Highlights this week include baked apples, truffles, and dinner out at a latin restaurant.
Posted on November 21, 2008 in Food, Photography
Posted on November 20, 2008 in Books, Movies
This review will contain spoilers to this book and its adaptations.
Continue reading →
Posted on November 19, 2008 in Food
Stealing the idea from The GirlAlive British Food Experience, here is the first list of “British” foods that I’ve tried and my thoughts on them. You can get a lot of them in North America and elsewhere, but they are probably not as readily or popular as they are here.
Digestives: While most of the foods in this list will not carry over when I move out of the UK, digestives are not one of them. I liked them before coming here. I had the McVittie’s Dark Chocolate digestives the first couple weeks here, and I love them. Pricey at around £1.20 (and regular ones just below that), but I had them on sale at the time. Like many people, I dunk mine in tea, but I also like them plain. Great with Earl Grey (which I will always think of Jean-Luc Picard and now, living in the UK).
Cadbury Chocolate: It deserves it’s own line because it’s ubquitous and different from NA Cadbury. In Canada, I never really ate store bought chocolate bars because I prefer dark chocolate and those were always too sugary. The chocolate here is sweet, but just a bit more richer. I think there is more milk content in these. I prefer these to NA chocolate bars if I had to choose. I don’t have them regularly, but I like Buttons and the Milk Chocolate line.
Chocolate Hazelnut Spread: Specifically the one made by Green & Blacks (fairtrade chocolate brand now owned by Cadbury). If I am going to have so much sugar on my bread, might as well be organic sugar. I opted for this instead of Nutella which I never bought back in Canada since it was so sugary/I was indifferent. G&B’s spread does have its first ingedient as sugar, but it is lot better than I remember Nutella being. I have spooned it out of the jar when I had cravings for chocolate or sugary. It is that good! I am trying to make my jar last though. I would continue to buy the G&B when I leave here if I could, but not chocolate hazelnut spread in general.
Mince Pies: My first time with these were the Sainsbury variety. Then I recently had the Starbucks version; the latter were actually just a bit better since they had icing sugar on top. They are good, but not required for my Christmas enjoyment. Maybe if it gets more festive and I try some more expensive ones.
Flapjacks: 2 for £1 at the convenience store. While these were sweet, I am very eager to try to bake my own as I like this concept of chewy, sweet oaty goodness. More later as I am going to use honey instead of golden syrup.
Banoffee Pie: An English dessert cake of toffee, bananas, and chocolate. I had this in a restaurant drizzled with ginger caramel. It was excellent. I need to store this at the back of my brain so I can remake it for myself one day. Otherwise, I just had a really good version in the restaurant
Crumpets: Less than £1 for six. Very nice, soft and buttery when toasted. I am a girl who likes carbs after all. Probably not as good for you as whole wheat bread or pita, but I like the texture and the crunchy underside.
Posted on November 18, 2008 in Food
Las Iguanas
36-38 Dean Street
Soho
London W1D 4PS
www.iguanas.co.uk
0207 494 4716
Tube: Tottenham Court Road, Leicester Square, Picadilly Circus
The Cost & Date: Tuesday, 11 November 2008 Dinner. £44.10 (with 12.5% service charge) for two, me and my friend M.
Food & Drink: We just made right as happy hour ends which meant we had two Caipirhnas for the price of one. Rioja Chorizo for a starter; we each ordered the paella and followed it with a chocolate banoffie pie. M also had tea.
Setting: This is a chain restaurant. Vintage meets modern explosion? It’s a big space, comfortable tables and warm atmosphere. It’s dark, but offers intimacy. Not crowded on a tuesday night which is typical, but not dead either.
Service: Pretty decent, but not outstanding.
Story: M and I were here for hours since we had not seen each other for months, and now she’s in Paris and I’m in London. We could afford to splurge, and I know £50 for two is not splurging in this town, but it is where we come from. We stayed for hours, and the best part of the meal was the drinks which were like mojitos, minty, limey and cool and the banoffie pie which was drizzled with really good caramel (and I’m, not even a big fan of caramel). The chorizo was a tad oily, but we were hunrgy and we both liked chorizo. The paella had two mussels, some chicken, some squid, and one big shrimp. It was not stellar, but not bad. I’d try something else if I were ever to come here again.
Overall: Really not that bad for a chain. Not as awful as Garfunkels (so bleh that I won’t even review that). Recommended for drinks (Happy hour 1700 to 1900), and they had a tapas special between 1600-1800.
Posted on November 17, 2008 in Food
Sushi Hiroba
50-54 Kingsway (near Holborn station)
London WC2B 6EP
www.sushihiroba.co.uk/
+44(0)20 7430 1888
The Cost & Date: Lunch for 2 was £12ish. Dinner for 4 was £50ish I think.
Food & Drink: For the lunch session, I had salmon maki. For dinner, I had the soba noodles. Tap water for drinks.
Setting: Nice decoration. I like the ladies washroom. The sushi bar has revolving mechanism.
Service: Nothing to complain or rave about.
Story: Both times, I was with this one friend who goes here quite often for the Udon. Due to the central location, this place is busy most times for lunch and dinner. The maki was actually good in that the salmon did taste fresh. The soba was way too salty for me though. I love buckwheat noodles, but there was too much salt in it.
Overall: Meh. The decor is pretty nice.
Posted on November 16, 2008 in Food
A basic ganache really only needs two ingredients: dark chocolate and heavy whipping/double cream. Something to roll the chocolate truffle in would be good too. To test the Cooking for Engineers chcocolate truffles recipe out, I used a 200g bar of Cadbury Bourneville Classic ‘Dark’. Actually, it wasn’t that dark as the first ingridient was sugar, but I did not notice that until later. In any case, this was to test a recipe and I needed an inexpensive bar of chocolate. I used a little over 100 mL of cream.
The most annoying aspect about the experience was cutting the chocolate. You need a sharp knife, but cutting took a good portion of my time because of the melting chocolate and lack of good knfie. Afterwards, I scalded the cream in a saucepan and poured it over the chopped chocolate, let it stood for 5 minutes, and then started mixing them together. I put it in the fridge, but I was unsure if this would actually work. Two hours later, I found it did harden somewhat to a thick cream, but not too hard. Still, I haphazardly scooped, chilled, and rolled the chocolate in my Whittard’s 70% dark hot chocolate (ingredients: cocoa 70%, sugar, flavouring). While they are deformed, they did not taste half bad, melted in my mouth, and proved that the recipe did work.
The Cadbury chocolate was too sweet for my liking, and next time, I will definitely use Valhrona (one of my favourite chocolates in the world and excellent for truffles and baking). Very easy to adapt and add liquer, nuts when dusting and so on. The problem is that now I have all these truffles which are too sweet for me and not enough people willing to finish them. I am glad I only used 200grams. Too rich for me! I can barely resist eating them just to experience that melting effect. These should last a month in an airtight container for up to a month, but I am currently putting them in the fridge.
Posted on November 11, 2008 in Musings
In Flanders Fields
by John McCrae, May 1915
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep,
though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
—
I have always liked this poem since memorising it as a little girl. For more information, read the wikipedia entry on it. Have a good Remembrance Day, everyone.
Posted on November 10, 2008 in Food
While I have always enjoyed cooking and loved food, it was never really a big hobby until I moved to London. Now, I think about food, plan meals, and shop for food more than any other activity other than school work. I like to cook at home, and I try to be vigilant in terms of getting the right nutrients especially since I have cut a lot of meat out of my diet since my move. This new feature will be a food diary-cum-recipes/ideas book. I am not good at writing recipes since I just get ideas from friends, family, and the internet, and then adapt. I’ve been tracking my meals so I can get an idea for future meals and things to do with foods and to showcase ideas of food. I usually remember what I have for dinner, sometimes for breakfasts, and lunch I usually buy a sandwich/it’s not made by me. Enjoy.
Monday. November 3, 2008
- Breakfast: Toast. Yogurt.
- Dinner: Pan fried tuna steaks in garlic, ginger, soy sauce, oyster sauce, white pepper, salt, oil, and green/spring onion. For vegetables, I had zucchini/courgettes steam-boiled with a bit of Chinese leaf/nappa too. White rice on side.
- This day also marked a failed attempt at making lemon curd
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
- Breakfast: Probably toast again. I can’t remember what else.
- Dinner: Leftover tuna. I made two steaks and saved the other for this. On the side I had rice (leftover). For veggies, I had the Nappa again, this time steamed with a quartered tomato and celery.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
- Breakfast: Toast? Oatmeal?
- Dinner: Cantonese style steamed chicken. I boiled two pieces of chicken (one for the next day) with ginger, salt, and white pepper for about 1/2 hour. I heated up a store made Chinese stir fry mix (peppers, bamboo, water chestnuts, sprouts) to which I added soy sauce and oil. Rice on the side.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
- Breakfast: I think I had toast and oatmeal (with cinnamon, honey, and raisins added in).
- Dinner: I diced the second piece of chicken and I stir fried it with garlic and cucumbers in oil, pinch of soy sauce, and a tiny bit of the chicken stock from last night. Left over rice on the side.
Friday, November 7, 2008
- Breakfast: Museli cereal with yogurt. Rye bread toast with Green and Blacks organic chocolate hazelnut spread (so much better than nutella).
- I also had time so I boiled an egg for dinner and made edoes. I love edoes which are smaller taros. They are great steamed; I washed them, cut off the bad parts (I bought a bad bag), and boiled them with skin in lightly-salted water for 20 minutes/until tender. Drained the water, cooled, and popped them in the fridge. Later, I can microwave them, peel them, and eat them dipped in soy sauce.
- Dinner: Store bought New Covent Garden Winter Vegetable soup to which I added a quartered hard boiled egg and about 40-50g of couscous. Tip: Couscous can easily be added to soup as a great alternative to pasta and rice. You can get your fibre when eating a hearty vegetable or meat soup or stew. Since I ate this earlier, I also microwaved new potatoes for a few minutes and dipped them in homemade garlic butter (chopped garlic to butter and added s&p).
- In advance, I made a red onion and cucumber salad with garlic, grated ginger, s&p and olive oil (I don’t have white winegar). Chilled in fridge. This type of salad needs to be chilled at least 1/2 hour in advance of serving or up to 24 hours.
Saturday November 8, 2008
- Breakfast: Rye Toast with remaining garlic toast and the red onion/cucumber salad.
- Lunch/Snack: The edoes dipped in soy sauce. I also had an apple.
- Dinner: I went to a friend’s place. She made Jamaican spiced baked chicken.
Sunday, November 9, 2008
- Breakfast/Brunch: Fried egg on rye toast and the remaining edoes.
- Dinner: Whole wheat past and tomato sauce. I used red onions, green/spring onions, celery, dried parsley, and green olives simmer and sautee them til soft. I put in one small fresh tomato (because I have them) and one 100g can of chopped tomatoes with some minced garlic. I simmered it for 5-10 minutes adding chili flakes, pepper, salt, and dried basil to taste. I added some sugar, but it was not enough.
- Baking: I made an apple crisp, my first baking venture in the UK. All my flatmates+guests had tiny portions. It turned out really well. I used one Jonagold, and I bought a big bag of Golden Delicious. I put too much lemon juice, but it was crispy.
This Week in Drinks: Twinnings Earl Grey Decaf, Twinnings Chai, Honeybush Botswana, Whittard’s of Chelsea 70% cocoa, Yakult, and on friday night, 1/2 pint of Leffe beer.
Posted on November 10, 2008 in Movies
Working Girl (01 10 08) – So 80s! I like 80s Harrison Ford; he’s more fun and silly. I think this is one of the only things I’ve seen Melanie Griffth in. Odd. I really needed a girl power movie to inspire me since I can relate to the Tess McGill character somewhat.
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (02 10 08) – This was a bit slow to get into, but there are some fun, Almodvaresque moments. I really liked the gazpacho scene at the end. I saw the dub version sadly, but still an okay film. There is a young Antonio Banderas in this movie who wears big 80s glasses.
Dream for an Insomniac (02 10 08) – A 1996 romantic comedy with Ione Skye, Jennifer Aniston, and Sean Astin’s brother Makenzie Astin. Notable things I learned, Ioane Skye really reminds me of Nicole Kidman. They have the same cheekbones and have similar eyes. I also did not know that she is folk singer Donavon’s daughter; that explains the name. This was an okay rom-com. I liked the cafe, but I do not know if I related to any of the characters at all. Ione’s character was much too intense.
Sisterhood of Traveling Pants (04 10 08) – It could have been worse. I liked the Greek scenery. It’s a bit cute if anything.
The Ipress File (06 10 08) – A spy thriller from the 1970s staring Michael Caine. It’s a tad slow moving, set in London, and has rather deadpan Caine wearing black square glasses. When he isn’t, the director likes shots of his nice eyelashes; did they put mascara on him? Since this is a 70s movie, I am inclined to think yes. Unsurprisingly, Caine is a ladies man, and his impassiveness is rather good. I can’t say it’s shot well or badly, but the director was obviously going for intense, dark spy thriller. It’s just a sloth paced thriller and most of the interesting things happen rather late. It is by no means an excellent or rewatchable film, but I liked it just for Caine’s expressions or lackthereof.
Mamma Mia (18 10 08) – The cast is the only reason to watch it. To be honest, I barely paid attention to this and did other things while it was one. It makes no sense plot wise because of Sophie’s age. Amanda Seyfried is cute in it. It isn’t bad, but that much ABBA after awhile can be irksome.
Total: 6
Rewatched Movies:
Paris Je T’aime (02 10 08) – I showed this a friend of mine who hadn’t seen it. We rewatched all but two of the vignettes. I find that most of the ones I liked initially I continued to like. The others did not grow on me. It’s still a good anthology.
Posted on November 9, 2008 in Books
As I have expected, my move and my pursuit of my postgraduate degree has hampered my reading. I have read more of Sense and Sensibility since two weeks ago, but I am still not yet half way after a month. In the meantime, I roam around London and this week, I finally made a tour of some of the major bookstores in this town.
I love bookstores. What bibliophile doesn’t? Like libraries, I get a tingle or warm, fuzzy feelings when I enter them. They bring me memories and give possibilities. I love the smell of new books. One does not judge a book by its cover, but I like to admire book jackets, especially of classic books. I enjoy browsing big and small bookstores, new and used. I brought five new books with me to London, and I am unsure if I will be able read all of them in a year. Still, when I enter a bookstore, there is always more than one thing I want to take home with me. I must use my self-control.
With that said, I do intend to buy a copy of Hamlet in the coming week. While I have a copy at home, I would like to own one here and reread it because this past week, I also scored tickets to the London showing of the Royal Shakespeare Company production of Hamlet (albeit bad seating). My bookstore journeys this week all offered more or less the same selection of Oxford and Penguin Classics from the new book stores.
The most notable bookstore street is Charing Cross Road which was popularised by 84, Charing Cross Road. It features many specialist and second hand book stores, I went in to a few like Any Amount, Quinto, Henry Porbes, and a couple of others. There is a small side street called Cecil Court which has more small specialty book stores devoted to rare books, motor books or general vintage books. Charing Cross Road also has Borders, Blackwells, and the famous Foyles. I like the Foyes actually. It’s big compared to the other shops, but not too large. It’s rather well lit, and I liked the selection. I definitely need to go back sometime to check out the used books section and inevitably, spend money.
The next day, I went a few streets west to Piccadilly to check out the largest bookstore in Europe Waterstones and Hatchards (its sister company). To be honest, I found Waterstone’s too large. One does not get a sense of closeness with books. I got it from Foyles and Hatchards (the oldest bookshop in the UK founded in 1797). The latter of which is down the street from Waterstones. It also has several levels, but the books are all packed closely together on distinctive black shelves. It’s much more intimate as a result. It is also right beside the luxurious food hall Fortnum & Mason. Neither is good for the wallet.
The only bookshop I want to go, but have not is Daunt Books on Marylebone High Street. I’ll make it there soon. If I don’t find anything too special or good in second hand stores, I’m going to get Hamlet at Foyles. They actually had the a very good Shakespeare collection.
At some point this month, I will finish S&S. By that time, I may have a library card. Have a good week everyone!
Literary Links
Posted on October 27, 2008 in Food
The original recipe used pecans, but we could not find a good source of them in the short time so we used a mix of walnuts and home roasted peanuts. For the fat, we used canola oil. It worked pretty well.
Pecan/Nut Crispers
Adapted from archaic Better Homes and Garden cookbook, taken from a friend who owns said cookbook.
1/2 cup butter, margarine, or oil
6 tablespoons brown sugar
6 tablespoons white sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/4 cup white flour, sifted
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
1 cup chopped pecans (a little more okay)
1 tablespoon of orange juice (optional)
1. Mix the butter, sugars, egg, and vanilla together.
2. In separate bowl, mix flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt together. Slowly mix the dry mixture into the wet. Finally, add the pecans and fold into batter.
3. Spoon onto baking sheet. These cookies are on the smaller side.
4. Bake at 375’F for 10 minutes.
Posted on October 24, 2008 in Food
This is my first restaurant review on the blog. I have always wanted to try this out, and now I’ve moved to London where there are restaurants aplenty and a large possible population to go to them. A few warnings first: I can be a harsh towards eating places. It is not so much that I am picky of food, but I did not grow up going out a lot. While it is not that I do not like that others cook for me, I prefer home cooking (not necessarily my own). Secondly, family members and I have all worked in the restaurant industry, and while I love food, the experience with the business aspect of it makes me wary and also knowledgeable about what goes on behind the scenes. While I can be sympathetic to servers having been one before, I also know of servers who have gone the extra mile. I rarely have restaurants I go back to; it takes a lot for a restaurant to become my regular or favourite. Finally, this feature will not be as frequent due to this and other reasons, and since I am new at this (and harsh), bare with me. This is why this restaurant has no photo. I will also try to review more casual eateries and cafes.
—
Nyonya
2A Kensington Park Road
London W11 3BU
Tube: Notting Hill Gate
www.nyonya.co.uk
Tel 020 7243 1800
The Date & Cost: Sunday 19 Oct 2008 / £45 for 4
Food & Drink: Malay Chinese restaurant. I had the Penang Char Kway Teow (a signature dish apparently) which is wok fried rice noodles with prawns, beansprouts, egg, fish cake, soy sauce, chive and chili paste. The others had dumplings, a curry noodle dish, the beef, and another dish noodle I don’t quite remember. Two had drinks. We all had tap water too.
Setting: Probably the best thing about this place is the architecture and design. Their website has maps of the curved dining rooms on two levels. We were seated on the first floor, and it is decorated modernly with minimalistic touches. It did not look cold, and while we were there at night, it was still bright. I did like the decor and look of the place.
Service: Our waitress had a hard time understanding my choice of Penang even when I pointed to it and said the menu number. She forgot someone’s diet coke. They gave me less change than I asked for. Service in Europe is not the same as in North America so I have to have even lower expectations here now. Service was not horrific or anything to rave about. Service charge was not included in our bill so tip accordingly.
Story: This was the first real restaurant I actually ate out in England. One of my American classmates lives near by, and after some wine (from Nicolas) and cheese (we had some damn good English sheep milk cheese), we headed out for dinner around 8ish. We basically walked around and found this place decently priced considering the area and also spacious and well lit. Our other options in the area included asian fusion, pizza, and of course, pubs. The food was not that bad and we all liked it fine. My dish could have been done far worse, but was not terribly filling at £7.80. Also, while the menu has many spicy options, I am finding that spice in this country is not really spice at all.
Overall: Considering the other things in this area that we saw, this is a pretty good option. It may be a bit trendy, but food is decent considering the price range (also good for the area). I like the decor most of all though, and people who enjoy well and intriguingly decorated restaurants will enjoy the curved dining room which is a bit small, but interesting and well lit.