleefully thought to myself that this bun would be ALL MINE. Thing is, the food is always nicer on the other side, so he can’t help but takes bites of my food, which is when he discovered that he actually does like cinnamon now.

Half the bun for me.

To redeem himself after eating half of the cinnabun meant for me, he also bought half a roast duck from the bril Four Seasons in Bayswater. Once when we were queueing up, waiting for a table (no wait, no table) we heard the waitress-boss say to someone that if he wanted to have more duck gravy in his takeaway, that he should bring along a bottle or container as the restaurant could only give the gravy in small little polystyrene cups.

All along, we had been under the impression that the restaurant was so miserly in their gravy portions because it was a precious commodity (quite like Jimmy Shoes choos, only, free). (Haha)

This time, the bf was well ahead of the game, and brought along his empty M&S water bottle to the restaurant. We had enough gravy for the duck, the dinner the next day, and a stir fry.

Sometimes, when you buy a takeaway, the quality of the food decreases compared to when you’re having it at a restaurant. Some might even say that there is a correlation to this decrease, ie the longer the time between the purchase and the eating, the lower the quality.

This is not the case with the roast duck from Four Seasons. Warmed up in the microwave before eating, this was just as nice as the real thing in the restaurant. With some gravy on hot rice, this made a fantastically enjoyable, delicious dinner.

Nando’s chicken (one) for £10.50 – consumed almost entirely by the bf. Despite what you might think, it doesn’t take that much time, or effort, to consume one chicken by yourself. All it takes is a little bit of perseverance, a large plate and lots of peri-peri sauce.

Me: ‘Is there a limit to the amount of sauce we can have for the takeaway chicken?’
Lady at counter: ‘No.’

10 minutes later, we’re three tubs full. The more the perri-er.

Pickled Chinese vegetable and French bean omelette. One of my favourite dishes, easy to cook and so nice to have. Usually I don’t have the picked vegetable in it, but since I had some to hand, I chucked it in. If you’re looking at this in disgust, don’t. Try it once and you’ll scoff no more. Something about French beans being stir-fried slightly, and cooked with egg that makes it really tasty.

This is what we call ‘oven food’. This is a piece of chicken with some sort of tomato flavoured paste on top of it, purchased from Sainsbury’s as part of a ‘2 can dine for £5’ promotion. The mash potato that came with it was really creamy and smooth, perhaps too creamy to be nutritional. For £2.50 a person, the chicken was actually quite good, and is something I’d consider having again when I don’t to cook.

Last Friday, when we felt like having nibbles for dinner, we went to Marks and Spencer and bought some of their 3-for-2 nibbles. Sausage rolls, meatballs and mini snack eggs (sausage meat with egg filling) came in one pack, the mini Melton Mowbray pork pies came in another.

This is what a mini Melton Mowbray pork pie looks like. See that bit of jelly that holds the meat and pastry together? That is why you DON’T heat up the pies, as I did. When I lifted the pie and had a bite, the jelly came sloshing out of the pie.

We also bought 2 portions of deep fried salt and pepper squid from Tai Won Mein (a noodle house selling very cheap food), some ready-cooked prawns from Marks and Spencer, and hummous to be eaten with … prawn crackers. Fusion food.

Having read this, you might conclude that I don’t cook much, if at all. That’s not entirely true, as when I cook, it’s usually something really easy to make, and doesn’t look that great (or edible). I do cook though, I just don’t blog about it much.

This’n’That, 3 Soap Street, Manchester (Review no. 2)

Check the first one out here. Like I said before, why try something new when you know what you like (this joke’s getting pretty used by now, so I’ll stop here).

When we were in Manchester some weeks ago, we knew what we HAD to have for lunch. Previously, This’n’That had small windows in the day when they were open, so it was kind of a 50:50 whether it was opened when you got there or not. They’ve extended their opening hours now, and are open Sundays, so there’s no need to bring along some sustenance in case it’s shut.

Most of the reviews on this place mention something about what it looks like, something along the lines of ‘moderately furnished’. Seeing as I’m not a person who can describe things very well, I figured I’d take a picture of it instead.

Picnic chairs and tables is as descriptive as I can get. But don’t let this fool you. Behind these plastic chairs and tables are some of the nicest curry dishes you can find in Manchester.

It’s an easy concept, really. You don’t pay for their high-street rent, so the food is cheap. The restaurant’s been there for years, so they’ve had plenty of practice at what they do.

Their menu is certainly quite tiny, and stuck on the wall with little squares for different days. Organisational skills - so much easier for the customer.

This nice man puts whatever you point to onto the plate, and he doesn’t skimp on it either. Whatever you point to, he heaps onto the plate.

With such an easy ordering process, it takes alot of effort not to point at everything. This is what I had (cost about £4 per plate). Cabbage of some sort, spinach and lamb curry, and potatoes at the top of the plate.

The potatoes were fluffy and not too spicy, the spinach was so tender and cooked so well with the lamb, and the cabbage was slightly soft but flavourful, with some spices used in the cooking.

The best thing on the plate was the rice. Don’t get me wrong, everything else was just so tasty, but the rice was even tastier than its friends. It must have been cooked in some stock or something, which made each bit of rice fluffy and tasty, even when eaten on its own.

This is why you should control that finger, and not let it point at everything.

As I look at this mountain, my head starts bobbing to the tunes of ‘You Can’t Touch This’, by MC Hammer. But, I’m not the kind to be easily defeated by a plate of food, so with rolled-up sleeves, utensils in both hands, and the song still going, I set off on the plate.

As a friend says, ‘If everyone has a few mouthfuls, it’s all gone.’

(No one’s having a few mouthfuls of this)

A similar-looking plate, but this one was my friend’s. She, too, set off looking determined to defeat the plate, although the soundtrack was probably something different, something more current perhaps.

To prove that the pics weren’t of the same plate of food, this one has some keema curry on it, pretty much minced meat curry. The little green chillies you see on the plate above were consumed by my friend, who then sweated quite profusely.

Would I come back to this place? Definitely, every time we’re in Manchester. The thing is, it’s quite a small place so I don’t reckon I want to share this with too many people.

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