London: Tea Time in Wonderland

There is something in the air. A softness, a lighter texture, a cheerfulness. Makes me feel like walking along a beach, breathe in the salty air, listen to the waves, maybe fly a kite. What about you? Doing anything nice this week-end? You can also fish in the ideas below!

That’s art, baby:
* Make a little detour to see those East London pictures of yesteryear.

* A new artistic venue, in a lorry container. Oh, and linked to a pizza bus, of course.

Yummy time ahead:
* A delicious idea to start the week-end -  every Saturday, there is a homemadefood market in Hackney

* To celebrate St David’s day -  Wales’ patron -  the Real Food Market on Southbank will put lots of Welsh favourites on their stalls.

* In Chinatown, you are gonna melt for those new treats on skewers. And they’re chep too!

* Caffeine alert. Oh, and there too.

Out of the ordinary:
* Before the Louboutin exhibition starts at the Design Museum at the end of the month, the iconic creator has redesigned the whole Concept Store and the surrounding windows.

* Hoorray, the Barbican week-ends are back! There will be urban stories, poetry, digital graffiti, live music and much much more.

* Oh! A new pop-up cinema. Saturday, if you have an appetite for it, you can go and see dracula. In a church, of course. No obligation to take a necklace of garlic along.

* The dancing theatre is inspired by the 1920ies this week-end.

Getting ready for the parade…

This Sunday, the place to be will be Chinatown. The crowd will rush to get a glimpse of the colourful parade, the hundreds red lantern flying in the breeze, the dragons visit each restaurant and shop to bring luck. Kids will throw firecrackers on the floor, make paper dragon dance around… A good reason to feel cheerful! Don’t want to join the crowd on trafalgar Square? A few different ideas this way.

That’s art, baby!
* An exquisite dress made of spider silk? At the V&A, of course!

Out of the ordinary:
* On Thursday, let’s talk spooky London. Or raise your glass to Australia.
* Friday, rush to the V&A for a dose of samba, Brazil & table football.
* Strictly come dancing? This way!
* Selfridges? Words, words, words. But do stop to listen to stories there this week-end.
* A narrowboat getting a second life as a bookshop, what a lovely idea!
* Or how a few minutes of music can change a life.

Take the little ones along:
* On Sunday, this extraordinary puppet show will put a tiger on stage (even better, it’s free).
* Follow the steps of the 101 Damatians.
* 50 London ideas with kids.

Gosh, so many things coming up you might need to add a few pages to your agenda for the week-end!

- Join me in my week-end celebration: isn’t an afternoon tea with a view ideal?

- Fascinating scientific and robotic creations…

- Kew Gardens turns tropical!

- Brunch in Brixton village…

- The kids will love to learn some Chinese calligraphy… or lanterns…

- Pssst: it’s Nutella world day on Saturday -  get a lovely pancake here!

- Have tea with a legend…

- Where did you put that red nose?

- Frankenstein turns to the theatre stage…

- Meet the new generation of artists… Wait, are those for sale?

- Get hungry @ the V&A Childhood Museum…

- A romantic snowdrop walk…

- Love alternative restaurants? This one can be all yours…

- Come and see dragons dance for the Chinese New Year on Trafalgar! Selfridge’s celebrates it with music…

- Keep it real @ the Whitechapel Gallery…

- Get those little fingers busy…

This week-end, I’m joining a cooking club: yummy dishes, wine and happy chats. What have you planned?

- This Thursday evening, why not try an interesting mix of disco and video games. Unusual, but fun!

- A yummy walk…

- Pubs inspire artists…

- Fancy being a mad hatter?

- Be amazed by modern art…

- Rediscover the charm of silent films…

- Don’t forget to celebrate the Chinese New Year at the V&A!

- By the way, why not indulge in an afternoon tea with an Asian twist?

- Pssst: a secret bar in Chinatown – tested and loved!

- Ever hear of the Burger Monday pop-up?

Tonight, Chinatown was dressing up, choosing bright colours to celebrate the Year of the Rabbit. The lanterns will swing joyously upon the visitors and locals for the coming weeks -  a lovely festive touch…

What’s on? Here is a sum up:

Friday January 28:

• China stars in the V&A Friday late evening – a magic time ahead!

Sunday January 30:

• The V&A will propose calligraphy and paper cutting workshops as well as a Chinese show.
  

Saturday February 05:

• A day dedicated to kids! The National Portrait Gallery will host a puppet show starring the 12 Chinese zodiac signs. The London Museum will teach the little ones calligraphy. In Shoreditch? Try the Geffrye Museum for Chinese lanterns… The British Museum proposes to decorate T-shirts on that theme and the V&A Childhood Museum promises extraordinary dragons stories.
• Adults may prefer silk painting, getting inspiration from Asian motifs at the Wallace Collection.
• Add to the dream and let flying lantern light the sky…
  

Sunday February 06th:

• It’s party time on Trafalgar Square from noon to 18.00: a giant dragon will dance down Shaftesbury avenue, there will be traditional music, acrobats, food stalls… Chinatown will be at its most lively!
• The British Museum usually dedicates a whole day to the event (worth stopping by! There will also be a comics workshop where you can imagine the adventures of a rabbit)
  

Kung Hei Fat Choi!  (Happy New Year!)

An easy treat while walking through Chinatown – after so many glimpses at restaurants, I just feel a little elevenish but never enough for a whole meal.

On Little Newport St, a street vendor proposes lovely steamed buns filled with pork, chicken, veggies… for £1.20! Ideal if you are in a hurry, have only a few coins in your pocket and need to defreeze your fingers.

Do try their oyster pancakes 9£1) and rice & pork or chicken dumplings, steamed in a banana tree leaf (£3). Yummy!

Why not go and drink a bubble tea since you are in Chinatown?

The quest for bubble teas continues. We’re hooked. The Londonist article was very enthusiastic about the HK Diner and was praising the alcoholic version. Ooooh, that sounded so good to celebrate the week-end!

Sadly, the menu does not list those anymore (or maybe the Londonist had some VIP treatment?). The choice remains interestainf. Few bubble teas but bubble drinks flavoured with lemon, blueberry, Cadbury chocolate, yogurt, peppermind, red bean/coconut milk…

You can also add aloe vera jelly. We’re more tempted by the bobas, pearls similar to the tapioca ones and can be passion fruit or mango flavoured.

At that point, the waiter waived us aside – if you’re not having a meal then the drinks ate take-away only, this way ladies, the till is on your way out! Thankfully, Leicester square is 2mn away and we opted for a picnic sampling session instead.

Guava and coconut milk are delicious. Even more surprising are the bobas which actually explode in you mouth in a gulp of extra fruit juice. It’s a love of hate thing, I must say, but you have to try it once! However, very few tapioca pearls but, er… isn’t it the whole point of the drink?

On the whole, HK Diner fares poorly. Deco is less than average, service is half-half, polite but not particularly friendly, poor on bubbles… You’d better go to the Candy Cafe a few streets away where the drinks are gorgeous, the staff adorable and you’ll even get free wifi.

Know anywhere else for Bubble teas and drinks (we have already tried Jen’s cafe)? Let us know!

HK Diner
22 Wardour St
London W1D 6QQ

Bubble drink/tea: £3.30

Boba (mango or passionfruit): +£1

While you’re here, why not walk up the street to have a look at the Sarah Bernhardt building?

A bank holiday week-end, 3 days of freedom – doesn’t it make you wanna dance?

- Well, how lucky, there is a tea dance @ Spitafield Friday afternoon…

- Don’t forget the V&A late night opening, dress up to it!

- Celebrations definitely are in order with the Greenwich beer and jazz festival… Unless you’d prefer a free cocktail?

- It’s that time of the year again, the famous Chelsea Flower Show is open! Harvey Nichols even has dedidated a floral afternoon tea to it…

- Alternatively, Kew gardens also is in summer mode…

- Wanna play the culture card? Well, the Natural History Museum new exhibition on abyss fish certainly looks amazing… So does Exposed @ the Tate – paparazzi pics or paused ones, cctv or real camera and of course classics like Cartier-Bresson or Lee Miller.

- Marilyn Monroe fan? Stop @ Harrod’s to see three of her dresses on show…

- Of course, there’s plenty of events linked to Sex and the City II these days…

- Kids in tow? Why not try the animation film festival? They could also meet sheep @ the Spitafield fam wool festival. Or have a picnic @ Alexandra Palace!

- Gourmet will rush to the Hampton Court food festival…

What are your plans? I’ll celebrate the week-end with friends with a bubble tea @ Chinatown. I will anticipate a very hot summer with Pimm’s sorbet.  Oh, and I need a closer look @ the Trafalgar Square boat, didn’t get a chance to see it yet!

Bubble tea lovers, rejoice! Here is another bubble tea address!

My friend Melody found it for us. Hidden in a corner of Chinatown, you could actually walk past without noticing the colorful sign leading you to the first floor. Take the table near the window – lovely view one of the sculpted doors of the neighbourhood!White walls, modern, lots of light. Not your expected Chinese cafe. But do not worry, the menu certainly is exotic enough and we were the only two European looking sitting there. Everything is trasnlated in English of course and the staff is adorable and discreet.

You now get three different options:

o Bubble juice – fruit juice and tapioca pearls

o Bubble tea –fruit juice, black or green tea and tapioca pearls

o Bubble milk – that one’s new to me, flavoured milk and tapioca pearls

Even better, those can be served cold or hot. By 25 degrees, the choice was pretty obvious but I can’t wait for a rainy day as an excuse to go back and try the other version.

And 30 flavours to choose from! Watermelon, honey peach, coconut, kiwi, passionfruit, green apple…

Verdict : the mago bubble tea is very velvety and you could drinks liters of the red plum bubble juice. Somehow you could stay there all day. the drinks are served in sundays kind of glasses are certainly are the best I have tried so far.  Even the tapioca pearls are just the way they should be, chewy but not too much.

The menu also proposes a wide range of Eastern deserts I will need to come and taste -  this makes me so curious: soya milk with jelly? Tapioca pearls desert with syrup? Coconut jam? It looks straight out of a manga and even if you are not convinced, your mind switches on the I wonder how its tastes? mode…

Add to that the free wifi -  I’m surprised they don’t propose fidelity cards yet!

Candy Café
3 Macclesfield St
Chinatown
London
W1D 6AU

Bubble Milk: £3.55 to drink in, £3.40 to take away
Another address? Jen cafe, two streets away.