after two months of student life and self-catering, i felt like i was going to london to eat

vantra vitao—25-27 oxford street (tottenham court)

vegan restaurant with quite a lot of raw food and dessert, food are a little pricey but i went for lunch 'buffet' which wasn't too bad. there buffet line had a lot of different food. from something like three curries, three stir fries, 5-6 sides (quinoa pride, brown rice, fried rice, roasted potato, mashed potato) loads of different salads (vegetable and pasta, cooked and raw) with four dressings and hummus.

now that sounds like an amazing buffet isn't it? the only thing i didn't like was that it's not really a buffet because you can only fill the food in your box once, and everything kinda mixed together in that box which was a pity for so many different kinds of yummy food.

i had a small box (6£, and bigger box for 7£ eat in) which i wished i had stuffed more food in. the food, i must say, was extremely tasty. even better than 222 veggie vegan (and cheaper! but again, it wasn't really a buffet) though of course not every dish was good and some dishes tasted a bit weird. but overall it was an awesome meal and i loved it so much. really wanted to have something sweet afterwards but their raw desserts were way too expensive.

i ill go back there and stuff more food in that little box!


sunday upmarket—brick lane

i entered this food hall and i was lost in the world of food. literally. there were countless food stalls from all over the world; japanese, chinese, thai, tibetan, malaysian, indian, persian, spanish, mexican, italian, caribbean, venezuelan, and of course, ethiopian.

the food was to tempting and the price was so affordable that i wanted to try everything. so i had to walked around the market like three times before deciding what to eat. there was pad thai, my favourite thai dish back home, spanish omelette and this huge ethiopian plates i wanted to try.


i opted for the ethiopian vegan one, simply because it was unusual and i was unlikely to get to try it elsewhere. the plate was so massive (everything was 6£) and i could hardly finish it. there was couscous, beans, chickpeas, lentils, salad and different sauces along with 'injera', this ethiopean yeasted flatbread made from rice flour. either the food was good or i was very, very hungry i couldn't be sure. but i finished the whole thing except this injera bread. i personally thought it didn't taste really good. it was too sour and it absorbed water from other food which made it soggy and a little disgusting. i wished i chose the plate without this bread but overall it was yummy. would be a perfect dish to share between two persons (because it was way too big for one) but too bad i was travelling alone.

well, that's one thing i didn't like about travelling alone: i didn't get to try as much food as i wanted to because there was nobody to share it with me!!

no meal is over without sweet ending, that's my motto. and even though the ethiopian food filled 99.99% of my tummy, there was always a teeny, tiny room for dessert.

always.

i wandered around the food hall two more times, trying to find my sweet ending but i couldn't found one. they were all either too big or too expensive. i was giving up and walked out of the market. just as i turned on a little alley to backyard market, i found was i was looking for...

this argentine food stall!

the sold empanadas (meat and veg) and this small biscuit filled with dulce de leche in the middle. so i bought one of those and expected it too be too sweet. well, it was sweet, but not to the point that make me didn't want to eat it. in fact,  i did like it a lot.


kahaila—135 brick lane (shoreditch high street)

i haven't been to a lot of cafes in london, but this is definitely one of my favourite cafes ever. one thing because this place is so unique. it's not just a cafe but also a community. there are events, workshops, yoga classes, and even church service! the cafe is also a registered charity, so the profits go towards local projects and charity. they source their products ethically and locally wherever possible. and they have such a lovely, big space to sit and work, decorated in a natural, handmade wooden style.

i had chai latte (2.2£) with soy milk. even though it was way too sweet for my liking, i will still firmly say that i'm going back to that place again.


Dum Dums Doughnuts—unit 31, box park (shoreditch high street)

i love doughnuts but they are always fat and fried. but this, these doughnuts are all baked! and baked doughnuts are seriously the best kind of doughnuts (exception is tofu doughnut in kyoto which i really, really want to try) i went for classic choice like peanut butt jelly donut (2£) and it was amazing. they also had special doughnuts and cronuts (3£ each) like strawberry and cream or hazelnut chocolate which looked really mouthwatering. might have to revisit the place for those goodies!


books for cooks—4 blenheim crescent (lad broke grove/notting hill gate)

it's not a vegetarian restaurant. in fact, it's not even a restaurant but it's my favourite place in london.

the name tells it all, this is a cookbook shop where the whole place is filled with cookbooks and nothing else. it is a place where a cookbook-obsessed like me can never resist. i believe i can spend a whole day there looking through all the cookbooks from around the world.

but wait, why am i writing this in a food guide post? well, following a very special concept, they also serve food! though they only cook one meal a day for lunch so you can never choose anything from the menu (tuesday is always vegetarian and it's fish friday) they cook recipes they have never cooked before straight from cookbooks. that's how much they trust cookbooks. the menu normally consists of soup with home-baked bread, main dish and three amazing cakes.

good news is that it's only 5£ for two-course and 7£ for 3-course...in the middle of notting hill and portobello road! this place is such a precious gem.


i went early (twenty to twelve) on a fish friday. they started serving at twelve. the recipes that day were from two of jamie oliver's cookbooks; roster celery soup and smoked haddock risotto. the soup, served with a slice of homemade focaccia, was nice and warm. while the risotto was too salty for me, the texture was very lovely and i finished it all. as i had a very small belly, i was full by then. but how could i say no to a piece of cake for only 2£ extra. so of course, i went for it after a little break. they had almond poppyseed layered cake with mascarpone, dark chocolate and raspberries, brown sugar cheesecake with caramelised nuts and oreo cookies layered cake. i chose the first one.

i was very surprised when the waitress brought me the cake, the slice was so big!!! it was served with dark chocolate sauce and chilled yogurt. the bitterness of chocolate balanced the sweetness of the cake very well. it was truly divine. i spent almost an hour on that cake because i was so full (very bad habit of eating too much food...) and i was sad to leave a little bit of the piece behind.