Belgos Centraal Covent Garden

Half kilo of mussels for 5 pounds?

Mmmhmm.

Only if you arrive at 5pm.

Beat the Clock!

Anytime between 5-630pm.

The dishes on the special menu will cost you the price reflected on the time of your arrival.

Lessons in punctuality will cost you, my friend. :)

I had this when I was in London 4 years back and I thought there'd only be mussels on offer.

Apparently not.

I didn't keep count.

Was too busily slurping up my mussels and white wine sauce.

Little morsels of the sea.

Delish!

And thankfully,

they had more than just mussels on the promotional menu.

Dad says, "Mussels are fish bait. I do not eat fish bait."

Repeat after me.

Generous slices of smoked salmon with dill and asparagus

atop a bed of linguine in cream sauce.

Linguine - Favourite.

Salmon- Generous. Omega 3 rich hey!

Asparagus- A little too soft.

Cream sauce- Brings it all together. Hits all the right spots! :)

But.

That's a strike two for dad.

He does not take salmon.

And he calls himself a fisherman.

So there we go with roast chicken.

With sticky sweet Thai chilli sauce in a huge bowl on the side.

And a generous serving of fries.

Indulge yourself with some mayo and tomato dips.

I definitely did. :)

Bangers and mash.

These were the smallest serving for an item on the menu but they were a bang for the buck.

If you love your bangers full on savoury flavours.

Slicing into these bouncy meat packages are a dangerous affair.

They might spurt into your eye if you were looking. or not.

or fly off the plate.

Definite no no on the etiquette's page.

The mash was a good balance to the strong flavours on the meat.

We had them all at just 5.35 pounds each.

What's the 35 for?

35 minutes getting lost in Covent Garden.

You don't say.

Well, look for the Superdry outlet with the orange flag. Belgos is just opposite to it.

A nondescript place almost like an underground bar.

Waitstaff in parish outfits.

It's blasphemy to drink in a church! :)

Enjoy the experience.

It's a Belgium experience in London.

<3>

lunch date

Waking up late.

It's a work day for you while I'm in the last week of my holidays.

Finishing my book while you slept in.

Frustrated and finally forced out of bed by the incessant sounds of piling and ongoing upgrading works.

Only to fall back to sleep next to your nephew.

A big kid and a small one to melt my heart. :)

It's been a while since we had time for lunch.

Where to?

Chicken rice at Clarke Quay.

I've never noticed this- Tiong Bahru Hainanese Chicken Rice where quietly it sits behind the bus stop across the bridge from The Central in the direction of home when you get off work late at night.

A set meal for two.

$17.80 if I remember correctly.

Serves up half a chicken (choice of roasted or white)

Roast chicken was too salty on the wings but otherwise juicy and mmm yum.

It might have something to do with the fact that I was ravenous by 2pm as well. ;p

I liked the addition of tomato slices and salted vegetables.

And they had a bowl of soup which was more than just decent.

I'm impressed.

Tasty. Boiled chicken stock with salted vegetables.

A choice of side. The lady taking our order offered either the thai style fried beancurd or five spice meat roll.

A little heavy on the salt. But savoury and well balanced out by a dip into the luminous orange spicy sauce.

Ngoh Hiang for the carnivore of course.

And a choice of vegetable between fried beansprouts or baby bok choy. I like them crunchy bean sprouts but I like my healthy greens more :) A little overly blanched but tasty with the toppings of oyster sauce, fried shallots and hey, some ikan bilis too.

And this was mine.

All mine.

I definitely have a healthy digestive system full on fibre. :)

Thanks for lunch.

And I'm happy we managed a proper lunch before you started on your work day.

happycall-ed! :)

Happycall works like a dream machine! This pressure pan lets amateurs whip up dishes that look like they came from the photoshoot of cooking magazines.

Something like this.

And tastes equally awesome. :)

But of course there are limitations with the size of the pan. Dinner for four couldn't just be one average sized spring chicken with roasted vegetables. So use the traditional pan already and fry up some pasta.

Saute some garlic and shallots in olive oil. Throw in sliced sausages, strips of ham and some help from canned carbonara sauce. Add a dash of italian herb and black pepper. Drain the al dente pasta and coat evenly with sauce before dishing it up for the dinner table.

Simple. Hearty. Happycall happy! :)

<3

guess where?