Punchdrunk, LOVE.

This weekend, I spent the evening with Tea Pot, Corque and Avegi at the incredible Punchdrunk theatrical production, The Drowned Man.

The show was one of the most imaginative, interesting and complex performances I have ever seen, so it is going to be difficult to sum up the whole experience in a short blog. What makes the task even harder is that this is the type of experience you don't really want to explain in too much detail, as it will frankly spoil it for anyone who does end up going.

However, I shall try my hardest, especially considering we nearly missed the whole thing (being the moron I am, I instructed everyone to meet at South Bank when the show, despite being advertised as a National Theatre co production, was in fact in Paddington)! 

Punkdrunk have been specialists in critically acclaimed immersive theatre since 2000.This partiuclar performance, The Drowned Man, is set in a very unassuming location right by Paddington station.  There are no signs outside, no bright lights to woo you in, and no overpriced ice cream for you to purchase before the show begins. Instead, there is only a man standing next to an entrance to a huge 4 storey warehouse.

After asking the man if we were in the right place and showing him our tickets, we were asked to wait in the foyer (which was really just a semi permanent structure with a cloakroom) and were instructed to read a small piece of paper which outlined the evening's performance. 

Bearing in mind none of us had any idea what we were getting ourselves in for, when we were then taken into a dark room and told to wear a mask, we started to get a little curious. However, it was only when we were then led into the main "theatre" that we realised the scale of the show we had just paid to go and see. You see, as an immersive theatre experience, instead of building a stage for you to sit around and look at, Punchdrunk had created a 4 storey set for their audience to explore. 

The Drowned Man's audience have never looks happier

In turn, whereas traditionally you would watch actors perform a show in front of you, with The Drowned Man, you saw the actors performing all around you. So, if you wanted to learn more about a particular character's story, instead of waiting for his next scene, you simply followed them around the warehouse and watched what they did and who they interacted with.

The amazing thing for me about this whole concept, is that despite each member of the audience being empowered with the ability to have an experience totally different to the next, and there being very little dialogue in the performance (the story was quite brilliantly explained through expressive dance), you really did still manage to grasp what was going on*. 

However, even with the incredible acting and gripping storyline, for me the standout thing with the whole production was the set itself...quite how Punchdrunk managed to transform an empty storey warehouse into this miniature and mysterious alternative reality was absolutely MIND BLOWING. 

For me the show was nothing short of ingenious, and with tickets at £39.50 each, I'd recommend it to anyone. In fact, if you like anything to do with the arts, then this show is an absolute must see. It's going on until December, so there really is no excuse:

http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/shows/the-drowned-man-a-hollywood-fable?dates=2013-10#tabpos 

1luv,

Finey

x

*Granted there were parts that were lost on me, but it still didn't matter!

Holi shit!

When word started spreading that there was a new one day event in town called 'Holi Festival of Colours', it wasn't long before tickets were sold out. In fact, it only took twenty minutes, forcing the event promoters' to add a Sunday event to their billing as well.

Battersea Power Station: Epic setting

So, why all the fuss? Well if you're the type of person who likes stepping outside of the box, would you pass up the opportunity to spend the day next to an iconic London building (Battersea Power Station), dancing to awesome tunes whilst throwing eco-friendly dry paint on strangers? 

Well I certainly wouldn't, and neither would my fantabulous group of fellow Holi-dayers: Teapot, Jo-Jo, Benchatz, Almsy, Diva and Nikolai. So with tickets in hand, off we went on a Sunday early afternoon to find out what the festival had in store for us.

I was particularly interested considering the tickets came in at £40 for a basic (i.e. no paint or t shirt) . For me this may not have been a price to turn me away from going, but it could certainly be a price which means I'd need good reason to go again. Therefore, coupling this with some peoples concerns that  this could whole event is an example of western exploitation of Eastern culture, it was important that the organisers proved us wrong, and created something that was more than just throwing a bit of paint on each other.

The crew: Banter

So, what was the verdict? Well, as a day out, we had a lot of fun. The crowd were friendly, the sound system was great and apart from one DJs quite shocking mixing, the music on the whole was wicked. The weather and setting was amazing, and considering I spent half my time spitting dry paint out of my mouth, the paint throwing gimmick was hilarious.

HOWEVER, it would be difficult to argue that this was anything but cultural exploitation at its best...and to tempt me back, I would need to see serious improvements:


1. Entertainment: this was possibly the most budget festival I have ever been to. Quite how the event organisers expected people to be kept entertained in what was effectively a massive car park with one music stage is beyond me. Yes, 85-90% of the music was awesome, but the best festivals for me are the ones that have little distractions that tempt you away from the main dance areas (at Field Day this year it was the small old school hip hop and soul band stand that held about 25 or so of us). Quite literally, apart from a few food and drink stands on the outskirts, the only thing we could do for entertainment is go to the porter-loos' and time (by shouting out the seconds) how long it took people to do a wee. 

Holi Festival of Colours: BYO dust masks.

2. Shading: I'm not just saying this as a Ginger man with less melatonin than normal folk. I'm saying this a ginger man who spent the whole day drinking in the boiling sunshine leading to mild heat stroke: next time you put on a festival, MAKE SURE THERE IS SOMEWHERE FOR PEOPLE TO RELAX....especially if the festival isn't on grass. If you weren't dancing by the music stage, the only other place you could relax was on the concrete floor further back...otherwise, your best bet was to pretend you were faint and lie on a medical bed for a bit.

We had to entertain ourselves...

3. Theming: you'd think that considering the event was on concrete (immediately making the aesthetics cold and soulless), the organisers would try even harder to bring a bit of India to Battersea. Well, apart from a few cheap pieces of decor that you can find in Camden market on the main stage, there was nothing at the festival that highlighted the organisers had put serious effort into 'transforming' the place as opposed to simply do the bear minimum to make as much $$$$ as possible.

4. Safety: If you're going to have an event where people are throwing coloured dust on each other, it's probably a good idea to give out / sell dust masks...hell why not even give out goggles as well? 



So, all in all I'm glad I went. Our group had a great time and laughed from start to finish, but if Holi Festival wants to get people back, I personally think they are going to have to seriously step up their game, or my £40 (and probably that of a lot of other peoples) will be going towards bigger and better summer festivals. 

 Can't decide whether I speak the truth? Check the festival out and decide for yourself:

http://www.holifestival.com/uk/

1luv,

Finey

xxx

A Gentleman Never Tells (unless it's about Corque's stag)

For those of you who read my previous blog, you'll know that when it came to my brother Corque's stag, we had a LOT of making up to do. After all, if he was to finally get over the fact that we went all the way to Heathrow airport just to tell him we weren't going to Vegas, there would have to be a good reason for doing so.

Therefore, between Romania, Arnie and myself we realised we had to devise a stag weekend that would play to Corque's tastes. And so, Corque's stag: A Gentleman's Weekend was created. 

The 21 invited stag guests/lords would have to arrive at my parent's home/abode/abbey early Saturday morning dressed in appropriate hunting attire:

Oh Lord Benson...a true gentleman indeed.

There, they would partake in an inaugural ceremony which officially opened an "inter estate" tournament, including official inter estate pipes to puff on and inter estate houses to team up in: House Lagos, captained by Lord Williams of Bank formerly of Lagos. House Northwood, captained by our esteemed stag, Lord Marcus aka Corque, and finally, House Oxhey, captained by the repulsive and working class ruffian, Lord Gee aka Oxhey.

Lord Oxhey in the mix: no surprise there

By 10am, everyone was on the coach and totally smashed. After a 1 hour coach ride which included gentlemanly banter such as hymn book singing, roadside urinating, and of course, house point scoring, we arrived at our first destination, London's most prestigious Polo Club: Ham Polo Club.





Whether it was our attempts at "horse racing" around the grounds, or Lord Gee's attempts to hump the race course I don't know, but after 3 minutes of being inside the club Prince Charles is a member of, we were officially chucked out.

Wayne: legend

Not that this would get us down, as only 20 minutes later we found ourselves at activity two: rowing on the Thames. We arrived with booze and a megaphone in hand and after much deliberation by the Richmond Bridge Boathouse club owner Mark, as well as a hilarious conversation with a local drunk called Wayne (see photo), we were finally allowed onto our vessels. 

According to Mark, it should have taken us 25 minutes to row up to the pub where we were having our lunch. However, for Lord Benson, Dr. Wee Wee (Lord Webber's new adopted name due to his incessant bladder issues) as well as the majority of other rowers, the current was so strong, that after an hour on the river instead of being a kilometre upstream at the pub, we were about 200 yards downstream from where we started, meaning Mark and his team had to tow us all back to his shop. 

Dr Wee Wee entertaining the crowd at the White Swan.

Nevertheless, banter levels were still at an all-time high, and a brisk 20 minute walk later, we arrived at the White Swan Pub- a lovely rustic watering hole on the bank of the Thames.

It was here that the group recuperated...we ordered a load of chicken wings, beer and burgers, and in spite of the fact that the coleslaw tasted of chlorine, the service was great and everyone had a jovial time indeed.



After the meal, we ventured to our next "gentlemanly" activity: clay pigeon shooting. Now, it came as a surprise when we were organising this activity, but there is in fact a clay pigeon shooting range quite local to us, just off of the A1 near Borehamwood. Not only that, but an afternoon of shooting only cost us £35pp: score. 

A1 Shooting Ground: Banter

Top three moments for the group whilst we were there:

1. When Lord Romans discovered (30 minute after we had done it) that whilst he was asleep we had stuck three pieces of chewing gum on his head

2. Lord Shorts discovering that he was a Grade-A marksman in his past life.

3. Our coach driver (Sir Michaels) defending all of our integrity as he explained to the shooting instructors that, despite appearances and the fact that there was a small mountain of empty whisky and beer bottles in the coach, we were definitely not drunk.


And so, the day came to a close. However, the fun was from over, because as soon as the clay pigeon shooting was over, the stag members were asked to change into their evening attire to continue the celebrations:

Corque and Lord Nikolai: Fine men.

Chicken goggles at the ready gentlemen!

A short train journey into town, and a 5 minute walk from Aldgate East later, and the staggers walked into an East London gallery (called the Rag Factory)that we had kitted for the majority of our evening's entertainment. The room was candlelit, decorated in inter estate colours, and had traditional pictures of Lord Marcus and his family to stick with the theme. A quite superb three course meal (catered by none other than The Delisserie), some napkin twirling, chicken goggling, inter estate singing and cocktail swigging later, the Lords were all in good form, which meant the rest of the evening went like clockwork: 

We played a quite epic video drinking game, had some outlandish ceremonial tasks for Lord Marcus to complete and even had a surprise guest join us, before heading out for a very messy night "on the town".

But the fun didn't stop there, as that night everyone crashed at my parents place. The next day, 20 heavily hung over Lords woke up to the site of an inflatable boxing ring in the back garden and quite possibly the greatest BBQ to ever be made on a stag...ever. 

It really was an amazing weekend. What's even more amazing is that the whole weekend came to a grand total £200pp.

And so, although Corque may never get over Vegas Prank, his Gentleman's Weekend went down in the record books as a truly epic stag do. Please feel free to check out the montage below (my favourite clip being that of Lord Oxhey at the polo club):

Otherwise, if you simply fancy doing any of the outrageous things we organised, check out the below links:

http://www.whiteswantwickenham.co.uk/

http://www.hampoloclub.com/

http://www.richmondbridgeboathouses.co.uk/

http://www.delisserie.com/catering/

http://www.ragfactory.org.uk/


1luv, 

Finey

xxx

" I don't care if none of you can come, I'm going to Vegas for my stag"

Corque dressed as a c*nt: how ironic.

Let's set the scene. 

It was about 4am, and after 7 hours of a pre stag (see previous post if you don't understand) which included copious drinking, gold fish force feeding and body pissing- yes, actual urinating on bodies- my beautiful brother Corque was in such a mess that he was starting to become, let's say, a bit vulgar.

Why? Well, because by 4am Corque was not just suggesting to all those in my TV room, but outright insisting that even if NONE of us could come, he was going to Vegas for his stag.

Of course, like with most things Corque does and says, we were taking this behaviour with a pinch of salt.  After all, Corque is known to exaggerate when voicing his opinion at the most sober of times. However, as the weeks unfolded and Corque continued to insist that it was Vegas or nothing for him, despite our countless attempts to make him consider that very few were willing to join him, we knew we needed to do something drastic.

And so, we decided that we had no choice but to do the following:

1. Plan an epic stag trip to Vegas for the select group of Corque's closest friends and family members who were willing to come.

2.  Then when we get to the check in desk at Heathrow, turn around to our beloved stag and tell him that we weren't going to Vegas...in fact, we were going straight home as his stag wasn't even starting that day.

Indeed, this c*nt was going to get royally fucked. 

However, despite being a brilliant idea, the planning had to be so perfect that even if Corque had his doubts, he would simply HAVE to believe we were going. And so, the next 3 months we devised the perfect prank.

The plan of attack was as follows:

1. Get someone totally trustworthy on board 

2. Inform all of those involved from a very early stage about our plans

3. Set up a diversion prank

4. Plan a trip to Vegas

So, after an intense few months of planning, here's what happened:


1. Get someone trustworthy on board

We knew that if the actual prank was to be believable, we needed to have people on board who Corque would never suspect to be a part of the prank. Therefore, a month or so before the main event, we called up my Dad, aka Mr. MTIP, and told him that he was going to be joining us in teaching Corque a highly important life lesson. Without hesitation, he accepted.

Someone trustworthy was very much on board.

2. Inform all of those involved from a very early stage

Two months before the prank, we informed all those participating about our plans. We told them they could not tell anyone- even their girlfriends/wives- that this was a prank. If Corque asked any questions, they would have to act excited but refuse to say anything. In effect, they would have to live their everyday lives as if they were actually going to Las Vegas.

Method acting friends: check.

3. Diversion Prank

In order to throw Corque off the scent, we got one of his close friends, Future Cutie, to play a prank on him only a couple days before the main one.  The prank had to be convincing though and look like we put real effort into it.

Therefore, we got Future Cutie to arrange for Corque to go to a "really important" business meeting he had set up, at the hotel bar of the Mandarin Oriental at 10.30pm. At the hotel, at this highly inconvenient hour, Corque would have to pitch a business idea to one of Future Cutie's American business colleague's looking to invest in a new up and coming UK music project.

An hour or so before Corque arrived, we informed the head waiter that he would be coming in and said that when he orders 3 expensive alcoholic drinks (peach Bellini's to be precise) he would come over with a sealed envelope to hand over with the drinks to Corque. 

Corque arrived at 10.30pm. We were parked round the corner. He was dressed in a suit and had his business satchel on him with presentation in hand. He ordered 3 Bellini's and the waiter gave him an envelope which in short had the following message:

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH...you got pranked. Get ready for your stag...you don't deserve any of it, but it's going to be epic".

Corque then left the hotel, and we caught him coming out in a suit and tie, holding a leather folder containing his presentation, and looking like a rather embarrassed young man:

Diversion prank...check.

4. Plan a trip

It HAD to look like it was actually his stag trip to Vegas. We therefore organised what we thought we would have done if we were actually going:

• Official stag t shirts
• An official stag song
• Official stag rules
• A mini bus to drive us all to Heathrow airport
• An official stag opening ceremony
• Printed off flight details
• Printed off hotel bookings

We also decided to:

• Create a 20 page Vegas trip itinerary (including the fake phone numbers of the club promoters we had to get in touch with whilst we were in Vegas), 
• Organise members of the group who "couldn't make it", to text or phone Corque, timing their messages for when we were on the motorway heading towards the airport
• Tell everyone to actually pack suitcases with toiletries, shoes, shirts, swimwear, trousers etc etc)

• Tell  my brother's fiancée that we were genuinely taking Corque to Vegas for his stag, telling her to keep it a secret and pack a bag for him without him knowing.

Oh and before I forget, we also:

• Ordered a stag costume as well which we felt was highly appropriate. After all, as Corque was being framed for acting like a c*nt, we would dress him up as a life size vagina.

Like I said...success was in the detail.

So, I'm sure the question on everyone's lips is how did it go? 

Well, Corque may tell you that he "knew" the whole thing was a setup. Personally, I just think that he only reacted as anyone of us would if you had just been royally slaughtered by a group of boys that included closest friends, your brother, and even you bloody Dad.   

But I guess the only fair thing to do is to let you be the judge of that. So sit back, relax, whack the video onto full screen, and take it in... 

So, Vegas Prank: done.

For those who think this is taking "banter" a step too far, please don't worry. Corque's actual stag was sensational, so keep a look out for next week's post, where I will go through what we did to make up for this event.

1luv,

Finey

p.s. big love to Corque for taking it like a man as opposed to the vagina he was dressed as 

xxx

(My) Life.Is.Stag.

It's been a while guys- a thousand apologies.

STAG LIFE

However, my extracurricular life has been quite inundated with banter organising since my last post. You see, I have had the privelege of helping to organise not just 1 but 3 stags which all coincided within 6 weeks of each other, the last of which is this upcoming weekend.

Now I'm sure that there are many of you who are thinking:

"But what's the big deal...it's just a stag".

Well I'm sorry, but if that's how you feel...GET OFF MY FUCKING SITE NOW AND NEVER COME BACK.

For you see, in my opinion, and in fact the opinion of my nearest and dearest, a stag party is more than an opportunity to throw a nice send off for the groom to be...it's an experience, a rite of passage that should live in the groom's memory forever.

The blueprint for such an experience is pretty simple. There are 3 ingredients:

Stag prank: rinsed.

1. The pre stag: a general gathering. Get some of the stag's closest friends and family together a month or so after the announced engagement. This will either be held

a) at someone's house- including a meal of sorts, lots of booze, dares for the stag (i.e. my brother had to regurgitate a goldfish), as well as one or two ladies of the night.

b) a night on the town- starting at a strip pub, moving to a nightclub and ending at a strip club. Stag in appropriate fancy dress (obviously).

c) at an airport/train station because you've tricked the stag into thinking you are going away that day...when you aren't

Just a casual black tie stag dinner...whatevs

2. The stag trip: a weekend away. Themed (of course), with personalised fancy dress for all involved, rules for stag members to follow at all times, an 'active' activity (i.e. surfing/paintballing), an extremely unnecessarily over the top meal for dinner (i.e. lamb on a spit of a 3 course catered feast), a surprise for the stag (i.e. make him think you are tying him down for a stripper when you are actually doing this so you can veet the hair off of his entire body), a highly elaborate video drinking game (i.e. usually entailing family members and the wife to be, manipulating questions and highlighting inappropriate behaviour when you were filming them on camera), an official stag song and soundtrack (only really works if you are or a superstar music producer happen to have one as a close friend), copious amounts of drink, a megaphone, an unusual second activity (i.e. body zorbing football/ sumo rugby), and of course, a huge night out on the town.



3. The post stag: a night in. Having taken lots of photos and videos of the weekend, make a 30 minute movie, invite all the stag attendees round and laugh at how stupidly good it was when you forced the stag to do things to his body he just shouldn't ever have to.

As I'm sure you can guess, to execute this let alone execute it well takes a helluva lot of planning, and of course, the great debate will be:

"Is it really worth the effort?"

Well, don't get me wrong there are times when I also ask this question...However, when I look across a room and see 20 grown men in black tie suits, having just finished a three course gala feast, jumping on their chairs and crying with laughter because the stag has just eaten a deep fried pigs eye, my questions is usually answered with an "abso-fucking-lutely".

Was it worth it...Eye think so.

This weekend sees the final chapter in a trilogy of quite legendary weekends away with some truly remarkable human beings.

And so, over the next few weeks I will be posting all the hilarious things we have done that will hopefully give you all some great inspiration for any times this summer when you are bored and fancy doing something a bit different!

It's been a long time coming- but ishouldtrythatout is back, and I have much to tell you all!

1luv,

Finey

x

A Mouth Licking Meating at Meat Liqour

A few Thursdays ago Bertilicious and I decided to have a catch up over a highly unnecessary, but equally mouth-watering meal. 

Meat Liquor: good.bloody.choice.

Although most would consider this a pleasurable affair, for us it was strictly business. Decisions, important ones at that, had to be made: what would be the perfect accompaniment to two medium rare cheeseburgers. 

So, there we met at 12.30pm. I'm sure that is considered quite an early lunch for a meeting of this sort. However, had we tried to make it any later, it just couldn't have happened. After all, for those of you who haven't been or don't know, this is because Meat Liquor is just as infamous for its crazy queues as it is for its outstanding cuisine.

It was the right decision getting there early...

So, in order to make sure that we weren't hanging about for a minimum of 30 minutes, we got there as early as possible. Turned out even at 12.30pm we still had to wait before we could be seated, but this wasn't for too long and before we knew it, we were in serious burginess mode:

Top of the agenda: figuring out what we would be having. 




Well, the menu is relatively simple (as the best ones are):you have a choice of about 10 different burgers, and about 10 different sides. So, after 30 seconds of deliberation, we decided to go for two cheeseburgers (one with bacon), with a side of bingo wings and chili cheese fried. Top of the agenda...sorted.

But what are chili cheese fries you ask? And what in God's name are Bingo Wings? And how would you know to have these as your sides? Well comrades, I don't want to go through our highly sophisticated way of choosing the sides with you. Not because it is a big secret, but more because if I have to write down why those two sides go so well with that choice of burger, my mouth will start watering at the thought of how good this f*cking meal is and I will probably have to stop writing this blog and head straight to W1 to sample it again...

However, as "Item Two" on our check list was to ensure we left our meeting with evidence that this was a business lunch worth having, please endluge yourselves in the photo below:

OHHHHHH MAMA...

Yes we could start a debate about what is the best looking thing in that photo, and I would be the first to admit that I was having lunch with North West London's hottest piece of ass since 2009, however even he doesn't come close to how good looking the rest of that picture is and more importantly, how freakin good those bingo wings and chili cheese fries look.

Item one and two, check.

The only other remaining item on our short but oh so important list, was to not leave with any regrets at all...and with the bill coming to c £12.50pp, that was certainly achieved.

With all items checked off and two professional colleagues keen to book in the follow up meeting as soon as possible, I'd be the first to say this was a highliy productive and successful lunch meeting.

So if you haven't been yet, do yourselves a favour...book out time for an "important business meeting" and head there as soon (and early) as you can.

You can check out their site on:

http://www.meatliquor.com/

1luv,

Finey

x

Boy's got Mad-Jag Skills

We booked our tickets a while ago. Jaguar Skills and friends at Koko, in Mornington Crescent. Having been to the venue a few times before for similar gigs, I was excited. Don't get me wrong, Koko certainly isn't somewhere I would venture to for a normal night out...crowds there often consist of the testosterone induced 'yoots' that I prefer to cross over the road from, rather than share an evening with. However, on the odd occasion Koko manages to get in a decent line up, just like this one, those facts don't seem to matter.

KOKO in action: Quite a sight from the top tier

After all, the venue itself is pretty cool. It used to Camden's local theatre back in 1900, and clearly conscious of keeping most of the original features still in place,  all the designers did when they rebranded the place was basically rip out all the seats, add in a monster sound system, and call it Koko.

So, there we were, the 6 amigos (myself, the ever-present Goateenie, Ma-C, Myzle, Samshine and Goldizzle) on our way to an outrageous evening of fun filled tunes, a sh*t load of booze, and nothing to lose. The fact that we had to queue in a late March blizzard storm didn't seem to bother us, and soon enough we were sharing body heat with the hundreds of other eager beavers packing themselves into the venue. 

Once we were able to feel our limbs again, off we went exploring. The nice thing about Koko is that it's pretty big, so if you don't fancy getting in the hustle and bustle of the dance floor, you can always head somewhere else. So, after checking out the pretty impressive set up on stage (there was a 15 foot robot in one corner that looked like something out of Transformers), we ventured to the top floor to take in the views and ready ourselves for a 3 hour love-fest with the UK's most prestigious turntable ninja.

This was definitely a good move, as the first hour or so of our time there was spent listening to by far the worse MC I have ever heard. He was telling people to 'go f*%k themselves' over the top of some pretty generic drum and bass...Not exactly what I had come to participate in, but hey ho, I'm sure some other members of the crowd were loving it. In fact, there was this one bald and overweight 40 year old guy who certainly was, as he embraced Ma-C for a good 20 seconds at one point.

The set was ridonc (can you see the massive robot in the left corner?)

When the Jag-man (yes I just made that up) did eventually come on, this little blip was forgiven, and the atmosphere became pretty epic. Most of our crew stayed near the back of the room, so they had enough space to go crazy, but Ma-C and I (not being guys who shy away from a bit of a good old head bang) ended up throwing ourselves in the middle of a 50 man mosh pit near the front of the stage, taking on the role of conductors for the majority of our time there.



The tunes were absolutely phenomenal...the headline act pulled out all the stops, playing every type of sound you could think of, from Dubstep to Gangster Rap, Hip Hop to Deep House and even a bit of Punk. I even vaguely recollect a System of a Down remix of Tupac's 'California Love'...very special indeed.

As you can tell, we had a rather wonderful night. However, when I woke up the next morning, it felt like I had been involved in a street brawl. I guess i could have been based on the crowd that was there, so glass half full I suppose.

Anywho, if you want to check out what's on at Koko and have yourself a bit of a mess-fest, check out their website on:

http://www.koko.uk.com/

Alternatively, if you want to see when Jaguar Skills is next in town, you can do so on:

http://jaguarskills.com/

1luv,

Finey

x

A Kim Cheeky meal in Holborn

(Kim Chee)

                                                                                                                 

I heart Korean munch

I've been a massive fan of Korean food since I was introduced to it a couple years ago (at my local on the Finchley Road called Seoul).


So, last Tuesday night, when Tea Pot and myself ventured to one of Holborn's current hot spots- Kim Chee- we were both excited and nervous. Excited that we were going to try out a restaurant a few friends of ours had been raving about, but nervous that we were letting down the 'home team' Seoul in order to do so.


As if things couldn't get any more intense, we were accompanied by our dear friends, the Txt2blairs, of whom Mr.Txt2blair is of the Kosher persuasion, limiting what he could order on the menu. 

As you can tell...the pressure was most definitely on....

Almost felt like a North (west London) Korean vs (Slightly more) South Korean war we had on our hands.

So, when we arrived at 8.15 and found out that the place was so busy that we would have to wait for half an hour to be seated, I'm sure you can guess that we weren't best pleased. Of course, this wasn't helped by the fact that we had to spend that time waiting bang smack in front of the BBQ where the chefs prepared all the meat for their already seated customers! So despite its modern and quirky look, on first impressions it was very much our local restaurant that took the lead. North West Korea 1, Slightly more South Korea 0. 

It was literally painful waiting to be seated

The battle may have been won, but this particular Korean War was far from over as we were seated much sooner than expected. Soon enough we were flicking through the menu and noted the vast amount of choices for our vegetarian comrade Mr. Txt2blair...North West Korea 1, Slightly more South Korea 1. 

The mother of Korean munch: dolsot bibimbab

We ordered a plethora of treats...some traditional kim chee (spiced cabbage), deep fried tofu, spare rib broth, salmon and cod fillets, and of course an absolute MUST at any Korean gaff: some dolsot bibimbab (basically meat or tofu with rice, vegetables in a boiling clay pot with a cracked egg on top that cooks as you stir all the yummy goodness around.

We also decided to accompany the food with some quite delightful plum tea...well played Teapot and Miss Txt2blair for the suggestion.


So, all in all the meal was great and we were suitably stuffed. The service was also pretty impressive (our beef rib broth was quite bland, so after apologising profusely the manager immediately changed it for a much better one and gave us a discount at the end of the meal), meaning that Kim Chee suddenly took the lead. North West Korea 1, Slightly more South Korea 2. 

However, a key element of the experience was still to come...the bill. Would Kim Chee come out on top, or would Teapot and I would be cursing ourselves because we'd betrayed our local for an expensive night out? 

Needless to say, the bill was astounding... a mere £20 pp for a sh*tload of Korean food and drink. So, just as we thought North (west) Korea had come out on top, South Korea pulled out all the tricks...North West Korea 1, Slightly more South Korea 3. ....unbelievable!

Lad.

To conclude therefore, overall I'd say that whether it's your first time trying Korean out or not, the atmospheric Kim Chee should be tried by anyone who fancies a good quality meal for a very reasonable price.

If you want to check it out, visit their site on:

http://www.kimchee.uk.com/

1luv,

Finey

x

p.s. Thanks Singfood for the hook up- keep up the good work!