Oxford

This is the 3rd time I've been to Oxford and I never fail to be completely astounded and blown-away by just how beautiful a city Oxford is.

I met up with Jesse (Master, I love you!) over the weekend and we had a blast! Apart from the great food we had...

We also had the lovely company of Mike who was nice enough to show us around New College to satisfy our insatiable desire to capture the picturesque beauty of Oxford...


What I really love about the city is that it is so captivating; every corner you turn, every step you take, every nook and cranny is filled with old charm and the spice of the old, traditional England. It's lovely. Everytime I walk along the streets of Oxford, I am enchanted and unusually quiet. If you ever visit, you will understand what I mean when I say that it feels like you're living a dream and strolling through a poem.

I love Oxford!

Anyhoo, as usual, when I go out and dine out, I take pictures of the food that I eat - a commemoration of sorts! This time is no different!

Okay, wait, before I get ahead of myself, this time WAS different. Jesse was such a sweet darling and asked me along as her guest for her college formal dinner. I must say that I was very impressed! It's such a shame that University of Bristol doesn't organise such frequent formal dinners!

Anyway, so Jesse and I put on our dresses and pumps and headed out to dinner in full glamour (minus the limo and red carpet)

We the gorgeous people of the formal dinner!

We had place cards (as usual) without my name on it (unusual, but am loving it so much more!)


Haha! This was hilarious! I had a good laugh out of this and even more so when the other guests who were reaidng the place cards gave me either perplexed looks or called me 'Ms Guest'. Oh the world at its best...

I totally rocked it.

Here's the menu...


And in order....

1. Appetiser

Sadly, this wasn't delicious at all! I think it's mostly because I'm not a fan of pumpkin soup...

2. Main course - The Lamb

Loved the veggies more than the meat... Which I thought was really bland and tough to chew.

3. Dessert!

This was the BEST dish of the night HANDS DOWN. This forced rhubarb crumble tart is magnificent.

Not being a fan of cream of ANY sorts, I rolled the cream off the tart and dug my spoon in. Some inner voice tells me that the spoon was having just as much fun as I was digging into the crumble tart. Mmmmm.

I bet you would too if you could've!

I suppose what this dinner really bestowed upon me was the knowledge that you're never too old to study...

What do you notice about this shot?

Yep, that's right folks. 3/4 of the dinner was filled with mature folks. Now in UK, you're considered a mature student if you're above 21.... Now looking at it, I really don't think we constitute (accurately) 'mature students'. If 21 year olds are mature.... Then surely, these esteemed and wiser folks must be 'ancient'. I don't mean this in a disrespectful manner, rather, I am filled with awe at the knowledge of how determined and capable these people are and how dedicated they are to bettering themselves.

To say the least, I was on one hand comforted, and on the other, greatly inspired.

Oh! And before I forget, when I arrived on Friday (the dinner was on Saturday night) , Jesse and Mike had the terrific idea of making dumplings for dinner! I've never actually made dumplings with friends before so this was a real treat! I was stoked!

Jesse and I went to Tescos for the ingredients that would make the filling while Mike kindly got us the wanton skins!

Not surpringly, shrimp and minced pork made the filling.

We did a rather amusing job at trying to find the perfect way (or most ridiculous, for me) of folding dumplings.

See that lumpy brain-looking one? Yep, That's mine....

Told ya the plate would be a helluva amusing!

Not surpringly, Jesse put her creative mdecided to construct a mammoth dumpling at some point! Check this out!

H.U.G.E.

It was getting just a tad boring to have only boiled dumplings...

Delicious as they were.

So Jesse suggested pan-frying some and off I went!

Ta-dah!

I must say that I enjoyed the pan fried ones more than the boiled. I dunno, there's just something about fried stuff that makes it oh-so-GOOD!

In between bites of yummy dumplings, we played a round of Balderdash - the Queen of all bluffing games and one which I am hooked on at the moment.

I'll explain the game another time.

Another thing that was equally good but 50 times healthier is Physalis - a kind of berry fruit....

Every bite was heaven!

Now onto the weekend food proper....

Drinks on Friday night @ Raoul's (a pub)

Yup. This thing was a GIGANTIC.

The skinny red drink was mine - non-alcoholic cranberry+apple juice mixed with peach bits. Yummy!

Lunch on Saturday @ The Rose (a café)

An organic chicken sandwich - no dressing. Just chicken.

Look at how fresh the ingredients were!

Drinks on Saturday night @ Royal Oak (a pub)

I'm not really sure what this is called... But based on what I can remember, it's called Winter Pimps.

It was Jesse's drink but I had a few sips. ;) Heehee

No matter, I had a sip and it felt like a warm doze of honey + peach brandy. It was smooth and lovalicious!

Brunch @ Patesserie Valerie (a french café)

The best ever cuppa mocha I've had. I swear by this. It's fantastic. Expresso and LITERALLY with a cup of hot chocolate. The chocolate was rich and creamy and decadent. I loved it.

Kudos to the barista; the foam was perfect.

The Valerie Club - a normal club sandwich platter filled with Valerie-goodness. The bread was as good as the ones I've had in France (English bread sucks).

Make sure you visit this. It's amazing.

Okay, that's all for now lovelies! I can barely keep my eyes open any longer (time check: 1:20am). So good night and comment!!! =)

See you all soon! xoxo