Not once but twice

If any one reading this blog remembers one horrifyingly embarrassing moment I had queuing up for the changing rooms in Paris, I just had it repeated over the weekend.

It was a beautiful wedding wedding in a lovely venue. My eyes stayed dry during the ceremony but my mouth was definitely upturned. The situation was much different a bit later when one of the wedding party enquired as to whether I was expecting. As I said no through my smiles, my eyes met the other guests who had overheard the question and were kindly hoping to offer me their congratulations. I have learned recently that people who ask these kinds of questions have the best of intentions and are usually wonderful people but reactions to a 'no' are very varied and in this case, a poke to my stomach was made and the phrase "I guess it's just the tummy then" uttered.

When I made my excuses and went back to the boy and the babe, my eyes were definitely wet and my mouth not so upturned.

I want to say that I don't blame the poor woman but my own greed.

Oh the shame...

Its been shameful the way I've been avoiding blogging....

Shameful because I know I've been so sporadic and unregular.

And its not that I don't have anything to say, nor eat, nor blog about but simply because of bad time management and the issue of having my little one going on hunger strike. Talk about a blow to my heart! I tell you that strong willed baby is going to have to get with the eating system soon. Baby cannot subsist on cream cheese and Cheerios alone.

So next post will be a food one, I promise... candy to be specific... a unique taste sensation indeed... Genghis Khan Caramel anyone??

New Year's resolution begins NOW!

Fool proof pasta?

A kind friend sent me an Imperia pasta machine for my birthday.

If ever I find the time, I'd love to try it out.

Anyone have a fool-proof recipe and method for me to try out?

I have a bolognese sauce Susan sent me, just need the pasta.

It really needs to be fool-proof as I'm the biggest fool I know.

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!"

Follow up - 100 Chinese Foods...

As a follow up to the Omnivore's 100, we now have Appetite for China's 100 Chinese Foods to Try Before you Die!

I scored 97%, and a hard craving for food back in Hong Kong. Bittersweet.

1. Almond milk
2. Ants Climbing a Tree (poetic, not literal, name)
3. Asian pear
4. Baby bok choy
5. Baijiu
6. Beef brisket
7. Beggar's Chicken
8. Bingtang hulu
9. Bitter melon
10. Bubble tea
11. Buddha's Delight
12. Cantonese roast duck
13. Century egg, or thousand-year egg
14. Cha siu (Cantonese roast pork)
15. Char kway teow
16. Chicken feet
17. Chinese sausage
18. Chow mein
19. Chrysanthemum tea
20. Claypot rice
21. Congee
22. Conpoy (dried scallops)
23. Crab rangoon
24. Dan Dan noodles
25. Dragonfruit
26. Dragon's Beard candy
27. Dried cuttlefish
28. Drunken chicken
29. Dry-fried green beans
30. Egg drop soup
31. Egg rolls
32. Egg tart, Cantonese or Macanese
33. Fresh bamboo shoots
34. Fortune cookies
35. Fried milk
36. Fried rice
37. Gai lan (Chinese broccoli)
38. General Tso's Chicken
39. Gobi Manchurian
40. Goji berries (Chinese wolfberries)
41. Grass jelly
42. Hainan chicken rice
43. Hand-pulled noodles
44. Har gau (steamed shrimp dumplings in translucent wrappers)
45. Haw flakes
46. Hibiscus tea
47. Hong Kong-style Milk Tea
48. Hot and sour soup
49. Hot Coca-Cola with Ginger
50. Hot Pot
51. Iron Goddess tea (Tieguanyin)
52. Jellyfish 53. Kosher Chinese food
54. Kung Pao Chicken
55. Lamb skewers (yangrou chua'r)
56. Lion's Head meatballs
57. Lomo Saltado
58. Longan fruit
59. Lychee
60. Macaroni in soup with Spam
61. Malatang
62. Mantou, especially if fried and dipped in sweetened condensed milk
63. Mapo Tofu
64. Mock meat
65. Mooncake (bonus points for the snow-skin variety)
66. Nor mai gai (chicken and sticky rice in lotus leaf)
67. Pan-fried jiaozi
68. Peking duck
69. Pineapple bun
70. Prawn crackers
71. Pu'er tea
72. Rambutan
73. Red bean in dessert form
74. Red bayberry
75. Red cooked pork
76. Roast pigeon
77. Rose tea
78. Roujiamo
79. Scallion pancake
80. Shaved ice dessert
81. Sesame chicken
82. Sichuan pepper in any dish
83. Sichuan preserved vegetable (zhacai)
84. Silken tofu
85. Soy milk, freshly made
86. Steamed egg custard
87. Stinky tofu
88. Sugar cane juice
89. Sweet and sour pork, chicken, or shrimp
90. Taro
91. Tea eggs
92. Tea-smoked duck
93. Turnip cake (law bok gau)
94. Twice-cooked pork
95. Water chestnut cake (mati gau)
96. Wonton noodle soup
97. Wood ear
98. Xiaolongbao (soup dumplings)
99. Yuanyang (half coffee, half tea, Hong Kong style)
100. Yunnan goat cheese

There's also a 100 Japanese Foods to try.... or has the 100 Food List's five minutes already expired?

The Ominvore's Hundred

Very late to the game but I still want to play!!

The Omnivore's Hundred...

In bold are the ones I've tried... and the 24 I haven't tried. None of them have been crossed out as I'd try anything....once.

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu - it was dried...does that count?
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse - it was raw tartare...do I get double points??
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

So, what about you? Any of you tried all 100?? Any of you tried none at all?? I'm so curious...

Ridiculous excuses

Yes, yet another ridiculous excuse instead of a proper post.

However, I put the blame squarely on the shoulders of Apple and O2.

Switching computers with my Mom for a Mac might not have been a good idea before a massive life changing move....

And damn it, will O2 please deliver the broadband package as promised already???

Ah yes... El Bulli..... hmmmm.... initial thoughts is that he is an artist of food, absolutely beautiful..... I think I will have to divide the photos and my review (used in the loosest sense, of course) into a series of posts, once my computer and broadband kicks in.

Sitting in the basement of a smelly cafe with a constant whining sound and the wafting, ripe smell of sweaty armpit from the man next to me doesn't inspire me to write somehow....

"Hoi Wei"

Sometimes in Shanghainese restaurants, you get given little dishes of pickled onions or pickled vegetables. As opposed to peanuts, which are designed to stave off that intense hunger that makes you bolt the first few dishes, leaving you less able to enjoy the rest of your meal, these are designed to make you hungrier.

That's right, hungrier. These sour, slightly tangy vegetables get the salivary glands going and are what we call "hoi wei". Or, in English, 'open your stomach', which should make you hungry for the dishes to come.

Which is exactly what this little post is. A small, tangy little bit that should make you hungry for more. But first, a bit of a drought because I'm off to Spain.

And which restaurant should be in Spain? Any hugely famous ones?

That's right kids, I'm going to El Bulli. This is thanks to a kind invite by a very, very well respected blogger. I'm also going with some other special people but I'll leave it up to them to "hoi" your "wei”.

D'oh!

Sometimes I feel like the female equivalent of Homer J. Simpson. A walking idiot whose brain and tongue don't work in perfect harmony.

I'd been home three days when Susan invited me over for a dinner party yesterday. Despite the 5 hour advance notice, this is not something you turn down. Susan was cooking. 'nuf said.

Anyhow, lo and behold I'm there early and get to meet the Fuschia Dunlop. In those five minutes before someone else saved me from digging myself deeper into the pit of mortification, I have managed to a) insult London, where, unbeknownst to me, she was living; b) admit that I didn't really know who she was; and c) tell her that Londoners were unfriendly.

Upon coming home and googling her, I find out that I've had her books on my Amazon wishlist. D'OH!!!!

I'm an absolute idiot.

However, the dinner party was fabulous fun and Fuschia incredibly gracious. Although I didn't know many of the guests besides Susan and Sunday Driver, they were very nice and thankfully forgiving even after the sharing of embarrassing anecdotes. It wasn't upon coming home that I found out that some of these ladies were professional foodies... I'm actually glad I wasn't forewarned. I think that while I wouldn't have backed out (did I mention Susan was cooking?), I would have been very intimidated. As it was I think I was a little too loose with my tongue.

The food.... well... what can I say? It was delicious of course! My favorites being the pork neck and the desserts. Desserts consisted of Susan-made Meyer lemon sorbet, mango sorbet and the intoxicatingly addictive chocolate cherry ice cream. That's not all though... there were canneles.

Yes, you heard right, deliciously rich with a caramelized crunchy exterior giving way to a plush, chewy, pudding-like interior... painstakingly made with molds specially bought from France, beeswax ordered online to brush the molds with and an hour of baking of the thumb-sized treats.

And if you feel like learning to cook in Hong Kong, check out Corner Kitchen!

The Good, the Bad and the Angry

I'm back and I'm Angry. More annoyed really but a high alert state of pissed off. Not at anyone in particular, you understand, just generally.

But really, let's start with the Good....the honeymoon...

- Seeing "O" and "Penn and Teller" in Las Vegas;

- sunset helicopter ride over the Grand Canyon, evening view of the Las Vegas Strip (I got to ride in front!);

- seeing the Wholphin as well as swimming, kissing and getting a belly ride from a dolphin at Sea Life Park in Hawaii; and

- biking over the Golden Gate Bridge (despite the boy getting a flat).

Then moving onto the Bad ....

- lack of time meant not great food... although highlights will be shown in a future blog;

- my camera not working properly in the middle of our honeymoon (hence the lack of photos);

- our flat, the one we found, paid and rented in 3 days in London between our leaving Paris and going away, being held hostage by real estate agents from the far depths of hell despite us paying rent on it already; and

- arriving in London, after a 10 hour flight and more than 15 hours travel time, to find out we can't get into our flat, staging a sit-in at the real estate agents for 3 hours then travelling another 3.5 hours back to the boy's sister's house in Wales.

So to arrive to London feeling cold, wet, hungry with a home you can't get into and 60+kg of luggage between the two of you.

Hell yes I'm Angry.

I promise you all a more cheery food post next time. Happily I'm going home to my beloved family in Hong Kong this weekend so there's bound to be lots of good food to blog about soon enough.

So long and thanks for all the memories...

I have been dreading writing this post.... my last from beloved Paris.

As people who know me know, Paris has been the land of my dreams since I was a wee young lass. I have always wanted to spend a year here and now, I have.

And what a year!

A huge change from my life in Hong Kong, I have experienced everything ranging from acute loneliness, the joy of finding a like-minded, food-obsessed blogging friend, the unexpected kindness of strangers, countless visitors, and the absolute freedom of being a flâneur, roaming the streets of Paris for hours on end with a dinner reservation to look forward to.

What was originally a six month stint turned into a 15 month stay after a proposal and subsequent marriage... um yes, that would be my own.

Now unfortunately as we begin our move to London, find a flat, go on honeymoon and return to Hong Kong to pack up my belongings, I will be on a break from blogging. I will be back end of May but for now, I leave you with a list of things I'll miss most from Paris. This list is by NO means exhaustive but may give you a taste of a few of my favorites.

• Cherry (thanks Susan!) and Salted Butter Caramel ice cream from Berthillon
  


• Peering into lit apartments and seeing wonderful decor


• Biche au Bois


• Stumbling onto an unexpected and utterly peaceful courtyard in the middle of a busy street


• Sandwiches and tarte fine aux pommes from our bakery


• Free museum days on the first Sunday of every month


• Bastille market (especially the salted butter caramels and the mediant mix)


• Special evenings such as Nuit des Musées, Fête de la Musique and Nuit Blanche


• Fresh fruit chocolates only available Saturdays from Jean Charles Rochoux


• Pretty dresses from Les Petits...


• Falafel from L'As de Falafel and the Foie de Vollaile in a pita from Chez H’anna (both on Rue de Rosiers)


• Rosewood body wash and oil from Patyka


• Meeting the boy for a sandwich lunch in Parc Monceau


• Lemon olive oil from O & Co


• Le Marais... we've been so lucky to live in the Marais


• CHEESE!!


• Being only a 10 minute away from the Seine and a view of the Eiffel Tower
  
  

I am sad to be leaving but I am so very grateful that I have had this chance to live here in this wonderful city. It has lived up to all my expectations and I have been very, very happy here.

As I walk around the city eating and drinking on my last day, sighing and making goo goo eyes at all the buildings, the boy turns around and says to me,

"We'll always have Paris."

and indeed we will. Indeed we will.

Are you a licker?

Don't get me wrong, I'm thrifty.

I save elastic bands from packets of noodles "just in case" I need elastic bands.

I hate wasting food so even though I'm full, I force myself to finish whatever is left on my plate (a habit I'm desperately trying to break).

But one thing I refuse to do is to lick yogurt tops. I can't do it. Looks silly for one thing and just to get that thin scraping of yogurt? Ridiculous. Undignified.

So why do I feel ever so slightly guilty about it?

It's the same guilt I feel about not drinking the leftover milk after eating cereal.

What about you? Are you a licker?

A Day Out on the Champs

Besides the wonderful city of Paris, I will also miss my friends here.

In particular, I will miss hanging out with Umami, who is a kindred spirit in all things foodie.

Both of us arrived in Paris at the beginning of 2007 having given up our jobs back East and now finding much time on our hands, we got straight to work with the exploring. While I entertained guests and flitted around, Umami at least got down to business with the learning of French.

Having gotten down with the French comedy scene, she suggested we go see the hot movie Disco, which premiered last week.

We met after her hair appointment, bought tickets and proceeded straight to lunch at the, unknown to me, much hyped and trendy restaurant in the Toyota showroom, Kaiseki Bento.

Let me digress here a bit and ask, does anyone else know that all the automobile showrooms have restaurants? I had absolutely no idea! Apparently they all do! A bizarre concept to me but one, I'm sure, which will be welcome to those car fanatics like the boy.

Anyhow, a small cafeteria type restaurants containing 5 tables with 4 chairs each, arranged in a puzzlebox type setting, we worried we wouldn't be able to get seated. However, as it was only noon, we got in quite easily, although we were requested to vacate our table by 1pm.

It was a little bit odd. We were seated with windows on one side, a view of the 'behind' of a Prius with the table and counter area to the other side of us.

As to the setting, it was a bit bleak. There was a screen behind us but it was so very corporate, without much of the glitz and glamour, and the wall of blinking lights blending into the decor was... well a bit dated to be frank. Early 90's it would have looked all techno and cool but now it just looked a bit boring. The chairs were uncomfortable and the setting, not at all living up to the hype of "coolness". It was just so very corporate. And this is coming from someone who has worked in corporate marketing her whole career!

Ok, the food. There were 3 categories bentos, priced from 50 to 25 euros. The 50 and 30 euro bento was a set meal of various things incorporating both cooked and raw items. The 25 euro menu offered a choice of buckwheat noodles or 6 pieces of nigiri with 8 pieces of maki. This latter is what we both opted for.

It looked very pretty, with half the maki spread with crushed mango and passionfruit and the other with avocado. It tasted ok too, if a bit odd. After about the second piece, I felt that something was off... I lifted up my pieces and saw that the bottom was sitting in a thin film of oil. I thought at first they used oil so the sushi wouldn't stick to the bento box but Umami said it was a strong flavored olive oil. Sure enough, as we continued on, the olive oil soaked into the rice and I felt tasted very strange. It was a strong olive oil and I didn't think it went well with the sushi at all. I would have much preferred it without. The waitress told us that the chef was Japanese and liked to experiment with different types of sushi. I'm not fond of a lot of fusion foods and I think this is probably not something I'd like to try again.

After lunch, we wandered over to the Nespresso Boutique Star which, despite its cheesy name, is a huge 2-story showroom of their coffee, coffee machines and other products. It was rather impressive, I must say. It comprises of a number of areas such as a small bar at the front for coffee, a lounge at the back, a 'smelling salon', which was quite interesting. As you bend down to put your nose to the filters, it lights up and heats up the candle or essence (I couldn't tell what was in there) so you can smell it quite strongly. You can pick your machine to match your wallpaper and customize a machine to the way you like as well. There were people joining up Nespresso club memberships.

It all served to show you that Nespresso is no longer the tacky instant stuff you get at the supermarket but it is tres chic. It was marketed very exclusively with all the accompaniments such as sugar packets colored and labeled to match your favorite coffee. Huge walls full of tubes of coffee pods. Of course we got sucked in and had a cup of coffee at the little bar in front. How could we resist?

After a nice little cuppa, we indulged in a bit of beauty miracles at Sephora before heading towards our movie, which was as funny as promised if the story a bit disjointed and unbelievable.

It was a very, very tai-tai type of day filled with 'leche vitrine' (don't you love French for window shopping, window licking?), trendy places for lunch and coffee followed by a movie mid-day. *sigh* ... I'll miss this life!

Kaiseki Bento

at Le Rendez-Vous Toyota

79, avenue des Champs-Elysées 75008

Tel: +33 (0) 1 56 89 29 83

Nespresso

119 Champs Elysee

Corn-spiracy Theory

I was craving corn in a bad way.

After all, in the fall in Canada, we get beautiful fat kernels of corn on the cob, and all year 'round in Hong Kong, we can get imported corn.

I love corn. Yes, I know it's all sugar and fiber but I love the crunchy sweetness of it. I have rarely eaten it in France. Instead I turn towards those vegetables I rarely see but are usually priced too highly, such as artichokes and asparagus.

But the other day I needed my corn fix and I needed it now. Most of all, I wanted frozen corn to make a corn casserole.

Unfortunately it was Monday and most shops around me were closed. I luckily have a Picard nearby so googled to see if it was open.

And it was.

So off I went. I looked in all of the freezer cabinets and saw artichoke hearts, mange-tout beans, everything except the yellow gold kernels. So I asked the cashier who replied with and icy,

"We don't DO corn at Picard."

I was not surprised at the attitude but more surprised that they didn't "do" corn. After all, everyone loves corn, don't they?

I was even more surprised when I didn't find frozen corn at the Franprix or the G20 nearby. I settled for the canned stuff. Something was up.

I queried Umami the next time I saw her. She said it was because the French think of corn as animal feed and beneath them to eat.

Can this be true? A nation who is happy to eat the colon and stomach of a pig rolled up into a sausage with a lingering aroma of feaces (according to Wikipedia) turns up its nose and scorns the lowly corn? Or is there a corn-spiracy against corn?

(Props to the boy for the horrible pun. He proudly pulled corn-spiracy out of his pocket as I complained... *sigh*)

Happy Easter!

A lovely holiday and another excuse to eat chocolate!

How very nice.

Here's my little bunny from our wonderful friends.

As you can see, the boy has almost demolished his already.

I, on the other hand, have shown considerable restraint.

Although it may have more to do with amount of apple pear clatoufis I consumed rather than will power...

Hoping you have a nice, chocolate laden Easter.

Pig Candy

I said I would and of course I did.

Make and eat Pig Candy, that is.

I know its not to everyone's taste but I like my bacon very, very crispy, to the point of almost burnt, with a nice crunch and not all flaccid and fat.

I love it best on toast spread thinly with raspberry jam. It's the supremely savory-ness of the bacon contrasted with the sweet textured jam on some nice toast that makes it the best treat ever.


Given my love for sweet savories, wouldn't Pig Candy be the ideal next step?

So, Pig Candy, what is it made of?

Bacon, paprika and brown sugar.


Happily I found some maple sugar from my trip in Canada in my cupboard, so I couldn't resist using it... especially since the bacon I bought was smoked.

So, basically, the "recipe" consisted of placing the bacon on a baking sheet, sprinkling on the maple sugar and paprika and broil until crisp.

Turned it over twice to get it nice and crispy and before too long, I took it out and rested it on paper towel to soak up some of the excess oil.

Look at this beauty...

all crispy, caramelized and flat out delicious. This batch was super crispy as per my liking, but I tried the next batch a bit softer and malleable. Oddly the softer version tasted a lot like Chinese bak kwa, which I just learned, is often called Chinese Pig Candy

In any case, I liked it a lot but I still preferred my crisp bacon on raspberry jam toast better

I asked the boy what he thought, as he's not usually a fan of bacon. His response?

"It feels wrong, I really shouldn't be eating it."

Of course this was said with his mouth full and he had no problem finishing off the second batch either.

Birthday Baking Disasters (BBD)

The boy's birthday was the epitome of the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

The good intentions being dinner and dessert.

The hell being dinner and dessert.

Ok. Let's review, shall we?

1. Check with boy what he wants for birthday dinner

Done - Korean kimchi pork stew

2. Think up something to make the boy as birthday cake

I know! FLAN! The boy has a fondness for custard and since arrival in Paris, best format for eating out of hand has been flan.

3. Find recipe for French flan

Great! Found one here! Ignore fact that blog's name is garlic breath and I am about to embark on making something I've NEVER EVER made before.

4. Assemble ingredients

Go to Chinatown, cannot find kimchi in the 3 big supermarkets I look in. Go get fresh tofu from Rue Rampal. Get soaked during sudden thunderstorm, retreat to metro where I proceed to slip and fall on the pee-smelling floor of disgusting metro station. Pick up now crushed tofu and what little dignity I have to stumble onto packed metro where people push their bodies into ever smaller spaces to get away from me. Hooligans throw piece of trash through the open window of train as it pulls out of the station. It hits me on the side of the head. I pretend it didn't happen.

5. Start prep and bake flan

After a long, scaldingly hot shower, cut up huge side of pork into three portions, two of which go in the freezer, while painstakingly cut off all fat to please the boy, marinate meat for stew in Dou Ban Jiang (chilli bean paste) and turn my attention to the flan. Read directions and Susan's addtional tips over and over again and proceed with caution. Custard looked great after 20 minutes of constant motion. Hand feels like its about to fall off. Coats back of spoon nicely, holds even after finger is swiped across (Susan's tip!). Pour carefully into the pastry. Looks great. Just a tiny bit of splash as it goes into the hot oven. Proceed to clean up disaster area (kitchen).

6. PANIC

The flan is bubbling... THE FLAN IS FREAKING BUBBLING!!! Which means all that careful mixing so it doesn't turn into scrambled eggs is all for naught. Check recipe obsessively to see if there's anything about putting it at a lower temp. Nope. Check other recipes to see if they require cooling down custard before pouring into pie. Nope. Tear out hair. Have a short cry. Frantically search other recipes for something which can be made, preferably with 5 egg whites.

7. Shop for ingredients... again

Settle for David Lebovitz' Coconut Chocolate Macaroons, run out to buy shredded coconut. Run in to see if local tiny Chinese supermarket has kimchi. Score!!! Run home with stuff to find message from the boy saying he'll be home in an hour.

8. PANIC

Rush to make stew, rice, part 1 of the macaroons, clean up house, set up table with his birthday cards, presents, durian wafers (ick), dried mango, cold beer.

9. Enjoy Result of Long Hard Day

Rice was undercooked, stew was about 4 times as much as we could possibly eat, flan was as thin as a bad crepe and tasted like sweet scrambled eggs and the smell of the durian wafers lingered heavily in our apartment, which, mixed with the smell of kimchi and flan made us the most popular people in our building.

However, the important thing is, the boy enjoyed it. Or so he said!!

Gone vegg'n

**Please note - post has been edited to take out comments which may have caused offense. My apologies to those who were offended. I will try to do a better job of reading over my writing before posting!**

I've been back to Wales again this last week.

My excuse was to see my fabulous sister in law in a play (Blue Remembered Hills for those of you who were wondering), however, I ended up having a great time, walking 'Uncle Monty' in the morning, spending time with my other sister-in-law and my adorable and incredibly smart nephew, and generally having a grand ol' girly type time.

Oh and I went veggie.

"WHAT THE F?", you ask.

Well, I figured besides being polite (since I was staying at a veg-head household), it might prove to be a challenge.

And was it? Hell yeah!!

I'm the one biting my lip when deciding which dish to go for in restaurants since I can't decide between some delicious meaty dish or another tasty sounding meaty dish. Having these restraints on me made me feel quite sorry for veg heads, as usually their choices are limited to three categories:

- pasta
- potatoes
- complete boredom

The lack of variety in the restaurants I approached surprised me, truth be told. Because although I am by no means a vegetarian, often when I cook at home for me and the boy, the absence or presence of meat is dependent on how lazy I feel. If I didn't go to the shops that day, then we we won't have meat that evening and it is often not missed. I never make a quiche with meat and I prefer my pizzas vegetarian but when I went out to eat, it seemed like besides the pasta and potatoes, there were no other choices.

Because of the lack of variety, it made me not want to go out for food. Often I'd instead go buy a candy bar and of what to eat. And no, I didn't go for any salads....I need hot food in cold climates, remember?

I'm not saying its not doable. It is but it calls for a lot of restraint and a willingness to cook for yourself a lot. It reminds me of being on a diet and as everyone around me knows, I'm not the most happy when I'm on a diet. I guess I'm just not good at self-control. That being said, I have a new found respect for vegetarians for making the decision to cut out a whole portion of their diet for what they believe to be right.



I had soup, crackers and cheese on most days but one afternoon, I picked up a "Pot Noodle".

This is an English take on instant cup noodles. Pot Noodle. I don't know why but that name just sounds odd... so unimaginative.

The flavor of this one intrigued me though.... sweet and spicy. Hmmm, needed to find out more....

Hmm... mango chutney in an instant noodle? I must try.

So I did. I followed the directions to pour boiling water, stir, wait 2 minutes, stir, wait 2 minutes and enjoy.

Except for the last part. I don't think 'enjoy' would have been the best way to describe it.


It tasted... if not exactly dreadful then at least it was something unidentifiable. It tasted quite sweet and thick, if that makes any sense... the noodles were of very poor quality (and I've eaten some cheap ass noodles in my time) and the soya pieces? They were honestly soggy cardboard.

Ick.

Seriously. Do NOT eat. Please. Let me buy you some nice 'cup noodles from Asia.... please!

In any case I came back home triumphant. I have a reservation for a three Michelin starred restaurant for lunch tomorrow and I have stumbled upon a recipe which has me salivating...

Pig candy..... bacon (American) coated with brown sugar and cayenne pepper then broiled.....

How GOOD does that sound???

You know you want to!

Prunes: Not just for Grannies

Look. I know what you're thinking.

You're thinking "ewwwww, PRUNES? Who's she trying to kid? I mean seriously. She likes ketchup chips! Where do dried bits which look like poo and make you do the same thing even fit into it?"

But yes. Prunes.

Ok, so I never was a big fan of them. In fact, when a friend's boyfriend offered his personal bag of them on the table we were assembling for a snack-y finger food and drink night, I immediately made fun of, belittled and laughed at him. It was deserved. Who the hell offers up prunes on a table of cheese, wine, charcuterie, olives and French bread? Sadly when he offered them to the guests, they each took one. He took it as a triumph on his part, I took it as politeness on their part.

In any case, this dried black thing may be a best friend of the colon but it sure isn't my best friend. Until this recipe that is.

I first read about Frankie's Spuntino's Wine-Stewed Prunes on The Wednesday's Chef and as it happened that I had a bag of prunes left over from my grandmother's visit (yes, she actually eats them) and about a glass of wine leftover, I thought I'd give it a go. I mean, after all, her description sounded good, no?

Well, besides making the flat smell like a delicious version of Christmas, I had it over thick Greek yogurt and I can formally announce that I'm a convert.

Deep, dark, rich, sweet, slightly spicy and oh so moreish, it is fabulous.

And with the prunes d'Agen that I bought last week at the market, it makes a wonderfully indulgent snack spooned over some yogurt.

Only 4 ingredients, how can you NOT try it? Go, try and report back... in the meantime, I think I'll have another one thank you very much! I've made some modifications to the recipe to suit myself.




Wine Spiced Prunes


20 prunes
3/4 cups sugar
1 cinnamon sticks
1 cup red wine (give or take a tablespoon... basically whatever you have left over, assuming that its approx. 1 cup!)


1. Dump all into a pot, heat and simmer until the liquid is syrupy

2. Remove from heat, and rest ... basically so you don't scald your mouth!


I think 3 prunes per single serving container of yogurt is perfect but you can go with the traditional recipe on The Wednesday Chef's blog entry here.


I put what I don't eat that evening in the fridge. It lasts a while... although not in my fridge it doesn't. Mmmmmnn...

Ol' Skool

Someone asked me the other day why I didn't update my blog.

I was quite surprised, truth be told because I thought I did quite a good job of updating the blog at least once a week (I try for twice but often we eat at home and my cooking just isn't blog - worthy... I promise. I wouldn't hold out on something good, would I?). And I said as much:

"I'm quite surprised."

At which they said, no, no... they meant the look of my blog. I apparently still have an "old school" style blog. In that I use the blogger picture tool to put pics right and left all along my posts and don't use Pictobrowser or other things.

Hmmm.... I thought about it for a bit. And while I have to admit that one of the reasons is that I'm technically a bit behind the crowd (I was always the chubby girl struggling to keep up with the rest of my running group in PE), but also I found that my favorite blogs to read are those that have the pictures IN MY FACE!

I love that Robyn posts pictures throughout her blog so that I can read and see what she's talking about at the same time and I find that often I don't .... scroll through the PictoBrowser (sorry!). Maybe its laziness or maybe I just like instant gratification (chocolate, NOW!).

Perhaps I will change when I get my new logo from Spicy Icecream.... but likely not really.

So to all my readers (all 5 of you), sorry but I think I will remain "Ol' Skool" and maybe even become retro one day. One can only hope.

(picture included is a T-shirt I got for Christmas from my favorite veg heads... I am using it as a cheap ploy to hold your attention. At least I didn't use SEX... oops, I guess I did now.... darn.)