Replace "http://www.thestagemommydiaries.com"/>

Thursday 7 July 2005

food glorious food





                      i have an intimate relationship with food. that's why i love eating out and takeaways. good thing my husband shares this passion of mine. the difference between us is he seems not to store what we just had while i store mine as body fat.we love trying out new restaurants in town or out of town though we have favorites that we just can't get enough. we keep going back. top on our list is our favorite thai restaurant Jitlada. a quaint little restaurant situated in a little nook in the town center.the service is very personalized. we are always greeted in tagalog by the staff everytime we go there. for starters, we always have the bags of gold. spicy minced meat wrapped intricately and deep fried to perfection. crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside. for the main course, one of our favorites is called crying tiger. succulent strips of marinated beef with hot and spicy dip on the side. their fish dishes are the best that i have ever tasted be it sweet and sour or ones with tangy jitlada sauce. and oh, not to forget their curry dishes. they are consistently good everytime we order.for desserts, their coconut ice cream is to die for. not over sweet. just enough to tickle your sweet tooth. we also love the blue lagoon in london but then we can't just go there everytime we have a craving for thai food so Jitlada will always be number one in our list. the coconut garden didn't really appeal much to us. we found nothing special with the place and the food. Yim thai is not bad. the ambience and decor is quite good and the food is lovely but a little on the expensive side. when it comes to italian cuisine, we love Ask in Milton keynes and Ill Millefiori in Dunstable. in Ask, i like their carbonara with creamy white sauce that bursts with flavor once it hits your palate and in Ill Millefiori, their seafood salad and calamari for starters are must haves. they also have a sweets trolley for dessert which you can help yourself into.Bella Italia lands in our list too. they have really lovely bruschettas. indian cuisine interest us as well and Mumbai in town is highly recommended. once we ordered green chicken curry with naan bread and it was absolutely delicious. every bite of their naan bread tastes like heaven.soft and buttery. it just melts in your mouth. we have yet to try Papa J's.then there's this French restaurant that we've been eyeing to go to but for the meantime, let me dial my favorite chinese takeaway. writing this piece made me hungry.

Thursday 2 June 2005

my sweet tooth




I have always thought i don't have a sweet tooth. if i have to choose between a burger and a cake, i'd chose the former. yet over the years, i have developed a sweet tooth. this conclusion didn't happen overnight. for the past months, i've noticed that i've been craving for chocolates-kitkat, snickers and lindt of which are my favorites, doughnuts, pastries and whenever we eat out, i almost always get a desert which i used to pass before. i can't believe myself. so here is my favourite sweet little treats. They are too good not to be shared… KRISPY KREME - tucked away in a nook in Victoria train station is this little stall which is home to my favourite doughnut in the world. I’ve heard Oprah raving about it in her talk show and Brandy demands at least a box in her dressing room during concerts. Once I tasted it and I was hooked. I could eat three in one sitting. It’s embarrassing to admit but it’s true. Once I bought a dozen and it was gone in less than two days and there’s only three of us in the house. I swear, everytime I see the box, it had ‘eat me, eat me’ written on it.To say that it melts in the mouth is a cliché but it really does. the best thing is it doesn’t lose its taste and softness even days after you buy it.my favourite is their original glazed doughnut. Aside from Victoria station, they have another branch in Bluewater mall in Kent and they have a little stall as well in Tesco near Trafalgar Square.
POPCORN BROWNIE SUNDAE – if you ever order desert in TGI Friday’s, make it this one. I couldn’t even put into words how good this desert is. Just thinking about it makes my mouth water.it is just heavenly. Imagine this- warm chocolate brownie pieces,vanilla flavour ice cream, sticky toffee popcorn, warm chocolate fudge and caramel sauce all topped with a whip of cream. If this doesn’t tickle your sweet tooth, I don’t know what will. Their branch in Milton Keynes is in the theatre district and all over London.
MOCHA FRAPPUCCINO – whenever my husband and I go to Milton Keynes mall, the very first thing we do is drop by at Starbucks. Two reasons, we can’t wait another minute to sink our teeth into one of their delicious muffins and second, we have the whole mall to walk around after that to burn all the calories that we’ve taken with what we just had at starbucks. I love their skinny blueberry muffin and of course my favourite drink in the whole world- mocha frappuccino. It’s delicious, delicious. Not so sweet.just enough to give me my sugar fix. I have tried other mocha fraps from other cafés but they are just pale in comparison.
MILLIE’S COOKIES – the firs time I’ve tasted this, I thought I’ve gone to heaven. To say that it’s tasty and delicious is an understatement. It’s crackly in the outside but soft and gooey in the inside. They have stalls in Milton Keynes, in the Harlequin in Watford and to my surprise, at Luton airport. We were on our way to Paris when I spotted their stall in one corner. Since our flight was delayed, I had all the time in the world to savor the taste of my favourite cookies. Here’s a tip, buy them when it’s almost closing time because they put them on sale as they don’t want to sell them again the next day. You can be sure that every single cookie is baked on the day you buy them.
TIRAMISU- I like to order this when we eat at an Italian restaurant. This desert is of Italian origin obviously. The best one I’ve tasted was in a nice ristorante in rome just beside the colloseum. I keep dreaming about it. The way it tasted and how it just melted in my mouth. It has this mocha like tasting concoction of whipped cream on lady fingers with a coffee like aroma. It’s got a little hint of liquor and a burst of chocolate once it hits your mouth. If we go to Rome again, I’d seek that restaurant just to have a taste of my delicious Tiramisu. Sainsbury’s have their own version but nothing beats the taste of an original tiramisu. As one tiramisu lover said, it tastes like heaven in your mouth and I can say it really does!