Waffle Me This, Waffle Me That (Food Review)

Unbelievably, before Sunday 13th August, 2017, I've never had the gastronomic pleasure of eating waffles. I will admit though, I have had Ice-Cream Waffle cones, but hot freshly made waffles? Never.

My lovely breakfast plate. 

Some short history on Waffles (adapted from Wikipedia extremely lengthy history) before I get into my experience of Waffle eating at 10:45 a.m. in the morning. Yes - I was having a very late breakfast.

A waffle is a dish made from leavened batter or dough that is cooked between two plates that are patterned to give a characteristic size, shape and surface impression. Waffles may be made fresh or simply heated after having been commercially precooked and frozen.

In the late 14th century, the first known waffle recipe was penned in an anonymous manuscript, Le Ménagier de Paris, written by a husband as a set of instructions to his young wife. It was during the 15th century that the waffle's classic grid motif appeared clearly in a French fer à oublie and a Belgian wafelijzer, setting the stage for the more deeply gridded irons that were about to become commonplace throughout Belgium.The 18th century is when the word "waffle" first appeared in the English language, in a 1725 printing of Court Cookery by Robert Smith. 

By the early 20th century, waffle recipes became rare in recipe books, and only 29 professional waffle craftsmen, the oublieurs, remained in Paris. By the mid-1930s, dry pancake/waffle mix had been marketed by a number of companies, including Aunt Jemima, Bisquick, and a team of three brothers from San Jose, Calif. – the Dorsas. It is the Dorsas who would go on to innovate commercial production of frozen waffles, which they began selling under the name "Eggo" in 1953.

Varieties of Waffles. 

• Brussels waffles are prepared with an egg-white-leavened or yeast-leavened batter, traditionally an ale yeast; occasionally both types of leavening are used together. They are lighter, crisper and have larger pockets and are easy to differentiate from Liège Waffles by their rectangular sides. 
• The Liège waffle is a richer, denser, sweeter, and chewier waffle. Native to the greater Wallonia region of Eastern Belgium.
• Flemish waffles, or Gaufres à la Flamande, are a specialty of northern France and portions of western Belgium. 
• American waffles vary significantly. Generally denser and thinner than the Belgian waffle, they are often made from a batter leavened with baking powder, which is sometimes mixed with pecans, chocolate drops or berries and may be round, square, or rectangular in shape. 
• Belgian waffles are a North American waffle variety, based on a simplified version of the Brussels waffle. 
• Bergische waffles, or Waffles from Berg county, are a specialty of the German region of Bergisches Land. 
• Hong Kong style waffle, in Hong Kong called a "grid cake" or "grid biscuits", is a waffle usually made and sold by street hawkers and eaten warm on the street. 
• Pandan waffles originate from Vietnam and are characterized by the use of pandan flavoring and coconut milk in the batter. 
• Scandinavian style waffles, are thin, made in a heart-shaped waffle iron. 
• Gofri are waffles in Italy and can be found in the Piedmontese cuisine: they are light and crispy in texture, contain no egg or milk and come both in sweet and savory versions. 
• Stroopwafels are thin waffles with a syrup filling. They are popular in the Netherlands and Belgium and sold in pre-prepared packages in shops and markets.
• Galettes campinoises/Kempense galetten are a type of waffle popular in Belgium. They are rigid and crunchy, but are buttery, crumbly and soft in the mouth.
• Hotdog waffles are long waffles with a hot dog cooked inside them. Originating in Thailand, this snack is served with ketchup, mayonnaise, or both. The batter uses margarine instead of butter.
• Waffles on a stick are long waffles cooked onto a stick, usually dipped in something like chocolate syrup, and with sprinkles on top.

Waffles can be eaten plain (especially the thinner kinds) or eaten with various toppings, such as: butter, chocolate chips, apple, butter, fruits, bananas, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, honey, jam or jelly, chocolate spread, peanut butter, syrup, maple syrup, chocolate syrup, caramel, flavored syrups, whipped cream, powdered sugar.

Just thinking about all these fabulous varieties of Waffles has started me drooling and craving them again. How long has it been since I've had these? Let's see, SEVEN WEEKS! That's too long to go without the breakfasty goodness of a freshly made waffle. Must figure out how to get freshly made waffles again for breakfast. Hmmm. 

Now then, I was on vacation in England and I had trundled off with my brother, my sister and my nephew to play badminton at 9:00 in the morning. It was a thrilling hour of smashing around a shuttlecock and just about managed to distract me from the hunger pangs of not having breakfast at my usual time by 6:00 a.m. As we had agreed the night before that we should have breakfast when we come back after badminton. 

It was by the time we walked back in the door at around 10:30 a.m., I discovered my dear niece had emerged from her bedroom and was sleepily cooking away delicious smells of something I was soon to discover was waffles. 

Now, being very hungry as I was and having literally worked up an appetite, I could've gorged myself silly on a plateful of waffles and not left any for anyone else. But prudence cautioned my stomach and I took two waffles, which I liberally sprinkled with original maple syrup, and covered with strawberries, which my other niece so nicely cut-up. 

 

This was the plate where all the waffles were piled after being made. It had two sets of these, I should point out that this was not my breakfast plate! :)

The innocent looking device in the kitchen where the action happened.

Made with blueberries and some chocolate chips, it made for a delightfully sweet and crunchy combination. I ate the waffles slowly and carefully, savoring every bite, not knowing when I'll have it again and although I would swear that I told my niece I loved her waffles when I was eating it, I suspect that she didn't have her full complement of coffee to properly wake up and process the day. So she may not remember me telling her that I really liked it. So I'll tell her again via this medium. 

Presentation - 5 stars
Texture and taste - 5 stars
Memorable - 5 stars

My complements to the chef! 

Journey to Star Wars - The Last Jedi (Review)

No spoilers follow - because obviously the movie hasn't come out yet. 

No self-respecting Star Wars fan (with a blog no less) would pass up the chance of blogging 
about the most anticipated movie of the year Star Wars The Last Jedi. The sequel to Star Wars Episode VII (7) The Force Awakens is expected out on Friday 15th December, 2017. As of time of writing this blog there is now 88 days and 12 hours before the movie is released. Fan boy moment (swoon). Due to my self imposed restriction of posting every Sunday, I unfortunately missed the 3 month mark before the movie releases. Unlike my favourite Forbes Contributor - Scott Mendelson, managed to write a blog post last week Friday 15th, meeting the 3 month mark - Box Office: 'The Last Jedi' May Be The Most Frontloaded 'Star Wars' Movie Yet. 

He indicates - "As far as how well The Last Jedi will perform compared to its predecessor, that’s somewhat of an open question. On one hand, The Force Awakens was essentially a movie 32 years in the making, a genuine sequel to Return of the Jedi with several major returning cast members no less. It was as anticipated as any movie in recent memory, and it clobbered all realistic expectations to earn $248 million on opening weekend and $937m total in North America alone. So you can certainly make the argument that the same level of hype won’t be matched this time out, if only because The Last Jedi will be more of a known entity and merely a sequel to a well-liked mega-hit from two years prior."

I totally agree with him with this aspect, that it is truly an open question as to how this movie will perform at the box office. Carrie Fisher's passing has obviously thrown a humongous spanner in the story line for the current trilogy of stories. Impressively, unbelievably, the forward thinking needed, was the news that Disney receiving USD 50M as a result of her passing. I mean it makes sense because of the obvious impact on story line for Episode 9 due out in December 2019. Lucas Film and Disney has not yet addressed how they'll get over her passing in the movie itself. Because anything less than a brilliant sacrifice for the Rebellion in Episode 9, the entire Star Wars Franchise will be stained for all eternity. Imagine how much lost Box Office Revenue that would be for Disney. Of course they wouldn't want that. 

Now if it was Universal Studios, they would've whipped together a music video in honor of Carrie Fisher's passing and profited the heck out of it. But unfortunately for Lucas Film, a poignant song is unlikely to go down well with the Star Wars fans worldwide and is unlikely to fit in well with the whole Star Wars Universe which has only relied on orchestral music for each of the movies released thus far. 

Ah yes, Carrie Fisher in the original trilogy, Episodes 4, 5 and 6, brilliant actress who herself said that time and the substance abuse and other things wasn't kind to her. Her most recent appearance in The Force Awakens, she's near unrecognizable to the princess we first met in 1977 - A New Hope. 

Dominating the new/ modern trilogy was Natalie Portman, who has gone on to a very stable acting career, but was an unknown in 1999. Cinema audiences grew to love her in The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones in 2002 and Revenge of the Sith in 2005. 

In between movies, The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi came a gorgeous retelling of the creation of the Death Star and our introduction to Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones) who's the daughter of the chief architect of the Death Star. Jyn is definitely going to go down as one of the most unexplored character thus far in Star Wars history, as she had and will only ever have one movie for her character. As Disney and Lucasfilm unfeelingly but quite correctly told the Director of Rogue One that he needed to kill off all his characters in the ending of the film and they all very emotionally died in the dramatic finale of the film. 

The introduction to Daisy Ridley as Rey in 2015's The Force Awakens was an immense pleasure to discover how well she fit into the entire Universe. The biggest unanswered question which has been endlessly debated in the far reaches of the internet and everywhere else in the world. This is expected to be answered in The Last Jedi. 

Of obvious need for the entire Franchise and for the current Trilogy, it is the hope that Rian Johnson (writer and Director of The Last Jedi) came up with a better story than a Death Star/ Death star type world for the Empire which has been the primary plot device in the first seven movies. It's getting repetitive people! Please, something new. 

Vanity Fair covers were the first look at Star Wars The Last Jedi and it's fitting for me to include them here and it shows General Leia Organa in all her finery and Rey and Luke looking suitably grim and solemn.

Looking forward to the opening of the movie, it's highly likely 100% in fact that 1) I'll be buying presale movie tickets for the entire family who I'll drag along with me and 2) I'll definitely be seeing it the opening weekend. Purely because this is the only movie franchise that I can do that with. And the only movie franchise that I have to see in cinema and the opening weekend. All the other movies I'll go whenever. 

One final word on the opening weekend in December, it will very likely be bigger than the current record holder The Fate Of The Furious $541.9 Million. As to whether it will be bigger than Star Wars The Force Awakens total of $2.068 Billion, it remains to be seen whether it will be critically acclaimed and loved by audiences worldwide. 

Just imagine how many people at Disney, Lucas Film and Industrial Light and Magic have worked on this film and knows what it is about already. I'm so jealous... 

The Hamleys WOW Experience (Review)

Imagine you were a child again. 

Imagine that there was a place where you can find every toy you could ever want.

Imagine if such a place really exists?

Well, such a place really exists, the flagship store of this chain has seven floors and a staggering total of more that 50,000 toys on sale. One of London's prominent tourist attractions, it receives an estimated 5 million visitors each year. That's approximately 13k - 14k visitors a day, since they're open every day of the week. 

Still haven't figured out what it is yet? Here's a hint. 

That's right - Hamleys, pronounced Ham - lees, no other fancy pronunciation that I know of.

Hamleys is the oldest and largest toy shop in the world and one of the world's best-known retailers of toys. Let's have a short history lesson (Taken directly from Hamleys website)

Growing up in Cornwall, England, William Hamley might have become a tin miner. Or a fisherman. But William had other ideas. He dreamed of opening the best toy shop in the world. In 1760, he did, cramming 'Noah's Ark' with every kind of toy, from rag dolls to tin soldiers.

Over the street-sellers' calls and horses' hooves ringing on the cobbles, you could just make out the delighted cries of children as they approached the window. By the time Queen Victoria came to the throne in 1837, Hamleys was already a London landmark. Families flocked to William's 'Joy Emporium'.

So successful was the shop that in 1881 a new branch opened in Regent Street. To cope with the public's growing appetite for playthings.

Hamleys added a further five floors of toys!

We can only imagine the spectacle, as toy theatres, puppets, pedal cars and miniature railway trains jostled for space in the largest toy shop in the world.

Hamleys faced hard times in the late 1920s, along with everybody else. In 1931, the picture looked bleak. The shop was forced to close and its fleet of horse-drawn delivery vans was stilled.

But this story has a happy ending. Walter Lines, the Chairman of the Tri-Ang company, bought Hamleys and worked hard to bring customers back. In 1938, his efforts were rewarded.

Queen Mary gave Hamleys the Royal Warrant!

Even being bombed five times during World War II did not stop Hamleys. Wearing tin hats, staff served at the shop entrance, rushing in to collect the toys then handing them over at the door.

The Festival of Britain in 1951 brought a Grand Doll's Salon as well as a vast model railway to amaze children - and their mothers and fathers. When she came to the throne, Queen Elizabeth II showed she still remembered the toys her grandmother had given her. She in turn gave Hamleys toys to her own children.

In 1955, her Majesty honoured Walter Lines with a second Royal Warrant as a 'Toys and Sports Merchant'. But it was the children's smiles that truly rewarded Walter Lines and his staff.

Arriving back in the present, we find Hamleys in its famous location at 188-196 Regent Street, London, England. Step over the threshold and you enter a world of joy and wonder. Over the squeaking, bleeping, whizzing and chiming of toys, you hear children laughing excitedly as they goggle at the sheer choice over seven floors of toys and games.

The toys may have changed, but if he were here today, we're sure William Hamley would recognize the same delighted faces as he guided you round the shop he dreamt of as a boy.

And a little business background for the economically minded people - 

Hamleys was bought in June 2003 by the Baugur Group, an Icelandic investment company. When Baugur collapsed, its stake in the toy store was taken over by the Icelandic bank Landsbanki. In September 2012 Groupe Ludendo, a toy retailer based in France with shops also located in Belgium, Spain and Switzerland, bought Hamleys for a reported £60 million. In October 2015 it was reported that Groupe Ludendo was negotiating the sale of Hamleys, possibly to a Hong Kong company owned by a relative of the owner of department store House of Fraser. It was subsequently purchased by C.Banner, a large Chinese footwear and fashion wear conglomerate based in Nanking.

Since I have only visited their main flagship store (which after visiting it, why would you want to visit any other toyshop in the world), I can only talk about my experiences getting to the shop and in the shop itself. The ground floor is traditionally for stuffed toys (including Steiff), and is decked out with a diverse array of stuffed animals, from regular teddy bears to more exotic plushes such as turtles and dolphins, and enormous life-sized giraffes and elephants.

As you can see from their floor directory, it's a dizzying array of all the brands of toys that you knew and love growing up. 

Being a tourist and restricted by a budget for my vacation trip and the sadly obvious minuscule suitcase allowance, I mournfully looked on at several of the toys I wished I could've bought. Yes - even at 30 years old there are many things in the store that it's not shameless for an adult to buy.  

Can I take this home with me?

Made entirely out of LEGO!

BANANA!

I blame the camera not the person using it for the blurry picture - :)

Even the cashiers don't look like cashier's. Toys everywhere!!!!!! ahhhhhhh!

An extremely tiny selection of pictures I was either able to take, because the place was so packed with customers you don't want to make it seem you were taking pictures you weren't supposed to be taking or that I remembered to take, because I was so jaw-droppingly fascinated by the toys I was seeing. 

I bought a couple tiny items from the shop but the things I really wanted, like life size swords from Lord of the Rings, huge models from Star Wars, transformers robots, sniff! I just gave it up as an unfortunate side effect of growing up and I had to leave them all behind. 

Cause if I was a child, maybe, just maybe, it would've been bought for me and the person who bought it for me would've seen about carrying it back home, ah yes - adulting. Why do we have to grow up? So bummy isn't it?

Reaching to Hamleys is amazingly easy - there are three tube stations within walking distance - Oxford Circus, Piccadilly Circus, Tottenham Court Road. Car parking at Brewer Street (W1F 0LA), Grosvenor Hill (W1K 3QQ), Sanderson House (W1T 3NG).

These handy little six characters are something called a postcode which you stick into your GPS and yay! you can reach your destination via car easy peasy. 

Mention should be made for the drivers - This store is located in the London congestion charge zone, more information is available here. The Congestion Charge is an £11.50 daily charge for driving a vehicle within the charging zone between 07:00 and 18:00, Monday to Friday. The easiest way to pay the charge is by registering for Congestion Charge Auto Pay. Transport for London's site has further information - Congestion Charge

Opening Times for this fabulous store - is from 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Monday to Friday and from 9:30 a.m. - 9:00 p.m. on Saturday and 12:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Sunday. So there is absolutely no excuse for hardworking people like yourself to not pick up that much needed toy for that loved one. 

Address
188-196 Regent Street London 
Postcode - W1B 5BT

This is a snippet of Google Maps - but all you need to do is to punch in the postcode into your map finding app on your phone and whammo! You know where to go. You literally cannot miss it on Regent Street though, it's massive and there's always a crowd in-front of the building. 

 Being the oldest toyshop in the world, they have an extremely heavy social media presence 
https://twitter.com/Hamleystoys
https://www.facebook.com/Hamleyslondon
https://www.youtube.com/user/HamleysTV
https://www.pinterest.com/hamleystoys/
https://www.instagram.com/hamleysofficial/

And here's their promotional video from their YouTube Channel - be warned though, the store is always packed so this is very misleading to be so empty.

Oh to be a child again - there are many different ways - (if you have the money of course) to treat your child to an amazing and memorable birthday party, while I was there, the Hamleys staff broke out in song for the entire shop to sing Happy Birthday to a seven year old. 

 

 


A final word on thoughtful shopping, 1) ensure that before you leave the store, whatever electronic stuff you bought it's actually working 2) any other toy doesn't have any defects 3) before you even purchase the item do a quick check on your phone to see if you can't find a better deal somewhere else. 

Cause if it's one thing I have realized with England, there is always more than one deal to be had for the same item across different sellers.

Virgin Atlantic Flight Experience (Review)

When I first thought of flying to England for a vacation this year August, one of my goals was to fly via a different airline, as I wanted to experience something different, and boy, did I enjoy every minute of it. 

The picture on the left was in Barbados, and this is probably the only part of the flight that was a bit iffy, what is the contingency plan if it was raining? Grantley Adams International Airport was not built to have a Passenger Boarding Bridge to protect passengers from the elements. The lovely picture on the right was seconds before I boarded at London Gatwick Airport. 

As a fun fact - Virgin Atlantic names every single plane in it's fleet - Fleet Names, if I remember correctly I flew on Beauty Queen to go to Gatwick and Diamond Girl to return. I may be wrong though.

Secret tip for all future passengers on any flight, order a special meal! You not only get served first, but you get served about half hour to an hour earlier than all the other passengers. So by the time you finish eat they're now starting. 

The main course for the going flight was a chicken fillet + slices of potato and vegetables. The round covered item in the bowl below was a small bun which funnily enough I didn't realize that I had butter to put into the bun until after I finished and I was clearing up and I ate it dry, I was disappointed at first that how could Virgin Atlantic could give me a dry bread but it was only after I felt totally stupid to find the butter hidden in the middle of tray.

The only weird part of the dinner was an extremely hard and dry rice cake which I sniffed suspiciously and gave it a tentative bite and as expected, it all stuck up in my teeth. I sadly wrapped it back and gave it up as a lost cause.

For some stranger reason possibly because I was so excited and impatient to be landing in Gatwick I not only forgot to take pictures of the breakfast served, I've also completely forgotten what I ate. 

 


















On my return flight to Barbados from Gatwick I was extremely impressed by the food - for the main course (lunch) I was served a salad and Paneer Mutter which was delicious. The Chocolate Caramel Truffle was awesome. (Who in Virgin Atlantic knew I would've liked it? - Happy coincidence) final part of the meal was crackers with cheese which I hungrily wolfed down. 

 
 

For afternoon tea/ snack/ dessert came a combination of crisps, a mint, and a wrap - roasted vegetable and thyme and a little while after that, ice-cream! Ice-cream on a plane - who would've thought it was possible? 

Overall the food was delicious and I would highly recommend it. 

 

 






Mention should be made of Virgin Atlantic's seductive mood lighting which made the flight experience relaxing and enjoyable - 

Virgin Atlantic's latest Airbus A330 will welcome you into a cabin bathed in a soft "rose champagne" glow.The airline says this colour has been chosen to de-stress passengers whilst encouraging them to relax into their journey. This then changes into a cosy and comfortable “purple haze”, which during meal service transitions into “amber warmth” to mimic a candlelight dining environment. To help passengers drift into a deep sleep, “silver moonlight” is introduced to reflect a starry night sky. During take-off and landing the purple will soften to help reduce stress levels, and it will also be dim during the flight for a more relaxing feel, but will be turned up again when meals are served.

Finally, as an extremely unexpected delightful touch the meals were preceded by Menus, which was intriguing. Since I was having a special meal it didn't matter, but I interestedly read the menus regardless. 

Menu for dinner and breakfast. 

 


 Menu for lunch and tea.

 



I was extremely impressed with Vera, Virgin Atlantic's in-flight entertainment system as well as having an in-flight magazine includes a comprehensive guide to all the entertainment available at your fingertips. 
On my trip to England, I watched John Wick 2 and on my return trip, since it was a day flight, I drowned myself in movies, Smurfs The Lost Village, The Boss Baby, Ghost In The Shell and Power Rangers. The audio and video quality was perfect, but I should mention that being in Economy I got the basic functionality of Vera, which was awesome, but Premium Economy and Upper Class screens looked gorgeous, I was so royally jealous. Now who's willing to sponsor me for an Upper Class flight?
As a side note - I recommend John Wick 2 and The Boss Baby, the other movies aren't really worth your time, I got bored and fidgety during those.

Here's a peek at the newest innovation from Virgin Atlantic - The internet. Now on Virgin Atlantic

Photo Credit @christiew85 from Instagram.