SPOTTED - Street Art - Brick Lane

I'm not one for talking about art or pretending I know anything about it - but when I stumbled upon this in Brick Lane I was nothing but smiles.  Even in the ever-so-hungover state that a night in East London can put you in...

It took 28 years, but I found Sesame Street!

What random street art have you found in London that put a smile on your face?

North London - Camden Town - Chaboba

Well friends, here we are again. I seem to be on a quest to find as many bubble tea shops in London as I can. Unfortunately, Bubbleology was not the shiny treasure chest of bubble tea that its PR has made them out to be.

You know, Twitter is a lovely place, I find. Just when I was weeping into my over-priced, and incorrect bubble tea order from before, I received this tweet:

Well, it just so happens that I in fact love bubble tea and live near/love Camden Town! Sounds perfect! I was a bit weary as I had been fooled by friendly tweets from brands that didn't deliver in-store before.  However, I am happy to say, that Chaboba's Twitter account is just as lovely as the Mango milk tea I ordered!

Walking through the stables market in Camden Town is a great way to spend an afternoon in London.  If you have a lot of time on your hands you can get lost in the hundreds of stalls.  Although, it's a good thing that I have been to the stables so many times, otherwise I might have completely missed Chaboba.  Even with the address given and using Google Maps, to someone that's walking through the market for the first time, they would completely miss Chaboba. Just after you cross the bridge near the market, there's a small walkway along the canal.  Turn left here, and climb the stairs to the building on your right. Chaboba is tucked away waiting for you to discover its deliciousness.

When I finally stumbled upon Chaboba I was surprised by the size of the location. I think I was expecting more of an indoor cafe, as atmosphere is equally important for my bubble tea experience as is the tea itself. Luckily it's surrounded by all of the beautiful shops that make Camden Town the awesome location it is today, so there is no lack of great atmosphere here.  

Outside, someone was offering samples of bubble tea to other market-goers and tourists. I may be generalising a bit, but nothing makes me laugh more than British people being confused by the concept of something called 'tea' that isn't PG Tips + milk. 'What is that? TEA? Really?!' Teehehe, silly Brits. :)

Inside, in comparison to the other bubble tea location I sampled which was very busy and showy when it came to the interior design and service, Chaboba relishes in simplicity and minimalism. I like that; no gimmicks, no begging to be accepted as something 'hip' and 'cool' just simple and delicious bubble tea.

Chaboba's simple design

Chaboba offers a variety of flavours in their Milk, Fruit and Crush Bubble Teas where the Crush is a smoothie type version.  They also offer hot teas and snow ice, but my next visit will most certainly include a taste of the Bubble Waffle.  I have no idea what to expect but it sounds amazing!

I have two go-to flavours when it comes to my bubble tea: it's always a milk tea and it's either Mango or Almond.  I was a bit heartbroken when I didn't see Almond milk tea on the list so I hope that's coming soon guys! At the end of the day, I can't complain much about Chaboba at all.  I had a satisfying mango drink, with decent tapioca pearls (they were a bit on the small side) for an acceptable price.  

I was getting a photo of the logo but just realised I captured my order as well!

Would I go there again? Most certainly and it's not just the great tea and the fact that I love Camden that will bring me back. Hats off to the team (or person) running their social media accounts.  I have to say, you are doing brilliantly and not many brands get it right.  You deliver your message well both online and in-store.  Your friendly encounters, fun banter and constant awareness of what's being said about bubble tea online has certainly gained you a new loyal customer and I'm sure others will follow.

Chaboba can be found at:

8 East Yard

Camden Lock

London

NW1 8AL

www.chaboba.co.uk

UPDATE 11 JUL 11:

I returned to my beloved Chaboba over the weekend to introduce my friend to Bubble Tea. We both enjoyed it and I''m glad I've shared it with someone new. I didn't go for the bubble waffles like I planned, but I  DID try popping boba's in my tea.  This was the first time I had them and it is seriously like a party in your mouth.  They literally pop when you eat them! Popping bobas have changed my life and are a new staple in my bubble tea now! :)

Mango milk tea with tapioca pearls and lychee popping bobas!!

INTERESTED - East London - Rooftop Film Club Queen of Hoxton

A few months back, a fellow American ex-pat friend of mine posted a flyer on Twitter for an outdoor film experience in London.  Where better to drench yourself in the memories of drive-in theatres and double feature films that shaped most summer nights growing up in the States, than in trendy, revival city of everything that once was, Hoxton/Shoreditch. Enter, the Rooftop Film Club located on the rooftop of the Queen of Hoxton.

Annoyingly, London hasn't lent itself to many outdoor-appropriate days this summer, so I haven't made much of an effort to visit. Not to mention, tickets seem to be hard to come across as it only seats 100 people - the entire month of July is already sold out.

The Rooftop Film Club includes classics such as The Goonies, Big, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Coming to America and Casablanca this month and tickets are £9 + a booking fee. I'm quite interested to check out this rooftop film experience and see how it compares to my childhood drive-ins. I think that watching movies outdoors makes the film more interactive and I can just imagine the crowd shouting together 'Hey You Guys!' singing along to 'Moon River' or even better yet (and possibly depending on the number of Americans present) tossing our locks to 'Soul Glo'.

I'm not sure what the Rooftop Film Club has in store for August, but I'll try my best to get a ticket and come back with a review.

South West London - Clapham Common - Firefly

Here's another post that's been sat on the back burner waiting to be published.  Extremely late, but again fully worth the post.

For some reason, all of the South Pacific expats move to South West London.  I'm not sure how this started or if it's a myth that became fact, but it seems to be true. I don't typically go South of the river unless I absolutely have to, so there won't be many South London posts here. This night, the night of the Barcelona - Manchester United Champions League Final I cheekily might add, I was having a night out in Clapham with some Aussie mates.  After a few musically themed drinking games, we popped into a bar called Firefly.

The cast of Firefly

Nope not that Firefly, but how sweet would a Firefly themed bar be??! To be honest, I can't give much of a review on the bar itself - it was pretty standard and maybe just a notch above a pub except they had a DJ playing (I use this term lightly).  Being the awesome bunch we are, naturally, we made a makeshift dance floor from the walkway between the tables and the bar and had ourselves a few dances.

The actions of the night, which I struggle to remember, aren't as important as the video posted below.  The DJ played this mashup, and I'm not sure if it's genius or just thoroughly confusing.  Either way, have a listen and let me know what you think in the comments.

Central London - Secret LDN - Soho - Gallery Rendezvous

Wow this one has been sitting in the Drafts folder for some time now!  Delayed but still worthy, here's my review of an unexpected night in Soho.

I love finding new places that take you by surprise.  It seems that this month I've been rediscovering all the things I used to do on a regular basis at home and finally doing them again in London (re: Bubble Tea).

On a night out after work, someone in our group mentioned a karaoke place in Soho. This was definitely something out of the ordinary for most of us as the pub that's about 5 steps away from our office doors is our normal setting.  Nonetheless, we weaved through the damp, narrow streets of Soho after deciding a dance club was not on the cards for the night and finally stopped in front of a standard Chinese restaurant. (?)  This took us by surprise for two reasons 1) we weren't in Chinatown which isn't far from Soho, yet made this place stick out like a sore thumb amidst the other bars and 2) there was no one in the restaurant. OK, I lied a little bit, there were two girls in the restaurant but that was it!  As our group consisted of a very loud batch of 10+ media types we definitely felt like we were in the wrong place.

The name of the restaurant: Gallery Rendezvous. Not exactly what you would expect a Chinese restaurant to be named, maybe they're really Vietnamese but we'll roll with it. When you walked in, although it was as empty as the alleys it bordered, you felt like you were being invited into someone's home.  The man, possibly the owner, serving the tables saw the size of our group and offered us, pretty much a grand buffet of food for a £10 each.  It was like we had our own private party and catering team.

I've come to realise that I have two favourite cuisines; Italian and Chinese...but I'm very specific about my Chinese food.  I know American-Chinese isn't as authentic but it is amazingly delicious and anything that comes close to it is a win in my books.  In fact I don't like many of the restaurants in Chinatown at all, I prefer the ones outside of Central.  As we were so close to Chinatown I was pretty worried about their cooking methods.  The fact that this man offered us so much food for a flat rate had me worried, but it was everything I could have wanted!  A friend from Taiwan once gave me the advice:

"If you want to know how well a Chinese restaurant can cook, order their pork dishes. If they can't cook pork, you don't want to eat there."

And pork there was a-plenty! We ordered our food, asked for as many pork dishes as possible and after about 10 minutes we were escorted out of the restaurant for our karaoke session.

Neon light in Gallery Rendezvous Karaoke room

You would not have known that there was an entire 2 floors dedicated to karaoke rooms in the Gallery Rendezvous.  You would probably hear it, as not many people are there eating, but if you saw it you may have thought you stepped into the TARDIS.  We walked to the top floor into a large rectangular room which had been arranged with L-shaped sofas along blank walls soaked in blue neon lights.  The "Karaoke Machine", was a PC tower from circa 1998, wired to a large flat screen TV.  To choose your karaoke songs, you had to scroll through the selection of downloaded karaoke music on the PC and put them in a playlist on, you ready for this?....WINAMP!

We must have gone for a ride in the TARDIS because it looked like something straight out of a college dorm (university halls) during the Y2K crisis. Not only was the setup shoddy, so were the videos/songs. Missing tracks, mild porn videos for songs that didn't match, a YouTube photo slide of Beyonce for Halo - I mean it could have at least been a photo slide of a heavenly sky, no?  The rooms went for £30/hour, but as we were a large group it was a small amount to pay for a very entertaining night.  Luckily the singing happened quite late in the evening and we were all in a right state, so the mishaps brought more laughter than annoyance. 

Overall, I had a great time.  The singing, although loud and sometimes painful, really had the whole room in a great mood.  I may come back for another karaoke night if in the right state of mind.  The food however, was perfect and it was a shame we didn't snatch up some takeaway boxes because there was so much food left over by the time our 3 hour karaoke session finished.  

Come back for the food, stay for the entertainment.

I actually haven't had Chinese food since this night and that was about three weeks ago.  I'm still trying to find my new favourite Chinese restaurant in the N19...  *logs in to hungryhouse and looks up a decent takeaway*

Gallery Rendezvous can be found at:

53-55 Beak Street

London

W1F 9SH

Nearest Tube: Oxford Circus or Piccadilly Circus

galleryrendezvous.pixelsurgeon.com/index.html