Foodilic Brighton

Foodilic is a little vegan friendly restaurant right in the middle of Brighton town centre. Located on North Street leading up to the main shopping square called Churchill Square, this little restaurant is super easy to find and is super cheap (in my opinion). Brighton is loaded with food spots and there are many vegan/vegetarian friendly restaurants, however none in this price range. Dinner is £6.45 for a buffet, and the quality of the food at this buffet is much better than another other buffet you are to experience in Brighton. Healthy, cheap and unlimited, it really is a bargain!

Normally I just drink water as it is normally the only thing that quenches my first. But today, I thought I'd try something different. Grapefruit juice! If you don't like grapefruits this is probably your worse nightmare! But the juice really complemented this dinner. At £3.55 it is quite a pricy drink, but it is all freshly squeezed as you tend to yourself at the buffet. 

The buffet consists of two meat dishes, normally chicken or beef and mashed potatoes for the non-vegans/vegetarians. The rest of it I believe is vegan. Mixed beans, beetroot, pumpkin, green beans, red cabbage etc. 

I always have an enjoyable meal here, and it also helps that it is a buffet, which doesn't make you feel like you ate the entire earth, (I'm talking about you pizza buffets and chinese buffets). Delicious, cheap and definitely worth a visit, or many! 

Journeys

“Find life experiences and swallow them whole. Travel. Meet many people. Go down some dead ends and explore dark alleys. Try everything. Exhaust yourself in the glorious pursuit of life.”

- Lawrence K. Fish

I think sometimes we get lost in comparing ourselves to others and the paths others have chosen. I certainly have, but it's also a path that I have decided is also right for me. I don't know whether at this point it is right, but for now it feels right. Finally things are starting to fall into place, slowly but surely, and I'm looking forward to the future. Through these past months I have numerous set backs, and a period of time where I felt lost, unable to get anywhere and just stuck in a rut. Then I decided to take action, more action, trying more and more, and it's all landed almost where I've wanted it.

This isn't a post bragging about how I've managed to get what I wanted, rather perseverance. I think sometimes we lose sight of what we want, or sometimes even that if we don't get the first few things we want we lose hope. We start thinking maybe this isn't the path for me, maybe I'm not cut out for this; and there are a million posts about this. I try to stay inspired by reading these posts, try to stay on top of my work, try not to compare myself to everybody else's journey. Comparison can be good for you, they can make you strive harder, but they can also make you feel inadequate. Make sure you give yourself time to self reflect, make sure you know your self worth, make sure you remind yourself everybody's journey is different.

It's fun, having loads of interviews and not making most of them, it's fun. You've been able to talk to somebody you probably would never have come into contact with. You've been able to talk about your strengths and weaknesses, helping your self reflection. It definitely all helps in some way or the other.Today, I met a girl, woman should I say. She has taken a wonderful path that I probably will not follow. But hearing about it made me ever more curious, and to just hear about her journey was amazing. Everybody we meet will have had a different journey, don't hate yourself for not having theirs. You have probably been down a road they've never been on.

Embrace it.

Inspire others.

Inspire yourselves.

Keep going.

Viet Rest

This restaurant is based in Deptford in South East London. This is probably the 5th actual Vietnamese restaurant I've been too, and it wasn't the worse, nor the best. To be honest, I love vietnamese food so I am so biased when it comes to judging the food. To me anything doused in the vietnamese vinegar and has lettuce and meat in it is delicious according to my taste buds.

The restaurant is quite small, with only around 6 tables of seatings for 4, but it is open all day, so whether you want a late lunch or an early dinner, this is the place. However, as all asian people do, if you choose to go for an early dinner, the staff will probably be sat behind you eating dinner too. It is also relatively cheap for vietnamese food. In comparison to the chain vietnamese restaurant, which is literally mind blowing expensive, and it really doesn't have much choice. The good thing about these small little vietnamese restaurants is the choice. They really do offer authentic and varied vietnamese food. I warn you however if you do not like lettuce or noodle soup, stay far far away from these vietnamese restaurants.

I really enjoyed this place, the people weren't extra friendly, but I don't expect anywhere to be. They were courteous and offered quick service so that to me was good enough. Fast, yummy food and cheap enough prices, worth it I believe. It is easy enough to get to, with it being in Deptford town centre and with parking right outside (albeit, it is street parking and can be sparse).

Enjoyable experience and food, definitely good enough place to recommend to those who are in and around the area at any point, looking to have a light or heavy lunch or dinner.

Greenwich Market

Greenwich Market is a nice little indoor market next to Greenwich park. It's a beautiful little place, however it is LITTLE. The stalls sell everything from little photo frames, to clothes, to cakes, cookies and asian cuisine. It caters for the family as well as couples and individuals. The stall below sold cake and cookies, as well as the many other stalls next to this one. On this particular day we bought a little gluten free cookie and a red velvet cupcake. 

 This gluten free cookie was large, but more on the expensive side. Health does come at a price though right? If you're looking for health over taste then this is probably a cookie to get, however if going for taste, Sainsburys or Asda bakery cookies are just as good. 

This red velvet cupcake however was DELICIOUS, the cottage cheese frosting wasn't too overpowering and the actual cupcake was nice an gooey. This was definitely worth the price, organic and delicious. 

Reflective Saturdays #2

Lately, I have found that I was unmotivated to even leave the house, personal issues with yourself can be the route of this problem, as it is slightly for me. But then you have to decide that your thoughts about yourself only consume your own life and your own time. People notice but they do not care. If you are a little larger then you'd like to be, so what? If somebody notices and says "you've put on a little bit of weight.." so what? Within finishing that sentence they will probably have forgotten about that and moved on. It is only you worrying about that bit of extra fat around your arms, your extra chubby legs lately. These people won't leave you or the situation because they've noticed you've gained a few pounds. They aren't fixated on your sausage like fingers. 

It is something everybody does, and some suffer more than others. Overthinking can be problematic, but it is more the control of your thoughts than to constantly think. It is taking the time to think about thoughts that matter, think through things thoroughly instead of just constantly thinking. As the quote above says "rule your mind or it will rule you", do not let negative thoughts rule your life. Do not let it do negative things to your life and your body.

What I'm trying to say is take some time to notice what you're thinking. Reflect on the things you are thinking about and this can lead to controlling them. I'm not saying controlling things makes everything better, but it can help. Sometimes I subconsciously feel like people are fixated on my flaws, when they probably don't care. They've noticed it, now what? You've noticed a spot on your friends face, now what? You don't care, and that is how others feel too. 

If you find yourself constantly thinking about one thing, just take a moment to breath. Think about it. I like to call it the buddha way. My siblings laughed at me when I said I wanted to become a buddhist. I think I was just having a moment, but I do like to take the teachings of buddhism, the mindfulness aspect and putting out into the world good, as you would like to come back to you. 

I guess what I want to say is, be mindful. Think about yourself, think about other people. Think about different things. 

Favourite Chinese Food

So I think many people have a perception of asians as being small and skinny, and I admit it tends to be the case. If you're walking around in an asian country or even an asian restaurant people tend to be small, and most of the time skinny. (As a "larger" chinese family, this can get make us a little self conscious sometimes, however it is all in our minds.) This is because chinese people do tend to eat healthier, rice, vegetables and meat every night. Despite this, chinese people do actually have some unhealthy foods in their diet too, and this is DIM SUM. Dim sum is little bits of everything, fried, steamed whatever you fancy really.

Here are a few of our favourites:

 Congee and Cruller

 Chicken Feet

Taro Croquette

We did have to resort to a different dim sum place this sunday due to there being a wedding at the normally visited restaurant. However, it seemed there was a wedding at every restaurant so we just stuck with one of our frequented places also: Yi Ban in Docklands London. It isn't our favourite place but it definitely does the job. At around £3 for a dish it is really cheap, however if a big group of you are going it is worth it to order a variety of dishes and splitting the price, and being able to try everything. Which is what many of us asians do do! No point going to dim sum if you don't want to try a little bit of everything.

So if you do ever want to try something authentic and have still yet to try dim sum, I highly recommend it. For oriental asians it is a chance to bond with family and/or friends, and at the same time being able to enjoy so much different food.

Places to try dim sum in South East:

• China Town 
• Docklands (Yi Ban or Royal China)
• Greenwich (Sai Kei)

Shake Shack London

Lets first appreciate that we actually have a shake shack in England, even if it is out of reach for most people. Unbeknownst to me this shake shack has been open for almost a year. Shake shack is a well-loved and hugely popular burger bar in America. If you are silly like me and love hot dogs, then you will have ordered the wrong thing too. How silly I was to order a hot dog at a burger bar… very stupid it would seem. As my siblings sat there enjoying there burgers, stacked with an array of toppings, bacon, cheese, the full works for my brother. I was sat there smelling a very plastic looking hot dog, which I gave up eating once I’d reach the mid point. The hot dog costing me a total of £5, for what we essentially a nice fried frankfurter, this was a food mistake I didn’t expect to make. I couldn’t carry on and I would definitely not recommend the hot dog. I shall never make this mistake again, however I will be back to try their burgers, and their chips. They were fried to a perfect texture. At £2.75 for a regular portion of chips, it isn’t the cheapest option, however if something is good the price tag won’t mean a thing to you foodies!

As the name would suggest they also sell milkshakes. I can’t say that they were great but they were good enough, I would even go as far as saying that I prefer KFC Krushems, but they are wonderfully delicious.

So if you would like to visit this place, I would suggest giving it a go but avoid the hot dog at all costs and DO NOT forget to order yourself a portion of chips.