Forks and Brushes

For any coffee lovers, the best Christmas present is probably a quality coffee machine, so that to enjoy a fresh cup at home every morning. My top choice has to be Nespresso. I own their smallest machine called Magimix . It was around £80, very affordable price tag, with coffee capsule averaging about 30p each. I love my machine so much that you could imagine my excitement when I was  invited by Joes Blog to attend the Nespresso x Currys event. 

Hey, how’s everyone doing? I could not believe how quick the past few months have gone! I originally planned to have a month off from blogging to get re-inspired and to settle into my new job. And before I realised, we are almost in December!

It's time to start a summer vocation! Not that I am going away to anywhere.. August is my last month to be with my current company, which I have work for the last 10 years! It's not easy to leave to the job after such a long time, but the time has come to move on to the next challenge. So I have decided take a break from blogging to settle life, I need to refresh myself and get inspired again... Wishing everyone a great summer and I will see you all again in Autumn with a fresh start! With love, Georgina P.S. I will still be active on instagram @forksandbrushes for general updates in life!

WA Cafe is not any cafe, it is a Japanese patisserie. WA is an independent cafe and have their own bakery on-site to make cakes and buns freshly everyday.

This weekend, I....

Limeyard is the latest addition to Ealing ( check out my last post Blogmas Day 10 & 11 for more about Ealing ).

In the colder months, I do love to have a cup of tea in the evening. It makes me feel cozy and relaxing. Twinings latest winter flavours Salted Caramel Green Tea and Caramelised Apple Green Tea are my new favourites!

After I went to Tokotsu Ramen Bar in Selfridges ( post here ) to fulfil my ramen obsession ( another post here ), I was going to head to Duke Street Emporium for a coffee ( more post here ). Thank god I walked down the wrong street and found Smack Lobster Deli !

Yes, I will be attempting Blogmas again this year! I will have a blog post up everyday in December until Christmas. Like last year, my blogmas won't be a Christmas only themed, instead it will be a diary style of posts of what I have been up to, the usual product reviews, foodie posts... etc. It will be a mixture of various things so I think it will be good fun. So.... Let's Blogmas begin!! Ho ho ho!!

On my last Foodie Friday #22 Battle of Ramen in London , at the end of it I mentioned I was going to try the new Tonkotsu bar in Selfridges, which I did!

I am from Hong Kong and in Hong Kong, ramen places are as crowded as Pizza Express in the UK. In the past months, London seems to have caught the ramen bug too! I am overjoyed - what's better to have a bowl of hot broth noodle goodness in winter?! Today I want to share 4 of them with you. There are veterans but also new kids on the block. At all the visits, I ordered their basic/ standard/ original tonkatsu as a controlled comparison.

What makes a restaurant stand out? The variety of food? The quality of food? The price? The location? All these are important. But for me, a great customer service definitely lurks me back more than anything else.  I have talked about Shoryu Ramen before because of their delicious ramen ( post here ). Shoryu has opened their 3rd branch at the quirky Carnaby Street about 3 months ago. So I went to try the other day with my sister +Cynthy Chui  .

Bills, Ealing Branch (28-30 New Broadway, Ealing) Last week Bill’s Café & Restaurant has just launched their Spring menu, so I had been into the Ealing branch to try out a few. (A big hello to the lovely waitress Justina! She is a gem!)  Some old favourites are staying, like Bill’s Burger, Fish Finger Sandwiches, Marinated Chicken Skewers. There are also some new dishes. Three dishes on the menu have caught my eyes.

End of February was Scott’s birthday. Instead of giving a present, we would arrange something to do together, either a short getaway or a special restaurant that we want to try. This year, I arranged to have lunch at the legendary River Café!

I couldn't believe it when Rachel Phipps tweeted me to say "Congratulations Georgina! You are the winner of my Rick Stein Live giveaway ! Please email me." I remembered I was crossing a busy road while glancing my down my phone ( I know, I should never do that again ), I was stunned and almost stopped in the middle of the road!

November is my birthday month (yay!). If you want to take a look at what I got for my birthday, I have a post about my birthday goodies here , there are more pictures & more birthday goodies on my instagram  as well. And a birthday cannot be complete without a good meal! On a sunday night, Scott took me to Jamie Oliver's Barbecoa - a restaurant that we have been dying to try for ages!! We were just waiting for a good excuse and a good time! The view from our table

You should have seen my blog about my family trip to Paris and mini haul . We didn't go to any fancy restaurant this time as it was a very last minute decision that we were going to Paris, so not much time to research beforehand. However, we did accidentally find a very good Vietnamese restaurant (later on confirmed by my friend Kate, who lived in Paris for 3 years, that this was her absolute favourite Vietnamese restaurant in Paris) It was my dad's suggestion to check out the Chinatown in Paris. He found out the metro station was Olympiades. As we came out from the station, er.... we didn't know where we were, streets were looking quiet. Then we saw a chinese guy carrying some shopping, walking from a street, heading towards us to the metro station. So we thought "ah! There must be a chinese supermarket nearby! Let's walk down the street where he was coming from!" How clever we were! Because that street was Rue Nationale, and as we walking along, we saw P

Shoryu Ramen first caught my eye when I was waiting for a bus & saw this long queue outside their restaurant. Queueing outside a ramen bar is a popular scene in the far east, like in Hong Kong. But this was the first I saw in London. So I was definitely intrigued. Is Shoryu Ramen really worth queueing for? Or are they just another Wagamama?

Despite the occasional stormy days, London has been consistently hot in the past few weeks. So for my morning coffees, I have been switching from a hot Americano to an iced Americano. The normal method to make an iced Americano is to pour a shot of hot espresso over a glass of ice, then top up with cold water & more ice.

From time to time, I will have nights where I am on my own, not wanting to go home just yet after work. In these nights, my favourite place to go is Selfridges. And in these nights, my favourite place to eat is The Food Garden Cafe - the top floor food court inside Selfridges .