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Do you have the tradition of having Chinese new year cake ‘lin ko’ during cny?? I find it really strange, when I was in Malaysia, I never used to eat Lin ko during cny, but ever since I came over to England, I have it every year! It is a must, I normally travel to Bristol or London to get a big box, then store it in the freezer, and just fry it with eggs and have it as a snack!

It is yumm. Do you like Lin Ko?

I think I will need the best diet pills to help me lose some extra calories soon!! Ever since this new Japanese restaurant opened, I have been ordering sushi takeaways and delivery very frequently!

When I have cravings for nice asian food, I would have to travel to either Exeter or London, but now whenever I have cravings, I will order sushi delivery! This is so not good, especially when I always can’t resist them, and I do order a lot each time, and it costs me a bomb!

I’d go bankrupt if Torquay opens more restaurants like this! Haha.

Check out what I ordered.

Egg Sushi, Tofu Sushi, Soft shell Crab hand roll, California maki

Ever since I have been doing all the extra duties, getting only 1 day of rest a week, sometimes 1 day of rest in 10 days, really makes me very lazy to cook. 4 out of 7 days I would order take away. I know it may costs a lot, but I’d rather have a full decent meal than to have instant noodles all the time.

There are 2 takeaway places that I order from, other than the japanese restaurant, I normally order from China Garden, just 2 minutes walk from where I live, owned by Malaysians which is great, because I got to know them now, and they are very flexible with how I like my meal done.

My favourite dish from them

sweet and sour chicken

Are you eating plenty of fruits and vegetables achieving your 5 a day diet? Well to be honest, I haven’t! I am trying to remember whenever I do my grocery shopping, to buy vegetables and fruits, but because of my work schedule, I am always tired when I get home, so I rarely cook proper meals anymore, and takeaway meals rarely have sufficient vegetables in them.

Sometimes when work is so busy, I can’t keep up with my 5 a day. What I normally do is, I buy cheap vitamins, and take one every day, to give my body what it is missing.

I also think these sweet corns will come in handy, I bought a dozen of them, you can just eat it as a snack, or add to your salad, or pasta, it makes up your 1 portion of fruits and vegetables a day.

Well this market is situated in Nottinghill. Did you watch Nottinghill with Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts?? If you liked the show you must pay a visit to Nottinghill!! The houses there looked colourful and very pretty. However I didn’t have much chance to walk around nottinghill, as I only visited the market.

This is a very famous market that specialises in antiques. There are uncountable stalls and even proper shops selling old antique cameras, collectibles, stamps, clocks, and even sewing machines! It is another market I found rather interesting after Camden Market. It did remind me of ‘Pasar Malam’ (night market back home in Malaysia) as the street is closed for visitors on foot only, and all along the street on both left and right side, there will be shops and stalls selling all these antiques, and towards the end of the market, there are plenty of food stalls.

Even if you don’t collect antiques, like me, it is still worth visiting

I am so ashamed to admit that I have never been to the world’s famous market in London – Camden Market after so many years being in England. Since my friend lived in Camden, it was an opportunity to make a visit! And I finally did!

 The market is huge, it consists of several sub-markets, and each of the design is special. I was most impressed with The Stables, the largest section of Camden market. This market is second to none. This is a very unique market, where you will find yourself shopping amidst statue of horses throughout Stables Market.  Well, the market is built in the former midland railway stables and horse hospital which served the horses pulling barges along the canal, thus explains the many statues of horses in the market.

These markets sell clothes, crafts, fast food, furniture, decorative goods, collectibles, and other things, but mainly gothic and cybergothic  clothing. They do have a mixture of temporary stalls and fixed stalls, so some stalls only trade on certain days. Weekends would be the best days to visit Camden markets as most stalls will be opened. However, do not repeat my mistake, I went there at 10am on Sunday, many stalls were barely opened, so I suggest you go after 12pm, where there will be more stalls and crowd.

Camden Town is known for its gothic culture, so don’t be shock if you see all the gothic and hippie hair styles, tattoos, piercing, and dressing styles when you are walking down the streets there.

This is a definite must visit if you come to England! You’d be thrilled.

Manage to grab a bargain from Co-Op Supermarket again! This time, it is strawberries. It is reduced to £1.35, how cheap is that? Normally strawberries are rather expensive.

You’d think, if they reduce the price means the fruit isn’t very fresh or going out of date. Yes it was expiring the next day, but the strawberry was still very red, and fresh. In fact it was very sweet too.

This year, I celebrated Christmas with my 2 other buddies from University. On 24^th I had to work till 6pm, so by the time I travelled to Cornwall, it was already 8.30pm. We waited for another friend to arrive, then started our long waited hot pot meal at 10pm!!

Even though we had a late meal, it was still yum and lots of fun. I have been craving for Chinese meat balls, Chinese mushrooms, Japanese tofu, Chinese hotpot sliced beef for such a long time! Living abroad especially during winter season, my friends and I crave for hot pot all the time. How about you?? Do you have these cravings?

There are pros and cons going to brixham for work. The good thing is there are many nice cafes in Brixham that I can choose from for a lush lunch. Brixham don’t have many designer stores, but they do have little stores that sells multipurpose goods where you can’t find elsewhere i.e. utility knife.

 The down side is Brixham is one of the furthest stores that I have to travel to, that means I have to get up earlier as well, and also I usually spend a lot of money for my lunch when I go to Brixham.

One of the days last week, I had my lunch at Lemon tree Cafe. I always have their broccoli and cauliflower soup. I love that soup so much. Brocolli and Cauliflower used to be my least favourite vegetables, but now I cook them more than other vegetables. It is also because Brocolli and Cauliflower are available in frozen packs as well and can be kept up till a month, I find it really convenient.

I’ve only just realised its winter solstice festival today after noticing everyone’s status on facebook. So I too went to make myself some Tong Yuen (Chinese dessert made of rice flour) too! Previously I bought some black sesame tong yuen when my friend was still around; I had 1 more packet in the freezer, which came in handy today!!

Tong Yuen pictures on facebook really made me crave for it. I didn’t have any ginger though, so the taste was not great, but still good enough to satisfy my cravings! Have you had your tong yuen??