*dimsumdolly* - the different morsels of the life of a foodie

In Italy

Hi, just a short update 'cos Internet connection time is precious!

I left London and went to a farm in Italy near to a city called Carmagnola. Carmagnola is in the Piedmont region and its capital is Turin (Torino in Italian). I worked on a farm for a week herding unfenced sheep, bringing out the pony, donkeys and horses, and mucking up horse stalls.

The most fun part of the working farm stint was making salami from scratch! Saw a pig being slaughtered - a very bloody affair. Anyway, I spent my 29th birthday on the farm making salami on 14 Nov. Yes, it's my last year of having the '2' in front of my age. Anyway, I hope being surrounded by food on my birthday will mean I'll never ever be for want of food!

Am now in Turin, and am going to head to Bologna in a few days. After that no plans yet. I'm just winging it as I go along. Actually it's a very stressful way of travelling but oh well, c'est la vie! I just haven't been organised enough!

Tribute to London

It seems like it was only yesterday that I arrived in London with no job and no idea of what I would be doing in London to support myself. I was even prepared to work as a waitress. But thankfully I got a job as a development editor – doing what I was familiar with – and managed to keep myself above (just about) the poverty line in London.

However, I’ve now decided to leave London and I’m going to head home due to several reasons.

1. London is too expensive for me. I’m sick of living like a student, i.e. having no money to spend. When I have to think twice about buying a slice of cake just to treat myself, there really is something wrong. Things are so expensive it’s not funny. Tax is high and so much of my meagre salary goes to the UK government. I mean, it’d be OK if I even benefited from some of the tax money. But no, my money goes to supporting people on the dole.

2. It’s too difficult to relocate to a place all by myself. If I had a boyfriend or husband, it’d be so much easier. The loneliness is awful and I just don’t feel like dealing with it anymore. If I were still 20 years old and still in university with a bunch of uni friends, it’d have been different. But at this age, breaking into and forming new social circles is just so difficult.

3. I miss outrigger canoeing. I don’t miss dragonboating as much as I’ve been able to do it now and then while I’ve been here. But I definitely miss OC and I miss getting my regular and frequent dose of paddling, be it OC or DB. I’m so fat now because I haven’t been exercising as much!

4. I feel overwhelmed by this large city.

5. I’ve had it with UK property agents. They are real bullies and they are just out to take your money. I don’t want to go into further detail here, but my ex-flatmates and I have had a bad experience and we’re being ripped off. The worst thing is that we can’t do anything about it because they have our deposits and basically tenants in the UK have no rights whatsoever. It’s a seller’s market here and tenants are at the mercy of unscrupulous property agents and homeowners.

I leave the UK for good on Nov 12 for Italy. I guess you could say that I haven’t given the city enough time to grow on me, but sometimes you get a feeling about something and you just know what’s right for you.

For me, London’s a great city to visit but not to live. But there are things I really like about London and the UK in general.

1. I love the English countryside. The rolling green fields are so nice and peaceful. My regret this time is that I didn’t get to go to Scotland, Lake District and Peak District.

2. The little lanes and alleys that snake around old buildings are filled with boutique shops and cute little cafes.

3. Second-hand bookshops and the second-hand books in charity shops like Oxfam, British Heart Foundation, Save the Children shops for great for cheap book bargains. The literary worm in me can’t help but pop into one of these shops every time I walk past one.

4. I’m not a big drinker, but I love the old pubs with lots of character. There’s just a certain charm about drinking in an old pub in good old England.

5. I love pub-grub. Pub food is so down-to-earth and hearty – exactly the way I like my food. It’s English comfort food. My favourites are pies with mashed peas and gravy, fish and chips (but I usually give the chips away), and bangers & mash.

6. I love the easy access to the rest of Europe.

7. Earning in pounds and spending it overseas is great!

8. London's a fantastic city for art and cultural buffs. I love the free museums and the vibrant theatre and music scene here.

I leave the UK with many good memories of the friends I've made, the things I've seen and the places I've been to. I must extend my heartfelt thanks to dear friends, Joe and Keith, who have helped me so much in the time I've been in London. Thanks guys!!!

Anyway, the dimsumdolly won't be heading back to home shores just yet. Stay tuned for further updates!

London Favourite Eats

1) Leather Lane – this lane near my office in Holborn has cheap eateries lining it to cater to the lunch-time office crowd. My favourite stall there is the Mediterranean salad stall Sunny’s Olive Tree. They have the best mixed salad box for a cheap £2.50. A bigger box costs £3.20 but the small one is more than enough to fill you up. It comes with a slice of foccacia too. I love their fresh cherry tomatoes, cous cous and mixed beans. You can also choose to buy a range of olives and nuts that they sell.

2) Food For Thought – A vegetarian organic café in 31 Neal Street, Covent Garden. I’m usually not big on vegetarian, but this one serves really yummy vegetarian food. Everything’s good, but I especially love their quiche and stews. For dessert, try their crumbles.

3) Churreria Espanola – This Spanish eatery at 177-179 Queensway W2 5HL (nearest Tube: Bayswater) has hearty Spanish food at reasonable prices. Try the pork knuckle and meat balls. And if you like thick molten hot chocolate (Spanish chocolate caliente), this is the place to head to. It’s the only one I’ve found in London!

4) Carluccio’s – It may be a chain, but it serves up affordable and pretty good quality Italian food. They have several branches around London in South Kensington, Canary Wharf, Spitalfields etc. They recently opened one in Covent Garden.

5) Masala Zone – Good Indian food at reasonable prices. The Thali set is good value for money. They have several branches, but I've only been to the one near Oxford Circus.

6) Harlem – The service is crappy and slow but the pancakes there are fantastic. It's a great place to go to for a lazy Sunday brunch. Just be really patient. On a nice day, you can walk over to Kensington Park after eating to lounge around some more! They're at 78 Westbourne Grove W2 5RT (nearest Tube: Bayswater).

7) Kowloon Bakery on Gerrard Street, Chinatown. I go there to get my fix of Chinese breads and pastries. My Polo bun, Lo Por Bang (Wife’s Biscuit), Malay Cake (a steamed cake), Char Siew Bao, egg tarts etc. It's not fantastic, but it's good enough to satisfy those cravings for something Asian.

8) Maison Bertaux – a charming French patisserie with rather retro and quirky interiors on 27 Greek Street in Cambridge Circus. Try the chocolate mousse cake, St Honore and raspberry slice with fresh cream. I don't really like the rest, so just give it a miss. It's a nice place to go for tea or dessert after dinner.

9) Marks & Spencer’s Food Hall – love all the ready-made meals. I take ages to decide what to get! M&S is ubiquitous in the UK and their Bureau de Change (in the bigger stores) offer good exchange rates to buy or sell foreign currency. Actually I think they offer the best rates. I've done my homework.

10) Waitrose – love all the ready-made meals. Like M&S, I can never decide what to get. I only wished they had more stores around London!

11) Cornish Pasties – workman’s food which is somewhat like the British version of the Italian calzone. Or you could say it's the British version of the curry puffs in Singapore, except it's not curry. Anyway, it's hearty fare which I love for a snack.

12) Borough Market – In my opinion, the best farmer’s market in London. It's both a visual and gastronomical feast. A must-go for foodies.

13) Duchy Originals – the line of food products endorsed by Prince Charles. Profits from sales of Duchy’s food go to charity. Good for people into ethical eating. The chocolate tart, lemon tart, biscuits, basically everything is really yummy! It’s not cheap compared to M&S but it’s worth the money.

14) Four Seasons Chinese Restaurant - the roast duck and char siew look the best amongst the eateries along Gerrard Street. I think it's kinda the best among the worst. The Chinese food in Chinatown is actually pretty crappy but Four Seasons isn't too bad. They have a branch in Bayswater too. The Chinatown outlet is at 12 Gerrard Street and the Bayswater one is at 84 Queensway W2 3RL.

15) Lisboa Patisserie - a Portuguese cafe at 57 Golborne Road W10 5NR serving fantastic Portguese egg tarts and other pastries. It's always crowded and I think it's best to do take-away. It's near Portobello Market so if you're around the famous flea market, take a short detour and head to this cafe for a snack if you're feeling peckish.

16) Ben's Cookies - Really yummy freshly baked cookies sold by weight. It's the same price across the board. So for example, if you buy a dark chocolate with nuts, it'll cost slightly more than one that's a lemon-flavoured one. On average, each cookie costs £1.35. It's a big cookie but still expensive nonetheless. But it's worth the money especially when eaten fresh!

Leaving-do

I had my leaving-do last night with my colleagues at a pub called The Perseverance in Holborn and I just had my farewell lunch at a nice Japanese restaurant. It's strange to be leaving after five months of working in London. I've made several good friends at work and I'm a little sad that I'm not staying longer to know them better.

On the professional side, I've found it interesting working in the London office of the company I was with back in Singapore because I got to learn more about the ELT (English language teaching) market in Europe. Learning about the work culture in another country has also been interesting.

So another chapter of my life has come to an end. But the end of one is the start of another and I'm looking forward to that.

Mad About Pies

I couldn't possibly leave England without writing about pies. I love eating pies and it's one of the items of English pub-grub I really enjoy. A hot pie made with shortcrust pastry (any other pastry just doesn't do it for me) filled with succulent meat and/or stewed vegetables is such a treat on a cold day. I like my pies served with gravy and mashed peas. As you may have expected, I have eaten a lot of pies in the time I've been in the UK. Such an indulgence that doesn't help in my expanding girth, but nevermind.

I was at Hampton Court Palace and was listening to the audio guide about pies in the Tudor period. Back in the those days (1500s), the pastry was really just used as a pot. They didn't have many pots and pans back then, so the pastry was used as a container to cook the meat in. After the meat was cooked, the Tudors would have taken the lid off and used the rest of the pastry as a bowl from which they would have eaten the meat from.

Pies are one of the food items I'll miss when I leave the UK. I haven't quite found a good pie place in Singapore! Foodie friends in Singapore, if you're reading this, please keep a lookout for good pie places for me!

Cotswold

I spent the weekend in Cotswold, an area in England which is really lovely what with the undulating fields and its Cotswold villages which are very quaint and seem to take you back in time.

The village I went to in Cotswold was called Northleach and I stayed two nights in a house built in the 1760s and some of the original wooden ceiling beams are still intact. The sleepy village is so nice and quiet compared to busy London.

The view of the village from the elevated fields just behind it. I love the autumn colours of different shades of red, gold, yellow and orange. It's absolutely beautiful.

Locals call this tree 'The Lightning Tree' because they believe it was struck down by lightning. The children in the village prefer, however, to call it 'The Whomping Willow' which is the tree that features in the Harry Potter books. Whatever it is, both are very delightful names! I love how the children play around it and I'm glad that I managed to capture such a natural shot of how the locals interact with the tree.

Just behind the line of trees lies Helen's Ditch, a road that was used by the locals in medieval times. I love the silhouette of the trees and I love how the trees look so rooted to the ground. It's as if they are shouting 'This is home!'

The local church in Northleach is called Wool Church, because it was built with money donated by wool merchants. In olden days, having sheep was equivalent to having gold in modern times.

Quintessential English countryside with birch, beech and oak trees and a tiny river running through.

Fancy some me-time? Then head to All Alone Lane. I just love the charming names of the roads in the villages.

Saturday night I went to Cirencester for bonfire night and the fireworks display which was really lovely. That was to celebrate Guy Fawkes day. I'm glad I got to experience a really traditional English festival!

Melted Cheese

For those of us who absolutely adore melted cheese, there's nothing like a raclette. Raclette is a type of cheese or a dish featuring cheese. The cheese and dish originate from the Swiss Alps and the cheese is made from cow's milk.

This is really good, hearty comfort food. It's a dish fit for the cold weather that has made its presence felt since September. This stall selling raclettes and melted cheese sandwiches can be found in Borough Market, London. The nearest Tube station is London Bridge.

I just love it when the hot, melted cheese is scraped off the top. Watching that thick, viscous cheese slide off onto the mashed potatoes is pure ecstasy.

After scraping one layer off, the raclette cheese is put back under the heater to melt down the next layer.

The stall also sells melted cheese sandwiches. That vast amount of cheese stacked between the bread slices is enough to satisfy any cheese fanatic.

The raclette dish – hot, melted raclette cheese on mashed potato flavoured with some fresh ground black pepper with some gherkins on the side.

Heavenly.

Paddington Bear

I couldn't resist him when I saw him standing on a shelf of a teddy bear shop in Eton where I was last Saturday. I just had to have him. He's going to be a good souvenir of my time in England.

Will put up more pictures when I have time. Am having a really busy time getting ready to leave London in 11 days. I've moved out of my flat in Queen's Park and am now staying at Chungkingexpress' place. It's like going full circle. I stayed there when I first arrived in London and now I'm back there ready to leave the city.

I'm swamped at work and there's no letting up before my last day come next Friday. OK, back to work!