I've been up to London to visit the Queen."
hahaha! Nah.... Of course not! :P
Guten Tag alles!Yesh! I went to London!! Woohoo~!! Ok... It wasn't like any other trips that I've been on.. I went on a
MAKAN HOLIDAY!! hahhaha! What can be better than this?? Lol! I left on Wednesday morning, and returned on Sunday afternoon..
On Wednesday, Day 94, over in London, Kak Lon was waiting for me at East Croydon train station, with adorable Eloane and Diane [Don't pronounce the 'e'].. First thing we did was makan thosai!! Lol!! THIS was the first on our itinery.. We made a food itinery.. Kak Lon planned everything! Power la she!! I miss thosai sooooooo much!! I have been seriously craving for it la! It was good.. London is apparently a VERY easy place to find Indian food.. Lucky me!
At Kak Lon's place, I had Diane's room.. hehe! A pretty room for a pretty girl!
Nice, comfortable pink bed! With home clothes, towel and toiletries provided.. hahah!
We didn't do much on Wednesday.. Just talk talk with Kak Lon, play with the kids and just getting to know life in a foreign country.. Life as a Muslim in Europe.. Living away from your family.. Starting a family.. It was nice, because I can relate to her after living in Germany for 3 months.. Very nice~!!
Day 95.. In the morning.. A view of her garden from the kitchen.. Ahhhh... This is home!! Her kitchen is fully-equipped!! I wish I had a weighing machine, a baking pan etc, to bake something!! Or pots, pans, even a potato peeler (!!), for cooking..
Since it's a makan holiday, I'll just list down all the things that I had when I was in London..
Nestum!! Yummy!! And kuih suji!!
Sambal belacan with keropok ikan!!
This is Kak Lon, burning the belacan to make sambal belacan for me.. hahah! Very modern method.. Lol! She had to do it outside because the smell is very strong.. haha!
One of the ingredients for sambal belacan.. Many-years-old lime, which was kept in the freezer for very long.. Don't ask how old pls.. :P
Chilli!! Chilli padi, I should say, is a must!!
I bought some Italian delicacies.. REALLY GOOD!!! I LOVED IT ALOT!! hahah!
Alamak! What is this called ah? Tako?? The one with water chestnuts.. I love this!! This is a MUST during ramadhan for me.. Because this period, I always crave for it.. hahah! Ibu/ papa/ mak/ baba always always always buy this for me.. Anyway, I found this in Chinatown!! By chance ah! hahah! Lucky me!!
Looks good and yummy!! Im drooling now!! Lol!
Ok! Time to prepare some
lauk-pauk/ dishes!! Ayam kalio (my favourite Aunty Timah's dish!) and Bamia (my favourite Ibu's dish!).. Yesh... I requested for these.. So
tak malu right? But Kak Lon was soooooo nice and sporting!! Even email my mum for her recipe way in advance!! Lol!!
I helped peel and cut shallots, garlic, ginger etc.. hehe!
Cooking kalio.. I love it green!
With the chicken.. hehe!
AND my favourite Bamia.. Kak Lon has never cooked it before, or even tasted it!! BUT it turned out really well!! Just not spicy, because Mike and her kids can't take spicy food.. haha!
Yesh! Must have with roti Perancis! hehe! Power giler!! I should seriously learn to cook this! hehe! But too bad I can't cook here, because the ingredients.. Alamak! So hard to find la! hahaha!
I went to Kak Lon's friend's place to have Indian food!! Real Indian food! I had Appom and Vadai (with green chilli, of course.. And she was so shocked to see me eating with the green chilli..)! I even finished up all the Vadai.. It was really good.. haha!
The chef, Reena..
The girls had their 'picnic' in the garden.. So cute! Anakha(Is it right?). Diane. Eloane. haha!
Anantha. Erwan.. Sitting by the garden, eating Appom..
Beehoon goreng.. Singapore 'mama-style'.. Very the mama style.. They should just call it Beehoon goreng.. Shouldn't confuse people like me, who's craving for the real mama style.. haha!
Seafood Hor Fun! Yummy! This was good... ;)
This is Bubur durian! Yup!! We can find durian here.. In London and Germany.. BUT you'll find them in the freezer.. Lol!
Bubur durian with pulut!! :D
Kak Lon making kuih dada..
This is the batter for the 'skin'.. The green outer thingy..
Frying them..
Put the coconut thingy.. She made them in advance..
Roll them nicely!
Voila!!
Adorable Eloane helping with the Chocolate Profiteroles.. So serious.. So cute!!
Tada!! Chocolate Profiteroles.. With Eloane eating fish and chips in the background.. Yup! I had Fish and chips too! It was good!! haha!
Pastry for Strawberry Custard Tart!!
You'll need fresh strawberries!! OoooOooOooooOOOooooo....
Yummy!!
I had many many more food, BUT I didn't take the pics.. I had Tauhui [I don't know if I spelt it right..], Thosai, sushi, Milo nuggets, Vitasoy, Tuna pasta, Fish and chips etc..
We went walking around Croydon area.. This is a place to shop..
Aaaaannnnnnd I did shop! oOps!! I bought some stuff for my sisters too.. hahah! Forgiven ya? hehe!
Italien Delicacies.. It was some Italien Fest thingy going on that day.. Lucky me! It was GOOD!!
We went to Wing Yip.. Guess what is this place?
A SUPERMARKET!! An Asian one!! Look at the size!! NTUC Fairprice pun kalah!
Ok.. We went to central London.. AND yesh, my first stop was a postcard stand.. Seriously!! hahahah! Some of my DEAREST friends from Dieburg were asking for postcards from London, because I was going alone.. :P hahahhaha!! And of course, I bought for my loved ones in Singapore.. ;)
No idea where this is..
I love this pic!!
Something was going on inside.. But we were too late..
Police on horses! Oh, you can ride a horse on the roads too.. I saw a family riding on a chariot.. The father and his 3 sons.. Such interesting way to bond.. Anyway, the people owe horses, so of course they can ride them.. haha! I didn't know they can ride them on the roads with other cars!! Seriously, some cars sped past them.. Lol!!
We went to a Japanese market.. I bought some stuff to make sushi! Yesh, I was seriously craving for some.. Of course, I bought some sushi too..
Japanese goodies!
Yesh!! We were eating sushi on the sidewalks! Lol!!
We bought a violin and cello for Kak Lon's friends' children.. How nice of her.. We had to carry them around central London.. hahahha! Do we look like musicians? Ok, let's go basking!
Chinatown..
Of course, we must stop by the supermarket.. Very good! ALOT of Asian food stuff..
Vegetables, herbs, spicies etc.. CHILLIES!! hahah!
Covent Garden.. We watched a street performance..
This guy was damn funny! Watching him, I realised that it's not easy.. Got some skills and techniques to make it successful... Very interesting... haha! He juggled, made a fool of himself, striped right down to him undies, and...........................
..... got a heavy man to stand on him, with him sandwiched between bed of rusty iron nails.. [Btw he had this red, heart-shaped thing covering his tits.. Kinda gross actually..]
This man stood on him for abt 25 seconds.. Not bad..
Then we walked around the area.. OMG... I LOVE COVENT GARDEN.. There's soooooo many stuff to buy.. Handicrafts.. DAMN nice!! I wish I had money, then I can buy for all my friends souvenirs from here.. Really really nice!! Fool's Gold!! Lol!
List of names that originate from England/ Ireland..
Kak Lon was finding for Regy, a French family name..
It was interesting because it came with all this flags and symbols etc..
hahahhaha! It wouldn't be a London trip if I didn't take a pic in the old red telephone booth!
In Kak Lon's neighbourhood..
She lives on the top of the hill!! hahah!
Ok, this was taken on my way to the airport, from Kak Lon's place.. Because................ [see below]
What happened to the English manners? Tsk tsk tsk...
Anyway, I was sad to leave London.. The makan holiday was perfect! AND my objective of this trip is to spend time with Kak Lon and family and experience living overseas as a family/ as a Muslim.. And ofcourse, makan too!
Gosh... I miss the kids.. I miss Eloane.. This cheeky girl, always running away from me.. Eloane Amalina, yesh, she stole my name too! hahaha!
I returned to Dieburg on Sunday afternoon, Day 98.. Then I went to the Schlossgrabenfest in Darmstadt.. [see next entry]
It's just in front of my university.. Yesh! TU Darmstadt ist super! You can understand this.. German is quite easy for English-speakers, because they are so many similar words.. ;)
Can you see the words on the building? Schlossgrabenfest!!
There were lots of food! BBQ food! Look how HUGE the grill is!! hahahahha!!
Lots of french fries!!
Stage with the bright lights!
And without... hahah!
