2nd Week of Oct

Have been dining out a lot lately...also maybe because it's London Restaurant Week. Had dinner at Atheneum after watching Julie and Julie on Saturday. We had the 3 course meal + champagne deal from Toptable for only 24 quid. It was pretty good. The restaurant wasn't that big but the atmosphere is pretty relaxing. Food wise was pretty decent - particularly the cappucinno LOL.

Went for Oktoberfest beer and sunday roast at Bavarian Beer House near Old Street. I ordered the Sunday special which is Pork Roast with red cabbage and a big blob of potato (looks and taste like a very big gnocchi) and it comes with a 2 pint beer - was sooooo big that I couldn't even finish everything! Otherwise, the hot apple strudel and black forrest were really good.

Also dropped by Covent Garden and apparently there's the Covent Garden Real Food Market on. There ain't many stalls but did saw some pretty cool stuff like artisan food and Ella's cupcakes. Highlight must be Jeff Koon's massive bunny!

Another highlight of the week must be Annie's leaving dinner. Went to Bibendum in Michelin House on Monday. The food was pretty good - I had the curried parsnip soup and fish and chips with lovely tartar sauce. But all in all I think the chocolate with prune cake was the loveliest (in fact check this review out!)! And because it was London's Restaurant's Week, they were doing a "roll the dice" event. The way it works - after the dinner, they offer us a roll of the dice and if we can get a 4, we don't have to pay for meal. And guess what, from Annie's lucky hands, we did get a 4!!! It was so unbelievable. A free meal worth 30 quid indeed!!!

...You must be wondering...why am I always posting stuff I did on weekends...so what happens during the rest of the days? Well, there ain't much to blog about work anyway. Anyhow, I thought maybe I should mention it briefly.

Mornings - I've been eating breakfast "religiously" these days - thought that might help boost my metabolism and also so that I don't go hungry during mid morning and start snacking. So, I tend to wake up a lil earlier and prepare and yummy breakfast - normally it's a cup of coffee, a piece of fruit and/or Kellog's Nature's pleasure Wholegrain cereal with soy milk or yogurt (this is a wonder to releasing energy at a steady rate and thus my body's sugar level had just made friends with it! :P). I've also discovered Yeo Valley's new Smooth and Creamy yogurt - another healthy and yummy wonder!

Besides breakfast, I have also been "studiously" bringing pack lunch to work. Think I got bored with sandwiches now - used to just make turkey ham and hummus sandwich with some cherry tomatoes - I've decided to make more complicated stuff - i.e. putting more variation to my lunch for e.g. salads or something that I can put into my new bento box bought from Japan Center. Which also means I'll need to wake up earlier! At work - seems a lot of work to do and so little time...it had been weeks of "distraction" ... production issues, running around meetings and demos etc. Other than that, nothing much changed. After work's typically back home, make dinner, watch TVB or BBC iPlayer and/or surf foodie blogs while having Restaurant City and Country Story running at the background. Else, I'd be out in London for dinner and/or movies and/or drinks

...that's Nico's life as of Autumn 2009...