DIY noodle bowl: review of Red Box Noodle Bar, Edinburgh

If there was a way to create your own bowl of noodles, in such a way that means even vegans can enjoy it without the restaurant making any changes, would that be fantastic? Say no more, Red Box Noodle Bar on West Nicholson Street has you covered.

Fine dining Chinese style: review of The Cotton House, Falkirk

When you live in a different country from where you originated, you’ll know the dilemma with eating out at restaurants serving food supposedly from your own culture. On principle, I don’t usually visit Chinese restaurants much; not that there’s anything wrong with it, but because most of the time they’re not really dishes I crave or recognise. You’ll have probably experienced this yourself, when you’re travelling abroad and a restaurant claims to be serving ‘authentic (insert country) food’ whether it be British, Indian, American, Chinese or Mexican food. This definitely rings true for me.

We (my OH and I) were having a family meal with the in-laws at The Cotton House and I was game to give it a go.

Wedding dressmaking update: my finished Chinese wedding dress

It’s been a long journey trying to get my Chinese wedding dress finished. I managed to make some progress when I had a few days off in February, but once work started again, I was thrown in the hurricane of work, meeting with friends and other events.

I finally finished my dress a couple of weeks ago and I couldn’t be happier to strike one wedding sewing project off the list. Here’s a photographic journey of the production of my Chinese wedding dress!

On board the sewing train…upcoming sewing projects!

This is going to be an exciting year, mainly because there’s still some things I need to do for the wedding, mainly minor details like getting invites and favours made. The most exciting part for every bride though is seeing The Dress and trying it on!

Spoiler Alert: For the first time ever, I’m going to reveal details about the wedding dresses I will be making soon, so if you want to be kept in the dark till the final dresses are made, don’t read any further down the post. I’ll warn you when this is going to happen!

On the hunt for the perfect wedding shoes

I’ve been on the hunt for a pair of dark red (burgundy? wine? prune?) coloured shoes to go with my dearest mummy’s wedding dress which I will be wearing on my own big day and I can’t wait! =) What surprises me is how it fits me just right, which means my mum was the same size as me when she was around my age! The only thing I need to do is unpick the altered stitching when it was taken in when my aunt borrowed my mum’s ‘kwa’ (the traditional Chinese embroidered with dragons and phoenixes – to signify yin and yang, also representing the union of man and woman – wedding dress which is red – to bring good luck).