FOODIE POST: DUCKSOUP

Early finish at work today - love my Wednesdays!

Was initially planning to head to jazz dance class, but was seduced by the good weather and had a quick dinner meet up with Lili before I fly off this weekend!

Beating the after-work crowd, we headed to Ducksoup in Soho for dinner.

It was just past 6pm and there were only a few people sitting around the bar, so we settled ourselves down in a cosy little table.

 

 

As it was a weekday (and also the fact that I lacked sufficient beauty sleep from the night before), we decided to skip the alcohol this time round and ordered some fizzy shandy drinks. We're allowed to 'roll-over' alcohol units to the weekend right? Hehe.

 

We shared two starters - the 'asparagus, herbs, parmesan' and the 'courgette flowers, crab, mayo'.

I've never quite eaten raw asparagus before - they were thinly sliced and lightly seasoned, and overall a nice refreshing starter dish.

The courgette starter, which was another dish that was recommended by the waitress was really good - I could have eaten another portion, or maybe ten...

They were lightly battered and fried, and being a crab lover, each mouthful (which wasn't many considering the size of them!) was a little taste of heaven!

As we both love fish, we decided to be a bit 'unadventurous' this evening and ordered the same mains - Wild char with green sauce.

I wasn't really sure what char was before, but looks like huge sardines to me! There's probably some equivalent Chinese name for it that I haven't got a clue of considering my amazing(-ly bad) knowledge of the language.

It had quite a lot of tiny bones in it, which wasn't a problem for me, though poor Lili seemed to struggle a bit with hers!

 

For dessert, we shared a Nespole galette - a slice of a tart with peaches. Not quite one of the best desserts I've had - we found the pastry a bit dense and hard. We were rather cautious when cutting into it to avoid flinging pastry across the table.

On the whole, it was a satisfyingly good experience and a place that I would frequent again - maybe try some of the wine and cheese next time.
Service generally wasn't too bad, if not maybe a bit rushed towards the end when it started to get quite busy.
Would definitely recommend a visit x

TWO more days - Woohoo!

The Cheekster, signing off x

SUMMARY: MY WEEK IN PICTURES

...And quite a lot of words!

So it's another week that's flown by. Unfortunately still hacking away at work...must be all the germs and viruses I've been exposed to. 

I've been good this week and managed to get myself into gym 3 times this week - having to endure the manic rush on the underground during peak hour just to get to gym! 

Dedication, no?

Attempted another Balates class at gym this week, with the hope that it would be better than the last one I attended. Ended up having to put up with relentless jumping about and doing ridiculous moves which had no relation whatsoever to ballet...

The teacher must have seen me and my cousin sniggering in the back and called us to the front to dance! Despite the strange choreography, I'm pretty sure I still managed to make it look good. Ignoring the disaster that was unfolding behind me.

I can be shy at many things...but dance is definitely my forte and something that I'm not afraid to show-off! Ha x

I had another Friday evening off and grabbed the chance to meet up with my boy Wai Kit before he flies off again!

 Trying to find a place for dinner on a Saturday evening without a reservation is never a good idea. We ended up in Ducksoup on Dean Street where we managed to get a tiny cramped-up table by the door.

Having another coughing attack and desperate for a glass of water, I didn't really pay much attention to the hand-scrawled menus and just went with whatever was near the top of the menu. 
This is basically what their typical menu looks like...

We ordered a couple of small plates to share - a duck egg, which was served still in its shell with some mayonnaise and salt on the side, and a dish of buffalo ricotta with anchovy.

For our mains we both ordered the Pan-fried duck breast - basically slices of duck meat served on a plate seasoned with blood orange and anise, still pretty rare judging from the pinkness. It didn't come with any sides so we ordered a small plate of veg (monksbeard?).

Not quite satisfied with the meal and still quite hungry, we headed out in search for some sushi. 
After going round in circles we ended up in the not-so-authentic-but-most-convenient sushi place...Yo Sushi. Just because we were too cold and tired.
 
Stuffed silly, we headed on to our last and final stop - Carluccio's for a drink and some dessert. 

 



This is like our third time at this place due to the convenient location, it's kind of become our regular hang-out spot for a quick snack.  

On Saturday, I met up with Stacey and the gang at The Breakfast Club in Hoxton for brunch. 
One of the places that I've always wanted to try out but couldn't be bothered to stand in the queue for!
Stacey turned up nice and early and managed to grabbed us a table before the ridiculous queue formed outside.

Flat white

Pancakes with berries! mmm...

 Delicious comfort food always makes me smile :)

We then headed back to Stacey's to chill out and play some games - played some pool, card games and the awesome Wits and Wagers board game. 

Having a quiet Saturday night in, Ive decided to start packing my luggage! One more week eeek...! I am one excited bunny.

Time to get cracking on some CPD! 

Hope everyone else is having a great weekend despite the freezing cold outside.