The Travel Diaries: Afternoon at Harvey Nicks, The Butchers Club and The Golden Leaf at Conrad Hong Kong

Our return from Beijing to Hong Kong marked the nearing of the end of my trip around South East Asia. Therefore, we decided to celebrate in style!

First up, afternoon tea at Harvey Nichols.

I have to say after our slightly disappointing experience with the Chloé afternoon tea at the Mandarin Oriental, I was slightly resigned to the idea that nowhere does afternoon tea as well as well as the English. After all, it is a traditionally English concept.

However, I was more than pleasantly surprised! We sat down in the colourful restaurant and not long later, our cakes, scones and savouries descended. The food was all beautifully presented, each little morsel a work of art.

I also loved the variety in the savouries and the range of cakes offered, especially the stilton and mushroom filo tart and the lobster flavoured creme brûlée.

We very happily munched our way through while chatting and gossiping away. Harvey Nicks was a hit!

One evening, Jossi took me to a fab little burger bar. This brave little restaurant only served one type of burger (unless you ordered from their 'secret' menu, accessed by QR codes dotted around the establishment) and one type of side, duck fat fries. And they were finger lickingly delicious. As in, good enough that we were shamelessly picking up every last crumb. Yum. Apparently this tastiness stems from the fact that each burger is hand made on site, freshly ground from Australian angus beef, making them super juicy and super fresh, but really who cares. What mattered was just how good they tasted! Paired with a coke float, I was in heaven!

I also loved how the most was made of such a small space. We perched on an open bar overlooking the street and before long got chatting to the people opposite us. The friendly and relaxed atmosphere, enhanced by the chatty staff, made for a great, quick watering hole which Joss and I felt rather enamoured by. We were so glad we visited!

On my last night in Hong Kong, Jossi's family generously took us out to dinner at The Golden Leaf restaurant in the Conrad Hotel. I was incredibly excited as The Golden Leaf has a very good reputation and a Michelin Star to boot.

We tucked in to a variety of Cantonese dishes (I have to admit I didn't know what a lot of them were since Jossi's dad did the ordering, but they were all delicious!).  The presentation was beautiful with each dish having an accompanying mini flower arrangement on the side. I especially liked how instead of the usual sharing plates I'd become accustomed to in Hong Kong, the food was individually plated.

The dinner was lovely and just a little sad as it dawned on me that I'd be leaving Joss and her wonderful family just the next day. It had been such an incredible trip and we'd seen so many beautiful and amazing things. Walking back home through the centre on the city gave me a last chance to soak up the of the city before packing the last of my things and getting ready for my departure. Leaving was definitely traumatic, but don't worry Jossi, I'll be back soon!

Leicester: Jones' Café

Today, I'm going to share with you a badly kept secret... Jones'. Over the last few years, this café has been a firm favourite of my university friends and I, my record being five visits in one week! It's an addiction and now having left uni, I'm not sure how I'm going to cope without!

Unfortunately for us, it's also a lot of other people's fix as well- I've spent more than a few drizzly afternoons queuing out the door, hoping someone will leave before they stop serving food! However, when you get inside, you remember that it's all very much worth it.

To drink, I normally almost always order the home-made strawberry lemonade which arrives in a jam jar with fresh strawbs, slices of lime and lemon on the side. However, I have been known to stray away from this summery concoction to thick milkshakes, cream-topped hot chocolates or even the odd cocktail....

My favourite dish is the 'veggie bagel burger'. This is a delicious stack of roasted red pepper, mushroom, goats cheese and, if you're like me and ask for a few, fried onions, all incased in a bagel with chilli fries on the side. I love opening up my bagel and filling it with the home-made garlic mayo and ketchup, before squeezing it all together and digging in! It really is truly delicious.

However, I've recently discovered the thai mussels which are also amazing- a huge bowl of them comes floating in a tangy thai sauce. I've only ever had the starter size and have always had more than enough to share!

They also do breakfast foods such as eggs Benedict, full English and...pancakes and waffles! Yum!

The bar is always packed with batches of home-baked goodies, from festive cupcakes to slices of millionaires shortbread.

Essentially, what I'm trying to say is that I'm a big fan of this little café: the food is excellent, the staff lovely and the prices very very reasonable. Go!

Post Exams Freedom: Durham

Last week, I finally got my life back. Exam season had ended, the sun was shining and I was ready to celebrate my freedom. Not only had I finished what felt like a gruelling few weeks of assessments, I'd also finished my university career! I was flooded with relief at the simple fact that I'd survived, but bar that, I felt.... precisely as I had post exams, which was surprising since I'd been expecting to feel magically different. Older? More mature? I mean, I had just completed the last step in my formal education! No matter. This lack enlightenment wasn't going to deter me and so after my first decent nights sleep in months, I hopped onto a train to Durham...

...and promptly realised just how tired I still was. Thankfully, we refuelled at Tango and I was revived by a deliciously succulent burger, far too many fries and a large glug of ginger beer.

The next week passed in a whirl of cooking yummy food, sunshine, Pimms, eating out and afternoon naps (one of life's luxuries I'd sorely missed!). We attended a charity cricket match one afternoon, taking a picnic of summery food with us, full of strawberries, blueberries and cherries, cheese with onion chutney and pita and hummus. Oh and of course, more Pimms!

We also made the short trip to Newcastle for lunch with some good friends at (an incredibly amazing little place called) the Fat Hippo. (I tried to make out that I was excited about seeing our friends but they all knew it was the food I was so enthusiastic about... Apologies for the lack of photos, but take it from me, the burgers are TO DIE FOR!)

Another evening, we popped out for a Thai dinner at the Lotus Lounge where we demolished a table full of food, happily washed down with cocktails.

(Essentially you get the picture, yes?)

In essence, it was heavenly to have some free time: to sit around doing nothing and not feel guilty or cook and eat meals which took more than a designated lunch break hour. More than that, it was wonderful to finally have a chance to catch up with friends... especially one in particular!

Durham Part Two

After an evening of amazing food, of course the only natural thing to do was follow it up with, well, more food. So, on Sunday afternoon I was introduced to Tango where we tucked into a couple of burgers and I drank the prettiest drink I think I've ever seen!

I was presented with a wine glass with a shrivelled brown ball in the bottom. My glass was filled up with hot water and I watched as before my eyes, the ball opened up and flowered in my glass, infusing the water with a mixture of jasmine, marigold and globe amaranth tea. 

Not long after I'd stopped staring at my tea, our burgers arrived and we dove in. They were deliciously juicy and so I happily tucked away the whole thing. 

Once we'd gobbled up every last crumb, we went for another little wander around town. The light was beautiful so I snapped a couple of pictures to show you just how pretty Durham is! 

I really enjoyed visiting Durham- it's always interesting visiting a new part of the country- for such a small place, England really does vary so much from city to city. Hopefully, with any luck I'll be back soon! 

Introducing Newcastle: a short post on a wonderful weekend

This weekend, I bundled on my thickest socks, my warmest coat and just about every jumper I own and ventured to the top of England to visit some very good friends of mine in Newcastle. I'd never been this far north before and had been warned it's fairly different to the south, especially climate wise! However, slightly apprehensively I ventured forth.

I was treated to a wonderful weekend of entertainment. On the Saturday, we went rock climbing inside a converted church, had lunch at a lovely little Italian where they were doing three courses for a fiver (!?) and sampled the northern nightlife (I was taken to a lovely gin bar, an equally nice pub and then some more studenty establishments, where I was unceremoniously introduced to 'trebles'!). On the Sunday, we decided to get cultured and so after an amazing brunch at the best burger place I've been to in ages, we headed off to the BALTIC- a modern art gallery overlooking the river. After much perusing  (and wishing that I'd thought to stick two nails point to point and sell them to an art gallery) we wandered back through Newcastle just as the sun started to go down, throwing the city into a whole different light.

I really enjoyed visiting Newcastle. My weekend had been full of laughter, good food, interesting places and wonderful people. The city also has a lot to offer and it wasn't nearly as cold as I'd been warned (although maybe I was just lucky!). It's definitely a place I'd be keen to re-visit and have a proper look around.