Early riser.....

Blimey I had a pretty awful nights sleep. Not sure if that was to do with my excitement about todays Eat Reading lunch or because of the curry I had from the Haweli in Twyford........twas a rather hot one !!!

Anyway it's left me a bit tired and I'm sure it's going to be a long day so the coffee machine is on and I'm keeping myself busy.

Only two more days to go until we find out whether our little Bumpski will be a girl or a boy. Carley is feeling lots of movements so whatever it is I think we'll have a little disco dancer on our hands.

I've decided that I'm going to take the rest of the day off work after the lunch and get myself into town as I really need a new pair of jeans. I go through them like crazy !! I blame the fact that my car is so low that it puts extra strain on the jeans getting in and out.

Back to Eat Reading Live and the first restaurant Tampopo whom I'll be introducing to the Town Hall stage at 11:30 on Saturday 5th.

Tampopo is a small chain of six restaurants dotted around the country. They have three in Manchester, one in Leeds and Bristol respectively and of course one in Reading on the Riverside at the Oracle.

They specialise in asian cuisine and the main focus is on the authentic style street food that you find all over this vast area. Tampopo actually means "Dandelion" in Japanese. I the cult classic film of the same name a lady goes off in search of the perfect bowl of noodles so it's a very fitting name.

At Tampopo you find dishes from Korea, Japan, Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam which makes me wonder just how many people work in their kitchen! It must either be huge or they have some very well travelled cooks. Imagine travelling round all those places trying all the food to then come home and form a menu....now that sounds like fun.

It's situated towards the London Street end of the Riverside complex so it's quite separate from Wagamamas which would be it's main business rival in town. Both offer very good value for money and there is most definitely a place for both in town. This is going to be a great way to kick off the Town Hall stage given it's street food nature so I'm reckoning that there might a be a few bits getting passed around to the audience.

So signing off for now and I'll be back tomorrow with a review of the gala lunch and other little bits and bobs....toodlepip xxx