An article in kitchn about cheese and onion sarnie led to another one about ploughman’s lunch. According to the people at AT, a ploughman’s consists of:

• Branston pickle
• a few pieces of your choice of English cheeses; Cotswold, Huntsman, Stilton, Shropshire Blue, English Cheddar, etc.
• a hunk of crusty bread
• a pint of good English ale
• (optional) cold cuts or pâté
• (optional) apples
• (optional) hard boiled eggs or pickled eggs

I would normally not eat the pickled onions and no, the apple isn’t optional.

And now I have a craving for branston, even though I didn’t usually have it even in London. Sigh. It’s available in the US from amazon and other online british food places. What I find interesting is the “other customers also bought” bit which shows: HP sauce, marmite, golden syrup, piccalilli and ribena. Double, triple, quadrupole sigh. Major homesickness about to hit in 3, 2, 1….

p.s. Brits — did the packaging on the branston change? it’s different from before.

We had a visitor from the london office this week, and my nice colleagues took her out for chicago style deep dish pizza. I tagged along to Lou Malnati’s, which according to some people, has the best deep dish pizza in town.

The pizza itself was pretty good. We had two: the Lou’s which is spinach, mushroom and sliced tomato; and the sausage. Personally I prefer the vegetarian one, the sausagemeat was a whole layer spread on the crust which was too much for me. Man, the slices were thick and the crust as crunchy as expected.

What I can say is that the pizza is the best thing at the place, possibly the only good thing. Service was mediocre, on the slow side. Initially they placed us in a desolate upstairs area when downstairs wasn’t even full. We had to ask to be moved downstairs to better surroundings. The pinot noir we ordered with the pizza wasn’t bad. Compared with Giordano’s I probably prefer the latter.

 

The eating continues. I’ve been over my calorie goal, and no exercising, for more than 2 weeks. But, I’m on holiday, right?

Went with parents to the café marco for lunch buffet. Seniors get a discount so there were quite a few there taking advantage. It was well worth even the full price. Everything was so well done — salad, seafood, sashimi, 3 hot dish stations, extensive desserts, chocolate fountain, movenpick ice cream. Amazing.

After all the gorging, Mum and I spent our energy hunting for a wii. Went to the golden arcade, but the ones on offer there were too “fixed” — she couldn’t use regular disks, had to download into a flashdrive — I didn’t know where to do that. So we went back to 188 and got the proper version for a higher price. I got a couple of games myself too — lego star wars and sports resort.

Dinner with sis and my niece at tokio joe. I was stuffed from lunch but couldn’t pass up more fresh delicious japanese food.

 

Today’s itinerary can be summed up by these 2 pots. Lunch was at a local restaurant that specialised in “chicken and pork stomach” pot. There was a long wait for it, may be they had to cook the chicken? It arrived with the chicken in the soup, a bit like sukiyaki. It was again, fresh and delicious.

The second pot is fish congee. The fish was swimming fresh, the flesh went into the congee and the bones was steamed. A theme to the food here is everything fresh.

In between? We went to Walmart and bbmm went for foot massage. Weather is very very cold.

omg, I’m turning into a health nut or at least a health nut wannabe. I started eating oatmeal! I mean, for most of my adult life I only had 2-3 cups of tea for breakfast. The past year or so I started to have cereal, but more often than not I’m not eating anything. I’ve always equated oatmeal with breakfast porridge, ie stodgy gummy tasteless stuff that only appeal to militant vegetarian yoga health fanatics.

Then last week I got some instant oatmeal with apple and found that it tasted nice and was great at staving off my morning hunger. Today I cooked up a pot of steel cut oats (30mins of simmering and stirring), mixed in a small pot of greek yogurt with honey, and finally a handful of blueberries. It was rather good and filling. I deliberately cooked 5 portions, and divided it up into small containers so I can reheat at work.

Crikey. What next? Meditation, chanting? I hope I don’t start talking about supplements and ginko jujube whatever. I take 1 multi-vitamin tablet and 1 vitamin C drink a day if I remember, that’s it.

I had 2 cheeseburgers today and they couldn’t have been more different. The first was at the ski slope (yeah, I was at wilmot mountain again, it was damn foggy but fun), the type of cheeseburger you get at a self-service fast food type of place. It tasted of unidentified meat and artificial cheese. But I’d been skiing for 2 hours on just a bowl of oatmeal and I was hungry — it was what I needed then.

The second cheeseburger was a pretty standard portobello mushroom cheeseburger that I made at home. There are plenty of recipes, including this recent one at the new york times. I marinaded the portobello in balsamic, olive oil, garlic and s&p for 15 mins, then sautéed it in a frying pan. Topped with a couple of slices of mozzarella and on a bed of cooked spinach in a bun. It was brilliant. Didn’t miss the meat at all.

 

I went crazy with the cooking this weekend, and have ended up with way more food than one person can reasonably consume. Heck, a whole family. Recipes to be posted in due course but here’s what I made:

• braised turkey leg from elise — turkey drumsticks, mirepoix, turkey stock, potato, carrot and parsnips for 3 hrs on the hob — a satisfying and economical stew for the winter
• roasted brussels sprouts, elise again — roasted with olive oil, garlic, a squeeze of lemon juice and plenty of salt — surprisingly irresistible, the outside leaves were crunchy and the inside wasn’t mushy like traditional boiled sprouts
• eggs baked in potato skin, from kate in the kitchen — easy to make, if a little time consuming (potatoes take 1 hr to bake, eggs take 15mins to set) but so good! For a non-vegetarian version, sprinkle some bacon bits on top
• mashed potato — from the potato flesh, see above. I made 3 baked potatoes so lots of mash, and also 6 of those baked egg skins
• grilled chicken thigh — a whole pack of 8, for during the week
• blueberry muffins — one of my standby recipes, from delia’s summer collection — i can never get the muffins to puff up like commercially made ones, but i’ve always loved these, and they are never too sweet

There’s also mushroom, rocket, spinach, yellow pepper, carrots and cherry tomatoes in the fridge, as well as honeycrisp apples and red bartlett pears. How much running do I have to do to eat all of that?!

This is from simply recipes though to be honest it’s a standard braising recipe that I’ve used time and time again. The 2 new things are: short ribs, which I’ve never done before and reducing the sauce till it’s very thick.

1. brown ribs (no oil needed, it’s already fat enough), remove from pan
2. remove excess oil, sweat mirepoix until soft
3. add 1 bottle wine, reduce to 1/3 original volume and almost syrupy
4. return ribs to pan, add chicken stock until ribs are almost covered — recipe says veal or beef stock, neither of which I have
5. braise at 180°C for 3hrs until meat is falling off bones
6. leave overnight — normally it’d be in the fridge, I did one better and left it on my balcony with its 4” of snow
7. remove fat layer (there’s a lot of it), reheat making sure ribs are well glazed

We had a get-together after work, for a couple of colleagues who left at the end of the year. It was at the Trattoria Isabella on Jefferson. We had a corner of the restaurant, and instead of a sit down meal, had pizza and wine on bar tables. It was great. I ended up having the equivalent of one whole pizza and a bottle of wine. I’m glad I didn’t drive. It was past 9pm so I took a cab home.

I discovered quinoa over the summer and has made it several times as a salad or as the starchy part of a meal. Little did I know, until I read more about it, that chocolate and quinoa go so well together.

This recipe is adapted from here. The author thoughtfully tried to convert American cup measurements to metric but failed in a spectacularly cute way — there is no way on earth that flour and sugar are measured in ml.

3 eggs
150g sugar
100g butter
100g chocolate
225g cooked quinoa
175g flour
1 tsp bp

1. whisk egg and sugar until pale and thick
2. melt butter and chocolate over bain marie
3. add chocolate mixture to egg mixture
4. add quinoa
5. sift in flour and bp
6. bake at 180°C for 30-35mins

Okay, this is just…phenomenal. The quinoa gives it a chewy crunchy texture that is unique and the cake itself is moist and fluffy. I ate a slice, then half of one, then the bits that fell off when I moved it. I’ve never been so lacking in discipline, and I don’t usually like chocolate.

the 2006 vintage is deep crimson in color. Its nose is dense, complex and full of black cherry, fresh almonds and bitter chocolate notes. The entry is very full and velvety, enveloped with round, deep tannins. The finish lingers on with aromas of bramble berries, cigar tobacco and cocoa beans.

It’s a blended red made from 87% cabernet sauvignon, 5% cabernet franc, 5% petit verdot and 3% merlot. A total of 3500 cases were produced, and the price is around $40. It’s meant to be consumed new, but can be laid down for 10-15 years.

Come to think of it, making yule log is one of my family’s christmas traditions. This is a nigella like recipe made from a flourless cake mixture and chocolate butter icing.

6 eggs, separated
6oz / 150g sugar
2oz / 50g cocoa powder + 2tbsp for icing
3oz / 75g butter
8oz / 250g icing sugar

1. whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks, then add 50g sugar
2. in a separate bowl, whisk egg yolks, rest of sugar until pale and mousse-like, add cocoa powder
3. fold egg white mixture into chocolate mixture
4. bake at 180°C for 20mins until cake springs back when pressed
5. cool for 5mins, then turn out to greaseproof paper sprinkled with sugar on a wet tea towel
6. make icing by whisking butter, icing sugar, 2tbsp cocoa, 2 tbsp milk
7. spread icing on cake, then roll up like a swiss roll
8. cut off a branch, stick to main branch using icing
9. spread icing all over, sieve icing sugar and decorate

It was too sweet, next time I’ll use crème au buerre filling and ganache as icing.

 

I’m very happy I set myself this goal. I’m not vegetarian, but in the end it was super easy to be a vegetarian for a week. I didn’t miss meat at all and didn’t feel like any of the food was a compromise. Of course it was made easier because I had control over what I cooked and ate. So, a representation of what I ate this week:

• butternut squash and apple bake, with chickpeas and cranberries
• red bell peppers stuffed with tomato and mozarella
• pasta with brie and tomato
• mushroom & asparagus bread pudding
• normal salads with spinach, peppers, tomato and regular ingredients
• cheese pizza — from beggar’s on friday, we also had sausage pizza and I wasn’t even tempted

I hadn’t given savoury bread puddings much thought, because of the whole carb thing. But I was looking for new vegetarian recipes and came across this at 101 cookbooks. And the more I read about it, the more sense it makes that it will be a nice, filling dish for main course or as a side dish.

I cut up about 2/3 of a round of sourdough bread into cubes. The bread needed to be stale, and mine had only been out for a day. So I took as much of the crusty part as possible. Instead of sourdough, I think any type of crusty, heavier-than-sliced-white bread will do.

I then added diced mushroom and asparagus. Ended up about half a punnet of mushrooms and about 12 stalks of asparagus. There really is no need to measure, but put in as much as the pan can fit.

The liquid was a mixture of 2 eggs plus 500ml milk and stock (about 2:1 ratio). The recipe talked about cups, which always confuses me. I used ‘normal’ milk, I think skim milk will be too thin. And because this was vegetarian week I used vegetable stock, any other time I would have used chicken stock.

I let the liquid soak into the bread for a bit, then baked at 200°C for 1 hr until the bread is golden brown. Let the pudding stand for 5-10mins before serving.

It’s good! I’ll definitely make it again. There are so many other vegetables that can be used — peppers, butternut squash, root vegetables.

This is an old recipe revisited. I got this off an early Jamie Oliver series, may even have been the original Naked Chef. Now that’s memories.

It’s so easy to make, no cooking apart from the pasta. I used fettuccine rigate, which is like regular fettuccine except with ridges along the length of the noodle. Basically, cook the pasta, drain and add cubed brie and cherry tomatoes. I used a mixture of fresh and roasted tomatoes. The heat from the pasta will melt the cheese. Season and drizzle with olive oil.

The first time I came across quince paste was in Australia, and I’ve been lucky enough to have had quince paste in my fridge for many years. I had to throw them away when I moved. Which was why I was so ecstatic to see fresh quinces at the store last week.

Quince the fruit looks like a pear, which was a surprise to me. I’d never googled it, for some reason in my little brain I thought it’d look like kumquats for no good reason other than the ‘q’ factor. Heehee.

This time I did google, and learned that in its raw state the fruit is inedible. Mostly it’s cooked and made into a paste or jelly. In Spain it’s called membrillo and is eaten with manchego, a hard cheese made from sheep’s millk — to the extent that it seems to be the national snack.

 

This quince paste recipe is straightforward but time consuming:

1. peel, core and chop 6 quince fruits (about 4-5 pounds)
2. cover with water and simmer for 1-1.5hrs until tender
3. strain water away, blitz until smooth
4. return to pan and cook for 2hrs until thick — took me longer than that
5. dry in low oven (100°C is the lowest mine goes) for 12hrs — again, took me longer than that, and it never really solidified like the commercially bought ones I used to have

Oh, so worth it, so delicious. And I went especially to the new french market to get the manchego cheese. Then I spread the paste over like jam. The manchego is nice, it had a rosemary crust and a mild taste. I’m thinking I can substitute comté or gruyère to pair with the quince.

 

We had a potluck at work today. Just simple food, no competition or anything complicated. Normally I’d make dessert but other people signed up for it already. So I made salmon egg roll. It was okay.

Some of the other dishes include: a whole ham, cold cuts and sandwiches, meat pasta, pasta salad, taquitos, taffy apple salad, pecan bars, fruit.

The idea is always the same: brown the protein, add vegetables, add liquid and cook slowly for 2-3hrs until the meat is tender. Serve over some sort of carb that can mop up the sauce.

I saw oxtail and I was so excited. It’s been a long time. I braised it with a bottle of guinness and several ice cubes of chicken stock. The vegetables were standard mirepoix plus canned tomato. I let the finished product sit in the fridge overnight so the extra fat can solidify to be scraped off.

This was served over potato and turnip mash.

I was invited to Car’s family for Thanksgiving. There was a lot of preparation last night, and I helped with mushing the stuffing (they call it dressing so I’ll follow) — minced beef, celery, onion, bread, egg and sage. The turkey we stayed up till 3am last night to put in the oven. It’s 25 pounds and calculated time is 8.5hrs, I think it was cooked a little longer at the end. Other members of the family brought some food. I filled up my plate and went to town with eating, I was very full afterwards. I think everyone was happy too.

from top: mash potato (sweet potatoes hidden behind), polish sausage w/sauerkraut, turkey, cranberry, italian sausage, cornbread, dressing, brussel sprouts

It isn’t exactly the food, although it does taste nice; what I miss is going out with mm. Aside from people at work, my family and the very occasional social event, mm is the only person I go eat out with. I’ve learned that I dislike eating out alone in a restaurant — I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve done it, and all of those occasions I was on a business trip. Fast food, or even casual buffet, is fine. Restaurant? No way.

Japanese food is our favourite, and second will be Korean food. The clay pots, bbq beef, a whole table of side dishes. Yum.

So it hit me suddenly today how much I miss Japanese food. It’s been far too long since I’ve had decent Japanese food. Sorry, but the sushi I’ve had at the restaurant at PT and at the buffet at Sears Tower are okay in an Americanised food sort of way, but at best they are a poor relative to the real thing.

Sigh.

I don’t even want to think about how many more weeks I have to wait. In the meantime I have all these pics I can look at.

(taken using lomo app in iphone)

Seeing that it’s halloween, it’s fitting that I’m sipping blood—er, I mean red wine from vampire.com:

Rumor has it that the Vampire Vineyards are actually owned by a circle of vampires, and the company’s founder, an entertainment attorney from New York, is actually just a front.

I’ve always thought risotto is difficult to make, at least perfect. I knew I’d have to try to make it one day, and with the mushrooms I bought at the farmer’s market early this week, it’s a good opportunity. This recipe is inspired by, no surprise, Elise, with modifications. And I didn’t measure.

1. sauté mushrooms with butter, garlic and cream; set aside
2. meanwhile, heat up a carton vegetable stock to simmering point
3. melt butter in heavy pan, add arborio rice
4. slowly, add stock one ladle at a time, stir until completely absorbed before adding next ladle
5. when all liquid is absorbed and rice cooked, add mushroom mixture
6. season, serve with shavings of pecorino (or parmesan)

The verdict — it was scrumptious!!! I can’t stop eating it. It’s like congee made with cream of mushroom soup. The cream and mushroom flavours really came through. And the rice wasn’t hard to make. All I needed to do was focus on what was going on in the pan and not multi-task. The actually cooking of the rice took about 20mins. Can’t wait till I make it again.

My second Landshark event today was the oyster festival at Roscoe Village. According to the original blurb in Time Out it’s supposed to be a Guinness and oyster event; but somehow Guinness disappeared.

The entrance fee was $5, and of all the events I’ve been to this year, this $5 was a waste. First off, I expected oysters — as in raw bar oysters. Was very disappointed that there was only one stand, selling baked stuffed oysters at $20 for the half dozen. I guess Americans have this paranoia about serving raw seafood, but if that’s the case why have the festival in the first place. Tasted okay, and nice with beer, but nothing like fresh raw oysters, right? Sigh.

Still hungry, so I had a lamb kebab and another beer. Took the bus and was home by 5pm.

I went crazy at the farmer’s markets this week. Yesterday I went to the one downtown and bought 8 bags of dried cherries, cranberries and blueberries — enough for the winter. Today I went to my local one and bought enough fruit and veg for…definitely enough to last me 1-2 weeks. Mushroom medley of shiitake, crimini and oyster $10; butternut squash $2; heirloom tomatoes $6.50 (a bit pricey, those); apples (a variety similar to honey crisp, I forget) $5 and bartlett pears $2. Bear in mind I still have courgettes, salad leaves and orange peppers in the fridge. Oh, salad days are never over.

Spotted via accidental hedonist, a chart that rates our food threshold. The idea is that people generally have limits to what they are willing to eat. The higher the tolerance for “strange” food, the higher their score.

I score 18, because I have no problem with shark’s fin soup — I’ve had more shark’s fin soup than, say, clam chowder. But insects are at 15 and I’m not sure I can stand to consume insects. And therein lies the issue to this linear, and over-simple scale. It’s a good visual indicator, but one man’s meat is another’s poison. It seems also that this scale is more an indicator of the person’s tolerance towards the ethics of the food items rather than taste. The better question is, where is your tolerance to trying these food. I’m willing to bet that many people will automatically go “ewww” to bird’s nest soup before they even try it. In which case I’ll be a 20 because, yes, I am willing to try bear’s heart and monkey’s brain (although, I’m not sure how easy it is to get monkey’s brain nowadays, it seems to be something that westerners obsess about more than necessary). Then again, I’m stuck on insects at 15.

Food tolerance depends on many factors, like ethnicity, upbringing, world experience. When I mentioned panna cotta to a colleague yesterday, and this colleague is a well travelled foodie, they had no idea what it was. I also met someone recently who appears to be a “regular” Mid-Westerner but thinks that the only Japanese food worth eating is sashimi and that most of the Japanese food in the US is too Americanized that its distinctive feature, delicacy, has been lost. Sometimes, people surprise me.

For some reason I was under the impression that panna cotta is difficult to make. Perhaps it’s because it tastes so decadent and creamy that it must be hard to make, right?

Oh my, how WRONG.

This recipe is from Chocolate & Zucchini, and even Ms Dusoulier acknowledged how easy it was.

• bring to a simmer 250ml whipping cream, 250ml whole milk and 50g sugar, stirring occasionally to ensure the mixture doesn’t boil
• soak a packet of gelatin in a little water to soften, add to hot cream mixture to dissolve
• cool, then transfer to bowls quickly rinsed with cold water (for easy removal)
• refridgerate for 3 hours or overnight until set
• to make the coulis, chop 250g strawberries and heat with a simple syrup of 50g sugar and 2tbsp water, then blitz till smooth
• decorate with strawberries

This recipe is from a book that is not a cookbook. It’s unusual to find recipes in hidden inside fiction, but that’s what Karin did with Making up for Lost Time, one of my favourite romances of hers. There are other recipes in there I will try, and I really really would like to have a copy of that From the Waterview cookbook that Jamie Onassis wrote.

This is a lighter version of the traditional chicken cacciatore, and like many traditional dishes each cook will do it differently. I diced the vegetables quite large, and kept the sauce thin. I froze the sauce after cooking, to add to the chicken when I was ready to make the dish.

For the cacciatore sauce:

3 oz jar marinated artichoke hearts
3 cloves garlic
1 onion, chopped
4 carrots, diced
4 stalks celery, diced
2 red peppers, diced
8oz mushrooms, diced
large can plum tomato
oregano, basil

drain artichokes, keeping the liquid
cook carrots in artichoke juice until soft
add garlic, onions, celery, peppers and mushrooms and heat until cooked
add a little red wine to deglaze
add remaining ingredients and simmer for about 1 hour, adding water if too thick

The chicken was baked separately, adding the sauce about 15mins from the end. I served it with rigatoni, perfect for soaking up the sauce.

Quinoa is new to me, I’ve read many good things about it. I ended up picking at it while cooking and it’s kinda addictive. As usual Elise has the perfect description,

It has this wonderful nutty flavor, that actually doesn’t need much added to it; I used to make a quick batch, pour on some flax seed oil, sprinkle with a little salt, and gobble it up.

This dish is based loosely from a recipe from 100 cookbooks. Well actually, the only things I have in common with Heidi’s recipe are the quinoa and tomatoes. But that’s the point of this recipe, its flexibility and how it’s a great use of whatever vegetables and ingredients are sitting around in the fridge.

1. cook quinoa according to instructions — simmer in double volume of water until completely absorbed, very similar to cooking rice
2. in a frying pan, heat 1 clove of garlic with olive oil, then add the quinoa
3. add vegetables — i had leftover carrots, mushroom and i supplemented them with frozen corn and spinach. Frying them all up it’s a bit like making fried rice
4. add diced baked bread cheese just before turning off the heat
5. season, and dress with red pesto
6. top with dried cranberries and roasted cherry tomato

Basically, any dried robust vegetable can be used. Use tofu, halloumi or feta in place of the baked cheese. This is a completely vegetarian dish, but it didn’t taste like it’s just vegetarian.

Something else I got at the farmer’s market, this time at the Daley Plaza market in town, are white and purple peppers. The last time I had these peppers was when I was in Sydney with Mum, a million years ago.

I decided to use multi-coloured peppers, so I cut up green, red, yellow and orange in addition to these ones, making a total of 6 types of peppers. Made a nice presentation. Served with 3 dips: hummus, yogurt cheese (in lieu of sour cream) and guacamole.

In taste and texture I like the purple ones better, they’re like green peppers only crunchier and without that peppery taste. The white ones, like most white food, are pretty bland.

I saw this recipe on chocolate et zucchini and immediately thought about all the various courgettes, zucchinis and squashes that are available during the summer months at farmer’s markets.

This is a recipe from Donna Hay’s A New Cook. I’ve been looking for ways to use the beets I bought at the farmers market earlier this week. The beet greens recipe based on one from Elise Bauer.

marinade chicken in balsamic vinegar, garlic rub, s&p
scrub beets, keeping skin on, add olive oil, salt and bake at 180°C for around 40mins until soft enough for a knife to run through
about 15mins before the beets are cooked, brown chicken in a pan and add to the beet pan to finish in oven
wash beet greens thoroughly, remove tough stalks and chop roughly
dice 2 slices of bacon, fry in hot pan
add beet greens to bacon, add water, cover and simmer for 10mins until soft; season with worcester sauce and a little sugar
when everything is ready, peel beets, cut into wedges and serve

I bought a couple of bottles of wine, this is Old Moon old vine zinfandel.

I made it to the farmer’s market again. There seems to be even more people, and more stalls. Nice to see people coming out in support of local farmers.

I bought yellow zucchinis, beets and white nectarines. I’ve always bought beets from cans or jars so it’ll be interesting to see how I deal with this bunch. The white nectarines taste more like plums, I wonder if they mislabelled.

I also bought some more of the baked cheese from before and a baguette from bennison’s. When I got home I just sliced up the baguette and had it plain with a drizzle of EVOO…it was yummy.

Interesting that wisebread just had an article about the bargains at the local Asian market. That’s exactly what I did, went to the Asian supermarket to get soy sauce and fishballs. I was so happy to see these long beans that I immediately got them, then thought about what i had at home. My fridge and pantry aren’t really that stocked up yet, but I had scallops in the freezer and I usually have bell peppers for salad.

Perhaps unexpected, I’m actually not very good at asian food. The basics of stir-frying I know, even though I hardly do it. Cook the meat first, until almost done then remove. Then cook the vegetables and return the meat at the end to heat through and season. This combination was simple and great. I served it on couscous cos, well, i felt like it. There’s this saying that good food must have colour, smell and taste and i think i achieved that.

One of my favourite memory is picking rich, deep, almost black cherries from the tree. Cherries, at their sweetest, is simply heaven. So when I saw these rainier cherries, I was intrigued. Yellow with red tinge, i thought they’d be more tart than regular cherries. Oh, was I wrong. These were really really good — sweet and with a soft almost creamy texture. Apparently this variety was developed specially at Washington State University and is, no surprise, a big seller in Japan.

Andersonville has its own farmer’s market, it’s the sort of community that will seem incomplete unless it has one. It’s started 3 weeks ago, and takes place on Wednesdays between 4-8pm. Although quite small at only one block (plus my frame of reference is Union Square in NYC, so everything pales against it), there are plenty of local vendors selling fruit, veg, bread, meat, tofu, flowers, and cheese.

I bought this juustalepia cheese after spying the stall person grilling pieces of it on a small round grill and, most importantly, free samples. It came in 3 flavours — original, garlic and spicy. I stuck to the original one.

Better known as juustoleipä, or Finnish squeaky cheese, it’s a hard cheese grilled or toasted to give it its distinctive charred crust. To me, in taste, texture and squeakiness it’s just like halloumi, of which i’m a big fan. I heated small cubes in the oven and served it with a salad of grilled asparagus, romaine, orange pepper and tomato. Yep, just like halloumi. I’m sure to get some more next visit.

 
Why 2 pics? One used the Nikon and the other the iphone. Not photoshopped. I’m quite impressed with the iphone.

Over the weekend I was introduced to catalina dressing, which apparently is an old fashioned dressing made from ketchup, vinegar, worchestershire sauce, paprika. It’s really nice — tangy and light. There’s lots of recipes for it, but kraft makes it, there’s even a light version, and one with honey to make it sweeter. I tried it with a salad tonight and i’m totally converted, even though I never use dressing.

My flight was at 4.35pm, and I gave myself 2 options: a) check out, leave the luggage at the hotel, go to Oxford Street and come back; b) check out, leave the luggage at Paddington, go to Oxford Street then get on the Heathrow Express. I opted for (b) cos I didn’t fancy trekking back to Liverpool Street, there wasn’t a lot of time anyway. What I didn’t account for, was that it costs £8 for left luggage. That’s too expensive!



So I ended up hanging around the station. Had a very nice plum tart and tea at paul. Took my time, didn’t do anything to hurry up.

Had plenty of time at the lounge. Even though I was flying AA, I went to the CX lounge instead. Ate some food, drank lots, watched the cricket, talked to mm. It’s funny, Mum couldn’t decide on the colours for the flooring and tiles, and couldn’t find me cos I was in London so she called mm! Very wifely. Hehe.

Flight wasn’t full but someone sat next to me. I had the first seat in business class. Watched He’s just not that into you, napped for a bit, listened to the radio, watched the flight path. It was a long fly-in, overshot Chicago, almost to Iowa before turning back! Must have been a long queue. Immigration and customs were quick, I got a talkative taxi driver, was home by 9pm. Went to the supermarket, initially to get milk and ended up getting loads of other stuff. I’m glad to be home.

Today was the Memorial Day holiday here. The weather was good over the weekend (rained today) and apparently it’s the start of summer and the activity for the long weekend is grilling. And grilling means steak.

Okay, this isn’t grilling on an outside bbq, but a very nice method from Adam Roberts aka the amateur gourmet. Method originally from Chris Lim of BLT steak.

Makes sense. The not over-seasoning, allowing the crust to form, basting. Interesting that it’s finished in the oven. I must find a cast iron frying pan.

I’m trying for one vegetarian day a week. As it happens, today was fish day. I had grilled salmon salad for lunch, from the 2 fillets I grilled yesterday. And when I was at the store after work, I was looking around for ideas. I saw a couple of fresh crab-stuffed flounder pieces that was apparently “homemade” according to the label. And only needed 20mins in the oven.

Now I very very rarely buy ready-to-eat meals, definitely not frozen meals but sometimes from the fresh section. But i was lazy and wanted something new.

It’s not too bad. There’s a cheesy white sauce that is a bit heavy, and certainly added to the calorie count. I ended up only having one piece which I served on a bed of salad.

Met up with Car and Nell for breakfast at a place called Taste of Heaven this morning. Another friend was supposed to join but she had an emergency. It’s a small bakery, casual kind of place with small closely spaced tables and cute wall decorations.

I ordered the breakfast casserole, which sounded interesting. It turned out to be a savoury bread & butter pudding with ham and red pepper instead of raisins. Nice, after i got over the disappointment that it wasn’t served in a casserole dish. It was a manageable portion, not the big huge plate of pancakes or 30-egg omelette that seem to be an American standard. Served with salad, unusual for breakfast but I liked it. Unlimited iced tea for me.

We exchanged life stories, and chatted non-stop. It was a wonderful morning. I walked around afterwards looking for “for rent” signs, came up with a few leads, more on that when/if they come to fruition.

 

My colleague J invited me and another colleague to her house for dinner. Her husband cooked a fabulous dinner of simple succulent roast chicken, spouts and strawberries. We had fabulous wine — started with a Chablis, moved to a Morgon and finished with a slightly portly Gary Farrell to finish. I had an absolutely fabulous time.

The management team met this week, and we had dinner yesterday at kiki’s bistro at Franklin. It’s a typical french bistro, and the owner Kiki is also French.

My colleagues had steak frites but I did my usual thing and had something special, the cassoulet — white bean stew with garlic sausage and duck leg confit.

As Time magazine said,

No French dish is as steeped in history, myth and religion as cassoulet.

It was very delicious, the stew just right, the sausage yummy and oh my, the duck. sigh.

I’ve always found soufflé intimidating. I suppose I shouldn’t, cos I’m not a bad pastry chef. A few weeks ago my friend Car remarked nonchalantly about something or other that I should make chocolate soufflé for her family. It was meant to be a tease, or challenge, or punishment, i can’t remember. I didn’t put up any argument, just said, “okay.”

Not surprisingly there are a lot of recipes. Because I don’t have my cookbooks I focused purely on the ones available online. After a little research I decided on the one at cooking for engineers. It seemed straightforward and I appreciated the step-by-step pictures.

The first challenge was that I didn’t have time to go shopping during the week for the chocolate I wanted to use. At the end I got 2 packs of baking chocolate and mixed the 100% and 54% together.

In a bain marie, melt 8oz chocolate, 1tbsp butter and 60ml double cream. Meanwhile, whisk 5 egg whites with 1/2 tsp cream of tartar till soft peaks, then add 70g sugar and whisk till the stiff peaks stage.

Add 4 egg yolks to the chocolate mixture, then fold in the egg whites. Bake at 190°C for 20mins, serve immediately.

The good news is that it was mostly successful. The soufflés didn’t deflate, and were very rich. The bad news was that the chocolate didn’t work out and it wasn’t sweet enough. It actually wasn’t good enough quality. Next time I’ll use proper high quality chocolate.

 

remember the first time I made salt beef? It was nice, a little dry but i finished that joint quicker than expected, it was still very good. So today I was visiting Car’s family and her mom says we’re making traditional Irish corned beef for dinner cos it’s St Patrick’s Day.

The brisket was 7.25lbs, and it was 30mins per pound. We started preparation at 1pm. The slab of beef had to be pushed into the container, then we took turns pouring beer over it. Car joked that we should be using Irish beer instead of Miller Draft, heehee.

The end result was nice. I would have wanted a little of the cooking liquid with the beef, which was served sliced with boiled cabbage and new potatoes.

Nothing special and by no means my best plating or picture, this was a much needed steak after the intense and stressful stuff that I’ve been through at work the last few weeks, and especially this week when I had to pretty much achieve the impossible.

Around 6-7oz sirloin, rare. with asparagus. Easy and fast.

Wonton Noodles, originally uploaded by hermanau.

I have this craving for wonton noodles today. Not the big bowls in chinatown, the small delicate bowls at those noodle places in hk.

 

I was looking at recipes for lamb shanks, and the one by elise which i made last weekend is with roasted root vegetables of carrots, parsnips and rutabaga. I didn’t know what rutabaga was, aside from that it’s related to turnips. When i got one at the supermarket, it turned out that it’s a swede. I was relieved, cos I can deal with swede, though i’d never cooked with it before.

As with root vegetables, the options are to boil, mash or roast. It’s just a matter of dicing them up, tossing in olive oil, season and roast for 1 hour. I added some fresh rosemary cos I had it for the lamb. I’ll use it again, as substitute for sweet potatoes or pumpkin. Or in addition.

This is a simply recipes recipe. I spotted lamb shanks at the supermarket, and decided that this cold weekend would be the perfect opportunity to make it. In steps:

1. wash, trim lamb then season with s&p and coat lightly with flour
2. brown in garlic and onion
3. remove from pan, then add dice carrots and celery. optional is to add leeks, but i don’t like leeks

4. return the lamb to the pot, add chicken stock, canned tomato and fresh rosemary
5. simmer for 2.5-3hours until tender
6. meanwhile dice carrots, parsnips and swede, toss in olive oil and season, roast for 1 hour

7. make couscous according to packet instructions
8. build the dish: couscous at the bottom
9. then roasted vegetables
10. stack with whole lamb shank
11. drizzle sauce, then sprinkle pepper and rosemary

meme #12. Tagged by Bobbi.

Instructions: A list of every movie to ever be nominated for a BEST PICTURE Academy Award follows. For each year, the film to actually win the Oscar is listed first. Mark every film you have seen, total them up, and divide the total by your age.

Very long list behind the cut.

It seems bad that I’m writing about eating beef on Ash Wednesday, sigh. But I continue. I saw a corned beef brisket at the supermarket the other day, raw and seasoned, ready for cooking. As far as I’m concerned corned beef is the yucky coarse minced fatty meat-like thing you get out of a can, and this is called salt beef. I’m not converted yet am I?

According to instructions, the joint needs to simmer in water for 50mins per pound, then 20-30mins extra until fork tender.

It’s really easy. I have it with toasted panini.

 

It’s Shrove Tuesday, or Mardi Gras, the day before Ash Wednesday. I learned that Americans call today Fat Tuesday. Because of all the fattening goodies traditionally eaten today? I dunno.

The feasting started in the morning when a colleague brought in paczki, “to make everyone Polish for a day,” as she said. A Polish pastry, a little more cake-like than doughnuts. This one came with glazed strawberries and whipped cream. I don’t like whipped cream, but this one is thicker and has a clotted cream flavour, which I enjoyed.

Debated with myself all day about whether to make pancakes. It’s too tempting at the end, traditions need to be upheld. Even though i have no whisk or ladle in PT, i made do with a fork and a large spoon. Lemon and sugar of course.

My scallops with rigatoni, spinach and yellow peppers turned out to be a hit, i’ve had a few requests from friends for the recipe. Which stumped me a little, cos I just threw the ingredients together. I did write up step by step instructions though.

ARGH! I’ve never had so much carbs in one day. Not my own pictures, but these are representations of what I had:

• honey wheat walnut toast, 2 slices at breakfast
• meatball pasta for tea/dinner
• french bread, 2 slices with pasta
• paczki, a type of polish doughnut served on what they call Fat Tuesday and is basically Shrove Tuesday

I can’t imagine the overload and the amount of exercise needed next week.

I was introduced to the minty goodness of a shamrock shake today. I had a craving for McDonald’s and they had it on promotion for St Patrick’s Day. Way too many calories, and I should not even set foot in a McDonald’s in the first place. sigh. I found this 1983 commercial and no, I didn’t develop a green hat or did a little jump when i took a sip.

This was really delicious using vegetables I have in the fridge. The scallops were frozen, in a perfect world I’d get fresh ones. Wash the scallop, driy them over paper towels and pan-fry them in olive oil. Just s&p as seasoning. It only takes a few minutes to get them medium — do NOT cook them completely.

In another pan, cook the rigatoni. When done, drain and add spinach which will cook in the heat of the pasta and pan.

Remove the scallops and quickly toss some yellow pepper pieces into the frying pan. Throw the pasta and spinach in with the peppers to remove the residue at the bottom of the pan. Add a teaspoon of red pesto for flavour.

Arrange the scallops on top of the pasta and veg, add a little black pepper to finish. I suppose a real chef will drizzle over some olive oil but i didn’t do that.

The convention finished at 4pm-ish, then we got on a van that took us to the Hilton, our group is staying there for a night. We walked to dos camiinos on 3rd for dinner. I had grilled shrimp quesadilla and 3 margaritas.

It feels good to be back in NYC. Yes I was miserable when I lived here, but I’m different now. Our van driver dropped us off at the side door of the hotel and some people in my group were complaining and whining. I just shrugged it off. It’s New York, he’s a New Yorker, get over it.

I made it to emerald status, so I headed to the first class lounge at the airport. How disappointing, it was a small area full of people. I wasn’t sure where to get food, seemed like it was sit down service only. It was easier to go back to the regular business class lounge, it was more familiar.

Ironically, when I got to the gate to board, I got a new boarding pass. The “you have a new seat” meant I got upgraded to first. Wow. For a long 15 hours it was a big help. And the food!

 
A salmon and caviar starter was great on the palate. The salad was just like a restaurant’s, with artichoke hearts, mushroom and greens.

 
The third first course was lobster bisque. And then the main course of beef tenderloin was nice. We ended with a cheese plate and a fruit plate. According to the attendant, the food used to be even more posh, but I wasn’t complaining.

Watched a few episodes of The Biggest Loser, then Body of Lies. Hungry for snacks I went looking for even more food.
 
I got seafood skewers, and the attendant had saved mango mousse from lunch for me, how sweet. I’m thinking I ate double my calorie allowance for today.

mm and i went for lunch yesterday at our favourite korean restaurant, korabol. originally we wanted to go to the teppanyaki place but that one was booked till 1.45pm. What economic crisis?

In addition to our regular tofu soup and bbq beef, we ordered octopus in chili sauce. What a great choice! The sauce was only slightly spicy, mostly sweet, and the octopus tender and fresh.

 

saw these in the market. the sign says greenhouse water [generic word for melon], or water courgettes. They look more like cucumbers, although the flower at the top suggests strongly they are in the courgette family. Never seen them this long though.

I never peel courgettes but the skin on these were tough, so i did peel them. Sautéed them in olive oil with some leftover vegetables — pumpkin, carrots, chestnuts. Added half a spoon of red pesto for flavour. Very easy dish to make, very healthy, very tasty. And the water courgettes taste just like regular courgettes, only a little more watery.

What’s the best food for a minus double digit day? ice cream of course. And yes, Car, this is rainbow sherbert (eng: sorbet) and rocky road, two days in a row.

Words cannot describe how sweet these seedless black grapes are. I just got them at the supermarket downstairs, no big deal. But wow, sweet. The nearest description is that they’re cane sugar sweet. yummy.

I’ve eaten snake, ostrich, crocodile, kangaroo and I’m not afraid of trying new food. i’d like to try south american guinea pig only if they would cut it up though. Lately, there seems to be a new meat, which surprises me a bit, because i’d never thought about eating squirrel. Yes, squirrel.

Thinking about it, it makes sense. It’s just another gamey meat isn’t it. I imagine it’s a little like rabbit, or probably a dark meat version of rabbit. Though it’s kinda small, and according to the NYT, quite fiddly.

One might think that because of easy availability, squirrel would be the perfect meal-stretcher for these economically challenged times, but it takes a lot of work to get the meat off even the plumpest squirrel

The latest squirrel-y craze? Walkers just brought out cajun squirrel crisps.

Watched Anthony Bourdain all night, and tonight it’s Andrew Zimmern. Love the Travel Channel, especially when they have great food programs like these.

Every Christmas and other holiday, danish butter cookies in their distinctive round blue tin comes out. I defy anyone to say they don’t like these beauties.

So I was reading how Molly from orangette made them. Anyone who regularly reads food blogs will appreciate that orangette isn’t just a food blog with recipes, it’s a full-on foodie experience. Anyway, I was intrigued with the recipe, which was from the December 2008 edition of Gourmet and apparently is one passed down through several generations.

I used scaled down proportions, because I didn’t need so many. It’s easy for me to get the authentic Danish Lurpak butter; I generally use Anchor but Lurpak is only slightly more expensive, and probably worth it to follow the recipe. The American convention of using cups instead of weight fazed me a little, but I’ve converted it.

8oz butter
1/3 cup sugar, or around 3oz
2 cups plain flour, or around 12oz
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 small egg, for eggwash
sugar for sprinkling — the recipe calls for sanding sugar, I just used demerara

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Then the recipe says beat the flour and baking soda in using the electric whisk, which…is an invitation for having flour flying everywhere. I folded the dry ingredients in using the more trusty spoon spatula method, only when mostly combined then I whisked the mixture till it was like crumbs.

Work the dough between 2 sheets of clingfilm, then roll out to a rectangle. I found that folding the clingfilms so they form the rectangular shape made rolling much easier, and the dough kept to the shape. Chill in the fridge for at least 30mins.

Remove the top sheet of the clingfilm and cut into 1” squares. This was the shape I liked most, and the easiest to work with. Brush with the beaten egg and sprinkle the demerara sugar.

Bake at 160C for 15mins. I found it needed an extra 5 mins to get really pale golden brown, I guess it’s my oven. Anyway, watch them till they get pale golden. Cool for 5mins then transfer to a wire rack to cool. Makes around 50 cookies.

 

Okay, mine don’t look as pretty as the blue-tinned danish cookies. In fact they look kinda like sad shortbread, and very difficult to photograph (as warned by orangette). But man, they taste decadent.

mm’s parents invited me for dinner tonight, they’ve been including me in family gatherings lately, even though technically they don’t know they’re my in-laws. Interesting conundrum.

I didn’t want to go empty handed, and it being so close to Christmas. So I made chocolate chip cookies. I’m useless at picking out gifts for people and if I have time, I prefer to make food items. As the LA Times said in its article 50 ways to make your holiday gifts homemade,

Not only are homemade gifts less expensive, they also capture the spirit of holiday giving in a way that purchased gifts simply can’t.

These were real easy, I can’t remember where I got the recipe, but I’ve always had it on the old html version of my website. Cream 8oz butter with 4oz sugar, add 2 large (or 3 small) eggs, fold in 10oz SR flour and 12oz chocolate chips. Spoon onto a lined baking tray and bake for 15-20mins until golden. Makes 24 large cookies.

I wrapped them up in clingfilm and put them in pretty Christmas-y gift bags. Freshly made, I could still smell them when I gave them out at the restaurant, and my apartment now has that warm homely baking smell that will last till the morning.

One of my stand-by ingredients for fruit salad is dragon fruit. It provides texture, bulk and is low in calories. The only thing is that it’s pretty tasteless — an advantage in some ways because it can be paired with stronger tasting fruits.

Except the blood red variety. This has a more distinctive flavour and it colours everything purple and red. It’s so much fun.

I know this by several names — persimmon, sharon fruit and kaki. When ripe it’s soft, stringy and very very sweet. So soft that I like using it as sauce for fruit salad or yogurt. There is another type that has tougher skin and the fruit itself less soft. It gives a funny textured after taste which I don’t quite like. I’m not sure how to distinguish between the two though.

Plentiful during autumn and sold in large packs. My favourites are the Japanese varieties and the ones I used to get in Switzerland, from Italy I think.

Belgo isn’t exactly new new — I’d eaten there before, many years ago. I’ve always wanted to try their beat-the-clock menu — you pay according to the time on your order, so if the order is 5.45pm, you pay §5.45 — but we usually have something else to do between 5 and 6.30pm on a weekday. Anyway, the reason it makes this list is because it’s become my go-to restaurant, especially if I’m a) on my own and b) in Central London. With branches in several locations, and I have the one in Chalk Farm in mind, it could have become our special place, since L’Ecluse is gone.

Belgo offers Belgian food (duh). This means moules frites and beer. How can they go wrong? There is a separate menu for beer, offering on tap, monastery brewed, fruit beers, white beer and speciality (aka strong) beers. I had a Chimay Bleu, 9% dark ale and considered the classic Chimay. I also tried one of the fruit beers — the waiter suggested the Floris Apple, but I found it tasted too much like cider, nothing special.

Oh, moules frites. I had moules provençal, ie in tomato and garlic sauce. Very very nice. The kilo pot disappeared far too quickly. There were other items on the menu like chicken, sausage and steak but I question anyone who goes to Belgo and not order mussels. The frites were more like British chips to be honest, but notice how they automatically comes with mayonnaise? Gets another star in my books.

I’ve been taking a lot of pictures of my meals lately. Instead of posting per event, how about just a sampler?

These from the team dinner a couple of weeks ago. mm was there too. It’s one of those big multicourse meals at a private kitchen. Among the plentiful of food on offer: a gigantic plate of prawn toast and a special soup with I think fish maw but I don’t know what the exact name is.

The second lot from last week’s team lunch. Steamed marrow with wind fungus and tender pork liver with greens. Surprisingly the liver is one of my favourites at this restaurant.

Dinner with friends at Rice Paper Vietnamese restaurant. Make your own rice paper prawn rolls and yummy duck curry. The curry was served with french bread. Then we went crazy with the desserts. Five of us, five desserts. Here’s the soufflé and what they call French Kiss — a shortbread filled with cream with raspberry sorbet.

After all these excesses, I decided this last weekend that enough is enough. Been careful about what I eat this week, trying to keep to vegetarian and keeping a loose count of calories. Let’s see if it works.

This was a quick dish I threw together cos I didn’t want to spend too much time prepping and cooking. I got the peeled shrimps from the supermarket. Fresh but packaged. Normally I’d go for the larger fresh (still swimming) prawns, cook a large batch and freeze them.

I sautéed the shrimps and set them aside. While the pasta was cooking I chopped up a couple of ripe tomatoes and reduced them till they were soft and just like a sauce.

When the pasta was ready, I tossed everything together.

Simple and quick. Not a jar of sauce in sight.

I bought one of those large butternut squash — this one is about 4.5lbs. One half I’ll use to make butternut and chickpea salad with tahini, the other half I used to make butternut squash soup. It’s a pretty standard recipe, the addition of a tart green apple tempers the sweetness of the squash.

I pre-roasted the butternut to give it additional flavour, and par-boiled a carrot

In a pan heat a little olive oil, add a couple sticks chopped celery, the carrot, half a green apple and the butternut. Add chicken stock and simmer till everything is soft. Season and blitz till smooth.

I threw in a dollop of yogurt cheese (my sour cream substitute) for appearance.

No, I’m not becoming lunchstudio, though I won’t mind their traffic.

But I can’t help but take pictures of food and post about them. This was taken at a small casual café called Happy Kitchen. The dish was called Happy Noodles — egg, sausages, chicken wing and pork chop with dry noodles. Just right for a late lunch.

mm and I went to a Korean restaurant last night. First time for me and second time for her. We got there early: 6.15pm or so, to avoid the crowds. It’s a popular place with Koreans, a sign that it’s good.

We started with the usual assortment of small dishes: kimchi, spinach, potatoes, marrow, fried anchovies.

Then we had bibambap: beef and vegetables rice in stone bowl, mixed with chili sauce. We also had cold buckwheat noodles with pickled cucumber and pears, it’s a good contrast to the richness of the bibambap.

Of course we had to have the barbeque. We had beef short rib and ox tongue. We saw a couple of Korean tables enjoying something that looked interesting: beef stew soup and a big sharing plate of clams and noodles. We decided to try the clams and noodles next time.

via the guardian. Whittards is saying that the tea bag is 100 years old this year. Apparently. There’s some dispute about the exact dates, look at the comments.

What is indisputable is that the tea bag was invented by an American. That something so unbelievably British was invented by someone outside Britain is unbelievable. It took a long time for the great British public to come to terms with this new invention, not only becauase

[t]he British also objected to the American practice of dunking the bag in a cup of lukewarm water, rather than using boiling water

Oh AMEN to that! The tea bag always go into the cup first, you Americans, not the other way round. Add to the lukewarm water and the substandard weak tea we find in the US, blech. I always bring my own.

Conventional wisdom is that loose leaf tea is always superior to tea bags. The Guardian begs to differ.

Tea gourmets will tell you that loose makes a better cup. Luddites and snobs, I reckon. Tea bag tea tastes different from tea pot tea. And better. The proof is in the brewing: 96% of households now use tea bags.

I’d wager that those 96% use tea bags instead of brewing because it’s convenient. Tea bags are also easier to store, and there’s only a cup to wash rather than cup and tea pot.

Another interesting question from the Guardian article is the best and worst teas for a fry-up. You really have to be British to understand why tea and a fry-up must go together. Their pick is PG Tips as best and Earl Grey as worst. I’m vindicated! My first choice of any tea is PG Tips, though when I ask my brother-in-law to bring some back he always gets Tetleys.

And they haven’t even started comparing black, white, green and other types of tea.

memes, love them or hate them. This, like the omnivore 100 and vegetarian 100 from last week, from accidental hedonist. Not so much a meme as a collection of the most common “which?” food debates.

• Coke or Pepsi: coke. coke. coke. diet coke and lately, coke zero
• Thick crust or thin for your Pizza: used to be thick crust, now leaning more towards thin because it’s harder to do but if done well, is very well
• Rare or Well Done for you steak: I always ask for rare, but find I usually get medium rare. I cook mine rare
• Hot Dogs or Hamburgers: hamburgers. I never grew up with a hotdog culture
• Ketchup or Mustard on your hot dog: both, plus relish, plus everything except onions
• Cake or Pie: cake. don’t like pastry
• Brownies with a fine, glossy crust, or soft cake brownies: I reallly only like the crust
• Nuts in the brownies: made it myself
• Vanilla or Chocolate ice cream: vanilla
• Blue cheese or ranch dressing with your Buffalo wings: I’d rather eat the wings plain but if I had to choose, blue cheese
• Soup or Salad: salad. I don’t order soup as a course, I’ll have it if it comes with a meal cos I like making my own soup
• Butter on your Popcorn: not really
• Pork or Beef barbecue: don’t quite understand. it depends on what it looks like, I’ll probably end up with the beef
• Coffee or tea: omg, tea
• Beer from a can or a bottle: bottle
• Oreos or Hydrox: no clue what is hydrox
• Little Debbie or Hostess: neither. too American
• Bacon or Sausage: sausage, especially those artificial McDonalds breakfast sausage patties. okay, I love handmade sausages you get from your butcher
• Eggs Scrambled or Fried: scrambled. egg whites only if possible

My department went out for dim sum lunch today together with 2 other colleagues. The restaurant was crowded so we squished closely together. As is our habit, our table was soon groaning with stacks of bamboo containers and plates. Good selection, from the staples like prawn dumpling to slightly unusual like the pretz with the mango pudding.

We have a proliferation of gift fruit baskets lately. Aside from the expected apples, oranges, grapes, bananas and mangoes there are a lot of these crisp, crunchy, juicy apple pears. Great in a fruit salad or on their own.

Properly called nashi pears, these are not a cross between apples and pears but are actually part of the pear family. Called commonly apple pears cos of their shape.

Yesterday’s omnivore 100 was so fun that similar memes have turned up. This is the vegetarian 100. This seems more like a list of nice vegetarian food or ingredients rather than a definitive list of food you must try at least once in your life. Probably why I got 78 out of 100. No cross outs.

1. Real macaroni and cheese, made from scratch and baked — I guess I can easily make this if I wanted to, ie if I liked mac’n’cheese
2. Tabouleh — it’ll be in a Greek restaurant or kebab place
3. Freshly baked bread, straight from the oven (preferably with homemade strawberry jam) — bread baking isn’t my strong suit cos I don’t eat a whole lot of bread. I make up for it by having made strawberry jam
4. Fresh figs — dried figs have nothing on fresh ones
5. Fresh pomegranate — way too much bother with all those seeds
6. Indian dal of any sort — I’ve had many sorts over the years
7. Imam bayildi — nope, stuffed aubergines I won’t touch however appealing
8. Pressed spiced Chinese tofu — I suspect this is an American variations cos I can’t really figure it out. I’m sure I’ve had it, I don’t know of any sort of tofu or soy product I haven’t tried. And it includes stinky tofu
9. Freshly made hummus — there was a kebab store in New Zealand that served doner kebabs with hummus, delicious
10. Tahini — that pumpkin, carrot and chickpea salad with tahini dressing is a lunch staple
11. Kimchi — in Korea there are speciality stalls in the market selling just kimchi, may many different types of kimchi
12. Miso — I probably have miso more often than I have cream of mushroom soup
13. Falafel — who doesn’t like falafel??
14. Potato and pea filled samosas — and who doesn’t like vegetarian samosas?
15. Homemade yogurt — we had a yogurt machine at home since I was a kid
16. Muhammara — hmm, hot pepper dip may be quite nice
17. Brie en croute — oh lordy, brie pie just like cornish pastry
18. Spanikopita — I’m pretty sure I’ve had this, feta and spinach in a pastry, I even have memories of how it tastes
19. Fresh, vine-ripened heirloom tomatoes — my love for tomatoes is huge
20. Insalata caprese — and that’s a fancy name for mozzarella and tomato
21. Stir-fried greens (gai lan, bok choi, pea shoots, kale, chard or collards) — the bok choy and greens we get at western supermarkets are actually too bland and stringy, for real Chinese greens they have to be young and full of fresh taste
22. Freshly made salsa — tomato and mango and other varieties, with minimum onion
23. Freshly made guacamole — yum
24. Creme brulee — common food much
25. Fava beans — don’t cook with it, but have had it in vegetable stir fries
26. Chinese cold sesame peanut noodles — my niece loves this. the proper shanghainese version has glass noodles that are almost translucent
27. Fattoush — not specific enough — salad with pita bread?
28. New potatoes — I’m really wondering what this is doing on this list
29. Coleslaw — I’m not supposed to like coleslaw cos of the soggy ones we had at school. when crunchy and fresh it’s really great
30. Ratatouille — in Nice many years ago, before it became a foodie fetish and a cartoon character
31. Baba ganoush — aubergine
32. Winter squash — I don’t think there is much difference between winter and summer squashes, my supermarket sells them all year round. Plus butternut, regular pumpkin, orange pumpkins and Japanese green pumpkins
33. Roasted beets — almost all the beets I’ve had are from a jar or can
34. Baked sweet potatoes — mashed, diced, in stews and even as a dessert soup
35. Plantains — I wouldn’t know how to cook it, I had it at Chicago Taste
36. Chocolate truffles — from all over the world
37. Garlic mashed potatoes — see what I mean about it not being a list to inspire to?
38. Fresh water chestnuts — in wet markets we’d see old ladies peeling them and strangely they’re sold at stalls that also sell sugar cane
39. Steel cut oats — oats. um, okay
40. Quinoa — I get lost with all these grains and legumes
41. Grilled portabello mushrooms — with leaps of garlic
42. Chipotle en adobo — here’s my lack of Mexican experience again
43. Stone ground whole grain cornmeal — okay isn’t this like asking if we’ve had flour? That’s not a food, it’s an ingredient
44. Freshly made corn or wheat tortillas — I have little Mexican food experience, doesn’t mean I have none
45. Frittata — don’t like quiches and pies and so I have an aversion to pie-shaped omelettes
46. Basil pesto — there are way too many ingredients on this list
47. Roasted garlic — as a food, definitely yes
48. Raita of any type — sit down at any British Indian restaurant and you’d get a starter of poppadums, chutney and coriander or mint raita
49. Mango lassi — I see they’ve begun to sell them in cartons in supermarkets
50. Jasmine rice (white or brown) — and black, and red
51. Thai vegetarian coconut milk curry — and red, and green, and yellow
52. Pumpkin in any form other than pie — roast pumpkin and carrots are the best
53. Fresh apple pear or plum gallette — okay these are 2 items. apple pear is a pear that is like an apple, and plum gallette is a pie. in fact, I have an apple pear in my fridge right now
54. Quince in any form — it was in Australia that I discovered quince paste that goes with cheese, I have a few blocks in my fridge now
55. Escarole, endive or arugula — rocket for me is last supper food
56. Sprouts other than mung bean — there’s alfafa sprouts but for me they barely qualify as edible
57. Naturally brewed soy sauce — as opposed to unnaturally brewed?
58. Dried shiitake mushrooms — regular soup ingredient, I get a large packet (or Mum gets them) and I split them into food boxes
59. Unusually colored vegetables (purple cauliflower, blue potatoes, chocolate bell peppers…) — again in Australia I discovered that in addition to traffic light peppers there are white and purple peppers
60. Fresh peach ice cream — peach is not for me
61. Chevre — sigh, please use the more recognizable name of goat’s cheese. heh, I have a few of them in my fridge
62. Medjool dates — I wouldn’t have cared what type of dates
63. Kheer — Indian rice pudding. oh I remember, nice
64. Flourless chocolate cake — probably not though I may have tried a slice somewhere somehow
65. Grilled corn on the cob — too basic
66. Black bean (or any other bean) vegetarian chili — best on a baked potato
67. Tempeh — I think that’s the stuff used to make fake chicken or fake meat. I’m gonna say yes cos I’ve had lots of those
68. Seitan or wheat gluten — sigh, that’s an ingredient, dude
69. Gorgonzola or any other blue veined cheese — and my favourite is Stilton
70. Sweet potato fries — better than normal potato fries that’s for sure
71. Homemade au gratin potatoes — mm did that when we used to live together
72. Cream of asparagus soup — I even wrote a short story that had cream of asparagus soup in it cos it was a writing challenge
73. Artichoke-Parmesan dip — I’d eat it, I just probably won’t buy it cos there are other tastier dips
74. Mushroom risotto — I really wish I have the courage to try making risotto one of these days
75. Fermented black beans — this is such a chinatown food
76. Garlic scapes — that’s the flower of the garlic, I’ve never even seen it
77. Fresh new baby peas — almost all the peas I’ve ever eaten are frozen
78. Kalamata olives — another ingredient I have in my fridge though I’m not that well versed on the different olive types other than black and green
79. Preserved lemons — preserved salty lemons and 7-up (or Sprite) is a drink I’d order over Diet Coke
80. Fried green tomatoes — I’ve heard so much about this, cos of the film, but I’ve never even seen it
81. Chinese scallion pancakes — the proper term is spring onion mate. my dad’s favourite, but I can only stomach a small bit cos of the spring onion
82. Cheese souffle — woot, the posh hotel buffet makes its first appearance
83. Fried apples — even made it myself in a salad
84. Homemade frijoles refritos — I wish they’d stick to common names. refried beans I’ve had
85. Pasta fagiole — another pretension. pasta and beans is pasta and beans
86. Macadamia nuts in any form — who hasn’t done duty free shopping and been confronted with boxes and boxes of macadamia chocolate. plus haagen-dazs ice cream
87. Paw paw in any form — there’s a papaya sitting on my kitchen counter waiting for me to make fruit salad
88. Grilled cheese sandwich of any kind — my dad used to make cheese toast for us for breakfast
89. Paneer cheese — my favourite Indian cheese
90. Ma Po Tofu (vegetarian style-no pork!) — I don’t even order the meat version
91. Fresh pasta in any form — *yawn*
92. Grilled leeks, scallions or ramps — this is one I considered crossing out cos of the onion like ingredients
93. Green papaya salad — Thai version
94. Baked grain and vegetable stuffed tomatoes — come on, challenge me more
95. Pickled ginger — both the Japanese types served with sushi and the Chinese snack ones
96. Methi greens — I can’t begin to describe what these are, I have no clue
97. Aloo paratha — potato prata — there’s a ton of places in Singapore with these
98. Kedgeree (the original Indian version without the smoked fish, not the British version with fish) — I’ve only had the British version and I won’t again cos that one had fishbones
99. Okra — I agree it’s an acquired taste
100. Roasted brussels sprouts — not by choice. who doesn’t have a complex when it comes to brussels spouts?

A nice food-related meme from very good taste which I found via accidental hedonist of food any omnivore should experience at least once. The instructions are to bold the items tried and cross out items you will never consider eating. I’m no Andrew Zimmern, but I think I’m pretty adventurous when it comes to food, so there probably aren’t many I won’t eat.

I thought I’d do better than 73 out of 100 (including 2 half points), oh well. 2 cross offs cos of spiciness.

1. Venison — I find venison tough and dry, not something I’d order as a first choice
2. Nettle tea — I’d try it, no question
3. Huevos rancheros — I haven’t had a lot of experience with Mexican food, though if this were on the Cracker Barrel menu I’d order it next time
4. Steak tartare — I love steak tartare, though some may consider it a sacrilege that I skip the onions
5. Crocodile — no surprise that I tried it in Australia. Like venison I find it a little tough and bland, I remember it came with tomato sauce and boy it needed the sauce
6. Black pudding — what’s a good English breakfast without black pudding?
7. Cheese fondue — um, I used to live in Switzerland…
8. Carp — though I’m scared of eating fish with bones, I really like fresh steamed fish (provided it doesn’t have too many bones). I give all the difficult to eat parts to mm anyway, heehee
9. Borscht — I suspect the hacked offerings here aren’t exactly the traditional version. I did try the proper version in Budapest
10. Baba ghanoush — I’m sure it’s very nice, but it’s made with aubergines. i’ll give it a taste though
11. Calamari — really, do I need to list out the number of times I’ve had calamari?
12. Pho — I always order the raw beef version, it’s a challenge to finish the noodles before the beef becomes too cooked
13. PB&J sandwich — yes, and even Elvis’ PB and banana sandwich
14. Aloo gobi — yummy yummy, my second favourite from a vegetarian thali
15. Hot dog from a street cart — New York version, Zurich version, London version and even Copenhagen version
16. Epoisses — a pungent unpasteurized cows-milk cheese — sounds interesting, I won’t mind trying
17. Black truffle — I’m adding white truffle to the list, we splurged out one time and I tried white omelette at a Carluccio’s in Covent Garden
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes — I’m positive I’ve had blackberry wine, but I can’t remember exactly where
19. Steamed pork buns — I only like the bun part. I’ll eat the pork inside so it isn’t wasted
20. Pistachio ice cream — there are some fairly common items on this list aren’t there
21. Heirloom tomatoes — remember the ferry plaza farmer’s market picnic, good times sigh
22. Fresh wild berries — we were driving on a small A-road between Cheltenham and Gloucester and came across a patch of wild bramble. We didn’t have any suitable containers so we ended up, after gorging ourselves, putting the blackberries into plastic bags. Some got squashed inevitably so it was the summer we learned how to make jam
23. Foie gras — these days, it’s almost common food
24. Rice and beans — I’ve had rice and I’ve had beans, sometimes together in a dish, do I get half a point?
25. Brawn, or head cheese — a terrine made from the head of a cow or pig sounds delicious and I don’t mean it in a sarcastic way
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper — I had an ex-colleague who ate the hottest peppers, she’d order stuff from the menu with 4 or 5 chilis but no, I have no desire to kill my tastebuds
27. Dulce de leche — or as the French call it, confiture de lait. milky sugar caramel that you can use as sauce or use as a spread. I’ve probably had it in hotels or at street crepe stalls. I remember the taste
28. Oysters — too many hotel buffets lol
29. Baklava — brings back memories of the sweet shops at Bayswater
30. Bagna cauda — that’s a hot dip made from garlic, anchovies, olive oil and butter. pass the veg and bread
31. Wasabi peas — yes, yes, yes
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl — there are a couple of famous soups I’m only meh on, clam chowder and hot & sour soup
33. Salted lassi — had it in India, very nice
34. Sauerkraut — not a big fan
35. Root beer float — cool stuff. I love it when ice cream is added to soft drinks and the foam that forms
36. Cognac with a fat cigar — had cognac, and once I tried a cigar. another half point?
37. Clotted cream tea — *swoon*
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O — that was the same party I got plastered with vodka jelly, vodka watermelon and capirhina
39. Gumbo — not American enough to have had the opportunity
40. Oxtail — oxtail soup, oxtail stew, the works
41. Curried goat — comparing venison, crocodile and goat, goat is my least favourite it really is very very tough
42. Whole insects — didn’t cross it out cos I might be persuaded to try bamboo worms or insects that don’t have obvious legs or head parts sticking out
43. Phaal — see #26
44. Goat’s milk — just recently in Hokkaido, freshly squeezed that morning too
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more — it must be The Macallan
46. Fugu — too much hype
47. Chicken tikka masala — it is the national dish of Britain after all
48. Eel — mm likes all sorts of eel so I’ve become attached to them even though the bones scare me
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut — given a choice I always pick the plain doughnut
50. Sea urchin — uni is probably our #1 or close to #1 favourite food
51. Prickly pear — oh yes, will certainly try this
52. Umeboshi — these salty sour Japanese plums are found in bento, it’s one of the few items I may leave untouched
53. Abalone — again, too many big dinners
54. Paneer — this is my favourite item in a vegetarian thali, simply perfect
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal — I’ve only had a Big Mac once, because I deliberately ordered it with the exact same logic as this list — that it has to be tried at least once. I have McDonalds quite often, usually for breakfast. for non-breakfast meal I tend to go for chicken nuggets, hot wings or if I have to have a burger a cheeseburger is enough
56. Spaetzle — oooooh, memories
57. Dirty gin martini — may be next time I’m out drinking I’ll order one of these
58. Beer above 8% ABV — let’s see, the strongest beer I’ve had was probably the 16% at Zeughauskeller that may have also been the one that was flambéd
59. Poutine — french fries and curd cheese from Quebec, eh
60. Carob chips — I’ve had carob, I guess carob chips is like chocolate chips? Or chips as in crisps, which sound unlikely
61. S’mores — smores flavoured ice cream yes, I’m sure any American will be aghast that I’ve not had authentic s’mores
62. Sweetbreads — once, at a New York pre-theatre dinner. I don’t think it tasted special otherwise I’d remember
63. Kaolin — not eaten dirt, unless we count munching on chalk for fun when I was a kid
64. Currywurst — whaddaya know, the Germans like to adopt the British national curry too
65. Durian — my grandparents loved durian. I had one tiny taste and was lucky I didn’t spit it out. mm loves durian too, I guess it really is a love/hate thing. a few months ago we were at a dessert place and she ordered a durian dessert and persuaded me to try a spoonful. I guess I succumbed cos it’s been a long time since that first bite, and cos mm has power over me heehee. Again, I was lucky I didn’t spit it out
66. Frogs’ legs — whole frog actually, though chopped up and not served whole like the Peruvians serve guinea pig
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake — tried beignet at Chicago Taste in July
68. Haggis — nothing special, it’s like a type of sausage
69. Fried plantain — had that with the goat at Chicago Taste
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette — I wondered what this was until I looked it up and it’s pig’s intestines. no big deal
71. Gazpacho — I know how to make it and I’ve probably had it but not so sure
72. Caviar and blini — separately, so I’m counting it as yes
73. Louche absinthe — I deliberately ordered absinthe once in Paris, but I didn’t like the anise flavour
74. Gjetost, or brunost — sharp sweet whey cheese from Norway / Sweden. Heh, I wonder if I can get it at Ikea
75. Roadkill — um, this is scary
76. Baijiu — oh, it’s Chinese rice wine, the most common being Maotai. not keen, I prefer Japanese shochu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie — in my defence, I’ve had Twinkies
78. Snail — heehee I remember Mum buying a few bags of frozen snails from the hypermarket in Calais
79. Lapsang souchong — I’m not sure about this, I’ve tried a lot of speciality teas. I’m gonna say no
80. Bellini — I love prosecco but not a big peach fan
81. Tom yum — surprise that I don’t like hot & sour soup but like tom yum very much
82. Eggs Benedict — good brunch stuff
83. Pocky — pocky is on this list? why? why not pretz, or collon?
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant — and who wouldn’t?
85. Kobe beef — we had wagyu beef don at Kumegera in Hokkaido, and I’ve had beef sushi a few times
86. Hare — rabbit counts
87. Goulash — Budapest or Prague, either one
88. Flowers — lovely courgette flowers that Car’s grandmother made for me. plus chrysanthemum tea I make occasionally
89. Horse — it’s nice. leaner than beef, a bit like ostrich. once we bought it from the hypermarket and another time in a steakhouse in Amsterdam
90. Criollo chocolate — I don’t even know if I’ll recognise criollo chocolate, not being a big chocolate person
91. Spam — note to self: maintain straight face
92. Soft shell crab — first time was at a Japanese restaurant in London. it’s pretty common food now
93. Rose harissa — I need to try more North African food
94. Catfish — Chicago Taste comes through once more
95. Mole poblano — my Mexican food experience is limited to tacos and the like, this is as exotic as it gets for me
96. Bagel and lox — smoked salmon, cured salmon I’ve tried. I have a while fillet of cured Canadian salmon in my fridge
97. Lobster Thermidor — not at a sit down dinner, but another of the too many posh hotel buffets
98. Polenta — I like both dense polenta and runny polenta, i haven’t dared cook it yet
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee — I’m almost tempted to cross this off. nothing against it, just that I don’t drink coffee
100. Snake — it does taste a little of chicken but has a different texture. it’s good food

This is a recent Recipe for Health at the New York Times. Very simple to make and a great pasta substitute.

Slice a zucchini (courgette) into thin ribbons using a potato peeler so they look just like fettuccine. Sauté in olive oil for a few minutes. Remove before they get soggy. Season.

This can be eaten as is, or the recipe recommends adding tomato sauce. I ran out of red pesto and didn’t have jars of sauce handy so I chopped up a ripe tomato and mixed it up with a little balsamic vinegar and Italian seasoning so it had a salsa-like consistency.

Easy to make, tasted great. I had it cold the next day and it tasted even better.

I made butternut, carrot and chickpea salad again and got this huge squash from the supermarket. It’s really heavy and only part of the fruit, so imagine how large the entire thing was.

Anyone who doesn’t: a) like b) know how to make this dish should have to eat nothing but oatmeal for a month.

Made everything from scratch, no jars of sauce. Oh, okay, the tomatoes are canned chopped tomatoes. I like mushrooms in my spag bol, I suppose I should dice them finely so they are similar sized to the mince, but I like my mushroom visible and chunky.

Mixing it up with the cocktail chemistry set. UrbanOutfitters via cribcandy.

Went to this modern Japanese restaurant with SC and AK last night. Skewers and drinks are 50% off on Mondays and Tuesdays. They served the typical luxurious Japanese cuisine — we had a seafood platter, a bunch of skewers and a beef udon.

The highlight was one of the dessert. It’s the one in the background. Tomato with champagne jelly.

I have a recipe for caramelised tomato but this was different. Seems that the tomato has been poached in sugar water to strip out the vegetable taste. The texture isn’t lost and it was altogether something special.

I tried looking online for a recipe but failed short. There was a thread on ask metafilter that pointed to some interesting tomato dessert but not this one. The closest I could get is a Japanese site that has a recipe for tomato compote as part of a dessert.

In any event I intend to bring mm to this restaurant. I hope I get a second chance to taste this really awesome dessert.

I can’t stay away from food posts right now. I wanted to go to Gibson’s but all the restaurants along that strip on Rush were crowded. I ended up at the hotel restaurant, with a fantastic dinner.

Ordered the wine flight — the Peter Andrew Ingenium (a mix of cab, malbec, merlot and petit verdot), an Argentinian Cab and a Californian zinfindel. Surprisingly it was the zin that came out as favourite. I also got an amuse bouche of tuna pieces.

For starters I ordered the tomato trilogy for something light. Besides, I love tomatoes. The dish consisted of 3 variations on tomato — a stack of lightly marinated yellow and red slices, a tomato ice and a tall shot glass of tomato foam. Very nouvelle cuisine but amusing.

Main course was curry-crusted lamb with couscous stuffed pepper, figs and a soft pancake. I haven’t been that impressed with lamb in the US but this was perfectly done.

Dessert, at the captain’s recommendation was banana pain perdu with caramelised bananas and cumin ice cream. The pain was a bit filling after the meal but I can’t fault the caramelised bananas or the cumin ice cream.

Good thing about eating at the hotel was that I could sign for it, and no need to walk outside. It was a very hot day! Rest of the night was spent packing and watching tv.

I think I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve eaten alone at a restaurant. I went back to McCormick and Schmick’s and sat outside, the evening was so nice. For starter I had steamed clams and I must say clams in the US are great. The juice was so delicious I couldn’t stop mopping it up with bread.

For main course I had the mixed wild grill of sockeye salmon, chilean sea bass and crab cake for $29.95, including creme brulee as a dessert. Had some wine and was extremely full when I got back to the hotel

A departure from before, after today’s dept manager meeting there was no big group dinner. Which all of us agreed suited everybody very well. Some of my colleagues left straight away after the meeting but my colleague and I are still around. After looking around the area we decided to keep it simple and have dinner at McCormick and Schmick’s just across from the hotel.

What a find. Wonderful seafood including prawns that tasted like prawns, a selection of oysters, sea scallops (regular sized today) and a lobster tail that bursted out of its tail. We had some wine and dessert, and agreed that food in Chicago is way better than food in New York.

The big meeting about the conference went well, a consultant firm is involved and they made a nice presentation. I’m not sure if I’m going to the conference, I should but I’m not sure.

Dinner with the whole group at Red Light, which sells itself as Pan-Asian fusion. The menu is certainly very Western-Asian with menu items like Today’s Most Honourable Soup (sigh) and a daily special called Hong Kong-something or other.

There was a starter of Vietnamese spring rolls which was very good. One of my colleagues had the Peking Duck which to be perfectly honest is not Peking Duck but more like Chinatown roast duck. Looked good, and I was told it tasted very good.

I had the scallops. And man, these scallops will be the one reason to get me to return to this restaurant. Not only were they the largest scallops I’ve ever seen, they tasted fresh and seared just right. Served with porcini mushroom polenta, I could only have a bit of the polenta I was so full.

It is of no surprise to anyone that I’m in Chicago again. Our new boss invited us to a meeting with Communications to discuss the upcoming company conference, and we will have our own senior managers meeting while we are all together.

No large meetings today, just people coming into town and all. I got set up quickly, even helping the others to get hooked up. 4 of us are holed up in one of the large offices and it’s kinda cozy. Last time the same group had dinner at the we, but this time I took them to Bubba Gump’s at Navy Pier cos it’s more casual.

What did we have? Shrimp, shrimp and more shrimp of course.

Tokoro at the Langham Hotel HK opened earlier this year to much fanfare. It sells itself as The Spirit of Roppongi where the theatre of robatayaki and the flavours of authentic Japanese cuisine come together. A robata is a busy open space where a team under chef Takanori Hirayama grill the freshest of seafood, meats and vegetables.

mm and I went with a friend who suggested this place. We started with a supreme 18-piece sushi plate and a lobster salad. Fairly standard cold appetisers, fresh and crisply prepared.

The grilled foods included the chef’s special minced chicken skewers, scallops with mushroom in its own juice, tempura and kurobuta pork chops. Kurobuta pork is the pork equivalent of wagyu beef, coming across as slightly crunchy and well marbled.

Dessert was a tofu mousse with red bean, green tea and lime cremes, and an fantastic apple sorbet. I couldn’t help it, I kept taking spoonfuls of mm’s sorbet. Hee.

 
They even had wine flights — we shared a pinot noir and a chardonnay selection of 3 glasses each. As an indulgence I even tried a sake cocktail — sakarina was made with sake, lime juice and a little sugar.

I tasted a tiny slice of heaven today. I’ve heard about courgette (aka zucchini in some parts of the world) flowers and how delicate they are. There are recipes for deep fried or stuffed with cheese and all looks good.

So Car’s grandmother received a small handful of freshly picked courgette flowers yesterday. They can’t keep so she had to prepare them today. First she cleaned them carefully, then parboiled in water until they were soft. Even after parboiling the orange colour was still dominant. She then dipped them in a batter made from flour, baking powder (obviously SR flour will also do), water and beaten egg. She then pan fried them. There was leftover batter so it became a sort of frittata-like fritter.

It took all of 10 minutes for the plate to disappear. Very delicioius.

I went to the taste of chicago today. I avoided going at the weekend because of the crowds, and today i got there at 10.50am, just before the 11am opening. The place was practically empty and I had time to walk around looking at the stalls deciding what to try. Tickets were available for $8 for a strip of 12. Most stalls had 3-4 menu items costing around 6-10 tickets, although they have one “taste of” item for 3-4 tickets obviously for tasting.

There were the expected sandwiches, pizza and the like but I focused on trying food I hadn’t tried before. First was a chorizo arepa, because I was watching a program on the Food Network over the weekend on arepas. This arepa wasn’t anything like the ones on TV, the sausage was okay but the pastry was dry. The second thing I tried was a mustard fried catfish. Now this one was good. The breading wasn’t thick, the fish was fresh and the mustard gave it a nice gentle kick.

 
On the theme of fish the next stall offered shark. I’ve eaten all sorts of unusual food so i wasn’t fazed by the shark. It was actually quite nice. Like tune in taste although it’s white not red. Better than crocodile definitely. Not to fishy either. I was kinda full by then but one dish from my earlier inspection stood out — goat with fried plantain. I didn’t care for the goat, it was very tough, even tougher than mutton. The plantain was good — sweet and filling.

Dessert time. The New Orleans style restaurant offered up a tasting portion of beignet and a large piece of watermelon was the perfect thirst quencher.

The best till last. A combo of lemon and watermelon ice. Yep, a great day out.

I’ve been to many good restaurants in Chicago, mostly as a guest of my work colleagues. But none had the impression that Hamburger Mary’s made.

I’d been out in the sun watching the parade, then got rained on; the bus ride to the restaurant was long and full of traffic; I was dehydrated and hungry. So to be greeted by a larger than life plastic waitress with a huge burger in her hands gave me a big smile. This is a franchise chain started in 1972 with several branches all over the US. It’s a kinda burger joint, a kinda bar, quaint and a little camp. Beer on tap included Miller’s and Sapporo, food was the expected American casual burger fare.

I had a guacamole burger. The beef was good! Juicy, nicely flavoured and came with a giant steak knife stabbed in the middle of it. I had coleslaw with it, not having enough energy to face fries or mashed potatoes.

Strange that I pick a burger place for this entry, but it’s my choice if I had to bring anyone out for a meal.

The problem with America is that there’s too many food temptations, especially steak. I need to stop.

1. spicy marinated skirt steak at nacional 27
2. thick sirloin at ristorante we
3. thin cut t-bone from the supermarket
4. texas sirloin at lonestar steakhouse

I feel my arteries protesting as soon as I saw this offering for breakfast. “Unclog us already!” they screamed in panic.

I nibbled on an apple fritter (bottom left), scraping as much icing as I could politely. It would have been better if there was a plain version.

What’s up with ice cream on gadget blogs lately? Must be the anticipation of summer. And I’m influenced by them, dammit!!

First Brian Lam wrote about the limited edition Haagen Dazs honey flavored vanilla ice cream, which is somehow supposed to help fund bee research. Interesting theories are abounding lately that we should save animals from extinction by eating them. Well, I’m all for honey bees so I’ll take that ice cream thank you.

On the topic of ice cream, and via boing boing gadget, new styled ice cream scoops that produce dripless and perfectly square ice creams that sit perfectly on cones. Very neat.

I sliced a large chunk of the fingernail off my left index finger about 2 weeks ago and it’s been in bandages since then. The nail fell off last weekend so at least that discomfort is gone. It’s only when the finger is disabled but not fully out of commission that I realise how much I use it. I use my hands a lot. I eat with my hands a lot too. And judging from the way I eat chilli crab — getting sauce on all 10 fingers — I eat messily.

I read about these trongs on the chicago tribune over the weekend and they seem to be perfect. These plastic grabbers fit over thumb and 2 fingers and are designed for eating wings, ribs or any hand-heavy food. Just slip them off to grab a drink or something else without sauce or food bits getting in the way. Pretty neat.

At $5.99 for a pack of 6 they’re a bit expensive though. I’d expect them to be disposable.

The first recipes I remember following are for fairy cakes and banana bread, from the 99p Sainsbury Home Bakery books. This collection has been with our family for 20+ years and they’re pretty fail safe.

Sometime during the last 6-7 years I got better at cooking. Perhaps it’s a sign of the times, that people have more disposable income, travel more and are more open to trying out fresh ideas. Perhaps it’s the explosion of celebrity chefs on tv. Who knows.

I still use the same recipe books, certainly for basics. For me, there are two types of recipes: ones I can/want to follow and ones I don’t think will work for me. I hardly ever follow recipes to the letter. For a start I can’t cook using cups, I have to weigh my ingredients. For seconds, I don’t have access to some of the ingredients needed. Fresh herbs are a problem. I don’t like onions or spring onions. I don’t deep fry.

There are a variety reasons that would preclude me from following a recipe. This poll from the accidental hedonist is a week or so old now, but brings up interesting points. The results aren’t surprising, availability of equipment (36%) and ingredients (20%) are the most important barriers to entry.

via kottke Keith Law’s article entitled top 10 home cooking mistakes, which seem more to be 10 key home cooking tips.

Most of these are obvious, like using good ingredients, making sure the pan is hot and be flexible. What caught my eye was #2:

A real knife. You can do a lot with a good chef’s knife, and you can’t do shit without one.

There are 3 knives in the apartment, and they are all useless crap. Not because of branding or whatever, but I doubt they’ve ever been sharpened. Can’t even cut vegetables, I had to use the tip to pierce through the skin of a cherry tomato then saw and saw and saw before I could cut it in half. Sigh. I’m very tempted to dig out my swiss knife, or give up on using knives while I’m here.

My colleagues were staying at the W Hotel so we had dinner there, at the ristorante we, which describes itself as a tuscan steakhouse.

I had pan roasted mussels in a tomato broth, followed by a big strip steak. I could only finish 1/3rd of the steak but as I have a kitchen (yay!) I could take it back for another meal or two.

After dinner, 2 of my colleagues walked back to my apartment with me cos we were all full. They liked the place, apparently they find the W too dark and too boutique-y. I wonder if I’ll like it.

Tonight’s big dinner was at Nacional 27 on Huron. Decidedly latin american feel, and for a change we were seated around a large round table. Much nicer for conversation. We started with mojito, which got the evening to a great beginning.

The starters were an eclectic mix of chicken and beef skewers, chicken empanadas, croquetas with black bean salsa as well as a seafood ceviche in a large glass jar.

For main course I picked the marinated skirt steak with avocado. I don’t usually have skirt steak, it’s been a long time since I’ve seen it on a menu. Mum used to buy it when we were very young, but it’s been sirloin and rib-eye for the last … many years.

Dessert again was a mixed plate. A flan, chocolate and a creme brulee.

A full day of committee meetings. Lots on the agenda and productive.

As usual, dinner was with the whole group at a sit down restaurant. This time it was a tavola quite far west of the city. A small converted house brought us the Italian cuisine of Daniel Bocik. The menu was fixed and served family style.

3 starters: grilled vegetables, salad, Italian cured meats
2 primo: gnocchi with brown butter & sage (*their speciality, pictured), penne bolognese
3 secondi: steamed salmon over aromatic vegetables, oven roasted chicken with polenta and garlic spinach and marinated grilled leg of lamb served with rosemary potatoes and garlic spinach
4 desserts: apple torte, chocolate torte, lemon tart, panna cotta

I was reading about a latte art throwdown at Joe: The Art of Coffee in NY the other day. Baristas seem to take themselves really seriously, which…well…good for them. It’s pretty addicting, watching all these rosettas being poured on youtube.

And on the topic of Mexican food, we went to a local Mexican restaurant for an early lunch. I had a mixed plate, and damn if I can’t remember what was on it. All I remember is the taco.

It was a nice day for a little drive. It was great to see the sun for a change.

Dinner was steak. And it’s interesting to document how to prepare steak using a method so totally different to mine. First, marinade in 2 whole bottles of sauce — teriyaki and another spicy version. Very nice smell, and teriyaki goes well with steak. Then after a few hours, shallow fry in a pan. Nothing untoward, but the lid was on?

 
I was glad I took mine out when I decided to. It was on the well done side of medium. The teriyaki really shone through and it was very tasty. Just shows different methods are just…different.

The IT guys took me to a “no signboard” Mexican place around the corner from the office today. I’m still confused about all the different types of popular Mexican food but I’m at a stage when I can order without looking stupid or needing help.

I had beef tacos with beans and salad.

It’s Mum’s birthday and Mother’s Day, so she deserves something special. I said I’d make a cake. I used to make cheesecakes, but this time I wanted something I’d never made before, so she can try something new.

This apple & blackberry crumble cake recipe is from bbc good food. It’s one of the more involved recipes I’ve tried. Nothing difficult, just time consuming and fiddly.

For the cake:
150g unsalted butter
150g golden caster sugar
3 large eggs, beaten
200g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
150g crème fraiche

For the fruit topping:
25g unsalted butter
1 tbsp sugar
4 eating apples, peeled, cored and cut into 8 wedges
150g blackberries

For the crumble topping:
50g unsalted butter
50g soft brown sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
75g plain flour
50g blanched hazelnuts, toasted and roughly chopped

Step 1: make the crumble topping
melt the butter, then mix in the sugar, cinnamon, flour and nuts. Set aside

Step 2: prepare the apples
melt the butter in a frying pan, add the sugar and apple wedges
cook for 10-15mins until the apples and soft and golden. Set aside to cool

Step 3: make the cake
cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy
add eggs one at a time
fold in flour, baking powder
add crème fraîche

Step 4: assemble
spoon roughly 2/3 of the cake mixture into a round cake tin
scatter 1/3 crumble mixture
top with the remaining cake mixture
scatter 1/3 crumble mixture
arrange apple and blackberries
top with remaining crumble mixture

bake at 190°C for 1.5 hours, covering with foil halfway through if crumble browns too quickly
cool for 10 mins then cool on wire rack
serve with a drizzle of honey or maple syrup and crème fraîche

From Delia’s winter collection. Yes, I know it’s May and it’s not winter, but who cares when there’s brownies? I don’t usually like nuts, but this was good.

1oz each of macadamia, pecan, hazelnut, brazil nut
2oz dark chocolate
4oz butter
2 large eggs
8oz granulated sugar
2oz plain flour
1 tsp baking powder

Roughly chop and roast the nuts for exactly 8 minutes
Melt chocolate and butter over a pan of simmering water
Cool, then mix in all the other ingredients
Bake at 180°C for 30 mins, cool, then cut into squares

For just over a month, Sars and Keckler has been running a cheese showdown contest on tomato nation they call NCheeseAA. They started with pairs of cheese and asked for readers’ votes. There were the more familiar like brie and cheddar; and more obscure (for me) like mimolette and ossau-iraty.

And now it’s down to the final two. Mozzarella vs British Cheddar. I do appreciate that they specify it’s the British version, cos it is the best. Looks like there’s an overwhelming vote for it, and both hosts agree in their assessments.

Sars says: I have nothing against mozzarella, except that it’s not a cheese that can really stand on its own: to shine, it needs to go on something, or in something, or with something. British Cheddar, by contrast, is a great snack with an apple; goes great on veggie chili; and is delicious all by its lonesome.

Keckler says: I want Cheddar.

Me, I voted for Cheddar too.

It all started with this week’s friday food fiesta topic, which was olives. It got me thinking how I can use olives to make a quick and simple dish. Aside from serving them on their own as tapas of course.

It was unbelievably easy to make with this. I had all the ingredients in my fridge. Tossed cooked penne in a generous dollop of red pesto, then added pitted kalamata olives, cherry tomatoes and the last of my jar of peppadew. Season, adding a little dried basil. An altogether sweet combination. Worth making again, just as soon as I get more peppadew.

This is a Donna Hay recipe (though I don’t understand why she doesn’t take advantage of the internet and post some of her recipes on her website). Very simple and easy to make.

marinade chicken in balsamic vinegar, garlic, olive oil and pepper
place on grill
add limes to grill halfway through
serve on a bed of salad, i used a red salad of carrot, tomato, yellow pepper and sweetcorn

I had the leftovers cold today, as a grilled chicken salad and it was just as good.

This is a New York Times recipe, a great way of combining the special (asparagus) with the mundane (eggs). It really is very simple and surprisingly, very delicious. The recipe calls for cheese, which should work wonders. Of course I don’t like cheese in my pasta so there.

Timing is important, so all the ingredients are ready at the same time.

put water to boil and cook spaghetti
in a frying pan heat olive oil and add 2 cloves of garlic, crush the garlic to infuse the flavour into the oil
when garlic is beginning to brown, remove and toss in chopped asparagus, fry quickly
drain pasta, reserve a little cooking water
toss asparagus with pasta and the reserved liquid
crack an egg into the frying pan and fry quickly until the whites are just set
plate pasta and put egg on top
when ready to eat break the egg, allowing the yolk to run into the warm pasta which will cook the egg

There are tens of thousands of restaurants in Tokyo. In a busy district such as Shibuya, Shinjuku or Ginza, entire buildings are taken up by restaurants, one on each floor. The problem for non-Japanese speakers is that it’s hard to figure out what is offered inside. Some restaurants helpfully provide plastic models but I suspect the good ones don’t, cos they don’t need the advertisement.

Staples of Japanese food are well known — sashimi, sushi, teppanyaki, grilled food, noodle bars, deep fried pork chop, shabu shabu and tempura. That these have become so ingrained internationally is a testament to the popularity of Japanese food.

If ever there is a restaurant I will return to again and again, it’s Ginza Tenkuni, which has been serving tempura since 1885. From a small beginning as a street stall it now occupies a whole building in one of the most expensive areas in Tokyo. The restaurant has 4 floors, and it’s interesting that each floor serves a slightly different style (and price) of tempura.

• basement — counter table but don’t be fooled, dinner starts at ¥10,500
• ground (what they call first) floor — casual seated tables, a simple bowl of tempura on rice for only ¥1,000 to larger sets up to ¥4,725
• second floor — banquet floor with table setting or tatami room, sets start at ¥6,300
• third floor — large tatami room for banquets, tempura is fried at the table

I’ve only eaten on the ground floor, but the selection is already enticing enough. Even a simple set comes with sashimi, pickles, side dish and miso soup

A more sophistical set is the bento box. It comes delicately presented, with several side dishes, soup and flavoured rice.

The best set I’ve enjoyed is a special winter set. It starts with a small salad, moving onto a plate with grilled fish and tiny small bowls of accompaniment.

There’s also sashimi and finally tempura of large prawn, small prawns, fish and vegetables. There’s even a scoop of ice cream to end.

The last day in Paris I went to the Monoprix on Champs to get some cheese. Though someone said I could get it at the airport, I figured (correctly) that it’ll be more expensive and the selection more limited. Besides, I had no intention of taking the cheese with me as hand luggage. I was awed, seeing the range of selection in the store fridge, and Monoprix isn’t exactly a gourmet deli. I got a great variety and selection too. I stayed away from too stinky cheese cos I had to pack it in my suitcase. Nor could I buy the too soft and perishable stuff. I gave Mum the camembert, these are what I have in my fridge. From top left: petit Pont-l’Évêque, Comté, Tomme de Savoie, Appenzeller, Morbier, St Albray, Salers. Okay, the Appenzeller doesn’t fit in, but what the hell, I love Appenzeller and miss it like crazy so there.

I have quince paste from Australia, perfect.

All the restaurants I went to on the trip to Pairs were new. I hadn’t been back in Paris for 6+ years, and my eating habits have changed somewhat since then. I remember always looking out for moules frites and though I still love the dish, I’m looking for something different.

If I were to return to Paris in the near future, and I’m only allowed to pick just one restaurant to revisit, I’d choose Aux Lyonnais. Yes, it’s probably the most touristy of the bunch, but there were dishes on the menu that intrigued me, and I want to try. I was extremely adventurous and tried the tripes but as we were leaving I looked over at a nearby table and saw someone tucking into the most scrumptious looking calves liver — thick, soft and cooked pink. Then every review I read talks about quenelle de brochet et ecrevisses, so how can I not try it?

And the île flottante aux pralines roses et tarte aux pralines, so worth trying again. Though next time I will try the soufflé (didn’t this time cos of the wait) and definitely the creamy St. Marcellin cheese my colleague had.

I made another batch of warm butternut and chickpea salad. The difference is that this time I roasted some diced carrots with the squash, plus I roasted the squash with skin so they don’t fall apart so easily. It’s a much better photo too, compared with the previous attempt:

While on the subject of re-doing recipes, I made more of the lemon sponge pudding since I gave the rest of what I made on Saturday to my parents. This time I used (for half portion) an orange and a lemon. I think I’ll stick with the all lemon version cos the orange was a little bitter. It’s not the pith, I used a proper zester. I think the bitterness was due to 2 reasons;

• the orange skin was too artificial — I need to find unwaxed oranges
• I added a large dash of orange oil and I’m wondering whether I added too much

I’ve had a collection of citrus oils for ages, and I don’t use them enough. Apparently they are very concentrated and a little goes a long way. That’s probably why there was too much orange flavour. The label at the back of the bottle also warned against prolonged contact with plastic containers and spatulas — I guess the oils are quite potent.

I didn’t take a picture of the pudding cos it looked exactly like the other one.

When I think of sponge puddings, it’s usually the upturned pudding basin-shaped cake swimming in custard or golden syrup — oversweet, thick and stodgy. After a couple of bites, it leaves me full and wanting fruit or sorbet. I guess it’s an English prerogative, the heavy sponge pudding that shocks the arteries.

Which was why I was so excited to find this recipe from Nigel Slater’s Appetite. It’s been a good book of cooking tips and recipes for me. His website seems to have disappeared but I found an excerpt at The Guardian that quoted this particular page. The best thing is that it’s delicious and very light. The citrus makes sure that it’s not too sweet and gives it a bright tang. I think I left mine in the oven too long and the sauce dried out a bit, but it’s still very yummy — the top is a light (here’s that word again) crust and the bottom is this exquisite custardy, lemony soft sponge. It has to be tasted to give it full credit.

If I were to plate this properly I’d serve it with a dollop of vanilla ice cream or mascarpone or a pretty lemon sauce and a raspberry or two. Accompanied by limoncello, of course.

100g butter
175g sugar
1 lemon + 2 oranges or 4 lemons — I used all lemons this time
4 eggs, separated
40g plain flour
400ml milk

cream the butter and sugar
add egg yolks followed by flour and milk alternatively until the mixture resembles a soft cake batter
add zest and juice of fruit
beat egg whites until stiff peaks and fold into mixture
bake in basin over a roasting tin of water at 180°C for about 1 hour