Le Pain Quotidien, South Bank

Not gonna be too many words on this post, mainly because the pictures speak for themselves, you probably have a fair idea of what the items ordered taste like, and also because the waiting staff who served us was rude, smug and made us feel like we didn’t deserve to be there so the whole meal kind left a stale taste in my mouth.

Enjoyable, salty, as good as it could be.

Betty Bought Some Better Butter – Love the way the butter is presented (I love geometric-shaped food)

As much I as do find the food here enjoyable, and the setting usually quite relaxing, I find the smugness of some of the waiting staff (obviously not all of them) quite insulting. Anyhow, lots of other similar restaurants in London, so I guess if I don’t like it there, there’s always somewhere else to go to!

Eating in – brekkie

Been so busy that I’ve not been having breakfasts … actually I don’t usually have anything for breakfast so it’s not an excuse. However, that said, one Saturday some weeks ago, we found the leisurely time to have a nice home-cooked breakfast.

Half (more on the hard) boiled egg with soldiers (Western version) vs half (ie hard) boiled egg with soy sauce and pepper (Malaysian version).

Which was better? Well, they were both fantastic as I love eggs in all forms, so can’t really choose. The only difference is that one is more savoury than the other (soy sauce makes it slightly sweet also), and the Malaysian version was eaten on its own where as the Western version was eaten with soldiers (ie toast but cut into little rectangles).

Then I had some peanut butter and strawberry jam on toast. One of the nicest combinations for toast – aside from Marmite and honey which is also nice. I also like Marmite and marmalade, strangely nice with the combination of bitter salty Marmite and sweet citrusy marmalade. Milo and condensed milk, another great option. You gotta try it to believe it.

Then we moved on to smoked salmon and some soldiers (not necessarily eaten together, but we had extras from the half-boiled egg.

OK gotta say, been eating out less than usual, but I still like taking pictures of food. When I start taking pictures of chocolates, you know I’m short of material.

This is a picture of the leftover meatball spaghetti that I had in the fridge. Whilst having breakfast, the lighting was really good for pictures, which is why I took out any food I had, even leftover non-cooked food, and starting snapping away. Looks nice, huh?

Piccola Italia, Soho

The English breakfast is something which is interpreted in different ways around the world.

In Asian countries, a Western breakfast means one frankfurter on the plate, with his sidekick of the fried egg, one square of cooked ham (fried and thinly sliced) and some toast. That is of course, not comparable to the full English breakfast that you get in greasy spoons around the UK, but is way better than the sorry excuse called the Continental breakfast that you find in most European countries.

(No, I'm not paying £12 for toast, juice and cereal. I don't care if it's unlimited servings, because I can't consume £12 worth of cereal.)

Last Saturday, the weather picked up and it was really sunny so we decided to explore London, beginning with the area around Oxford Street and Soho, where we found Piccola Italia, a small Italian-like cafe.

I say Italian-like because the menu had lots of pasta on it, but it also served English breakfasts, so I wouldn't vouch for its authenticity.

This was the English breakfast served to us. For £4.80, we got:

sausage x 1
fried egg x 2
bacon x 3
grilled tomatoes x 2 (or so, wasn't counting tomatoes)
grilled mushrooms
baked beans
toast x 2
hot drink x 1

The sausage was slightly soft, without much texture at all. I guess it wasn't top quality sausage but for £4.80, you can't complain (not to the waitress anyway). While the rest of the meal was average (you can't go wrong with tinned beans and fried eggs), the experience was made better as we were sat by the side of the street, people watching which made the meal very fun.

Little cupcakes on the counter which looked really nice, and the guy at the counter was nice enough to allow me to take pictures of them without actually buying any.

Such is the extravagance of being a food blogger.

Recommended? Hmm perhaps not this cafe as such, but if you're up for some people watching in Soho, perhaps so.