Archive | August 2012

Red Hot World Buffet – A Review

Until recently the Red Hot World Buffet is somewhere thats always been on my list of restaurants to visit. For one reason or another its never happened though so when I got asked if I would like to visit and review it I thought Oooooh yes please!

The Red Hot World Buffet is a restaurant that boasts 300 dishes from different world cuisines including Indian, Thai, Japanese, Chinese, Mexican and Italian. I love buffets in general but there is always a small part of me, when I first visit, that wonders whether the catering will be for the masses i.e. mostly frozen ok-ish quick and easy food. I expected a bit of that with our visit here too.

How wrong we were. We visited the restaurant in Manchester and the first thing that strikes you is how organised it all is. We were seated straight away and the staff couldn’t be friendler or more helpful. I found the service was excellent and plates were cleared away very quickly without being annoying or giving the impression of hovering around to see what the customers are doing. There is not the rush of buffets and the venue is quite large so creates a relaxed atmosphere in a place where people are to-ing and fro-ing with their dishes.

The food area looks huge at first glance and we found ourselves walking around it all just to familiarise ourselves at first. The thing that stuck out for me the most was the presentation. Everything is laid out with so much care and detail. It is obvious that presentation is an important feature of the restaurant and it works very well as a distinguishing feature when compared with other buffet restaurants.

I tried a few things mainly from the Chinese, Italian, Indian and Japanese counter and everything is very nice and flavourful. The one thing I didn’t quite enjoy was the Thai Green curry but everything else was very very nice. I could have spent the whole day visiting the noodle counter having different stir fries made for me. There are a lot of stations that provide a made to order service and I love these. I resisted the urge to be too adventourous but even the straight forward musroom risotto turned out to be lovely.

The desserts area is very impressive. Each portion is small but its a good way to encourage you to try other varieties (or simply help yourself to more of the same!).

I think from our whole trip I only had one negative which in this case were the toilets. Whilst they were very clean, I thought they could do with a massive coat of paint on the doors. The restaurant is so modern looking and well presented its a weird contrast when you walk to their bathrooms and see something that needs a bit of decorating. Its a minor thing but if you happen to be visiting you’ll know what I mean.

The friend I took along is a bit of a connoiseur when it comes to restaurants and she was visibly impressed, even using the word “brilliant”. I would thoroughly recomend this to anyone that loves buffets and good food. It is very family friendly and has a good choice of kids counters too, although there is enough kid friendly dishes in each of the cuisines. I would definitely go back for more. The confirmation for us was well and truly nailed as we walked out and saw the queue had stretched to the outside doors.

We were paid to review the Red Hot World Buffet. All opinions are my own.

Movies In The Gallery

Aug28

This week the theme in the Gallery is Movies.

Have you ever wonder what Indiana Jones did between his massive break between the last crusade and the crystal skull adventures? I found out by chance on holiday a couple of years ago.

He took a long break and decided he wanted to stay in Petra and do this…

We happened to see it by chance on entering Petra, on our to the valley of Moses and the Treasury. I didn’t actually get to meet Indiana Jones unfortunately, I assume he was on his lunch break or something. I thought he may have cashed in on his fame a but more but, alas, there was only the one gift shop of its kind.

You can check out the entries in this weeks Gallery by clicking the icon below:

Dearest 20 Month Old

Aug27

Hello My Little Man,

I actually had to count how old you were before writing this post because I’m still very much in denial and telling everyone you are “One and a Half”. Can you believe you’ll be 2 years old in 4 months time?!

It’s been a completely mad month for us all. Both your Daddy and I have been fasting all month and then it was eid. I have to admit I was worried how I’d cope now that you run like the wind and play all day (on top of work) but it wasn’t too bad! You’ve loved trying new foods and we’ve discovered you actually like spicy things like kebabs and Bombay mix!

You’re now counting to 10 and your favourite numbers are “WEWEN!” (7) and “TEN!!” and over the last couple of weeks you’ve turned into a little parrot repeating everything, even stuff you’re not meant to. Umm.. Like “Oh Gok!” (Oh God).

This month you’ve also discovered your love of slides. But you’d rather climb up them till you’re almost at the top. Then you fling yourself back down on your belly and come sliding down. Like a cross between a toddler stunt man and James Bond. I, on the other hand, have honed my panicked shrieks of “Noooo!” quite well. When it’s not the slide you’re climbing it’s the sofa, the radiator or the baby gate. You did try to climb up the living room door once but settled for hanging off the door handles. Its kind of broken now. I’m convinced that one day we’ll find you scaling the house or trying to shimmy up the drain pipe just so you have something to climb!

You still absolutely love running and you do it with utter commitment. Like a true athlete you concentrate on your run and only your run. No looking right or left. In your case you don’t even look forward. The other day in Trafford centre was interesting when you kept running straight into people’s legs. That didn’t put you off though. Till you wanted a bit of a break of course and wanted Daddy to carry you.

One of the funniest things you’ve learnt this month is how to “freeze” during the “Show Me Show Me your groovy moves” dance. You wiggle your bum and then suddenly freeze at the right time with your hands by your face and mouth wide open. Then you clap with delight once it’s over. I may be guilty of rewinding it multiple times just to watch you keep doing it.

And we finally went to see In the Night Garden!! It was absolutely brilliant. You joined in with every dance and clapped at everything. You even managed to sit still through at least half of it which was really impressive. You were in complete awe when we met Iggle Piggle afterwards and, whilst you wouldn’t hug him, you kept wanting to touch him and play with him. I was in complete awe too and it was almost like meeting Tom Cruise all those many years ago. Almost.

Until next time baby… Mmmmwaaah!

Project 52 – Week 34 / Silent Sunday

Aug25

Sky

Aug22

The theme in the Gallery this week is Sky

We live quite close to the Lake District and like to have a day out there every so often just to relax. Its our most recent rediscovery, a place we can all go as a family and all have a good time. Baby Z loves it as he just sees open space where he can run like theres no tomorrow. With the way it rains so much in the North west though it’s sometimes hard to catch very picturesque photos capturing the essence of it all.

On our most recent trips the sun shone and it was very pleasant. I tried to spend a bit of time trying to take a photo of a boat on the lake and kept realising the horizon looked wonky

Eventually I manage this…

And thought ahh yes, straight water.

It was only later I saw how nice the sky looked, with is bold contrast of blue and white. No sign of rain in sight. Picturesque, like I wanted.

Check out the other entries in the Gallery by clicking the icon below

Elmo

Aug21

The Other half absolutely loves novelty singing and dancing toys. I’ve had to stop him many a time buying a dancing or singing chicken every time we visit a place like Blackpool. He usually palms them off to his nieces and nephews but has an overwhelming urge to purchase them. They drive me crackers. I don’t particular enjoy the obligatory side to side rocking motion and the big beady eyes they all tend to have.

So when he came home with a Sesame Street Let’s Rock Elmo toy not so long ago I was a bit dubious. And, it seems, so was Baby Z…

He circled it cautiously for a while and the Other Half did his best to demonstrate that Elmo is a much loved little guy that’s loved by millions through the world (both myself and OH we’re huge Sesame street fans as kids!).

It didn’t take long. This particular Elmo comes with a set of drums, tambourine, a toy microphone and his own little rock star tshirt and will sing and dance for you every time it’s foot is pressed. I was pleasantly surprised to find it doesn’t do anything cheesy. Baby Z has quickly turned him into his favourite toy and will regularly try to carry him across the room.

Elmo will recite or sing phrases or songs and nothing is too scary or too loud for a 20 month toddler. (And none of them is too annoying for an adult either!). Elmo is actually very polite and even says thank you which I love. Its also proven to be quite robust which is perfect considering Baby Z wants to carry it around everywhere now.

What I’ve loved most about it is that it’s introduced Baby Z to Sesame street. We’ve found a lot of Elmo videos that he absolutely loves and between the toy and videos he’s now discovered “singing”.

It retails at around £30 and takes 6 AA batteries.

You / Your Toddler Will Love This If…
They love interactive toys and / or singing toys
They love teddy type toys (although beware its not a cuddly version, although looks utterly cute!)
You / Your toddler loves Elmo or Sesame street

This has been submitted to the Toys R Us Toylogist campaign.

Project 52 – Week 33 / Silent Sunday

Aug18

Naming Him

Aug17

My timeline on Twitter is currently filled with lots of pregnant ladies. There are so many it feels like there is a mini baby boom going on in my Twittersphere. All are at various stages, some are even prepared with their chosen name for their little one.

It’s reminded me of when Baby Z was born and was completely nameless. We hadn’t picked anything at all and suddenly had to get a massive crack on throwing names around whilst I was hooked up to my saline and morphine drip post my Caesarian.

I was pretty much bed bound the first couple of days and, with the curtain pulled round my little cubicle, I could only hear what the other mums were up to. There was the mum who had sneezed her baby out in about 30 seconds and wanted to go home within an hour of getting onto the ward, the mum who had just had her 3rd and sounded very determined that “this was it, no more!” and the poor girl whose mother in law seemed to be rail roadjng every decision for her, including what to name her baby.

Then there was the horrible cow.

She was diagonally opposite to me and I never got to see her. But my god could I hear her….All night…long. She seemed to not require any sleep whatsoever, despite having just given birth, and prattled on and on and on on her mobile all night long to, probably, her long suffering husband. When she didn’t have the phone on her ear she was constantly asking the midwife to have a soak in the hot tub. Or to be helped out of the hot tub. Or she would be complaining she wasn’t being given enough attention and would request to go home. Then change her mind within a couple of hours. This would go on most of the night too. By night two I was going mental. I just wanted some shut eye and the horrible cow was relentless with her ability to complain all the live long night.

Anyhoo, amongst all this the hubby and I were trying to pick out the perfect name for “Infant H” as he was temporarily labelled. After going through about a hundred I came across a name that sounded so lovely and right. I looked up the meaning and then just knew it was right; “he who God remembers”…. Ahhhhhh. This was it. Baby Z.

So it was almost decided. The hubby has a much longer acceptance process than me so I knew he had to mull it over.

That evening the horrible cow was back on the phone complaining about the midwife, life, the Bounty woman who had asked her to put her phone down because she wanted some photo taking advice and basically the universe whilst I was feeding my Infant H soon to be Baby Z. Then suddenly I heard the horrible cow say something that made me freeze for a moment.

“How about we name him Baby Z?”

What??!! She was stealing my name!! I knew they’d already picked another name the day before but the horrible cow wanted my name. Our name! I was silently livid and had half a mind to try to pick my saline stand up and try to poke her from a distance. How very dare she.

Ofcourse I didn’t. I just fumed in bed and listened to her go on and on and on about how it had a lovely meaning. Yes. A meaning you stole. Stole!!

I told the hubby as soon as he arrived in whispered rage and lots of wild gesturing. He sympathised (I think) but reasoned we may never see them again so it wouldn’t matter… Hmmm.

I needn’t have worried for long. It seems the horrible cow may have had a silent long suffering husband but he still had some fight in the old dog and veto’d the name as they were all leaving to go home with their new baby. It was that day I started walking after my op and if I was any faster I would have followed them just to get a peek at her.

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