Imperfections of a Pastry Princess

Lazy Sumdays

2010-04-26T00:23:00.005+02:00

Vietnamese spring roll

Prawns, noodles and vegetables wrapped in rice paper served with chilli fish sauce

A month. I can't believe it's already a month that I've been in London and a third of my Basic diplomas are over. Wowsa. Time just flew by and it kinda feels like I've been here forever. To be honest I don't have any feeling for time whatsoever anymore... One reason might be that I had 48 hours of class this week, also on Saturday, and I volunteered at the Superior Cuisine event aswell. Loved it. Just like I'm totally loving all of this! Is it weird that I could already well up simply thinking about the fact that this is gonna be over sometime?!

Char sui bun

Honey barbecue pork in a fluffy white bun

Well anywho. As I had a crazy busy week I wanted to do something relaxed today and what would be better than food? Coz it's not like I'm surrounded by food 24/7, right? hehehe. Ever since I went for Yum Cha in Sydney I wanted more of it but as that's always around lunchtime, which clashes with my schedule, I decided on the very similar Dim Sum instead.

Spinach and prawn wrap

Prawns rolled in spinach, steamed and served with a light garlic and ginger sauce

Conveniently enough there's lots of lovely Asian girls at school whom I asked for some inside scoop on London's Dim Sum scene and they recommended several places. The deal was sealed when I was told Ping Pong offered "Lazy Sumdays" where you can gorge yourseld on as many dim sum as your heart desires for a set prices. Bargain or what?! Ping Pong in Soho it was on today's sunny London Marathon Sunday afternoon.

Prawn toast

Prawn on toast favoured with coriander and garlic sprinkled with sesame seeds

The placed is in a very central location just off Oxford Circus and has a modern and refreshingly un-Asian interior but I can't say I was very impressed with the service... I was expecting a buffet but really we could just order whatever we wanted from the menu, excluding certain dishes like Chef's specials, and it was freshly prepared for us. The selection was pretty good, the food always arrived scoldingly hot and stacking up all the baskets in front of us was fun.

Scallop and shitake dumpling

Scallops and king prawns with shitake mushrooms in wheat four pastry

Altogether we ordered 17 things. That sounds like an awful lot, doesn't it? We did leave pretty full and quite tired but hey, it's supposed to be quite healthy food... I think. Some dumplings I liked more than others and some I wasn't exactly fond of at all. Yeah, scallop & shitake dumpling I'm talking about you. You smell funny and no, you didn't taste very nice either - which is why I ate all of half a piece. The prawn toast was pretty boring and dry, too.

Crab spring roll

Crab meat with prawns, coriander and chilli in crisp pastry - two served with Thai fish sauce

Of course there's other " little steamed parcels of deliciousness" which I loved. BBQ pork buns, oohh yum. I first had them at Yum-Cha where everybody was mad about them and so they obviously were the very first dish I ordered. Twice. There was also this really lovely Prawn, coconut and water chestnut soup: a fragrant coconut soup with king prawns, straw mushrooms and water chestnuts of which I forgot to take a picture, boo.

Spicy pork dumpling

Pork and spicy sautéed vegetables in translucent white pastry

One dim sum in particular left me puzzled because I simply didn't know how to eat it exactly... Was I expected to eat the lotus leaf or not? I will never know but at least I tried fearlessly and chewed on it until I decided it was too rubbery to enjoy and preceeded to unwrap the rest of the dish. Not that this tasted anything like I expected either. All I could taste was rice and then some but surely no duck and tropical foods.

Duck, orange and pineapple

Two steamed parcels of sticky rice with duck, orange and pineapple wrapped in a lotus leaf

That's the thing with dim sum, sometimes I'm not really sure what they taste of were it not for the labels on the baskets... All I know is that most of them taste better dipped in one of the sauces, Hoisin sauce in particular.

Chicken and cashew nut dumpling

Chicken with chopped cashew nuts in a chilli hoi sin sauce

... which is what these little gems were served with. I can truely say these were the surprise hit of the day and therefore I re-ordered them. The reason I went for these in the first place was funnily enough to humour my boyfriend. He used to always go for Cashew Chicken at our local Chinese take-out back in Galway and it was the blandest and most boring dish ever. The reason I told him he could never ever order it when I was around - a good decision because it ended up broadening his culinary horizon. Something I've been working on for quite a while now, successfully at that. There was nothing bland about these dumplings though. They tasted much more exciting and delicious than the ones you would initially think better and more special. Never judge a dumpling by its reputation!

Crispy prawn ball

Chopped king prawns and spring onions in shredded egg pastry served with sweet and sour sauce

Don't these look like aliens? Or something living in the ocean. Utterly funny to eat, I didn't even know where to begin! Very crispy and crunchy indeed and served alongside a delightful sauce which didn't taste anything like your usual sweet and sour sauce.

Black prawn dumpling

Delicate black pastry with King prawn Chinese mushroom and garlic butter

Maybe it's just me but these don't really look as appealing as they sounds, or do they?! A bit like alligator eyes and the black of the pastry is suspicious-looking. I felt like the prawns were never really taste-able in any of the dim sum and these tasted mostly of garlic and I'm still wondering what it was that made the pastry black...

Seafood puff

Scallop and prawn with onions and ginger in flaky puff pastry

If there's one thing I've really had enough of recently it's puff pastry. Indeed, you figured correctly, we made puff pastry in school last week and we'll be doing it again for pâtisserie this week. So no, I didn't order these for myself but I tried them anyway but they didn't impress me greatly. Probably because of the puff pastry.

Seafood dumpling

Prawns and scallops in a pastry made with carrots

The Vietnamese spring rolls, these seafood dumplings and the squid cakes were nice although I could neither see or taste the noodles in the spring rolls. The spinach wraps tasted mostly of spinach and not prawns but the crunchy and very unexpected fried onions made for a great contract in texture against the soft legume and added a surprising flavour unusual to Asian cuisine.

Just now I'm coming to the conclusion that dim sum just mightn't be about being able to taste what exactly is in them but rather their interesting over-all flavour. Then again some can be quite bland and you need the sauces to pimp them up and the dipping takes them to a whole new level. They're meant to be eaten whole and dipped, that's the key to enjoying dumplings.

Chilli squid cake

Squid, prawns and coriander with chilli served with fish sauce

Trying all the different little dishes was fun and in general it was a nice dinner. Most of the dim sum tasted good and it's to be expected that you can't love every single one of them. I mean we did try 17 different ones after all! They were fresh, well made and delicate but at times not as exciting as their descriptions made them out to be. It stands in no comparison to Yum-Cha though.

The service was somewhat of a let-down but not when it came to our actual waitress serving the dishes as she was nice and smiley. It was that we were seated, left without any further explanation when we asked about the special offer and ignored for a while that was frustrating and didn't make for a good first impression. Neither did twice receiving a wrong bill which is why I would probably go and try different dim sum restaurants like Royal China first before going back to PingPong. The lazy sumdays offer is great value though: It's Sunday, you're lazy ( i.e. not in the mood for cooking ), hungry and in want of (dim) "sum"? Pardon the pun but do try for yourself!

Jamie's Italian @ Canary Wharf

2010-04-18T23:24:00.002+02:00

My boyfriend is over at the moment and today we went to Canary Wharf because I wanted to try Jamie Oliver's "Jamie's Italian" restaurant there. I don't think it'a a big secret that I'm a big Jamie fan even though I found out the chefs at school think what he does is "for kids", to quote them. Well, thing is when they talk about so-called celebrity chefs they mean people like Alain Ducasse with his 9 Michelin stars but I mean people like Jamie. Funnily enough they do respect Gordon Ramsay though who I personally don't think much of to be honest. Particularly since he goes to other people's restaurants, curses at them and then mice dumplings and other wonderful treats were found at his own ridiculously expensive, fine dining restaurants.

Obviously Alain Ducasse is amazing, no doubt about it and all the other Haute Cuisine geniuses but they're not necessarily well-known outside the hospitality industry, right? Okay, so Jamie doesn't have any Michelin stars or whatever but hey, he's got charme and mass appeal, he's cute, adorable and his food is absolutely delicious. You can say what you want, I love him. His dishes are some of my favourite foods and I think all the things he does, all his different projects aswell as his books are amazing. There you go, I love Jamie O.

I had wanted to go to his restaurant Fifteen for a while, you know, the one run by his apprentices. Remember, there was a tv show about it, too. Anyway, I heard from several people that his own, new Jamie's Italian would be even nicer and as it's also cheaper and sounded scrumptious we decided to give it a go. It's located in the very modern business district at Canary Wharf with its high-rise buildings and cool architecture. There will be another one opening in Covent Garden in the summer and I think that location will be even nicer.

The restaurant is a nice open space with a modern feel but still comfortable. At the entrance you're greeted by a shelf of freshly made pasta next to pasta machines where you can access the outside terrace when it's warm enough for an alfresco dinner. There are lots of Jamie books on the wall and it has a bar, another counter with fresh produce where antipasti are prepared and a half open kitchen.

It's not a massive menu but there were still a good few things I wanted to try and so I had to talk my boyfriend into agreeing to share certain things. We usually never share food because it somehow doesn't seem to work for the two of us... unfortunately. It can be so much fun to get lots of different dishes and then share them but I guess as Joey from Friends would put it: "Joey doesn't share food!!!" ;-) Somehow we still managed though. I more or less decided we should get antipasti and a pasta "primi" for starters:

Seasonal Meat Antipasti Plank

Seasonal cured meat, Tuscan fennel salami, pistachio mortadella, San Daniele prosciutto and Schiacciata piccante

Italian cheeses, buffalo mozzarella, pecorino with amazing chilli jam

Pickles, curly green chillies, green and black olives

Salad, Italian coleslaw with lemon and mint

This selection of different antipasti was very nice and all the different components worked well together. I especially liked the chili jam on the pecorino and the Italian coleslaw was an interesting interpretation of the dish.

Roasted Pumpkin Risotto

Seasonal pumpkins roasted with chilli and thyme, creamy Arborio rice with parmesan and crunchy herby amaretto breadcrumbs.

This was really delicious. I just love risotto and it's such a homey, feel-good comfort food. Pumpkin is a vegetable I'm quite fond of so I knew I had to try this dish. Admittedly I can't say I tasted any amaretto flavour in this but I don't even think that's a bad thing. As we ordered this as a starter ( you can also have it as a main course ) and then shared it wasn't much for each of us, more like a teaser, really. I could have literally eaten a whole bath tub filled with this creamy goodness!

Fish In A Bag

The freshest sea bass fillet from Brixham market, Cornish mussels and clams steamed in their own juices with smashed fennel, heritage potatoes, capers, arrabiatta sauce and zesty Amalfi lemon.

This was a tasty, light, summery and healthy dish. The fish was tender, the sauce was fragrant and all the flavours and juices worked together beautifully. I love fennel and the potatoes were just the way I like them, small and golden. There could have been a few more mussels and clams but then again there were green beans in it which weren't cited on the menu. There were several sides I would have liked to try but we settled on the 2 I wanted to try the most:

Crispy Polenta Chips with rosemary salt and parmesan

Golden, crispy on the outside and soft on the inside nuggets sprinkled with grated parmesan of which I asked for more and fresh rosemary. These were yummy and a great alternative to your usual side of chips or potatoes. I would definitely go for these again and will make them at home instead od chips sometime - great idea!

Posh Truffle Chips, Insanely good with truffle oil and parmesan, proper posh!

These chips were also yummy. I believe most things are made even better with parmesan on top! I was glad the truffle oil wasn't as pungent as it sometimes tends to be but rather a faint aroma, a hint of truffle. Hmm.

My boyfriend couldn't resist and went for steak instead after contemplating the Fish in a bag for a while, too and not being able to bring himself to order any of the "cooked under a brick" dishes. Too unconventional for an Irishman I suppose... And I had thought he had made such great progress, haha. Naah, I actually didn't mind.

Good Old Grilled Steak, 8oz Sirloin

Fantastic British steak (dry aged for 21 days) chargrilled and served pink with grilled flat mushrooms, dressed watercress and flat parsley

Can you see what looks like grilled strips of meat on top of the steak? Well, my darling boyfriend believed them to be fat as in cut up and grilled rind of steak that gives all the juicy flavour. Hence he refused to eat them. Me, never one to let any food go to waste... went for them, if not at least to try them. Guess what? I realized these strips of fat were actually the grilled mushrooms, d'uh! Ah hahaha. I couldn't stop making fun of my boyfriend, what a low-brow! Guess this goes to show he still has a good bit of culinary ground to cover!

Just reading the menu again there I noticed I completely forgot to order another side I would have loved to eat, Slow-Cooked Balsamic Chickpeas. Balsamic and chickpeas? Sounds like a match made in heaven to me! As we already had the roasted pumpkin risotto I refrained from also ordering

Gennaro's Winter Salad: Radicchio, roasted pumpkin, sweet red onions, sultanas and pine nuts because this dish can also easily be re-created at home - not that I'd have the time... or would need anymore food for that matter!

Just like all of Jamie's food this dinner was a yummy one. Nothing overly fancy but good, yummy, feel-good Italian food that leaves you satisfied but not full and is fresh and healthy. I also thought it was refreshing that there wasn't a single pizza to be found on the menu! Coinidentally I found our friendly waitress looked like Jamie's wife Jools as a young girl and I would not have minded to keep on eating or enjoy bigger portions. Unfortunately it wasn't until my boyfriend had already picked up the bill (thanks, baby!) that I read about today's specials of which the deep-fried risotto balls filled with mushrooms, parmesan and Italian meats particularly caught my eye... Ooohhh. I'm sure I would have thoroughly enjoyed them!

Ah well, there's always a next time. This is a nice place to go to on a first date, for lunch or take the family out to on a Sunday. Make sure to order plenty of different food and sides and enjoy a scrumptious meal in a relaxed athmosphere. Maybe you'll even bump into Jamie - now wouldn't that be a fun treat?!

The Hummingbird Bakery, Part 1 ( of many to come... )

2010-04-13T22:44:00.007+02:00

I have uploaded pictures of my first few days! And to make up for not having been able to post anything in a long time, I'm going to treat you to some lovely goodies from the Hummingbird Bakery here in London. Yes, that Hummingbird bakery and if you've been reading my blog you'll know I've already made a few things from their cookbook which I love! I don't want to sound cocky or anything ... but I think my Cheesecake Brownies with Raspberry Cream looked much better then their actual ones in the shop! Seriously now. Must mean I rock, tehehehe. A girl can dream.

Obviously I had planned on paying a visit to THB ever since I was given the cookbook because all their stuff simply looks yummilicious! Then eventually I stumbled upon their Notting Hill shop by coincidence... My flatmate were strolling around Portobello Market on a Saturday afternoon, looking at all the tid-bits around when I spotted something cupcake-y. Anything cupcake-related always catches my eye, d'uh! Imagine my surprise and delight when I realized it was actually THB!

But, what with it being Saturday and all... man, it was busy! People were queueing out of the shop and yes, it's a very small place and the Britsh love to queue up for just about anything but it was impressive nonetheless. I suppose they must have quite a reputation!

Maybe because it was Saturday or because it's one of the smaller shops... I don't know but I was slightly disappointed by the selection. For obvious reasons I had kinda expected to find every single item from the book on display but this was unfortunately not the case... I was told they didn't sell many cakes and none of the pies and you could only order them whole. There were none of the cookies either if I recall correctly but the shop is pretty indeed. Just like the book.

( This is actually the one in Soho )

I went for the Red Velvet Cake for 2 reasons. First because I had made it from their recipe and wanted to compare my work to theirs. Secondly because I have never had any Red Velvet Cake besides my own that once and as people always gush about it so much I wanted to know what all the fuss was about. I don't think I've to mention I asked for an extra-big slice albeit them already being ginormous, right?!

Then I needed to try, yes needed to, one of their famous cupcakes and I went for a Black Bottom one because it combines 3 things I love: Chocolate, cheesecake and cheesecake frosting - brilliant, especially with choc chips in the cheesecakes!

Another plus is that they wrap up your pastries beautifully. Lovely cake boxes and personalized wrapping paper and stickers, très chic. Very... feminine. I like it.

So, how did I like my first proper Red Velvet cake and how did it compare to mine? Well, first of all I liked the fact that the pieces are massive and basically impossible to eat in one sitting and that coming from someone like me means something! ... ehum ... Did I mention I already have the reputation of being a terrible glutton at school? Yeah, not very lady-like... But that's a different story.

The cake is very ... red. And funnily enough I think it tasted red, too! Would you agree with me? I had made my cake less red and more chocolatey so it actually tasted differently, particularly because I also changed up the frosting. I must admit I prefer their original frosting though. Note to self, stick with the original frosting, they know what they're talking about, ye dope! Well, anyway. The cake also smelt funny. Hmm, kinda... vinegary. Does food colouring make things smell like that, kinda weird?

I did like the taste though, don't get me wrong but I honestly can't really understand why people go mad for it. Maybe I'd like it even better without the red, even though it looks cool. Just a thought, don't hang me! I mightn't be American enough to go crazy for artificial colour. Bottom line is I liked the cake, bright, moist and all and especially the frosting.

The Black Bottom cupcake was very good. Scrumptious.

A dark, moist yet airy chocolate batter contrasted by a delicious cheesecake filling which was made even better by adding chocolate chips to it and topped off with lovely white frosting and a few chocolate batter crumbs.

Oh, goody. I'll definitely have one of those again sometime!

My flatmate tried one of their basic vanilla cupcakes with simple blue frosting and didn't like it too much. I would never choose a plain vanilla one because they're simply too boring for my liking, blue frosting and glitter or not. I did try it though and I must say I wasn't impressed either. She had a point indeed when pointing out that if they're famous for cupcakes they should totally rock at the simple, basic vanilla cupcake. Don't you agree?

A few days later I finished school early and decided to look for THB in Soho as I had been told it would be a bigger shop and I was hoping for a bigger selection. All I wanted was to have a look at their stuff but of course I ended up buying something. Oooyyy. It took quite sometime to find their bleeding shop but when I finally found it I was quickly reconciled because it's just so pretty.

Aaaand they do actually have a much bigger selection, plus it was during the week and not busy at all so I had a tough choice to make! We all know what a terrible sucker I am when it comes to decisions...

Too bad they didn't have last week's chocolate peanut butter special anymore and the theme for the next 2 weeks was teas. Not my favourite. Still, I settled for a green tea cupcake. Yeah, what's with all that food colouring - again?! Ok, ok, it does make sense... Green tea, green cupcake and it didn't taste of food colouring. The texture of the cupcake was nice but I'm not entirely sure how I felt about the taste of it. I'm not a tea drinker, so I probably don't like green tea.

Why did I go for a green tea cupcake again? No idea. Because it sounded interesting. Even while I was eating it I wasn't sure whether I liked it or not. Strange things mystifying.... The frosting had got a wee bit dry and wasn't as good as the one on the Black Bottom cupcake. Would I go for a cupcake like that again? Probably not.

The Pumkin Spice Whoopie Pie I bought last Friday on the other hand was delicious. Can somebody tell me why they're called whoopie though?! It was nice, airy and moist with a lovely filling inside and yes, it was big too. Not that I would know how big whoopie pies usually are. This one was another first for me and I really liked it. Basically it's just normal cake batter baked differently and then stuck together with a filling in the middle. Not exactly rocket science but tasty nonetheless. I can't say I tasted pumpkin in particular, it was rather a general christmassy spice flavour. Hopefully they will have other great flavours soon because I find the chocolate and red velvet ones too boring.

Last but not least I indulged onanother massive slice of cake only that this time it was Carrot Cake. Taste of carrot cake it did. Was it the best carrot cake I've ever had? Nope. Was it good? Yep. In the beginning I felt like there were too many walnuts in it but I got used to them pretty quickly and didn't particularly notice them anymore. The frosting was yum-o once again - they just know how to do a nice frosting at THB! Maybe there could have been more actual carrots, you know, seeing as it's a carrot cake. Generally it was a good cake though and I'm really taking a serious liking to those giant American cake pieces! Hehehe.

For now I've to try all the other ( cupcake ) bakeries but I'll be back at THB next week when they've a new cupcake special menu again! I'm becoming they're official tester I guess and all for your sake, people! Tsss, yeah right. ;-)

No Internet...

2010-04-06T15:37:00.002+02:00

Hey guys! Happy belated Easter to all of you! I just wanted to let you know I haven't abandoned my blog and vanished into thin air... I just don't have internet yet, which is really annoying. The only way I can keep in touch with my loved ones is through the amazing invention that is the skype mobile phone. Please bare with me... We have signed up for internet but it's taking a while to get it all sorted and installed. Keep your fingers crossed and stop by again soon.

A New Era Has Begun!

2010-03-26T23:51:00.004+01:00

Hello from London everybody! This is a news round-up to let you know what I've been up to and how my first day at Le Cordon Bleu went! I'm very sorry there won't be any photos today but you've to know things have been crazy around here...!!! I don't have internet at the hotel and the internet issue at my future apartment still has to be figured out, too. It might take a while and therefore posts etc might be a good bit delayed and all but I will do my very best, I promise!
( Right now I'm sitting in a McDonald's at Paddington Station because they have free Wi-Fi, bless'em! )

A girl's gotta eat...

Thankfully my flight went smoothly after all albeit the strike and I got here fine. The Goodbye from my family was obviously sad and the fact they're on holidays in the States now hasn't made things easier...
Right after my arrival I met up with my future room-mate and co-student, Sarah, and I'm happy to say I don't regret my decision so far, she's lovely! ;) It seems like we have loads in common.
We went around looking at places and I wasn't happy at all. Finally we decided on a nice flat and had to quickly take it off the market and I found the whole legal side of things quite intimidating. There have been so many complications and it's been wrecking my head, uuggh. We obviously need to move in asap as in NOW and everything took much longer and was a lot more complicated than we'd hoped. Such a hassle. I had no idea you needed so many documents and it was all so difficult and strenuous. One big problem for me was that I didn't have internet to do all the filling out of forms online and that I badly needed my dad to help me with things and he is in a different time zone and on holidays. He did everything he could though although we had a hard time sometimes. Tomorrow we'll finally sign the contract, get the keys and will be able to move in. Hopefully. Please God! I want to have this out of the way because there is so much other stuff to consider, figure out and think about. Like the internet thing...

Lovely crayfish baguette with capers from "Paul's" Pâtisserie

Seriously though, I haven't had a quiet minute ever since I touched down and school hadn't even started! I'm glad I've Sarah by my side so I don't have to go through all of this by myself. Too bad she isn't in my group at school, oh well...
On Wednesday we met some of the other girls from school for lunch at TGI Fridays in Covent Garden and it was very nice. Somehow I expected there would only be about 20 people starting Le Crdon Bleu with me but it turned out we're actully 100! Can you believe it?! Only 23 are doing Le Grand Diplôme like me though, we're the badass, hardcore people, haha.

Sarah and I also found a bit of time to walk around Oxford Street for a tiny bit and I bought my professional scales I need for school and some gorgeous Pierre Hermé macarons at Selfridges. ( Coming soon! ) Then we went for an all you can eat buffet at Mr Woo's in China Town. They have a nice selection of things and it's very good value. I definitely had too much Chinese food! Ouff.

Day 1: The Introduction

This morning Sarah and I made our way to LCB where we were given our amazing, massive knife and utensil kit first of all. Then we received to big bags full of our uniforms and course manuals and shedule. Now I'm the proud owner of 3 chef jackets, 2 pants, aprons and towels, my knife kit, a silicone mat and my course manuals as well as my student ID with security card. Too bad I gave them a passport picture I look like an idiot in and not a nice one, eekk.
Turns out we're all devided into groups of 10 and obviously I would have like to be in a group with Sarah and another girl I like but I'm not and no, I can't change groups. Apparently there's specific reasons why certain people are in the same group... aaaahhhh.....huh?! What kind of reasons?! I'm in Cuisine group C by the way and there's only 3 other girls and the rest is all guys and only one of them is doing the whole same thing as me. Maybe there's some more girls in Pâtisserie...

First of all they explained the difficult looking schedules to us and I realized I will be a very busy girl and will have classes on Saturdays. There's 4 periods a day and you can have up to 3 I believe which means you'll have a break at some point but sometimes only 10 minutes. That means that apart from a free period or so I'm gonna be in class from 9am in the morning until 10pm at night on a good few days... just imagine! Intense! Which is exactly what the chef, my mentor for Basic, explained. It starts of easier and they will slowly but surely put the pressure on. Superior is supposed to be very hard and intense and generally some people crack and cry and all that. A wee bit scary, especially because I have twice the workload as most people! Oh gosh. The chef was nice and funny though and later on another student who's about to start superior was able to calm my worries by telling me it's fun and doable after all, pppphhhh! If she can do it, I can too!
The director welcomed us and she seems to be a very nice lady and I generally really like the athmosphere and attitude of people at LCB. ~~Except for that one stressed-out girl at reception, oooyyy.~~ There also were refreshments and delicious, freshly baked and still warm croissants, yum. They were prefect and I will learn how to make them, yay!

After the introduction we got our lockers for all our stuff and tried on our uniforms. I had to exchange them because they were too big. After that we had an hour of lunch break which Sarah and I used to get out knife kit engraved with our initials. We were told to get all our stuff marked and we were smart enought to go to the place before everybody else did! That way we didn't only get an extra discount on top of the LCB one (they have many partner places where we get discounts!) because the guy liked us but our knives were done very quickly and we were able to pick them up right after class and put them back into out lockers so we don't have to carry them around.

Actually, if we want to carry our kits around we always need to have our student IDs with us, otherwise we'll get into trouble with the police. Basically we're deathly weapons now, ah hahaha! ;P The engraving look absolutely amazing and every single tiny item is engraved, it's great and made me feel so proud! All this gorgeous equipment and it's all mine and so professional!

When we took our kits back to school we decided to look at every single item more closely and I actually managed to cut myself straight away, eejit that I am! Haha. Proved Sarah wrong who thought the knives weren't actually sharp... Ouch.
My kit was missing a couple of big knife guards but I was eventually given one while I was sucking on my thumb to stop the bleeding. Ooops. Nah, wasn't that bad really but very typical of my clumsy klutziness!

Anyway, after our lunch break we were split up into our groups and met our mentors i.e. one of our teaching chefs. He answered all of our questions; I asked most of them... and some answers where even more intimidating. It's gonna be very intense, that's the same word I have to repeat over and over again in this context. I will be more or less living at the school basically, will have very long hours, up on my feet all day, having to get used to all the hard physical work and will have to do well at the same time. Wow. Every single tiny thing will be graded and I can never fail. That's quite scary. Besides I wanna try my best to get one of the merit medals, hehe. That might be wishful thinking though, now that I know more about the reality of things.
We were given a tour of the school which I had already done when I visited the school with my boyfriend in December. Then there was a fire evacuation drill because apparently the sensitive smoke detectors set off the fire alarm a lot and we'll probably have to evacuate a good few times during our time at LCB. Come on, it's a culinary school, things are bound to get burned! ;)

Tomorrow I will be in school from 9am until 4pm, doing a food saftey and hygiene course with an exam at the end. An exam! They're getting right down to the nitty-gritty but this certificate is essential for obvious reasons. Still, we're thrown in at the deep end because I will be in school until 10pm on my first actual day, Monday, too! Hardcore.
Well, today after school I bought my safe, non-slip kitchen shoes and just like all the bare essentials such as a duvet and pillow from Ikea I will have to move all this bulky stuff from my hotel to the apartment tomorrow... Hopefully everything goes smoothly, please keep your fingers crossed for me in these stressful times!

I will try to keep this baby as updatet as possible and will eventually put up pictures. Please bare with me while I don't have internet and am still trying to wrap my head around things. It's mental! I will try to write things down everyday about what I'm doing at LCB, it's just that I don't know yet when I'll be able to post it all. Thank you for your understanding and I can't wait until I can finally show you things I made and learned and FYI... I did bring my good camera solely for that purpose! ;)

This is it. My life is changing drastically. I'm an official Le Cordon Bleu student now. Wow. Amazing. Scary. Overwhelming. Extraordinary. Intense. Exciting!

London Jitters

2010-03-22T20:12:00.001+01:00

No, I haven't fallen off the face of the earth... I'm still very much here and yes, I feel bad! I haven't posted anything in 2 weeks even though there would have been plenty to blog about. Oooyyy. Perhaps I shouldn't have told you about all the great food that's still waiting to be blogged about because now you've expectations and I'd hate to disappoint them... I will eventually get around to post everything I promised, it might just take a wee bit longer than I anticipated.

That's me going "Oooops!"

It's just that I was in the mighty grip of jetlag and mighty it was indeed. Lasted for a whole week too, eekk! I was exhausted all the time and wanted to pass out randomly all throughout the days. My boyfriend must have been slightly irritated; he'd come especially to see me for a week and what does his girlfriend do after not having seen him for 5 weeks? Pass out at inconvenient moments, be a bit cranky maybe and generally in ever changing odd moods and perhaps even more crazy than usual. It wasn't me, it was the jetlag!

Not that my boyfriend is totally innocent either...! You know, you've to blame him! I was trying to be a good aule' blogger, had serious intentions of posting and even started to write... about Korea... but then he always distracted me. He wanted to be entertained and as I was already only of limited use I felt I had to make it up to him. Besides the fact that I was obviously happy to have him around because I did miss my ball & chain! ;-)

So when he'd left again I was convinced I'd get cracking but oh no. First my sister needed entertaining because she had felt neglected and then the whole London related moving craziness began. Oh boy. I hate it. I'm a relaxed person and I hate to get all stressed out. Which is exactly what happened eventually when I realized I pretty much hadn't got anything done at all while my bf was around and time was running out. Last minute stuff is usually my thing and while it's totally ok to chuck half your wardrobe into a suitcase half an hour before you've to leave the house to go to Australia, it's a different story when you're more or less moving.

On Friday I decided to get my hair done and I was quite pleased with the results. I'm pretty blonde now and felt like my light had been switched on when I left the salon because I felt so bright and shiney. This feeling was enhanced when my sis and I ran errands in town (or more like tried to) and I put the brightest red lipstick on at the department store. I tried all the colours of the rainbow (did you know purple is in fashion now?) and went for the Hollywood Marilyn Monore-style red lippy. Yeah, it's been fashionable for a long time already but somehow I'm not mad into lipstick and never gave it a try even though I like my make-up. It looked cool I thought. Very flashy. People were staring at me when I walked back to the car or maybe I just hallucinated.

You can make up your own mind because I felt my new look called for some self-portrait photoshoot.

Seems fun so far, right? Well, at that point I didn't know yet British Airways was planning to go on strike and my flight's not confirmed and still in danger of being cancelled. Yikes. Neither did I know basically every hotel in London was gonna be booked out because apparently it's one of the busiest 2 or 3 weekends of the year as there's some exhibition going on and Easter's coming up. 6 million people descending on London, every hotel booked out, me clueless. Thank god a nice man at the hotel I wanted to stay at enlightened me and organized for me to find other accomodation as obviously his was booked out too. Now I'll have to share a bathroom with 2 other rooms...erm...eewwy. Hopefully it will be okay! It's only for a few days until I find a place anyway.

I've decided to rent a flat with one of the girls doing the same course as me. First I was a bit hesitant because I've never actually met her but she seems lovely and like we have a lot in common. It's a good feeling not to have to go through all of this all by myself! Finding a decent and not too expensive apartment in London can be a bit like Mission : Impossible... at least the British Pound is very bad compared to the €uro at the moment which is brilliant for me! I'll be able to do some serious shopping, yeeehaaa! Finally. My Australia budget will be well-spent on Oxford Street.

I searched the internet and found some really nice looking places at reasonable prices. Buttttttt. There's always a but. They could be too good to be true. A scam. Dodgey. Argh. Most people don't reply as quickly as I would like them to and those who do make my alarm bells ring. How would you feel if you received the exact same messages, the very same down to every single typo, from a different e-mail address and under different names for another flat? It's always the same story, some guy with a slightly weird name wanting to rent out his flat because he was relocated to a different city or even abroad because of work. They all want you to be serious about their places before they'd fly out for you to view the apartment. Erm... how serious can my intentions be about a place I've never actually seen yet?!

I did some research and there's so many scmas out there it's scary. I know what to look out for now though and I'd never sign anything without consulting someone else first anyway. Neither would I ever hand over any money if I haven't seen the apartment and until I've signed the (checked!) contract. No, no, no. And you shouldn't either. So many scams! Apparently a common trick is to be told to transfer money to a friend via a bank called Western Union and to show the landlord the recipt to prove you have sufficient funds. Never, ever do that. Western Union is fraudulent and all the scamsters need is the tracking number from the receipt and they've access to all your money.

Scary stuff. Especially because I don't have someone I know with me and my family will be on holidays. The last time I moved, my boyfriend had sorted everything out and all I had to do was give him the rent money and move my stuff into my lovely new apartment. That was nice. He had to deal with everything because I was abroad, viewed all sorts of shit holes and found a great place in the end. I think I never thanked him enough for that. I loved our little place and I miss it. Just like living with him, it was great fun. Soon again, right? Hopefully he'll follow to London later this year...

To up my bad-assness I did a self-defence class with my sister on Saturday. At first we couldn't find the place it was supposed to take place at because we had been given a wrong location. We walked around for half an hour but coincidentally eventually found the gym. We had a really good time and it was good fun. It was only an introduction and we didn't getto do all the stuff I would have liked to learn because there was kids too and obviously there are some things and moves which are inappropriate for children. The guy I practiced the kicks, chops and punches on was a really buff big guy. Which is good I guess because it prepares you well and you've to work harder. I totally went for it so the instructor told me to leave his man in one piece, ah haha! Guess I must have been doing something right.

The class taught me a lot and although many things are kind of obvious reactions to an attack, you wouldn't necessarily think of them. I learned how to get out of many different dangerous situations and although I was only too aware men often have an edge on women strenghth-wise it showed me how to still outdo them. It was an empowering experience and that's probably the main thing. If you feel confident and strong, you give off an don't-mess-with-me attitude and people won't even try. Apparently just fighting back in whatever way and not surrendering leads to 80% of those people not actually becoming victims and averts a calamity. If an attacker realizes you scream, kick and punch they won't even want to try and take things further. Not that I'd ever wish to put my moves to practice! I'd like to learn more though and I'm gonna look for a proper self-defence course in London; I enjoyed it. It's a great outlet for built-up aggression, too! ;)

I'm gonna leave you on a more peaceful note. Spring has come, have you noticed? The weather is milder and I've spotted the first crocuses, daffodils and snowdrops and birds have begun chirping again. It's been a long and hard winter, 4 months of snow and ice! About time spring finally came around the corner. The air has changed and there's this nice, fresh scent which reminds me of Easter and you realize nature isn't dead after all. Hopefully I'll be able to smell this kind of spring air in London too and not just city smells. This is where my adventure begins... wish me good luck!

Good Bye Down Under!

2010-03-09T14:36:00.001+01:00

My 4 weeks in Sydney have come to an end... Tomorrow morning I'm leaving Australia, next stop Korea for a night's layover.

Although I won't be here to eat some more delicious food, I'm far from done with telling you all about it!

Still to come:

Cupcakes
Bill Granger's restaurant Bill's
Contemporary Thai Food
Viatnamese Phó
more Australian Treats
Baby Cakes
Passion Fruits and Australian Produce
Fudgy Brownies
3$ Tacos
Sushi Overkill
Bill's Part 2

AND ... ultimate food porn ... drum roll, please ...

Adriano Zumbo's Pâtisserie Extravaganza !!!

Oh wow, I still have a lot of work to do, don't I?! I so told you I was being a good foodie doing thorough research! ;) Maybe I will find some time on the trip but I might just as well be too exhausted... We'll see.

I ended my trip with a final day at the beach ( sun, at last! ) to touch up my tan as best as I could and had another deep-fried Mars Delight. Hehe. Too good to resist! My friend's a convert now, too. Yum.

My trip ~~was a once in a lifetime experience~~ didn't turn out to be what I expected to be honest and I will tell you all about it soon. I've realized a few things, good and bad, had great fun and frustrating moments, got to try delicious food, was bored, made new friends and walked around a lot...

Now it's onto bigger and better things and I was hopefully able to recharge my batteries for the busy times ahead. I can't wait and I'm looking forward to spending some quality time with my loved-ones now.

Guess what I'm bringing back as souvenirs? A stuffed-animal koala? A boomerang? An didgeridoo even?

Erm, come on now... you should know better by now! Whose blog is this after all?

Indeed....

FOOD!

D'uh! ;)

Mardi Gras and Morning After Breakfast

2010-03-08T09:17:00.005+01:00

Ooopsy-daisy. I'm in trouble. People are already giving out to me for not having updated the blog satisfyingly often this past week. I'm sorry! I'm only starting to realize I have a new "responsibility" now, not that I'm complaining... I absolutely love that there's actually people reading this who care enough to kick my but when I start to be neglectful of my blog-duty, hehe. Speaking of all those lovely peeps visiting my lil' corner of the web, thank you so much for your comments! Much appreciated! Totally made my day. Fact. You're such sweethearts, what you had to say put a huge smile on my face! Thank you! Oh yeah, keep those comments coming, please... ;)

Honestly though, I've been so busy eating all this delicious food that I can't blog as much or as fast as I eat! If you think about it, it's all really just research for posts. That's right. Hard work! I'm basically slaving away for you, my dear readers, so don't give me a hard time. Ah, it's such hard work! Phhuuuiii, I guess I'll have to have a piece of brownie for that. Purely for research purposes, obviously. I did a pretty good job talking myself out of this, didn't I?! Tsehehe. Even I'm impressed with myself.

Check out those names!

To make up to you guys this is gonna be one mightily big, long post. I'm warning you! You asked for it! It’s about time I finally tell you all about Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras in Sydney. There were events for a couple of weeks but I’d say the big Parade down Oxford Street on Saturday night a week ago was the highlight.

A week before that I had gone to the Gay & Lesbian Day Fair, actually believing I was going to a big market. Sure, it was a market of some sort but it mainly consisted of stalls advertising sexual health, equal rights and all types of different gay clubs and organizations from Gay Olympics, Gay Nudists to Gay Chess. You name it and it had a gay equivalent at the fair.

The athmosphere was relaxed and happy, everybody enjoyed themselves and it was all for a good cause. It should be like this all the time. Okay, so maybe it would be a tad inappropriate if queers paraded around in speedos and thongs at the office, chanting "Blowjobs are a boy's best friend"... I thought it was hilarious though!

I have a thing for trannies and I don't even know why. Possibly because they're like over the top women, always out there, self-confident, strong and full of fun, living life in technicolour. Some ladies could definitely use a dose of glitz and glam sometimes!

My friend and I had decided to dress up for Mardi Gras, go to the parade and then hit some gay clubs later for a good old party. Gays definitely know how to have a good party! I didn't have to think about what to wear for long because as it happens I'm the proud owner of a rainbow-coloured, leopard-print vest top that just screams Mardi Gras. Teamed with a fluffy tiara, some angel wings and more glittery slap than I've ever worn before and I was good to go.

To say Oxford Street was busy would be an understatement. The route of the parade was closed off and the sidewalks were filled with people standing on stools to get a better view. We went to Taylor Square where the parade was supposed to end and therefore it was probably the most crowded place we could have picked.

It took us the whole 2-3 hours the parade lasted to work our way from the last to the front row. My pint-sized friend had a bit of a hard time seeing anything at all and hadn't it been for the lovely gay couple standing next to me and pushing me into gaps to take pictures I wouldn't have been able to see much either. The beginning of the parade was a bit slow and lame but when it had picked up, boy, it was a celebration indeed!

"Queens" indeed!

Unfortunately there was this group of obnoxious Germans standing right next to me who thought it was appropriate to light cigarettes in the middle of a massive crowd and I was just waiting to get burnt so I could give them a piece of my mind. There was this one particularly annoying guy who kept shouting at people because they didn't party hard enough in his opinion and he was frustrated he wasn't standing in first row. Tough luck, sweetheart! He kept jumping up and down, bouncing into me for a good while until I had really had enough, pushed him and told him to eff off. To my bad luck his friend had copped I understood German and so he pursued to give me the most offensive abuse in German for the whole first half of the parade. Against my nature I decided to completely ignore him instead of taking him on big time and he got so unbelievably frustrated that I didn't give him the satisfaction of reacting in any way or leaving altogether that he eventually disappeared and I was finaly able to actually enjoy the parade. Although I didn't react he was impossible to ignore as he kept shouting into my ear and it took me all my willpower not to smack him in the face. Just that he would have probably enjoyed it in some sick way and therefore I had chosen the right path by pretending he didn't even exist at all. He did manage to ruin my enjoyment of the parade for a good while though so I had all the more fun when he'd finally vanished into thin air.

YMCA!

When I told friends about it later on they were surprised I didn't tell the nearby officers who probably would have removed him but I didn't know that! Another lesson learned I suppose... I'm pretty certain I wasn't the only person he annoyed because he kept making homophobic remarks and actually had the impertinent audacity to tell that lovely gay couple to stop kissing and keep that for home. The cheek of him! He musn't have been aware he was at a flipping gay parade! I really despise people like him!

Enough of negativity now and back to the peaceful, happy light-heartedness of the parade and its colourful, creative and flamboyant costumes and floats. The more outrageous and fancy, the better! There was a lot of naked flesh, sequins, feathers, glitter and daring floats like a gay jesus / pope on wheels and a mobile S&M studio where tied-up slaves got spanked.

Typical and up-beat gay music blasted from the speakers, everybody joined in singing YMCA, the mood was celebratory and we had a great time. It was almost impossible to take proper pictures though as we were standing where tv filmed the parade and interviewed participants and therefore there were too many people blocking the view. Little smart-arse that I am I also completely forgot about the night setting on my camera.... at least I know why my fuzzy pictures aren't exactly up to par now.

After the parade we saw many other on-lookers who had made an effort dressing up and it was clear to see this celebration was definitely a big deal.

Funnily enough my friend and I never made it to any gay party but ended up at a friend's farewell party at Cargo Bar in town instead. Albeit having taken off my wings and tiara I still very much looked like a tranny (all that was missing was a pair of socks shoved down my knickers and confusion would have been perfect...!) and probably stood out a good bit at this place where everybody was dressed preppily as if they had never even heard of Mardi Gras. It's not like I didn't have fun but I'm sure to have missed out on Mardi Gras madness at some crazy gay club. I guess I will have to make up for that once I'm in London!

Understandably I was suffering from a hungover day-after-low despite not even drinking - ever... That's what high-heels, lack of sleep (3 hours!) and too much body glitter can do to you. I felt very old and worn-out. There, I said it. I'm getting old. I can't just party all night anymore and not feel the consequences the next day... Eekk.

In order to revive my limp and exhausted body and mind I decided to go to Bondi Beach after having walked around Elizabeth and Rushcutters Bay. I had wanted to go to busy Gusto's for breakfast for a while and decided this was the perfect time for a pick-me-up afternoon breakfast.

Causing a bit of confusion with the poor, new waitress when ordering my food I finally went for Toasted home-made Granola with dried fruits and nuts on yoghurt, tropical fruit salad, some other porridge-style yoghurt with something mixed-in it, possibly oats and mixed berries.

To go along with that I had a slice of toasted Berry Banana Bread smothered with butter.

While I sat outside at the counter on the sidewalk it started pouring down, perfectly reflecting my mood. I was lost in thoughts and enjoyed my delicious late breakfast which was very filling indeed.

The thick slice of Berry Bread was dense, rich, moist and had a strong banana flavour to it like most of these kinds of bread have over here. You can really get this stuff in every café all over the place and I like it.

I really enjoyed the home-made granola with fresh berries and tropical fruit salad, it was very reviving and yummy. My only complaint would be there was too much yoghurt and too little actual granola. I guess the reason for that is that yoghurt is cheap'n cheerful whereas they have to mix and toast the granola from scratch which is quite work-intensive. Still, I paid for it and I want my money's worth.

At first glance I wasn't even able to make out the granola under the big pile of berries and yoghurt. Not that I'd ever complain about too many berries or too much fruit! You'd have to be crazy to do that.

I mixed the whole lot until it didn't look quite as appetizing anymore but it was good and all the different components were well-distributed and complemented eachother.

I'm a bit fussy when it comes to mixing stuff... ask my family and poor boyfriend! I'm known to snatch cutlery out of people's hands to mix their food for them because I can't stand the sight of them munching on a bit of dry rice or pasta without sauce. I simply can't help myself...

When I got back to the flat I did more boring grown-up stuff that made me feel pathetic and old, also known as doing laundry. Yaaaaaaaawn. At least I spiced things up by walking down the street in my Snoopy pj's when I had to get coins for the laundromat. How hardcore am I? Nothing says young and hip like strutting your stuff in pink nightwear...

All Love Is Equal

2010-03-02T02:00:00.005+01:00

No food today, just an important message.

Sydney is a gay capital. I've never seen so many gays in my life! Especially because the annual Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras is on at the moment and it's been a lot of peaceful fun. If you see two cute guys walking their dog down the street chances are they're gay. That's just how it is over here, they're out and proud and I love it! For some reason I'm fascinated by the gay, lesbian and transsexual community and I've wanted to have a gay best friend ever since the days of Sex and the City when Carrie and Stanford gossiped about boys and fashion - fabulous!

The gay rights movement is a cause I strongly believe in and I wished gays all over the world were as accepted and integrated in society as in Sydney. How can you judge a person solely based on who they fall in love with? Love is unconditional, it doesn't care about either age, race, colour or gender and it should be celebrated in any case. Particularly in these times where people die in natural disasters and people lose their possessions in the financial crisis, never mind the on-going wars and poverty in different parts of the world. If love were all that's left at the end of the day we should be happy and should surround ourselves with our loved-ones because when it comes down to the nitty-gritty they're the most important part of our lives...

Do you make a difference in loving either men or women? Do you not love your mother & father, brother & sister, girlfriend & boyfriend, male & female friends the same way and not differently because of their gender? I know I don't differentiate and why would I, we're all people and we all want to love and be loved back. I could just aswell have turned out to be gay, it's 50/50 and I wouldn't be a lesser person.

Maybe I'm this liberal and can be this liberal because I'm not religious... who knows. The bible and any other religious document can be interpreted in any way and for any cause and if people want to underline their statements, no matter what they might be, they will find a way of twisting and turning the message of these documents to make them fit their purpose. Therefore I won't even try to get into the whole deathly sin versus love thy other debate because it's pointless. Make of it what you want because no matter what I say I won't be able to change your mind if it's already made up one way or the other.

But what I can do is ask you for respect. If you think you can't accept the life choices other people make even though they don't necessarily concern you - who cares what you do behind closed doors after all? - the least you can do is show some respect, the same respect they offer you.

Ignorance is the root of all evil, I really believe that. People start wars and hate campaigns out of ignorance, meaning out of fear of the unknown. Race, religion, sexuality, you name it. Of course things we don't know anything about intimidate us because we don't know what to expect and we all like to control what's happening to and around us. The only way out is education and information to lift this cloud of ignorance that's fogging our view.

Take stereotypes, clichés and pre-maturely constructed mindsets for instance. Those clichés make people believe that most gays are flamboyant, lesbians are butch, they're promiscuous, take drugs, spread aids and try to turn around heterosexuals at every chance they get. What a big pile of rubbish! Look around at the people near you, anyone of them could be gay and do they look like it? Probably not. I'm not denying that there are flamboyant and butch gays or those who are a bit slutty, go clubbing and take drugs. There's always two sides to a coin and there are heterosexuals behaving the same way, too. I'm trying to open your eyes for the other side though, the one with people like you and me, people who are in a loving, committed relationship or looking for one, who want families, who are part of society and who want to have the same rights as heterosexuals and why would we deny them that?

It's a fact that there has been homosexuality since the beginnings of mankind and even before. As long as there's been love, there's been gay love. Just think of ancient greeks... if it was socially acceptable and out in the open literally thousands of years ago, why would we want to go back to being backward? Did you know that even animals can be homosexual? It's scientifically proven and only shows once more that heterosexuality, homosexuality and bisexuality are eq uallynatural. Homosexuality is here for good because it's not a choice you make, it's the way you were born and so people might aswell come to terms with it, once and for all. It's nature!

Nobody bats an eyelid anymore when an old git marries a young girl who could be his great-grand-daughter. Or if somebody gets married and divorced for the umpteenth time. Or if a couple marries drunkenly or even high in Las Vegas. Or if young teenage girls in the Middle East are force-married to their uncles or traded for a few camels or an African head of tribe has 27 wives. I'm not joking. If you're a drug-taking, abusive, antisocial, not tax-paying convict for example you certainly can get married and you've all rights in the world.

So why do you not have those same rights if you're a responsible, hard-working, committed and all around good person just because of whom your in love with?! There's something really very wrong with that. You aren't able to influence who you fall in love with, do you? If you do have that talent then good on you but as far as I'm concerned it's unheard of. I don't care why I love the people I love, I'm just happy I do. Love is great, there can never be enough love. No matter what kind at all. All love is equal, just think about it. That's all I'm asking for. Inform yourself before you make up your mind and put yourself in other people's shoes. That's something we all should do much more often anyway...
Be open-minded! Welcome to the 21st century.

Equal Love = Equal Rights.

Seafood Heaven Sydney Fish Market

2010-03-01T13:40:00.001+01:00

You might be getting the impression I'm not trying and eating anything but sweet stuff over here but that's not true at all... or at least not entirely. ;) One example for savoury eating-out would be the amazing Sydney Fish Market I've already visited twice and which I love... Any seafood lover stopping by in Sydney should definitely go there and to everybody who thinks they're not all that into fishy things - wait until you've gone there and tried the good stuff, you might actually find yourself being converted!

The first time I went there was with a total stranger to me at that time but who I know now is a well-versed fellow foodie. He took me out for lunch and although I didn't mean to actually eat anything because I had a BBQ to go to later I just couldn't resist all the yumminess he so kindly offered me... Obviously he'd been to the market lots of times because he had a favourite sashimi place and generally knew what to get and where to get it so that we had a lovely selection of seafood at the table.

Sydney Fish Market is located on the water near the Anzac bridge and is a group of buildings with lots of different stalls and shops selling all thinkable kinds of fish and seafood to eager eaters. The great thing is that you can't only buy fresh and raw produce to take home but there's also several counters selling cooked dishes or actually cook your previously bought products to order. The fish could not be fresher as there is auctions every morning and therefore the quality of the seafood is very high. Crabs and lobsters can also be bought alive and there are some tanks with creepy sea crawlies of sizes you probably haven't seen before they're that big! I certainly wouldn't mind having a 50-kilo lobster all to my greedy self! Mouth-watering.

Can I ask you a question that has been niggling away at me for a while now? Is it bad or weird that I don't see an anial when I look at fishy creatures but rather think how they delicious they would be? You could compare me to the hungry cartoon character who suddenly begins to see people as walking bacon because he's craving some... just that I'm not a cartoon character, I think. Don't judge me too hard now though because I don't see bacon when I look at pigs or steak when I look at cows. Quite the opposite actually because I'm a true animal lover and this only ever happens when I look at sea creatures but probably not even fish because they don't look anything like the dish you get but unfortunately lobster does! Ha, that must be the sole reason, I've solved the mistery.

Anyway. Back to food. And yummy creatures, hehe. Oh, shame on me, that's not a nice thing to say. Poor little creatures simply want to crawl around sideways on the bottom of the sea and have a good old time. I can't help myself though and seriously, if crabs didn't want to be eaten then they shouldn't be so darn delicious! Come on, they should really know better. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't taste half as good marinated in garlic and pan-seared! Except that I did keep licking myself when I went to the beach on Saturday because my skin was so lovely and salty. Jeez I must really be freaking the lot of you out now, sorry if I'm giving you disturbing thoughts...

For my first fishy lunch we had medium oysters which I believe must have been Tasmanian and which I didn't want to try at first because the last oysters I'd eaten gave me food poisoning... awful. These didn't though, no, they were firm, meaty and delectable - the way oysters should be.

The trick must be that the oysters at the fish market are opened under running water wish washes away all the dirt bacteria and prevents particles from the outer shell getting into the oyster. A drizzling of lemon juice and these babies were ready to be slurped and although not having been the greatest fan of them before I do have to admit they were very good. As in most things the secret is in the quality of the produce and I can understand now why people are willing to fork out a bundle of cash for these wobbly wonders.

We also had grilled garlic and herb baby octopusses which were absolutely delicious. Octopusses can go rubbery and tough if they're overcooked but these had a great texture and a lot of flavour. Thumbs up all around!

Some people can't stand the thought of eating raw fish but I've always been a great fan of sashimi. Once again the quality and freshness of the fish is absolutely vital but when you get good meat - because it's texture is certainly like meat and there's nothing fishy whatsoever about it - it feels like silk on your palate. Soft but firm and smooth, cut into thin slices and dipped into wasabi and soy sauce and you have heaven on your tongue.

First I had salmon sashimi and when I came back again went for tuna because getting hold of great quality tuna sashimi is usually harder than finding a nice slice of salmon, might it be sashimi or not. Besides that I love tuna sashimi and it's almost beef like qualities and deep flavour.

On the side we had seaweed salad with sesame seeds and albeit sounding a bit off it is scrumptious. I did try to eat seaweed at the beach the other day in a moment of feeling like Dora the Explorer but obviously and sadly it was nothing like this lovely salad. It would be too simple, now wouldn't it? People would be sitting around the cliffs stuffing their faces with green, slimey leaves and nobody would go to the fish market before... that would be a shame. Although wait a minute - more fish for me, yay!

On my second visit to the fish market I meant to try Australia's famous Abalone shellfish but in the end I've to admit that I was too stingy. It would only make sense to get the nice, big and juicy Abalone and have it made to order but I could only afford the small cocktail ones and decided that it wouldn't be worth my time or money to try a tiny amuse-bouche drenched in over-powering marinade.

I did go for crabs though, two different kinds to be exact and I was literally stunned at how cheap they were! The friendly Asian sales woman beamed at me when I told her to come again after telling me the price for a cooked female and not-so-blue Blue Swimmer Crab. Holy Maloney!

I immediately went for a bigger crabby fellow and it was conveniently cut in half and served with lime ( there's never enough of it! ), wasabi and soy sauce - a total bargain at Aus$ 4.something! Unfortunately I didn't get any of the handy tools you would at a restaurant so that it took me forever to crack the shell and pull out the lovely white meat and I made quite the mess. It completely destroyed my nails too but at that time I still had high hopes for the manicure I would go to after... we all know how that went!

The other crab was a soft-shell crab in batter and deep fried and was very yummy indeed. I loved the fact that you could just chow down the whole thing and didn't have to fiddle about with the shell and the batter added a nice flavour. It wasn't seasoned so I added salt and pepper, a bit of lime as it adds an even nicer touch than lemon and I can never have enough of it with seafood. Delicious.

My friend went for chili calamari with salad and she was hardly able to finish her portion. She had expected pure calamari but there was a slight crust on it which I actually thought made for a nice crunch and the chili delivered a well-fitting kick to the very light and summery dish.

After we had walked around, oogled the goods, made up our minds and bought the food we went outside to the seating area where you get a table next to the water if you're lucky. This place tends to be very busy and over-crowded with tourists around lunch time but we were able to score a table and fight off the lingering seadgulls. I recommend coming here on a fairly nice day because the whole point is to buy fresh food and be able to eat it right outside on the water and if the weather isn't good the background of the fish market doesn't make for the nicest scenery but it's lovely to sit under the umbrellas on a sunny day. A scrumptious experience!

About Australian Animals and the Animalistic Devouring of Deep Fried Mars Bars!

2010-03-01T04:52:00.001+01:00

The comment setting is finally working again, yay! Please feel free to leave your comments aplenty!

I've petted a kangaroo. I've tickled a Wombat's belly. I've seen a koala bear close up. It doesn't get much more Australian than that, does it? Okay, so I didn't actually go to the bush and hunt them down to pet and coo at them... I chose the much more convenient option and went to Taronga Zoo with its lovely views over Sydney's skyline and harbour. The journey up there still took a while and although I didn't have to fight my way there with a machete it was still quite some trip. If you've ever tried to drive across Sydney in rush hour you know what I mean...! Thankfully my friend Scott was driving and I dozed off in the passenger seat, oops.
Looking at animals can be soo exhausting, you've no idea! ;)

Scott and I had planned on going to the Zoo for about a week and when I woke up that day and saw the overcast sky and drizzling rain I had my doubts but I was coinvinced that the weather would hold up and in the end it actually did. Maybe it was actually a good thing it wasn't roastingly hot that day because we walked around the whole zoo for a few hours and the temperature was much more comfortable this way. Only the grey clouds spoilt the aforementioned views a bit but I guess you can't have anything. Just like the platypuses I really wanted to see... I simply couldn't see any for the life of me! They must have been hiding upstairs, yes that's right, the platypuses had an upstairs! Don't ask, I don't know either!

We went to the reptile section first and although I'm not too keen on snakes and certainly find Komodo dragons extremely creepy I do like lizzards. Those funny little things, I wouldn't mind having one - aswell as a few meerkats please, they're adorable! Then it was onto the usual suspects, tigers, lions, elephants ( there was a baby one, so cute! ), zebras, gorillas, penguins and my beloved chimpanzees. There were also many, many birds around, native and foreign and quite loud! We watched giraffes being fed and learned they can kill a lion simply by kicking them with their hooves! Who'd have known giraffes were that bad-ass?!

The zoo is nice and green and the views are obviously a big plus but I prefer Hanover Zoo in Germany which has bigger compounds and is generally made up with a lot more love for detail. There really isn't that much to see were it not for the Australian section with the animal encounter where you can get up close and personal with typical Australian animals. I really enjoyed that part. Thinking about it I might have actually petted a wallaby and not a kangaroo but then again who really knows? They do look very alike.

Unfortunately you could not get as close to the koalas as I would have liked to if you didn't want to pay even more extra which I thought was quite bold! They obviously want to exploit tourists, not nice! Anyway, I was happy to tickle a wombat instead which made the adorable little fella turn on his back and play dead. Maybe he was camera-shy...

The sky safari is also a very nice attraction as it takes you up above the zoo in a cable car going along the whole lenghth of the zoo with great views over Sydney's skyline and the different animals. We went on it twice because we only went half the way each time being too lazy to walk back up the hill to the exit... Told you all that walking, looking and petting was tiring!

The next day was perfect for the beach weather-wise. Perfect temperature, not too hot, not too cold with a little refreshing breeze and blue skies. Ahhh, bliss. Why can't it be like that everyday, isn't this what Australia is supposed to be like all the time?!

As you know I was meant to go surfing at Bondi Beach for the first time and too be perfectly honest I was a little bit relieved when I was told the tide was up too high and there weren't any good waves so that my lesson was cancelled. Yep, I admit I had got a tiny bit scared what with all that getting whacked in the head by your board, swallowing half the sea and potentially being stripped of my bikini by the waves. I'm not that much of an exhibitionist after all... Therefeore I was more than happy to climb about the rocks trying to catch crabs, examining sea shells and actually trying to eat seaweed. Ekk. Not good. We couldn't actually go swimming there except for in a great little rock pool that was like a lovely natural bath tub, because there were blue jelly fish and who likes to get stung, eh? Besides I was afraid to get stabbed by the spears of two James Bond-ish looking divers hunting for fish...

Albeit not actually having surfed I felt like I definitely still deserved the deep fried Mars bar in batter I had promised myself and had been looking forward to all day. Yes, I do indeed measure time and fun in food, judge me as you like.

I know some people, ah let's make that most people ( even fellow foodies, how scandalous! ) find the thought of a deep fried chocolate bar quite gross but jaysus do they get it wrong. Oh so wrong. To be honest I never had any doubts whatsoever that it would be brilliant. A friend had told me he used to go to the very shop everyday he spent at the beach as a child and he would buy different chocolate bars at the convenience store (cheaper!) and make them fry them. It was a thrilling experiment every time to see whether it would work or not. It always did except for the Cabury Flake... the flake in the name should have given them a clue, duh!

Excitedly I waited for my treat and it was handed to me with a grinning "Enjoy, love!". Hmmm, just the look of it! Golden, hot and crisp scrumptiousness dusted with icing sugar. I expectantly stabbed my fork into the crunchy batter and revealed the molten chocolatey centre... What a beauty! How can anybody not understand the pure of naughty pleasure of a treat like this?

The batter was just the perfect shade of gold, not greasy at all and perfectly crisp on the outside making for a great difference in texture to the ooey-gooey centre of chocolate-caramel goodness. The people at the shop have absolutely perfected the deep-frying of these babies! The hotness of the bar ensured that I had to take my time eating it and not chowing it down as I might have otherwise, allowing me to pleasurably savour every single bite... Oh. My. Gooooooooooooooood!

As they use the same batter they would for fish it wasn't sweet but a little sweetness was added by the icing sugar on top. I thought the batter balanced the sweetness of the Mars bar just right and gave a great taste all-over. It didn't really taste like a Mars bar anymore because it was melted on the inside which took the generic chocolate bar to a whole new dimension. I think I will never be able to look at a Mars bar the same way again. From now on it's only deep-fried delights for me!

With every bite more molten chocolate and caramel deliciousness was oozing out and I used my fingers to wipe up every single last drop of it. This was not the time or place to think of manners, this was about dirty, longing and pure enjoyment - I could only just about stop myself from licking the paper! I think my eyes might have rolled back in my head out of foodtastic pleasure.

When my plate was finally and sadly empty I couldn't help but wish my yummy delight had been about 5 times its size. Which should be illegal because it would be lethal. Seriously. Then again who cares about clotted arteries, it would have been a joyful way of going!

I will have to go again, that's for sure. I wouldn't be able to leave Australia without having had another one of those sinful treats. I'm an addict now. Yes I am and I'm proud of it. If you've any sense at all I advise you try a Mars Delight the first opportunity you get!

Needing to know how these death-by-chocolates were made I stayed to watch how the chocolate bars were being unwrapped, tossed in flour and dipped it batter. This process was repeated and then the battered bars were chucked into the deep fat fryer for a few seconds to pre-fry them before they were stored in the fridge until they get their final fry when they're freshly made to order. That means I have to take back my previous statement that I had doubts about them not being fresh. I'm very happy to admit I was wrong!

Unfortunately the pictures don't entirely transport the oooey-gooeyness of it all and made me aware of the limits of my little digital camera which is a real shame. I miss my great camera at home!

Time for Treats!

2010-02-26T14:18:00.001+01:00

When is a good time for treats? Anytime is a good time for treats I say! Particularly when you need a little pick-me-up... Nothing can better your mood aswell as a little sweet sum-sum. I'm a big sucker for treats, I've something sweet almost everyday. To scratch that sugary itch, ya know.

Surprisingly enough I haven't gone shopping at all in Sydney yet. Firstly because I haven't really seen anything I liked and secondly because I'm secretly thinking that I'm probably gonna find A LOT of gorgeous things I will want in London. That's for sure.

Therefore and because there's just so many delicious edibles waiting at each corner I've basically been spending most of my ca$h on food. If that isn't well spent money than I don't know what is!

Just this Wednesday ( half-time! ) I lived on treats alone. I knoooow it's not the healthiest but it was what I wanted and my mood needed. We had a housewarming party the night before and didn't get much sleep, you see. It was good fun and the massive pot of chili con carne without the chili (we didn't have any!) was completely devoured, easily more than 2kg! People do appreciate a bit of grub in their bellies to soak up drinks after all. Well anyway, although I don't drink I still felt the aftereffects the next day after being woken up by those stupid constrution workers at 6a.m.! What is wrong with them?!

Caro and I yawned our way to Newtown and certainly had looked better some other time. My mood improved significantly when I found Cold Rock, the Australian equivalent of the American Cold Stone Creamery. Yay! I had an extremely hard time deciding on one kind of ice-cream and "unfortunately" had to try several ones ( cake batter, donut, cookie dough, cheesecake, caramel etc ) before settling on peanut butter. It was just too darn yummy to resist; the other ones did sound better but failed to impress.

I decided on cookie dough, fudge brownie and a chocolate-covered peanut butter ball as mix-ins. The ice-cream melted quite quickly, unfortunately, because it meant that i had to eat faster and couldn't take my time savouring each spoon-full... Hmm, it was so good I could have eaten a whole bucket of it! I can't really say that I was able to taste each mix-in separately but the mixture of everything was simply scrumptious. Shall I go again?

On our way back to the CBD after having strolled around Glebe and the Sydney Uni Campus we walked around Darling Harbour where Caro wanted to show me a fudge shop. While I wasn't impressed by it my wandering eye fell onto a cookie stand I had to buy some little nibbles from.

Macadamia white chocolate-chip, Caramel Chew, Choc chip

My choice fell on some miniature cookies because you've to try them before you go overboard and I could always come back and get more. It was a good decision not to go all out on them as they totally disappointed. Some lousy cookieman that is! The mass-produced cookies from the supermarket I had tried a few days earlier were much better!

The Lindt Café, also in Darling Harbour, on the other hand is pretty much safe bet when it comes to delivering good taste. I bought 2 lovely French macarons or "Délices" as they call them there and you all know about my weakness for them. They had been sold out the first time I'd gone there and I wanted to get to try all 4 flavours that had appealed to me: Peach with a sweet peach & white chocolate cream filling, a classic one with a champagne & white chocolate filling, Passion fruit dusted with cocoa powder with a zesty passion fruit & milk chocolate ream filling, Rose with a French rose, ginger & white chocolate cream filling.

This time it was the latter two and I've had the first two during my first week here. Peach and Passion fruit were my favourites and I especially liked the ever so slight tartness of the passion fruit combined with the sweetness of the chocolate cream filling. Not that you could actually taste chocolate in any of the macarons, they just add to the creaminess of the fillings. Besides the fact that a little bit of chocolate never hurts, right? The rose one could have been rosier though.

Yesterday after lunch at the amazing fish market I was supposed to get a mani-pedi at the beauty school I had already gone to for my very first experience of waxing on Tuesday. The waxing went okay pain-wise but the poor Asian girl with massive geek glasses was completely overwhelmed by working on an actual person for the first time in her training... It's safe to say that albeit being waxed and tweezed for over an hour or two I left with as much hair as I had gone there. That certainly can't be the purpose of it but at least it was for free.

The manicure went even worse... It never even came to the pedicure and the girl who was doing my nails must have never done her own nails because any little girl could have done a better job at putting nailpolish on! After 1 1/2 hours I was so fed-up with her getting more and more frustrated, hectic and hence sloppy that I asked for nailpolish remover, did my nails myself and left. You will understand that I needed some chocolates to make up for that! I didn't even mean to buy any, honestly, but they looked so nice when I walked past them in the shopping-centre that I couldn't resiste even if they were a bit pricey. They had such lovely descriptions and names at BonBon but I can't remember them exactly.

As far as I know theres supposed to be cinnamon and something in the dark chocolate heart, a passion fruit infused latin American caramel in the white chocolate one, peaches and cream in the orange heart and something or other in the dark one, must be something caramel-y again. It tasted rich and decadent and is probably my favourite right before the peaches and cream heart.

Then there is also the yummy caramel slice I couldn't resist buying at the fish market. Caramel and fish sounds weird, I know. It's good though, I still have some in the fridge. The thicker the caramel layer the better and the one on this is pretty decent. Not quite caramel-y but rather like the sweetened condensed milk stuff but still good. Buttery and decadent, a real mouthful.

Back at home I like to eat ice-cream every day. There's always room for some ice-cream, no matter how full you are after dinner because it melts into all the little gaps in your tummy. Amazing really. Quite differently to what you might expect in a warm country like Australia there aren't many good ice-cream shops around. Emphasis on good. Which is a real shame because there's nothing I crave more than a bit of cold ice-cream to refresh me when it's hot. Fortunately enough I bought package on special offer in the supermarket, not actually knowing how good it was gonna be.

The brand is called Connoisseur and it was gourmet Brownie ice-cream with chunky brownie pieces and pecans, what a heavenly combination! This is some seriously good ice-cream I dare say! Just the right size and amount of chunky brownie and pecans in a delicious chocolatey ice-cream with a mousse-like texture. Not that I was able to enjoy the moussy texture from the beginning because the tiny freezer compartmet in the fridge is missing its door and therefore the ice-cream was more like a milk shake and I ate pretty much half of it as a liquidy sauce. It was still delicious though and I'm kicking myself for not having bought more of it when it was on special offer because it's apparently a quite pricey brand. The door's fixed now, yay!

Tomorrow I'm going surfing for the very first time and I'll be getting a lesson by a typical Bondi Beach surfer boy. Wish me luck, I'm sure I'll need it! Not just so I don't get whacked in the head by my board or swallow half the sea but also because I don't want to flash each-goers if my bikini gets swept away, uugghh! Surviving all of it is an occassion calling for that deep-fried Mars bar delight I've decided. I'll let you know how it goes!

It's the Simple Things...

2010-02-23T04:01:00.000+01:00

Last week my two friends and I wanted to take the ferry to Manly Beach and lie on the beach but then the weather didn't cooperate...
So instead we walked aimlessly around the suburbs Surrey Hills & Darling Hurst. I can't say there was anything particularly interesting to see at all but we ended up checking out all these lovely food speciality shops which was nice. Food shops always make me happy, I could visit every single bakery, food shop and deli around Sydney and would have a jolly good time! I'm easy to please like that.

Even before we went there I had heard of and had been told about the Bourke Street Bakery and yes, you guessed right, it's on Bourke Street! Taa-daa, big surprise there! It's well-known around here and apparently people cue along the street on weekends but that might also be because the corner shop is teeny-tiny. They even have their own cook book with all the recipes for their breads and buns which you can buy everywhere.

We eventually got there in the afternoon which means that most of the stuff had already been sold and there was not an awful big selection left. It was still super hard to choose all the same. Maybe it was a good thing they didn't have much left though or it would have taken me even longer to pick my chocolate-raspberry tart than it already did and I would have still been standing there, looking at the display at closing time! The staff there are apparently used to it, people commonly seem to have the problem of choice and I'm the biggest sucker for indecisiveness! I don't think they sell any proper cakes there but rather small bits and pieces like muffins and small tarts apart from all the breads and buns. There really is an abundance of the latter and also many savoury little snacks like a scrumptious-looking chorizo pastry and little quiches.

I wanted something sweet to go with my cappucino and although I would have certainly enjoyed the ginger crème brûlée tart, I went for the classic and delicious combo of chocolate and raspberry. You just can't go wrong with it! The coffee was nice too and they also offer freshly squeezed orange juice which my friend opted for and it was lovely and refreshingly cool from the fridge. My other friend went for the lemon tart and we took our seats outside in the sun. There arent many seats and tables as this is a tiny place but sitting in the window inside really looked like a cosy spot to read your newspaper and nibble on a bun. Some other time guys.

My tart was nice and yummy. Yes, it was. But not amaaaaazing. Amazing in a way that you would expect from such an uuhhh-oohh kinda place. That's the thing with these "famous" places, expectations build up and then they're not actually met. Wich is a shame because it is, in fact, a cosy and good little shop. If not a little over-hyped if you ask me. Which is the downfall of places with this kind of reputation, sometimes it can get a little bit out of hand. Anyway, let's get back to basics.

The shell of my tart was lovely crisp and flaky and I was positively surprised when I discovered it was not filled with a chocolate cream but with a mousse, hmm. Chocolate mousse is always a good idea! It was topped with something chocolatey ( I think...) and crumbly, maybe some kind of streusel which added a nice texture. What I was a little disappointed by was how little the amount of raspberry was. Okay, so it looked like fresh raspberry puree which can be praised as such but there was so little of it you could hardly taste it at all. The chocolate was over-powering and that's not really the point of a chocolate-raspberry tart, right? Maybe it's just me but I love raspberries and I would have liked to be able to get to enjoy their flavour a bit more. Especially considering the great produce Australia has to offer when it comes to fruit and veggies!

I also tried my friend's lemon tart and once again it was lovely but nothing surprising there. You order a lemon tart, you get a lemon tart. Delicious but not special. What am I even complaining about you may ask. I'm not complaining friends, just pointing out!

As the selection was pretty much irresistable we ended up buying two loafs of bread to take home. Way too much bread for 2 girls who hardly ever eat any! It's a week later and I still have about 2/3 of the bread left and no, I haven't thrown it out yet. Come on, it's still edible and I nibble on it every now and again. Really, I do. Sometimes at least, erm.... Ah okay so, maybe it's time to put it out of its misery, hahaha.

Why did I not devour the bread in one sitting, it was Apple Cinnamon Sourdough after all?! Weeeeeeell, let's just say it was a bit of a let-down... Maybe I had wrong expectations. Possibly. The thing is I LOVE cinnamon and apple, it's a classic and a whole bread of it - genius! It could have been amazing. For breakfast. Toasted. With butter. Hmmmmmm. Made me think of a breakfast muffin. It was nothing like that though. It was bread. Sourdough bread. And that's what it tasted like, reminding me of farmhouse bread, wholesome and healthy.

I couldn't taste the cinnamon, boo-hoo, but I could actually see it. Weird. There was hardly any apple in it either and it was not exactly flavourful. I don't know, maybe it's just me but when I think of apple cinnamon bread I think of something slightly sweet, like other fruity breads but it wasn't in the slightest which was probably because it was a sourdough. Sourdough is ooommpphh. This bread definitely had ooommpphh. I didn't want ooommpphh... I wanted cinnamony-apply hhhmmm-ness.

I basically made my friend buy the other bread I would have picked had I not gone for Ooommpphh. It was a white, ciabatta-like bread with olives and rosemary. What a beauty. My friend doesn't even like olives! I luuuurve them, oh yes. This baby was gooood! Totally delivered. I had bread envy. At least I got to try some and yep, in this case I could have eaten the whole thing in one go. Delish.

It was light and with a good amount of dark olives and fresh rosemary. Fragrant. Hmmm. I put olive oil on it and it tasted like a holiday in Italy but in your mouth. You can't beat the simplicity of it. Pure foodgasm! More-ish. Even my not-so-much-into-olives friend really liked it. She had it with fresh tomatoes as a side to fish the other day and rolled her eyes it was that good. It's the simple things that taste best. Now she's bought a basil plant and you can imagine how good it would be with some of that now... Oh boy.

Simplicity is best. It can't be hyped.

Simplicity versus hype. I know what I'd pick.
A boulangerie is simple - Don't go and destroy it by overly hyping it... They have some good bread there after all!

Yummy Yum-Cha!

2010-02-20T14:04:00.001+01:00

Today I conceived a food baby of the best kind. I've always thought that I must be the only person in the world who gets "food pregnant", meaning that you've eaten so much that your rounded tummy sticks out and you look pregnant. Or almost. Sometimes quite scarily similar. I was wrong. Food babies seem to be very common among my Aussie friends and apparently even guys can have them! Who would have known... Up until now I was only used to my boyfriend looking very freaked out whenever I held my stomach like a pregnant lady and said "I think I'm having steak twins!". I believed I was a weirdo. But it's the boyfriends who are the oddballs - there's no reason to be scared boys, you can have one too! Like the guys I went to lunch with today, all of them were happy food daddies. We even took our babies to the sunny beach afterwards where we passed out into a blissful food coma. I couldn't think of a better day!

Around noon we made our way to Marigold on George Street to go for Yum-Cha, my first ever. "Yum-cha" means "to drink tea" in Cantonese but it describes the getting together of families and friends for dim-sum at lunch time. Dim-sum can be best described as the Chinese equivalent to Spanish tapas, small and bite-sized dishes that are shared at the table. When we get to the 5th floor and the elevator doors open we are greeted by the loud noise of many, many people chatting and eating in a big open plan restaurant and a massive queue. This is obviously a very busy place and we're grateful to have reserved a big table so we don't have to wait around like so many others. Our table is in the process of getting cleaned and I'm a little taken aback by the general feeling of mass processing but once we sit down I start to unwind and want to get started.

The food looks appetizing and I'm intrigued by this whole experience. Finally we get our pots of tea, all friends have arrived and we start eyeing the presented food being pushed by on carts. And off we go.

In action

Whenever you like the food on offer you tell the waiter how many portions you want, then the plates and baskets are placed on a big wheel in the middle of the table and your little order card gets stamped accordingly. The wheel is turned around and everybody takes whatever they like, usually one piece at a time, then you dip it in whatever sauce you like and munch away.

Usually there's always around 3 pieces on a serving plate and depending on the size of the party you order several plates of the same food. Not really being able to work my chopsticks I make quite a mess of my place right at the beginning but at least I wasn't the only one... The carts come around quite frequently and whenever you feel like you can't wait for a dish to pass you by any longer you can order it and it's brought straight to your table.

3 different dumplings, clockwise: pork & prawn (one of my favs), vegetarian with chives, prawn

We all tuck in with great joy and although we always debate on what to order so everybody gets what they want, it's our "man on the inside", Darran, a Chinese Sydneysider, who makes a lot the decisions simply because he knows what's good and worth a try. I think he does a great job and only disagree once when it comes to dessert.

I find the joghurt-like tofu with sweet syrup is not worth trying at all because it doesn't really taste of anything and is quite watery...

Well, I probably wasn't the biggest fan of the custard tarts either but only because they were too eggy. Apperently one whole egg is used per small tart which is way too much if you ask me. The dough had a lovely flaky texture though.

Flaky, crispy dough folded around prawsn and vegetables, very good!

There's all kinds of different dumplings, meats, buns, spring rolls and other dishes and I'm so busy taking pictures of everything that I don't even realize what's in front of me...

Chicken feet! My long-awaited chicken feet! I know it might sound a bit weird that I was looking forward to them but when I had found out that they were on the menu the day before I had immediately said that I would want to try them. I'm up for almost anything when it comes to food after all.

So there they are, steamed and fried and nothing like I expected the texture to be. Instead of being crunchy and crispy, well apart from the bones you have to spit out that is, they are kind of gooey and wobbly and have a strangely familiar taste. Darran tells me that what I'm tasting is star anise and cloves. Aaaahhhhh!

It's really hard to say which dish was my favourite because simply everything was delicious. The choice is too big as there's not one single dish we ordered that I didn't try...

Soft rice-dough filled with prawns and vegetables

I did like some dishes slightly better and probably ate more of them than others I guess but it's a close call.

fluffy pork dumplings, hmmm....

I definitely did love the mango pancakes though that were for dessert. I had particularly asked for them because I had heard they were supposed to be good and they delivered.

Yum! The thin, golden pancake is filled with deliciously ripe, sweet, yellow mango and ice-cream which makes for a surprising cold effect when you grab one.

Albeit being full I ate two, that's how good they were!

Apart from the food and the great fun it was to try so many different dishes without knowing what to expect and pushing around the wheel on the table it was the social aspect that I especially enjoyed about Yum-Cha.

8 happy diners

All food is shared so that people around the big round table are constantly interacting, discussing what to eat or order next, filling up tea cups and passing around food. Everybody tries to get their share when certain dishes are limited and it's fun to split dumplings, drip sauce all over the place and simply enjoy great food and great company.

BBQ Pork buns and fried pork dumplings

I had the best time and loved every minute of it! Hopefully I get to go again soon - you just can't beat the fun you get for 25 Aus$, what a bargain!

Fishy First Impressions

2010-02-18T13:37:00.000+01:00

You wanna know about Sydney, eh? Going literally to the other side of the world seems pretty exotic, doesn’t it? Only that it’s not… Odd but true. Don’t expect any cultural shock on my side anytime soon!

The culture is pretty much English and the climate as well as the plants around remind me of the U.S. Tropically humid, warm and sunny. Why, oh why is it not actually like that all the time though? It’s supposed to be the hottest month of the year and I desperately need a tan, especially before going to London! I’m not as seethrough-white as my boyfriend but not exactly Ozzie colour either. Oy, sun, get out and do your job!

There isn’t exactly any city centre because the city spreads out into suburbs and smaller areas and there’s not much sightseeing to be done because Sydney is only 200 years old. Which is nothing. This city hasn’t even hit puberty yet, it’s still a fresh-faced newborn baby! „Can Mummy and Daddy City please pick up little Sydney at the metropolis nursery, she needs a new nappie! … And some Formular so she’ll grow strong and big!“ Hence there are no old parts of town or buildings etc. to look at like you’d find in Europe. I didn’t expect that at all and had never even thought about it because it’s one of those places most people want to go to, right?

At least there’s the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge which are both nice to look at and I was fascinated by the Central Business District nearby and all its skyscrapers because I’m not used to them. They have some tall and shiney buldings and all the business men look like little ants when they squeeze onto the trains to go to work. I never want to be one of those ants. Another reason to become a chef! ;)

When I went to the Botanical Gardens the other day, all the green made for a stark contrast before the über-urban backdrop of the CBD. Pretty cool. Especially the bats there hanging relaxedly off the trees. Vampires. I like them. Not just since Twilight! I used to nap in suitcases in a classmate’s attic in primary school pretending to be a vampire and I liked meat a bit too much. Rare meat. Hahaha. I don’t glitter and twinkle in daylight though, darn. That would make for a class party effect! ;) I’m rambling…

Water. Bays. Beaches. Coastal Walks. I love the ocean. J Sydney is obviously on the coast and so there’s a lot of water around and many a beach to be found. I’ve only been to 2 yet although I would have loved to spend way more time tanning in the sun but the weather hasn’t been hot and sunny enough lately… Ehum! Bronte Beach was quite intimate while famous and bigger Bondi Beach represents young, hip surfing culture and is probably more touristy. Somehow I preferred Bondi because it was more entertaining and it also offers a few streets with nice little shops and its very own athmosphere. There’s also a gorgeous coastal walk you can do from one beach to the next and which I loved and will have to do again and further.

It’s in Bondi that I went for fish'n'chips. Now you have to know that I LOVE fish’n chips… yum, yum, double-yum! :) The best fish’n chips there is is definitely the one you get in McDonagh’s in Galway, Ireland, so I’m pretty spoilt. Yep, I’m a die-hard fan!

I do love me some fresh, crispy batter but in this case I went for grilled king fish, which of course is not your usual, traditional fish’n chips. Maybe I could have gone for typically Ozzie Barramundi but I thought there might be better places to eat it some other time and when my friend had it another day I didn’t think it was all that special… Unfortunately they slightly over-cooked my fish, which was a shame and it wasn’t seasoned at all but the chips were okay. Generally speaking it was an okay meal but not more. I did season it with salt, pepper and lemon which they actually do give you but the chips desperatley cried for some sauce or my beloved malt vinegar. I settled for BBQ sauce and enjoyed the greasiness of them. ;)

When my friend had the aforementioned Barramundi I went for a deep-fried crab claw. I doubt it was actually crab claw meat though because when I bit into it I could tell it was some sort of white, fishy meat formed into a ball with a skinny piece of claw sticking out. They seem to deep-fry everything at that place - I found the deep-fried oysters especially intriguing…

One thing I definitely still have to try there is the battered, deep-fried Mars bar! Ewwww? No, genius! Don’t tell me you’ve never heard of it! Some guy in Scotland came up with it and it’s world-famous or rather infamous. I can imagine the crispy batter and then when you bite into it you get to the ooey-gooey melted chocolatey caramel centre. Sure, it’s a heart attack on a plate but totally worth it! Right? Riiiight! The only thing I’m not sure about is that they take the Mars bar out of the fridge, already battered and don’t open a fresh bar, drop it in the batter and then into the hot oil like they would in Scotland… I will let you know all about it when I try it. Drool. ;P

Plastic Food and Eating Instructions

2010-02-16T13:04:00.006+01:00

I finally have internet on my laptop, woop woop! ;) I felt bad neglecting my little baby i.e. my blog. It's strange how much it's grown on me already! Although I won't be posting any new recipes during my time in Oz - except for when I have too much time and post stuff that I've made or eaten a while ago and believe me, there's plenty! - I will write about food I try down-under and just generally what I get up to.

Let's begin with the itty-bitty Korean culture and food I experienced on my trip. I flew with a very good Korean Airline and so they served traditional Korean food on the flights (or beef steak, always beef steak), which I happily ordered because I've never really had any before. Funnily enough they gave us these little brochures with instructions on how to eat our food and even though the second dinner was more entertaining, I only kept the first little leaflet.

The dish was called Bi-Bim-Bab and it was a bowl of mixed vegetables, rice, minced meat, spicy red pepper paste, sesame oil and quite hot Kimchia and fruit for dessert. I didn't expect this spiciness in plane food which is usually quite bland, wouldn't you agree? I was happy enough to eat the Korean meals because they were a lot lighter and probably healthier than the European options and I always find you feel stuffed when you keep eating but not moving during flights. Despite the fact that I walked around, stretched and did gymnastics every now and then, those flights were loooong!

I can't remember what the second dinner I had was called but it was kinda fun to eat. You took a big salad leaf, filled it with nutty bean paste, beef in sauce, rice and Kimchi and then rolled it up into a ball. Which was easier said than done, particularly because we hit turbulences every single time a meal was served and I often made quite a mess...ooops. One dish was quite hard to stomach though and that was seafood and rice for breakfast at 4 in the morning, eeekkk. Too much rice for my liking and I can't say I'm all too keen on anything fishy when I've just woken up!

When we landed in Seoul Incheon I went straight through customs to do one of the advertised sightseeing tours and I had set my eye on the 4-hour one to Seoul. I had never imagined I would ever go to Korea but there you go, you never know what's going to happen! Unfortunately most of the tours were cancelled due to the bad winter weather and there was only one left that went to Incheon. I obviously decided to do it anyway because it was definitely a better option than hanging around the airport for seven hours and there were other people my age, which made it more fun.

I can't say that I saw anything particularly nice or very interesting on the tour ... and the weather was kind of a downer, but at least I got to go to a Korean food market. We also visited an old palace made of small wooden houses that were surprisingly modern for the age they were built in and drove over a brand-new, 21 km long bridge. Yeah, I know, not so impressive. The ferry ride was fun nonetheless because our lovely tour guide had bought crisps to feed the seagulls with and jaysus, those were some crazy birds! We had a jolly good time feeding them because they went crazy for the food and would grab it out of our hands while flying by in rounds. It was mighty entertaining and a bit scray too, in a Hitchcock "Birds" kinda way. I saw a grown Korean woman sing, clap, dance around and squeal with joy when she fed them. ;)

We didn't get to spend much time at the food market but it was enough for me to walk around and I saw lots of strange things. Of course the food was very different to what I'm used to but the way it was displayed unvoluntarily made me think of food poisoning... There was plenty of dried fish and people frying and preparing different dishes of which I don't know what they were.

The fish on the clothesline is supposed to be fresh by the way... it smelt fishy alright - not a good sign!

I do have to say that the dried Korean red peppers looked nice and I wouldn't have minded buying some to take home and cook with but I knew Australian Customs would never allow them onto their soil, strict as they are!

Would you know what any of this is?! ... Neither did I but it was somewhat intriguing. One of the most fascinating things I saw were these snails though, if that's what they are. There were tons of them in a big bucket of water and they kept spitting water out of their tentacles which looked very interesting. I've eaten snails as part of a seafood platter in France before and my sister's just recently found them in her Paella in Spain... but somehow I can't say they turn me on food-wise, if you know what I mean! They're just too slimey for my liking.

The tour guide told us we could pick a snack she would then buy for us and after having seen the market I think it's safe to say that we were all the slightest bit scared albeit it just being spicy chicken in the end which didn't differ much from any other old sticky fried chicken all over the world. I'm very glad I didn't get food poisoning though and I felt very brave biting into my undefinable piece of chicken - others weren't as brave!

Basically anything could have been hidden under the sticky marinade and the texture of the whole thing wasn't exactly the most appetizing but other than that I expected something a lot more exotic. I often feel like that these days, maybe I've become too hardy in general. One thing I know for sure though, is, that I would never eat umbilical cord like my seat neighbour on the second flight had without knowing in some godforsaken country... And I pride myself with trying just about anything at least once but there's a limit to everything!

Back at the airport I made the discovery that all the nearby restaurants advertised their menus by showing exact plastic replicas of their dishes and I found that very peculiar and funny. I mean, come on, there were even pizzas, burgers and pasty dishes on display in case you didn't know what they were like! Which could actually happen, spoken from a Korean point of view, but then again they'd know what their own cuisine would look like, wouldn't they?! I really want to have plastic prawns now or a sushi plate as bric-a-brac for my sushi-crazy sister. What a cool thing to have as decoration in your living room and you could say, hey, it's traditional Korean art! Hahaha. ;)

I did get to see actual Korean culture though at the Culture Centre at the aiport where people were dressed in traditional Korean dresses, played music and danced.

I was made play a little drum and was given it as a reward, which was pretty nice and would have made for a nice souvenir had I not ended up leaving it on the plane because I was once again too scared of Australian Customs! You'll agree if you've ever watched Australian Border Security on tv which they were actually filming when I got to Sydney Airport and had to go through what felt like 10 different inspections where they even x-rayed your check-in luggage and where you can get fined 100Aus$ for still having the apple you got on the plane in your bag! Scary.

Hopefully I'll get another little drum on my trip back though... and take on Eurpean Customs if need be!

Happy Valentine's Day

2010-02-14T00:26:00.002+01:00

... to all of you, whether you're in a relationship or not! It's the holiday of love and friendship and as there are so many wonderful and different kinds of love I like to believe nobody is actually alone on this day. Don't tell me it's all just big commercial bollocks - I think it's nice to dedicate a day to love! Love is great, no matter what kind of love it is. I'm lucky enough to have a few amazing people I love dearly in my life, friends and family, but I want to give a special shout to my gorgeous sister and wonderful boyfriend - I love you, guys! ;)

Now a big sorry is in order. I know you're waiting for pictures and culinary tales from down-under and I haven't posted anything yet... I know it sucks, so sorry. Unfortunately the internet situation is a bit complicated right now and more importantly it won't work on my laptop so that I can't really write or post anything... Hopefully that will change for the better this week though when we move into a new flat and will apparently have wireless internet. Keep your fingers crossed!

Besides that I'm liking Sydney so far. The jetlag was absolutely dreadful and it took me days to feel like my normal self again. The long trip and 10-hour time difference really take it outta ye! I'm a few hundred metres away from Bondi Beach at the moment but as the weather is kinda bad I can't make use of the last couple of days of living by the beach. My whiteness is ridiculous, I really need a tan. Stat!

Oh, did I mention the tv station is apparently very keen on having me on the show?! Yeaaah! ;) I'm not entirely sure but I have a feeling that it comes down to what Le Cordon Bleu is saying now; if they'll allow filming at the school or not. It would be disappointing if the tv station wouldn't want to follow me anymore if they said no!

Have a lovely day folks and I'll catch up with you as soon as I can! :)

A Quick Hello From Korea!

2010-02-09T09:50:00.001+01:00

I just noticed that I've had just over 100 visitors on my blog, although 90% of those are pobably my sister and my boyfriend... ;) I thought I should commemorate this teeny weeny milestone of my very young blogger existence and that's why I'm sending all of you, whoever you are, a big thanks from Seoul / Korea!

That's right, I'm in Korea (or rather the airport) for all of 7 hours and actually got to do a 3 hour sightseeing tour! It's not that it was very impressive... it's winter and raining here after all and my not so waterproof flats and socks got soaked. But hey, if I get a chance to walk over a Korean street market I will bloody well take it! I have to say that so far I'm very pleased with my airline, they offer these tours for free and they've been taking very good care of me. I will tell you all about my trip and post some pics when I get to Sydney though.

See you down-under in Oz!

Orange Guys and Mince Pies

2010-02-07T01:42:00.007+01:00

People, we have a "Situation" on our hands...!!! I was feeling restless and bored today. Although I meant to bake I just wasn't in the mood for it and that doesn't happen often. So I went along with it and resorted to ready-made pastries. However that's not what I'm talking about...

Basically all I did today, instead of preparing for my trip, was to sit on my couch and watch MTV on my laptop for countless hours on end. As I said I was feeling restless and didn't know what to do with myself and thus I ended up in a place I never thought I'd go to... The Jersey Shore. Oh me, oh my, where do I even begin?!

The show follows 8 cads with Italian descent, "Guidos / Guidettes" as they like to call themselves, spend their summer at the Jersey shore and the stuff that goes down is so crazy that you would never believe it, were it not reality tv. No writer could ever come up with the events taking place on this ridiculously genius gem of car-crash tv. You know, the kind you know is terrible and you really shouldn't watch but you simply can't stop yourself.

I got hooked. Big time. I didn't even feel the shame because I was just too entertained to care! All that Oompa-Loompa fake tan, the hideous haircuts, the big, beefy muscles, the scantily-clad girls and the fights and hook-ups fascinated me beyond belief. I mean come on, who calls themselves "the Situation", JWoww or Snookie aka Snickers for that matter?!

At first my sister refused to join into being glued to the tv screen because like any other normal person, and also me pre-Jersey Shore, she probably wondered how an intelligent, educated person could ever voluntarily watch anything like that. Ha! She was a sucker for it after all of 5 minutes herself. Gotcha! She didn't even want to take a break from watching when my phone rang and simply couldn't wait for another fix so that she continued watching without me. That's how addictive this show is... We almost watched the entire season plus reunion in one go, except for the couple of episodes that weren't available, which was probably a good thing.

If you're ever down or bored I strongly recommend you watch this show. It will cheer you up and make you laugh out loud within a few minutes. That's some serious tv fun right there!

Since I didn't bake anything today I defrosted some mince pies instead. Last Christmas in Ireland was the first time I ever tried them even though I had obviously heard about them before. They're a traditional x-mas treat in Ireland and England and taste especially nice when heated up. The crumbly little pie is filled with fruity mince meat, a mixture of dried fruits, distilled spirits and spices. Theres also a frosted variation which has a top made of creamy icing wherefore it can't be heated up but which I probably prefer. I bought 2 packages of mince pies and froze them because we can't get them at home and they still make for a nice winter time treat even after Christmas.

Almonds of Oz

2010-02-06T02:40:00.005+01:00

Less than 72 hours... I simply can't wrap my head around the fact that I'm going to Sydney for a month on Monday, aaahhh!!! Escape the snow and ice and jump to midsummertime at the other end of the world. Hopefully the first time in years that I will get a proper tan, without the sunburn please, although I'll be right under the ozon hole. Sunbathing, beach, surfing, koala bears, kangaroos... There's so many things I want to do and see and I can't wait to go to all the markets, bakeries and restaurants - Sydney's supposed to be a foodie paradise and I will put Helen's recommendations of http://grabyourfork.blogspot.com/ to the test.

They gay and lesbian mardi gras will be on while I'm there and I'm looking forward to dressing up and going to see the crazy parades as well as visiting lots of photography exhibitions and hopefully getting to travel around a bit and go bungee jumping - something the big adrenaline junkie in me has always wanted to do! ( And which my mum and my boyfriend are giving out to me about... spoilasports! )

I would really like to go to New Zealand too, go snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef and have a "shrimp on the barbie" on the beach... all things ozzie so. =)

Today I bought lots of sunscreen and after sun lotion, raided my sister's closet for more nice summer clothes despite needing a lot of luggage space for serious shopping over there, and had a mild heart attack when I found out that national train workers are supposed to go on strike in 2 days, ekkk...!!! Aren't the icy weather conditions bad enough as it is, do we really need a strike on top of that?! Madness.

All that after I found out that I had to wait around Seoul airport jet-lagged for 7 seven hours one way and have to stay overnight in Korea on my way back and will need to wear anti-thrombosis stockings. But that's the price you have to pay for going to Australia and I strongly believe it's worth it. My opinion might change after 2 consecutive 10-hour flights and a 2-day journey but I'm sure the ocean will quickly make up for that.

Now let me tell you about these labour-intensive but delicious and crunchy coated almonds. 2 words: 4 layers! And lots and lots of stirring, serious anti-bingo wings work out! They really take quite a while to make and the amount you end up seems kind of disappointing for all the labour so I seriously recommend making the double amount because it takes the same amount of time but would be so much more worth the effort! Hm, they're really yummy though and would make for a great gift if you have some left-over and haven't devoured them all yourself! Once you start eating them it's incredibly hard to stop.... I literally had to hide the container I kept them in from my dad because he would have gobbled them all up in one go otherwise!

The recipe I used is in French, which is why I had to concentrate more in order to get it right - my French has got a bit rusty recently I have to admit... It's probably advisable to use a candy thermometer but I did fine without one, even so it actually made me finally buy a food thermometer last week.

Here's the original recipe from "La tarte auch fromache" and I'll try my best to translate this recipe for you now....

Chocolate and Sugar coated Almonds

Ingredients:

125 gr almonds with their skin on

100 + 50 gr confectioner's sugar

75 gr milk chocolate

150 gr dark chocolate (or more if desired)

cocoa powder

Mix 100 gr of sugar and 30 gr of water in a heavy pot and bring to the boil. Increase the temperature to 120°C, remove from the heat and add the almonds. Mix in the almonds with a wooden spoon until the sugary mixture completely covers the nuts. The syrup will cristallise i.e. turn white and solidify.

Pour the almonds onto a tray and let them set. Use the same pot with the left-over sugar residue and add 50 gr of sugar and 30 gr of sugar. Heat it up until you have a clear caramel, don't let it get too hot! Turn off the heat and mix the almonds into the caramel with the wooden spoon until they're all coated again. Now pour them out onto the tray again and let them cool.

While the almonds are cooling melt the milk chocolate in a medium-sized bowl over a double boiler and set it aside until the temperature has cooled down to 25°C degrees.

Add the almonds and toss them in the chocolate. You have to keep mixing for quite a while until all the almonds are coated and the chocolate turns a dull colour, which is a sign that it has cooled down completely.

This coating ensures that the almonds stay fresh and none of the almond oil gets out which would make them go rancid.

Now melt the dark chocolate over a double boiler, take it off the heat and let it cool down to 27°C.

Pour the almonds into a big bowl and add a bit of dark chocolate. Stir in the chocolate with the wooden spoon until the nuts are all coated and the chocolate dulls. Only when this has happened and the chocolate has dried and cooled do you add another spoonful of chocolate. Repeat this process until all the chocolate is used and keep stirring for a little longer.

Finally pour the almonds into a new bowl and toss them with the cocoa powder until they're all evenly covered. Leave the nuts for an hour and repeat the process.

Variations: It's possible to add some alcohol to the nuts before you cover them in cocoa by adding 2 cc of rum, calvados etc ...

The chocolate-covered almonds keep for up to a year stored in an air-tight container.

http://latarteaufromache.blogspot.com/2010/01/amandes-au-chocolat.html

Aspiring TV Star.... in the making, at least!

2010-02-06T01:09:00.004+01:00

... and my first ever Red Velvet Cake!

Something crazy and fun is happening ( on top of everything else ) and I'm loving it! I licked blood. I want to be on tv! Even better, there's a good chance it will actually work out but you have to keep your fingers crossed... promise you will!

Not too long ago I was watching a tv show I always watch because there's this girl Dani on it and I think she's hilarious. She has eyebrows tatooed on the middle of her forehead, how could she not be funny?!

Well anyway, out of boredom I went onto the show's website and because it only took 30 second I applied, just for the heck of it and didn't think anymore about it. After all it said that it would usually take over 3 weeks for people to even have a look at your application and I figured rightly that lots and lots of people would apply.

To my big surprise I received an e-mail less than 12 hours later that they liked me and wanted to talk to me over the phone. Maybe I should explain this show follows young people going abroad so I mentioned Le Cordon Bleu and my move to London. The girl who called me was really nice, she was very much into the whole culinary thing ( they had never had anything like that on the show before ) and so a small camera crew from the production company was sent to my house this Tuesday to film an application video for the tv station who make the final decision on whether it's yay or nay...

My boyfriend was supposed to be on it, too and of course we were excited - especially because he's like Chandler from Friends when a camera is around, i.e. making weird faces, and so I was worried he'd be kinda stiff on film to be honest, erm... He wasn't though, good boy! They liked him and want him on it! ;-P I'm lucky to have such an amazing boyfriend who supports me in everything I do and plays along!

They had a lot more equipment than I had thought, the whole shebang, and turned my living room into a studio with lights, moving things around, microphones and everything. Obviously it was all a bit staged because we basically had to give them all the info about Le Cordon Bleu and everything while having a "casual" conversation and then me making Mojito-inspired truffles. Yeah, thanks again for looking like you were gonna puke on the table when you "had to" eat them, luv! Btw my family did actually like them and even though I wasn't too proud of them they were gone in no time and the tv people regretted not having taken any, ha!

All of that was followed by me being interviewed and then we had to rush because I had to take my boyfriend to the train station and I was just about able to stop them from filming our goodbyes, too...

I had loads of fun and thought the tv people were very nice and it helped that they were my age. They seemed to really like me and I felt like this could me something I would enjoy very much and would be a great way to commemorate and document this big adventure of mine. I like to talk a LOT and am a bit of a wisecracker, which I was told is great for tv and as I wouldn't mind having my own food-related tv show one day this could be a great way to carve my way into tv... a girl can dream, right!?

Now I just have to wait until next week when I'll be told whether my story will be picked up or not. Just imagine, if people like me there might even be a sequel - or two, hahaha! The 25 pages of rules and restrictions Le Cordon Bleu sent me and which are army-style strict, albeit reasonable (they are world-renowned and have to maintain highest standards after all!), somehow give me a feeling that they won't be too happy to have a tv crew in the building... They're not very keen on anything like that and the whole place is like Fort Knox so that might be a bit of a problem and I would understand if they didn't allow any filming on their premisses. Hopefully that wouldn't affect the general decision to film me at all though. Too bad the "good advertisement" argument wouldn't really work either - they simply don't need it!

Red Velvet Cake

Because of Joy the Baker, Queen of all things Red Velvet, I decided a red velvet cake would be a great celebration cake last weekend. It was my first. Just like Joy, who likes the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook as much as I do, I used their recipe for red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting and it turned out nicely. I pimped the frosting though and added some lemon and bitter almond extract to boost the flavour of the shredded coconut I covered the cake in. Although I only used a few drops of bitter almond it was quite strong and although still tasty and liked by everybody, I would use less next time. I had some left-over frosting and dyed it with some food colouring to get a nice shade turquoise and just scribbled onto the cake. I didn't do the best job in the world because the added liquid from the food colouring made the frosting a tad runny and the supposed good luck - cloverleaf lost its' shape a tiny bit so I added some sprinkles. Over-compensation I guess. They'll break my habit in culinary school I'm sure... ;) However I only had half of the required amount of red food colouring so that balanced it all out again and I think it was better this way because my folks might have been a turned off by so much edible red brightness!

I also noticed that the cake tastes best at room temperature and not chilled. On the first day we ate it I had stored it in a cold place and then took pictures of it outside in the snow, hence it was pretty cool and I felt like the flavour of the frosting was dominating while you couldn't really taste the chocolatey cake very much.

By pure coincidence I realized how much better it was unchilled when I had a cheeky big bite out of it when we came back from the restaurant and it had sat out on the table for the day. Oooohhhhh, it was so much creamier, more chocolatey and deliciously goooooood! My whole family agreed the next day and I regret having ever chilled it!

The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook's recipe for

Red Velvet Cake

Ingredients:

120 gr unsaltd butter, at room temperature

300 gr caster sugar

2 eggs

20 gr cocoa powder ( I used a bit more )

40 ml red food colouring

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

240 ml buttermilk

300 gr plain flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon bicarb baking soda

3 teaspoons white wine vinegar

Preheat the oven to 170°C (350F) Gas 3.

Put the butter and the sugar in an electric mixer with a paddle attachment and beat on medium speed until light and fluffy and well mixed. Turn the mixer up to high speed and slowly add the 2 eggs, one at a time, and beat until everything is well incorporated.

In a separate bowl, mix together the cocoa powder, red food colouring and vanilla extract to make a thick, dark paste. Add to the butter mixture and mix thoroughly until evenly combined and coloured (scrape any unmixed ingredients from the side of the bowl with a rubber spatula). Turn the mixer down to slow speed and slowly pour in half of the buttermilk. Beat until well mixed, then add half the flour and beat until everything is well incorporated. Repeat this process until all the buttermilk and flour have been added. Scrape down the side of the bowl again, turn the mixer up to high speed and beat until you have a smooth, even mixture. Turn the mixer down to low speed again and add the salt, bicarb and vinegar. Beat until well mixed, then turn up the speed again and beat for a couple more minutes.

Devide the mixture betwen three 20-cm greased cake tins and bake in the pre-heated oven for about 25 minutes or until the sponge bounces back when touched and an inserted skewer comes out clean. Leave them to cool slightly in the tins until you turn them out onto a cooling rack to cool completely.

For the cream cheese frosting

600 gr icing sugar (very sweet, maybe take a bit less)

100 gr unsalted butter, at room temperature

250 gr cream cheese

shredded coconut, optional

Beat the icing sugar and butter together in an electric mixer with a paddle attachment on medium-slow speed until the mixture comes together and is well mixed. Add the cream cheese in one go and beat until it's completely incorporated. Turn the mixer up to medium-high speed. Continue beating until the frosting is light and fluffy, at least 5 minutes. Do not overbeat though, as it can quickly become runny.

Stack the cakes and spread the frosting inbetween the layers, then evenly cover the whole cake on the outside as well until all the frosting is used up. Use a palette knife to smooth down the frosting and use your hand to carefully press on the shredded coconut onto the sides of the cake and sprinkle on top. Refrigerate for an hour for the frosting to set. Serve at room temperature.

It's Celebration Time!

2010-02-01T01:33:00.003+01:00

Ever since I got accepted to Le Cordon Bleu a few days ago I can't stop smiling and I'm not complaining in the slightest! Life is good right now. I couldn't be happier, I'm completely ecstatic and giddy, hihi!

Oh, I'm also able to sleep again, albeit with the help of some great little pills but it's such a blissful relief. I guess that's the end to my weird dreams, too because before I stopped sleeping completely everything started off with bad sleep and weird dreams...

Did I tell you about that time I dreamt about Ina Garten? I know, so odd...!!! Especially because I hadn't watched her for a few weeks and hadn't thought about her so how did my subconscious conjure up a dream about her of all people?! Do you get what I mean? I saw it as a good sign though because she's a successful lady with a great career in food after all and I think she's fabulous.

The dream didn't really make sense either, do they ever, but it was indeed related to my application and showed my tension about it. All I remember now is that I met her at an aiport, no idea where, and for some reason I got talking to her and out of nowhere there was my mum telling her about my application. That's all I recall right now and obviously that she was really nice...erm...

Anyway, for obvious reasons I'm in a celebratory mood and basically bouncing of the walls with positive energy. Yesterday I decided that I wanted alcohol and that mightn't surprise you but I normally don't drink. Except for my granny's amazing rum pot, which is all season's fruits preserved in rum and sugar and boy, it's good. I could bathe in it and whatever kryptonite is to superman, well that's what this is to me. I turn weak for it. So I had a glass filled half with rum pot and half with bubbly and it made me an even happier camper...

The fruit is the best... obviously, as it's soaked in rum and sugar for many months! =) It's also good in other cocktails, on ice-cream... ah, to be honest it's great on anything!

On Saturday night we went for dinner at this lovely restaurant, Gauss. It's been around forever but for some silly reason I've never went and I do regret that now in hindsight. It was great, really, and I'm a critical guest to please. You could call me a food snob but then again I'm well able to appreciate well-made junk food, so maybe I'm not to snobby after all. It's just that I expect good, well-made food, whatever it might be. I love good food, I want good food! Yeah, well-made is probably the keyword here. The whole experience has to be harmonious and it definitely was at this place. Actually their head chef, Jacqueline Amirfallah, was just awarded 14 out of 16 possible points by the Gault Millau, not bad at all and I'll definitely go back soon!

The amuse-bouche of carrot salad, some cream (looking at the pic I guess there were chives in it...) and guinea fowl terrine.

The starter: beef tartar, avocado sushi, sesame algae salad, crispy prawn and wasabi ice-cream. This was amazing as I love japanese wasabi and the little green caviar-like beads tasted of it as well as the quite hot little blob of the actual stuff; sushi ginger and soy sauce, yummm

The main: passionfruit-marinated lobster, iced garlic mayonnaise with some sort of garlic crispy caramel, mango-sweet potato tartar, passionfruit sauce, some sort of pesto and daintily spiced, grilled pineapple.

I couldn't decide so I shared 2 desserts with my boyfriend. No 1: braised quince, chocolate mousse, hazelnut cream, caramel and fleur de sel ice-cream.

Dessert no.2: Tartlet of chestnut, white chocolate and cumin, Madagascar-vanilla ice-cream and caramelized chestnuts.

I think I prefered the second dessert because I thought the combination of the chestnut tartlet with cumin was new and very creative. We got a lovely home-made chocolate with the bill which was also tasty. Throughout the entire meal I stuck to a refreshing white wine, you know, going with the celebratory-I'm-drinking-today theme...

I can honestly recommend this place; they also have a great selection of cheeses, the place is cosy and atmospheric and the staff were lovely and attentive! Thumbs up all around!

Granny is the Best!

2010-01-29T02:50:00.004+01:00

I love my granny. You think you have the best granny in the world? Oh no, there's no better granny than mine. Seriously. She's the cutest little thing ever, I'd like to put her in my purse and take her everywhere I go...

You might doubt me but let me tell you more about my granny.

My granny's nickname is Omel and she's turning 87 in a bit over a month but you would never guess she's that old. She grew up during World War II in which her house was bombed to the ground and her brother was shot. But she also met my granddad and they were married for over 60 years when he passed away when I was 18. She grew up in Cologne, Germany, an area that is known for it's humour and carnival and she is a cheeky one, let me tell you! My granny is small and soft, cuddly and cosy and she gets rosy cheeks as soon as she's had half a glass of wine. She's quite well-travelled for someone of her generation and she's always been very welcoming to all the visitors from around the world we've brought over to her place even though she doesn't speak any foreign languages and she always makes an effort.

I used to stay with her for a week of my school holidays and we would go hiking, eat all my favourite foods and most importantly bake. My mum is a great cook but she never bakes and so I loved when my granny would show me how to bake cakes and we'd be in the kitchen for hours while she would tell me funny stories from her childhood. I still know all these anecdotes off by heart and being in the kitchen with my granny is one my fondest memories. I think it's from her that I get the cooking and baking gene, obviously also passed on somewhat through my mum. My granny cooks traditional, hearty and wholesome German food that is comforting and makes you feel at home. She has a great butcher and always gets the best filet of beef steaks and her cakes are delicious. A running gag in our family is that she once used flavoured creemcheese with herbs instead of the plain one which made eating the meant-to-be fruity cake an interesting experience...!

I have always enjoyed helping her make Spätzle, a certain type of German pasta (you spread the dough on to a wooden board and then vigoriously scrape little bits off with a knife and chuck'em into the boiling water), and yeast dumplings with vanilla custard. I adore the sweet smell of yeast dough and its smooth, yummy texture and for obvious reasons believe that my granny's skin feels like exactly that yeast dough and I mean that in a positive way! Yummy, you just want to smother her with kisses. Seriously all the doughs she makes I just want to eat straight away because they're so good. She would always tell me I'd get an upset tummy from eating all the raw dough but of course I never did and so to this day I still devour her doughs and batters prematurely, they're just too good!

Take this waffle batter she mad last weekend for instance, hmmm.... I don't know her recipe for them but the batter had something slightly orangey and light to it and was very yummy. I ate several spoonfuls, just couldn't resist. Good thing she doesn't mind! =) I made half of the batch in the waffle iron though and we had them with cherries in a bit of a cherry sauce, very yummy. It's such an easy and delicious treat but somehow we tend to forget about it...

Unfortunately though my granny is not really interested in too modern foods i.e. those she might not know. Muffins for example would be quite critical. If she ever gave them a try she would make this very particular face and say "....interesting..." and you'd know it wasn't really her thing but mainly because she doesn't know it. So when I bake things and tell her about them she is very enthusiastic, wants to try them but when I explain to her what they are she will say "It wouldn't be known" which translates to I don't know it - I probably won't like it so I won't eat it. But what can you do... she would never like brownies or a chocolate-chip cookie, they're simply not her thing, too modern. On the other hand she enjoys eating out in restaurants and she loves going to this chinese buffet place in her tiny town! Spring rolls yes but muffins no... I can't say I get her.

But I do love talking to her because we're close and I like to tell her all sorts of things and she does the same with me, it's a very special bond we have. So when I went to see her last weekend, because I hadn't been around since early December, she gave me my belated birthday present and let me tell you it was gooooood... and made us cry a little bit, too. It was all very well concealed, I couldnt have guessed in a million years. As it turned out I got a massive art-déco box filled with the most gorgeous and extraordinary artisan chocolates and truffles , there was a sweet card with money in it and then a nondescript looking something wrapped in tissue, hmm....In the end it was a beautiful and special ring my granny gave to me because it had been the last one my granddad had ever given to her and I just thought that it was such a special gesture.

That's exactly it though, I feel like everything about my granny is special and our bond, too. I'm a granny's girl and I love this woman more than I can say. She drives me nuts sometimes but she is so sweet and warm, giving, adorable, funny, sad, clever, a good cook and baker and a good home economics lady, she listens to me, only ever wants the best for me and supports everything I do, she speaks her own laguage and I don't ever want to be without her.

My granny rocks. She uses her fax machine and portable phone, she watches dvd's, records stuff and has a mobile phone, too. How cool is that? And still she can be more stubborn than anybody when it comes to me wanting her to go see a certain doctor or whatever because at her age there's always little aches etc that can be improved but she isn't having any of it....As a matter of fact she just deliberately broke a promise she had given me sometime ago and we had even shaken hands on it! That's bold granny, bold!

In a nutshell, I have the bestest granny in the world and I couldn't love her more... Stay the way you are Omel and take good care of yourself my dear, no more falling down the basement stairs and such other shenanigans!!!

BIG, best NEWS !!! ... and some chocolate

2010-01-29T01:20:00.004+01:00

Today I received the long-awaited, biggest, most amazing news EVER! Yes! Awesome!

Today is the first day of the rest of my life. My true foodie, culinary life that is, yay!

I can reveal that the application I posted two weeks ago was successful, I got accepted for...

..... drum roll please .....

Le Grand Diplôme at Le Cordon Bleu London Culinary Arts Institute!!!

I know, incredible! It has been my ultimate dream to study there for a few years now and finally my dream is coming true and I couldn't be happier. When I went to London in December I visited the school too, very excitedly of course, and absolutely loved it. It was so international, people were really nice and welcoming albeit being in the middle of final exams and I was truely impressed by what they did. The development from one level to the other is incredible and all I thought was that I simply couldn't wait to be able to make all these things myself. It's such a world-renowned, professional culinary institution with lots of tradition and I can't wait to be part of it, I'm sure it's worth every penny and more. Not only will I be a fully trained chef but a pastry chef as well and I'm ready to conquer the culinary world!

But wait, there's more... A very popular, well-known tv show wants to document my move to London and the beginning of my studies, how crazy is that? It's been a whirlwind of a week, let me tell you. On Monday morning I received an e-mail from the tv production company wanting to interview me on the phone because they'd be very interested in my story. I didn't expect that at all but as I wouldn't mind having my own food-realted tv show one day I didn't midn one bit, there's only advantaged to it after all. The girl I spoke to was really nice and she seemed tobe very into my story and going to Le Cordon Bleu and honestly, who wouldn't?! ;o) Well anyway, she said they would send over a camera team to my house next Tuesday to shoot some sort of application / preview video describing my adventure ahead which they would then show to the tv station and they will either give it the green light for production or not. But I'm pretty confident they will, I like to entertain people and be the centre of attention after all, hahaha.

My family is freaking out, especially my boyfriend and sister because they will have to be on tape with me since I need somebody to interact with and they're both quite shy around new people and all that, oh boy. ;P They're both mental at any other given time so I hope they'll be able to loosen up and be good fun! I will let you know how it goes and whether it's going to get get picked up or not. Keep your fingers crossed!

What's the best way to celebrate? With chocolate, that's right. They tv crew want to film me cooking or baking something but as I mentioned before our oven is sorta broken / weird / whateva, there won't be much time and I'm a wee bit freaked out by being watched. So I guess I agree with what they said and that's that I should make chocolates, easy enough, eh? What kind of truffles though, I want them to look impressive and taste great with little effort after all...!?! If you've any fool-proof recipes, pleeeaaaasseeee let me know, okay? I need your help, seriously. Much appreciated.

Anyway, if I can't come up with anything amazing ( I was considering Mojito or Margarita inspired truffles, what do you reckon? ) I could always make the dark chocolate Balsamic Vinegar and Basil truffles rolled in cocoa. They were very good, whipped up in no time and loosely based on Giada's Balsamic Chocolate truffles. http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/balsamic-chocolate-truffles-recipe/index.html

I would double the amount of ingredients though because I only made a tiny batch as I was in the middle of preparing lots of other things at the same time and I eyeballed most of the ingredients anyway, sorry. Next time I'll use more fresh basil because you coul not really taste it sufficiently I thought and it works so well with the dark chocolate and especially the balsamic vinegar. Of course you can use plain old balsamic vinegar but I actually used balsamic drizzle because I believe it has more depth and less acidity.

Dark Chocolate Balsamic Basil Truffles

Makes for 10 truffles

Ingredients:

100 gr dark chocolate

1-2 normal teaspoons of balsamic vinegar or balsamic drizzle, to taste

ca. 5 fresh basil leaves, chopped

(pinch of salt)

cream (eyeball it but it won't be more than a few splashes)

a few spoon-fulls of cocoa powder

Chop up the chocolate and melt it in a double boiler. Set aside and let cool slightly. In a glass mix the balsamic, the optional salt and a spoon or 2 of cream until combined and add to the melted chocolate. Stir until well combined and a smooth, velvety ganache texture is achieved. If you think the mixture is too firm, carefully add a little bit of cream but you don't want the ganache to become to liquid. When you're satisfied with the texture add in the chopped basil, cover the bowl with clingfilm and let the ganache set for 2 hours in the fridge.

Dust your hands with a bit of cocoa, pick up small portions of ganache at a time and roll them in your hands until small balls have formed. Roll them in the cocoa powder and chill them for another hours. Store them in your fridge and consume within a couple of days.

These truffles weren't all though folks, I also made a chocolate bar. You can never have enough chocolate after all, can you? Last week I bought a mould for three 100 gr chocolate bars and of course I had to put them to use straight away. The possibilities for new creations these give you are never-ending and I got inspired. Big time. I wanted to start off with a simple chocolate though and as for some reason I can't stop thinking about citrus fruits and olive oil recently it only made sense to make olive oil and lemon chocolate.

Again you couldn't really taste the olive oil because if you used more in order to get a stronger flavour the chocolate wouldn't firm up and you would not be able to achieve a proper chocolate bar. Mine was still a tiny bit softer and had a silkier texture than your generic supermarket chocolate but it was still firm enough to get it out of the mould. My tip to you though, even if you're as impatient as me... wait for the chocolate to set for at least 2 hours because otherwise you will be able to see finger prints et (yep, that's exactly what you can see as something white-ish in the pictures...)

I also have to admit that I cheated or rather took a short-cut in so far that I didn't really temper the chocolate because I only bought a thermometer yesterday (for future experiments) and so just had to go with my gut-feeling. Worked out fine in the end and my family absolitely loved the chocolate and devoured it in a matter of minutes. Basically I didn't really get to try my own chocolate because by the time I wanted to it was already gone... I take that as a compliment, hehe.

Lemon and Olive Oil Milk Chocolate Bar

100 gr milk chocolate

1-2 teaspoons of olive oil (go easy on it and completely stir it in before adding more!)

the zest of a ripe lemon

Wash the lemon under hot water and zest it. You won't need the zest of a whole lemon, depending on how lemon-y and tangy you want your chocolate to be, it won't be tart though, don't worry.

Roughly chop the milk chocolate and carefully melt it in a double-boiler. Let it cool slightly and mix in some olive oil, a few drops at a time, until well combined. Only when you completely mix in the oil will you know how much more liquid it is making the chocolate so don't go overboard!

Pour the chocolate into the clean and slightly cooled mould and knock it on the table a few times to get rid of any air. Finally sprinkle on the lemon zest and chill the chocolate for a few hours before carefully removing the bar from the mould. Don't place the mould directly onto the glas in your fridge, it would be too cold. I recommend storing the chocolate wrapped in cling film and in your fridge because it might melt more easily due to the oil. The chocolate bar also makes for a nice gift!

Insomnia and midnight baking

2010-01-28T23:45:00.003+01:00

Sleep... oh blissful, relaxing, invigorating snooozy-snooze dose of Zzzzzzz. I really hope you'll grace me with your presence tonight, oh please! You might have wondered where I'm at and I can tell you I'm still here - or the shadow of me that is, looking like something that was puked up sometime ago. TMI? Tough! ;P

Ever since I posted my application (and started this blog ... that was 2 long weeks ago!) I haven't been able to sleep. At all. I guess that happens when nothing's ever been this important to you but it sucks nonetheless - release me from my misery already! Don't tell me anxiety and suspense is half the fun, my crankyness ( or cranky-poo, as my boyfriend calls me these days ) would tell you otherwise. As I've found out there's different levels of insomnia-related craziness: First you just feel tired, then comes the bad mood followed by big, nasty crankiness. Seriously, everything annoyed me! Then it's on to brutal exhaustion, not caring that you can't press the pause button to your life. It's indeed sort of inconvenient when you become so thin-skinned and hyper-sensitive that you feel like breaking-down and crying when you get up in the morning and the simple noise of a ringing phone can lead to madness. Basically you're never really present, awake anymore so you can't do anything. Hence I didn't write on my blog, I thought calm would do me good, but it didn't make any difference...

When I started this blog I got hooked, addicted and actually started thinking in blog posts. I wanted to write and post all the time and my boyfriend was already fearing I'd end up as an in-the-basement-living geeky eremite, you get the picture? The thing is I'm an either 200% or 0% kinda person, there's no happy middle for me. So I decided to turn it down a notch until I had actually made more stuff to post and write about, which happened very quickly. I was a very busy bee and even built a lightbox made of canvas from the diy store in order to be able to take better pictures and I was very proud of the result. There I was making chocolates, cereal bars, salads, muffins and cookies, trying to work on my food stylist and photography skills, all the while desperately needing some shuteye. At the back of my head I felt guilty, thinking I should really get a groove on and write on my blog but always procrastinating and hoping I'd be more alert the next day... in vain.

Yes, yes, you might have noticed it too, the appearance of my insomnia coincides with me starting this blog - is that weird? One of my best friends simply told me I should delete it so... she mustn't get it, I don't want to stop! Anyway, having said that my problem is that instead of being able to go to sleep or sleep through the night my thoughts starts spinning, information overload. No particular thoughts, just unwelcome randomness or rather my subconscious freaking out even though it seems to be fine during the day. Hmmm...?!?

I went to see different people who offered me different and way too time-consuming solutions and I ended up getting herbal sleeping pills and being told by the pharmacist that I'd have to consult a doctor should my insomnia continue. I had great hopes but even after almost overdosing on the pills I wasn't able to sleep, they only made me feel relaxed and kinda woozy. Nights have been a nightmare and I dread having to go to bed because I know I'll be tossing and turning, not being able to find rest. Today I finally did go to see a doctor and he prescribed proper, chemical pills which will hopefully make me conk out in the next couple of hours! But right now I'm stilly too hyper and exstatic because of the amazing news I received today and the craziness of this week. So many news, so little time...!!! I'd like to go out and celebrate but there's nobody around to party with right now and so I'll have to wait until tomorrow.

If you struggle to go to sleep maybe you should read this post and it'll bore you so much it'll make you pass out, hahaha! ;o)

Let's not completely forget about my baking though, it kept me occupied until past 4 a.m. last Sunday after all. Why not be productive if you can't sleep anyway I thought. I hadn't anticipated staying up this late though but our stupid oven must be broken because it wouldn't properly heat up and stuff needed forever to be done and it was like a game of luck whether it would come out alright or not. I made olive-oil and lime cookies which were extremely limey and a little tangy but didn't taste the least of olive oil which I found a bit disappointing - I love EVOO! For some reason, must have been my weariness, I formed the moist dough into normal cookies after chilling it and they came out nice and chewy but I think they were actually meant to be a LOT smaller and therefore probably with a slightly different texture, too. Whatevs, still good. ;o) Oh, they had little hollows that were filled with lime icing and candied lime peel after baking - be prepared for a full-on lime shock!

I found the recipe in a booklet by a German magazine, "Brigitte". Shall I translate it for you?

Lime and Olive Oil Cookies

Ingredients:

Dough:

1-2 limes

40 gr candied lime peel

100 gr caster sugar

150 gr flour

1/2 tablespoons baking powder

pinch of salt

75 ml olive oil ( optional: lemon-infused olive oil )

2 tablespoons milk

about 50 gr of sugar for coating

Decoration:

40 gr candied lime peel

about 50 gr confectioner's sugar

1 tablespoon lime juice

For the dough:

Wash limes under hot water, dray and zest the lime, then juice it. Mix 75 grams of sugar and the candied lime peel in a food processor until it's finely ground.

Preheat conventional oven to 180°C (ca. 350F) or fan oven to 160°C and gas 3.

In a bowl mix flour, baking powder, salt, the sugar-lime peel mixture and add olive oil, milk, lime zest and 2 tablespoons of lime juice. Use the dough hooks of your hand mixer and then knead the dough with your hands.

Line a baking tray with non-stick baking parchment, form about 35 little balls of dough, roll them in caster sugar and place them on the tray. Use your fingers to press them down a little so a small well forms.

Bake the cookies for about 12 minutes or until they are golden brown and let them cool on a cooling rack.

For the icing:

Roughly chop the candied lime peel. Mix the confectioner's sugar and lime juice until you get a liquid, creamy icing. Pour a little bit of icing into the wells in every cookie, sprinkle with some candied lime peel and let them dry. Ready to eat, enjoy with a glass of milk!

Honeycomb and a bit of Chemistry

2010-01-19T21:22:00.000+01:00

Do you know British cook Nigella Lawson? Cook, that's right, she's not a professional chef but her food is bad-ass! She's a busy, voluptuous London-based mother of two and she makes cooking look incredibly sexy. I can only wish I ever looked half as flirtatious when I'm in the kitchen! Somehow watching her show makes me feel a bit naughty, do you know what I mean? She just has this way of being coquet and everything she does looks unbelievably sensual and her usual sneaking to the fridge and having a midnight snack makes her very likeable, not only for men!

Anyway, when I watched her Express show recently, she made what she called "Hokey-Pokey" - a mostly British sweet called honeycomb because of it's look and bubble-infused texture.
I never even thought about making it at home but when I realized how simple it was and how fun it looked, I decided to give it a try. Basically it's not much more than a bit of different types of sugar and a little chemical reaction thrown in which is basically what makes it look so cool!

People from America may not know what I'm talking about but if you've ever had a Cadbury Crunchie bar, this is exactly it!

Actually I got a Crunchie bar and compared it to my own honeybomb, albeit not chocolate-covered, and the result is pretty much the same, just that the home-made stuff is more bubbly.

So here goes the recipe:

Nigella’s Honeycomb

Ingredients:

100g caster sugar
4 tbsps golden syrup ( or you can use half syrup half honey if you want )
1 & 1/2 tsp bicarb (baking) soda

Place a sheet of non-stick baking paper on a tray.

Pour the syrup and sugar in a saucepan and mix them before you heat them up, because you shouldn’t stir the mixture while it’s heating up and boiling as it would go grainy. Gently melt the sugar and golden syrup over a medium heat and swirl the pan every so often until the sugar has dissolved.

Allow the mixture to come to the boil and allow it to colour slightly so it goes a lovely, not too deep golden brown. You have to keep a close eye on the mixture because it can go from perfectly fine to a tiny bit too dark and as a result tasting slightly burned in a matter of seconds!

Pull the mixture off the heat and quickly add the bicarb of soda. Mix thoroughly with a silicone spatula or metal spoon until it is just evenly combined (you don’t want to over-mix it or you’d loose some of the bubbles the chemical reaction created). When you add the bicarb soda the mixture will froth and bubble.

Pour the mixture out onto the prepared tray and allow for it to set for approximately 20 minutes. If the weather is particularly humid, it may not set completely and you will have to put it in the fridge for a a few minutes to firm it up.

Once set you can break it up into pieces and there is different ways to do this. You can carefully whack it with a pestle and it will break easily, but don’t be too rough because it will get very crumbly. If you would like to cover it so the pieces don’t fly all over the place, use baking paper or something similar but preferably not a towel because it might stick to it.

Honeycomb is very sweet (it’s mainly sugar after all!) and goes well with a cup of coffee. A very yum and common way to eat them is to dip the pieces in melted chocolate and let them cool or crumble them over ice-cream, which is especially good and gives great texture.

Ladurée Macarons

2010-01-18T21:49:00.005+01:00

French macaroons are my new obsession ... these delicate, tiny and delicious pieces of heavenly indulgence. I've always found them incredibly elegant, feminine and pretty but I couldn't tell you why I'm bonkers about them all of the sudden, apart from the obvious reasons. It's their airiness and versatility and the fact that they're everything but simple, generic and they make me think of Paris which itself is representative of feminine elegance. I'm sure Ina Garten would be delighted... "They're gonna be delicious!" =)

Now that I think of it, it's probably when I read about famous shoe designer Christian Louboutin designing gift boxes for French pâtisserie brand Ladurée that I learned about their macaroons and became intrigued. As a fashion-conscious girl myself and having been found contemplating buying classic nude Louboutin peeptoes before, I was firstly more interested in owning something Sex-and-the-City-Carrie-like by the red-soled shoe artistthan the actual macaroons. Soon after I discovered Ladurée's website and researched macarons, I decided I definitely had to see and taste them for myself and looked up where to get them - thankfully in London (because they don't mail products at all, boo-hoo!), what a coincidence!

Having shown my boyfriend and London novice around town the day before and having done enough sightseeing it was finally time to make our way over to Harrod's, the world-famous, super posh and much-loved department store in Knightsbridge. I've been there many times and I love their massive, amazing food hall but somehow Ladurée had escaped my eyes to this very day.

Knowing I had simply had to buy a few of these quite pricey but worth every penny delectables, I had a hard time trying to decide which flavours to pick. Neither did it help that the French sales assistant had a strong accent and a heavy cold, resulting in me having to make him repeat what he'd said to me about 5 times... how embarrassing. When he told me he was a Frenchman with a flu I had to laugh and told him he should have spoken French to me in the first place and we wouldn't have had any communication problems! What is it with French people trying to speak English and English speakers trying to speak French that makes them impossible to understand? Most other accents are fine but these two just don't go together at all.

Anyway, I did get my macaroons in the end and promised myself that I would be back very soon - thinking of Dublin where I would buy the biggest available Louboutin-filled box of macaroons available to treat myself. They didn't have those particular gift boxes in Harrod's, you see. Being a big old glutton I've now realized that these boxes don't come for free anyway and by now I'd rather spend the money on even more macaroons than on a fancy box! Which tells you I loved them, they were truly delicious. Even the rose one I had to eat over a month later, because I hadn't been at home for Christmas, when you're supposed to eat them within 3 days, but who counts? The flavours I had were Rose, Orange Blossom, Salted Caramel, Licorice (surprisingly good!), Red Berries and Chestnut but I would like to try every single one from their assortment soon. Read on and beware of drooling!

http://www.laduree.fr/index.htm

Feeling Philosophical ...

2010-01-18T19:05:00.006+01:00

It's hard not to be a little more philosophical and pensive these days... The book I'm momentarily reading, current events, the movie I watched last night and reality tv all had me thinking. I really feel very sorry for the people of Haiti, they had a terrible start to the new year and it's possibly one of the places in the world that could handle an unfortunate event like the least. The majority of people there weren't exactly well-off as it were and what with the bad infrastructure, humanitarian organizations have a hard time getting supplies to those most in need now.

I find it unbelievable that somebody ( I mean you, Pat Robertson! ) would suggest the Haitians deserved the earthquake because they made a pact with the devil when they bought back their island from France for 150 million. Not only does nobody deserve to experience this kind of tragedy and misery, but also it was not the devil, it was bad politics and too big a price tag on independence that bascially sealed the unfortunate fate of this Carribean country. It was poor to begin with and simply couldn't afford this sum paid and the republic went downhill after that, so the Haitian poverty is not the work of the devil, not that I believe there is such a thing.

To fittingly quote the spokesman of the White House: "It never ceases to amaze, that in times of amazing human suffering, somebody says something that could be so utterly stupid. But it, like clockwork, happens with some regularity."

Instead of concentrating on the obvious bad though, I would like to point out the good: this kind of disaster also brings out the good in many people and this needs to be appreciated! Apart from all the donations and world-wide sympathy, it's the aid workers on site and their tireless search for survivors that make all the difference. They still managed to salvage buried people from the rubble over 100 hours after the eartquake, even though people usually can't survive more than 72 hours without fluid. Talk bout miracles and keep hoping and helping!

As I mentioned I feel as if I'm surrounded by things that somehow touch me at the moment, no matter how random they are. For instance the MTV show "16 and pregnant" which then turned into "Teen Mom" and which follows around these young girls, trying to cope with having become young mums. Obviously people's opinions on this couldn't vary more but that's not what I'm concerned about right now. It's this really young couple from the show, Catelynn and Tyler, that has moved and brought me to tears several times. They come from difficult familial backgrounds and are often ating more grown-up than their own parents. Tyler's father is a convicted criminal offender and married to Catelynn's mother, but the 2 teenagers are from previous relationships respectively i.e. in no way related, don't worry. When Catelynn falls pregnant they decide to give up their baby girl "Carly" for adoption and it's certainly not an easy decision. You witness their heartache and dilemma and although the 2 of them are deeply in love and have the strongest relationship out of all the couples on the show, they want better for their child and for her not to grow up living in a trailer surrounded by a grandfather who's in and out of prison all the time. Surprisingly their families aren't very supportive of their decision and more naive than the teenagers. These are two remarkable young people and I wish them all the luck in the world and that they will have a great relationship with their little girl, whom they both love dearly.

I had never really given adoption much thought because you usually hear about adoptive parents rather than birth parents. The common perception seems to be that giving your child away is a purely selfish decision and that the parents mustn't have loved their child but this couple clearly showed that this is not necessarily the case at all. Full episodes are available on mtv.com and I can only recommend you watch it sometime...

Just like I can recommend the movie "The Invention of Lying" which I watched yesterday. It's funny and entertaining but unlike some other rom-coms it makes you think as well. Especially about what we really want from and in life, not what other people might expect us to do. That's a lesson I was just recently reminded of myself and I'm a strongly believe that you should follow your heart and believe in your dreams, I really do. It's only if you're happy within yourself that you can make others happy, too and what could be nicer?

The title of the book I'm reading is just as intriguing in a similar way ... kinda creepy. It's Cecelia Ahern's "Book of Tomorrow" and so I'm asking you: If you had to write your own book of tomorrow, what would it say, what are your dreams for the future?

I told you I was in a philosophical mood but I think I got it out of my system now.

Chocolates... oh, so pretty!

2010-01-18T17:31:00.006+01:00

Hmmm, selection boxes, how I love thee! I know Christmas is over and I'm kinda glad it is because it seemed to drag on forever, but... I do love these "leftovers" if you can call them that at all.

Don't they look festive and pretty? I simply had to take a picture of them, especially because the snow outside made for an amazing reflecting background, perfect for my amateur needs. Although I wouldn't mind an actual one and proper phtography equipment!

The thing is we don't get selection boxes (or in this case a huge 1kg tins full of yumminess) where I live but I spent last X-mas somewhere where they do. I got to try several different ones, Cadbury Heroes, Quality Street, Celebrations... and Cadbury Roses which are definitely my favourite. Why is that? Well, let me tell you I'm a big caramel enthusiast and these just have the most different caramel ones, besides the fact that it's Cadbury chocolate - come on, need I say more?! Don't get me wrong though, I'm not talking about the American version of Cadbury, oh no, that wouldn't even be half as good, I'm talking the original kind. Seriously, I've tried them both and the chocolate you can get in the States doesn't even measure up to the name Cadbury, if you ask me. But maybe that's just my spoilt European palate talking, products being adapted to the respective market's taste and all that.

Anyway, let me tell you more about the different flavours of the selection, according to preference: Golden Barrel (full of gooey caramel), Caramel Velvet, Hazel in Caramel, Hazel Whirl (no clue, what the whirl is all about, though), Tangy Orange Cream, Dairy Milk, Caramel (what a parody, it's actually fudge!) and Country Fudge, Strawberry Dream and finally Brazilian Darkness, just becauce it's boring plain dark chocolate.

Are you getting chocolate cravings yet, haha?

If you too think that these sound yummy, then you will understand why I had to make a secret stash to hide some of them from my boyfriend's family. I know, it does sound kinda bad and as if I'm not a great person for sharing (which is somewhat true, I hate to admit it... but I'm gonna quote Joey from Friends for this one: "Joey doesn't share food!) but come on, there were so many people and the chocolates tended to vanish way too quickly. Seriously, once a whole 1kg tin was gone in under an hour and I just couldn't stuff my face fast enough, so I stuffed my pockets instead. At least that way I could make sure there were some chocolates when I wanted them instead of having to scoff them down just because they were open at that point in time and if I didn't eat them then I wouldn't get any at all. Honestly, what would you have done?

I'm known to be a stash-maker anyway, so what do I care. It must be in my genetics, wanting to secure chocolate supply or something... To my defence it has to be said that my sister actually profits more from my stash than I do because by now I've accumulated more than I could possibly ever eat and she's like a chcolate mass destruction machine, bless her.

Will you excuse me now, I have to go and eat my last piece of leftover brownie...

Peanut Butter Fudge Puddle Cookies

2010-01-17T02:43:00.018+01:00

The Brownies I wrote about were just cooling down outside, because the tray was too big to fit into the fridge, when I started making these very tasty cookies. I have to tell you that I'm a massive fan of cookies ( I pride myself on making mean choc-chip cookies with half a kilo of chocolate in them ) and I like them very chewy, but also crispy. The perfect cookie, I'm sure you know what I mean! Over the years I've perfected a Chocolate (chocolate chip) PB Cookie that is my sister's absolute favourite but I have to admit that these cookies are simply delectable and were very popular among my family and boyfriend. Even my mum liked them and she's usually not into PB at all - the secret is the fudge puddle, I'm telling you!

When I found the recipe on Vanilla Sugar's blog ( adapted from Sunday Baker's blog ) , I just knew I had to make them and boy, I'm gad I did: yumm! The ooey-gooey fudge centre makes these simple cookies special and they're whipped up in no time - I didn't even bother chilling them for the hole hour. For a while I considered boiling the sweetened condensed milk the way you would when you want to turn it into Dulce de Leche because I thought the fudge would be more caramel-y ... but then I remembered it would also thicken a good bit this way and so in the end I couldn't be bothered to boil it for longer than about half an hour, which didn't make a difference to it at all apart from heating it up. I still believe the fudge could be even better if it tasted more like caramel, the sweetened condensed milk as such doesn't really have much of a taste apart from sweet as it is anyway, but as I said I'm not quite sure what this would do to its texture. Maybe they would already taste more caramel-y if you stuck to the original recipe and used butterscotch chips but I can't get them where I live so I used milk and dark chocolate...

If you try them with caramel, let me know how it went!

Oh, these make for 20 cookies by the way and there was some fudge left over which I think could serve as a nice sauce for ice-cream if you heat it up and stir it well so no skin forms.

Brittle was my topping of choice this time, simply because I didn't have any peanuts left in the pantry.

If you think about it, salted peanuts would go very well with a more caramel-like fudge puddle, seeing as caramel with a pinch of salt was the big thing in 2009. "Big thing"... haha, isn't it funny that even in food there are things in fashion at a certain time and everybody's raving about them all of the sudden? What was your "big thing" in 2009, culinary or other and what do you think will be the latest craze this year?

Now French macaroons or "macarons" were one thing I was more than happy to see all over the place late last year, possibly because of the Daring Baker's challenge, but more about my obsession with macarons at another time. I meant to make some for the very first time before Christmas but then things got quite hectic and I didn't find the time ... They're high up on my to-do list though!

http://vanillakitchen.blogspot.com/2009/10/pb-fudge-puddles.html

This is where you'll find the recipe and I recommend following the link to Sunday Baker's blog because I think her story is very touching, especially now that she's welcomed a new baby!

Cheesecake Brownies with Raspberry Cream

2010-01-17T01:44:00.013+01:00

I had some big baking catching-up to do today because it was my birthday last weekend and even though that usually means I make all my favourite goodies, this year I was sick and had to resort to yummy albeit store-bought cakes. From the best pâtisserie in town that is but I still felt a bit deprived - I didn't get to bake after all, so that's what I did today. As my family had planned to go out for dinner in the evening we needed something edible to tie us over in the mean time anyway, a perfect opportunity.

These are my 2 birthday cakes plus one separate piece of a different cake by the way, very rich.

But let's get back to those scrumptious brownies I wanted to tell you all about now.

I found the recipe for the brownies in a fabulous pastry book my boyfriend's sister got me for X-mas. It's called "The Hummingbird Bakery Cook Book" and is a collection of the most popular baked goods from this lovely looking bakery in London that is specialized in American pastries and seems to be popular with certain celebrities, too. I know for sure that this is the kinda place I could spend not only a fortune but also hours marvelling at the beautiful displays at and I will definitely put it on my to-do list for the next time I'm in London.

I chose this particular recipe because it combines 3 of my favourite flavours: brownie, cheesecake and raspberries and that way I didn't have to decide between 2 cakes and therefore it was perfect as a belated make-up birthday cake. The only changes I made was that I used 500 gr of cream cheese, simply because you can never have enough cheesecake if you ask me, and that I added lime zest and a bit of lemon juice and lemon extract, just because I personally prefer a more lemon-y cheesecake. To be honest I think you could just as well substitute all that icing sugar in the brownie batter for some regular or even brown sugar, I actually found the thought of using icing sugar a bit odd in the beginning but the brownie still turned out nicely and a bit chewy.

After just reading the recipe again I realized that I actually used 300 gr of frozen raspberries and a bit more icing sugar by "mistake" but I don't think this hurt one bit, quite the opposite. I mixed them in with the beaten cream when they were still frozen so that it became speckled pink, lovely and fruity but didn't overpower the brownie or the cheesecake. The stated baking time was too short for me but only because my oven is weird and never gets stuff done in time. On the bright side the cheesecake part came out so perfectly that I didn't have to let it set overnight and my family was grateful for being allowed to devour it after an hour of cooling time... =)

( Yes, that's snow all around! )

For the brownie

200g dark chocolate, roughly chopped and melted over a double-boiler

200g unsalted butter

250g icing sugar

3 Eggs

110g plain flour

For the cheesecake

400g cream cheese

150g icing sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

2 Eggs

For the cream topping

300ml whipping cream

100g icing sugar

150g Raspberries, plus extra to decorate

33 x 23 x 5cms baking tray, lined with greaseproof paper

FOR THE BROWNIE

Beat sugar and butter together, add the eggs on at a time, mixing well between each one. Gradually beat in flour, then pour in molten chocolate and mix thoroughly. Pour into prepared baking tray and smooth with palette knife.

FOR THE CHEESECAKE

Beat cream cheese, sugar and vanilla together. Add one egg at a time, while still mixing. The mixture should be very smooth and creamy. Be careful not to overmix or the cheese will split. Spoon over top of brownie mixture and smooth over. Bake in preheated oven (170C/325F/Gas 3) for 30-40mins, or until the cheesecake is firm to the touch and light golden around the edges - it should still be pale in the centre. Leave to cool completely, then cover and refigerate for 2hrs, or preferably overnight.

FOR THE CREAM TOPPING

Mix cream, sugar and raspberries together - beat until firm but not stiff. Turn the brownie out onto a board and turn the right way up. Spread the topping evenly over the brownie and decorate with more raspberries.

You could really taste all 3 different layers but make sure you spread them out evenly. Usually I'm all for hardcore chocolatey fudgy brownie but in this case it was a good thing the brownie had a more subtle flavour - which is probably why my dad liked it so much!

A New Beginning...

2010-01-17T00:41:00.012+01:00

Hi and welcome to my brand-new and first ever blog! I actually created this page about a month ago but couldn't muster the guts to start it properly and write my first post until now. I still find this whole bloging thing quite intimidating and don't really have a clue what I'm doing yet, so please bear with me...

To be honest I'm not even sure what made me decide to start a blog, all I know is that I am quite obsessed with a few other people's food blogs and kinda wanted to give it a shot myself.

So let me introduce myself, I'm a full-on, passionate-as-can-be foodie ( I love that word! ) and I'm interested in literally anything that somewhat has to do with food.

( Well, hello my new found love that is food channels on Sky tv, I've just discovered you and if I had constant access to you I probably wouldn't leave the house much anymore...)

But that's obviously not all, I'm also a keen traveller and therefore I will be posting about a few little trips of mine as well as all things food and life-related.

Many of the blogs I enjoy reading have amazing photography and creative original recipes and although I'm confident that I will get there too, as of now I mainly recreate other people's recipes and simply make them my own by changing them up. When can you truly call a recipe original anyway, can somebody tell me that?! Anyway, I don't have professional photo equipment either and often feel like bad lighting is making my delicious food look a wee bit dull in pictures but as I often bake in the middle of the night ( I'll tell you the reason for that later) there's no daylight around, so what can you do. I'm also known to use my sister as a human cake stand to pose in front of a spot of white wall because of lack of proper background sometimes but I just think that makes it all the more fun! =)It's not too bad though, I'm discovering new and better ways to take pictures literally on a daily basis and I'm trying to build a little photo studio in order to decently present my little babies.

Now, there you have some info on what I'm working with, in case you were wondering, and proof that I'm a still great aul' amateur, hence the "imperfections".

That's me in action... not recently though.

Gosh, I feel like all I'm writing is gibbledy-gock and probably nobody will ever even find their way to this remote corner of blogosphere, let alone care to read about my shenanigans!

But truth be told, I'm at a MAJOR turning point in my life and feel as if this could be a good way to commemorate this exciting year ahead of me ... not that I want to jinx anything prematurely! Today I posted the most important application of my life so far, concerning something very close to my heart - and yes, it's food-related, hooray! I will tell you more about that when the time is ripe and things are definite and official, as they will hopefully be very soon. So keep your fringers crossed, knock on wood and all that. Somehow this makes me think of Rachael Ray throwing salt over her shoulder every time she uses some, but I'm not that bad, seriously.

In addition to my application I baked 2 lovely treats today and went out for dinner (ostrich steak, hmm) to boot; how much more food could you get in one day and what a perfect time to start my blog I thought.

So, on this note, let's clink cookies and toast a new beginning and I hope to see you around sometime!