The Polls are open… so vote, vote, vote.

Hellew peeps, did you miss me while I was away ? My flight back to Blighty was pain-free but coming back to my day job is none the more painful. I think I must have gained at least five pounds while on holiday, yes and yes – to answer your questions, I did photograph all the vacation food (with my brand spanking new Nikon D90) and I will write about them shortly. Getting back into the swing of things is the order of the week and I’ve started making reservations in London restaurants for this weekend so expect the first restaurant reviews to resume normal service next tuesday.

In the meantime, the guest posting competition with the super duper grand prize of £50 is now officially done. Over the past couple of weeks, fellow food bloggers have helped me prop up very edible guest posts on London Eater and I am eternally grateful to the foodies who chipped in. As today is finally the 11th of March, all the guests posts will now go into a voting poll. The name of the game is very simple: just vote for your favourite one of any of the eight guest posts  and I’ll pass £50 to the blogger with the most votes via paypal.

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The poll will be open until 30th of March and the blogger with the most votes on that date will be £50 richer.

Not sure which one tickled your fancy? Keep reading for a quick summary of the guest posts:

1. A gen.u.ine feasting at Ambassade de L’ile [full post here]

 By Kian of Gen.u.ine.ness and it was a tour de force visit to Ambassade – the two star spot which has polarised opinion from London critics and bloggers alike. Kian said:

Amuse bouche was amusingly (sorry for the pun) served on a turf of grass. First, baked clam served in its own shell accompanied with brunoise vegetables and truffled butter. The tiny morsel of clam laid on top of a finely diced mirepoix and then topped off with a small dollop of truffled butter foam. The sweetness and slight brininess of the clam was highlighted by the grassy, tender vegetables.

2. Forays of a Finance Foodie into Chung Shin Yuan [full post here]

 This one comes from the Finance foodie and her visit to Chung Shin Yuan for a very Taiwanese breakfast. Athena said:

I figured since I was already awake, I might as well go to brunch (plus, I didn’t want to be known as “Anti-Social Athena”). When we arrived on scene, we found half of Boston’s Asian population had already beaten us. Luckily, we bribed an elderly Chinese couple ahead of us in line with a couple of kumquats and managed to nab a table at first seating.

3. 5 star foodie tucks in at The Inn [full post here]

 The five star foodie articulated this very charming write up about her visit to The Inn at Little Washington. She said:

We chose a fine Burgundy to marry with the menu’s winter flavors. Opting for the Domaine Hudelot Baillet “Les Cras” from Chambolle-Musigny, this wine tastes of delightfully concentrated bright fruit, rare for Côte de Nuits, while rich and well balanced, and thus perfectly suited for the courses to follow.

4. Chewing on the real Texas BBQ experience at the County Inn [full post here]

 The fourth entry is a very chewable entry by Hillary of the Chewonthat Blog and is a truly authentic Texas BBQ experience. Hillary said:

I ordered the beef brisket platter pictured at the top of this post and David ordered a combo of ribs, sausage and beef brisket pictured above. I’m no barbecue expert but the beef brisket was some of the most tender and tasty beef I’ve had in a long time. You could see the red smoke lines in the meat and to top it off, they doused it in their delicious barbecue sauce. I’m told Texas barbecue is infamous for the amount of sauce they use – and that’s just the way I like it.

5. Eating green and white worms in mud with The Food Site [full post here]

 This fun post is not really about actual worms in mud , rather it’s about a great Malaysian dessert made from glutinuous rice. Foong runs the excellent Food site and she says:

You know, we Chinese are a superstitious lot but when it comes to food, almost anything goes. The Chinese are known to eat anything that moves except for vehicles so when we talk about eating worms, whatever the colour, it is not really all that unusual. If the Chinese thinks eating animal penises can make them more virile, you don’t even want to know what else they eat for other so-called unproven medicinal values.

6. Fifty four miles separate me and some food for friends. [full post here]

Not only is this write up about a vegetarian restaurant, this post also only has one picture in it and the focus is on evocative writing. Jude – one half of fifty four food miles says:

Yup. But what if one (hypothetically speaking) comes to FfF with a soon-to-be ex boyfriend, in a last ditch attempt to rescue the relationship? What if one comes to FfF with one’s estranged father who has never expressed any attempt to be involved in one’s life until now? It wouldn’t so much be Food for Friends then, would it?

7. Thring for The Light with Oliver. [full post here]

 Thring for your supper! is one of my well liked blogs and I think that Ollie’s got great prose to go with great taste. In this post, he’s bashing the Light and says:

Some might argue that food isn’t the point here: the owners want an easygoing menu for pissed clubbers to nosh before a boogie. That being so, why open a restaurant at all? Why conceive a menu that can only be enjoyed – and even then, I have doubts – while drunk? Who would pay money for that kind of experience? And what kind of chef would work in such a place?

8. Dining on the Riverwalk with Hillary for one last time. [fulll post here]

 And so we have come to the last entry. This is Hillary’s second post and it’s about a cool texas bistro that does fresh guocamole in front of the diners eyes. Hillary says:

They use fresh avocadoes, fresh orange, and fresh limes. We were told some people just come and order like 8 orders of guacamole, no joke. It actually  was pretty darn addicting, but we stopped at one – we knew we had to save room for the rest of our meal.

Thank you Ollie.

Thank you Hillary.

Thank you Athena.

Thank you Kian.

Thank you Jude.

Thank you Foong.

Thank you Nathasha.

And finally thank you for continually reading London eater and also for reading my fellow foodie blogger’s blogs. We appreciate your kind attention and cannot wait to deliver more (and more) delicious content for ya. So keep coming back and we’ll keep serving them up. Hope you enjoyed this little series of guest posts, do vote for a favourite and I’ll see you back here again same time tomorrow for some sushi train bingeing.

Oh yeah.

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