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Sunday 4 November 2012

so. much. food.

I think I’ve fallen in love with London.
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Seriously. I’ve been here for two days so far, and I’m already thinking that going to university in London might not be such a terrible thing after all. Especially if I’m going to UCL or LSE. No complaints there.
I had a wonderful time today. I woke up at what I thought was 10:30 (but it was actually 9:30 because the clocks went backwards.) For breakfast, I had a mango that was absolutely terrible because it wasn’t from the tropics… yeah, fruit from London isn’t too great.
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We headed to Oxford Circus, which is this, er, area of London that’s full of shops and food and restaurants and everything. It was so great. We (Yvonne [my friend's cousin, who is my host for this week] and I) walked around for a bit. I went to this place called Ben’s Cookies and ohmygoodness the cookies are absolutely divine. I’m not even kidding when I say that it has possibly the best cookies I have ever tasted in my life. They’re not the ‘homemade’ cookies that many people like; they’re like upscale cookies that everyone is able to enjoy because a) they’re cookies, and b) they’re not too expensive. You know they’re legit when they’ve got their own website. I wish I’d taken a picture of it.
After that, we had dim sum at Imperial Restaurant. Best food I’ve had since I arrived in the UK.
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By the way, when you eat Chinese food anywhere other than China, you want to go into places that look like this…
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Not this:
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If you eat at a place that resembles the second picture, you are not allowed to say “I had Chinese takeout for lunch/dinner today.” Because you didn’t. You had shit for lunch/dinner today.
After dim sum, we went to a Chinese supermarket and I stocked up on VitaSoy and noodles and egg rolls. I plan on going back to get more fish/beef balls and more Chinese stuff so I’ll never have to miss Chinese food again.
Anyway, after that (it was already about 4:00 by then), I went to Scoop, (another) gelato place. It wasn’t very expensive at all; 3.50 for 2 scoops of ice cream. I got hazelnut and coffee. I have decided that those two flavors don’t go well together. Next time (yes, there will be a next time) I’m going to get hazelnut and dark chocolate. I love hazelnut. Loooooove it. I couldn’t take a picture of the ice cream because my phone died :(
Then, we went to John Lewis, which is this huge English department store with weird escalators. They’re weird because they move horizontally for 3495872309458792845 years before they actually split into stairs and start going up/down. Yvonne and I got wool yarn (…or do I just say wool?? I don’t know how to phrase this!) because she needed more wool so she could knit, and I got wool so I could learn how to knit.
We headed to Yvonne’s brother’s home, where his one-and-a-half-month-old daughter was snoozing (she ended up waking up and crying) and I had a slice of chocolate cake that was really good. I don’t like it when people overdo the frosting, because frosting is supposed to complement the flavor and the texture cake, not overwhelm it.
Finally we decided to head home. I copied down a bunch of Chinese recipes, learned how to make fried rice with Yvonne (actually good fried rice!), wrote myself a grocery list so I can make all those goodies back at AC, watched the X Factor, The Big Bang Theory, Revenge, Homeland, and probably some other things as well. I also ate a pineapple bun and this red bean pastry thing.
Then I did some research on yin-yang foods (this Chinese philosophy about balance and harmony and how foods can be described as ‘hot’ or ‘cold’, and how to balance it out.) I’m thinking about creating a mission-based class or a ten-week activity in which I talk about Chinese food and the philosophy behind the foods, as well as their history, and I’ll give the attendees a dinner every Saturday night. I need to learn how to cook anyway… so that gives me an excuse to do so.

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