Category: Eating Out

Great Italian food

Post author By nlpnowcom
Post date 25/02/2009

It is not that I like Italian food above any other countries food, or that I would seek Italian food before English, Chinese, Indian etc.

For a start the Italians eat too much grass, or salads, for my liking, also I find the breakfast rather limiting, but then I do like a full English breakfast of bacon, fried eggs, sausage, mushrooms, fried tomato, fried bread and baked beans, washed down with a cup of tea with milk.

But I do love Italian food, especially the ice cream from Jack Frost in Milan, (click for directions), for me the best I have ever tasted and a must to visit on my many trips to the City of Milano.

It is their pizzas that I also love.

There is so many different toppings to choose from, that I am sure I could visit a pizzeria every day of the year, and still have a different choice to make.

I can order a pizza in any other country I visit, especially the UK, and know that later I will suffer from acid indigestion. In Italy, I have no problems, well just one.

My main problem with an Italian pizza is that it is so large, hanging off the plate on all sides. No wonder I cannot loose weight.

An enormous Italian pizza in Bologna

Oh by the way, I have not had a full English breakfast for many years, rather eating a healthy cereal meal, but still with and English cup of tea with milk.

Eating Out NLP

What we did with the chocolate cake

Post author By nlpnow
Post date 23/10/2008

The big chocolate cake I was given, was carefully carried back to Mehpare’s house where I am staying. I know just the thing, we can have a party. Mehpare‘s children Ata and Basak, will love that.

Half an hour after arriving home, there is a knock on my apartment door.

There is Ata with a drawing he had coloured for me, and a present that Basak had made me.

So, there was nothing for it, but to have a ‘birthday’ party, light the candles, light the sparklers, cut the cake, and eat it.

Ata, Basak, Mehpare, Gul the housekeeper, and myself ate a piece of the cake and played some games.

So much left. Oh well I am sure Mehpare‘s husband Necdet will enjoy a slice or two after I have gone to Bahrain

Eating Out NLP

Another Chocolate Cake

Post author By nlpnow
Post date 22/10/2008

I love chocolate cake.

It has been an exercise I have given myself whilst training, to see how quickly I could get a chocolate cake to appear from the participants within the course.

Over the last few months I have not played so much with this task, thinking about my health and my diet.

In my last courses in Gaziantep, Turkey, providing NLP training, I must have unconsciously sent a message of chocolate cake to the participants, for surely I planted a seed that grew.

A chocolate cake was not in my mind as an outcome.

Therefore no chocolate came, well apart from the one from the Nippon Hotel in Istanbul.

It was after working 1-2-1 with a client on Monday evening, with a young man with a personal issue, that a very large chocolate cake arrived, a thank you gift from him and his mother.

What am I going to do with that I wonder?

I would have a heart attack if I ate it all myself. I am hungry, so I am sure I will find a way.

Eating Out Thoughts

Today has been about communication

Post author By nlpnow
Post date 25/08/2008

It has been as if nobody loved me. No communication for a long time. The today. Wham.

I have had long conversations with people in Turkey, colleagues in the training field, a couple of participants. From China an old friend and colleague. Across to the USA, two contacts, Bahrain a long email from colleagues, here in the UK more contacts.

It has been good to catch up with news. What people are doing. What has been happening in their life. What has not happened. Hearing about new friendships, old failed relationships, new jobs, new opportunities.

We have made plans for the future, courses, meetings, presentations. Loads of discussions.

I do not expect that the plans will all be completed on the dates set down and agreed upon, perhaps they will never happen.

As other situations crop-up, courses have to be rearranged, meetings rescheduled, but then that is the nature of my work, and in some cases it is the good side of my work as I never know what I am doing.

But it can also be the downside.

There are times when I have made plans with people, only to find out that because of circumstances the plans cannot be put into action. It could be due to health, the weather, other conflicting courses, lack of participants, lack of suitable venues, holiday periods, other peoples problems, many possibilities can interrupt plans.

When this happens it leaves me empty, not only in my timetable but also my lets say in my heart. If it is me, then have I lets my colleagues and clients down. If it is my colleagues who have had to change plans, why did it happen, did I do everything I could have.

But when we get back in touch and communicate, things can be sorted out, it is then that I know somebody loves me.

Ahhhhhh. Life is good. Tomorrow another plan, a very early start at 5:30 am, another trip away.

I can then go for a relaxing cup of hot chocolate, and watch the world go by.

Relaxing Bentals shopping center Kingston upon Thames
PS. Thank you Deniz for telling me off, I deserved it. And Zümrüt, I hope your visit to the UK is all you hope for.

Eating Out

It is good to look beyond the menu in a restaurant

Post author By
Post date 01/06/2008

It seems that restaurants come and go like the Basil Restaurant here in Norbiton, they change their names on a regular basis, some as many times as they change their menu.

Like any business, a profit has to be made to pay wages, rent and rates, tax and to invest in the future. Although sometimes it is nice to dine in a quiet romantic restaurant, looking into a loved ones eyes, sharing stories and memories, a quiet empty restaurant will not pay the bills.

Perhaps such restaurants have to change the menu. Perhaps they have to change their decor, tables, cutlery, plates. Perhaps they have to change their prices. Perhaps they have to change the attitude of the staff, waiters, cashiers, cooks.

How can they do that?

Perhaps look at other restaurants, at how they are succeeding. Perhaps they should ask their customers as to what they want. Perhaps they should employ consultants.

Here is an example and a lesson on how consultants can make a difference for an organization.

Last week, I took some friends out to a restaurant, and noticed that the waiter who took our order carried a spoon in his shirt pocket.

It seemed a little strange. When the waiter brought our water and utensils, I noticed he also had a spoon in his shirt pocket. Then I looked around and saw that all the staff had spoons in their pockets. When the waiter came back to serve our soup I asked, “Why the spoon?“

“Well,” he explained, “the restaurant’s owners hired ABC Consulting to revamp all our processes. After several months of analysis, they concluded that the spoon was the most frequently dropped utensil. It represents a drop frequency of approximately 3 spoons per table per hour. If our personnel are better prepared, we can reduce the number of trips back to the kitchen and save 15 man-hours per shift.“

As luck would have it, or on purpose, I dropped my spoon and the waiter was able to replace it with his spare.

“I’ll get another spoon next time I go to the kitchen instead of making an extra trip to get it right now.“

I was impressed.

Then I noticed that there was a string hanging out of the waiter’s trouser fly. Looking around, I noticed that all the waiters had the same string hanging from their flies.

So before he walked off, I asked the waiter, “Excuse me, but can you tell me why you have that string right there?”

“Oh, certainly! string in a bow

Then he lowered his voice. “Did you have a sausage for breakfast? Not everyone is so observant.

That consulting firm I mentioned also found out that we could save time in the restroom. By tying this string to the tip of our “you know what“, we can pull it out without touching it and eliminate the need to wash our hands, shortening the time spent in the restroom by 76.39 percent.”

“After you get it out, how do you put it back?” I asked.

“Well,” he whispered, “I don’t know about the others, but I use the spoon.“

Oh Poo Poo .

Eating Out

Medlar, Musmula or the spoon and fork fruit.

Post author By nlpnow
Post date 29/01/2008

Trying to eat in a healthy fashion, I try to eat fruit, especially when I am away living in hotels, where the food available is often rich and too much.

I came across this fruit called Medlar in English or Musmula in Turkish.

the Medlar or Musmula fruit

It is also called the fork and spoon fruit. If one of the stones or seed is split into two parts, an image or imprint of a fork and spoon can be seen in the interior of the stone.

the Fork and Spoon fruit

The Medlar or Musmula is native to the Eastern part of Turkey, and eastern Mediterranean, West Iran and the Caucasus.

The Medlar, Musmula tree, grows to between 3 and 6 meters high, with the leaves are long and pointed and having heavy foliage which turns a beautiful reddish-brown in autumn. In May it is said to be a mass of white flowers.

The fruit is like a crab apple and is greenish-yellow when unripe, but cannot be eaten until it has softened, and this is achieved by frost or when it is overripe or begins to decay. This process is known as bletted.

the bletted fruit is served in a small quarter, and is really soft, even the outer skin.

medlar or musmula fruit served

Medlar served

Culture Eating Out NLP Travels

Wait and See. All good things come to those that wait.

Post author By nlpnowcom
Post date 20/01/2008

When I was a small boy, living with my mother and father in the English town of Chasetown, we would sit at the dining table for the long gone traditional family meal.

The best part of the meal for me would be the pudding, sweat or dessert, and I would ask my mother, “what’s for pudding Mom?” and she would inevitably reply “Wait and See”.

All sorts of images, pictures of exotic puddings would be conjured up in my mind, I had no idea what it could be. It was not apple pie, Bakewell tart, rhubarb and custard, I knew those. But “Wait and See”?

Today, is a day of rest. I have done my Income, Self Assessment, Tax, reasonably caught-up with my emails and post, I have nothing to do. I had a quiet breakfast, looking out into a clear blue sky, which at this time of the year means a cold crispy day.

What is going to happen today, what am I going to do?

My mind went back, reliving those days sitting at the dinning table, eagerly awaiting the pudding. Was it going to be a pudding that the lady two doors away, Mrs Grice, was promising to cook for my friend Brian Bradbury and myself, Spotted Dick? I had visions in my head of a pudding shaped like a Dalmatian dog, white with black spots on it, and what it tasted of I had no idea.

Again and again I would ask, “what’s for pudding” and I would get the same reply “Wait and See”, or another saying, “All good things come to those that wait“.

Strange how we put our vivid hallucinations onto what people tell us. My mothers “Wait and See” created a pudding in my mind, so I conjured up a make believe exotic pudding to fit the context of the conversation, as Mrs Grice’s Spotted Dick painted another picture.

When the puddings came, they were nothing more than I had eaten before, the apple tarts, etc. What I had created in my head for “Wait and See”, was not a new pudding, but just wait a while, you will see what will be served to you. The Spotted Dick was nothing more than a traditional British suet pastry, rolled into a sausage shape, representing a dog, with dried fruits, mostly being currents, making the spots, served with custard.

Spotted Dick pudding

Today I will “Wait and See” what happens, because as I have waited over the years, I have had the exotic puddings, the baklava from the Turkish cuisine, the Ice Kacang from South East Asia and China.

Baklava Turkish cuisine

Ice Kacang S.E. Asia

The good things will come if you can just wait.

RETURN to NEW BASIL DINER article click here

Culture Eating Out Travels

Hawkers – Eating out Malaysian style

Post author By nlpnowcom
Post date 07/01/2008

It seems that most people in Malaysia eat out rather than prepare food at home. That is the way I perceive the eating situation, as unless there is a lot of people for a big family meal, we go out, or food is brought in.

There are the standard restaurants with table clothes and menus, being mostly very cheap, say 60 – 100 Ringit (Malaysian Dollars) or £10 – £15 for six people, but the best way to eat is to go to the hawker stands.

Hawkers are people who will specialise in one specific type of food or cooking style, and they will set-up a stand, mostly at night, and there they will prepare and cook on demand their single offering.

Here is a family that specialisms in pancakes. They have a small open sided van, parked on the side of the road, and they cook a variety of pancakes with fillings such as corn, crushed peanuts, coconut, black sugar.

Malaysian hawker selling pancakes

Other hawkers will set-up their stands in groups, in open sided restaurants, with each stand advertising what they are cooking. Some hawker restaurants specialise in say fish, or duck and that is all you get, but there will be such a variety within that specialty.

open-sided hawker restaurant hawker stand selling duck

Above, an open fronted hawker restaurant with two portable hawker stands made from stainless steel and glass, with diners sitting on the obligatory plastic chairs, plus a hawker stand preparing a wide variety of duck meals.

Other hawker restaurants will be on a grander scale with vast variety of food being offered. Individuals from the dining group will go up to the hawker of choice, order the meal, and then go and sit at the usual round table and plastic chair with their fellow diners and wait. A few minutes later the meal will arrive. So cheap, 1 or 2 Ringit (Malaysian Dollar), say 50 pence (UK).

;

Hawker restuarant, Downing Street Penang

It is usual that the hawkers pay a rent for their stand to the restaurant/facility owner, and it is the restaurant/facility owner that sell drinks, my favourite being Milo Peng, iced Milo.

Eating Out Travels

A Waterside Restaurant in Malaysia

Post author By nlpnowcom
Post date 30/12/2007

One of the benefits of Malaysia is the wide ethnic range of food, Malaysian, Indian, Chinese, western, it can also be a disadvantage, especially for me who is not that keen on fish.

It is not that I do not like fish, I do, when I would swim and dive with them in the warm waters of the Red Sea, or the Caribbean or South China Sea, or stand in front of an aquarium full of colourful exotic specimens. For me, perhaps as a result of being force fed fish at school as a young boy, and some of the very strong tastes and smells, I do not like to eat them.

Sometimes we have to partake in activities or gatherings that perhaps under normal circumstances we would avoid. So it was for our afternoon meal, eight of the family drove towards the near by coast, to an inlet, where there are a number of fish restaurants.

The open sided wooden structure, perched on the bank of a smelly, muddy inlet, with mangroves on the opposite bank hosting a variety of wild animals, white egrets, monitor lizards. Next to the restaurant were docks or jetties, where small fishing vessels raced in to unload their catch of fish, crabs, shellfish, so fresh and alive.

&
Makanan Laut Jeti Fish Restaurant , next to shellfish packing station.

Restaurant in Malaysia next to a smelly mud bank with the tide out.
The smelly mud bank with the tide out.

The jetty next to the restaurant with a boat racing in with its catch.

The open sided restaurant in Malaysia next to the water, with fishing boats passing by
The open sided restaurant next to the water, with fishing boats passing by.

A busy Makanan Laut Jeti fish restaurant

A variety of sea food was ordered, including, octopus, deep fried battered soft shelled crabs, shellfish going under the name of “La La” (shellfish close to the mussel family), prawns, vegetables and fresh fish picked from the water filled display cabinets. Served with it was a green drink, ampara juice, which tasted like grass, which is said to be good for health. Oh, not forgetting the serving of rice and chili sauce.

Octopus with sauces

Why is it that anything I do not particularly like is always good for my health, or as my mother would say, make my hair curl, or my father would say, put hairs on my chest? None of these things have happened to me.

All the food is as always served centrally, and people help themselves to individual mouthfuls, using the pink and orange plastic plates, forks and spoons.

Bing and Janet Ng

The food actually, as my “Grand Niece” Anjelica would say, was really good. I loved the soft shelled crab, eaten whole, legs and shells, (seen above middle right), the scampi, (top left) served in a deep brown rich sauce was mouth watering, the fresh prawn (top right) coated in fried oat flakes, once out of their shells, were meaty and fresh.

Perhaps the green vegetable called Kan Choi (spinach family) served in Sambal sauce is not to my pallet, in fact I cannot stand the smell or taste, so I had one small piece, neither did I partake in the curried fish, (yet to arrive in the above picture), as my stomach cannot tolerate curries.

Perhaps my dislike of fish meals will change, as I continually try new things on my travels.

Eating Out Travels

Fish n Chips

Post author By nlpnowcom
Post date 22/12/2007

Good British Food, Fish n Chips

Not good for you I am told, deep fat fried food, but Cod and Chips, with mushy peas, and with an idea on health, some salad, plus a cup of tea. All that was missing was a piece of bread and butter.

It has been well over a year since I sat down for a traditional Fish n Chip meal. Yes I am watching my diet, but once in a while it does the soul good to indulge in what we love. I had the excuse to partake in one of my favourite meals. Some of my relatives from Malaysia on their first trip to a cold climate that we have in the UK at the moment, needed in my view to experience the local traditional cuisine, especially as they were eating only Chinese food. (see blog, Culture. Eating Chinese Style) In any case, if I have to suffer in Malaysia only eating their food, it is pay back time. He He.

Real Fish n Chip meals. OK, the girls had a meat pie and a chicken burger.

Wrapped up against the cold in Kingston upon Thames.