London: Day 1

One day when I was talking to my mother, she told me one of the best news I could have asked for. "Did you know that your dad might have a business trip to London in March?" As soon as his business trip was confirmed, I went onto Ryan Air, booked tickets and voila, I was in London for a week!

At this point in time, even though I absolutely adore Italian food (why else would I have chosen Italy as my study-abroad destination?), I was going slightly insane with the lack of Asian cuisine. I can do without Korean food for a semester IF there is Japanese and Chinese food available. Granted, I would LOVE to have Korean food from time to time, but if it doesn't happen then it won't be the end of the world. The problem with Bologna, however, is that there really aren't that many good options for Asian cuisine overall... And therefore, there was a sad Asian-food-deprived-me. 

Within Europe, I believe that London is the best place for me to get Asian food. (If I am wrong, do let me know.) So, before either my dad and I got there, I made all the reservations and all except one was ASIAN CUISINE.

First stop: Yauatcha. I have craved dim sum so badly and so even before my dad arrived, I met up with my friend Emily, who is studying abroad at UCL to meet up with my in the chic Soho neighborhood to grab dimsum!

We ended up getting a dimsum platter for two, which was not only reasonably priced but actually enough food for both of us! It also came with a pot of Jasmine tea! (mmmmm!)

I am not sure if I remember which corresponds to which image but the menu consisted of:
- Har gau
- Scallop shui mai
- Baked venison puff
- Chicken and prawn taro croquette
- Sweet potato mushroom mei-si roll
- Crystal dumpling wrap
- Prawn and beancurd cheung fun
- Spicy pork Szechuan wonton

And of course, the chic emblem on the outside. You can catch a glimpse of me in the reflection!

Seeing as we were in the middle of EVERYTHING, we decided to go to Princi, an Italian bakery place. A Sicilian barista made me a macchiato. When I heard him speaking in Italian, I asked him "Are you Italian?" in Italian. His response? "Sono Siciliano." (I am Sicilian). All right, so Sicilian barista!

And we decided to get two cakes to share:

Overall, the cakes weren't that phenomenal although they were quite solid. As to be expected, the coffee was indeed quite delicious. (Thank you Sicilian barista!)


But just the array of baked goods that were available at the place was quite remarkable and I almost felt up for the challenge to just go around trying different things!

After reuniting with my dad, we headed over to get some pub food with his fellow co-workers. It was just an average pub fare, so I didn't take any pictures but the good news is, I had a better experience with "average pub fare" (aka delicious fish and chips!) the second time I went to London so I will post about that latah!