Top vegan food to order in Yo Sushi!

Yo Sushi! I can't quite get enough of it. Cheap, quick and tasty and you can order as much as you want without the waiter looking at you funny because you only get little plates. Keep it coming I say! Really good food that is Asian inspired and there's plenty of these restaurants about to dine in. I never really change my order here because what I normally order doesn't get old. You can't say that about many dishes! Here's what I order when I visit Yo Sushi! and what I recommend you try out too.

1. Vegetable gyozas

To start off with why not try the vegetable gyozas? Only a small dish but enough to wet the appetite. The gyozas come as a set of three and are full of flavour like soy and ginger. You're sure to want to get more as it's so tasty and really tastes like what you'd hope good Asian food would taste like. They're always piping hot so if you have the willpower, give it a minute to cool down.

2. Cucumber nori 

Next, try out the cucumber sushi which is a set of 6 small seaweed rolls, sushi rice and small pieces of cucumber. Light and refreshing and great with soy sauce. A little on the sweet side, but not overboard.

3. Vegetable firecracker rice

A personal favourite, the firecracker rice packs a kick sure to give you a foodgasm. No really. Packed with flavour and mild heat, the dish comprises of sticky rice, carrot, spring onion, sesame seeds and more. Moist and fulfilling, the dish is sure to put a smile on your face. Try at least two of these dishes if you want to feel full up.

4. Vegetable yakisoba noodles

To end the dinner date, try out the vegetable noodles, a perfect comfort food. Packed with ginger as well as spring onion, carrot and red pepper. The meal is a party in your mouth. I'd suggest to keep a napkin nearby as it is a little on the oily side though, but totally worth it.

And that's what I highly recommending eating. Who said finding tasty vegan food was hard?! Let me know below what you order at Yo Sushi! when you go. As a massive fan of the food, I'd love to hear.

Liam

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Prezzo: Review

It was in a recent visit that I went to Prezzo to eat out. Full of expectation as the new restaurant opened nearby and ready to eat to my heart's desire. How did it go? Well... *awkward pause*

I always go to new restaurants with an open mind but I always have a level of expectation. I like basic customer service, a clean setting and good relatively inexpensive food. I don't think that's too much to ask. Well on this recent visit to Prezzo (which I've never visited before) I got only one of my expectations fulfilled: the cleanliness. As for everything else, it was an utter disappointment.

Let's start with the food. Off the very limited choice of vegan food, I ordered the bruschetta to start and the courgette pappardelle as a main. The starter to my surprise was anything but bruschetta. I'm a massive fan of bruschetta and if I'm right it's toasted ciabatta with chopped tomatoes and balsamic vinegar. What I got was two pieces of hard toast with some non-cut cherry tomatoes and a limited amount of pesto. Yum...not. It was a real shame as brushetta is one of my favourite starters to eat in a restaurant. This was not off to a good start. As for the main, it was a pasta dish made up of courgette, cherry tomatoes, onion, chilli, garlic and herbs in a pomodoro sauce. Sounds nice, right? Sadly it was not. It tasted like a cheap microwave meal just with a hefty price tag. It was a shame as I was really looking forward to it. It lacked taste and was very sickly and Prezzo overkilled it with far too much courgette. I like courgette as much as the next person, but there's a limit!

The customer service though, you're thinking that must have been good surely. Well I would have told you about the customer service should I have got any. My friend and I were not only greeted with a grumpy face, but we didn't even get a basic hello on arrival from the senior staff worker. This worker seated us, but did not do it with a smile or show any interest in us being there. If anything, it felt like we were an inconvenience. After he seated us he did not come back to check on how we found our food and there was no basic customer service. A real shame.

Overall a pretty poor visit but well done to Prezzo for being so consistent at ignoring my friend and I and having no manners. As for the food, it spoke for itself. A little more effort put into the food and it could have been something really nice. Let's hope in time Prezzo prove us all wrong and give outstanding service and food. Here's to dreaming!

Restaurant rating: ★

What do you think of Prezzo?

Liam

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Mental Illness is not a joke

From mugs saying 'obsessive cat disorder' on it to be people describing each other as anorexic, the conversation surrounding mental health has taken a turn for the worst. No wonder people have a fear speaking up about their own mental health issues when this sort of conversation encourages people to stigmatise psychiatric illnesses.

Source: here.

Speaking up about any illness is hard for sure, but the thing about mental illness is that it receives a lot of stigma. Who would want to speak up about their illness when they might face some sort of prejudice like this? But where is this stigma coming from? Well I have one suspicion and it's from society's conversation! You hear it again and again; people using mental illnesses as adjectives and as jokes. Silly really. Something like:

"You're so OCD"
"She's so anorexic"
"You're so bipolar sometimes"
"She's absolutely schizo"
"I'm depressed"
"I'm going to kill myself if...happens"

It's this sort of ignorance that encourages stigmatisation. It's this sort of ignorance that proves how uneducated society really is. It's a shame because I'm sure a lot of people don't mean to cause offence but they really do. Using a mental illness as an adjective to describe something is not okay and needs to end. It dumbs down mental illness as being a joke, maybe even made up.

How? Well you're not acting as if you're OCD, you're just being a little more obsessive than normal. That person isn't annorexic, they're just skinny or don't eat much often. No you're not bipolar, you're happy today and were sad yesterday. And no you certainly aren't depressed, you're just stressed or sad - and that unlike some mental illnesses will pass. 

This conversation dumbs down how serious mental illness really is and is so offensive on so many levels. Making comments like this makes it seem like mental illness is nothing, no big deal, like it's just something silly or dare I say cute in some scenarios like being obsessive (OCD). Someone please explain to me how anything about this issue is cute or silly as I can't quite see it myself.

But it gets worse. Not only is the literal conversation bad but now stores have made it into a profit-driven industry. You can buy merchandise like 'obsessive cat disorder' mugs which are an obvious spinoff of someone diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder. Nothing about this is okay. These mugs makes a joke out of an illness which faces so much stigma only to add to it as being nothing more than a personality trait. Let's make it clear that mental illness is not a personality trait, it is an illness. Yes you can't see it but it's real. Your brain is an organ just like any other and can get ill with psychiatric illnesses just like another organ can get ill with something else. Please do some research before you go to describe yourself as OCD or depressed like it's no big deal.

Where does the problem lie? Education. If there was proper education on mental illness in schools and the workplace people would understand mental illness as being a real thing and not a way to describe themselves. And if the education was informative, maybe people would think twice before buying into an industry making money out of joking around about it i.e. the merchandise I mentioned.

It's a shame society has come to this. If you feel the same as me, comment below and join in the conversion because #MentalIllnessIsNotAJoke.

Liam

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A Gentleman's guide to grooming

Grooming is that one thing we all have to get around to doing as part of our daily or weekly routine. Even though a little tedious, it's got to be done. But what's it take to be a well groomed gentlemen? Well I've learnt a thing or two about this by now since I've developed from a 'no facial hair man' to a...little bit of facial hair man. GOODBYE PUBERTY. So here I am passing on what I know. They say you can tell a lot about a man by how he grooms himself so to look the part let me tell you what you've got to do. It's a simple as 1, 2, 3 and doesn't take very long so let's get started.

1. Exfoliate

I can't emphasise how important it is to exfoliate your facial skin prior to shaving or trimming. It does wonders for cleaning your hairs up as it creates a nicer slate to shave and trim on. According to Gilette, if you don't exfoliate, old skin cells, oil and dirt might be matting down facial hair and blocking your razors path. Yikes.

I use Cup O'Coffee exfoliater by Lush Cosmetics.

2. Trim/Shave

This one is a bit obvious but you're going to need a tool to do the deed with. Duh. Invest in a good quality razor or trimmer to get the best experience possible. It might cost a few bob, but it's a jolly good investment.

I use the Philips QT4000/13 trimmer for trimming and Gilette razors for a full shave.

3. Coconut oil/moisturiser

All this grooming isn't the easiest on skin so to keep your money maker in check, post shave you need something to rehydrate your skin with since it loses moisture during shaves and trims.

• Trim: You've heard it again and again, coconut oil is glorious. It has so many uses and there's always someone talking about its benefits. It's especially great for grooming in that it softens and hydrates facial hair. Perfect for post trim to keep your beard sparkling. Massage into the follicles and prepare to be amazed.
• Shave: Probably more important to hydrate than trimming after a shave as shaving strips away moisture and leaves skin feeling dry and dehydrated. Grab yourself a non oily moisturiser, something like Enzymion from Lush Cosmetics which is what I use post shave.

4. Tea tree

To end the grooming affair, dab or spray on some tea tree water onto where you shaved or groomed. This is to prevent any outbreaks in the skin. Happens to the best of us when we shave; spots just come out in full force. So to prevent this, the antibacterial elements in tea tree will stop spots in their tracks.

What's your grooming routine like?

Liam

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Night Time Music Playlist

Music is great, right? There's something for everyone. Music that makes you laugh; music that makes you cry; music that makes you dance and even music that helps you to chill out and even fall asleep. The latter applies best to me as I use music mostly to help me chill out, wind down and fall asleep to. Of course I love a cheeky boogie to music too though. But for the purpose of this post I'm going to give you my favourite songs to chill out and also fall asleep too. Maybe you'll find something you like or maybe you'll recognise some of these.

1. Skinny Love by Bon Iver

2. Holocene by Bon Iver

3. Candles by Daughter

4. Youth by Daughter

5. To Build a Home by The Cinematic Orchestra

6. Angels by The xx

7. Hey Now by London Grammar

8. Higher Love by James Vincent McMorrow

9. Naked as we came by Iron & Wine

10. Me by The 1975

A massive shoutout to Spotify for having such a wide diverse of music on offer. If it wasn't for me purchasing a subscription with them I wouldn't have come across some of these songs or found a passion for music. Kudos to them for helping me wind down.

Most of the songs I've listed are by mostly indie or alternative artists, but I've always found non-mainstream music artists to know a thing or two about the art of chilling out. Yes they often offer other music genres too but they always have a song or two in an album that makes you want to grab a cup of tea and curl up in bed to it. Am I right?

The artists I've listed are mainly modern and all apart from one or two are fairly well known which goes to show that you can still make great music no matter how famous you get. And as for the less well known artists like Iron & Wine and James Vincent McMorrow they both do a good job as independent music creators. Here's to great music!

What's your favourite songs to wind down to? Let me know below!

Liam

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Featuring blue.

Another day, another outfit to wear. Following a Primark haul I found a complete outfit that was perfect for a warm day in the land of Swansea. It was blue, bold and light and something I don't normally wear but like other fashion enthusiasts I like to experiment. Take a look below.

The shirt I wore was very light and short sleeved and let me show off my guns aka what my momma gave me. It featured a pelican and plant design on a blue background. With this I wore a pair of skinny light blue jeans and blue slip on shoes. Sensing a theme? Blue was the look I was going for. It's not my typical look as I normally like blue to be one of many colours in an outfit, not the only colour but the different varieties of blue worked well. The shirt pattern also added a bit of sparkle and who doesn't like sparkle?! Not me.

I wore this as a casual spring outfit and can't really see it as being anything more than that. It's suited for beach walks, shopping and a lunch date, but not really evening or formal wear but add some black skinny jeans and a pair of boots and maybe it could be.

Showing off some ankle in this outfit...cheeky.

 What I wore:

• Shirt - Primark, £7
• Jeans - Primark, £10
• Shoes - Primark - £12

Total cost: £29

What do you think of this outfit?

Liam

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