We've now been living in the London 'burbs for six months, and we're not bored yet!! Although we live as far out as zone 5 and have to catch a train (nope, not even the tube) to get to the city centre, we don't feel like we're too out of the way. In all fairness, some of my friends who live 'central' tell me it still takes them half an hour to get to the city centre too.
As I've been effectively jobless since I got here, and living off my savings, I haven't been making an effort to go out partying in London all the time. However, we've managed a few outings, always somewhere different, and I can't wait to make these outings a regular thing now that I'm in the city for work everyday.
Mainly we just like to go to pubs, because they're cheap, cheerful and everywhere! There are loads of pubs out here in Belvedere - in fact the closest one is less than five minutes walk away. Total coincidence, I swear!! But we do like to go to a few in London too, although we haven't got a favourite yet. Sometimes boyfriend and I go to the Wetherspoons on Whitehall, because it's close to work and on the way to Charing Cross station. We go to different pubs in that area, and on the Strand, quite regularly and especially when we're going out with boyfriend's workmates.
Something I'm hoping to start doing is checking out some of the great London restaurants. As you can tell from all my posts about food, I love cooking and eating amazing food, and London is potentially the best place in the country to find this kind of food. I don't think I'll be able to afford Michelin star restaurants any time soon, but it's worth keeping an eye out for offers with TimeOut - maybe I'll get lucky!!
In Preston we were regulars at quite a few restaurants, and we knew where we liked to go for particular food types. In London, I have plans to find favourite restaurants for the following cuisines:
- Korean BBQ
- Dim sum & Chinese
- Vietnamese & Thai
- Maltese
- Japanese BBQ & sushi
I'm not a big fan of chains, so I really need to keep a lookout for unique restaurants serving these foods. Any recommendations would be welcome by the way chaps.
In terms of Maltese restaurants, I know there is only one place to go: Parparellu in Hammersmith. I've been there once before, and I think of it more as a cafe than a restaurant (I'm not sure it's even open in the evenings), but they have all my favourite Maltese tasties: pastizzi, hobz biz-zejt, Kinnie. Hurrah!!
As for the rest of the cuisines on that list, Korean BBQ is really at the top because it's absolutely something I cannot make at home. The BBQing is a big part of the atmosphere and fun in this kind of dining, and I love all that kimchi, BBQed garlic and the meat. I've gone and gotten myself a Gourmet Society membership so that I can take advantage of all that London has to offer.
What else have we been up to since we've been here? Well, we've avoided being tourists, except for the one sunny afternoon that I got tipsy in Greenwich with Springah, and then took the boat ride from Greenwich to London Bridge. I believe boyfriend did a few sightseeing-y things when his brothers came to visit as well. Since we both work close to Westminster and Whitehall, we walk past the London Eye and Big Ben every single day, although they never lose their appeal. We're very lucky that we get to be tourists without being tourists, and get to feast our eyes on such beautiful buildings every single day. Not quite the walk to work we had in Preston, I'll tell you, although we did get to walk past Chester's chicken place every day when we lived there :D
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