Food Discovery of the Week

So, this is exactly the reason why I got a gym membership yesterday...the food scene in London is just to die for. So many different cuisine types, so many top rated restaurants, so many tempting desserts...it's an unfair battle lol. Here are my top 3 culinary discoveries for last week:

1) Yook Hwe (Korean Raw beef salad with pear)
I've tried a lot of weird things, but never raw beef...unless you count carpaccio. It was actually amazingly tasty...and now I can say that I've eaten raw beef :D

2) Madelines

These tiny light and sweet French cakes are dangerous because just like Lays chips, you can't have just one. Plus, they are awesome for dipping into sauce, such as the sauce from #3.

3) Sticky Toffee Pudding
There's one girl who'd directly to blame for this new addiction of mine. Classic English dessert consisting of pretty much cake saturated in caramel. Mmmmm.....

Drink Discovery of the Week

I present to you.....Pornstar Martini! It tastes as good as it sounds dirty! Why the name? I'm guessing it's because the drink makes one look like a pornstar, as it's also paired up with a long shot glass of champagne. Here's the recipe from http://uktv.co.uk/food/recipe/aid/609834 -- I recommend all to try it!

• 1 tbsp vanilla sugar
• 50 ml vanilla vodka
• 25 ml passionfruit liqueur
• 10 ml passionfruit puree
• fresh passionfruit, to decorate
• 50 ml champagne

Conversion CalculatorMethod

1. Put the vanilla sugar, vanilla vodka, passionfruit liqueur, and passionfruit puree into a shaker.

2. Shake and strain into a martini glass. Decorate with fresh passionfruit pulp.

3. Prepare a small shot glass and fill with champagne.

4. To drink, sip the martini and champagne and mix in the mouth. 

Nerd Discovery of the Week

It was a Thursday afternoon when me and a friend took the tube to the Science museum to check out their Psychoanalysis exhibit...when we discovered that there's a whole street of museums in London! Needless to say the geek in me was doing cartwheels! Natural History Museum, The Science Museum, and the Victoria and Albert Museum (not sure what that is yet, but I'm sure I'll love it) = Maria's going to be learning! I also found a great Thursday activity - museum browsing.
The best thing is that London museum are free. Here's my museum adventure #1 recap :D

The London Science Museum in its full glory

Outside of Museum with Becky (surrounded by overexcited school children)

Fun with atoms! (no really, I love atoms!)

Fun with a 1930's Cambridge rowing boat

 Chilling with some astronauts...

 Doing a tacky tourist picture pose...hehe

 Newspaper dress (seriously, who thinks of that?!)

 Exercising my brain at 'Who Am I' exhibit

My London Top 5 (...So Far) - 1st edition

Today officially marks my 2 week anniversary in Europe. Wow, time flies! I still feel like I just arrived and that there are a million and one things for me to do and see...I hope that feeling doesn't go away any time soon!

Reflecting on my 2 weeks here, I put together my 'London Top 5 (...So Far)' list, which includes all the awesome things I've encountered and experienced in the past week...in no particular order :D

What's not in my Top 5, because it's actually on a whole new level are all the awesome people that I met and reunited with in the city! I've never been to a place where I felt so welcomed...I'm sure there are pictures on Facebook popping up right about now to showcase our hangouts hehe.

1) The largest shoe department in the world @ Selfridges
...this one is pretty self explanatory. Every girl will understand exactly what I'm talking about. Ladies, picture The Bay on Yonge and Queen...now picture it filled with SHOES! Every brand imaginable, every colour, every style = heart attack!

2) Ben's Cookies
I first got to taste these decadent-melt in your mouth-milk chocolate overload goodies in Oxford, thinking that they were a local specialty. Needless to say I was overjoyed to find out that Ben's Cookies is a chain and that I can get them pretty much everywhere! A must-try in London!

3) New neigbourhoods
I LOVE walking in London! It's truly a city where it doesn't matter where you are, there are interesting things to see (or eat). Big thank you to my Sears peeps for hooking me up with the Great Walks in London book - it's now my ultimate guide to checking out new neighbourhoods!
To spice things up, I also pick a cafe to visit in each neighbourhood, where I make sure I sample a cappuccino and a pastry. So far Mayfair is in the lead.

4) London at night...especially by the river
The only thing that's better than London during the day is London at night, when the city is all lit up, and you see couples walking around, holding hands along Thames. So pretty!..Too bad my mid-range camera cannot capture any of this night beauty, so instead, I stole a shot hehe.

View from my Friday night 'date' with Angela

5) Boots
London girls are obsessed with boots, and it's contagious. Over the knee boots, regular boots, heels, no heels, booties...I'm convinced that London is a boots capital of the world. Also, girls here pretty much don't wear pants...because they wear their boots with skirts and dresses! I'm telling you, boots are ruling the world around here. I had to get Mark's help importing my boots from Canada. I'm not at 5 pairs, and I feel like I don't have enough. Thank God for that world's largest shoe department at Selfridges!
They say, when in Rome, do like the Romans...here's one of my new 'Londonesque' looks...notice the boots!

Capri on a Scooter

I've been holding out on you guys, and am yet to deliver the last account of our Italian adventure - our visit to the breathtaking island of Capri (which the Italians pronounce by stressing the first syllable, not the second one like we do, btw! It's actually quite amazing how English screws up names of places sometimes.)

To get to Capri we took a 30 min boat ride from Positano. The journey was beautiful: sunny skies above, blue water all around, mountains to the left, and all sorts of little islands ahead... We rented a scooter to get around the island (ok, so it took Mark a lot of convincing to get me on that thing...), which proved to be the best way to get around (you win, Mark!). Capri is made up of 2 mountainous centres: Capri and Anacapri, and 3 beaches at the bottom, which makes walking around impossible even though the island is only 6x4 km. The price you pay for convenience? Driving on the narrowest mountain roads of your life while facing the threat of a dreaded local 'orange bus' or a crazy Italian driver on every turn. Keeps the adrenaline pumping though!

Watch our crazy scooter drive: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyo2ye0JOvw

Check out this vid of our drive down the mountain. True story, hehe.

Our scooter stop # 1 was Faro Beach - a cute and rocky beach on the SW corner of the island. The one thing we learned about the area is that there are no sandy beaches, but the turquoise colour of the water definitely makes up for that. The water was still warm and swimmable when we were there - and that's first week of October! Unbelievable!

Me testing the water :D

Scooter stop # 2 was Anacapri town - a quaint Anacapri city centre filled with boutique shops, restaurants, pizzerias and gelato shops i.e. heaven on earth for Maria! As always, in the picture below I'd like to feature the pizza we ate :) When you go inside the restaurant, you could see the giant pizza oven and a jolly chubby Italian guy making your pizza.

After ovreating yet again, we decided to take the single seater funicular up to the top of the mountain, which ended up being the highlight of our Capri visit! It was the coolest thing ever, as you get to ride to the top for 13 minutes, watching the whole island sprawl below you as you go higher and higher. And of course, at the top you are rewarded with views to die for! Here they are:

Watch my ride down the funicular:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_pi852yawg

Riding to the top (not for chickens!)

Napoli Bay behind us

Scooter stop # 3 was Gradola beach - a more secluded and rocky beach on the NW corner of the island. This is also the place from where boats depart to Grotta Azzura, the supposedly picturesque little grotto with the bluest water ever. We never got to go because the seas was too rough that day... We later found out from friends of ours that the grotto might have been slightly overrated - although it is unbelievably blue, it's also unbelievable tiny and includes a 30 minute wait time just to get in. Well, it looks like we saved ourselves 50 euros! hehe.

Scooter stop # 4 (and final scooter stop) was Capri town - a super touristy boutique central of the island. Capri in itself is a beautiful little town with narrow alleyways and Mediterranean style houses surrounded by palm tree and flower gardens worth millions of euros I'm sure. It also contain boutiques with every designer name that ever existed, and a million restos, and cafes. What takes away from the experience, however are crowds of tourists...narrow streets and tourists just don't mix well, hehe. Nontheless, a very enjoyable experience where we had some gelatto to close off the day.

Amalfi Coast is the Lemoncello capital of the world!

Streets of Capri

Bye Capri, and thanks for the great views and pizza!..I was hoping to see Lindsay Lohan, as they say she frequently visits the island, but I guess she was in jail/rehab at the time. Oh well!

Positano

Chez Black aka best pizza of my life

The drive from Naples to Positano was along the narrowest mountain roads with crazy turns (where every time you make one your heart sinks and you cross your fingers that there's no bus n the other side!), but it was filled with the most amazing views of the mountains and the sunset over the water. We arrived in Positano, one of the town in the Amalfi Coast at around 8 - just in time to see the city light up. Most of the town consisted of a single street that went up the mountain, and all the buildings were constructed along this one street, which made the place look like something from a fairy tale. Since I won't do justice describing it with words, here are some pix:

We were greeted by a spectacular display of fireworks when we stepped out to walk to the beach and make our way to the restaurant. Naturally, we thought that we were special, buuut we later found out that there was a saints festival of some kind. However, seeing those fireworks over the water and the mountains was something out of this world - Mark and I both agreed that it was the best fireworks display we've ever witnessed!..sorry Canada Day :D

Our first dinner highlight was Chez Black - a resto on the beach of Positano, recommended by several foodies, and by Chef Mario Batali himself. They were all right - the place was un-be-lie-va-ble! I had prosciutto and melon (the juiciest melon I've had in my life) and a mushroom and pepper pizza, while Mark had a sorrento mozzarella salad and a white prosciutto pizza...all washed down with nice regional wine and some lemoncello. I estimate that I gained at least a pound after that dinner, but it was most definitely worth it!

Santiero Degli Dei aka best hike of my life

Our Day 2 in Positano was one of epic adventures. We started it with a breakfast on the terrace of our hotel, staring at the ocean and the mountains all around us and snacking on some great pastries. Olesy, if you are reading this, I had a chocolate croissant that would be good competition for the one we had in Barcelona hehe. 

What followed was a Santiero degli Dei, or the Walk of the Gods - a 3 hour hike over the mountain to a village on the other side. Yes, we actually took a bus to a tiny village on top of the mountain, and hiked all the way up and over to a town called Praiano. I mean it when I say that it was the best hike of my life. We got to walk through different areas of the mountain - some green with trees and grape wineries, some bare with cliffs and rocks, while feasting our eyes on the spectacular views of the two towns, the ocean an the mountains below and all around us. We met a tour guide on the bus who told us that the hike is called 'Walk of the Gods', because one feels like one's looking on earth from the heavens.

The hike up Vesuvius seemed like a warm up after this...Mark and I will never look at stairs the same way again lol, especially going down the stairs, after having to climb down 1200 stone steps *shudder*

This is the reward that was waiting for us in Praiano - a cute beach resto called Il Pirata. Here we feasted on a platter of octopus, calamari and sardines, and some freshly caught red snapper - mmmmm!

Our dinner highlight number two was at a resto called Il Capitan, also recommended by Mario Batali. The deliciousness there included buffalo mozzarella with prosciutto, a seafood risotto for me, and an eggplant gnocchi with clams for Mark, followed by some chocolate cake with ice cream...one of the 20 ice creams and gilatos we must have had on this trip! This is  probably where I gained my 2nd pound hehe.

We ended up spending one more day in Positano, taking it easy and doing as many Italian things as we could think of: going to the beach, eating canollis and gelato, relaxing with a bottle of wine at the beach snack bar, drinking cappuccinos at a cafe, wondering the town and its boutiques, and avoiding being run over by a local 'orange bus' hehe:

Vesuvius, Pompei, and driving in Naples (and surviving to tell the story)

So, this weekend was officially my first weekend in Europe AND my first weekend away from London. The reason - an awesome trip to Naples and the Amalfi Coast! Here's my destination by destination account, including a sneak peek at the pictures. Lucky for me, Mark has an awesome hobby called photography, which translates into loads of great pictures for me! :D I will be providing links to our full picture albums on Flickr shortly. 

Our Day 1 began at 3 am with catching a bus to the Stadstead airport. Travel tip for all of those who will be visiting me in London and traveling Europe with me (wink, wink), London has a great system to get to and from airports at any time of the day or night, conveniently and economically.

We arrived in Naples around 10 am, where our adventure began...We rented a car in advance, thinking that it would be the most efficient mode of transportation for us, given that we had to travel to several places: Vesuvius, Pompei, Positano and around the Amalfi Coast...only to quickly learn that driving is the worst thing one can do in Italy! There are either no signs for streets or attractions, or there are literally walls of signs with dozens of arrows on top of one another pointing to every corner; the streets provided by our trusty Google Map app do not exist; and lanes, signalling, giving the right of way, and any other typical driving rules are just suggestions...and I should also mention that you are driving in the mountains most of the time! The only way to make it there is to forget everything you learned in driving school! Mark did an amazing job driving to all of our destinations, with navigational help from me. Travel tip #2, just look at your GPS map and follow it - the street names that you see on it do not exist. One of the 'highways' we had to take was actually a 3 meter wide alleyway up the mountain hehe. Travel tip #3 - just ask the locals! :) We absolutely loved Italians - they are the friendliest, most helpful people! We concluded they are so nice because they have nothing to worry about, as they live in a beautiful place with beautiful weather and amazing food - what else does one need?!

Stop 1 - Vesuvius

This is the very volcano that I wanted to see since I was little, so I was very excited to finally step my foot on it! You have to drive up the volcano almost all the way to the top, and then walk the last 30 or so minutes up the mountain to the top to see the crater. The drive up the mountain was very pretty, with great views of Naples all around you. I thought the hike to the crater was quite fun, but maybe it was my excitement talking, because Mark and his calves seemed to disagree. I also wore my runners, like a pro keen tourist that I was, so that could've helped :) Little did we know, the hike up Vesuvius was a breeze compared to what we did the following day... It was very neat to see the crater, and you could even see part of it smoking a little. Here are some pix!

View from almost the top

Mark and I at the crater

Just me and the crater

Stop 2 - Pompei

Pompei is a 20 min drive from Vesuvius. It's actually a whole 'city within a city' - a pedestrian only area of Naples that stretches 60 hectares. It's truly a stunning place to visit, because you see history frozen in time. Ancient stadiums, temples, houses and streets...they even have skeletons of people and animals fossilized by ash...We were there at a great time, as it was later both in the year and in the day, so there were only a handful of other tourists. It was very neat to wander the ancient streets, just the two of us. Here are more pix before I move on to Day 2!

Hanging out at the Teatro Grande

Hopping a fence to the ancient house

Doing it like Appollo

On the Via delle Tombe

Day 1 of 270

I'm here! :))
My journey to London has been delightfully uneventful (just like I wanted after 4 weeks of stress to get everything ready to come over!). The most eventful part was arriving just in time for the London tube strike, which hear will be one of many this year. Luckily, my wonderful and thoughtful boyfriend has sent a hire car for me, so managed to avoid it :D
Sooo, this is my new home for the next little while! No complaints! The best part - it's minutes away from Oxford Street - the Bloor Street of London...times 100 aka shopping heaven that I plan on getting more acquainted with :)

Mark took me to an awesome Japanese micro resto called Dinings for dinner. It's a tiny venue with a big taste where we had some unique (by my current standards at least) dishes, including bass carpaccio with truffle salsa and truffles and a fois gras sushi roll - mmm! For all you foodies, here are the pix of what I ate :D
Stay tuned for more!
xoxo