Berlin Travel Diary | District Mot Review

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District Mot | Vietnamese Street Food | Rosenthalerplatz – Berlin, Germany | Website

Of course the first thing any self-respecting foodie will do when they get off a plane is go in search of food. So it made sense for the second instalment of my Berlin Travel Diary to be a restaurant review. We headed down the street to one of V.A‘s favourite lunch spots – District Mot. District Môt labels itself as Saigon street food. In fact this is Vietnamese food with a slight fusion twist. I had a Vietnamese coffee (the best kind of coffee), and we ordered the Banh Trang Bun Thit Nuong (DIY summer rolls with noodles, chicken and salad, which you wrap in rice paper), and a Bao Burger to share.

The Bao Burger, oh the Bao Burger. Where do I begin? A succulent patty encased inside a steamed boa bun, and topped with mango, herbs and chilli sauce. This is no ordinary burger. I could have easily eaten one of these by myself. However that doesn’t mean I wasn’t happy to share, especially when it meant I could follow it with several summer rolls. One of my favourite things about Vietnamese food is how light it is, and Summer Rolls are a perfect example of this. The clean, fresh flavours of DM’s offering were exactly what I wanted. Of course light food means more room for pudding. I can’t say I’ve had a Vietnamese dessert before, so when V.A ordered Thao Pho Nuoc Doung (silk tofu with a ginger syrup), I was eager to try something new. I love both tofu and ginger, so this is the perfect kind of pudding for me. I even nibbled on the ginger root, something I realised is probably a little odd…but I adore the fiery kick.

We paid €12 (around £8.50) each, with soft drinks. As a Londoner, this is amazing value. I was told that this is one of the more expensive street food restaurants in Berlin, but I would happily pay this again and again. V.A had waxed lyrical about District Mot and I can honestly say that I now share her sentiments entirely. If you’re ever in Berlin, make sure you stop by – you won’t regret it!

 

You can check out the rest of my Berlin Travel Diary series here.

Berlin Travel Diary | Let Me Take Your Bags

berlin-germany-travel-diary-mani-hotel-amano-bloomzy-1Mani Hotel, Torstraße 136, 10119 Berlin, Germany

Let’s start from the beginning. Having never travelled to Germany I had always wanted to visit Berlin. So when V.A suggested a holiday in the capital – with her as my tour guide – I could hardly say no…could I? They say good friends should never travel together, but we were confident that we wouldn’t be screeching at each other by the end of the holiday. So we packed our bags and hopped on a plane to the home of curry wurst.

The Mani Hotel had kindly offered to put us up for our first night in the city, and after a relatively short train journey from the airport, we dropped off our bags and freshened up. The hotel is located in Rosenthaler Platz, Mitte, which just so happened to be the area we had marked down for its variety of restaurants and shops. We explored the area a little (something I’ll go into more detail on in the next post), and it did not let us down. Later we caught up with a friend (and a heavy rain shower) before rushing back to the hotel for dinner.

I don’t usually “do” food at hotels. I prefer to explore the restaurants nearby, but we could hardly say no when the Mani so graciously offered us a dinner and breakfast package. After a 2am startwe were running on only 3 hours sleep, and the idea of only having to take a lift back to our cozy bed was glorious. Luckily for us the food at the Mani hotel is not an afterthought to a room, instead it elegantly compliments your stay. The sharing plates for dinner were a modern fusion of French and Arabic cuisines. However it was the breakfast buffet (which non hotel guests can have for only €15) that excited me most. It was like letting a child loose in a sweet store. The food here is prepared with fresh, seasonal ingredients, and presented beautifully. If I were to visit Berlin again I would definitely visit the Mani hotel and restaurant. In fact I’m considering catching another flight back asap just for those breakfast meatballs!

You can check out the rest of my Berlin Travel Diary series here.

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Goodbye DSLR, Hello iPhone 6?

Sometimes I think us bloggers hide behind our DSLRs and photoshop. We forget that having the latest fancy camera doesn’t always equal good photos…or a good time. As much as I love documenting my life through photos, I do find that at some blogger events it can all get a bit much. Elbows flailing around as we each try to get the best macro shot of that single piece of sushi. Trying to stay as still as possible because the lighting is terrible and your aperture is so low it’s about to give Flo Rida a run for his money. It’s tiring to say the least. So when Three Mobile invited me to celebrate their Feel At Home Tariff at a foodie event with a difference, I was equal parts nervous and excited.

On Wednesday evening I was asked to turn up at Tramontana Brindisa Shoreditch with no DSLR. No compact camera. Nothing. So I did as I was told and made my way to the venue. When I arrived I was greeted by our lovely hostesses and a special package at my place setting. It turned out that each of us had identical boxes, and inside was the iPhone 6. By a fluke I actually ended up as the only person at the table with the iPhone 6 plus, but I wasn’t about to complain. Three explained to us that they wanted us to experience the evening through the new iPhone. They had already kindly downloaded us the bloggers survival kit: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and Dropbox. The reason we had been asked to leave our cameras behind was because the new iPhone 6 comes with an 8MP iSight camera with Focus Pixels (the 6 plus also has optical image stabilisation), and is perfect for carrying with you on the go. I was a little worried without my trusty Nikon by my side as the lighting was pretty poor, and I’d only ever used my iPhone 5s for Instagram shots. Still, with a little bit of composition, and some heavy editing on VSCOcam, I managed to come out with photos such as this. In fact all of the photos in this post were taken on the iPhone 6 Plus.

Was I won over? Honestly I’d be lying if I said I was going to up and leave my Nikon for a sexier hand-held alternative, but I’m not lying when I say that I was impressed. Not having to mess around with my DSLR made for a nice change, and I can definitely see that the iPhone 6 would be great for those times where you are caught out without your camera. The quality of the photos was noticeably different to my 5s and the screen was much clearer. I had a lot of fun playing with the slow-mo and timelapse functions too. In fact I had so much fun that I have begun plotting to off my current phone so I have an excuse to buy a new one. Now where’s the nearest Three store?

Let’s Get Personal…

After posting my fashion and beauty highlights of 2014, I thought it was only right that I do a more personal roundup of the year. These highlights are things you may not necessarily have seen on the blog, but they’re just as important.

I gave up my ‘day job’ to blog full-time…


It wasn’t easy, but I finally decided that I would give ‘full-time blogging’ a go. I blogged pretty much everyday for 6 months, which made for a very interesting learning curve. It was tough. I started this blog as a hobby, and doing it as a job made it all a bit too serious. Eventually I decided that it wasn’t for me, which in hindsight makes a lot of sense, but I learnt a lot and I don’t regret it at all.


I conquered a blogging fear…

2014 saw me finally take the plunge and show my face on YouTube. I followed my intro video with some Q & A style videos about life in Japan, and some brand exclusives. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to upload a new video for a few months, but I’m still glad I moved to YouTube because making videos is so much fun and the positive response has been lovely.
I met some amazing people, and made some even more amazing friends…
 
 
I’ve always been a big believer that blogging brings people together, and it just so happened that blogging brought me together with some wonderful people this year. The Nuffnang foodie crew was created, and it saw a small group of us bond over our love of food, blogging and general silliness. I also met V.A. (another foodie) who has now become one of my closest friends, if you hadn’t guess by the ridiculous amount of posts with mentions of her in them. Hmmm maybe I should be saying that food blogging brings people together?
I upped my photography game…
 
I invested in a new DSLR, and my first Nikon (the D3200) – along with a couple of lenses. It really gave me the push to finally make 2014 the year that I took my photography seriously again. With the lacklustre effort I was putting into my photos earlier on the blog, you’d never believe I have a degree in photography. I decided that I would take more time in my composition, and I’d actually make use of all the buttons on my camera (you hear that V.A?). Still, I believe you can always continue learning and improving any skill. My new photo series ‘A London Life…’ encapsulates my efforts and desires perfectly.
But mostly, I grew as a person…
 
Yes, I am going to be super cliche and get all soppy on you. This blog has really opened up a world of wonders for me. I am continuously surprised by people and the opportunities given to me, but mostly I’m surprised by myself. I’m not one to brag, but I’m pretty damn proud of what I’ve accomplished with this blog. I hope I can continue to work hard and improve in 2015.

Chamonix Travel Diary: Part 7

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As a little treat Ben took my up La Flégère, one of his old snowboarding haunts. I’d been reading about how picturesque it was, and I was sad that I’d missed a photo tour by a local photographer, so he decided we’d recreate our own photo walk. During ski season this is a well frequented spot, however in Summer it becomes a haven for wildlife and flowers. Walking around the mountain lakes and looking out into the distance at Mer de Glace was spectacular. I didn’t put my camera down once. A lot of the flowers were beginning to wither, but we got some pretty lovely photos anyway. Although it was the lake with a mountain view that really took my breath away. It reminded me of just how beautiful Chamonix really is, and how lucky I am to have experienced it.