Tag Archives: leeds

Jamie Oliver Italian Restaurant Leeds

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Friends and us went to try the new opening Italian restaurant – the famous chef Jamie Oliver Italian restaurant in Leeds city centre. The chef was not Jamie in person, but follows his recipes. It was opened few weeks ago, and we alway wanted to give it a try as a food lover.

The starts was amazing, like tapas style. We had one vegetarian dish and one for seasonal meats. It was like the picture – look and taste were really gorgeous with cheese and bread! And we also ordered the white wine called Trebbiano Gargenega Del Veneto (2009) was light and fruity (reason price, but good value) I really enjoy the wine and the starter.

I ordered the lamp chop as my main course and I did try others pasta as well. My lamb was perfect – not too pink, not over cook, and it provided three sauces for me (mint, nuts and basil) I really enjoyed the main course. The other pasta was not bad. However, my friend’s pumpkin risotto was a little bit runny, but tasted not bad either.

The portion was big and great, some of them we could not finish. The environment was quite posh and stylish. The service was excellent and really helpful.

Overall 4 star out of 5. I will definitely recommend it to you.

My Friends Visiting Leeds

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Eileen and Miwa came up to Leeds this week and stayed with us for 3 days. I miss them so much and all the good time we spent in London, and I haven’t seen them for 3 months since we moved to Leeds. Sadly the weather was terrible – raining and cold while they were here.

I showed them a little bit Leeds City Centre, and went to Jamie Oliver Italian Restaurant in the evening, and had a such a wonderful dinner, then went to the Sky Lounge in City Inn for more wine and chatting. It did feel like we usually see each other and catch up in trying good food in London.

In second day, Melanie joined our group too, so we drove them to York. Unfortunately it was raining so we saw the raining side of York. The positive side of raining is that all the trees and garden were so green and we had the fresh air. York is always lovely to visit. The only downside of York is too expensive on food because it is a tourist town, and everything is over-price.

After touring around York, we drove back to visit Temple Newsam. It was such a historical house and full of histories. I love big old house like that, such as Henry VIII’s Hampton Court in London, and Chatsworth House in Derbyshire. It always make me think what if I were living in that era and what I would be, or doing what things? I am always fascinated about 14th -19th Centuries histories and culture.

Friends were back to London on Weds, and I felt like we are not being apart that long, just doing our normal life in London, rather than in Leeds. I miss them and doing girls things while we were in London.

First picture was in Jamie Oliver Italian Restaurant, and second one was that I made Gong Fu Tea for them while they were playing the Ipad.

You can see more pictures in York and Leeds here.

28th Birthday!

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Before my birthday, I already got the best present ever! Plus John’s family bought some presents for me as well – they are incredible nice and sweet. Nothing really special happened on my birthday day. We shopped some households stuff and John treated me to have a big sunday roast, which is my favourite food ever!

We walked to the Whitehall road, and the restaurant called The Roast near the canal served really nice british food. It was sunday, so they only served sunday roast. It was £5 per person, then we had some sticky toffee pudding with custard too! Yum! Beef was tender and juicy with a lot of vegetable and the home-made gravy. The yorkshire pudding was nice and light, not flowery at all! Oh, comfort food is the best sometimes. Definitely need to return!

Trini sent the song from Lorene Scfaria called 28 , singing that we are turning to 28! Things ganna be great!

Friday night out in Leeds

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Since moved to Leeds, we have been so busy organising the new house. After two weeks, we finished it mostly, and decided to eat out on Friday night.

Piccolino Restaurant

I haven’t try a lot of restaurants yet, but it certainly plenty in city centre. On John’s birthday, we went to the Italian restaurant Piccolino Restaurant in Park Row. It was really expensive like London price. Main courses are like £12-14. I ordered a sausage risotto and was really a good one. However, portion was small, but taste really authentic! John and Mel ordered the chicken pizza and they both said it was really good. 4 out of 5 stars

Primo Ristorante

On Friday night, we tried another Italian restaurant downstairs of our building called Primo Ristorante. It had really fancy decoration inside. Price is really good – main courses are from £10, and pasta / Pizza was £6-7. Wine is from £14. Dishes was well presented, and really tasty; services were friendly too! However, I wish the dishes could be bigger portion. For example, I ordered a duck with berries sauce, and it came with 4 pieces meats. Despite the portion, it tasted really good. 4 out of 5 stars

Sky Lounge

Then we went to the popular bar called Sky Lounge on the top of the City Inn Hotel. The decoration and atmosphere was fantastic. Drinks are same price in London, but worth a try and certainly will bring my friends there again!

It all thanks to Melanie and Paul to take us to experience these good places!

Moved from London to Leeds…

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We decided to leave London and living in Leeds for a year to experience different cities of the UK. It has been two years for me leaving in London. It was sad to leave the charming London and my friends. However, life is always on the move.

We live in the financial city centre Wellington Street in Leeds, and 5 minutes walk to the shopping centre, thus easily to find many restaurants and supermarkets for us. Location is perfect. Besides, the most exciting me is the our new apartment. It is 8 floor high, new, modern, spacious with 900 sqt with en-suit, plus one supermarket is just downstairs. What’s more, I got a fantastic huge wardrobe to fit all my clothes and shoes. John got a big spacious office room. This is exactly what we need.

In early March, we moved to the apartment and started to clean and made our home in Leeds. Leeds for us was a complete stranger, only John’s sister lives in Leeds. But I am sure we will explore the Yorkshire well in the future. Hopefully after all settling down, we will buy a car soon and start our adventure journey.

I love our new flat and new life – so many excitements to discover!

My First British Christmas

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my-first-british-christmas

Merry Little Christmas!

We are in Sheffield and Leeds and spending Christmas with John’s family. It is my first real Christmas experience in the UK and I heard there will be a lot of food in Christmas day.

Finally it is Christmas day. We drove to Leeds where John’s sister Melanie hosted the dinner this year. We prawn and salad for starters, along with some wine. Then everyone pulls crackers and exchange gifts. This is strange as I always thought it was boxing day when you exchange gifts, but it seems I was wrong. Next is roasted vegetables (potatoes, beans, carrots, and parsnips), along with some bacon wrapped sausages, stuffing (a tasty bread mix) and some carrots and sprouts with butter. The food tastes so delicious, and finally the main Christmas star – is the turkey with gravy and cranberry sauce. To be honest I don’t know why turkey comes with fruit jam, but it is said that this is tradition. I think it is a weird conbination, but actually it tasted pretty good. After the main course everyone is so full, but I still want to try some trifle and the Christmas cake. You can imagine how full I am.

The next day we visit John’s grandmother and some relatives. It is just like our chinese new year – it is all about family gather with delicious food.

I know properly some people hate Christmas just like we don’t fancy Chinese new year gathering any more. It is like a duty rather than a thing we look forward to, but this Christmas for me is special and unique. I received many gifts and enjoyed it a lot.

I hope everyone had a good Christmas and good luck in 2009. Here are the latest pictures for Christmas day!

我的第一个英国圣诞节

我们又到谢菲尔德和利兹，约翰父母在谢菲尔德，而妹妹生活在利兹。这是我的第一个英国的圣诞节，很期待它的来临。记得小时候常幻想真正的西方圣诞节是什么样子，这次终于梦想成真了。

圣诞节这天到了，我们开车到利兹，圣诞大餐在约翰的妹妹-梅乐尼家里举行。所有的菜都是梅乐尼和男友准备的，我们先吃开胃菜-大头虾沙律，然后大家喝酒聊天，拉圣诞花礼炮，一拉‘嘭‘一声，然后里面有礼物和笑话题，大家一起开心的交换礼物。在我印象中，总觉得是26号boxing day打开礼物的，但实际上是圣诞节当天。接下来是很多烤蔬菜，有胡萝卜，传统一定要吃的烤土豆，香肠卷着培根，圣诞配料（有洋葱，果仁，饼干，干果）放进土鸡里面一起烤，都超级美味！主角来了-圣诞土鸡！他们说要下点果酱和肉酱一起吃才野味，也是传统的吃法，觉得怪怪的，不过吃起来还可以。我们都吃得太饱了，不过还要吃巧克力蛋糕和圣诞蛋糕哦，巧克力蛋糕吃起来像提拉米苏一样，不太甜，很多忌廉和巧克力。圣诞蛋糕里面有很多酒和果仁酝酿一起的，6个月不断的下白兰地一起酝酿的，然后可以在圣诞蛋糕上点火，超好玩！从下午1点吃到3点，你可以想象我们有多饱。

隔天我们开车去看约翰的90岁的奶奶和他们的亲戚，就像我们过年一样，都是家人亲戚聚餐和围炉！我知道很多人都不太喜欢圣诞节了，就像例行公事，像我们中国过年一样，没有什么新鲜意思。不过这个圣诞节我过得十分充实和有意义，同时也收到了很多礼物和厚爱！

希望好运在2009年，大家过一个肥厚的新年！这是我最新的圣诞的的相片，好看吗？

Travelled in Yorkshire

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We went to visit Sheffield, Derbyshire, and Leeds last week and drove to see the famous Chatsworth house, owned by Duke and Duchess of Devonshire. This house is famous for appearing as Mr Darcy’s house in the 2005 Pride & Prejudice movie, as well as the upcoming calledThe Dutchess (featuring Keira Knightley).

Unfortunately when we were there they were holding a country fair so I didn’t get chance to visit it properly but I’m sure I will do so in the future.

We also drove to Bakewell in Derbyshire and the Peak District. It’s a small, peaceful, and very pretty market town. It reminds me of Europe a lot.

Another day we drove to North Yorkshire from Leeds to visit Harrogate . It is a very large and wealthy city, we enjoyed our time there.

Sheffield a city of many hills with views into the city centre or out to the countryside. There is a National Park next door and it was famous for producing steel. It’s quite a small city (could be like Shantou, not sure), but the hills remind me of Hong Kong.

Leeds is not bad, got a lot of young modern buildings and restaurants near the canal.

Here is some pictures I took.

The picture of the cover is from www.theage.com.au (Chatsworth House at sunset.)

我们上周去了谢菲尔德， 德比郡， 利兹，去看了很多周边的小镇，去参观了电视剧 /电影－达西先生住的房子（傲慢与偏见），还有9月5号即将上映的电影（女爵）也是在这个房子拍摄的，来头不小啊！听说那整片地区包裹房子都是属于一个公爵的，太富有了！但因为我们刚好碰见公园在举行活动，人山人海，没有仔细进入里面，以后再去罗！我们也去了利兹，利兹还好拉，蛮有小伦敦感觉的。谢菲尔德也不错，到处都是树木花园，国家公园也就在隔壁，居民的房子都建在山腰上，感觉象香港的半山腰。这是最新的照片和大家分享拉。