Surprise 30th

My computer and internet sucks at life right now so these are the only pictures I can put up of T's surprise 30th Birthday party. I led T into thinking we were going to the Albion for a friend's husbands birthday dinner, and lo and behold, I manged to keep a surprise until the very end (or so he says!). Everyone gathered at the pub at 6:00ish and I brought him by at 6:30. I was pleasantly surprised that the group managed to get together and yell surprise as soon as he walked in. Props to whoever coordinated the group!

I was really happy with the turnout. Kudos to planning a month or so in advanced!

I ordered the roast pig for T since he had mentioned wanting to do that with friends. The event planner said it would be feed 15, but I knew it would feed more!

We ended up with a huge bag full of leftovers- ha!

Umm....

my plate with all the delicious sides.

they gave T the head to play with, and somehow it ended up being the star of the party for a while.

On Sunday afternoon, we went over to T's moms house for some home cookin. She always makes the most amazing spread of food. Drool...

T made us dinner last night with the beef I bought from the Korean grocery store.

spicy Korean marinated beef with bean sprouts and spinach.

Yum! It was so good and hit the spot for my craving for Korean food. Here's to hoping the next 2 weeks go by fast. I'm anticipating some good news next Thursday. Time to get my study on. Quiz in Chemistry tomorrow!

Islington Pub Crawl

On Saturday night, we went on a pub/bar crawl around our Kings Cross/Islington hood. We stopped at the following places:

1. The Canal
2. The Draper's Arms
3. The Albion
4. Ethiopian restaurant for din din
5. Back to the Canal
6. The Driver
7. Be @ One

We also enjoyed the last few days of summer. The weather was pretty dang beautiful this weekend!

I stuck with wine/cocktails for the night. Occasionally, I snuck in a few sips of beer (shhh!!)

Dinner was at Merkato restaurant. We've been here a couple times and its always been a pleasant dining experience. Unfortunately, we had a few minor hiccups this time around.

We ordered a bottle of their in house honey wine. It's usually sweet with a touch honey but this bottle seemed to have gone bad; it had a vinegar taste to it :(

at least their beer was decent!

The food service at Merkato was unbelievably sloooooooow. I think we had to wait 45 minutes for our food!! They apologized for the slow service but didn't really acknowledge it til we grew impatient. I don't like it when restaurants ignore the fact that their food should have come out 30 minutes ago!!

Thankfully everything was as delicious as I last remembered it. Btw- most injera's are gluten free since they are made from teff flour. I didn't ask if any other flour was added to it because I just didn't want to know! Ignorance is bliss (this time around) :-)

We all inhaled our food, stopping every now and then to remark how tasty it was. I must have gotten lazy after this because I didn't take any more pictures throughout the night. Somehow, our group of 6 grew to 10+.. We ended our night at Be @ One, and this time, I had a better experience and kept my new Iphone close to me!

Side note- the bartenders at Be@1 are super friendly but the free shot of Jose Cuervo tequila at the end of the night was definitely unnecessary! Needless to say, my Sunday was completely ruined.. My bum was glued to the couch for most of the day.

Somehow I was able to peel myself off the couch to make myself a GF lunch. I added in some sauteed onions, chopped up cucumbers and spring onions to Tiger Tiger's gluten free noodles.
http://www.tigertiger.info/gluten-free

Tarek totally spoiled me and brought back bbq from Pitt Cue. It was the last day they were serving bbq from their truck since summer is almost over.
http://www.timeout.com/london/restaurants/venue/2%3A30101/pitt-cue-co

juicy pulled pork on a bed of coleslaw

I also had some beef ribs- DELISH!

with some eggplant on the side

gluten free macaroons! I think I died and went to macaroon heaven :) Someone please tell me how I only discovered macaroons 2 years ago when I moved here to London- they are so good!

the green tea one was my favorite! I couldn't tell the difference between GF and regular ones.. In fact, I'm not even sure if the regular ones are made with any type of flour. Maybe they're just naturally gluten free?? hehe.. Either way, I'm not complaining!

the sesame one was decent..

hot sauced/ketchup scrambled eggs w. GF toast and it's time for the gym yo!

The Albion

 

It was a papa johns kind of Saturday afternoon. The thin crust hawaiian wasn't as tasty as I remembered but miraculously, only TWO pieces were left in the end. Who dun eat it!?

Dinner last night was @ The Albion. Please tell me why I've never been there before, its the cutest place AND it has an outside beer garden. Perfection :)

http://www.the-albion.co.uk/

We had the beet root salad to start. It was fresh and really delicious!

We also had the shellfish cocktail with bread and butter. Yuuuuuuuuuum.. It was the perfect balance of prawns, crawfish, lettuce, and a mayo dressing.

Can I please have another!?!

We had to get the cheeseburger since everyone seemed to be ordering them around us. I'm glad we did because it was juicy and ammaaazeballs!!

sauteed spinach (it was supposed to be buttered spinach but it defintiely didn't taste that way!)

as if the first burger picture wasn't good enough. We split this so we could also share the rib-eye

the rib-eye with a side of mashed potaters. We thought the steak could have been more tender and the mash a bit more buttery but all in all, it was still delicious! I would recommend going to the Albion for drinks, outside patio, and then for a later dinner. It was fantastic!

We warmed up a premade sticky toffee pudding for dessert

with some strawberry cheesecake ice cream on top. Mmm mmmm!!

whole wheat w. quail eggs, and shrimp on top of japanese mayo

T made a wonderful breakfast this morning with some quail eggs he bought from Steve Hatt. Quail eggs are so tiny but the flavor of the eggs are really delicious and SUPER cute, eh!?

 

I also watched a chick flick this afternoon because I was loooong way overdue for one. I've read the book and I thought the movie was just as cute!