Second Helpings – October 2009
Oct 29th, 2009 by admin
The monthly summary for October -
It was my turn again to preview the Wikio UK Gastronomy top 20 rankings for October. If you’re a UK food blogger and you’re not on the list of 100 blogs, then all you have to do is submit your blog to Wikio (details on their site).
Out and about, I ate very well at Argentinian restaurant Garufa (although strangely the steak was my least favourite of all the dishes); enjoyed some tasty Straits cuisine at Sedap, and managed to secure a table at new Venetian bacaro Polpo in Soho, London. At home, I made a comforting autumn apple & blackberry crumble using Mark Hix’s recipe; potato soup with bacon & chives, which can be found in the review of the excellent Scandinavian Cookbook and last but not least, a healthy and delicious Japanese tofu steak from Harumi Kurihara’s latest cookbook Everyday Harumi.
Kang of London Eater wrote the very first guest post on World Foodie Guide, LondonEater’s Taipei Tales, with his recommendations from Taipei, Taiwan. There’ll be another guest post next month from Istanbul Eats and I hope there will be more in the future from bloggers located in places on my list of food & travel destinations.
Finally, I was really pleased to discover that Saveur linked to my Chinese hot pot guide in an article on eating at The Little Fat Lamb in New York!
Next week, I’ll be embarking on a two week culinary adventure in Japan, although the Japan posts won’t start until the 23rd November. I’ll write about what to do, see and eat at the various destinations – Japan Alps (snow monkeys, soba making class, kaiseki dinner & private onsen in room), Numazu (fresh seafood from fish market, prepared by friend’s mother & beach), Kamakura & Enoshima (beach & seafood), Kyoto (where to begin? This is the most planned part of the entire trip) and of course Tokyo (chilling out with friends, revisiting favourite haunts & discovering new ones). I’ll be avoiding individual posts on each restaurant, but there is one kaiseki dinner at Rokusei Nishimise in Kyoto that might require its own post. If you can’t take the onslaught of Japanese food & travel posts, then there’ll be a round-up at the end!
Thank you as always for reading…
Have a blast in Japan! I can’t wait to hear about your Japan trip and all the yummy food you eat there.
Hope you have an amazing time in Japan! Looking forward to reading it and making notes so perhaps I might be able to check them out when I’m there in March/April ‘10!
All I can say is that I’ll be counting down the days until Nov. 23rd. It sounds like an eternity but I’m sure the day will arrive sooner than I could expect it!
Have a good trip!
Soba-making – that sounds fun. Enjoy your trip!
Have a safe trip! Looking forward to the pictures (especially from the ramen museum – YUM). Jodi
Oh dear, have a nice trip in Japan, will be patient to wait until 23rd Nov. or after. ^^
Helen,
I’m really looking forward to reading the posts on your culinary adventure in Japan. Maybe I can only read your first few posts, then off I go there for a few days. Not much adventures as yours I suppose, yet it would be an enjoyable trip with my whole family.
Have a safe and happy trip !
What a full month for October. Happy, safe travels and look forward to living vicariously through your adventures.
Akila – thank you! I hope the posts will be interesting for you to read!
Food. By Mark. – thanks Mark! You’re going next year with C? It will be amazing. Will chat with you about it at a tweatup…
rowena – oh, you’re sweet! Don’t you find time always flies by when you’re on holiday? Nov 23rd will be here in no time unfortunately for me!
Su-Lin – thank you!
Mr Noodles – yes, I’m looking forward to the class. I thought it would be more interesting than just going to a soba shop and eating them. I mean, I plan to do that too, but it will be fun to learn the process…
Legal Nomads – thanks Jodi! The Ramen Museum will be as soon as I get to Yokohama from Narita airport, so I hope I’ll remember how to use the camera and won’t be too jetlagged…
KennyT – thank you! I hope the Japan posts will be interesting for you…
Christine – I think you’re going to have an amazing time with your family in Japan. And I want to hear all about it too! Looking forward to exchanging stories!
OysterCulture – thank you! We’ll catch up when I’m back, although I may be on Twitter occasionally when I have Wi-Fi access…
Wishing you safe and fun travel-eating! I await your posts with great appetite.
Tangled Noodle – thank you very much! I’m having a great time so far in Japan. I’ve eaten sooo much food in a week and still have another week of eating to go!