Five of the best kept secret eateries in London

If you’re tired of the restaurant chains and desperately need to get away from the crowded tourist hotspots of London, you’ll be pleased to learn that there are a wealth of hidden treasures tucked away exclusively for those in the know. From ultra-cool hipster hideaways to quaint and quirky bistros, check out some of the best (secret) eateries in the capital with Show & Stay.

Phat Phuc Noodle Bar, Chelsea

Get your mind out of the gutter; this is not the haunt of some grammatically-challenged chav. For those of us that are cultured and/or fluent in Vietnamese, Phat Phuc (pronounced as it’s spelled) translates to Happy Buddha. And very happy you’ll be once you’ve tasted this delicious Vietnamese food from this fantastic outdoor canteen. Pho noodle soup, a traditional Vietnamese dish, is the plat du jour. It’s a rich and nutritious broth packed with as much flavour as there are vitamins. So swing by, chow down and bon appetit, or more specifically chúc mọi người ăn ngon miệng if you’re Vietnamese.

The Seagrass, Islington

What’s a trip to London without sampling some traditional tucker from the capital? The Seagrass in Islington is a trendy little jaunt that’s affectionately adapted into somewhat of a semi-permanent pop-up. What’s more, it’s BYOB. Yes, that’s ‘bring your own bottle’, a notion often unheard of in today’s society of house wine and meal deals. So nab your favourite bottle of plonk, pull up a pew and enjoy some gorgeous gourmet food with a cockney infusion.

Upstairs Bar and Restaurant, Brixton

A delectable little bijou bar and restaurant, Upstairs is simply wonderful and an absolute must when wanting to enjoy super sumptuous food in the capital. This gastronomic taste sensation takes place in a fantastically designed little flat in London’s trendy Brixton. The food is seasonal and a new menu is selected every two weeks. It can be a little pricey, but every calorie of your meal is worth every single penny you splurge. Be sure to book ahead though as this tremendously tiny treasure is becoming increasingly popular.

Fifteen Street Eats, Hoxton

It seems that most celebrity chefs have trendy restaurants dotted all over the place, like The Fat Duck by Heston Blumenthal and Gordon Ramsay’s Bread Street Kitchen to name but a few. Of course you can’t mention TV chefs without the excitable Jamie Oliver, where his amazing Fifteen has long been a hip and happening eatery for yuppies and trendsetters alike. However, the thrifty and not so cool aren’t to be neglected, as you can enjoy Jamie Oliver’s famous pucker tucker for just £5 at Fifteen Street Eats, Monday to Friday at Westland Place. This is the ideal way to grab that gastro-winter-warmer when lunch is on the go!

Paul Rothe & Son, Marylebone

This deli-come-café-come-grocery-store has been under the patronage of the Rothe family for  four generations; a family business that’s been running for over one hundred and twelve years. With an air of pleasant nostalgia and a fond homage to days gone by, the shopkeepers wear white overalls, the shelves are stacked with delicious jams and condiments and customer service is second to none, all of which make this exceptional eatery a charming little find in the heart of busy London. The father and son are reputedly ever-welcoming and known amongst the local community for being especially helpful and most accommodating to their patrons. When in the area, pop in, say hello and enjoy a perfect spot of tea and a caramel slice.

Many thanks for these quirky alternatives brought to you by Show & Stay, the UK’s best site for theatre breaks in London.

Photo credits: The Seagrass Restaurant, Upstairs, Brixton by linniekin, Jamie’s Fifteen by Eilam Gil, and Paul Rothe & Son by tiredoflondon, Phat Phuc noodle bar by Mirca23

More delicious food articles:

Veggie delights – Four favourite vegetarian restaurants in Brighton
From Cold War Canteen to Literary Salon – Five great places to eat out in Budapest
A guide to savouring the food of Cyprus

This article is originally published at Heatheronhertravels.com - Read more travel articles at Travel Blog Home

You’ll also find our sister blog with tips on how to build a successful travel blog at My Blogging Journey

 Don’t miss out – subscribe to Heather on her travels

Take your laptop on an adventure – Peli ProGear U100 Elite Backpack review

Laptops. They are amazing at all sorts of things, but being robust is not necessarily one of them. And if you are the sort of person who finds yourself doing things a little more extreme than your laptop might otherwise enjoy, then you probably want to ensure that you have a way to keep your equipment safe. Enter the Peli ProGear U100 Elite Backpack – designed to keep your laptop safe and sound in all but the most extreme of environments. Let’s see how it stacks up.

What is it?

The Peli ProGear U100 Elite  is a day pack sized backpack with a carrying capacity of 16 litres. More than enough room for use as a weekend bag to include some clothes or tech accessories, or for your commute to work including maybe some gym kit. On the other hand, if your job entails it, you could jump out of a plane and into some of the more hostile environments on earth with just some survival essentials packed away.

This bag is designed to handle a lot. The feature that separates this bag from other, more run of the mill daypacks, is the integrated compartment constructed from ABS thermoplastic, which is both watertight and crushproof. This has interior dimensions of 39.3 x 26.7 x 3.8cm – meaning it will fit everything up to a 15” laptop, and some 17” Apple models, such as the Mac Book Pro. Said part of the case is wholly separate from the other three compartments, and carries the promise that you can immerse it in water up to a metre in depth for 30 minutes without problems, plus it is designed to withstand crushing, heat and dust, with an IP rating of 67. Not sure what that means? An IP67 rating means the compartment is totally protected against dust, and is protected against the effect of immersion between 15cm and 1m (presumable also less than 15cm!) for up to half an hour, guaranteed.

Unfortunately I couldn’t find out quite how much crushing or heat it is designed to stand up to. ABS thermoplastic generally has an operating temperature range of –20 to +80 C, so this should be able to take quite a bit, and it certainly seems incredibly solid and able to withstand a fair amount of rough and tumble. This is one solid feeling bit of kit.

Other features

The laptop compartment is very easy to get into and out of, with a TSA approved top loading latch to access it. The compartment also comes with a number of foam inserts so you can ensure your laptop has a snug fit. This backpack offers more than just that solidly built compartment. As well as a main compartment for your bits and pieces, there is also a front pocket which features an impact resistant design – a solid polypropylene cover providing the protection in this case. This is labelled as being designed for tablets, but in testing I found that it was large enough to take anything up to a 12.5 inch ultrabook. This part of the pack also features numerous zippable pockets and areas where cords, cables, or other accessories could be stored for easy access. It’s well thought out and a real bonus section.

On the side of the pack there is a “hidden compartment”, which when unzipped reveals a mesh water bottle container. This is another nice feature to have – you can carry water if you want to, but if you don’t, you don’t have mesh sticking out of the side of your bag to snag on the environment. Between the front impact resistant tablet section and the larger “clothing” compartment, there is another top accessible compartment which is more shallow than the other areas and ideal for storing things you want to get at more quickly – maybe a water bottle or emergency poncho. You never know!

So that’s a total of four separate compartments, and a side pocket for the water. What else does this pack offer?
Well, the main body of the pack is constructed from 1000 Denier Kodra Nylon, which is tough and water resistant. It has a rubber handle at the top of the pack for when you don’t want to sling it on your back, and the bottom features expandable sling storage for say a roll mat.

The last couple of features focus on comfort – the back is curved to fit your back and naturally has foam padding and air channels to keep you cool, plus there is a strap for the sternum to help with managing the load.

Putting it to the test

The main feature of the pack is of course the waterproof compartment. To see how this stood up to testing, I decided to sacrifice my venerable Samsung NC10 netbook, popped it in the compartment, and chucked the bag in the bath, which in my case is around half a metre deep. I left out the bubbles. After half an hour, the bag was retrieved, with everything soaked through apart from that compartment, and my netbook ready to face another day. Bath 0, PeliPro U100, 1. I’m confident that in normal usage, such as a rainstorm, or a river crossing (river crossings are part of your normal day, right?), this compartment would stay dry.

As a backpack, the Peli ProGear U100 Elite is certainly comfortable, with that curved back really creating a snug fit. The only problem is weight – by itself the pack weighs nearly 4kg, or 8lbs. Once I added in some gear, it was certainly quite a load on my back. Manageable, but I’m not sure I’d want to be hiking for prolonged periods with that much weight strapped to me, although it would be fine on a bicycle or motorbike.

Things to consider

As mentioned above, this pack is no lightweight. The main feature – that laptop compartment – adds a fair bit of weight to the pack. So unless you are fairly strong, it might not be ideal for prolonged use. The other thing to remember is that whilst the water and crush proof compartment is, well, water and crush proof, the rest of the pack isn’t. So if you immerse it in water, or drive a truck over it, only the compartment itself will remain safe. The rest of the pack is water resistant, so a rain shower will be fine, but it likely won’t fare so well in other scenarios This may seem obvious, but it’s one to bear in mind.

Our recommendation

If you have a laptop that you absolutely must cart around with you, and don’t want to invest in one of those insanely expensive ruggedized laptops that are often underpowered, then this pack is the answer. It would be ideal for use on a motorbike, or on a cycle commute to work – although you’d want to get a proper rain cover for it so the rest of your stuff doesn’t get soaked through. Also, if you are going into the back country, and are planning on taking expensive equipment with you, then this bag could be a saviour when you find yourself facing a river crossing, bear attack or unexpected downpour.

For longer term travel, the weight would be a definite consideration. If you need superior protection for your kit though, I’m happy to recommend the Peli ProGear U100 Elite Backpack – it may not be a cheap piece of kit, with a retail price of over £200 or $300, but considering the value of what you are likely to be putting in it, it could easily pay back the investment should anything untoward happen.

For more information about the Peli range of waterproof backpacks and cases for your next adventure visit the Peli ProGear website. Peli ProGear kindly gave us a sample for this review.

Our guest reviewer, Laurence Norah is a traveller, writer and photographer, who spends much of his time musing on his travel and photography blog: Finding the Universe. He’s happiest behind his camera viewfinder on top of a mountain, or enjoying a chilled beer somewhere. If you bump into him, say hi, and steer him away from the edge! You can also find him on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter

Photo Credit: All photos by Laurence Norah of FindingtheUniverse.com

This guest review is originally published by Heather Cowper at Heatheronhertravels.com - Read more travel articles at Travel Blog Home

You’ll also find our sister blog with tips on how to build a successful travel blog at My Blogging Journey

 Don’t miss out – subscribe to Heather on her travels

Touring Las Vegas’ Desert Landscape with the Kids

In this guest post from Helene Vece, we tour the desert landscape close to Las Vegas with the family, for camping, hiking and natural rock formations as well as some family friendly shows in the city itself.

It has been a year since I moved outside of Las Vegas to the sleepy town of Boulder City, Nevada. When I heard that my family, little ones included, was set to arrive in Vegas for a week, I thought I was more than qualified to play tour guide. I lived in Las Vegas for thirty years and thought I knew everything the city had to offer and more. One week later and my adventure took me to the best-unknown spots that Sin City could offer. I was more amazed than my guests because I had lived there. Las Vegas has this mystique about it. It is a city of legendary tales and also legends that headline! After my week in Las Vegas, I had discovered more about the city from a traveler’s perspective than I did living there. Most notable? That Las Vegas is extremely kid-friendly.

Scenic beauty at Red Rock

The family wanted an affordable and unpopular activity. They didn’t want to be crammed into a smoky casino with tons of other tourists, so we piled into two cars and headed west! Only a half hour away from Las Vegas is a beautiful natural display of amber colored mountains. The road to Red Rock is mostly desert. There are enough people on the road, so don’t expect to feel completely isolated. I had only been to Red Rock once and that was years ago. Now, Red Rock had its own visitor’s center and a drive through route for people who don’t like to hike or have mobility challenges. The route is a total of thirteen miles and well worth the cost – yes, you are charged a small fee per car. The sites are amazing and so are the photo opps. You can pull the car over to the side of the road and take photos with the family and/or with the scenery! The only misgiving of this adventure was the gift shop. Everyone was trying to get into the restroom at once so I advise packing a little patience on this short road trip.

Relaxing in the desert

Our family spent the next couple of days touring Las Vegas’ amazing desert landscape. We stopped at Spring Mountain Ranch State Park. Howard Hughes once owned this 520 acre ranch, which is now opened to the public. We spent the afternoon having a picnic and enjoying the trees, which are over 400 years old! The older children in our group took themselves on a self-guided tour of the ranch house’s interior. There were also plenty of volunteers around to help us figure out what trees and bushes were from what lineage. The ranch is a great way for the family to spend an afternoon without spending a lot of money. The best part is that it is only fifteen miles outside of Las Vegas. Bring a light jacket since the ranch is higher in elevation which made it about ten degrees colder when we arrived at the picnic area.

Native American history

One of the last natural Las Vegas adventures we took was to the Valley of Fire. We spent a night camping here. You are missing out on all Las Vegas has to offer if you don’t stop here. The Valley of Fire boasts 3,000 year-old Indian petroglyphs and it is only 36 dollars to camp per family! Yes, pets are allowed. The Valley of Fire was only an hour drive outside of Vegas. It is exactly 55 miles northeast of Las Vegas via Interstate 15. I am not the world’s greatest camper, but I was excited to see shaded tables, grills, water, and restrooms were readily available. There are numerous natural rock formations at the Valley of Fire. The kids all loved the different stories behind each formation. We picked up a few brochures to guide us from the visitor’s center. I would say the kids loved the White Domes the best. These formations were only a five minute drive from the visitor’s center. We walked, so it took a little longer. I would have to say if you could only chose between Red Rock, Spring Mountain Ranch or the Valley of Fire adventure, go with Valley of Fire. It is so breathtaking! All the kids had a wonderful time – as did the adults!

Classic Las Vegas showmanship

When we did head back to Las Vegas, our group decided to see the Penn and Teller show at The Rio. I was told this would be a great show for little kids. Of course, a ticket salesperson sold me this line. I would say use your own discretion. The show is fantastic. But there are lots of loud noises and the magic duo shoot a prop gun at the end which can be scary. If your children are sensitive and under age eight, I would hold off. The best part of this show (besides the locals discount) was the meet and greet at the end. Penn and Teller patiently stand outside the theatre and sign tickets or take photos with everyone who was at the show. This is a really nice thing for them to do considering another Vegas show charges a hundred dollars per person for the exact same experience!

My Vegas family adventure went on for several more days. I learned about artwork and gluten-free restaurants that I didn’t know existed. I discovered that Las Vegas has many more kid-friendly concessions than I originally thought or knew about, and I found that being a tourist in Sin City (or on the outskirts) is a wonderful thing that can be experienced with family or when visiting solo!

Many thanks for this article to Helene Vece who regularly writes for Vegaskids.info. She has lived in Las Vegas for 35 years, raised her kids in Las Vegas and for the last few years has been taking her grandchildren on daytrips or weekend trips to Las Vegas.

Photo credits: All photos belong to Vegaskids.info

Other family friendly experiences

A short drive around Texas Hill Country
Calgary’s family spirit for fun with the kids
9 cool things we did in Austin, Texas

This guest article is originally published by Heather Cowper at Heatheronhertravels.com - Read more travel articles at Travel Blog Home

You’ll also find our sister blog with tips on how to build a successful travel blog at My Blogging Journey

 Don’t miss out – subscribe to Heather on her travels

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