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The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one’s own country as a foreign land.” – G.K. Chesterton

Thursday 28 April 2011

Japanese @ Yamashiro (Elements), Hong Kong

Interrupting the series of our Italian adventure (and taking a welcome break from sorting through the massive pile of photos from our trip and editing them), here is a recent dining experience at the newly opened Japanese restaurant in the rooftop dining area of the Elements mall. A high school friend from Perth was visiting Hong Kong with her husband, and it just so happened that they'd booked to stay at the W Hotel which is literally next door to us. Since they'd arrived in HK only hours before dinner, we decided to do the smart thing and have dinner in the area. It really is super-convenient to have a mall downstairs from where we live. We'd been meaning to try out the new Japanese restaurant since it opened a few months ago, so we took the opportunity to go to Yamashiro.

Yamashiro is quite a lovely restaurant, with a nice decor and prices comparable with other expensive restaurants in Hong Kong. Service was acceptable enough, but there is definitely room for improvement if the restaurant wants to make its mark alongside other more notable Japanese restaurants. The restaurant is still fairly new, and I'm sure time and training will iron out those issues. The food was good, and I was pleased to find that the sushi and sashimi were fresh (I'm still a bit wary of eating sushi in HK after a bad experience). Beautifully presented dishes that I've learnt to expect from the Japanese cuisine. Yamashiro's menu also features teppanyaki dishes, but Rob and I only ordered from the sushi menu. Our friends had only eaten breakfast that day (how can people get through the day with only one meal?), so they ordered quite a few dishes which ranged from sushi to teppanyaki to tempura to noodles. I think they were happy enough with the meal.

Rob ordered a-la-carte sushi, including several expensive items that were HK$100 a piece (he doesn't pay any attention to the price listing on the menu, at least not until after he has placed his order). Rob began ordering the sushi using the Japanese names, and our poor waiter had trouble until I suggested Rob used English. Rob said the sushi were pretty good except for the aburi-toro (grilled fatty tuna) which he said was too cooked.

(clockwise from top left) O-toro (fatty tuna), aburi-toro (grilled tuna), hotate (scallop), ama-ebi (sweet shrimp), uni (sea urchin 'roe'), ikura (salmon roe), unagi (freshwater eel), and anago (saltwater eel):

I got the Chirashizushi, which included many sashimi items that I would have ordered if I'd gone the sashimi-only route. I loved the colours in the bowl, and my friend remarked how healthy my food looked. The 2-year-old enjoyed the ikura (salmon roe) and kept requesting for the salty orbs (he'd eaten a fairly hefty packed dinner due to the fact that I didn't want to take my chances on a Japanese restaurant having anything substantial he could eat that was free from soy and sesame).

Chirashizushi:

There was a nice selection of desserts, and no one (except me) could resist ordering something sweet to finish the meal with. After some deliberation, Rob decided upon the Green Tea Tiramisu, which was beautifully presented. It tasted pretty good too, although not much like the coffee-and-liquour tiramisu we ate in our recent trip to Italy (which, incidentally, weren't much like the tiramisu we've had outside of Italy).

Green tea tiramisu:

It was great to see my friend again whom I hadn't seen for years! The food was good, albeit a little pricey, but it's good to have a decent Japanese place close by for the next time we have a sudden hankering for sushi and sashimi. (For the record, I think the Japanese food at Inagiku is better.)

Yamashiro Japanese Cuisine
Shop R002-3
Civic Square, Elements Mall
1 Austin Road West
Tsim Sha Tsui
Tel. +85 2 3743 1421

Back to photo editing I go, and stay tuned for more photos of sights and food from our trip to Italy!

Tuesday 26 April 2011

Italy: Rome Part IIb - a fountain, some San Crispino gelato, and lots of steps

{continuing from my previous post}

Walking down one of the brick-paved side streets towards Fontana di Trevi (Trevi Fountain), surrounded by beautiful old architecture:

By the time lunchtime rolled around, we'd done a fair bit of walking and worked up an appetite, so we stopped for a quick lunch at one of the cafe diners near (but not too near) Fontana di Trevi. Here we saw many patrons choosing to stand by the bar to drink their coffees and eat their paninis, presumably to avoid the pricey table charge that our B&B guy had warned us the night before. The food was decent enough for somewhere close to such a big tourist attraction, but nothing fantastic. It was good enough to keep us going.

The lasagna was tastier than the ravioli:

Spinach ricotta ravioli, some pieces were hard:

After lunch, we saw the beautiful Trevi Fountain, which was absolutely teeming with tourists (no surprise there). We stayed long enough for me to grab a few snapshots on my dSLR, then we were off on a very important mission: to eat gelato.

Fontana di Trevi, stitched together from three images because the structure was too wide to fit in one frame from where I stood (the massive tourist crowd didn't allow much room to move):

We are huge fans of gelato, and we knew that we had to eat this Italian frozen dessert in its homeland. There were gelaterias everywhere, but we wanted to eat the best (who doesn't?). San Crispino Gelateria is touted to have the best gelato in Rome, and you may even have heard of it from Elizabeth Gilbert's book "Eat Pray Love" or the movie adaptation of the book. Neither of us had seen the movie nor read the book, but we were told by two separate sources (an Italian local and Rob's American colleague) that we had to try out the gelato at San Crispino. Unlike most of the gelaterias we encountered during our trip in Italy where, the gelato are not piled high in their tubs but instead hidden under lids.

Delicious frozen treasures hidden under metal lids:

And there are no cones here either because, according to one of San Crispino's founders, cones are "contaminated" by greasing agents and thus shouldn't be in contact with gelato (source). This gelateria is indeed very popular, and in spite of its relatively hidden location, there was a long line snaking out of its doorway when we arrived. The queue moved fairly quickly, and when our turn came up to the counter, we felt tremendous pressure to make a quick decision. We went with the original San Crispino flavour (honey) and the Dark Chocolate flavour (made with Valrhona chocolate), and both were excellent! They were so good with such great intense flavours and gorgeously smooth texture, that I didn't mind at all not having cones.

Heavenly chocolate-flavoured and honey-flavoured gelati from San Crispino:

Full of energy after the carb-laden lunch and sugary gelati, we walked over to the Spanish Steps. There were so many steps, and so many people sitting on them. The 2-year-old was a real trooper and climbed all of those steps willingly on his own (in fact he refused any help).

The Spanish Steps, also teeming with people. Is there anywhere in Rome not overrun by tourists?

Once at the top of the steps, we continued up the road and climbed to the top of the Pincian Hill, where we were rewarded with a great view of Rome. We didn't have time to explore the adjacent Villa Borghese gardens, which looked like a great place to spend a few hours at.

Panoramic view from the top of the Pincian Hill (click for larger image):

A sight lovelier to behold than the scenic view (to my eyes anyway):

After that, we headed back towards the Colosseum to squeeze in the final hour before sunset to look around Foro Romano (Roman Forum) which we'd bypassed earlier in favour of looking for lunch. By this time, my feet were aching from walking around all day, and when it proved difficult to get around the Forum with the stroller, I took the opportunity to just hang with the boy while Rob took a look around. Since it was evening, there wasn't that many people at the Forum and it was the first time all day we weren't surrounded by tourists all around.

The Roman Forum was oozing with ancient history:

After that we had a very disappointing dinner at a restaurant we'd just walked in from the street, that it's not even worth a brief mention (it was also the most expensive meal during our time in Rome). I'm not one to self-praise, but I think I can cook better food than what we ate that night. The next day we stuck to recommendations for both lunch and dinner, and I'm glad to say that both were good meals.

The setting sun casted a lovely colour on the Colosseum, and we took the opportunity for a rare mummy-and-son shot:

Next up will be our visit to the Vatican, lots of delicious Italian food and the best espresso we've ever had! Stay tuned!

Saturday 23 April 2011

Italy: Rome Part IIa - the grand Colosseo

After a night's rest and yummy breakfast in our tummies, we started our Roman expedition with a bang at the Colosseum. Or rather, I should say that we tried to, except that we were met with a couple of guys near the entrance that said we were faced with a queue that had a 1 hour waiting time, unless we joined a tour group for sum of no small amount. We actually seriously considered joining one because we had a toddler on our hands who cannot sit still for even 10 minutes, and also because Rob was interested to have information of what he was looking at. Finally after some deliberation, we decided to save the euros and join the hordes of tourists already in queue. The snaking line indeed looked long, but it wasn't before long we heard a lady announcing that the next English tour was running in 15 minutes time - this tour was much cheaper than the one offered by the touts outside - and that those interested should follow the adjacent empty lane (marked for reserved bookings or tour groups) to buy their tickets at the counter to the left of the ticket window. I'd also seen on the entrance sign that there was also an option to get an "audio tour" for an additional €6, and it directed us down the same lane as the reserved booking/tour group lane. Not wanting to lose our spot in the queue to find out more about these other options, yet also not eager about waiting and wasting time in the queue, we finally decided to head down the adjacent lane to check out these other options. We were glad we did, because we saved a lot of time just by spending an additional 6 euros each for the portable listening device, and we could do the tour at our pace (or rather, what the 2-year-old would allow us) and didn't need to be confined to a tour group. And we didn't need to fork out the price that the touts were asking outside! Thankfully the boy fell asleep in his stroller shortly after we began exploring the ancient amphitheatre, and we could take our time for the following hour.

Colosseo from a distance:

Burning off some energy outside the Colosseum:

The Colosseum structure was amazing to look at. I mean, I was looking at something that was built almost 2000 years ago! It must have been very grand in its heyday, however it was hard not to think and feel a little sad about the cruel sport the amphitheatre was used for.

A panoramic shot consisting of three separated images, showing the interior of the Colossum from the second level (click image for larger size):

Closer look at the hypogeum:

Another panoramic shot of the interior from the opposite side and lower level (click image for larger size):

The view of Arco di Constantino (Arch of Constantine, erected AD 312) from the Colosseum. That's Via Sacra (Sacred Road) running up to the right of the shot, which was the main street of ancient Rome. Check out the tourists swarming like ants:

Templum Veneris et Romae (Temple of Venus and Roma, built c. AD 141) as seen from the Colosseum. This image was taken from the same 'window' as the above image of the Arch of Constantine (Via Sacra is to the left of the shot):

The West Entrance, aka the Gate of Death (dead gladiators and animals were carried away through this exit). Spot the guy pushing the stroller:

We exited the Colosseum and walked up Via Sacra, which proved to be a dead end (it's the exit route from the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill). It was a nice walk nonetheless.

Walking up Via Sacra (the wrong way) towards the Arch of Titus. Tourists were everywhere, and I imagine the streets of Rome would be lovelier in the quiet early morning:

The view of L'Arco di Tito (Arch of Titus, constructed c. AD 82) from Via Sacra:

By the time we'd left the Colosseum area, it was lunch time, so we headed for our next destination down Via dei Fori Imperiali, which is the main road connecting the Colosseum with Piazza Venezia. This wide road is closed off to motor traffic on Sundays, so it was a great place for Zak to go running wild safely. The boy was energised by the hour-long nap in the stroller and was raring to zoom out of his seat! Just walking down Via dei Fori Imperiali was a real treat for the eyes as there were fantastic ancient buildings and structures on both sides of the road, and more Imperial Roman items remain to be excavated in the area.

Looking back at the Colosseum on the wide Via dei Fori Imperiali:

Ancient ruins along one side of Via dei Fori Imperiali road. Panorama stitched from three images (click image for larger size):

The Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II (Monument of Victor Emmanuel II) which dominates Piazza Venezia. Image is stitched together from three shots (click image for larger size):

Working on these photos has taken me longer than expected, and I still have more to share on what we did that Sunday in Rome, which included visiting the beautiful Trevi Fountain, eating delicious San Crispino gelato, and climbing the romantic Spanish Steps. Stay tuned for Rome Part IIb coming up soon!

Wednesday 20 April 2011

Italy: Rome Part I - our first true Italian pizza, and the B&B

Our 2-week sojourn in London came to an end, and we headed out on Saturday morning for Roma. Here we stayed for 3 nights, which gave us ample time to visit most of this ancient city's sites and indulge in some really good gelato. I have so many photos from this trip - more than 300 images just in Rome - that I think the best way to tackle them on the blog is to systematically journal what we saw, did and ate in a chronological order rather than splitting into sights-only and food-only entries that I usually do. This way there will be something for everyone in each entry of the series: food porn for the hungry foodies; travel info and sights for the prospective travellers and fellow travelophiles; and family shots for the family and friends who keep requesting for more of them on the blog.

The first day was spent travelling by air from London to Rome, and it was evening by the time we arrived at our accommodation. I'd organised through our B&B for a driver to pick us up at the airport (little luxuries like this is invaluable for our healthy state of mind when travelling with a toddler), and we could not stop staring in awe at what we saw outside the window as the car wove through the streets of central Rome. We drove past the Colosseum and many other beautiful ancient buildings and structures, and we also saw the Vatican in the distance. What we saw during the 30-minute car ride from the airport got us pretty excited over what was awaiting us over the next two days, and we really wanted to begin our Roman adventures immediately! However, we had a tired and cranky 2-year-old on our hands, and we needed to attend to a very important matter: our rumbling empty tummies!

Our first meal in Italy

A traditional wood-fired oven greeted us near the entrance to Pizzeria San Marino:

The B&B owner gave us a recommendation for dinner that night (in addition to many other useful information and tips), and we headed out on our first night in Rome to a lively and popular neighbourhood pizzeria called Pizzeria San Marino, about 10 minutes walk away. It was a fantastic meal to begin our Italian affair with - good ol' wood-fired pizza, handmade cannelloni and some fabulously prepared vegetables. Of course, the staff didn't speak a word of English (and neither had we expected them to), but there was an English menu so ordering food was easy enough. The service couldn't get more Italian than this - jovial, cheerful and friendly. And the food was delicious! Thin-crusted Capricciosa Pizza with slightly charred crispy edges and just enough topping to make it substantial but not overladen and soggy - just the way pizzas ought to be. The Spinach Ricotta Cannelloni with Ragu was also yummy for the tummy, and Zak agreed by eating at least half of the plate (but not before polishing off half of the bread basket).

Pizza Capricciosa, with tomato, mozzarella, mushrooms, artichokes, prosciutto, olives and half a hard-boiled egg:

Cannelloni with spinach and ricotta filling and meat-based ragu sauce:

I loved the bright colours of the Salad and enjoyed the Grilled Mixed Vegetables plate, particularly the eggplant and onion. The Italians sure know how to cook eggplants, and I liked how the humble grilled onion was spruced up with a seasoned polenta topping - might try that one at home!

Simple salad of mixed lettuce, arugula and cherry tomatoes:

Mixed vegetables:

Pizzeria San Marino
Via S. Marino, 52
00198 Roma, Italy

Where we stayed

We stayed at a lovely B&B called My Guest Roma, located in Piazza Bologna which is only a small distance away from the hustle and bustle city centre. I'd found out about this B&B through tripadvisor, and after reading all the positive reviews, I decided to book a room there. Whenever we travel, I usually base our accommodation in a central location, so I was a little concerned about the location of the B&B. However, it turned out that the location was actually quite ideal for us, as both the 2-year-old and I are light sleepers, and we probably wouldn't sleep very well if we had based ourselves in the noisy city area. Getting to the main sights from this B&B was easy, and Stefano (our B&B guy) gave us all the information we needed. Our days in Rome were pretty full-on and packed, and I was quite happy each night to be able to wind down and rest in the quiet B&B. Our room was very clean, and it was kept very clean every day. Having a delicious breakfast ready for us every morning, and a large mug of steaming cappuccino from the coffee machine, helped us start each day the right way and provided fuel to keep us going until lunch.

The dining area at My Guest Roma B&B:

Stefano was very helpful, and it's evident that he works very hard to run the B&B well. Even though it was a Saturday evening when we arrived (he's Jewish, but has no 'day of rest' running the B&B), Stefano sat down with us and a map of central Rome, and gave us some very useful information and a few dining recommendations. In my experience of travelling, having local knowledge is so invaluable, something that guidebooks can never fully achieve. For example, Stefano warned us about a "table cover charge" that many cafes and diners have, where if we choose to sit down at a table to just have a cup of coffee in a cafe, we may have to pay 2 or 3 times the cost of that coffee than if we'd chosen to stand at the bar and drink. A very useful information that no doubt saved us a few euros, and we also saw many locals standing at the bar to drink their espresso or eat their sandwich. Stefano's food recommendations were also great hits, and we were quite happy with all the restaurants we went to at his recommendations (we also found out the hard way that dining in the touristy parts of Rome can be a bit of a hit-and-miss, and having recommendations saved us from having a bad notion of food in Rome). The only problem we encountered was not being able to easily reach Stefano on site on the rare occasion that we needed to talk to him, but we already knew from the beginning that while he was at the B&B most of the time during the day, he went back home late each night, and we could have reached him by phone for any urgent matters.

Fresh pastries, croissants and danishes, plenty of fresh fruit and yogurt, a large variety of biscuits, jams, honey and cereal for breakfast:

We enjoyed our stay at this comfy little B&B, perhaps more than at a hotel, and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend My Guest Roma to anyone travelling to Rome for a holiday.

My Guest Roma
Viale XXI Aprile 12
00162 Rome, Italy
Tel:+39 06 86324590

Up next on the blog will be some photos of the grand Colosseum and a travel info about a tourist trap at this site which would hopefully help some readers avoid getting caught in it.

Monday 18 April 2011

Riding a junk in Hong Kong

Just taking a little break from blogging about our Europe trip to share a couple of photos. Last Thursday evening, Rob's office had a dinner cruise on rented Chinese junk vessel. Zak loves ships and boats, so we also went along for the ride around the harbour and socialising (although any sensible parent of toddlers wouldn't even entertain the thought about going out at night with a young child, especially not so soon after a 3-week long trip away from home). Yes, it was a little selfish of us to bring him out at night, but it doesn't happen a lot, and he was actually not too terrible, considering the circumstances. Plus, some of Rob's female colleagues are always so happy to see the little boy at office social events. I took a few photos with the point-and-shoot camera, but then it got too dark to take any decent shots.

The junk docked at the pier in Central:

The 2-year-old getting comfortable on board the junk while waiting for the boat to begin sailing:

I have started working on the 500+ images I shot during our 1 week trip to Italy, and I have an immense work load ahead of me. Coming up next will be photos of the sights in Rome.

Friday 15 April 2011

Vietnamese @ Viet Grill, London

Most Asian dishes are meant for eating banquet-style, with the idea that sharing dishes can help bonding between family and encourage camaraderie amongst friends who come together for a meal. If you think about it, the often large portions of dishes in Asian cuisine make it rather impractical for anyone to dine by themselves, so one usually would sensibly look for dining companions (family, friends or colleagues) to enjoy a meal with. I personally love sharing food because it's a great way to get a variety of food in one meal, and I feel that sharing instills a certain sense of trust amongst those who eat the same food together. Towards the end of our 2-weeks in London, a small group of Rob's colleagues organised dinner at Viet Grill, and Zak and I were also invited. There were ten of us in the group, and after a short discussion on how to have the meal, we decided that everyone would choose one dish to order, and the dishes would be for all to share. To be honest, I was a little surprised when no one objected to sharing food, because in my experience, most of non-Asian descent wouldn't be very open to the idea of eating from the same plate (even if there was a separate set of utensils for serving on the dish). Although there was to be one dish per person, it seemed that we ordered more than that, and the food just kept coming that it was amazing there wasn't much leftover to take home. We must have been pretty hungry that night.

Viet Grill wasn't the trendiest restaurant, but I reckon it would be nice enough for a romantic date (for me, anyway; good food trumps appearances anytime). It got quite busy even for a Tuesday night, so I imagine the food at this restaurant has drawn a large number of regulars. Staff were friendly and tried their hardest to meet our requests (even bringing out a high chair for the 2-year-old without us having to ask for one). The food was pretty good, and I can't think of any dishes that I didn't enjoy. Here are shots of some of the dishes we ate that night (excuse the quality as lighting wasn't very good and I didn't want to use the flash).

Crispy bánh xèo (savoury pancakes) containing chicken and prawn in its filling. Lovely but perhaps most of our company found it a bit fiddly having to eat with using hands instead of cutlery:

Gỏi cuốn (Vietnamese spring roll) with fresh vegetables and prawns that was a bit too heavy with the coriander herb for my liking:

Grilled scallops - plump juicy scallops served piping hot fresh off the grill:

"Flamed Wok Chicken" - with bell peppers, scallions and lemongrass:

Viet Grill squid in lemongrass, tomatoes, celery and dill:

Ginger roast duck, wok fried with seasonal greens, garlic and a satay sauce - yummy!

Coconut Red Sea prawns:

Campfire beef - check out the blue flame under the claypot:

Sizzling seafood, wok fried with seasonal vegetables and garlic sauce:

I like the fact that vegetables feature strongly in Vietnamese cuisine because I love my veges almost as much as I love seafood and meat! There was no need to order a separate vegetable dish or salad because there were plenty of vegetables in most of the dishes at dinner that night (I find it's a waste having to spend extra money on a plate of vegetables or salad just to get some nutrition while dining out). I've made up my mind that I quite like Vietnamese food - there's definitely so much more to the cuisine than just phở.

Viet Grill
58 Kingsland Road
Shoreditch, London E28DP
Tel. +44 (0)20 7739 6686

Wednesday 13 April 2011

Indian @ Brick Lane Brasserie House of Spice, London

Indian food is apparently the most popular choice in Britain when the Brits don't feel like having a traditional English meal, and curry is even touted to be the unofficial national food of UK. Never mind the fact that most Indian dishes served in the UK are not actually Indian and that most of the population in India would have never heard of these dishes, we had to include this so-called Anglo-Indian cuisine as part of our London experience. We were informed by one of Rob's London colleagues that Brick Lane has "the best curry in London", and he also kindly gave us a few restaurant recommendations. Brick Lane is also known as Banglatown as it is located in the centre of the city's biggest Bangladeshi community, and there are plenty of curry houses to choose from. From the short list of recommended curry houses given to us, we chose one, but for some reason we couldn't locate it. It was pretty crowded with the Sunday market, and it was pretty late for lunch (we thought it was 2pm, but in actual fact Europe had begun daylight savings that day so everyone and everything in London but us were running an hour ahead) so eventually we gave up and just selected one that seemed good. Whenever we dine out, we usually have a specific place in mind to go to (after having done some prior research) so we don't usually pay much attention to signs declaring "best restaurant of the year/street/city" (which usually seem to indicate otherwise). This time, with our first option out, we had a huge number of Indian restaurants to choose from and nothing to let us know which ones would be good other than what was displayed on the windows of restaurants. We went into one that was supposedly the "winner of the best restaurant in Brick Lane 2011" (according to the sign posted on the window), the Brick Lane Brasserie House of Spice.

Our staple drink at Indian restaurants, Mango Lassi:

It was a fairly small restaurant, but the waiters were friendly and the food was pretty good. The lunch special run for £6.95 which includes a choice of starter, main course and rice/naan. It's great value since a-la-carte dish start from £8.95 each. Rob went for the lunch special, and chose Samosa for starter, a Mutton Saag for his main course and garlic naan for carbs.The samosas were fresh out of the fryer and delicious. The mutton was tender and the saag gravy was yummy. The naan was good for sopping up all the sauce.

Slightly spicy vegetarian samosa. Zak polished off a whole triangle on his own:

The kitchen made a mistake and prepared chicken saag. We did receive the mutton one Rob ordered, and the chicken saag was given to us complimentary because of another ordering misunderstanding regarding the green bean dish (see below):

I was keen to have briyani since it's the standard benchmark dish I always get at new Indian restaurants, but it wasn't included as part of the lunch deal so I didn't get the lunch deal. There were a few varieties to choose from at different prices, and I ordered the Shrimp Briyani because Zak loves eating prawns. The restaurant was happy to oblige with our request to remove the cashews from the briyani as Zak has food allergies to nuts. The briyani was a hit with the boy (see previous post for an amusing photo of our 2-year-old eating the spicy rice). The vegetable curry that came with the briyani was so good, that even meat lovers wouldn't mind eating it. "Mmm, yummy good", as my son would say.

Shrimp briyani with vegetable curry:

The "green beans" dish which turned out not to be the French/runner bean type. I am not really aware of any other legumes called green beans, but the waiter said that this was a type of green beans. Well, green bean or not, this was really good. Seems like this place does vegetarian dishes really well:

We ended up eating more than the "light lunch" we'd intended to eat, but we were pretty happy with the food experience, especially considering we'd walked into this restaurant from the street with no idea of how good the food would be. 'Twas a shame we didn't have more time to fit in more than one Indian meal in London.

Brick Lane Brasserie
67 Brick Lane
London E16QL
Tel +44 (0)20 7377 8072