For my lovely friend Gina’s birthday in June, a group of us left the East Midlands and travelled down to that there London for a celebration. It has been so long since I saw Gina, and it was lovely to be able to celebrate her birthday with her. She selfishly decided to move from the East Mids down to London to study to be a doctor. Great for her, but I miss her face so much!

We went to Bintang in Camden, a pan Asian restaurant just round the corner from the famous Camden lock.

We had the downstairs part of the restaurant to ourselves (great news for other patrons as there was about 25 of us). It was the hottest day of the year and the downstairs was incredibly hot and at times a little uncomfortable, but the place is lovely and the food is incredible.

We had booked in for the party menu, which included a selection of starters and then a choice of mains.

The Korean chicken wings were deliciously messy, crispy wings saturated in a sticky bbq sauce.

The salt and pepper squid was crisp and perfectly cooked, with a sweet tamarind sauce. It reminded me so much of the food I ate in Thailand and bought back lovely memories.

Now I am not a massive fan of tofu, I have tired so often to cook it well and have never succeeded. However, this crispy tofu in adobo bbq sauce was amazing. I usually find tofu really chewy and a little like rubber, this was anything but!

The edamame beans were lovely, but I always get a fear of them. Years ago I went to Yo Sushi on a date for the first time ever and had no idea how to eat them. I ended up popping a whole one in my mouth and didn’t realise I had to shell them. Cue 10 minutes of trying to swallow this sharp, chewy casing. I try to avoid them now! Everyone loved them though and they were nicely seasoned.

There were 7 mains to choose from, and I went for the Bintang; chicken in a coconut, tamarind, lemongrass and lime dressing with a mountain of rice. This was amazing! The flavours were lovely and I was really nice to be able to enjoy a creamy sauce! Served with sticky jasmine rice it was full of flavour and again reminded me of the kind of thing I would have eaten in Thailand.

The katsu curry was also a big hit with my friends, the amount of chicken was huge and the sauce was flavoursome and filling.

The bao buns were soft and fluffy and filled with shredded duck and crushed peanuts.

The Pad Thai was exactly like I experienced in Thailand. Chunks of egg wrapped around tasty noodles, topped with coriander and crispy peanuts.

It was really reasonably priced at £25 per person, plus you could bring your own booze, making it much less expensive than a usual birthday dinner would be. The staff very kindly provided huge jugs of ice and water so that we could cool ourselves down in the heat. Everyone left happy, full and ready to party the night away!