Saturday, June 5, 2010

Good Bye London...

With only a day left in London we asked our self what we want to see, we decided; HARRODS! I know it is a departmental store, but a London icon no less!

Take a look at what Wikipedia said about this store!

"Harrods is a luxury department store located on Brompton Road in Knightsbridge, in the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea , London, UK. The Harrods brand also applies to other enterprises undertaken by the Harrods group of companies including Harrods Bank, Harrods Estates, Harrods Aviation and Air Harrods, and Harrods Buenos Aires.

The store occupies a 4.5-acre (18,000 m2) site and has over one million square feet (90,000 m2) of selling space in over 330 departments. The UK's second-biggest shop, Oxford Street's Selfridges, is a little over half the size with 540,000-square-foot (50,000 m2) of selling space.

The Harrods motto is Omnia Omnibus Ubique—All Things for All People, Everywhere. Several of its departments, including the seasonal Christmas department and the Food Hall, are world famous.
Throughout its history, the store has changed hands several times. Most recently, on 8 May 2010, Mohamed Al-Fayed sold the store to Qatar Holdings for a sum of £1.5 billion."


Sadly, we just do not have the time to go through this enormous store. We find the food section very interesting though :)
These are the shots I took at the food department...


Since we are on the subject of food, May-N took us for lunch at this most delightful Japanese restaurant at Museum Street.

ABENO, according to their web site:

"Europe's only specialist 'Okonomi-yaki' restaurants. The first Abeno was established in 1993 in the now defunct Yaohan Plaza Shopping Centre in Colindale, north London by two emigres, one from Bridlington, East Yorkshire (not important), the other from Abeno-ku in Osaka. Osaka is important because it is the culinary hot-pot of Japan and also the home of the Kansai-style of Okonomi-yaki."

According to Wikipedia:
"Okonomiyaki (お好み焼き?) is a Japanese savoury pancake containing a variety of ingredients. The name is derived from the word okonomi, meaning "what you like" or "what you want", and yaki meaning "grilled" or "cooked" (cf. yakitori and yakisoba). Okonomiyaki is mainly associated with Kansai or Hiroshima areas of Japan, but is widely available throughout the country. Toppings and batters tend to vary according to region."

To enjoy this delightful Japanese pancake you must have a longish lunch time, the miserable Kiwi 30 minutes lunch allowance won't do! Take a look at the different stages of how this pancake is made!


Believe me, the waiting is well worth it! It is a culinary experience!

The mixing of the ingredients, video below.


The pouring of the mix on the hot stainless steel hot plate. Video below.



The cooking, bacon are added; the mixtures are "shaped". Video below.



The "flip" and more shaping and waiting. Video below.



Decorating and eating! Video below.



We also had a delicious Om-Soba. Om-Soba is a dish where fried noodles ('Yaki-Soba') are served wrapped in an omelette and authentically decorated with Japanese Mayonnaise, Okonomi-yaki Sauce and Tomato Ketchup. Video below.



For dessert we have these green colour wafer :) They look strange but yummy!

Famous Last Words:

There are some really nice eating joints in London, food in general are expensive though; so be prepared ;)

We were taken to this Chinese resturant in Bays Water which served "The best roast duck IN THE WORLD", so said a food review article in a London paper and display on the front entrance glass pane.

All I can say is I had tasted better roast duck... hee hee

We are flying off the next day from Heathrow, just as well; the Iceland hard-to-pronounce-name volcano is at it again!

A check with the "taxi cab" that it will cost ONE HUNDRED & TWENTY Pounds from where we stay in Finsbury to Heathrow! We decided to lug our luggages in the underground Tubes :)

Good bye London, you are too big for me; I might like you if I was here twenty years ago :)

Next:
London Catch Up :)

1 comment:

heather said...

like the Japanese restaurant, You would be spoilt for choice in a big city like London, Harrods is huge!!Much bigger than K mart,, ha ha