London 2016

This was my third time in London, and undoubtedly the best. The hubby and I traveled by yourselves without Liam or other family members after not having done so since our honeymoon a couple years ago. It felt like a second honeymoon to me! It was also a magnificent break from all the frenzy we've been going through lately, as if you follow me on Instagram or Facebook, you will have seen we just opened our shoe stores in Barcelona, and this has had a great deal of work behind. 

I was extremely happy we got to meet up with my BFF Soraya and her boyfriend, who currently live in Cambridge and came all the way to London on Sunday to spend an afternoon with us. I can't wait to show you all about it in the YouTube video I'm editing.

One of the things I was most looking forward to for this trip was visiting Maitre Choux in South Kensington, an amazing eclairs shop {by a Spanish maitre actually!} that I couldn't wait to try! We tried two and all I can say is they're not only the prettiest I've ever seen, they're also the yummiest. Good job! I absolutely loved them.

The highlight of this trip, and the reason why Liam didn't come with us, was going to the theatre to watch Billy Elliot. It was unbeatable! I hadn't been to the theatre for a while {mommy's life!} and I had the best time!!! I highly recommend it.

I was impressed at the beauty of London's Chinatown. I had never been and I thought it was so cool! Not only the location itself, but the food, made our mouth {the hubby's specially} all watery!

For one of our dinners we went to Burger&Lobster, a restaurant in which they only serve 3 dishes, and so there is not even a menu. You can have a lobster (grilled or steamed), a lobster roll, or a burger. Each costs 20 pounds, which is pretty expensive but we did enjoy it a lot! I had the lobster roll and I must say it was way better than Luke's in Tokyo, way more expensive too, of course!

Our hotel was perfectly located in Piccadilly Circus (The Z hotel Piccadilly, highly recommended), and so Covent Garden was just 5 minutes walking distance, hence is where we had lunch the first day, in this really cosy place called Chez Antoinette, which is owned by a French girl and we were delighted to have stumbled upon.

We did some touristy stuff on our last day before heading back to Barcelona, it's always nice to see London's main attractions again.

And last but not least, we went to Sketch for afternoon tea! Sketch is an insane restaurant in the heart of the city, one of the most beautiful restaurants I've ever seen. Their Gallery Room, where we had our afternoon tea, is all pink and gorgeous and dreamy and and and I totally loved it!!!! The light was not the best at that time for pictures, but believe me, it's a girl's dream. The egg shaped toilets were another mind-blowing experience, whoever could have thought of that?! There's more of this in the video too, I can't wait to have the time to finish editing it!

We all know how London's weather is, so it did rain a bit indeed, but overall it was better than my expectations, and not too cold either. Such a lovely trip, I can't wait for another one :)

Via Tokyo - Green Tea Desserts in Hong Kong

Don't you even think for a second that I'm done blogging about all the afternoon teas and sweet treats I had in Hong Kong! In fact, I still have a traditional afternoon tea {the only one I had this time around} review pending.

Today's post is all about green tea again, this time at Via Tokyo, another hype in Hong Kong that doesn't seem likely to fade anytime soon. We visited their newest branch, in Tsim Sha Tsui, since less people knew about it and the chance of avoiding the queue was higher than in their original location in Causeway Bay. And... we didn't have to queue indeed and got a table for 5 people + a stroller, how cool is that? :)

I was meeting my friend Daisy who was at the very end of her pregnancy {the baby is born already!}, her husband, my husband :D and our friend KC. The five of us devoured five different desserts that we shared, and I absolutely loved it because it gave me the chance to try so many things! Indeed, when you know you only have that ONE chance to go a place you've been dying to try for a while, you're faced with the horrible responsibility of choosing one single item from the mouth-watering menu. Sharing 5 desserts was AWESOME!

I had really high expectations for this place and I think the reality was not up to it. I've only ever tried a green tea cheesecake once before, at Teakha, {which I blogged about} and totally fell in love with it. This one though, was not nearly as cheesy, more mousse-y, so not that great. The parfait was good, no arguing about that, as was the mille-feuilles. The two soft serves though were in my point of view disappointing. Way too sweet and the matcha one not matcha-y enough. The one from Shatin's Sweet House Cha Cha is way better on my opinion.

Have you been to Via Tokyo and felt just like I did or is it just me?!

Visited on: December 25th, 2015

Overall Quality: 4*
Price: pricey at around HK$60 for a dessert.
Value for Money: 4*
Would I recommend it? I do, but it's definitely not my fave.

Via Tokyo

G/F, 29A Cameron Road
Tsim Sha Tsui

+852 2385 6388

Dessert Art at ATUM Desserant Hong Kong

Abstract art, innovation, molecular cuisine, imagine all of this in a dessert plate designed just for you, right in front of you? This is ATUM Desserant, the new hype in Hong Kong which has brought dessert to a whole new level. Never again will you think of dessert as something simple if you happen to visit ATUM Desserant, an unconventional dessert bar in Hong Kong you don't want to miss out on! 

Basically, how this dessert bar works is you sit in the bar and have an appointed dessert artist, who draws the most amazing contemporary dessert plate in front of you. I really enjoyed the experience, not only because I was there with my good friend Chloris, but also because our artist turned out to be really nice and good at her job, and we had an amazing time watching her perform her magic! We also enjoyed seeing other artists performing dessert plates next to us, each of them was different!

ATUM Desserant Menu

The final touch, dry ice {liquid nitrogen} sorbet with a huge fog effect, makes for a killer ending! I made a video of the whoooole process that will be up on my Hong Kong trip vlog, (which I still didn't start editing!), so make sure to stay tunned on my YouTube channel!

The dessert itself wasn't my fave, basically because there was a lot of jelly, which I'm not really fond of, but I wouldn't mind going again if someone (hubby?) really wanted to try and asked me to go again!

Visited on: December 24th, 2015

Overall Quality: 4,5* I was impressed by this molecular cuisine dessert, I must say!
Price: Improvisation set for two at HK$348 with drinks included.
Value for Money: 4*
Would I recommend it? I would! I had never seen something like this, so innovative!

ATUM Desserant

16/F, The L.Square,459-461 Lockhart Road

Causeway Bay,Hong Kong

+852 2956 1411

Nakamura Tokichi Hong Kong - 中村藤吉香港店

Nakamura Tokichi, originally from Kyoto, Japan, is one of those new spots in town Hong Kongers are crazy about. The queue can be of one hour if you're lucky. We were extremely lucky (as I think we always are, thank God!) because we run into one of J's friend who had taken 45 minutes ago 2 tickets: numbers 92 & 99, in case her wife didn't make it for the first one, since he arrived early. The wife made it for the 92 and he gave us the 99, instead of the 122 we had taken ourselves! Awesome!!!

I was surprised by the beautiful Japanese decor and the amazing views of the harbour and Hong Kong's skyline.

Nakamura Tokichi is famous for its Matcha Zaru Soba (cold noodles), and for its green tea desserts. Since we went there for tea, we had two desserts. One (Kyo no Fukiyose) had cakes and matcha ice cream (best matcha ice cream ever!), and the other was a hot matcha sweet soup with rice balls and azuki (red bean). They were really yummy and I was glad we went, although I won't be going again if the queue continues to be as crazy as now.  

 

During our visit, a tea ceremony expert from Japan dressed in a kimono was there to teach a tea ceremony class in the tatami. From what I saw from Nakamura Tokichi's instagram, she flew in from Japan for three days exclusively to teach this class (three times each day I think). It looked really interesting, and was priced at $HK150 per person.

Visited on: December 24th, 2015

Overall Quality: 4,5* (venue is great; food really yummy; long queue is horrible (not their fault, though!)) I particularly didn't like the fact that one of their most coveted desserts, a matcha mochi kind of slices, was sold out when we went, and apparently is sold out early everyday. Why not simply make more?!
Price: pricey at around HK$65 for a matcha latte and between $HK80-100 for a dessert.
Value for Money: 4*
Would I recommend it? I do and I don't at the same time. I think the craze needs to ease down a bit, otherwise queuing for an hour and a half is simply nuts. There's other places in town with yummy matcha desserts like this one!

Nakamura Tokichi - 中村藤吉香港店

18/F, The One, Nathan Rd, Tsim Sha Tsui

Tokyo

When planning for a short trip in Asia for our 3-week stay in Hong Kong, I always had beach&sun in mind: Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, you name it. But the hubby was determined to go to cold Tokyo. It took us several weeks to reach an agreement, because I had been in Tokyo in January 7 years ago and almost frozen myself to death, and we had plans for a second pregnancy which meant I wouldn't be able to enjoy any of the deliciousness involving raw fish. 

Never ending sushi boxes at the Tsukiji Fish Market

After discussing it for several weeks and not finding any interesting beach resort we REALLY wanted to go to, I started considering the idea of postponing my second pregnancy until after the trip. And when I came to terms with that, it was much easier to accept that it might be cold, because Tokyo is an amazing city and that's no reason to not visit it in this time of the year. And so our mind was set: Tokyo it was!

Truth be told, I couldn't be happier with choice. I have to admit the hubby always has the best ideas. We have enjoyed our trip in every possible way: we ate all we wanted to:

Sushi

Tempura
Donburi
Tsukemen
Zaru Soba
Yakisoba
Shabu-Shabu
Katsudon

Okonomiyaki
A5 Beef Yakiniku

Onigiri
Dorayaki
Mochi

And Totoro Cakes!!! <3  I wasn't expecting them to taste too good but they actually did! We chose the ones filled with custard and accompanied with a yummy matcha latte :) This was at Shiro-Hige's Cream Puff Factory, a super cute cafe specialized in Totoro, which I absolutely loved! I'm looking forward to share my YouTube video with all of you so you can see how cute this place was =D

We visited the main districts:

Shinjuku
Shibuya
Harajuku
Roppongi
Asakusa
Tsukiji Fish Market

J at the Tsukiji Fish Market eating Japanese omelette

Tokyo Tower!

We got to do things I'll never forget:
- Going to a bunny cafe (Ms. Bunny in Roppongi) with bunnies and hedgehogs that you get to cuddle while having a drink!

- Meeting the adorable Grace from Texan in Tokyo, (and her husband Ryosuke!), whose hilarious comics I blogged about some months ago. We had lunch and did some shopping together and it was one of the highlights of the whole trip!

You can check out her amazing comics on her blog www.howibecametexan.com! I'm working on the YouTube videos for my channel where hopefully you get to see more than pictures can tell (that's what I love about videos!), so stay tunned!

- I got to feel more close to the novels of Haruki Murakami, which I'm absolutely hooked to because they are simply perfect, and almost always take place in Tokyo. Recognising all the places I had read about in his novels was a real thrill! I also loved seeing the boys and girls in their uniforms, as I was totally addicted to anime when I was young and it marked part of my youth and teen years.

Sensoji Asakusa Temple

After this trip, I spent a while reflecting on which things of the Japanese culture I think should be imported to Europe, because they're simply genius:
- Heated toilet seats. Toilets in Japan have multiple functions that we've never even heard about in Europe. Besides the toilet seat being warm (which is the most incredible feeling ever, specially when it's cold outside), there's the option of cleaning yourself down there with warm water! I think we could pass without this one, but the heated seat is a must :)
- Removing your shoes at the entrance of home, which is what we already do in our home since it's common practice in Hong Kong as well, and it's way cleaner than not doing so. I know there's probably less than 5% of people in Spain who do this though.
- Removing your shoes before entering the changing rooms in any shop. Changing rooms in Japan have a carpet and trying your clothes there is super comfortable. I mean, how many times have you struggles trying to put on some pants in a shop in Europe after removing your shoes and not wanting to step on the filthy floor? It happens to me more often than not. By removing your shoes BEFORE entering the changing room, the changing room stays forever clean and everyone can step on it carefree instead of staying there disgusted on your tiptoes trying not to step on that floor with your bare feet.
- Politeness. This is the crucial one. I probably should have put it in the first place. Japanese people are so polite it blows my mind away. They will never have a bad face for you, nor will they seem upset. Everyone seems the most attentive, hospitable, educated person in the world. You're always greeted with a smile and I never felt as if I bothered someone, unlike what happens in Europe when you ask for directions or whichever other thing. When you buy something in a shop they will thank you at least 5 times, it may as well be 10.
- Attention to detail. I feel like Japanese shops and public areas (hence I'm guessing homes too?) are always extremely tidy and well organized. Everything is laid beautifully, clean, and paying attention to every single detail.
- Free hot tea with the sushi. I feel like this is a super important one, too! There is nothing better to accompany sushi than hot matcha tea (not matcha latte, just matcha powder with boiling water), and I hate that sushi restaurants in sushi don't offer it. If you ask for a tea (paying, of course) you get a small cup or a tiny tea pot if you're lucky whether in Japan each person has a hot water dispenser in front of them to keep refilling their tea. Because the sushi is cold, hot tea feels like heaven, and I think Japanese people would not understand sushi without it.

These are some of my ramblings from this awesome trip I couldn't be happier about, with the hubby, Liam and the in-laws. Hopefully the video on my YouTube channel can be up soon!