Chinese New Year was the beginning of Feb, this is my first CNY away from home? Even so, it wasn't short of celebrations and activities, I had my fair share of steamboat, lou hei and meeting up with friends except no collection of red packets..haha.
The first day of CNY was spent with the arrival of Tifanny who came down from Notts, feeling touched by the fact that she travelled alone for like 5-6 hrs just to spend the weekends with us..awww. Sadly couldn't show her much of Soton, because honestly speaking, there isn't much to do here. So we had steamboat on the 2nd day and gosh, we overestimated the amount of food we could eat...
doesn't seem alot for 4 people..
this is probably the most important dish for steamboat, at least for me.
advertising for Stella Artois cidre..haha. Still prefer pear over apple.
Our humble steamboat pot which is actually a rice cooker. Soup was cooked from scratched which basically comprised of chicken carcass and dried scallops.
that was our humble steamboat meal though we were all freaking full after that but definitely satisfied! Great food, great weather for steamboat, great drinks and most importantly, great company!
初三:
Touring Soton city center
on above bar street
not exactly a nice view but just had to take a picture of it.
Ikea was our lunch stop for the day
And that marked the end of the first weekend of CNY, nothing exciting. The following weekend, we headed out to Reading to visit Zoe!
初九:
Sushimania for lunch
Not a very good picture but look at those sushi! Totally sushi deprived.
It was half price that day so everything was pretty worth it.
Sashimi was fresh but pricing wise, obviously cannot compare to back home.
Supposedly SLICED beef udon but the meat was so thick, not impressed by the entire dish. The soup base tasted more of msg and the udon noodles just didn't have the right texture. Note to self: do not try udon in any uk jap restaurant.
Jane and Zoe, our fab host for the trip, thank you for bringing us around and for crashing in your room! :)
Can't remember what sushi is this but it was not bad.
A always must try in every jap restaurant, soft shell crab temaki. Not the best I have had.
Overall, the sushi was not bad but the udon noodle soup wasn't up to standard. I heard that their dons are not bad so might try that next time if I visit the restaurant again. Reasonable pricing if there is half price..haha.
Headed to a famous cafe in Reading for some coffee - Workhouse Coffee. Had a cup of latte and although I am no expert in tasting coffee, this cup of latte was quite to my liking. The coffee was not very strong and it was smooth to drink, not a fan of sharp and strong coffee..so this was good.
Flooding in Reading..when will the rainy weather ever stop?
We had potluck dinner in the night with her other housemates and here are all the contributions:
Stir fry kimchi chicken.
To die for assam fish by Zoe.
Stir fry veggie.
Our contribution of pork ribs and mushroom stew which turned out pretty salty because I smartly added too much soy sauce.
Here you go, presenting out home cooked cny dinner!
That was it from Reading, was a really short trip, only stayed over for 1 night. Had lou hei on the last day of CNY but the photos are in my phone which I am too lazy to upload here, maybe some day..haha. So yeah, this was CNY in UK, simple and content. :)
xoxo
