Japanese BBQ

Lst bank holiday weekend I was invited to a barbeque at Kyashii (St Martin's Lane) - to launch their new skewer menu, officially called the 'Brasserie Izakaya menu'. Given the weather, the barbeque was cancelled although the skewers were still available and served with complimentary Bloom Gin summer cocktails. Always good in my book!


The selection on offer was heavy on different varieties of chicken - chicken balls, chicken fillet, chicken poussin and at least one other variety. I was surprised to see any beef on there but instead some diced duck which turned out to be a little dry and would have been better served rare. The best were the pork belly - almost bacon like, packed full of fat and flavour as well as the shiitake mushroom. I would have liked a dipping sauce - especially for the chicken yakitori and duck, but the rest were moist enough. Asparagus seemed wrong give the likely airmiles not being in season as did the verson wrapped in bacon.


The Bloom cocktails - called Fashionistas, were blended with juice and filled with cucumber cubes. In face they have a mini Bloom cocktail menu, really beatifully done and conducive to ordering from, being adorned in swirly flowers in shimmering silver. These cocktails and many more are also on offer in the lounge on the first floor, whic is a hidden bar in the heart of this normally bustling area. As well as offering this brasserie mneu, it has a rush hour offer - 2 for 1 cocktails between 5 and 7pm. A place to bear in mind for a quieter after work drink!


For those that want a little privacy - there are private rooms downstairs.
Kyashii Restaurant & Lounge, 4a Upper St. Martin’s Lane, WC2H 9NY London
Telephone: (+44) 0207 836 5211
General Email: info@kyashii.co.uk
Reservations Email: reservations@kyashii.co.uk

www.trisori.com

Topshop's secret

They tried to keep it a secret but then they confessed they are very bad at keeping one.
The new Topshop's Secret Store is hidden away behind a Wild at Heart florist in the corner of the lower ground floor.
The new pop up shop is curated by London Fashion Week design duo Meadham Kirchhoff. The idea behind it is that customers will discover it by chance but we thought to share it with you as it's more fun to know things in advance (above all if they are fashion related!).

Inside this weird interiors filled with ribbons (coming from the ceiling) and flowers, there are some of the Topshop designs that never made it to production, Designer collaboration with top London and NY names, quirky headpieces and all the weird and wonderful gems of the fashion scenes. Prices start at £50 and go up to £350 for boutique dresses.

I would definitely go and have a look at what's on offer. You can snap a unique headpiece for less than £100, just in time for Ascott and the weddings season!

And if you really don't find anything to satisfy your fashion palate, The florist will sell customized flowers to you to make your home look pretty.

Who can say no to flowers and fashion?

How far would you go for success?

I was reading an article this morning on the huffington post:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/31/naomi-campbell-cadbury-ad_n_868909.html

about Naomie Campell being compared to a chocolate bar. I cannot help but asking you, fellow Trisorers (new word for Trisori fans), how far would you go to be successful?
I REALLY wonder what was Cadbury thinking when their marketing team created this ad?

Naomi Campbell is understandably upset about it and is considering taking Cadbury to court for it.
Does it matter to you that people get hurt (and the obvious reference to black people as chocolate bars is considered racism in this Country!), values questioned, wrong images reinforced?
It looks like that in 2011 people will do anything possible for a bit of glory (and sales driven from it).

Is it the only way forward?

Behind closed doors

Shhhhh… By far the most exclusive and talked-about club in downtown Manhattan arrived to London’s Soho with a big bang of secrecy about it. Impossible to get into, photography is prohibited – doesn’t that just make us all want to know more?

Let’s just say it’s not like any other club in London! It’s grand, it’s artistic, it actually has a design about it rather than most “black holes” with banging music in London. And it is pretty much the only club in London where you go upstairs rather than downstairs when you enter.

The feel is absolutely fantastic – the atmosphere takes you back into a Cabaret style amphitheatre, where the dance floor is almost non-existent. And trust me, there is a reason for that! Most of us will not be able to dance! Most of us will open our mouths in awe and simply stare at what unveils on stage.

It is not a sex show, as some might expect - it's not far off though. All performances are explicitly sexual in one way or another. Whether it’s the topless dancers, naked rope dancers or the transsexual with the whiskey bottle – you can only guess what happened to that bottle!! Well, I’m not one to kiss and tell! All I can advise – is if you do make it through the forbidden doors of The Box, don’t stand too close to the stage and prepare to close your eyes from time to time!

Marina,

Enjoy!xx

The Fox Gets the Grapes

Named after Aesop’s famed fable, it’s hard to really comprehend why, as the fox never gets his grapes and assumes that they are sour... At Fox & Grapes, Wimbledon, you get what you want.


Inside, the interior has had a ‘lightover’ – transforming the traditional dark wooded, cosy pub of old to the perhaps somewhat ubiquitous light, airy modern gastropubby fee of now, complete with Farrow & Ball-esque tones on the walls and candy striped seat cushions on the benches.

Set up by Claude Bosi of Hibiscus, it could give one reason for pre-conceptions about the standard of food. We were pleasantly satisfied however with the degree of crackliness on the pork belly, as well as the crisp of the chips – which actually were wedge like and possibly a little too greasy for some...but maybe that was just me. Other sides – of vegetables were cooked to perfection – sometimes tough to achieve at such a busy lunchtime rush. It definitely hit that Sunday lunch spot.

The wine menu looked good although I didn’t study it at length. Sicilian Nero D’Avola proved a good choice and was superb. We did have to ask for this menu which is surprising since most places try to ply you with lots of alcohol given that this is where the biggest mark up is.

Puddings are very flavoursome – a deconstructed strawberry cheesecake and raspberry & apricot sorbets both passed the test.

I’d go back if nothing else but to have a glass of wine and try the pork scratching – a crunchy weakness of mine which are happily back in vogue on menus now.

http://www.foxandgrapeswimbledon.co.uk/

Kafka Jap-tastic

When a friend asked me to suggest a book to read, a storm of mackerels rushed through my head.

No, I didn’t loose the plot. The mackerels are just a flashback from one of the most compelling, weird and ecstatic novels I have read in the past few years:

Kafka on the Shore
by Haruki Murakami, translated by Phillip Gabriel
656pp, Harvill, £12.99

Set in rural and urban Japan, the plot unveils in two tranches.

In the first one, the 15 year-old Kafka Tamura runs away from Tokio and from his father, who kills cats to make flutes with their souls. Kafka ends up in the Japanese provinces where he befriends cross-gender librarian Oshima and the mysterious Mrs. Saeki, who offer him an employment and place to stay.

The second tranche of the plot describes how a group of wartime evacuees glimpsed a UFO before falling unconscious. All the evacuees cam back to their wits after a few hours except for Nakata who remains in a coma for weeks before waking up bestowed with cat-talking powers.  Many years later, Nakata comes across Kafka’s father, while he works as a “cat finder”.

The story continues in the most bizarre, entertaining way.

I won't give away the ending as that *would* be a crime. You will have to read it and, trust me, you will be captured by the twisted and enthralling world of one of the most acclaimed modern japanese authors.

Read this book if you liked: 'One hundred years of solitude' by Gabriel Garcia Marquez