Chocolate soup, anyone?

© Joselito Briones

This signage just struck me as most indulgent when I saw it last night that I had to return this morning. And indulgent it was. Rich and heavy hot chocolate drink topped with chocolate scrapings, in a soup bowl, and banana muffins with creamy caramel smeared all over. If that wasn't a perfect breakfast, I don't know what is.


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Service fit for Queens

© Joselito Briones

Turns out this hotel that we booked is really nice. It's called "The Balmoral Hotel", a 5-star hotel, pictured here. It's right on Princes Street, which is the main city center street of Edinburgh. It is very conveniently located in between the old city (castle and all) and the new (Georgian) part of the city where all the nice shops are (Harvey Nichols, etc.). Too bad sale season ended yesterday.

© Joselito Briones


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These are currently my favorite coffee companions...

© Joselito Briones

I bought this almond crunch (I don't know how exactly they call it, it doesn't say so in the label) from "Paul", and it's just sooooo good. I bought a pack and almost finished it in one sitting. It's crunchy sweet buttery almond heaven. A bit pricey but definitely worth it.

Another favorite for sometime now is the cantucci al cioccolato from "Carluccio's". Not much when eaten on its own, but when dipped in coffee.... HMMMMM MMMN. Wil once brought a pack when he joined us for dinner sometime ago, and now we've been getting some regularly.

Wil dropped by last night to collect the keys to his apartment. He left them to me last weekend when he went to Berlin to see the Liza Minelli concert, because I had to show the flat to a prospective builder to do the rennovation. I was supposed to make rack of lamb for dinner, but realized i didn't have enough lamb for three, so decided on oxtail soup instead. I followed the recipe from Pam's restaurant in Hell's Kitchen. I think I put twice as much star anise as I was supposed to, but otherwise it was fine.


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What do you get when you google yourself?

I googled my name and one of the top entries was this... from 3 years ago. I'm surprised it's still online. It was a group effort, from when I was still working with Ismael Leyva Architects, in New York. And no, we didn't win the competition.

My online store, tenderware.com, is on top of the google list, and my online portfolio, branded.as is also there. Good to know that if someone wants to find me, all he gotta do is google me.

Anyway, I googled you, and was pleasantly surprised to find a picture of you in Trafalgar Square.


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Chocolate with Wasabi, anyone?

© Joselito Briones

Not a very good combination. I tried this dessert at "Wagamama". The chocolate part of it was good and heavy, but the after-taste of wasabi in every bite was just too weird.


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Whatever happened to Barbra Streisand's moustache?

Stephen Fry, of "Wilde" fame, asked this question last night in his tv show "QI". First thing I thought of was, "Ok, what DID happen to Barbra Streisand's moustache?". It didn't occur to me to question, "what moustache?". No, she didn't sport a moustache in "Yentl".

The answer was, btw, that she ate it and then excreted it. And she's not alone. Turns out everybody's done it. A week before a child is born, it eats up a lot of its body hair, including moustache, together with other things (bits of intestines!) and becomes the baby's poo first time outside the womb. Bet you didn't know that. The image on the left is an artist's impression of what she would've looked like had she not done the eating and excreting thing to it.

So, you might ask, why Barbra Streisand? Later on in the show, Stephen Fry also mentioned the myth that gay guys can't whistle. Then he attempted to whistle a tune. Needless to say, no sound came out.


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Where do TV sets go when they die?

© Joselito Briones

I'm curious because I've had a glimpse of how they get there. They get loaded in a £40/hour van and get driven around the city to bid their final farewell, and get offered by the van driver to whomever would grant them a lease of new life as a useful and loved household appliance, for a nominal price. Photos on the right shows the units in limbo (the tv's, covered in the background, not the illegal-immigrant-hiding-inside-a-van looking people having souvenir photos with them).

Today Wil had to move to his new temporary accomodation in Chelsea (Sloane Ave.). He hired a van and asked me, Mati, Ronnie and Jerome to help him haul his things from the Notting Hill serviced apartments. In return we were treated (in advance) to a dim sum lunch in "Ping Pong". Decent food as westernized asian restaurants go, we weren't expecting authentic dumplings, so we weren't disappointed. We did the move after lunch. After the move we walked along King's Road... bought some stuff from Waitrose, then passed by Habitat, then continued along King's Road, with the aim of having dinner at "Mona Lisa Cafe". Unfortunately by the time we got there it was already closed, so we ended up doing "The Big Easy" instead. American inspired restaurant. Huge chunks of meat and big servings in general, southern comfort theme, big screen on the wall, americana music in the background. Ordered "catch of the day" which was a chargrilled whole seabass, but they ran out, so changed it to king prawns instead (bad, overcooked). The others had baby back ribs (better than other restaurants, Ronnie said), and steak (good).

I like the neighborhood (better than the last time I was there, when I had the feeling that majority of people there are women pushing baby trollies) , too bad I'll be moving on soon and won't have much time exploring it more.


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I walked for hours yesterday.

© Joselito Briones

Neal Street to Shaftsbury Avenue, then High Holborn, Charing Cross Road, then to Oxford Street, by Citibank to inquire about transferring funds to my US account. Continued walking. Passed by Marble Arch, then Bayswater Road by Hyde park, then to Queensway to meet up with Wilbur's builder (dodgy), then coffee with both of them. Then to Wil's temporary accomodation in Notting Hill so he can check if the mortgage approval letter has arrived, then walked with him to Notting Hill Gate tube station... then walked all the way back to Soho, to Berwick street fish monger (turns out it's closed today) then to Chinatown, then to Tesco's in Bedford Street in Covent Garden to buy groceries, then to the flower market at Seven Dials, then back to Neal's street.

By the end of the walk, my black calfskin chisel-toe oxfords from Miu Miu, unused until yesterday morning, was completely broken in.


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The Case of the Vanishing Enema

© Joselito Briones

The line actually reads "The Real Barbary Enema", but when you're passing by and looking at the colors and objects, the words on the glass just disappear in the foreground. (See bottom photo, middle right area)


© Joselito Briones

The shop is in Monmouth street, not bad for celebrity sighting. One I ran into recently was Orlando Bloom.


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Woke up this morning to the best window view one could ever have...

© Joselito Briones

Shoe shops proclaiming "FINAL SALE" on their windows. Of course there's no point going to those stores again, as I've gone through them several times already, during "SALE", "FURTHER REDUCTION SALE", "UP TO 70% OFF SALE", and of course this week. Liquidation totale. I've gone through the sale bins each step of the price reduction. This is the best part of living right on Neal Street. I hope when we move to Nürnberg in two month's time that we can find an apartment in the shoeshop district of that city.


© Joselito Briones

Have you been to Union Square recently? I miss the times I spent there sitting along the long steps, looking up at that DSW store level where they sell men's shoes. If you sit right in the middle of the steps you can see the shelves that hold most of the Prada, Helmut Lang, and Miu Miu shoes, the goodies.


© Joselito Briones

I know, I'll be there next month, but I probably won't have time to go shopping. I'll be there on a very limited time, and I have plenty to do already. We'll see...


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