Suri Times Two: fbloggers

With winter creeping in on us the idea of ‘nights out’ seem less appealing; the darkness and temperature drop make me feel like heading home as quickly as possible and in the recent weeks I have had a tendency to mentally switch off after the sun sets; am I alone in thinking 5pm feels like 9pm?!
I will suggest one great option for an easy fuss free night out; Ping Pong Dim Sum. This was recommended to me by two well-travelled friends, who have visited the Far East and tasted a trillion and one delicacies; leaving me a little lost in the food know-how for the Chinese cuisine. I had never even eaten take away Chinese food until I got married last year! So you can imagine my curiosity when I would see people order food in little woven baskets, dipping dough parcels into an array of sauces and eating the tiniest grains skilfully using chopsticks. It was all quite fascinating.
I visited the Ping Pong Dim Sum in the new Wembley outlet park; boy was I in for a treat!

Healthy eating is a factor I have only recently paid serious attention to (approx. 2 years now) I have always had a healthy lifestyle but my biggest issue was portion control. Who else has a family member whose sole happiness depends on you finishing everything they dish out on your plate? I’m aiming that to every Indian auntie out there! I’m sure it is like that in many cultures, but eating to the extent where you feel physically stuffed is an awful feeling.
This is where I point to Ping Pong Dim Sum and applaud them for bringing over their tradition to the UK and breaking this portion control issue. Dim Sum is prepared as small bite sized food steamed till its ready to eat, you are encouraged to order a couple of dishes to share.
Below we selected the following; crispy prawn balls, long steamed broccoli (recipe below!), vegi spring rolls, potato and edamame cakes with mushroom, vegetable and black bean sauce rice followed by dim sum dumplings.

I cannot stress how much I enjoyed this sharing concept. It gelled my evening together, the idea of sharing a new cuisine started a multitude of conversations on food, where it came from, what ingredients were used, how we make it at home, what is good for us, what we recommend; my list goes on! Honestly, go try purely for the experience this way of eating allows. In all honesty I did attempt to eat using chopsticks but to no avail resulting in food on my chin, cheeks, hair and lap; hence no pictures of myself will be shown in this post! A strong factor contributing to my lack of skill could be a result of enjoying one too many cocktails. I’m not one to drink alcohol whilst eating, but the combination of a fresh fruity sweet cocktail went down a real treat with the food. I would strongly recommend trying – Lemongrass and lime, Kumquat Mojito and Lychee and the roses martini.

Dim sum is a little dumpling filled with a variety of options, from seafood, vegetables, chicken and nuts, the list goes on; it can be steamed or fried. I went for the steamed option which answers one of my main questions, what comes in that basket!?! It is a little steamer basket the dumplings are cooked in, they are delivered to you in these baskets to maintain their heat. One thing I have been trying to reduce is my oil intake, I do not like greasy food and try to steer clear of fried dishes, Ping Pong score major brownie points for the variety of dishes they offer that are not fried, this results in guilt free eating and leaves you wondering how they make steamed veggi’s so tasty!

So we have it all at Ping Pong Dim Sum, a wonderful atmosphere to dine in, a brilliant food sharing concept engaging everyone on the table to communicate, health conscious food options and lastly an insanely great list of cocktails.

* Drum roll please *

Allow me to introduce the Winter Berry Blazer. This drink is the equivalent of Christmas inside a cocktail, move aside mulled wine we have a new concoction taking over.
The Berry Blazer is a mix of fresh berries, martell, cognac, absinthe and cassis liqueur flambéed seen below accompanied by strawberry tea; created especially for the Winter season by Ping Pong’s head mixologist Daniele Ziaco. One sip and you wont even notice how cold it is outside, it left me feeling all spiced up and warm inside, a great way to end a beautiful evening / experience.

A big thank you to the Ping Pong team for being so accommodating. The Long Stem Broccoli recipe is an exclusive reveal especially for this post.

For as long as I can remember I have been a sun child, I walk on the sunny side of the street and sit in the rays shining through the windows; there is something about the feeling of heat on my skin and hair that energises me. So the past weekend in London has been like a little slice of heaven with our Indian Summer; this is a quick post we shot just before sunset with the little light peeking through rooftops and trees, to show you this coat and its stunning colour.
I do love a well thought out pastel palette I feel it complements the pink in my skin tone. New Look have a beautiful selection this season.
This week I’m working on some new artwork, stepping a little outside my comfort zone with it but that’s the only way to grow! I post most rants, revelations and work in progress shots on twitter.