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 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 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.
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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.
Posted on October 22, 2008 in Photography
Posted on June 11, 2008 in Books, Food
“Eat food. Not much. Mostly Plants.” Michael Pollan’s followup to the informative and thoughtful The Omnivore’s Dilemma. It is indeed more of a manifesto than TOD. I liked it though, once again, it seemed like it was preaching to the choir since I am so aware of food issues. Even then I learned a lot. Such as the interesting history of nutritionism in the West, why we think so much in nutrients and not in the whole, real foods (and interactions) that they are contained. It also explored the lipid hypothesis and the emerging carbohydrate hypothesis because recent scientific studies have shown that the connection between fats and heart disease are not as strong. I liked the approach he took with nutritionism, epistemologly, and the links to how ideological the mindset of people obsession of healthy eating and getting nutrients. There are things I knew or suspected before, but Pollan verified such as the fact that margarine is not good or you; I don’t like it at all. Oh, butter, my friend. Apparently skim or low fat milk is bad for you because it usually contains powdered milk which contains oxidized cholesterol which is bad for your arteries. I’m a 2% girl myself; I’ve been adverse to skim mainly for the lack of taste. Also, as the manifesto says, I have never trusted labels or any diets whether from low-fat or low-carb. I’ve always been wary of diets. One of the book’s main message focuses on developing a relationship with food free guilt and worry. As with all relationships, time, thought, and yes, money should be invested to it. The book does have a lot of common sense reminders with a lot of factual research to support it. Still, I would love to have this book with me as with TOD; it’s a good reminder of the need for building better links with the food we consume, our health and the environment. It is the perfect follow up to TOD.
Posted on May 17, 2008 in Books, Food
The concept of the book was to go to more than two dozen countries, visiting several families and taking photos of their food life. It is the size of large coffee table book and has many photos taken by Peter Menzel with accompanying articles on the families written by his wife Faith D’Alusio. The book is cultural, historical, a cook book, and a book of international affairs just as much as it is book of photographs. It has stats about each of the countries: life expectancies, meat consumption, the prevalence of MacDonald’s, cigarette consumption, obesity, and so forth.
I read a lot of books about food. It has always been an interest of mine. I love it in many ways as it shapes cultures, history, time, economies, lives, science, and so much war. I would very much like to one day work in a job about or relating to food issues from nutrition to developmental programs to the overall importance of food production now. This book touches on food in so many ways. People often underestimate the vast change that happens in food and to our lives. It is especially important to understand what food to us is right now with rising food costs and food riots.
The introduction states that the book is not out to be political or judgmental of food choices, but as a documentary in the way food is changing. For better and more often, for the worse. Food (like land) has always been somehow political, but this showcases how important it is for us to be aware of the issues. This book looks at globalisation, conflict, drought, and climate change as a result. I recommend this book for insightful reading about different and changing lifestyles and as a look at our planet.
Posted on April 28, 2008 in Books, Food
A memoir of Barbara Kingsolver and her family’s attempt of eat food produced by themselves or in their own Virgina neighborhood for a year. This is my first book of Kingsolver’s, and she is intelligible, funny, and educational in this book. I learned quite a lot about gardening, industrial and rural farming, and turkey sex among other things. Self-sufficiency in food has always interested me, so the idea of raising animals for one’s own consumption, making cheese, or having a fertile garden greatly appeals to me. I would highly recommend the book for people interested in changing their lifestyle and food choices to one that is more local and organic. The book has recipes, but it is not a diet book, nor is it preachy. They do provide information about the food industry and the world markets as result which can make you a better consumer in regards to food. This is a food memoir of a family, and there details of family dynamics, travels, and experiences in their new farm life. I particularly enjoyed Kingsolver’s attempts at turkey raising and her daughter’s Lily’s entrepreneurial venture into the egg business. Another enjoyable nonfiction book on food.
Posted on March 15, 2008 in Food, Photography
In December 2006, I started participating in 365 Days, a self-portrait a day for a year. I had just bought my first digital camera after years of coveting and a flickr account to boot. I only managed to do 129 days of photos; it become too difficult to do after awhile and I became lazy in the summer. The photos that came out it or the creative process that forced me to take so many self-portraits resulted in some of my best photos. It was a large exercise in creativity.
A month go, I decided to take up Project 365 which is just a photo a day for a year. Aside from taking photos of my knitting, I was not picking up the camera as much as I had previously or wanted to. The project will allow me flexibility in photography because part of the difficulty of 365 Days was the self-portraiture. Though, I will take a lot of self-portraits I think because I sort of got use to being my own model and experimenting with versions of myself. If anything, I need to document my aging process since I dislike it when others photograph me. The reason I wanted to start this on my birthday was symbolic and would mark the beginning of an interesting twelve months. There may be some drastic changes in the next year, and if not, there will be some travelling.
The project will hopefully allow me to blog more photos here on the blog because for the longest time, I wanted to make a photolog. Wordless Wednesday will resume, and I’ll post more photos for the sake of posting photos.
About this photo: Sadly, I did not bake these brownies. They were a gift from a friend. It just goes to show you how easy I am to please. Some good comfort food and appreciative effort and care from loved ones is all one asks for. I am curious about what kind of birthday I’ll be having in one year.
Enjoy the ride 365 ride with me.
Posted on February 19, 2008 in Food
Pumpkin season is over, but do you have a can of puree? If not get some for this wonderful tea time snack.
This was my third Joy of Baking recipe. I am consistently pleased with the results from the recipes I have made. All of them have been delicious and well thought out.
Continue reading →
Posted on December 22, 2007 in Food
This my second time I’m making a recipe from JoyofBaking, and I’ll make another recipe from the site today. I think it’s consistently delivered good results. This loaf is really good. The lemon glaze and the zest give the loaf its quality result. The hand mixer is in storage so I used my arms. That was not good overall. I also think you could use less butter than called for in the recipe. As usual, I reduced the sugar.