Long Weekend Trip Down South

It's hot air balloon time again!

It's the annual Bristol International Balloon Fiesta @Asthon Court Field. It was raining last year when we went there, so this year, hoping for nice weather we took leave from work especially to attend this event again. And, the British weather, without fail, POURED down unforgivingly. What was supposed to be a mass ascent and night glow quickly became deflation of hot air balloons!

After waiting for almost 2 hours for the rain to stop, we gave up and went back to the hotel.

Hot air balloons

Special shaped hot air balloons

Next day, weather was much better and we headed down to Weston-super-mare, to the annual sand sculpture festival.

A holiday trip can never be complete without trying famous local food. We went to Papa's Restaurant (recommended by friends) for some fish and chips.

Papa's Restaurant

The place is a nice little restaurant with a takeaway front to it and has very friendly members of staff. We were quickly seated and  informed about the day's specials which included whole fish grilled and served with salad. It shows that the place is not a typical 'local chippies' serving the usual fried cod or haddock with chips but here they offer a wider variety of fish species!

Cod and Chips

 I ordered the lunch specials that included cod and chips, bread roll and a drink for a reasonable price of GBP 7.45. The cod fish was nicely battered and fried to crisp perfection. Very yummy served with homemade tartar sauce!

Plaice and Chips

The plaice was quite nice as well, with more flaky flesh compared to the cod but still equally well battered and deep fried, giving a very crispy coat.

Sand Sculpture Festival

Koala Bears

Hunter

Stack of Frogs

After enjoying the sand sculptures, we thought that we would have a very English afternoon with some cream tea.

Cream Tea

 We found this lovely place inside an information centre in WSM that serves tea! The fruit scone with butter, strawberry jam and Channel Island cream was just lovely for an afternoon tea by the English seaside.


After that, we should have headed home but instead we decided to drive down to Plymouth because we missed the Japanese food in Yukisan! After the first visit there with my mom in April, we could not forget the taste of the most delicious Japanese dishes we had so far!

Upstairs seatings

Pot of Green Tea

Pork chops with Tonkatsu Sauce

Deep Fried Scallops in nest of fried noodles

Seafood Udon Soup

Seabass Sushi

The food was as good as before. The seafood udon soup tasted very sweet from seafood and Chinese shitake mushrooms they used to cook the soup and the generous amount of very fresh seafood on it was just amazing!


The scallops hidden inside a nest of crunchy deep-fried noodles basket was very delicious. Even the housing of the scallop is very well cooked with attention to details let alone the scallop itself hidden in the nest. A very eye-pleasing and delicious dish indeed!

The pork chop served with rice and homemade salad was also very delicious. The pork chop was deep fried in very nice breaded batter and had very juicy and tender meat. Dipped into the lovely Tonkatsu sauce, it was a perfect match to be eaten with Japanese rice.

Very satisfied with a lovely dinner, we headed back to Cardiff on a 2 1/2 hours journey! The long drive? Very well worth it!

Journey to the Southwest of England (2)

Day 2:

Another nice and sunny day down south-west.

Land's End, Penzance

After, a lovely day trip to the most south-western tip of England, we headed back to Plymouth for dinner at a Japanese restaurant, Yukisan.

The Hoe, at night

Located near the seafront of Plymouth, in the Barbican area, Yukisan is amongst a row of shops on a quiet street.

Yukisan Restaurant

This restaurant has a very nice ambience and provides three 'distinct dining areas'.

Green tea

Green tea was served in a very pretty oriental tea pot and cups.

Sushi

We ordered Suzuki (seabass) and Grilled salmon (with Japanese Mayonnaise) sushi to start. The sushi was very well made and authentic. The raw seabass very fresh and very delicious with perfectly cooked sushi rice (mixed with vinegar) with a hint of wasabi hidden in the middle of the sushi. The grilled salmon was also very nice where the fatty layer of the fish was grilled, giving it a very fragrant and some smoky taste.

Fried Scallops

We also had the Crispy deep fried scallops with home made dressing. This starter was really exceptional as we never imagined that scallops could be cooked and presented so beautifully! The nest-like thing was deep-fried noodles housing the scallops which gave us a surprise as we bite into the 'housing' we found the scallops right in the middle of it! The whole dish was beautifully presented with red cabbage and thinly shredded carrots and radish.

Roast duck sansyou

My housemate AT ordered the Roast duck sansyou pepper sauce with rice pilaffu. An absolutely beautifully presented dish (though the photo did not do it justice). The roast duck was very nicely seasoned and crispy but a little bit too overcooked to my liking. The rice pilaffu was very delicious and full of flavours. £17.50 for this dish is well worth it for the quality and the quantity of duck breasts served!

Seafood Udon

The Udon noodles in soup with seafood my mom ordered was super delicious!

All 3 of us tried it and had the same expression:" HHhhhmmmmmm........hao chi..hao chi...hao chi...hao chi...hao chi..." (HHhhhmmmmmmm.....yummy...yummy...yummy...yummy...yummy...)

The mussels, prawns tempura, scallops were absolutely fresh and delicious. The soup was simply delightful and full of flavours, so sweet that it must have been boiled with very fresh seafood for hours and hours, with a hint of sweetness and earthy taste of the Shitake mushrooms.

Stir-fried monkfish

I had the stir-fried monkfish with spring onions and ginger which was amazing! It was not the typical Chinese-style stir-fry that I expected. First of all, the monkfish was very nicely cooked, not too well-done, giving a very smooth texture and easy to chew on. The young corn, carrots, asparagus heads and onion tempura in the dish complimented the monk fish really well. A beautiful dish that went really well with nicely cooked Japanese rice.

Even the salad with home made dressing was very delicious. The dressing was made from passion fruit and had a sweet and sour taste to it which increased our appetite. Yummy!


A Japanese restaurant, one of the best I have been to in the UK so far, that I will definitely visit again!

Journey to the Southwest of England (1)

A lovely 4-days trip to the Southwest of England of course includes wonderful food, especially fresh seafood.


Day 1:

The Hoe, Plymouth

After strolling along The Hoe and The Barbican in Plymouth, we went into The Platters for dinner. This restaurant located by the seafront has a very 'local pub' feature and serves very fresh seafood.

The Platters Restaurant

Complimentary Bread Basket

Platters Ciopinno

The Platters Ciopinno - In the shell, king prawns, crab claw, mussels and fish in a tasty tomato broth. This dish was absolutely amazing and tasty with very fresh seafood and the broth was very sweet with flavours from the fresh seafood and tomato.

Big Crab Claw

The crab claw was very huge with very juicy and fresh crab meat. Yummy!

Seafood Risotto

Seafood risotto with mussels, prawns, scallops and kalamari was full of flavour. The risotto was cooked very nicely, not too soft and not to hard, full of fresh seafood flavours with a hint of tomato and chilli - Delicious! I like the fact that they used very fresh and big scallops and prawns!

Platters Seafood Grill

Platters Seafood Grill - Five different species of fish, different everyday! I believe they were salmon, plaice, haddock, and 2 other fishes that I could not recognised. However they were nicely grilled and nice with a squeeze of lemon juice over them.

With all the 3 dishes recommened by the waiter, we had almost eaten, (Quote) "All the different types of seafood they have in the restaurant." (Unquote).

The seafood was so nice and fresh that we finished them all although we only had cream tea less than 2 hours before!