Victorian Tea Rooms at the Eastbourne Pier

Despite being born and raised in Eastbourne, I have never dined at the Victorian Tea Rooms located in the middle of Eastbourne Pier.
Thankfully it was untouched by the fire in 2014.

As a foodie I decided to pay it a visit because I have not written much about my hometown.

Inside the tea room, it was just how it was when I saw it from the outside as a child.

The carpets were really familiar, perhaps they were popular and carpeted everywhere in those days.

There were golden crystal chandeliers and a picturesque view of the sea on both sides.

Looking at the menu, the Sussex Tea set was only £3.95 which includes a scone with cream, jam and a pot of tea.

In contrast to that, the Egg and Cress sandwich seemed expensive because it was £3.25 without tea but then it was freshly made with cress which you can see in the fridge cabinet.

I ordered the Egg mayonnaise and cress because I haven't had it for ages and not many places have fresh cress in the kitchen.
It was really comforting when my sandwich came, seeing all that luscious green cress in the sandwich and cress sprinkled on the salad.
As expected, it was delicious and the fresh cress did wonders.
The only let down was the service because it wasn't that friendly and it was late in the day so they were not amused when more customers came in.

Date of visit: Early September 2016

Puerh teas with a twist

I have never liked Puerh teas because they taste too earthy and like mud in my opinion.

Recently I went past this stall and saw these tea tablets and got some to try because they smelt quite nice especially the glutinous rice one 糯米香普洱 and Lotus Leaf 荷叶普洱沱茶.

Puerh and glutinous rice was really fragrant like pandan.
The puerh lotus leaf is like drinking tea after just having eaten lotus leaf wrapped rice dimsum.
There are other flavours as well such as lemon, rose, dates etc.

http://www.ybtea.com/index.php?m=content&c=index&a=show&catid=16&id=3

Making pandan pancakes

I love Pandan so I decided to make some pandan pancakes after trying some expensive ones at some restaurant.
I got a pancake mix from the supermarket which just requires water and added some Pandan essence to the mixture and it was ready to go.

White wings original pancakes

 Koepoe pandan essense

After pan frying them at low heat until both sides were brown, they were ready to eat.

They tasted quite nice but next time I will try a different brand of pancake mix because the pancakes were not that fluffy.
Next time I will try adding hot chocolate powder to make chocolate pancakes.

Unif Assam Milk Tea

Obviously I got this drink because of the design.
There were two flavours: Milk or coconut.
I liked the way it was like a milk bottle with a cow merged into a teabag to represent the beverage inside which was Assam tea.

I ended up getting the coconut because you don't normally put coconut milk in tea.

There was a strong Assam tea taste but you couldn't really taste the coconut.
Overall, I liked the drink because it was not too sweet.
More details about the design:
http://www.thedieline.com/blog/2015/9/14/assam-milk-tea

Broadway Tower - Cotswolds

I was really lucky my brother took me to the Cotswolds because the Broadway Tower was nearby.
He showed me pics of it on google and I was definitely interested.

It was this striking tower against lovely blue skies and endless fields of grass surrounded by deer.

We would have gone up the tower but it was late so it was closed and so was the nuclear bunker but Thankfully there are some photos on Tripadvisor posted by others so you can see what it looks like.

BBC Birmingham at The Mailbox

Birmingham seems to be the centre of everything just like London so I am not surprised that the BBC has a station there.

As I was visiting Birmingham, we stumbled upon BBC Birmingham's Visitor Centre tucked away on Level 3 of The Mailbox.

There is lots to see and you can try your hand at presenting the news or a weather bulletin which is not easy as it looks keeping up with the autocue.

I tried this and it was a brilliant experience.
There is a piece of paper where you note down a reference number to download your video.

My first attempt was good but I cracked up on the second attempt.
I think I managed but I spoke earlier than the cue so the pictures became delayed.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/showsandtours/tours/birmingham

Hunger Breaks - The Bacon sizzler

Intrigued by the bacon patties I decided to give it a try.
As well as bacon they have other options such as steak or breakfast.
For full range, please visit:
http://hungerbreaks.co.uk/the-range/

Inside the can was baked beans and bacons patties.

I was quite disappointed with the bacon patties because the texture and taste was a bit weird.

The beans on the other hand were better than quite a lot of other brands because it was more savoury than sweet.