Jamie Oliver's Fifteen

On our last night in London, we were taken to Jamie Oliver's restaurant, Fifteen. Fifteen was founded by Jamie Oliver in 2002, when he started the Apprentice Programme - giving young unemployed people a chance to have a better future. They study cooking in college, get hands-on training at Fifteen and also get work experience at some top restaurants.

The restaurant serves Italian food, and has a simple menu. We were given a set menu with a few selections for our mains, sides and desserts. I ordered the salmon, which came with sea asparagus, which I really like! The portion was good and the saltiness of the sea asparagus went very well with the salmon. It was good, but nothing outstanding. I also ordered a side of Northumberland Aura potatoes with mint and butter (no picture), though it wasn't very good (who thought potatoes wouldn't be good) and I didn't finish it. I was quite disappointed with dessert though. I had the brownie, but instead of a fresh and warm brownie, it tasted like something out of a grocery store. I wasn't expecting that to come out of a Jamie Oliver restaurant! Overall it wasn't a very spectacular meal, which was a little disappointing, from all the hype surrounding Jamie Oliver's restaurants. The tables weren't set up so that our large group could talk easily either. It was still a nice evening, though very sad because everyone was parting ways back to their own country the next day. Here's to everyone meeting again in the future!

We started off with a glass of champagne to celebrate the end of the Olympics and our time together.

Strawberry lemonade - the glass is a very cool oval shape.

Fifteen's signature antipasti - meats, seasonal vegetables, mozzarella and olives.

Pan-fried Shetland organic Salmond with Crown Prince squash, rock samphire and almond pesto.

Chocolate brownie with vanilla cream and crushed honeycomb.

Irish Pub O'Neill's in Chinatown, London

We had dinner at O'Neill's one night, an Irish pub located in Chinatown. We were seated upstairs, which was less crowded and noisy. Olympic games were playing on the television inside, which was great. They served typical pub food, wings, deep fried everything. I opted for a salad, but I don't think all the ingredients listed on the menu was put into it! O'Neill's was a fun place to go, definitely for the pub experience (also because it is located in such a cool area!).

Located in Chinatown.

A sharing platter with onion rings, lamb & cumin koftas, Irish pork and leek sausages, garlic ciabatta and beer battered mushrooms.

Chicken wings with Peri Peri sauce.

Grilled chicken and bacon salad. The menu says it has peppers, tomatoes, celeriac slaw, apple, and croutons. But the salad only had the chicken, bacon (not american bacon!), and onions!

Pizza Express - Authentic Italian Pizza in London

On our second full day, we went for a quick lunch at Pizza Express after training. We were in a rush to head to Hyde Park to see the end of the Torch Relay. Though a chain restaurant, the pizzas had an authentic Italian feel to it. Even the menus choices were listed in Italian names. We started off with a few appetizers, including dough balls (no picture, sorry!) and garlic bread. Yum, carbs! I opted for a thin crust chicken pizza, Il Padrino. All the pizza's came with a pizza cutter, which was very cool. My pizza was pretty tasty!

Garlic bread.

Il Padrino - chicken, roasted tomatoes, chargrilled vegetables, tomato & pesto base.

Moshi Moshi - Dinner at the Train Station

Moshi Moshi is a small Japanese restaurant tucked in a corner of the train station at Liverpool Street. It was nice to go for Asian food, and Japanese is one of my favourites! My table shared all the platters, but they were mostly tapas with only a few main dishes. The hot foods were very good, but again, coming from Vancouver where sushi is very popular and fish is very fresh, I thought the sushi was decent but not the best. I really like that Moshi Moshi tries to be sustainable and only use seasonal and local ingredients, so their menus change to reflect that. The area where we sat had an interesting design (see picture below) and was very cozy. I think this would have been a really nice place to go for a quick lunch, as it was located so close to Old Spitalfields Market!

This is where we sat. Very cool!

The chopstick covers all had different text printed on it.

A sushi platter to share.

Chicken and gyozas.

Tapas bento box to share: gyoza, chicken yakitori, prawn tempura, chicken teiyaki, mackerel kara-age, grilled mackerel & cucumber salad, cornish crab salad.

Grilled fish.

Pork shogayaki.

Tonkatsu - pork coated in Japanese breadcrumbs and deep fried.

Moshi Moshi serves freshly squeezed juices with an interesting combination of fruits and vegetables. I tried the Ginza Morning - carrot, apple, celery, ginger and orange.

Asadal Korean Restaurant - Korean in England

We went to many restaurants from different cultures during our stay in London, and one was at Asadal Korean Restaurant. Korean BBQ is always a lot of fun, because you have the grill at the centre of the table and you cook your own meats! Like all Korean restaurants, there are many starter dishes that come with your meal. Usually it consists of kimchee, a spicy pickled cabbage. We also had a Jap Che, which has beef and vegetables mixed with clear noodles. We had pork and beef to cook ourselves. The meats are brought to the table raw, and either you or the staff place them on the grill. There are tongs for the raw meat and chopsticks for the cooked. The BBQ aroma from the grill makes the meats delicious! For dessert, I opted for vanilla ice cream with lychee. It wasn't worth it though. I think it was £6 for one scoop of ice cream with a few canned lychees. It was a yummy meal, but I wish we had a larger variety of dishes to try!

An assortment of side dishes, kimchee, white radishes, spicy cucumber, veggies.

A side dish of bean sprouts, spinach and white radish.

Jap Che - clear noodles with beef and vegetables.

Raw pork read to be cooked!

Pork on the grill.

Pork and beef cooking.

Caution - hot beef on the grill!

Vanilla ice cream with lychee.

Projections on Westminster #TakePart2012

During a late night stroll, I stumbled on this - projections of the daily events onto Westminster. I'm not sure when it started, but it ended at midnight. Very cool to see!

Harry Potter Studio Tour #TakePart2012

With the last full day in London and the Olympics coming to an end, we all were taken out of the city to avoid the crowds. About an hour drive away from central London, we visited The Making of Harry Potter Warner Bros. Studio! The place was packed with props, sets and costumes from the Harry Potter movies and so much fun to go through. It was like I was a kid again, reliving the memories from the books and movies. It's a self-led tour, where you just wander around and look at props from the movies, but there are tons of stuff to see and take pictures of/with! The tour ends at the gift shop - beware as you will get sucked into buying something! You can even get your own wand for £25!

Outside the studio

The Great Hall in Hogwarts!

Ravenclaw robes

Hufflepuff costumes

Slytherin costumes

Gryffindor

Hagrid

Snape

Dumbledore

Wands

The Chamber of Secrets door

The Burrows

The Knight Bus

Tom Riddle's gravestone

The chess pieces

Buckbeak

Diagon Alley

There was a room full of concept beautifully drawn concept art!

Large Hogwarts model