Brighton Mini-Break: Pebble Beach, Chinese Snacks and an American Diner

Brighton

On a day as glorious as today with 31 degrees in London all you can do is run off to the seaside and so we went on a trip to Brighton.

A difficult train ride

I was surprised by how cheap the tickets were, only £14 return for two people from London Bridge with First Capital Connect. I should have been suspicious at the time, but instead I was in for a big surprise. Luckily the tickets were open and not tied into any train times as we missed the train we originally planned on taking due to the joy that is construction in London, i.e. no Northern line and chaos at London Bridge Station.

When we got on to the platform, the train was so packed, there was absolutely no chance of getting on. So we had to wait for the third train and somehow managed to squeeze our way into the farthest carriage.

Food in brighton

Anyway, all was forgotten when we finally arrived in Brighton. Anyway, all was forgotten when we finally arrived in Brighton. On our tourist-filled way down the main road we chanced upon a Chinese supermarket selling snacks, so strategically placed we had no choice but to go in and buy some tasty treats. That’s what I call intelligent marketing.

As our stomachs were grumbling we decided to have lunch in JB's American Diner. The steak was delicious and the portion was huge. My potato skins with cheese and bacon starter was so filling I could not even finish the whole portion. And I was introduced to “American champagne”, a mix of Southern Comfort and Mountain Dew and my newest poison. Great, if slightly heavy lunch. And the decoration was so themed with images of all big stars of the 50s, you were waiting for Elvis Presley to walk through that door in his Blue Suede Shoes.

Brighton Pebble Beach

The beach was a very interesting experience. Crammed with tourists, we managed to find a quieter spot after walking along the shore for about 15 minutes. Since people generally fear the cold-water there was loads of room to swim as well.

Since this is a pebble beach, not a sand beach, the experience was also different from my usual trips to the sea. The great thing was that you did not end up with sand in your bag, your shoes and many other unpleasant places it is almost impossible to get out of. On the other hand, if you are not well prepared with flip-flops getting in and out of the water is a most painful act.

The water itself is freezing and the current strong, so it is probably best to go for a swim right when you get there before you start to heat up through the sun. Otherwise the temperature difference carries a serious heart-attack risk. If you can get in the water, it will be worth it, swimming against the strong current is not only a good work-out but comes with the feeling of utter freedom, that swimming in the sea always gives me. When you get out you can simply lie on a towel and get dried off by the sun.

If you don't want to swim, there are many entertainment options including roller coasters and a Ferris wheel. Or you can just go for a walk along the beach and escape the heat of London city, which is around 5 degrees hotter than Brighton. Only one hour away it is the perfect day trip, however I personally find it a little too touristy and will probably try a more secluded location next time I want some seaside swimming.

Guizhou Restaurant Maotai Kitchen - London's China Town Off The Beaten Track

Hidden away just off the main road in London’s China Town is Maotai Kitchen. A welcome change from the Hong Kong diners and the Beijing Ducks, it offers food from Guizhou in South China to culinary travellers. According to the restaurant website it is "the only Chinese restaurant in UK specialising in the regional cuisine from Guizhou Province of China". A hidden gem in the middle of Chinatown, then?

If you can make it up on to the first floor, you should. The atmosphere is a lot cosier and quieter up there, so you can enjoy your food while taking in the decoration. Calligraphy paintings of beautiful Southern Chinese landscapes fit wonderfully into the red – and – black colour design, giving the location a fusion feel of tradition and modernity.

黔西啤酒鸡

Overall the food was excellent. We had special South – Western beer chicken 黔西啤酒鸡, black pepper beef with chillies 杭椒煸肥牛 and the braised aubergine with shrimp and soy bean paste 顺德烧茄子。I felt the beef was a little bit too dry for my taste, though admittedly I am very picky in that area. The chicken dish was an utter revelation , since it reminded me strongly of Sichuan fish boiled in chili oil 水煮鱼 and its incredible tenderness only enforced this impression. The aubergine, as usual the toughest test for any restaurant I try, was splendid, with little pieces of mashed shrimp wedged  in between it.

顺德烧茄子

Food great, atmosphere great, restaurant great? Well, what I was thoroughly disappointed with at Maotai Kitchen was the service. Having showed up with a voucher it took almost ten minutes of discussion to convince them we could use it; not a great start. That might have been forgotten, if not for the waitress being completely distracted  while taking our order, peaking over and chatting with a table at the other end of the restaurant. As if we needed proof that she wasn’t listening, of course she promptly brought the wrong dish.

Due to our voucher, we ended up at £40 for two people, which was good considering the great food and okay considering the service. Had we been asked to pay the full £53 though, I would have mourned the loss a lot more.

In the end, the bad service is simply something to be aware of, but I would suggest just accepting it in light of the great, out-of-the-ordinary food you get. 

Maotai Kitchen

12 Macclesfield Street

W1D 5BP

中国好声音欧洲站伦敦决赛 The Voice of China Europe Auditions Final

Sunday marked the grand finale of China's The Voice Europe tour 中国好声音欧洲版.Thousands of eager Chinese born and/or living abroad plus the odd white 'Laowai' competed for a ticket to China to compete in what is probably the biggest singing competition on earth.

The excited finalists from London and Manchester, Paris and Amsterdam had three things in common: Their love for music, the Chinese language and the dream to become Chinas next voice.

All contestants are definitely tremendous talents when it comes to singing.  As far as performance is concerned it became clear that many of them still have a thing or two to learn. While almost pitch - perfect, often the performances were a bit stiff and did not manage to convey the emotions of the song.

What became very clear to me as I was watching all these lovely, hopeful talents was that either I am getting old or today's music is just not as catchy as it used to be. My favourites were a Mandarin aria delivered by 武赫 in a splendid robe. She was elegance incarnate and imho the strongest voice in the entire competition. Her performance was one of the two that gave me goosebumps.

Wu He, sheer elegance and splendid voice

Goosebumps number two was  suprise star 16-year old 陈伟康s rendition of good old classic "Beyond the Sea" in Mandarin. I never imagined such a young dangly teddy bear could be the Asian Sinatra.

Tall boy center: 16 year old wonder boy Chen Weikang

I was very pleased with the judges choice for the 5 finalists as they were definitely the strongest contestats vocally and on a performance level.

Overall, the Voice Europe finale in the Shaw Theatre was a highly entertaining show with hit music spanning an extraordinarily wide net of time and genres. I wish the European finalists all the best for their trip to the big battle in China!

Super Three Restaurant 巴山蜀水 @ All Saints, London - Genuine Sichuan Cuisine

If you think that Sichuan cuisine is Kong Pow Chicken and anything with a lot of chillies, then Super Three restaurant, 巴山蜀水 might be able to teach you a thing or two. Their genuine Sichuan chef dished out some exotic combinations I had never seen before.

碧绿肉松卷 Dark Green Meat Floss Rolls: The cucumber rolls topped with a thin slice of omelette filled with shredded pork meat remind you a lot of sushi in form and taste, in my case a full success, since I am a sushiholic. I would live off the stuff, if my wallet could take it. Anyway, I digress. The rolls were a succulent combination of sweet and savoury, crunchy and soft, a very light dish. 

Dark Green Meatfloss Rolls

冷锅鱼 Cold Pot Fish: This dish is very easily confused with Sichuan poached sliced fish in hot chili oil 水煮鱼. As the chef will tell you, there is a difference in spices in addition to the preparation. This dish is brought to the table cold. The flame is switched on at the table and it slowly cooks the fish in front of your eyes. It also has many more of the infamous Sichuan peppercorns than its brother. There is no way you can get through this meal without getting a numb mouth. I did find the taste slighlty different to my surprise, it tasted more fragrant and diverse compared to the hot chili oil fish, which does tend to be slighty overpowered by the taste of chili. 

Cold Pot Fish

橙汁冬瓜 Wintermelon with Orange Juice: Super Three has this special dish on offer, an unexpected combination of cold winter melon soaked in orange juice is sweet and tangy, crunchy and juicy. Definitely a surprising combination of ingredients, I could not quite make my mind up about this dish.

Wintermelon with Orange Juice

白灵菇扒菜心 Mushrooms with Chinese Cabbage: This was probably the most unspectacular dish ingredient- wise but the taste was truly exceptional. It just stood out from the spicy dishes and the oily ones. The mushrooms we were told are from Tibet, I am still not sure whether that was what made the whole ensemble so delicious. Seasoned perfectly it was light and fresh but not bland. 

Mushrooms with Chinese Cabbage

This is just a small selection of Super Three's offer. If you are of the more adventurous type you can get beef tripe and tongue. I can also recommend the pumpkin cakes 南瓜饼 with evaporated milk dip as dessert.

Pumpkin Cake

Beef Tongue

A visit to Super Three 巴山蜀水 will leave you around £20 poorer, which is a little cheaper than Chinatown. However, the problem with this restaurant is getting there. Located at All Saints DLR there is no direct tube connection and a lot of changing lines involved, unless you live there already. Still, I found it worth a visit. Just book a table, I have heard it can get quite busy.

Super Three 巴山蜀水

207 East India Dock Road

London E14 0ED

Tel: 02075158700

Ping - Kitchen, Bar & Ping Pong @ London, Earl's Court

We chose this funky place in Earl's Court for a fun work-do. What an experience! We were told that at Ping you eat pizza and play ping pong, which sounded like an unusual proposition. Still, I thought I had it all figured out. Was I wrong.

First off bouncers checked our ID - that should have been the first clue that this was not what I had been expecting. The telltale stairwell leading underground was the second. What I had imagined to be a restaurant where all the sporty people go to hang out is actually something a lot more akin to a club. It was Thursday night and the best of the noughties was blasting from the speakers while the hip urbanites celebrated the approaching weekend with a drink in one hand and a bat in the other.

A club that is also a restaurant with Ping Pong - I grew suspicious. Can a place that attempts so many different things at once really be good? The short answer is: It can.

In Germany you are spoilt for choice when it comes to genuine Italian Pizza, it is quite simply everywhere you go. Many an experience in London has shown me that American style Pizza can be slightly dominant. I half- heartedly ordered a Parmigiana Pizza with mozzarella, Parmesan and aubergine. It was the most divine real Italian pizza that I have had in London. A tiny little too crispy around the edges for my taste but a pizza cutter came with it and so all was good in the end.

The cocktail list is very innovative, a welcome change from your cosmos and your daiquiris. If their Vanilla Peach Bellini is any indication their drinks are splendid.

Innovation seems to be what Ping is going for - new drinks, crazy desserts (pizza dough topped with fresh and sweet ricotta and mascarpone, covered in candy, fruits, pistachios and chocolate chips) and ping pong tables in the middle of the club with people dancing around it.

It's a great place for a fun night out and affordable prices (9£ per pizza) but be aware that this is not a place to sit down for dinner and a chat as you barely hear your seat neighbour over "Whenever, wherever" by Shakira. If its not-so-sober ping pong your after book a table for dinner and you will automatically get booked into a half hour slot. You better start practicing that sidespin!

PING. Kitchen, Bar & Ping Pong Rooms.

180-184 Earl’s Court Road.

London

SW5 9QG

Phone: 02073705358

Lichtenstein: A Retrospective Exhibiton @ The Tate Modern, London

So, I finally made it to the ‘Lichtenstein: A Retrospective’ exhibition currently on at the Tate Modern in London. The exhibition looks at 125 different works of art produced by Lichtenstein throughout his lifetime, and is according to the Tate the first full retrospective of the Pop Artist’s work in over 20 years.

I have been very eager to go and see his work for myself, as he is one of my favourite artists and had to suffer my own attempts at his comic strip style when I was in high school. May he forgive me.

I was slightly apprehensive about the size of the collection having made the experience of paying the £15 ticket only to find 3 of the artist’s pieces and not even famous ones at that. But I tip my hat to the Tate and The Art Institute of Chicago who have managed to put together what can only be called a massive collection of 13 different rooms including most of his well-known works such as the War and Romance collection but also shining a light on his excursion into abstraction and Chinese art.

I won’t go into too much detail about the art, since there is enough information out there and to me his simply the King of Pop Art (sorry, Andy). I always enjoy the fact that many of his works capture what I learned today is the ‘pregnant moment’ (interesting…) of a story, where you as the audience can create your own backstory to what the image depicts. It makes it so much more interactive than your run of the mill portrait of Richard the Umpteenth.

 

What was surprising to me was the Chinese room. I had no idea that in the last years of his life, Lichtenstein had taken his inspiration from paintings of the Song dynasty and combined calligraphy landscapes with his signpost hand-painted Benday dots. If there was ever an ultimate fusion of anything Western and Chinese, I truly believe this is it. I would have bought his piece ‘Landscape with Philosopher’ on the spot, until I was reminded by my companion that it was not that kind of exhibition. Ah well, next time.

I would like to praise the Tate also for the booklet included in the ticket to the exhibition. While many booklets for art exhibitions are highly cryptic and only contain a minuscule fraction of the on site information, the booklet that came with Lichtenstein: A Retrospective contains all the information given in the exhibition and also some of the images. Thumbs up, Tate, that one is definitely not going to end up in the bin.

Coming out of the exhibition I can honestly say there have been few art shows that offer you this much value for money, all the works you expect to see and more. Well done, Tate! And for you who is reading this, first of all thanks that you have made it up to here and secondly, go – no, don’t go, run! – to this exhibition of one of the greatest artists of the 20^th century.

Tate Modern: Exhibition

21 February – 27 May 2013

Adult £15.50 (without donation £14.00)
Concession £13.50 (without donation £12.20)
Help Tate by including the voluntary donation to enable Gift Aid
Open until 20.00 on Sundays, with last ticket sale at 19.00.
Book online or buy in advance, since the exhibition is very popular.

For more information on Lichtenstein, visit the Lichtenstein Foundation website.

The Lounge Cinema, London - A Luxury Film Experience

The Odeon Luxury Cinema the Lounge in Whiteleys caught my attention when it was advertised in one of Odeon’s more regular cinemas. As a food lover, the idea of being served gourmet food and cocktails while sitting back and enjoying a movie just hit home.

Upon arrival you are able to hand in your coat and sit down in the modern bar while you are waiting for your movie to start. I personally recommend one of their non-alcoholic cocktails, the Autumn Garden, with fresh berries and ginger ale, the perfect refreshment.

If you are a newbie to the world of the luxury cinema experience, the exceptionally helpful staff will give you a detailed introduction to the ordering process. Throughout the movie you will see them crawling about the room, backs bent, so as not to disturb the movie-goers, delivering food and drinks. I really felt bad for them, that can’t be healthy.

The highlight of the experience, that definitely gives it the luxury touch, are the seats. They are so huge, two people might actually fit in one and they are adjustable in every possible direction. Also, there are only about 50 in each cinema. This and the cost of a ticket between £18 and £22 depending on the time of week, ensures that disturbances by popcorn throwing, rowdy people or phone-calls are practically non-existent, making it a whole new experience. Back to the olden days, when cinema was something special.

The food is prepared by Café Anglais, a restaurant within the Whiteleys shopping complex and is simply fabulous. Italian pasta, Thai green curries, lamb shish kebab, you name it, they have it. It makes popcorn and gummy bears look like amateur food in comparison.

Source: standard.co.uk

The only thing to be aware of when visiting the Lounge is that the screen is not one of the largest around, therefore seats in the second row are probably the best option. Number two is booking well in advance, since these seats go fast.

Overall, I would say the price is not cheap, but definitely worth it, if you really love watching movies and want to do so in a comfortable environment so different from the claustrophobic, dirty, run-down cinema experience often found in regular cinemas nowadays.  

Official Website：www.odeon.co.uk/thelounge/

Address：Whiteleys of Bayswater，London，W2 4YL