Spring is finally here!! The weather has been spectacular this past week, with the sun spilling its golden rays across the azure sky and the gentle whispers of the wind sweeping past. The buds of the first spring flowers have started to sprout and blossom, making it unbearable to stay cooped up indoors.

On this particular Saturday afternoon, I went out with the family (my 3 housemates) for brunch at fish! Kitchen, a delightful little seafood place not too far from our house. The cozy restaurant is right next to Jarvis, the local fishmonger, so it is guaranteed that the food will be fresh.

Our sole purpose in going to fish! Kitchen was to eat the Mussels Mariniere (£7.95 for starter, £12.95 for main), which lived up to its reputation (practically every table ordered this dish). The bowl came heaped with plump mussels and creamy white wine sauce, which we mopped up with rustic bread until not a drop was left.

Tempted by the other scrumptious dishes on offer, we also ordered the Calamari with Rocket and Lemon Mayonnaise (£6.95). The calamari was crispy but nothing that you can’t get from other places; I did like the idea of rocket with calamari though.

Since England is so famous for fish and chips, of course fish! Kitchen offered a variety of fish to have with their chips and mushy peas. We went with the plaice (£12.95), which was fleshy and fresh, and the batter was extremely light and crunchy. If you want, you can choose your own fresh fish from Jarvis and have it cooked at fish! Kitchen as well.

Although the fish & chips were good, I preferred the Grilled Sea Bream with Spicy Salsa (£11.95), which was one of the daily specials. The sea bream had crispy skin and was lightly salted (by Thai standards, which means it was heavily seasoned by British standards), which provided a complementary contrast with the spicy salsa (which was not spicy at all for a Thai, but still delicious nonetheless).

All in all, we had a satisfying meal and a great time, which amounted to a terrific experience. Oh, and did I mention that our waiter looked like a cross between Robert Pattinson and Orlando Bloom?? That just made our dining experience THIS MUCH more pleasant!

fish! Kitchen
58 Coombe Road
Kingston, Surrey
KT2 7AF
United Kingdom
Tel: +44(0)20-8546-2886
Open: Tue-Sat 12:00pm-10:00pm

Categories: Restaurant Review
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January was a really hectic month for me, what with the end-of-term exams and moving out of the dorm to a new house. Now that the exams are all done and I’ve pretty much settled in at my new home (which I totally love!), I’ve been cooking up a storm again every now and then.

I’m sharing the new house with 3 other friends who all love to eat, so planning what to cook for dinner each night is a very big deal for us. The spacious kitchen at the new house presents us with limitless options on what we can possibly conjure up, and each night brings a whole new challenge as we try to create dishes from ingredients that are available in the fridge (this is the problem with not planning a menu in advance…we end up buying random ingredients when we go grocery shopping and then have difficulties trying to put together a dish).

Fried salmon in fish sauce is one dish that doesn’t require a lot of ingredients and is very simple to make. All you have to do is toss the ingredients together, leave the fish to marinate while you go off to do your thing and just come back and fry it!

Fried Salmon in Fish Sauce
(Makes 2 servings)

• 2 fillets of salmon
• 2 Tbsp. fish sauce
• 1 Tbsp. soy sauce
• 4 large garlic cloves, sliced thinly
• black pepper to taste

Clean the salmon fillets and cut into bite-sized cubes.

Toss all the ingredients together in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Leave to marinate in the fridge for at least 2 hours.

In a large wok, heat some peanut oil or vegetable oil on high heat. Once the oil starts to smoke, add the marinated salmon cubes. *Note: Be careful not to let the garlic slices burn!

Once the salmon cubes start to brown on one side, turn and brown on all sides before serving.

Categories: Recipes
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As soon as I turned in my last assignment for the year, my friends and I went up to York for a pre-Christmas trip. Since we purchased our train tickets at the last minute, the seats were all full and we had to stand for the entire 2-hour trip to York. This had not been the most productive trip, but we still managed to have a great time and squeezed in a bit of sightseeing in between all the walking and lazying around.

York is a city rich with history and traditions. I’m not going to go into details of each landmark we visited (you can read it in your own time by clicking on the links I’ve provided) but two days in York was too little to see everything, especially on a mellow trip such as ours.

After checking in at Hill Crest B&B, we walked to Clifford’s Tower, an ancient monument for the city of York. Our fingers nearly froze as we snapped pictures after pictures of the old keep (the temperature was around -5°C). Located in the same parameters is the York Castle Museum which unfortunately, we didn’t get to go inside because it was closed by the time we arrived.

We then made our way into town, where we wandered into The Shambles, an old narrow alley with odd-looking buildings selling all sorts of goodies. I felt like someone plonked me down into a Harry Potter movie, particularly after one friend mentioned that The Shambles reminded him of Diagon Alley (even the name sounds like something out of a Harry Potter movie).

The next morning, we set out for York Minster but the view along the River Ouse was so breathtakingly picturesque we had to make many stops to take photos before we got to our destination.

We finally got to York Minster about an hour later, and after walking around the grounds of the cathedral, we climbed the 275 steps that took us up the Tower. The view from the top was spectacular, with snow-covered roofs everywhere and the sun shining weakly in the winter sky.

The climb left us exhausted and starving, so off to Bettys we went for a little afternoon tea. This was my first proper afternoon tea and I couldn’t contain my excitement as I sat in the  luxurious tea room with all the lavish surroundings. I shared the Bettys Speciality Afternoon Tea (£17.75 per set) with a friend, which came with a pot of tea (we chose Chinese Rose Petal Tea), a choice of two sandwiches (we had Oak-Smoked Salmon & Prawn and Roast Yorkshire Ham & Mustard), a sultana scone with strawberry preserves and Yorkshire clotted cream, and a fresh fruit tartlet from the cake trolley. The set was meant for one so we had to order another pot of tea (£3.80 for Yu Luo White Tea), which didn’t really make sense to me because one pot was big enough to share among two.

The Yu Luo White Tea was too mild for me; I preferred the Chinese Rose Petal Tea with its rose essence, which complemented the crumbly light scone. I’ve never had scones before and I’m normally not a fan of pastries but the scone here, with juicy sultanas, fresh cool clotted cream and sweet strawberry preserves, had me oohing and aahing for more. The fresh fruit tartlet was another delicious tidbit although the finger sandwiches were dry and mediocre, which was a shame, since I was looking forward to it the most.

With stomachs full, we ended the day with a brief shopping trip to the York Designer Outlet Shopping Mall and a long walk to the train station to catch our train (which was delayed).

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For Christmas Eve, my friends and I spent a somewhat quiet evening together roasting ready-stuffed chickens and served them with roasted carrots and tomatoes. We also had baked broccoli and cheese, and Parma ham with cantaloupe. Hmm…yummy!

Christmas Day was spent lying around doing nothing and we went over to another friend’s house for dinner. Since all the shops were closed for Christmas, the town was literally deserted, reminding me eerily of a scene from I am Legend. I half expected zombies to pop out any minute but of course, there were none.

Now that Christmas has come and gone, life has been less hectic – until New Year’s anyway. Hope you all have a great and safe celebration and Happy New Year’s!!

Categories: Travels
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