Oysters at Borough Market

Wow. It looks like I've really been kind of ignoring this page for a while. Truth be told, I've been enrolled in this really busy course that takes away all my waking hours.

But as I have just a little bit of free time now, let me take some time to promote the Oyster Stall down at Borough Market.

I'd just like to say that these are probably one of the best oysters that I have eaten in my life.

Ok, well, I don't eat Oysters all that often, coz I don't actually like how they taste (some are not all that fresh either). Ether that, or they're too big and induce some sort of gag reflex when it tries to go down my throat, or some various other reasons.

Anyway, these ones are really fresh and tasty. Succulent, if that's the word. They're in the same section with the Raclette stall and the Pieminster stall (both really awesome things to try too). It's not that cut-throat, like most oyster bars are. Probably just 8 pounds for like.. 4 oysters? It depends on whether you order the medium sized oysters or the large ones though. I always order the medium ones.

Then the guy loosens the oyster from its shell and then gently rests it back on. He does this so you can slurp it in your mouth a lot easier I think. Then he passes it to you and you can help yourself to the tabasco sauce, the lemon wedges and the special sauce (which I assume they prepare themselves) at the side.

Add some of the special sauce. Not too much, but don't be stingy either! Squeeze some lemon.... and VIOLA.

THE AWESOME OYSTERS!
(I put a little too much special sauce here. Opps)

And you get a happy eater. :)

Fleet River Bakery

Quite a number of people who work or study in London would have heard about this little place - Fleet River Bakery. It's situated in Holborn, near the London School of Economics and Lincoln's Inn. A little gem of a place, if I must say so myself. 

I must say that my whole experience studying in London wouldn't have been complete without this place. It's a convenient, and very nice place, to meet with your friends for a chat. You can stay and do a little bit of reading, you can have a good breakfast, and have some nice cakes and scones for tea. 

The scones, as my friends have dubbed it, are the MOTHER of scones. They are huge! And very well worth the price. The cream.. the jam.. the texture. Heh. 

There was once, when pouring the milk into my Flat White, the barista messed up the coffee art. 

There was nothing wrong with the taste, but I was pleasantly surprised when he said that he'd make me a completely new one. I didn't ask him to, and neither did I mind having coffee with sucky coffee art. But I guess, for the sake of trade and perfection, he did offer me a new one. 

And now that is what I call dedication and excellent service. 

Worth a visit, worth the time. 

And I can bet my undergraduate degree on that. 

LPO

Went for a London Philharmonic Orchestra performance at Southbank last week. It was a truly refreshing break from the studying and the essays that we had to do. Not to mention that the tickets were only 4 pounds! It's some student thing. Noise - I believe it's called. You get all these world-class players and conductors for such an affordable price. We went to watch Janine Jensen playing Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto. 

It's amazing - all these perks you get from being a student. :)

Bloomsbury Festival

And so I'm back in London! Surprised? Maybe not. I haven't posted in about a month after all. Just really busy with work lately. 

We went to the Bloomsbury Festival last weekend. It was good fun! A brilliant little excursion out of our flats and into the sunshine (I make us sound like hermits, don't I?). The weather was perfect. It had been quite cold for the past week, but this weekend the cold went away for a little while. A comfortable temperature of 15 degrees Celsius. 

There were lots of things going on. Walking tours, galleries to visit, exhibitions, little fairs at the gardens surrounding the Bloomsbury area. We went for the fair at Russell Square Gardens on Sunday. 

There were groups performing at different sections of the Gardens. A choir group at one side, a dance group at another. Music was playing everywhere. It wasn't as crowded as we thought it would be. 

There was an exhibition going on as well. I'm not very sure about what the name the exhibition was, but the point of it was that members of the public could pick up individual words from the set which they keep at the side and put them together to form poems. They can then hang the poems up on the space provided. They look like the picture below. 

This one says "on and on and on". Clever, no? The 'author' made it really long and hung it in a circle (instead of letting it hang from the top like the others did) to emphasize even further that it's never ending. 

There were lots of tents set up too. People selling arts and craft, bookstores selling books, a children's corner, a photobooth. It was really quite cool. Lots of things to see. I bought a book called "Wreck this Journal". It's a journal in which the pages will tell you lots of random and silly things to do, such as, 'bring this journal into the shower with you and get it wet'. hahaha. It's been pretty amusing. Good way to release stress I suppose. 

After walking around, ZW felt a little hungry because she hadn't eaten lunch yet. So we walked over to the food tents and bought some Churros. No pictures unfortunately, but I can tell you that they were really fresh and really good and really worth the money. They make the Churros on the spot (with a nifty machine that churns the dough out!). I talked to them and they said that they are at Portobello Market every... Saturday was it? I think they said Saturday anyway. 

Churros in hand, we sat on the grass at the other part of Russell Square Gardens, where they had set up a stage. The SOAS World Music group was playing. You could see old people dancing to the beat, some families just sitting around on the grass (some on the table provided slightly further up), people playing with their dogs, couples snuggling... and like us, friends just sitting around and enjoying the music. 

We decided to go home when it got a little chilly. We walked back towards home, but stopped by one last tent (the children's art and craft tent). Little kids showing off their works by hanging them on the trees. Some had inspiring and touching messages written on them. 

And that wraps up a perfect weekend.