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Wall mural of Harry Brearley, discoverer of stainless steel by Sheffield's street artist, Faunagraphic

Attracting attention in Sheffield

Raising Awareness through Sheffield Street Art

After a whole week of everyone tweeting about this. I had to see it myself  – local talented (amazing) street artist, Faunagraphic does it again with a mural of Sheffield-born and raised Harry Brearley, discoverer of stainless ‘rustless’ steel. Painted on the wall of the Howard Hotel close to the Sheffield train station, and you really do have to see the mural in real-life to truly appreciate the artwork and attention to detail.

One thing that always blows me away about Sheffield is the vast amount of street art that has been painted around. In the past few years, I’ve discovered to admire what street artists do ~ as creatives, artists and designers it’s important to communicate in a way that makes people think deeper, feel deeper. I’ve been a fan of Faunagraphic’s work for some time now, and what I like about her artwork is that it promotes a sense of place and an environment of longevity, growth, and spiritual well-being – I’m captured into her world of ‘ a better place‘ fusing wildlife and fine art in her work.

Via street art we can discover something new, I discovered that Harry Brearley was the founder of Stainless Steel (and I thought I knew a lot about Sheffield!).

Get inspired by more of Faunagraphic’s work here. Also, check out the amazing time-lapse video by Richard Bolam, who recorded the entire process of the Harry Brearley mural here.

{photos by Cindy Cheung as shared on Instagram}

It is often said that breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

During my first month in London, I discovered the Breakfast Club, the little yellow cafes in London that serves a twist on cosy morning comforts. Since discovering the place in my first week, and having eaten a pancake or three I’ve been allured to their yellow den (hang-outs) ever since!

Instead of soggy cornflakes, porridge or PB and J, there’s Eggs Benedict served with home-style fried potatoes, the BC Fish Finger Sandwich with skin-on chips and coleslaw, or you can go for something sweeter with apple and cinnamon soaked oats and the All American pancakes, eggs, sausage, home-style fried potatoes, streaky bacon and maple syrup! ~ heart attack on a plate I hear you scream? but, actually it wasn’t as greasy as it sounds.

The Breakfast Club serves some of the best smoothies and shakes I’ve ever had (try, the ELVIS – Peanut Butter and Banana). Really, I crave for their shakes! The place has a kind of good-humored, 80′s warm-hearted feel and after leaving the place, you feel like going home and sticking on The Breakfast Club movie to watch.

As a heads up, the place can get really busy (we had to wait for a table), but service is incredibly fast and I didn’t feel rushed and like I had to quickly finish off my meal so that the table could be prepped ready for the next customer. These guys also have great taste in music too. Definitely a ‘must try’ place to go for breakfast, brunch or dinner in London. It’s become my new go-to spot when I need something quick to warm my belly…

The Breakfast Club  |  31 Camden Passage, London N1 8EA  |  020 7226 5454

{Photos by Cindy Cheung and Baz Chan (last pic)}

Tea: making new memories and people happy

On Wednesday 24 April, 200 tea-lovers joined Yorkshire Tea for a trip on the Orient Express to celebrate the joy of a proper brew. We were treated to a tea-lightful afternoon chugging around the London countryside whilst enjoying afternoon tea with champagne and tea, and to finish off, the Yorkshire Tea Brass Band got everyone dancing whilst supping exclusive Yorkshire Tea cocktails served by Jake from Jakes Bar.

For the last few months, I’ve been thinking a lot about what brings me motivation and joy. Sure, I love a good cuppa tea or a slice of good cake…but making other people happy really tops that list. What Yorkshire Tea did this week was deeply generous, and truly made lots of people happy; creating new (lasting) memories and experiences which even money couldn’t buy! ~ well, you could if you had a lot of it but we don’t; and Yorkshire Tea also gave tea-lovers something positive to talk about, simply to bring a smile to someone’s face.

We should all think about doing something to spread a little positivity. Those moments of happiness are so important especially during bleak times like these.

Making new friends over a proper brew
Here’s a sneaky peep of my day captured as photographs – afternoon tea, finger sandwiches, cakes, champagne and more!

Onboard the train, I met Steve Jones of TunneltoTowers Run London (T2T), one of a group of fire fighters who went to help with Hurricane Sandy relief and Yorkshire Tea sent tea to. I’m looking forward to supporting his charity run and helping with some fundraising this summer. Lots of support is still  needed for the T2T charity run ~ see here for more details: www.tunnel2towersrun.org

Thank you Orient Express, Yorkshire Tea, Sam Ward and everyone involved in making the day so memorable! A special thank you to Peter Hamblin for the photograph of me (first photo), you captured my day perfectly! :) – Missie Cindz

{All photos from Cindy Cheung. First photo from Peter Hamblin Photography}

Feast of St. George celebrations in the middle of Trafalgar Square

London Farmers' Market taster stall making an appearance at Feast of St. George

Yummy food and sunshine at the Feast of St.George on Saturday 20th April 2013

I love speciality food markets and being new to London I’m still finding my way around and discovering the local food scene. Last Saturday afternoon I went along to The Feast of St George where I saw traditional English fare consumed on picnic benches in the middle of Trafalgar Square.

There was an English farmer’s market, with stalls selling edible treats including a hog roast, homemade speciality pies, artisan chocolates and ice cream, freshly baked breads and cakes and freshly squeezed lemonade. There was also live cookery demonstrations and foodie workshops, plus live music and entertainment by talented Londoners.

It was a truly colourful St George’s Day in London over the weekend. Proving to tourists and fellow Londoners that London really do know how to throw a good party! – Missie Cindz

{photos by Cindy Cheung}

Awesome April – how will you make this month buzzing?

New month, new creative goals and a heap of new food dates! Let’s ALL aim to make April deliciously AWESOME!

But, how will you make April Awesome?

Discovering a new foodie joint perhaps? …mastering the art of making perfect pastry? …giving real bread to a hungry person? or perhaps trying to finish off that WordPress blogging website you said you’d try to have up and running by March? – whatever it is, having goals on a daily basis stops us drifting off in the wrong direction and keeps hunger at bay; they act as reminders to getting things done.

My mission in life has always been simple – to inform and share my love of food to encourage communities to enjoy a deliciously creative adventure of their own. Through food I’ve come to experience, when fused with like-minded people it is much more than just fuel for our body; food is emotional, familial, ethnic, social, and cultural. Food is a metaphor for building community.

But I can’t always make the biggest impact on my own. We all need some help at some point. I want some help and I’m looking for you – people who share my enthusiasm and commitment to quality and improving the well-being of readers, our communities and society.

As I get to meet and reach more and more enthusiastic people every day, I’m building a community of services, businesses and brands who want to help people make better choices. So, are you a hungry? Do you want to join the Missie Cindz community? Drop me an email and let’s work together to create new memories and experiences at the same time inspiring the world to make meaningful choices.

{Photos by Cindy Cheung as part of the #Cindy365Notes Challenge}

Missie Cindz: Life's brighter when you eat local

Look out London, there’s a new colourful girl in town – and I’m hungry!!

It’s important to keep each other and most importantly myself always hungry, to learn new things and embrace change. Today’s post is to let you all know how I will be gallivanting with my smiley fork and residing down in London next month.

Life’s all about discovering new things, tasting things you’re not sure about and finding out things you do/don’t like. So I am making it my aim when I get down there to check out the local food scene; making sure that the local food producers, artisan bakers, talented chefs and restaurants are doing things just as tastefully as I’ve experienced up in Sheffield, and I hope you will all continue following my epic and very exciting food adventures down there.

My personal food journey in Sheffield started in 2011 leading me to ‘Missie Cindz – the Food Enthusiast’. Where finding out and learning about food produced from Sheffield, hanging out with food producers and finding out more about what they did gave me the opportunity to meet a new group of people. I shared my new discoveries on this blog (almost everyday) to readers and supporters who liked what I found, and I gained a wealth of new valuable experiences which I will never forget; I called this my ‘Sheffield Food Adventure’.

By ‘fooding‘ around (which I encourage everyone to do) – I have managed to build up a huge collection of food-related ramblings and got myself a food column in Sheffield’s Toast magazine. I have curated exciting community food events such as PudInn (pudding) clubs in my local pub called Missie’s Pud Inn; and produced my own set of inspirational notebooks which epitomises the characteristics of Missie Cindz, and which lead to the awesome world-wide Travelling Notebooks Project (thank you Emma, @oh_gosh). This is just a small collection of experiences I have managed to gain from my awesome Sheffield Food Adventure, and for you to read about ALL OF THEM you’ll have to go back to my very first blog post in November 2010 – Do it!

Everything I have done so far with Missie Cindz demonstrates EPIC things can happen with good food and local people when you bring them together. Food is much more than just fuel for our body, it is emotional, familial, ethnic, social, and cultural. Food = Community.

Taking a leaf out of my notebook (page 71 of 365): Filling myself with goodness.

Missie Cindz Eats to a Size London

I started 2013 keen to get out of my comfort zone. I have been living in Sheffield all my life, and that’s a very long time for someone who’s always hungry for satisfying and wholesome new experiences! I have gotten too comfortable, and if you’re part of the competitive creative community like I am, you really need to go out there to see, hear and taste new things.

London is definitely not a city where I’d go to relax but it’s a very interesting city. It’s a creatively vibrant city. Where they serve food from all around the world with an air of anticipation and thrill. People go there because of its art and culture, history, fashion, music and the huge food & drink scene but also because something might happen. Everyone’s very social and enthusiastic about their work.

You only get one life to write an awesome story, make mistakes and live through them. I’m keen to make sure that I explore different areas of the city so that I fill my plate with awesome London goodness. So do follow and keep reading the exciting content I endeavour to share with you all on here (watch this page!)…. Look out London; Missie Cindz is ready for a good feeding!

Eat to a Size Local – building healthier appetites

You can take the girl out of the (Sheffield) City but you can’t take the City (Sheffield) out of the girl – and that’s a fact! To everyone who knows me, I’m going to be proudly speaking in my Northern ‘Yaarkshire’ twang to all the Londoners, even if they might not understand me, I know for sure, I’ll do my best to make sure they love my enthusiasm for honest food! :)

Finally, I’d like to end this post by saying how I believe we should make it our aim to all become local food discoverers in our own town/city – building a brighter network of delicious friends, creating memories and new experiences! — Missie Cindz

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