Sophilicity: June 2016

So you guys may have noticed that one of my biggest posts last year was due to the Eat Asia Night Market back in 2015. This year, I have collaborated with Eat Asia Night Market to bring you guys another opportunity to win yourself some tickets! Fortunately as a blogger for their previous event, I was fortunate to collaborate with them once again. This year in particular they have been particularly focused in social media promotions varying from Facebook to Instagram.

A photo posted by Eat Asia Night Market London (@eatasianightmarket_london) on Jun 10, 2016 at 2:22am PDT

The Eat Asia Night Market was first introduced in London last year in November 2015. Since then, it has expanded to announce its second event, this early July in 2016. The Eat Asia Night Market provides customers with an authentic experience allowing them to have a taste of various different cuisines from Asia. Cuisine varies from the famous Korean Kimchi Pancake to the Taiwanese Bao.

However, what's more, due to the expansion since it's first event, the tickets not only give you entry, but also an opportunity to win vouchers and/or free food experiences in various Asian restaurants situated around London. (Terms and Conditions apply.)

So what are the details?

When: 1st July, 5PM - Late | 2nd July, 3PM - Late

Where: Bussey Building, Copeland Park, 133 Copeland Road, Peckham, London,SE15 3SN

Tackle your taste buds with us this Summer at Eat Asia Night Market London 2016, Grab tickets now before they sell out! www.eatasialondon.com

Early Bird Single Ticket: £3

On Door Single Ticket: £5

As I stated earlier, I would be offering a chance to win tickets for the event. Here's a chance to save yourself a bit of money on the entrance for Saturday! Enter below, to win a pair of tickets for the Eat Asia Night Market!

To those who enter, don't forget to follow me on Instagram @Sophilicity to receive a bonus entry for the event! This can be completed on the bonus screen after you have entered the required details. The giveaway will end at 12:30PM (GMT) on the 2nd of July. The winner will also be announced immediately after the draw closes, and the winner will be contacted by email.

Thank you reading this quick update on the Eat Asia Night Market event this Friday-Saturday!

Don't forget to like, follow and share their social media pages below:

Eat Asia Night Market Facebook Page

Eat Asia Night Market Instagram Page

And for those Facebook users, don't forget to check their event page below:

Eat Asia Night Market Facebook Event Page

I'll catch you guys soon, I'll be back to update you guys on my trip to Rome which will begin as of today, the 27th of June till the 1st of July!

20:04 No comments

So as some of you may know, I finally finished my exams!! Honestly it's such a relief to know I'm finally done with college, along with exams in general. I despise exams - yet I was intending to go to university next year with exams involved ekk... Deferring a year was the right decision to take a break though... Anyways, shout out to everyone who has completed exams, well done to you guys and good luck with your results, and to those who are still going with exams, you can do it guys! Work hard!

If I'm perfectly honest, since I spent the past month trying to revise the same subject (English Language... I cry...) it meant that I was restricted from going out and about to enjoy myself. The rare times I went out, it wasn't very far and most of the times it was to go out and revise with a friend... Thankfully, as exams have finished I have begun to go out more again (yet my bank account can't keep up RIP). This led to my 3-day food excursion which I shall present to you guys soon enough!

As a major food fanatic, I literally have a list of places I've been meaning to go and eat, and slowly I am ticking them off one by one. So now it's time for you guys to check out my food visits, I hope you guys also have a chance to check them out too!

DAY 1 - Wednesday 15th June 2016

So I just finished my exam along with my friend, Julia (literal babe - check out her blog here) aha and after discussing our exam with our other class members (bad idea guys, so much regret) we went off to Kingston to eat. We'd been meaning to meet up to eat up at this Japanese place for ages, yet our plans always seem to fall short because of schedule clashes. However, we finally managed to go to the restaurant, and there are literally no regrets.

We went to Mino restaurant located in Kingston, not far from Kingston College (main building). The restaurant is aesthetically pleasing to the eye. As you walk into the building you can see the restaurant decorated in blossom trees, fans and lanterns inspired by the Japanese culture.

I literally love the aesthetic of this place so much 😍

A photo posted by Sophia Tang 🐼 (@sophilicity) on Jun 15, 2016 at 8:04am PDT

🍣🍙🍜 finally went and checked out this place after months of saying we would (@sophilicity ) and oh my god I like died 😻 best fooood #mino #sushi #japanesefood #cherryblossom #food #foodporn

A photo posted by 👥 (@attsphotography) on Jun 16, 2016 at 7:01am PDT

We were sat down and began looking through the lunch menu before proceeding to ask for the main menu for more choice. In the end we chose our dishes, Julia chose the Chicken Gyoza, Salmon Avocado Maki and Chicken Ramen, whilst I chose the Iku Mayo and Chicken Donburi.

Post-exam celebration with @juliaattenborough - so glad exams are over, now to enjoy the holiday 😛

A photo posted by Sophia Tang 🐼 (@sophilicity) on Jun 15, 2016 at 6:32am PDT

The restaurant reminded me of a similar Japanese restaurant called Sapporo Season (located in Hampton Hill) which incorporates a similar aesthetic and costs about roughly the same price. I spent just over £10 for what I ordered and Julia around £20. The portions were quite big which surprised me, with Julia who considered ordering an extra dish originally. We found that the food was quite filling so even if you had one main meal you would be quite full which would cost less than £10.

After we paid the bill, we even received some sweets which was really sweet of them. I appreciated the service and the overall atmosphere of the restaurant was really soothing as well.

DAY 2 - Thursday 16th June 2016

I set off for Central London to meet my dear friend, Nazihah (my foodie friend) for another food outing. I wanted to meet her just before she left for Brunei for the entirety of summer! I'm not going to lie... I totally came late... As per usual oh dear..

First stop, Misato! If you're looking for a cheap Japanese place to eat in Central London, Misato is the way to go! Back when I was still in secondary school, I would go to Misato to go and eat out just because I was a poor student with no income whatsoever... The place isn't amazingly big, but the price and portions for a place in Central London is great. You have a 10% service charge, but the price of one meal (which may I say is a big portion) is usually under £10. The restaurant is usually quite busy so there was a queue however we didn't have to wait too long for us to be seated especially as there was only 2 of us.

We decided upon Soba dishes, which were about £5-£6 each. Nazihah got the Zaru Soba whilst I chose the Beef Soba.

Beef Soba and Zaru Soba at Misato with @mozzehrella

A photo posted by Sophia Tang 🐼 (@sophilicity) on Jun 16, 2016 at 5:25am PDT

After our meal at Misato, we moved onto the main reason we decided to meet up! Our trip to Pan De Vie located in Covent Garden. For the both of us, we had both been meaning to visit this French-Asian bakery. The bakery provides mainly Matcha products - unfortunately both of us aren't particular fans of Matcha so we decided on cheesecakes instead. Nazihah decided the Yuzu Cheesecake and I decided on the Strawberry Cheesecake.

Overall, I found that my choice for dessert was good for my taste. I don't have a major sweet tooth when it comes to desserts so it had enough sweetness that wasn't too overpowering. I'm also a big fan of strawberries so they went well together. I was also worried that my cheesecake would fall apart but it stayed together quite well, although Nazihah's Yuzu Cheesecake started falling apart as she started going through her dessert despite how carefully she was trying to eat it.

Finally got to try out this French-Asian bakery 💕 We got the Yuzu Cheesecake and Strawberry Cheesecake 🍓

A photo posted by Sophia Tang 🐼 (@sophilicity) on Jun 16, 2016 at 6:18am PDT

The workers at Pan De Vie were really sweet, they even offered us a chance to sign up for a free points card. This gave us the chance to earn points whilst spending. You receive 1 point for every £1 you spend. I'm hoping when I come again, I'll try one Matcha product at least once.

Other than Asian grocery shopping, we managed to pop back to Chinatown and I got myself some bubble tea. Since I didn't have a chance to go to Central London for a while, it was good to finally treat myself to some bubble tea. One of my personal favourites is the Mango QQ bubble tea from Chatime. I tend to ask for normal sugar, ice levels etc.

One of my favourite bubble tea choices: Mango QQ from Chatime ✌🏼️

A photo posted by Sophia Tang 🐼 (@sophilicity) on Jun 20, 2016 at 1:24am PDT

DAY 3 - Friday 17th June 2016

The final day to eat out! So my friend, Mary and I had been planning this occasion since 2 months ago, and we were later joined by Emily on our food outing. Since both of our exams finished on the 15th and 16th of June we thought the most appropriate date would be to celebrate on the 17th. As lovers of crabs, we honestly wanted to eat crab but there weren't really good crab places which weren't charging a ridiculous amount of money so we thought we would opt for lobster - you must be thinking, isn't lobster more expensive? Surprisingly the one we got wasn't that expensive...

We decided to eat out at Burger and Lobster at the Soho branch. We found that the menu was indeed expensive, and I'm not going to lie... I felt very uneducated when it came to eating lobster as they gave us certain pieces of cutlery which confused me... But eventually I got the hang of it. We were looking around the restaurant and we could see that it was mainly adults (we are adults too but like we are very young adults aha).

In the end, we decided from the new menu. I read that originally there was some confusion with the restaurant as many people had hoped to have burger and lobster rather than opting between one or another, so they renewed the menu and incorporated meals which included the burger along with the lobster.

Mary and I decided on "The Pounder" (£19) which offered the 500G lobster along with chips, both grilled (despite Mary asking for her lobster to be steamed...) whilst Emily opted for "The Soho Combo" (£28) which incorporated the burger with lobster and fries. She also requested for an additional cheese and bacon with her meal (an additional £1).

The result? We all agreed it was difficult and a lot of effort trying to eat the lobster. We also agreed that we enjoyed the sauce which was on offer (which I believe was a mixture of butter and garlic). I wished there was more lobster meat available, considering the price. Plus, I feel like that fact Mary and I had been hoping for crab and deciding on lobster instead thinking it would have a similar taste (which it didn't) made it slightly disappointing to us - Honestly we didn't think the taste would be so different from one another, but we were proven wrong aha.

Finally got the opportunity to try Burger and Lobster ✌🏼️

A photo posted by Sophia Tang 🐼 (@sophilicity) on Jun 17, 2016 at 8:32am PDT

Apparently Burger and Lobster changed their menus because people got confused how they couldn't order burgers and lobsters together 😂 but so expensive 😭

A photo posted by Sophia Tang 🐼 (@sophilicity) on Jun 17, 2016 at 11:24am PDT

Note: Please reminded that there is a discretionary 20% service charge. I enjoyed the lobster but I would still favour crab to lobster if I were given the choice. The chips and sauce were good, but considering the restaurant is called "Burger and Lobster" this isn't exactly the restaurant's specialty aha. The experience was interesting though, and it was great being able to catch up with friends that I hadn't seen for a long time.

Overall thank you for reading my food adventures, I hope to bring you more food posts soon!

21:51 2 comments

So as you guys may have known from my previous LoveJojo post, I attended the LoveJojo launch party event as a photographer for the event. I'm not going to lie, as a result I took over 1500 pictures for the entirety event and my camera died near the end of the last performance...

Anyways... I thought it would be a good chance to write an overview of the event! The LoveJojo launch party event was held on the 7th of May, coinciding with the Free Comic Book Day which takes place on the first Saturday of May every year. Before the event even started, there was quite a few preparations to take place, and I'm not gonna lie I struggled with some of the tasks just because of height - RIP. From making LoveJojo banners to organising seating, there was a lot of preparation involved beforehand, Jojo was definitely thankful for all the help she could get!

But moving onto the actual event, there were various stores set up around the venue, from LoveJojo to Dengeki Co to Littlest Sweet Shop. Everything "kawaii" all in one place. I literally wanted to buy so many things if I actually had the money... #brokestudentlife

If I'm honest, during our preparations we even had a small struggle trying to keep the balloons up in the air. Some of the balloons decided to deflate or just preferred being on the ground and the amount of the times we ran out of ribbon... Oh dear...

And thus the event commenced. When I first arrived to the event, I thought I was overly dressed, wearing red lenses, red cat ears and a red lolita style dress. But once the event started, everyone got ready, got dressed up and many of the visitors were all dressed in such "kawaii" clothes. It was really interesting seeing all the different styles involved, and all the different outfits people put together.

Since the event had only just opened to our guests, a few of the acts were still going through sound checks, such as Kelsey Ellison who I managed to capture amidst her sound check.

Thus finally the show began. Our MCs for the night included Aisha (a journalist well-known for Japanese culture at Aisha Anime as well as a cosplayer herself - you may know her as a presenter of Machinima SBOC) along with Ich Loc (an inspirational speaker - you may recognise him from this year's London Chinese New Year festival where he was also the MC!). We were also introduced to the host of this event, Jojo, the founder of LoveJojo!

We have to give Jojo along with all her volunteers and more for working hard on this event. It probably wouldn't have worked out if the organisation wasn't done as well as it was. I know there were ups and downs during the set up process including before the event but the final result was amazing!

So for our first act, we had Leader Looi with her back up dancers, Cat and Anya who are best known as members of Milae3! They performed renditions of K-Pop tracks, particularly G-Dragon songs and one Japanese song as well.

As a first performance I feel like there are certain expectations which you have to meet. I've performed live before and it's the question whether you would rather be first or last or in between, so I give these guys a round applause for going first! The audience responses weren't as live as they hoped considering the type of performance it was but it did get much better throughout the day.

The performance was then followed by Kadeem from Manifest Nation. He presented us with a dance solo which incorporated his own freestyle techniques and break dancing moves.

Before the interval, the MCs had a short discussion with our very own Hello Kitty star, James. If you've guys seen Hello Kitty around particularly at MCM Expo you may have seen James! The interactions were great and we even got to watch some dancing take place which was incredibly entertaining.

As the interval proceeded, this was the time where people were able to have a look around the stores. People were also given the opportunity to grab pictures with each other as well as socialise. I had a chance to get so snacks and drinks which were provided to the side - the cupcakes made by James and hi mum were on pointe! Also, I managed to have a chat with a few photographers like myself. Other than Tobi (TobiNinjaFox) I also met Anty and Orleans (Shadow Dinosaur). The interval was about an hour, and I even got the chance to talk to Kelsey Ellison, she's a lovely person to converse with aha!

As the interval ended, we proceeded onto the next performance in the line up. We had a chance to listen to Strange Chocolate, an indie band who played us some great tunes. Unfortunately we didn't have the whole band with us on that day, but even so, Daryl and Harriet played us a great set!

Following their performance, our MCs introduced an opportunity for the guests to win some prices from LoveJojo, specifically plush toys! But what did the guests have to do? Contestants who volunteered themselves for the contest, were made to compete in a dance competition to win the plush toys. It was definitely an interesting sight to see and I couldn't help but laugh. It was very entertaining and everyone seemed to enjoy the dance off, as shown from the audience's reactions. They decided on the winner's depending on who received the loudest cheers.

We had some interesting dance moves, and you could see who was teaming up in the dance off. Kadeem who participated unfortunately wasn't able to compete for a prize considering he was a dancer himself however he joined in anyways and you can see some well-known moves being shown off - some you may recognise the move above, performed by Kadeem and James as the "Nae Nae"!

As the dance off continued, we even had the MCs join in themselves. If I was filming the dance off the video would of probably demonstrate me laughing really loudly and cause the camera to shake as well. Ich dancing through the stage sidewards was a sight, and Aisha even formed a "Can-Can" with the contestants, along with the addition of Orleans who joined on the other end.

However, despite the dance off, we had a remaining two contestants who competed for the top prize. The contestants would compete in a 1 on 1 dance off. We had Sonic vs. Dan, who do you think won?

One of the highlights of the event would have to be the dance competition to be honest. The final dance battle was very tight, and the result led to Dan placing first place and Sonic second, although the cheers from the audience were indeed close!

After the announcement for the dance competition we moved onto the best dressed of the night. No one knew who had been chosen to judge the best dressed, but I can't deny that they chose a definite winner. There were so many people who dressed amazingly for the event, but the winner's particularly classic style was a winner for me.

Thus we continued with the performance line up, with a performance from Elle and Leila of LOST Girls! What can I say? Isn't it a dream to be able to perform with your best friend on stage, especially if you both have a passion for performing. These guys presented their first ever live performance together at the LoveJojo launch event, and I can't help but say they did amazingly! These girls' vocal ranges are unbelievable and as a Sword Art Online fan myself, I totally rate their song choices! They also completed a dance performance of "Romeo and Cinderella" - Any Vocaloid fans may of heard of this! Well done you two! Following this opportunity, they have also performed as backup dancers for Kelsey Ellison at the Yorkshire Cosplay Con! You go girls!

Following the LOST Girls performance, Jojo and the MCs worked together to present the raffle prizes. The prizes included a cushion, a popin cookin kit,a cute strawberry printed outfit, a Sailor Moon figure and and two plush toys differentiating in size!

And to end the show, we had our final performance of day! Presenting, the one and only, Kelsey Ellison. She performed for us her very own original songs such as the Pom Pom (Humplepups Remix)! Her unique style and dance moves definitely caught the audience's attention and I can say that the final performance got the most cheers. Despite it drawing to the end of a long day, the audience still displayed great enthusiasm!

You can check out Kelsey's video of the event below:

Overall, I personally really enjoyed the event. I'm not going to lie, my legs were probably dead the next few days from standing around taking photos all day, but it was worth it, and I can't help but thank everyone for organising the event. Jojo even gave all of us helpers our own goodie bags to take home which included a few cute accessories, a box of Hello Panda and more!

I can even say I had fun after the event ended, we all had time to socialise amongst each other and even had Ich's brother playing the piano and all of us singing and laughing around. Another highlight of the day, especially after a long working day, laughter definitely is the best medicine for it!

Thank you for tuning into my blog posts, I'm trying hard to get as many posts done over this summer but on top of work and travels, it's quite difficult to find time to put up content so I'll try my best for my readers! Don't forget about my blog anniversary giveaway which was mentioned in the last post! I have collaborated with LoveJojo to giveaway prizes to you guys as readers!

On another note, don't forget to check out LoveJojo's website below! At LoveJojo they sell a variety of cute items particularly alpacas which are the most popular purchases!
http://lovejojo.com/

If you would like to check out anymore images from the event you can check my Facebook albums below:

LoveJojo's Launch Party: Part 1
LoveJojo's Launch Party: Part 2
LoveJojo's Launch Party: Part 3

Thank you for reading, and I hope to update you guys soon!

14:30 No comments

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