I went to London for the first time this weekend. London is one of the places that people are often surprised to hear that I haven’t been to. We flew into Heathrow Airport on Wednesday night, and I worked from there on Thursday and Friday. We didn’t go for the purpose of touring, but for eating. We don’t have access to good Chinese food in Geneva, so I was really looking forward to this trip. Before this trip, I was puzzled by people who made shopping a travel goal, but now I understand. There are so many stores in London that are not available in Geneva, so that was also on my to do list—especially baby stores.
When we arrived, the passport control line was extremely long, since we got in right behind a Korean tour group and we are not EU citizens. We were in the line for about 10 minutes when my 9 month old decided he had enough and just started screaming. A lady scuttled over to us quickly and brought us to the priority service line and we were out in a jiffy. One of the few times a crying baby really helped us!
On our first night, we ate at Tukdin Malaysian restaurant. We brought our infant son, who I would have given a B- for his behavior—he was pretty good, but started to cry when he got tired. The staff was so nice. My husband wheeled him around the block so that he would fall asleep, and when he returned the cute Malaysians ladies shushed each other because they didn’t want to wake the baby. I had the shrimp soup, which gave me a ratatouille moment. For those of you who have seen the movie (spoiler alert), at the end, the critic takes a bite of ratatouille and it takes him back to his childhood, eating ratatouille in his home. The first bite of this soup did that for me. It was all the right spices, the right amount of sweetness to sour ratio. It didn’t bring me back to Malaysia of course, as I’m not from there and have never been, but it brought me back to New York. It wasn’t childhood either, but my mid-twenties, which was still very carefree and relaxed.
I worked on Thursday, and then went to a baby store called tiny feet. I had been a bit daunted by the metro so I walked a mile, and found they were closed!! The manager however had just closed up and reopened for me, so I bought some cloth diapers. I saw the uniqlo, another store that I wanted to go to, was about a mile away, so I gave myself a pep talk and said, “you were a New Yorker, subways should be nothing for you!” So I took the tube. I love the tube! It’s fast and clean. Why is the New York subways system so disgusting? I used to believe it’s because it was one of the oldest systems, but the Tube is old too.
A big negative though is all the stairs. In Geneva, the public transportation is very stroller friendly. However, I found the people in London to be incredibly nice and helpful. At each staircase, someone offered to help me carry the stroller. On every ride, if I was holding my son someone would stand up and let me sit. I didn’t expect people in London to be so nice, but they really went above and beyond. Even on the street people were friendly and helped us with directions.
Anyway, I had gone to Oxford Circus to go to uniqlo. My son had a meltdown, but then fell asleep and I was able to do a lot of shopping before meeting an old friend in Chinatown. Oxford Circus is overwhelming, almost like Times Square. It was so crowded that it put me in a bad mood, but then the hundreds of red lanterns in Chinatown lifted my spirits again. I went to Dumpling Legend, which was very good, but left me wanting even more dumplings.
I had heard than Din Tai Fung opened in London, but was hesitant to go because of the long lines, and fear of disappointment. Since I was working from home on Friday, I decided to go at a weird time, and took a late lunch break at around 2:30. The restaurant was not crowded, but there was still a 20 minute wait. However, they just text you when your table is ready so I went out and did some shopping. Covent Garden ended up being my favorite part of the trip!
I was called back to my table, and luckily my son was asleep again! The waitress had originally asked us to fold the stroller and set it aside by my husband said, “please, if you have children you will understand how valuable it is to keep them asleep!” She let us take the stroller to the table where we had a wonderful first half of our meal undisturbed. I order four types of soup dumplings, my favorite being the chili crab, and beef noodle soup. Their bubble tea was good too. I think this meal may have been the highlight of my trip, plus the shopping in Covent Garden. It was pricy, but totally worth it. I thought about going back again but my poor husband was getting sick of Chinese food. We asked a man to take a photo for us by the square, and he said, “I could be a phone thief!”, to which I said, “please don’t steal my phone!”
I did have a friend who got her phone stolen because someone asked to borrow it and then run away with it, so when asking people to take a photo I usually ask the elderly or people with children. I figure you wouldn’t take kids along on a heist, since they make everything more difficult to do.
That night, we met a friend of mine and her fiancé at Pearl Liang, another Chinese restaurant. I had their crispy chicken stuffed with prawn and for appetizer, the soft shell crab. I topped it all off with a raspberry mojito. My son woke up during the dinner and was an A+! He was happy and all smiles. Later we went to Mitre, a pub with nice wall paper and comfortable chairs.
We had an English breakfast as well, which is just sausage, ham, eggs, beans, and toast. Can’t go wrong with that.
On Saturday, we met a friend across from St. Paul’s Cathedral at Founder’s Arms. We sat overlooking the Thames, and had fish and chips, venison pie and sticky toffee pudding. I got the last of my shopping done, and we have a quiet night at the same Malaysian restaurant.
Sunday morning we went to an Australian brunch place called Debbie Green, which is on a houseboat. The manager let us eat in the bar area since there was more space for our stroller there. I had an amazing breakfast with a Bloody Mary, latte, the best vegetarian eggs Benedict I have ever had, and a banana bread “sandwich” for dessert.
A wonderful end to a wonderful trip.
When we arrived, the passport control line was extremely long, since we got in right behind a Korean tour group and we are not EU citizens. We were in the line for about 10 minutes when my 9 month old decided he had enough and just started screaming. A lady scuttled over to us quickly and brought us to the priority service line and we were out in a jiffy. One of the few times a crying baby really helped us!
On our first night, we ate at Tukdin Malaysian restaurant. We brought our infant son, who I would have given a B- for his behavior—he was pretty good, but started to cry when he got tired. The staff was so nice. My husband wheeled him around the block so that he would fall asleep, and when he returned the cute Malaysians ladies shushed each other because they didn’t want to wake the baby. I had the shrimp soup, which gave me a ratatouille moment. For those of you who have seen the movie (spoiler alert), at the end, the critic takes a bite of ratatouille and it takes him back to his childhood, eating ratatouille in his home. The first bite of this soup did that for me. It was all the right spices, the right amount of sweetness to sour ratio. It didn’t bring me back to Malaysia of course, as I’m not from there and have never been, but it brought me back to New York. It wasn’t childhood either, but my mid-twenties, which was still very carefree and relaxed.
I worked on Thursday, and then went to a baby store called tiny feet. I had been a bit daunted by the metro so I walked a mile, and found they were closed!! The manager however had just closed up and reopened for me, so I bought some cloth diapers. I saw the uniqlo, another store that I wanted to go to, was about a mile away, so I gave myself a pep talk and said, “you were a New Yorker, subways should be nothing for you!” So I took the tube. I love the tube! It’s fast and clean. Why is the New York subways system so disgusting? I used to believe it’s because it was one of the oldest systems, but the Tube is old too.
A big negative though is all the stairs. In Geneva, the public transportation is very stroller friendly. However, I found the people in London to be incredibly nice and helpful. At each staircase, someone offered to help me carry the stroller. On every ride, if I was holding my son someone would stand up and let me sit. I didn’t expect people in London to be so nice, but they really went above and beyond. Even on the street people were friendly and helped us with directions.
Anyway, I had gone to Oxford Circus to go to uniqlo. My son had a meltdown, but then fell asleep and I was able to do a lot of shopping before meeting an old friend in Chinatown. Oxford Circus is overwhelming, almost like Times Square. It was so crowded that it put me in a bad mood, but then the hundreds of red lanterns in Chinatown lifted my spirits again. I went to Dumpling Legend, which was very good, but left me wanting even more dumplings.
I had heard than Din Tai Fung opened in London, but was hesitant to go because of the long lines, and fear of disappointment. Since I was working from home on Friday, I decided to go at a weird time, and took a late lunch break at around 2:30. The restaurant was not crowded, but there was still a 20 minute wait. However, they just text you when your table is ready so I went out and did some shopping. Covent Garden ended up being my favorite part of the trip!
I was called back to my table, and luckily my son was asleep again! The waitress had originally asked us to fold the stroller and set it aside by my husband said, “please, if you have children you will understand how valuable it is to keep them asleep!” She let us take the stroller to the table where we had a wonderful first half of our meal undisturbed. I order four types of soup dumplings, my favorite being the chili crab, and beef noodle soup. Their bubble tea was good too. I think this meal may have been the highlight of my trip, plus the shopping in Covent Garden. It was pricy, but totally worth it. I thought about going back again but my poor husband was getting sick of Chinese food. We asked a man to take a photo for us by the square, and he said, “I could be a phone thief!”, to which I said, “please don’t steal my phone!”
I did have a friend who got her phone stolen because someone asked to borrow it and then run away with it, so when asking people to take a photo I usually ask the elderly or people with children. I figure you wouldn’t take kids along on a heist, since they make everything more difficult to do.
That night, we met a friend of mine and her fiancé at Pearl Liang, another Chinese restaurant. I had their crispy chicken stuffed with prawn and for appetizer, the soft shell crab. I topped it all off with a raspberry mojito. My son woke up during the dinner and was an A+! He was happy and all smiles. Later we went to Mitre, a pub with nice wall paper and comfortable chairs.
We had an English breakfast as well, which is just sausage, ham, eggs, beans, and toast. Can’t go wrong with that.
Sunday morning we went to an Australian brunch place called Debbie Green, which is on a houseboat. The manager let us eat in the bar area since there was more space for our stroller there. I had an amazing breakfast with a Bloody Mary, latte, the best vegetarian eggs Benedict I have ever had, and a banana bread “sandwich” for dessert.
A wonderful end to a wonderful trip.
