FOOD CORNER

Hello Food | Mini Caprese Salad

Hi Lovely Reader,This time I want to share with you something that is delicious and easy to make at home. A Caprese Salad  or in Italian “ Insalata Tricolore / Caprese”.

It’s pretty obvious how to make one, so I will just show some pictures of the ones we made for lunch with some bread and Italian sausages.

What you will need to make these;

  • Tomatoes (We used small tomatoes this time. Looks cute, but you can also use the huge tomatoes for this)
  • Mozzarella
  • Basil
  • Salt
  • Olive oil (extra virgin)
  • Black pepper (if you want)

Et Voila! You will have some delicious mini caprese that you can enjoy for breakfast, lunch and before dinner.

Ciao! ♥ Miss Widjaja

LIFESTYLE

Hello London | Second week in London

Hello Lovely Readers, it has been already the second week in London.  So far, so good… Finally, the unpacking and settling in is done. So let see where London has taken us last week and this last sunny weekend. Very happy with the extra vitamin D last weekend!

So without further a due these are the things you must-see while visiting London.

These are the places we explored last week;

This place is near Leicester square, just behind the big M&M store. Chinatown always feels a bit like home, because in these Chinese supermarket you can find anything for the Asian cuisine. From simple noodles to divers Asian spices, herbs, fruit and vegetables. There are also a lot of Chinese restaurants, bar, cafés, entertainment and health and beauty related stores. Just check the website what you can find, eat or see in Chinatown.

 

I saw a busy line in front of this store. I finally realized that this was something I wanted to try because of the delicious pictures I saw before on Instagram. So still a must-see for me. Just check the website or their Instagram then you will understand what I am saying.

No words needed if you like to cook Asian cuisine at home. They have EVERYTHING!

 

Small nice sushi place where you sit around a conveyer belt and pick up the sushi you like. It is not a real Japanese restaurant, but the sushi was delicious and the Asahi beer was fine. Basic settings, but also intimate because you will sit quite close to each other with not a lot of table space.

Friday nights are always busy in the city, so it’s a nice thing to walk around this area or get a beer / cocktail in a bar or club. Some places we have been are;

  • Freedom bar 60-66 Wardour St, Soho, London W1F 0TA
  • Soho Zebrano bar18 Greek St, Soho, London W1D 4DS
  • JAMON JAMON Soho 3 Caxton Walk, London WC2H 8PW
  • Really delicious tapas and great red house wine. Great location and nice place to sit outside.

This weekend we were lucky with the weather, so we went to wander around Little Venice for a nice walk near the canal.

On Sunday we went to Brick lane to go to the vintage market. (Finally!) Definitely a recommendation. The market is super vibrant, just like this whole area. A lot of restyled vintage clothing, designer brands and if you got time, go to the black and white picture booth in this market.

Next to this you have a sort of cultural food market with food / snacks from around the world. We went for the Sicilian Arancini… not the best, but it was quiet nice.

From this we walked around to see different markets in the neighbourhood and enjoyed the sunny weather here in London.

So if you are in London, I got more options for you to explore in this wonderful city.

Ciao! ♥ Miss Widjaja

LIFESTYLE

Hello London | First week in London

Hello Lovely Readers, I apologise, it’s has been a while since my latest blog due to moving abroad. I didn’t had time to blog, because moving by itself it’s already a lot of work. But we did it! I finally moved from lovely Rotterdam to Amazing London. YEAH!

This has given me a new idea for content to make for you guys. A series of blogs about living in London, called “Hello London”.  Not sure yet what it will contain, but probable about my experiences in this city and all the fun stuff I discover so far.

It is my first week since the moving, so this week I had to unpack a lot of stuff (also threw away a lot again). So this blog will be about the things we did with friends in London so far, because before I moved here, I had been travelling a lot back and forth to this city to see my boyfriend.

So without further a due these are the things you must visit while in London.

An area I enjoyed a lot is Shoreditch. There are lots of bar, restaurants, pubs and many more to visit in this district. I also have been visiting a gallery. We went to Brick lane and walked around the canals from Camden Town to St. Pancras and further.

These are the places we went and I also remember;

A bar, cafe and exhibition space in East London’s Shoreditch. Very nice to have drinks here, a bit crowded. 

  • The waiting room  175 Stoke Newington High St, Stoke Newington, London N16 0LH

It’s a little venue / club downstairs. We went to Gatto Frito and I have to say the atmosphere and music were really nice that day. Check the link for upcoming events if you to party and more relaxed party’s.

  • Hanoi Café 98 Kingsland Rd, London E2 8DP, Shoreditch

This Vietnamese café serves home-style / street food inspired Vietnamese food. Everything looked delicious, but one of my favourite Vietnamese food is the spring roll. YUMMIE. You should definitely try this one.

  • Saatchi Gallery Duke of York’s HQ, King’s Rd, Chelsea, London SW3 4RY

It’s a gallery for contemporary art, opened by Charles Saatchi in 1985 in order to exhibit his collection to the public.  I liked the exhibition “From selfie to self-expression” because it’s a part of our society now. It’s funny to see how everyone is using their mobile phone as an art medium to express their self’s. Check the link to website to see if you still can see this exhibition.

It’s a place to go for breakfast, lunch and dinner It’s also nice just to have a drink here. Here you can see the spectacular fountains (I saw these fountains also in the latest movie of Bridget Jones). Nice area to relax or just for a nice walk.

It’s a huge vintage clothing market that I still need to visit. (But I already wanted to insert it in this list, so I won’t forget to visit this market)

A really vibrant area, with lots of street art, vintage shops and delicious food.  There is a Turkish shop somewhere around (sorry but don’t remember the name) where you can find lots of Turkish delicious food. I had the mimosa lamb and it was amazing.

Another nice thing we ate was a salty beef Beigel with mustard and pickles. I would definitely recommend this one.

  • Design museum 224-238 Kensington High St, Kensington, London W8 6AG

It’s a museum for contemporary design in every form. Check the current exhibitions in the link.  I went to a past exhibition which I liked. I liked that it was so divers. You had to see for yourself.

  • Regents Canal Walk: Regents Park to Kings Cross

Nice walk near the canal.

Wow… It’s a long list but all places I would visit again… So I would say if you’re around London and want to see more than just the highlights of London… pick one from the list and start from there.

See you soon with more things to explore in this amazing city.

Ciao! ♥ Miss Widjaja

LIFESTYLE

Hello London | Favourite museums in London | 2016

Last year I have been travelling a lot to London. The nicest thing in London is there are lots of museums that are admission free. YEAH! That means a lot of visiting different museums for me, because I love art, culture, history and learning new things.

My top 3 museums in London so far are the National Gallery, the British museum and the Natural History museum.

I will start with my favourite one; the National Gallery.

The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square. If you like art like me, you probably will like this museum. There are over more than 2,300 painting dating from mid- 13th century till the 1900.  Renaissance art is for me the main reason I like this museum. Especially the Caravaggio paintings. Last year there was an Caravaggio exhibition held from 12 October 2016 to 15 January 2017 which I attend to.

 

The next museum I love going to is the British Museum.

The British Museum is located on Great Russell Street.  In this collection you can find human history, art and culture. In the collection are items of Ancient Egypt, Rome and Greece, the middle East, Prints and Drawings, Prehistory and Europe, Asia,  Africa, Oceania and the Americas, Coins and Medals, Conservation and Scientific Research  and Libraries and Archives.  Usually if I go to this museum, I will go just to one department at the time. My favourite departments are the Ancient Egypt and the Rome and Greece departments. This museum is huge so there are always new things to discover in here.  My latest discovery is the Rosetta stone.

 

Last but not least is the Natural History Museum.

 

In this museum you can find life and earth science specimens within 5 main collections; botany, entomology, mineralogy, palaeontology and zoology.

This museum is located on the Cromwell Road. You can learn a lot about different specimens. I love the mineralogy collection they have and this is the first museum for me where I saw Dinosaurs. There is a room where you can see animals in real size. Amazing how huge a whale is in comparison to an elephant.

Probably I am going to see more museums in and around London in 2017, so if anyone has a tip which museum is also very nice to visit, please let me know.

For now go explore the London museums when you are in town 😉

Till next time

Ciao! ♥ Miss Widjaja