I never got a chance to write about this last week but I wanted to highlight the absolutely excellent Byron hamburger chain. I’d planned to meet my girlfriend to watch a film at the cinema but with nothing grabbing either of us, we instead decided to find somewhere to eat.

On the upper deck of the bus, I spotted Byron’s withered façade which prompted me to suggest we give it go. As my waistline has increased over the last few months, I was extremely glad that the menu catered to my dieting regime by including a skinny (bun-free) burger and some surprisingly tasty skin-on chips. They did have courgette fries but I felt like spoiling myself.

There isn’t really much to say other than I thought the venue was interesting, the menu surprisingly healthy for a burger joint and would recommend it to anyone visiting or living in London. My girlfriend and I both agreed that we’d definitely be going back again.

[UPDATE] Also for this month only, if you’re participating in Movember this year, you’ll be entitled to one free burger every single day. If you haven’t already started growing a moustache this year, now’s the time. Ladies too!

Yesterday I visited the Japan Centre in Piccadilly to pick up some powdered green tea. As part of an overall grander scheme to improve my health and well-being, after trying the South Beach Diet recommended by Dr Weil during an interview with Kevin Rose about geek health issues.

Matcha is a variety of tea where the lea leaves have been crushed into a fine powder which is simply mixed with hot water to make the tea. It is also used extensively in the traditional Japanese tea ceremony called Chado or Chanoyu. It is often made with the same type of tea leaves that are used to make Gyokuro.

I’ve been drinking both regular green and more subtle white tea for a few years now and thought I’d compliment my drinking habits with Yamakaen matcha, although I’d have appreciated it if it were a little less costly.

The popularity of the Japan Centre in London’s Piccadilly has meant that they have expanded into a new location on Regent Street for their Food & Deli Hall.

I hadn’t had a chance to visit the new premises until this weekend and had planned to take a few photos and whilst I did pack my Camera with me for the weekend I stupidly left it at home when out on Saturday.

So I’ve ‘borrowed’ these photos from Flickr, so take a look there for more photos (taken by people that aren’t me).

The nice thing about the Japan Centre is that it’s pretty popular with Japanese people which isn’t really a surprise but you get the indication that what’s on offer must be fairly authentic to bring in the custom of Japanese natives.

In fact my Japanese flat mate in Sheffield frequently employs the Japan Centre online store when ordering groceries for himself. If you’ve got any interest in Japan, the Japan Centre serves well to cater to your curiosities.

I’m not a creative cook by any stretch of the imagination and I tend to follow recipes scrupulously like I did back in school during Chemistry practicals. The fear of making a mistake, ensuring I never deviated from the plan.

Similarly I find that it also makes it a joy to prepare meals using Sainsbury’s recipes because again they clearly mark out the ingredients required — even going so far as to include photos — in case you didn’t quite know what a can of tinned tomatoes looks like. One of my favourites being the Lime Chicken Stir Fry that I previously created.

(Thanks, Boastar!)

I’ve always liked the style of Japanese wood print and I can appreciate why Japonism became highly popular in the West. Utagawa Kuniyoshi, regarded as one of the finest of all Japanese print artists is finally being exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts until June 7, 2009.

Unfortunately for me, as I’m being shipped to Cardiff over the next month I doubt I’ll be able to visit. If you are able to though, it might be worthwhile to look at the lunch and dinner packages offered by Bincho, which would be a great way to compliment the exhibition.

Recently, I’ve been putting on a lot of weight through a combination of laziness and practicality. My life currently involves me travelling around the breadth of Britain and I’m never anywhere long enough to be able to prepare myself a healthy meal. Even my mum has been insisting that I go out and exercise some more! My own bloody mother!!!

I know I could make more of an effort but sometimes I’m in situations where there isn’t any facilities to cook so I tend to resort to take-away. This has been made even worse by the discovery of Just-Eat which allows you to order take-away from local fast food outlets, which means now I don’t even have to walk down the road to pick something up, I can have it delivered immediately to me. Perhaps they’ll upgrade the service in the future that allows customers to inject cholesterol directly into their blood vessels, myocardial infarction FTW!!!

So this week I shall mostly be eating Weetabix, although saying that I’ve been invited out for dinner with my girlfriend and her family so I’ll have to resist the temptation of ordering something deliciously unhealthy.

When I visited Tokyo, I came across an unusual flavour of Fanta, one which I subsequently became hooked on. Returning to London, I scoured high and low in a futile attempt to locate this godly beverage.

A few years later, at a point when I’d given up all hope. Atari Ya caught me unawares and presented to me an entire shelf of Fanta deliciousness. Thank you Atari Ya, for you have made me complete.

It was bought to my attention that an eating establishment on the High Road was acknowledged to have had the worst cockroach infestation ever seen by Health Inspectors and was promptly shut down. I’m glad I never ventured into Cafe Cirta to give it a try as I’m prone to try and find new places to eat.

What I find pretty interesting is that the Council have uploaded a video that was shown to Magistrates on Flickr. Who’d have thought they’d be so Web 2.0!

I’ve become quite the fan of Sainsbury’s ‘Feed Your Family For A Fiver’ recipes. Obviously in my case, simply substituting the family part for one hungry Hummy.