Londoner Life Dot Com

Whenever I’m in Leicester Square I always make it a point to stop by my favourite Chinese bakery in Chinatown. The Kowloon Bakery has been on Gerrard Street for as long as I can remember. As a child I remember going there with my mum to get freshly made red bean buns, malay cake, sesame balls and my favourite almond cookies (see the photo below). This shop is a Chinese sweets heaven and has every Chinese bakery item you could possibly think of! Everything that I’ve tried there has been better than even the ones in Hong Kong!

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Wing Yip is a huge supermarket that carries over 2500 different types of oriental groceries. There are stores in Mancheseter, Birmingham, Croyden and Cricklewood in London. Wing Yip sells mostly chinese food products including sauces & spices, fresh seafood, exotic fruits, fresh noodles and dried food products as well as Chinese and Japanese kitchenware and tableware. You can also find a good selection of other oriental food products from Thailand, Japan and Malaysia.

The branch in London (Cricklewood) is located at 395 Edgware Road near Staples Corner with free car parking for customers. It is housed in a cute Chinese style building (as in the photo above) and has a Chinese restaurant and bakery selling all types of tasty Chinese buns and snacks.

Japanese Groceries & Chinese Bakery

I’ve been to the Chinese restaurant on several occasions for their hugely popular lunchtime dim sum. Their dim sum menu has all the usual favourites and is always promptly served deliciously fresh and piping hot. The restaurant opens at 11am for lunch so either go early or arrive at around 2pm for a late lunch to avoid the queues.

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On Board Karaoke is a Japanese karaoke venue in Earls Court and although it is small it is a great place to hang out with friends or hire for parties. It has 3 rooms starting at just £12 rental per hour and also has a small bar in the reception area where food and drinks can be ordered. The concept of this venue is that the rooms are supposed to be like being on board a ship or train, however it is very much like the typical Japanese karaoke boxes that you would find in the high-rise karaoke buildings in Japan. On Board Karaoke is Japanese owned which adds to it’s authenticity and has a selection of over 70,000 Japanese songs as well as English, Chinese, Korean and Filipino songs. The staff are friendly and always nearby to help although it may be a little too near for some since they can hear every single song that you belt out! The staff certainly looked amused at the reception area after my rendition of Celine Dion’s Beauty & The Beast lol….

On Board Karaoke Room No. 2

You can find On Board Karaoke on 8 Kenway Road, with the nearest tube station being Earls Court. It is in the basement of Orjowan Express (a Lebanese bakery) so just enter the bakery and you will see a staircase immediately on the left which goes down to On Board Karaoke. For more information check out their website HERE

On Board Karaoke Is Below Orjowan Express Lebanese Bakery

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If you happen to be around the Notting Hill area in London then you simply must stop by the Hummingbird Bakery on Portabello Road. Over the years the Hummingbird Bakery has become London’s most famous cake shop stocking fresh hand baked cupcakes, cakes, pies and brownies. At any time on any day there always seems to be a queue of people waiting to pick up their Hummingbird Bakery cake fix. The branch on Portabello Road is their flagship branch and there are also branches in Soho (Wardour Street), South Kensington (Old Brompton Road) and Spitalfields (Frying Pan Alley).

The Hummingbird Bakery first opened in London in 2004. They wanted to provide Londoners with an alternative to supermarket cakes and French patisseries, a place where you could buy real cupcakes, fluffy with buttercream icing, moist layer cakes or genuine American pies. The mouthwatering display of cakes in their shops leaves you wanting to buy out the whole shop but if you have to choose one, go for Hummingbird bakery’s most popular cake, the Red Velvet cupcake. This cupcake has a fresh home-baked taste with a hint of cocoa and vanilla and an extremely addictive cream cheese frosting.

If there isn’t a Hummingbird bakery near you then they have a recipe book which has detailed recipes for all their cakes and creations so that you can make your own at home! The recipe book is available on Amazon here. Alternatively if you live abroad you can get the book from The Book Depository here which gives free international delivery!

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