Three mini restaurant reviews: LEONG'S LEGENDS (Leicester Square), TGI FRIDAY's (Leicester Square) and THAI THO (Ealing)

Leong's Legends (Leicester Square)

A friendly enough place with some amazing starters (the egg tofu thing photographed above was by far the highlight) as well as nice ambiance with its cheesy pop soundtrack and fast waiter turnover rendered Leong's Legends overall a pleasant, if not earth-shattering, culinary experience. 

Emsy's November Playlist.

Otis (Kanye West ft Jay-Z)

Something that both Kanye and Jay-Z do very well indeed is big themselves up. It’s for this reason that they rub quite a few people up the wrong way, but as I’m someone whose head is so massively over-inflated that it’s a surprise I can fit it through corridors, I love how much they love themselves. And when you have this much swag, why shouldn’t you rate yourself a little bit? 

This song is a massive backpat; Kanye bigging himself up (“I made Jesus Walks so I’m never going to hell”), Jay-Z bigging himself up (“Or the big face Rollie I got two of those”) and both stroking each other’s egos as well. It would irk a lot of people, but the sampling of Otis Redding's Try a little Tenderness is probably one of the finest usages of sampling another song Kanye West has done, second only to the usage of Ray Charles’ I Got a Woman in Goldigga. 

Some of the wordplay really clicks, “Sophisticated ignorance, write my curses in cursive” and my favourite big-headed line of them all: “Photoshoot fresh, looking like wealth, I’m about to pull the paparazzi on myself”. Ah, how the other half do live.

Review of the songs in the “Dynamic Duets” (S4E7) episode of Glee.

This episode was all about duets, and started with the Glee club, rather bizarrely, in a meeting for superheroes. My favourite of the rather eclectic bunch was Tina's guise as Asian Persuasian, naming her great power as Manipulation. Superheroes goes on to be a theme for the episode, as the singers don superhero attire in their performances. 

As Coach Bieste explains, when you don a cape, you become another person, not dissimilar to the effect of what happens when performing on stage. To that end, then, it seems an apt motif for the Glee club to take on this week.

La, love, lick you like vanilla ice.

Photos of nice meals I've had this week! Me and the housemates had a huge Chinese food haul, so the vast majority of pictures this week are from the deliciousness then!

(favourite dish of the week)

Favourite One Direction Lines

Yes, I am a little bit obsessed. Some of these are for the poetic value of the lyrics, or the way the boys sing them (such as the way Zayn belts out #8).

01. “Shot me outta the Sky, you’re my Kryptonite” – One Thing (Harry)

02. “The way that you flip your hair gets me overwhelmed” – What Makes You Beautiful (all)

03. “It hurts me to think that you never cried” – Stand Up (Niall)

04. “I lie awake just to convince myself this wasn’t just a dream” – I Should’ve Kissed You (Liam)

05. "I'm blinded 'cause you are everything I see" – More than This (Liam)

06. “I hear the beat of my heart getting louder whenever I’m near you” – I Wish (Harry)

07. “And if we get together, yeah get together, don’t let the pictures leave your phone” – Live While We’re Young (Zayn)

08. “And giiiiiiiiiiiiiiiirl, you and I, we’re ’bout to make some memories tonight” - Live While We’re Young (Zayn)

09. “So come one, you got it wrong, to prove I’m right I put it in a sooooooooong” – What Makes You Beautiful (Zayn)

10. “I would walk through the desert, I would walk down the aisle, I would swim all the oceans, just to see you smile” – Stand Up (Liam)

11. "I used to think that I was better alone / why did I ever wanna let you go?" - Rock Me (Louis)

12. “Get out, get out, get outta my head, and fall into my arms instead” – One Thing (all)

13. “It feels like I’m constantly playing a game that I’m destined to lose” – I Would (Louis)

14. “I’ve tried playing it cool, but when I’m looking at you, I can’t ever be brave, cos you make my heart race” – One Thing (Liam)

15. “Now I’m climbing the walls, but you don’t even notice at all, that I’m going outta my mind, all day and all night” – One Thing (Niall)

16. “When he lays you down I might just die inside” – More than This (Harry)

17. “I see you every time I close my eyes, what am I gonna do” – I Should’ve Kissed You (Liam)

18. “Then I see you on the street, in his arms I get weak” – More than This (Louis)

19. “It took a minute, girl, to steal my heart tonight” – Stole My Heart (Harry)

20. “There is no place I’d rather be than right here with you tonight” - Stole My Heart (Zayn)

Two Amazing new Häagen-Dazs Creations.

There are two incredibly tasty new inventions from Häagen-Dazs that I just have to talk about!

The first is their Meringue & Raspberry Fondant Secret Sensations, which will be sold in packs of two mini-pots, each of which is the perfect size for a post-dinner dessert. Flecks of meringue are embedded throughout the ice cream (the colour of the meringue means that it is almost invisible amidst the vanilla, so when you initially taste it, it's a hugely pleasant surprise), and it really gives the dessert some volume. Even better is the raspberry fondant hidden at the centre of the ice cream, which goes incredibly with the vanilla to really make for a scintillating treat.

The raspberry fondant has a jam-like quality, and indeed, first discovering it in the ice cream is like finding the strawberry jam in a doughnut, except with ice cream, it goes even better.

Absolute delicious, Secret Sensations have played another blinder. The portion, texture and overall taste are fantastic. Go taste some!

Another festive treat being released by Häagen-Dazs are their Ice Moon Cakes:

As you can see, this is a hugely layered dessert is created to replicate the inside of a moon....

...with the outside also looking remarkably like a moon!

To get your hands on one of the Christmas desserts - which can feed 6-8 people - to visit the ice cream brand’s Facebook site buy one for £50, which will then be delivered to your door by a butler.

Outfit of the Day.

Top: Primark, £3
Shorts: Primark, £4 (after sales)
Shoes: Topshop, £20 (after sales)
Necklace: Primark, £2

Album Review: TAKE ME HOME (One Direction)

The dreamy boy band’s second album had a difficult job, having to follow up to last year’s Up All Night, which featured the massively popular One Thing, Gotta Be You, and especially What Makes You Beautiful which was one of the tunes selected to be sung in the Olympics closing ceremony. The sequel, however, more than lives up to billing, The Godfather Part II of albums, if you will. 

There isn’t a song on it that stands out quite as much as What Makes You Beautiful did, but the overall quality is much greater.

The opening track, Live While We’re Young, an ode to living for the moment and YOLO-ing it up, is the closest to being the WMYB of the album, filled with up-tempo beats and cheeky one liners (“and if you get together, get together, don’t let the pictures leave your phone.”) Even the chorus, “let’s go crazy crazy crazy ‘til we see the sun”, you can imagine singing in a manner identical to the chorus to WMYB, and Zayn delivers some powerhouse at the refrain of “And giiiiiiirl, you and I, we’re about to make some memories tonight”; Mr Malik, in my opinion, is the one who has come the furthest, vocally, between the first and second albums.