GIANT Cheetos!!

I just found out they have GIANT Cheetos in the States. Not only that but Flaming Hot GIANT Cheetos.

Here's a review.

My kingdom for a bag of those.....

Cajun Squirrel Crisps we have but no Cheetos, are they kidding me??

Crack Biscuit

This post is NOT about MTV's Pimp My Ride's Xzibit, whom the boy insists on calling 'Cross Biscuit', but about a new discovery of a biscuit (or cookie, if you will), which is so delicious, it's like crack.

McVitie's Caramel Digestives.

A digestive biscuit, covered with a thin chewy layer of caramel and then with a topping of milk chocolate. The only way to make this better is to change the milk to dark chocolate.

A quick dip in hot tea and it's melty chocolate, slightly chewy caramel and nutty biscuit. I'm ashamed to say I finished almost half a packet with one cup of tea. Crack biscuit indeed.

New discoveries

A few things I am liking at the moment:

Heston's Feasts, particularly the Victorian one. The voice over is very annoying and badly edited but still heaps of fun. I need to book dinner at the Fat Duck....

'Quick, where are the grissini?' - although I'm not that familiar with the English class system and its stereotypes, the comments made me laugh, particularly the ginger one!

What have you read/seen lately that's been fun?

Hang tight, the boy and I had a blind taste test of the new Walker's crisps flavors and results coming up soon!

Quick and Easy

Since the wee babe, I haven't had much time to cook. Happily the boy makes a mean bolognese with Quorn...faux meat crumbles may sound bad to you but I like the toothsomeness of the faux meat product and the lack of greasiness. Besides which, he also made a lasagna from scratch for the first time and it was good. However, due to his late working evenings, I try to prepare a few things in between feedings, changings and crying fits.

This week I've managed four meals. If I can prep these in 10 mins and have them come out well, you can too!

Two meals came courtesy of Umami, her Baked Beans on Pork on rice, which has quickly become a good fall back meal, and the delicious roast pork belly 'siu yok' which I served with fried rice and steamed french beans.

The third was from Garlic and Thyme Roasted Chicken with Crispy Dripping Croutons from the NY Times. Although I followed the recipe closely (and you all know how rare it is I actually do that, the bread turned out completely burnt and the two pieces that turned out tasted like fried bread, both greasy and dry. The chicken was ok but I prefer my own recipe.

The last meal was beans yet again. The chicken carcass and remnants of the ingredients used to make a stock in which beans were simmered along with bits of leftover pork and flavored with thyme and white pepper.

Yay for quick and easy meals!

Recess!!

I loved recess! Besides being a chance for a break amongst the boringness of elementary school, it was a chance run around with my friends. Most of all, however, it was when you got to see the contents of the snacks inside my friend's lunchboxes and see what you could trade. Chocolate went for more than candy bars and chips (or crisps) for more than chocolate. Biscuits were quite low on the trading scale, except for chocolate based ones of course and rice crispy treats, while tasty, were far too common to have much value.

All this to say that I'm taking a tiny "recess" from the blog. I have just had a little premature baby and am concentrating all my energies into eating (I love it when other people cook for me, yay!) and feeding (she's not doing so well, big, big, big, boo!).

So in the meantime, take a little recess yourself and trade yourself a nice snack... or two or three...

In the Terminator's famous (not last) words, "I vill be back!"

Crispspspspspspsps

What is it with the Brits and their crisps??

By the way, that's chips to the rest of us

I mean I love crisps/chips as much as the next guy...um, ok, maybe a bit more given my love of ketchup chips and Cheetos, but seriously, the Brits seem to be a bit obsessive.

Strolling through my local Sainsbury's, there are thousands of choices of different kinds of crisps and all sorts of flavors ranging from pickled onion (please do NOT eat if you plan to talk to anyone that day as your breath will smell of onions and your fingers of pickles) to roast chicken.

Whatever happened to my good old standbys of sour cream and chive, BBQ, all dressed, ranch, etc.? Well here in the good ole United Kingdom, they are inventive, I have to give them that. So much so that they have "seasonal crisps".

My case in point:

I mean, really.

Ham and Mustard?

Ploughman's?

Turkey and Stuffing?

Is this what da peeps want?

Well, for youse alls sake, I tried them.

Ploughman's was quite mild and tasted mostly of pickle but not too sour.
Ham and Mustard did taste quite true to its name oddly enough.
Turkey and Stuffing tasted like chicken spice... the boy thinks it tastes just like the roast chicken flavor.

But wait, it doesn't stop here. Apparently the next wave of crisp flavors to arrive in store shelves near me are:

• Cajun Squirrel
• Fish and Chips
• Builder's Breakfast
• Onion Bhaji
• Crispy Duck and Hoisin
• Chilli Chocolate

I'm a bit scared to be honest but if I see them, I shall do my duty and report back...

You can also vote for the flavor you want most to remain on the shelves by the 1st of May on the Walker's site.

The Duck who ate the Chicken who ate the Partridge

I know this is 3 weeks late but some may still be curious about what became of my three bird roast.

Well, happy to report that my cooking skills are just a smidgen better than my disastrous baking ones.

On Christmas Eve, I served up roast pork, much to the delight of my brother, who was thrilled with the crispy crackling and the moist meat. He was even more happy when he heard that it was to be accompanied by braised red cabbage, a favorite vegetable of ours.

Christmas Day, however, was a bit less easy. I sent the boy down to our wonderful local butcher, Wyndham Butchers, to pick up my order of 3 bird roast. Meanwhile, I peeled and cut carrots, parsnips and sprouts.

We ended up with a 5.5kg bundle of joy... meaty joy, that is! I was told to roast for approximately 2.5-3 hours and rest for 30 minutes. I went for the 3 hours as I was told that there was enough fat within it to self baste and carried on with the prep for the rest of the meal. Of course, I couldn't resist sprinkling a layer of Schwartz's poultry spices as it seemed oh so naked without anything.

The meat turned out perfect. Moist, delicious and a joy to eat, all five of us had two pieces left and there was 2 pieces left for leftovers so a perfect portion. It was duck on the outside, sausage meat between that and the chicken (which I found a bit 'spongy' but acceptable) and then the dark meat of the partridge. I would definitely make this again for a special occasion, especially as it was easy and different. Much more interesting than a single bird as the different tastes and textures were there.

Sadly the rest of the meal I was responsible for didn't turn out so good. The carrots and parsnips were soft and overcooked, the brussel sprouts bitter and the stuffing, to which I admit I cheated a bit and used a boxed stuffing to which I added onions, chestnuts and bacon to, horribly over salted. The boy's mustard mash and parsnip, chestnut and potato mash were wonderful though, the former nice and tangy and the latter earthy and just slightly sweet.

In any case, it was a lot of fun and I wouldn't mind doing it all over again. Minus all the cleaning, scrubbing and prep involved of course!

I freaking give up.

....on baking.

Today, last minute since I had workmen come in to *finally* fix our leak and I was asked to bring dessert, I thought I'd make brownies from scratch. From Jamie Oliver's book, Cook, which I got for Christmas.

Since I had only enough ingredients for one shot, I checked everything.

I used a scale to measure out my ingredients (a first for me).

I pre-heated the oven to the correct temperature and even used an oven thermometer and checked.

I didn't replace, omit or change a single thing from the recipe.

I checked the pan half way through and cooked to the precise time indicated.

And what happened?

The brownies were supposed to be gooey inside.

Mine were so dry it crumbled off the side and was almost liquidy raw inside.

WHAT THE HELL??

I freaking give up.

Now that the workmen have left, I have to rush down to the Marks and Spencer's to pick up dessert now.

I am cursed I tell you, CURSED!!!!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

Sorry I've been away for a while but it's been busy busy busy over here!

Happily the big meal turned out ok with a few minor issues and things generally went well. I'll do a longer post on my 3 bird roast soon, I promise!

For the time being, anyone fancy Cajun Squirrel chips/crisps???

Happy Christmas!

Happy Christmas!

Stress is building up as in-laws arrive today. On the menu for Christmas is a three bird roast: pheasant, chicken and duck.

With friends such as brussel sprouts (courtesy of Orangette's recipe), roasted veg, stuffing with chestnuts, cranberry sauce with port, and the boy's special mashed potatoes.

No baking. Bought all the puddings I need.

Wish me luck.

And lots of it....

I am cursed!!

Woke up at 6am this morning and couldn't sleep despite the tiredness.

Get intense craving for chocolate cake.

Find next best thing, brownie mix. Betty Crocker.

Can't possibly screw that up.

Mix water, egg, oil and packet, put in oven, wait 25 mins.

Take pan out, manage to slip, try to rescue with BARE HAND, glass pan cracks, end up with glass all over the floor.

Boy wakes up 30 mins later to find me in foetal position on sofa, sucking burnt finger, vacuum cleaner taken out, pan of glass brownies all over floor of kitchen.

Cue 1 hour later. Picking out bits of un-glassified brownie to nibble on while boy heroically deals with the mess.

Sadly this is a true story.

Marmite products

Its no secret that Umami and I love Marmite.

We love it on toast and we love it in congee.

But what about crisps (chips to us North Americans) and cheese?

Apparently the English are just as passionate about this yeasty, salty spread because they use it to flavor not only rice crackers and breadsticks but also these new finds:

Walkers' Marmite crisps and cheddar.

Of course I couldn't resist buying them.

And how were they? The crisps were very nice although more subtle than I would have liked.

The cheese was very salty and flavorful, a nice savory snack for the middle of the afternoon when the craving for something intensely salty hits.

For me, of course, it is always followed by something intensely chocolatey!

Da Cheweeeeee..... oh.

I am the most unaccomplished baker I know.

However, I have spirit. Or at least greed.

I came across Alton Brown's simply named, The Chewy.

This of course, refers to the chocolate chip cookie.

I looooove chocolate chip cookies and preferably, ones that are chewy and not just crunchy all the way through. I sometimes even under cook my cookies, pancakes, etc. just slightly to get that chewy texture. Doesn't always work and as I'm the only person I know who does not like raw cookie dough (yeah, yeah, so sue me), it doesn't always succeed.

In any case, getting into the holiday spirit and all that kind of nonsense, I decided to go for it. Also, it would mask the stench of microwave popcorn before my in-laws arrived.

So I followed the recipe (Susan, are you proud of me) and made the cookies.

Here's how it looked like right before I chilled the dough:




And here's what it looked like cooked as per instructions (175 for 14 mins, checking and turning sheet after 5 mins) and after only 11 minutes:



And here's what happened after I lowered the temp to 150 and cooked for only 12 minutes.

Yup, the instructions didn't work for me.

But even though the second and subsequent batches looked better, it still wasn't chewy. It was still a bit dry and tough. Did I overwork the dough? Should I not have used the hand mixer to mix the dough? Or was it my big chocolate chunks?

In any case, I would not repeat again, just wasn't that good. Now somebody please send me a fail proof cookie recipe!!

Michelin Results - Hong Kong

Thanks to my ... ahem... sources, I have the results from the first Michelin Guide in Hong Kong:

Three Stars ***

- Lung King Heen

Two Stars **

- Amber

- Bo Innovation

- Caprice

- L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon

- Summer Palace

- Tang Palace

One Star *

- Fook Lam Moon

- Forum

- Hutong

- Lei Garden (IFC and Tsim Sha Tsui)

- Ming Court

- Petrus

- Regal Palace

- Pierre

- Shanghai Garden

- Golden Leaf

- The Square

- Tim's Kitchen

- Yung Kee

I've tried to link most of the ones who have their own website.

Well.... What do you all think? A lot of hotel restaurants, non?

Agrree/Disagree??

Here's a link to an article, and discussions on Chowhound.

Crabby Patties

So, long time no good food.

Sadly, its been a bit of a drought for me too. I've not been inspired much and not had much of an appetite for anything interesting. It's one of the annoying things of being out of work. You feel like you should save money and subsequently eat at home much more often. And as I've said before, I am NOT a cook. I'm an eater.

I have, however, last week, made a huge pot of Ginger Vinegar Pig's Trotters to bring to two friends who have recently given birth to adorable baby girls and even given a taster to a friend who has never had them but come to love them, much to my surprise and delight!

Last week, I was in Weymouth. Yes, I didn't know where that was either but it's where the boy is working at the moment during the week and I thought I'd tag along. It's been....um... interesting. But this review is timely, seeing as Weymouth has just completed the sailing venue for the 2012 Olympics on time and on budget!

While the boy spends his time working, I've spent my time exploring the town. Which took about 1 hour. Hmmm, it wasn't going to work out. I've looked in a lot of closed little shop and cafe windows and thought about how fun it could be in season. Teeming with senior citizens, it has been an experience to say the least. I even went to Poole to find some excitement only to find it mostly shut as well.

In an effort to keep my interest, the boy discovered that the Crab House Cafe was within distance and we went to have a look on the Monday we arrived only to find that it was only open Wednesday through to Sunday. We returned on Wednesday with low expectations.

However, inside was a cosy little restaurant with about a dozen tables and we were one of three occupied tables that night. Although I was a bit concerned of the lack of custom, my fears were assauged as soon as I glanced at the bright-eyed, impossibly fresh seafood, caught earlier that day which was laid out by the open plan kitchen.

When we looked at the menu, printed daily mind you, the boy bemoaned the fact that it was only open during the days he wasn't in the city. I must admit his love of fish is directly proportional to my opposition to cooking it and having the smell linger in the flat. The deprived boy began immediately with 1/2 a dozen oysters, which he slurped down without a word to his colleague and myself, as well as a cod and skate (....) which was prepared much like coronation chicken (curry, mayo and raisins) and was a bit too strong for my taste, overwhelming the delicate flavor of the fish.

His colleague and myself both had the Thai fish cakes, which were perfectly crispy on the outside while being moist on the inside. I would say they are more like French quenelles or croquettes. But then again, I have an aversion to putting the "Thai" label on anything prepared with lemongrass. It also came with sweet Thai chili sauce which went well but a squeeze of lemon would have been just as nice.

For a main, the boy smartly chose the fish pan, which came with 5 varieties of fish (clockwise from top): John Dory (St. Pierre in French), skate, grey mullet, cod and one other fish whose name escapes me. It was a fairly large portion but the boy managed to finish it.


His colleague had the grey mullet, which looked good, with nice crispy skin on the top.


I opted for the "crab to crack". Although I was given the choice of the spicy Chinese crab or the plain, I opted for the plain. I was dubious about the spices that were going to be used and I did want to taste the crab unmasked by sauces. I was given a "kit" which included a bib (this was definitely useful), a small hammer, crab crackers, a crab pick and a little wooden cutting board. Then the gigantic crab came out. This was completely unlike the much smaller crabs I was used to back home. This was a big'un, cooked, cooked and then cut up for me to dissect.

I looked at the roe..... gosh, it was drippy, rich and unctuous. It was also a male and came with just a touch of the gooey bits that I so love in hairy crabs. It was meaty and sweet but not as sweet as the smaller crabs but oh, so satisfying. The roe was delicious. It was a little hard to get into the meat and the use of the hammer was definitely needed. by the end I really needed a full bath to rid myself of crab shell still clinging to my hair.

I ate and ate and ate.... in fact, this is the ONLY time I was too full to eat the lower legs. Usually I hate to waste crab and eat everything but this time, I was full of crab and the boy and his colleague had been waiting at least 40 minutes for me to finish so I gave up the lower legs and called it quits.

Sadly the pictures didn't turn out so well as I only had my camera phone. I would show you the roe but it looks like a blurry over-exposed mess!

Definitely worth going to (if you're in the area... maybe to attend or see the Olympic sailing competition in 2012) and the warm welcome was a real bonus.

Crab House Cafe
The Fleet Oyster Farm
Ferrymans Way
Portland Rd, Wyke Regis
Dorset
DT4 9YU
Tel: 01305 788867

Turkish De-yuck - Part 2

Well, I had to. After all, I did promise.

So of course, I choose a day when the boy was around the house (in case I needed to be resuscitated), and conquered my fears.

Inspired by the Sound of Music Singalong I went to on Friday (which was a LOT of fun), I began by first singing my off-key rendition of "I have Confidence" in order to summon up some courage to tackle the metallic purple horror sitting right next to my computer.


First I unwrapped it.

As you can see, it looked innocuous enough... and was covered in and smelt like chocolate. Not something I normally object to.


I cut it in half.

Ok, the dark red Turkish Delight lurked inside, insidiously daring me.


Not being that brave (nor that stupid), I cut it into tiny pieces and chose a corner piece (i.e. higher chocolate to gelatinous perfume ratio).

And for those of you who doubt that I actually ate it, I present to you exhibit D, which shows the slight gap between my two front teeth.

See? I did eat it.

And it was yuck.

I mean, it wasn't as strongly perfumed as the fancy stuff (and for that I am grateful) but it was still very much like eating some jelly-fied perfume. Ick.

I passed on the rest of the plate to the boy and decided to go in search of some Tolberone to ease my pain. To be fair, he didn't think it was very good either.

So all this to say that Turkish Delight is disgusting, no matter what my friends with taste say.

Fry's Turkish Delight - Part 1

As punishment for my lack of posts and general laziness, I have promised you a review of my food nemesis, Turkish Delight... let's just call this one the starter because...

I'm still not sure I can go through with this.

Umami, whom I hold in very high food regard, has rarely ever steered me wrong when it came to food. The canned Heinz Mulligatawny soup turned out to be very perfect for those cold winter days where you want something tasty and quick but yet not too filling. Herbal tonics for general health and her favorite restaurants. Let me just stop here and say, the woman knows her stuff. Her penchant for cherry flavored things made me pause in the past, but that's not a question of taste, its more a question of preference. Besides, I cannot say I haven't changed regarding the question of cherry.

But this.... a perfumed jelly? She recommended THIS? I'm not sure I can take it.

Besides, it's wrapped in a garish purple foil wrapper with faux Middle-Eastern font exclaiming TURKISH Delight.

Other descriptions include "As Good as Ever" and "Full of EASTERN PROMISE", which, truth be told, is hardly a description. I mean, as good as ever? If it was bad, they haven't improved is what it says to me.

And full of EASTERN PROMISE (their capitalisation, not mine)? What kind of Eastern promise is it making me? To gag?

It is mocking me.

The only thing I can say for it is that it is covered with chocolate. Now if only I can bring myself to open the packet.

I will, I will.... just let me get used to the idea first. *shiver*

In the meantime, here's their cheesy commercial, courtesy of YouTube.

*Did you see the inside? It's a bright pinky red jelly....ewwwwwww.*

Some husbands....

bring back flowers for their wives.....

but mine brings back McDonald's fries.

*dopey sigh*

Mine is better than yours.

Uh oh...

Yeah, I know.

I've been very lax about updating the blog. I will do but at the moment, I'm going through a bit of a down period with food. I feel a bit like that guy on the Fast Show, Jesse's Diets, who spends a week eating "mostly" one thing.

This last week, I have mostly been eating convenience food.

Blech.

Although I did have a lovely afternoon tea at Fortnum and Mason's with the in-laws!

A proper update coming soon (end of this week) ... one in which I TRY to conquer my fear by approaching the Umami recommended and my nemesis, TURKISH DELIGHT!

4pm: The Vessel

Now I've talked about the tea and talked about a biscuit so I suppose I should say something about the mug.

This is a major concern for the boy. He has rejected all but 2 of the dozens of mugs which came with our apartment, deeming them "unsuitable for tea".

At first I scoffed...

I mean seriously, are you that hung up on mugs for tea?

Then, as I began to drink my mug of tea, I realized just how right he was.

Our landlord has left us dozens of mugs but many of them just on the small side. As the boy rightly pointed out, they are just too unsatisfying. They contain just bitsy amounts of tea, not enough for 3 or 4 biscuits and to warm your belly and quench your thirst. It's also too easy to let it get too strong or too weak.

Luckily, a good friend in Hong Kong solved the problem for us with his and hers mugs. Customized no less. They were a wedding present and based on a themed surprise birthday party (Spongebob Squarepants if you must know) the boy threw for me where he dressed up in the said absorbent, lemon-colored cartoon character (complete with 3 pairs of vibrant yellow tights to cover the..uh... hairs) to present a self-made Spongebob Squarepants birthday cake in front of dozens of friends he had never met.

You can see why I married the boy despite his occasional quirks about his tea.

Anyhow, these two mugs are just the perfect size for a cup of tea and biscuits.

It also saves us from bickering over the mugs despite how awfully smug and silly we look toasting ourselves with mugs with our cartoon selves on the front.